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shoe tax could fund aid for dropouts - (www.chicagotribune.com) Buying a new pair of running
shoes in Illinois could cost a quarter more if a measure to tax gym shoes gets
traction at the Capitol. The idea behind the 25-cent shoe tax is to pump more
money into programs that help high-school dropouts from low-income homes get
jobs in the construction trades or get back on track to attend college. "There
are young people everywhere that are looking for a positive outlet that they
might not find otherwise," said Rep. Will Davis, a Homewood Democrat who's
sponsoring the shoe tax. Business groups and shoe store owners aren't keen on
the idea, suggesting the new tax will hurt the competitiveness of Illinois
sneaker sellers. "They're already crossing the borders for many
things," said Kim Clarke Maisch, Illinois' director of the National
Federation of Independent Business. "They're crossing the borders for
gambling, for example. We don't need any other reasons for them to travel
elsewhere."
S.& P. E-Mails on Mortgage Crisis Show Alarm and Gallows
Humor - (www.nytimes.com) The correspondence, made
public in court documents late Monday, provide a glimpse at the inner workings
of an institution that the Justice Department says fraudulently inflated credit
ratings, with dire consequences for the entire economy. In a series of e-mails,
tensions appeared to be escalating inside the firm’s headquarters in Lower
Manhattan as it publicly professed that its ratings were valid, even as the
home loans bundled into mortgage-backed securities, or M.B.S., were failing at
accelerating rates. One comes from an S.& P. analyst in March 2007
borrowing from the Talking
Heads song “Burning Down the House,” creating new lyrics:
“Subprime is boi-ling o-ver. Bringing down the house.” S.& P. said
prosecutors cherry-picked e-mails and that it would vigorously defend itself
from “these unwarranted claims.” In another 2007 e-mail, an analyst responds to
a question about his new job: “Job’s going great. Aside from the fact that the
M.B.S. world is crashing, investors and the media hate us and we’re all running
around to save face … no complaints.”
China’s January Data Gap Vexes Economists - (www.bloomberg.com) China’s campaign to upgrade
its economic data, from plugging leaks to expanding sample sizes, is yet to
tackle one gap: the month-long delay each year in releasing some key January
numbers. Government agencies on Feb. 8 will report slower inflation of 2 percent and faster
export growth of 17.4 percent, according to the median estimates of analysts
for figures skewed by the timing of a weeklong Lunar New Year holiday. Data for
industrial output, retail sales and fixed-asset investment won’t be publicly
updated until March. The wait prevents analysts and investors from fully
gauging growth in the world’s second-largest economy following the first acceleration in almost two years last
quarter. While it’s not simple to account for the effects of a festival held on
different dates each year, that shouldn’t keep the government from releasing
data, according to analysts at Royal Bank of Scotland Plc and Mirae Asset Financial
Group.
Postal Service says will end Saturday mail delivery - (www.reuters.com) The Postal Service plans to
drop Saturday delivery of first-class mail by August in its latest effort to
cut costs after losing nearly $16 billion last fiscal year, the cash-strapped
mail agency said on Wednesday. The plan would save about $2 billion a year, the
Postal Service said. The mail agency will still deliver packages six days a
week and will not change post office operating hours. The Postal Service has
been losing billions of dollars each year as it grapples with massive payments
for future retiree health benefits and Americans' increasingly rely on online
communications that drives down mail volumes. The agency has been seeking
congressional approval to get relief from those prepayments and for a larger
restructuring to reduce costs. But with no short-term legislative fix in sight,
the Postal Service is getting more aggressive in testing its own authority to
make cuts.
Monte Paschi loss could be up to a billion euros - (www.reuters.com) Board members at Monte dei
Paschi are expected to say on Wednesday that Italy's third largest bank may
have lost up to 1 billion euros on opaque derivatives trades, far higher than
the initial estimate. The trades are at the center of a probe into former
management of the bank which has deepened questions about the role of banking
supervisors and the influence of local politicians ahead of Feb 24-25
parliamentary elections. A source close to the situation said the final loss,
set to be announced after the market close on Wednesday, should be somewhere
between the preliminary estimate of around 720 million euros ($974 million) and
1 billion euros.
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