Cameron put on spot by OBR over austerity remarks

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron was reprimanded by a budget watchdog on Friday for claiming that it did not see his austerity agenda as a drag on Britain's economy.

In a speech on Thursday, Cameron said his deficit-cutting agenda was not responsible for the country's depressed growth rate which was instead caused by the financial crisis, the euro zone's problems and higher oil prices - a view he said was endorsed by the independent watchdog.

The Office for Budget Responsibility's (OBR) Chairman Robert Chote replied on Friday in a letter to the prime minister which it published on its website.

"For the avoidance of doubt, I think it is important to point out that every forecast published by the OBR since the June 2010 budget has incorporated the widely held assumption that tax increases and spending cuts reduce economic growth," Chote wrote in the letter.

While it was unclear how much of a drag the government's belt-tightening had on the economy - and the factors cited by Cameron were likely to have been factors - the OBR believed it had reduced growth over the past couple of years, he said.

Chote's letter was seized upon by the opposition Labour party which has lambasted the government over its economic policies and said it must change course to return to growth.

"Deep spending cuts and tax rises have reduced economic growth, as the OBR says, and so it was deeply misleading for David Cameron to claim otherwise," said Ed Balls, Labour's main economics spokesman.

Britain risks tipping into its third recession in four years after the economy shrank in late 2012.

It was stripped of its triple-A credit rating last month by ratings agency Moody's which said weak growth had knocked off track the government's plan to fix the budget deficit and rising debt.

The government uses the OBR's projections as the basis for its budget planning and has made much of the credibility of its forecasts.

The next budget is due to be announced on March 20. Cameron said in his speech on Thursday that the government would not deviate from its plan to tackle the deficit.

A Downing Street spokesman defended Cameron's choice of words and said he had been referring to reasons why Britain's economic growth had been weaker than the OBR's original forecasts.

"The OBR has today again highlighted external inflation shocks, the euro zone and financial sector difficulties as the reasons why their forecasts have come in lower than expected. That is precisely the point the prime minister was underlining," the spokesman said.

But a former chairman of the OBR said the letter "could be regarded as something of a rebuke" to Cameron.

"I'm quite surprised that someone's briefed David Cameron to use the words he did," Alan Budd told BBC radio. "No one who's read any of the OBR documents could possibly have thought that was true."

(Additional reporting by Michael Holden, writing by Christina Fincher and William Schomberg; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obr-rebuffs-cameron-over-misleading-remarks-155905158--business.html

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NCAA investigator wrote letter on Shapiro's behalf

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) ? One of the investigators who worked on the NCAA's inquiry of Miami athletics wrote a letter on behalf of former booster and convicted felon Nevin Shapiro just days before he was sentenced two years ago.

In the same letter, dated June 3, 2011, Ameen Najjar even suggested that the NCAA could eventually hire Shapiro.

Najjar, who is no longer with the NCAA, told U.S. District Judge Susan Wigenton that college sports' governing body could have utilized Shapiro "in the future as a consultant and/or speaker to educate our membership."

Najjar also said that Shapiro assisted the NCAA with investigations involving a number of schools. Najjar did not specify the schools ? not even Miami, where Shapiro is the central figure in the scandal that has dogged the Hurricanes' athletic department for at least two years.

"Throughout the course of our interactions, it is my belief that Mr. Shapiro possesses a unique depth of knowledge and experience concerning representatives athletics interest ('Boosters'), agents and the provision of extra-benefits to student-athletes," Najjar wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press.

Najjar left the NCAA last year and attempts by the AP to reach him in recent weeks have been unsuccessful.

"Nevin Shapiro has not been and will not be a consultant for the NCAA," the NCAA said in a statement late Wednesday night. "We are aware of the letter but cannot comment further at this time."

Najjar's was just one of a number of letters written to the court on Shapiro's behalf before sentencing, none of which appeared to sway Wigenton. Four days after the date of Najjar's letter, the judge gave Shapiro a longer sentence than prosecutors asked for on the securities fraud and money laundering counts he admitted to in a plea agreement in September 2010.

She also ordered him to pay more than $82 million in restitution to his victims.

Najjar wrote to Wigenton using NCAA letterhead, and did so when he had the title of director of enforcement. His role in missteps that the NCAA made during the investigation was detailed last month, when a probe that NCAA President Mark Emmert ordered found, among other things, that Najjar appeared to manipulate the investigation by hiring Shapiro's attorney, Maria Elena Perez, and having her use subpoena power to interview people related to the Miami case.

The NCAA does not have subpoena power. Two people were subpoenaed and deposed as part of Shapiro's bankruptcy case, though some of the information gleaned in those interviews was being used in the NCAA's case against Miami.

The NCAA said it was removing that ill-gotten information from the notice of allegations, which Miami was presented with last month and included the charge that the Hurricanes had a "lack of institutional control" when it came to monitoring Shapiro's access to the athletic department.

Perez, in a letter to the Florida Bar dated Feb. 21, said she "is not and has never acted, in the capacity of an attorney for the NCAA." She billed the NCAA for about $57,000 for work she performed related to the investigation, and records show she received about one-third that amount.

Perez told the AP last month that "had I realized I was dealing with, what is in my opinion ... such an incompetent regulatory institution, I would have never allowed Mr. Shapiro to have had any type of contact with the NCAA ? period."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ncaa-investigator-wrote-letter-shapiros-behalf-000506051--spt.html

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China calls on Japan, US, EU to avoid devaluation

BEIJING (AP) ? China's commerce minister appealed Friday to other major governments to avoid suppressing the value of their currencies to boost exports, warning that could hurt global growth.

Chen Deming was responding to a question at a news conference about the Japanese yen's weakness but said his appeal also was directed at the United States and Europe.

The yen has fallen by about 20 percent against the dollar since the middle of last year, prompting concern other governments might respond by driving down their currencies to keep exports competitive.

"I'm worried that 'competitive devaluation' will lead to oversupply of money and it will have a negative effect on global economic growth," Chen said.

The new Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has called publicly for a weaker yen to help exporters compete. His government has not directly intervened in currency markets but its policies have convinced traders it will create new money, eroding the Japanese currency's value.

Several developing economies also have criticized the U.S. Federal Reserve's program of bond-buying, dubbed quantitative easing, for pushing up the value of their currencies relative to the dollar.

Finance officials of the 20 biggest industrialized and developing countries issued a joint pledge Feb. 17 in Moscow to "refrain from competitive devaluation." They promised to "resist all forms of protectionism and keep our markets open."

Chen appealed to other governments to stick to their anti-devaluation pledge.

"If there were a huge devaluation of those major currencies, it would deliver a huge shock to developing countries by depressing our exports," he said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-03-08-China-Currency%20Wars/id-ed5a86de422849b3a78eb6428cd8fe42

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Hugo Chavez And Food Sovereignty | Venezuelan Food Shortages ...

With the death of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez comes the inevitable chatter about his legacy: Who will take over in light of the power vacuum left behind by the charismatic leader? But given that we cover many chefs and restaurateurs who advocate for the same goals as Chavez ? we have a very different question: what should we take away from his attempts to turn Venezuela?s food system into one that was local, sustainable, and affordable? (Any follower of food media should instantly recognize those three buzzwords.)

And why is it that, despite these promises and policies, a nation that should be flush with oil cash imports nearly 70% of its food and is currently facing massive food shortages, inflated prices, and decreased agricultural production?

Upon electing Chavez in 1998, Venezuela had one of the highest levels of nutrition inequality in the world. ?Food sovereignty,? part of an international movement demanding that states both recognize the human right to food and become self-sufficient producers to address that need, became a key part of Chavez? domestic platform and, indeed, central to his populist appeal.

Many of his policies might sound familiar to sustainable farming advocates in the United States: shifting agricultural production from industrial-scale farming corporations to smaller businesses operated by local farmers, lowering prices on food, and sponsoring government-run markets. However, under Chavez?s control, many of these policies saw disastrous results ? and increased the amount spent on food imports tenfold since the beginning of his administration. Now the world gets something of a Mulligan, a chance to try some of these again. In the interest of memorializing the polarizing leader, and something of a ?don?t try this at home? to the rest of us, let?s examine how Chavez executed these policies, one by one:

Farming

The Chavez land redistribution policy is Alice Waters?s dream come true: in 2009, the Bolivarian government announced that they would forcibly dismantle all large haciendas, or industrial farms, break them up, and parcel them out to peasants wishing to farm. (Small farmers, hooray?) Not only did the amount of land used for agriculture increase (imagine if all of New Jersey were farmland), so did the production of fruits and vegetables?but at the expense of staples, like beef, rice, sugarcane, and milk, the production of which has fallen dramatically.

Moreover, as the Washington Post extensively reports, the farmers who took over the large farms lacked the??government support to thrive:

?C?sar Alviares, 50, who also supports Ch?vez, said he is barely getting by raising a few cows and chickens. The crops he tried to grow all failed, he said, because he never received credit or technical help to control flooding. ?I put in two hectares of yucca plants ? the water came and finished them off,? he said. ?I put in a hectare of bananas ? the water came and finished them off. The corn, all of it. So in the end, I just have pasture.?

Nor, apparently, does the government know much about agriculture:

Already, the state?s land agency has taken a portion of the 2,300-acre farm, uprooting cane and preparing the soil for corn. ?This isn?t land for corn,? [Farm owner] Victor Lecuna said, sounding exasperated. ?In this region, corn has never been planted.?

Even the hundreds of government-financed urban farms are unpopular. Critics claim that the money plowed into organic urban farming is doing little to address the fact that ever since the reappropriation, farmable land has dropped by 7.8% and overall agricultural production is down by 0.6%, according to Al-Jazeera.

Making Food Affordable
Chavez saw our nation?s government food subsidies and raised us some artificially capped food prices, preventing prices from rising in response to market demands. However, the price caps themselves ? extending beyond twelve everyday staples in 2009 to some 15,000 items in 2011 ? wreaked havoc on food suppliers and distributors, as the government started monitoring them, and occasionally seizing control. As the Economist reports:

Empresas Polar, a family-owned giant that is Venezuela?s biggest private food-and-drink company [and] claims to generate almost 3% of the country?s non-oil GDP and has 19,000 employees, complains of harassment. It says its plants and offices were visited 220 times by government inspectors in the first five months of this year. In late May, the government confiscated 114 tonnes of food from a Polar warehouse, alleging hoarding (which the company denies).

Even without the alleged harassment, the artificial controls on price still led to a 27.6% inflation rate last year ? one of the highest in the world ? and massive food shortages. Last year, the New York Times reported on how the very policies meant to help working-class Venezuelans had, in fact, begun to harm them:

Some residents arrange their calendars around the once-a-week deliveries made to government-subsidized stores like this one, lining up before dawn to buy a single frozen chicken before the stock runs out. Or a couple of bags of flour. Or a bottle of cooking oil?

Asked where a shopper could get milk on a day when that, too, was out of stock, a manager said with sarcasm, ?At Ch?vez?s house.?

One odd side effect: the fact that flour, oil and meat is subsidized has led to growing obesity rates. ?Prices of fruits and vegetables are free to rise and are out of the reach of many,? Carlos Machado, an agriculture professor at the Caracas-based IESA graduate school,?told USA Today. ?So people stock up on sugars and carbohydrates, whose prices are frozen.? Gee, that problem epidemic sounds familiar.

Government-subsidized markets

It?s not hard to cap prices on food at all when you?re Hugo Chavez, but it gets even easier once you?ve created your very own state-run supermarkets to feed people after all the food corporations go on strike to protest your anti-business policies. For instance,?Mercal, which was started in response to these riots, has over 16,600 outlets selling groceries at an up to 40% discount, and became very popular among the working class. ?But thanks to a consumer protection law, Chavez retained the power to expropriate any company if he felt it necessary for national interest ? and he did so often, in the hopes of creating ?socialist megastores?, selling food and other items with no markup.

A viable model for the US?

For better or for worse, Chavez was one of the first visible world leaders to address food inequality on a large scale and his goal of ensuring that the least fortunate members of society have access to affordable, healthy food was, really, a noble one. To a certain extent, the US already implemented some of his policies, and to similar results: for instance, much like Venezuela, we have price controls on our grains, cooking oil, and beef, to the point that they?re some of our cheapest calorie sources (and, like Venezuela, have led to obesity). Perhaps the legacy he?ll leave behind is that good intent isn?t enough when lives hang in the balance?and that equality cannot exist in any form, if the entire system is broken.

Source: http://www.thebraiser.com/hugo-chavez-and-food-sovereignty-how-his-programs-and-failures-can-help-inform-american-efforts-to-fight-hunger/

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US stocks edge up following Dow's record day

FILE - In this Tuesday, March 5, 2013, file photo, specialist Christian Sanfillippo, right, smiles as he works at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. The Dow's new all-time high and better economic data from the United States propelled world stock markets higher Wednesday March 6, 2013. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

FILE - In this Tuesday, March 5, 2013, file photo, specialist Christian Sanfillippo, right, smiles as he works at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. The Dow's new all-time high and better economic data from the United States propelled world stock markets higher Wednesday March 6, 2013. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

NEW YORK (AP) ? After barreling through a record the day before, the Dow Jones industrial average meandered higher on Wednesday.

The Dow was up 38 points, or 0.1 percent, to 14,288 shortly after 1 p.m. EST. An encouraging job-market report helped nudge the stock market up, and pushed bond prices lower.

The Dow closed Tuesday at 14,253.77, clearing the previous closing record by almost 90 points. The index of 30 big corporations has more than doubled since hitting a low during the financial crisis in March 2009.

The question is, how much longer can it keep climbing?

In the past, stock indexes have often drifted lower in the months after breaking through previous record highs. David Brown, director of Sabrient Systems, an investment research firm, sees plenty of reasons for the market to keep climbing, however. People are putting their cash into the stock market again. And the alternatives, like bonds, are hardly appealing.

"There is literally nowhere else to go," Brown said. "Do you really want to make 1.9 percent on a 10-year Treasury? You won't make any money doing that."

The Standard & Poor's 500 index was up one point, or 0.1 percent, to 1,538. The Nasdaq slipped four points, also 0.1 percent, to 3,220.

A notable stock was Microsoft, which dropped 1 percent. European regulators fined the company for failing to follow an antitrust agreement requiring the software giant to offer computer users a choice of Internet browsers, instead of just Internet Explorer.

Companies added 198,000 U.S. workers to their payrolls in February, according to payment processor ADP. The firm also says employers added 23,000 more jobs in January than first reported.

The ADP survey suggests that looming government spending cuts have yet to deter employers from hiring. Investors look to the ADP survey as a preview to the closely watched Labor Department report, which comes out Friday. Economists expect employers added 152,000 jobs in February, lowering the unemployment rate to 7.8 percent from 7.9 percent.

As traders anticipated better news about jobs, bond prices fell and the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 1.93 percent from 1.90 percent late Tuesday.

Expectations of a stronger economy tend to lure traders out of Treasurys and into other investments that rise with economic growth, like stocks.

Over the long haul, stock markets climb higher, but the path is rarely smooth. In October 2007, the Dow hit its previous high of 14,164. A year later the country was in the middle of a financial crisis and the Dow was in free fall. In January 1987, the Dow closed above 2,000 for the first time. It then hit a record of 2,722 in August. By October, the Dow had dropped 36 percent, including a huge drop on Black Monday.

That hardly means the market is about to slide again. Besides the relatively poor returns offered by bonds, analysts point to other reasons the stock market could continue to rise: the economy is slowly recovering, interest rates and inflation are low, and stocks are not especially expensive. Stocks in the Dow trade for 15 times their per-share earnings in 2012, in line with their historical average.

Among other companies making big moves:

? Staples sank 6 percent after the office-supply chain posted a 72 percent drop in quarterly earnings. The company was hit by charges from closing stores. Staples also warned of weaker sales growth this year. Its stock dropped 82 cents to $12.47.

? Strong quarterly profits propelled Big Lots up 5 percent. The discount store posted better earnings than analysts had projected. Soaring sales in Canada helped. Its stock rose $1.70 to $35.59.

? American Eagle Outfitters fell 11 percent after the clothing retailer reported earnings that fell short of analysts' estimates. Its quarterly earnings forecast also fell short, and the stock dropped $2.39 to $20.16.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-03-06-Wall%20Street/id-83f0b60050334321af812860735db1fd

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Ferrari and McLaren unveil hybrid supercars

GENEVA (AP) ? Hybrids aren't just for fuel economy any more.

Ferrari and McLaren both on Tuesday unveiled sleek hybrid supercars sculpted from carbon fiber at the Geneva Motor Show.

"LaFerrari" is the name of the new special edition Ferrari.

"Owners say they have a Ferrari," Chairman Luca di Montezemolo said. "This is THE Ferrari."

Montezemolo said the electric engine has a performance appeal that is proving a draw to Ferrari owners.

Only 499 of the models will be built ? and some 700 people, many of them Ferrari owners already, have registered interest, requiring a selection process for the future owners. The price tag: ?490,000 ($639,000).

The McLaren P1 in a glittery racing yellow set off by hash-marked slate gray cuts a racetrack figure.

The hybrid technology has performance advantages because the electric engine fills in the gap before the turbo engine kicks in, P1 program director Paul McKenzie said. It's a tiny effect, but everything counts in supercars.

The P1 can do 0-180 mph (0-300 kph) in under 17 seconds. It sells for $1.3 million, with just 375 in the series.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ferrari-mclaren-unveil-hybrid-supercars-200902155--finance.html

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Travel To Go Launches Radio Outreach Initiative | Timeshare Informer

Travel To Go Launches Radio Outreach Initiative

San Diego, CA ? March 5, 2013 (PerspectivePR) ? Travel To Go, one of America?s largest providers of travel services and vacation club products, announces a new outreach program involving a series of shows using one of the most effective communication channels available ? radio. The strategic use of the medium and the enormous over the air and online audience that tunes in each day is part of the company?s efforts to clarify the way vacation ownership programs work and discuss the differences between traditional timeshare products and the new, flexible vacation programs now available to the traveling public.

Joesph Miller, Director of Sales & Marketing, Carry-On Travel and Tommy Middaugh, Executive Vice President, Travel To Go

The shows will feature Tommy Middaugh, Executive Vice President of Travel To Go, explaining the impact that the recent economic challenges have had on the public?s vacation habits and how the travel industry has responded to the changes required to service today?s consumer. The next segment is scheduled for March 7^th at noon EST at http://player.liquidcompass.net/p/WGIVFM

These radio segments demonstrate Travel To Go?s out-of-the box, innovative process in taking their message directly to the consumer through radio?s intimate, conversational format according to Middaugh.

?We?ve seen incredible success from this engaging form of media. We?re building product knowledge with the consumer, bringing transparency to the industry, and building credibility,? Middaugh said. ?We?ll also be taking it to the next level with video podcasts of these segments.?

Those video segments will be available on the Travel To Go YouTube Channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/MyTravelToGo and provide information about the hidden gems available in the travel marketplace.

?Some of these resorts aren?t available through the public networks, the online travel agencies that travelers are used to using, and the ones that are we can get you up to 70 to 75 percent off in certain cases to be able to stay there,? added Middaugh.

For more information about the outstanding vacation programs available through Travel To Go, please visit www.TravelToGo.com

About Travel To Go:

Travel To Go offers travel benefits and services to a loyal customer base of 50,000 members and is currently celebrating 23 years in the vacation and travel industry. The company prides itself on its 5-Star service standards and achievement of its mission to ?Making Dreams Come True.? The company is licensed with all necessary agencies including the states of California, Florida and Hawaii. It maintains an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau, and is a member of the San Diego Chamber of Commerce, ARDA, and the Cooperative Association of Resort Exchangers (C.A.R.E.). Sky Travel, a division of Travel To Go, is an approved travel agency licensed by the Airline Reporting Corporation (A.R.C.), IATAN and CLIA.

Contact: Renee Wagner/800-477-6331, ext. 116

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Tags: Timeshare, travel club, travel services, Travel to Go, vacation club, vacation products, vacation program, vacation services

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Original Source: Travel To Go Launches Radio Outreach Initiative
Perspective Magazine is the leading independent trade publication for the timeshare and fractional ownership industry globally; publishing five regional titles covering North America, Latin America, Europe & Middle East, Asia Pacific, South Africa.

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Source: http://www.timeshare-info.co.uk/index.php/2013/03/travel-to-go-launches-radio-outreach-initiative/

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