Finance & Business World

Thousands of Romanians, including teenage students who cut class, marched through their capital on Thursday to demand the resignation of their government for imposing harsh austerity measures in order to receive international loans for the nation’s battered economy.

It was one of the largest protests in recent times in Bucharest and came after a week of sometimes violent anti-government demonstrations.

As the march reached University Square, protesters blocked traffic and shouted what has become a trademark slogan aimed at President Traian Basescu: “Get out, you miserable dog.”

The square _ a focal point of recent protests _ is historically significant for Romanians because it was a centerpiece of the 1989 anti-communist revolution that led to Romania’s birth of democracy.

On Thursday, some protesters pretended to hang Basescu and his close political ally, Tourism and Regional Development Minister Elena Udrea, by stringing their dummies to gallows set up in the square.

“Resign!” and “Down with Basescu!” other protesters screamed.

Some 14-year-old students at a school located along the route of the march abandoned class to join the demonstration. “To prison with you!” the students yelled at their president.

Police said 7,000 attended the rally, while organizers claimed the crowd was far larger.

In 2009, Romania took a two-year euro20 billion ($27.5 billion) loan from the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the World Bank as its economy shrank by 7.1 percent. It imposed harsh austerity measures under the agreement, reducing public wages by 25 percent and increasing taxes. Anger has mounted over the wage cuts, slashed benefits, higher taxes and widespread corruption.

On Thursday, Basescu made his first public appearance since the protests began a week ago in an address to ambassadors in Bucharest. He spoke about Iran, the Middle East, domestic reforms and the “Arab Spring,” but did not touch on the demonstrations or the anger over the state of Romania’s economy.

During the Bucharest rally, one protester who only identified himself as Tudor, a 43-year-old locksmith said: “We want decent salaries and pensions. We want change _ from the top to the bottom.”

Another protester, a 55-year-old nurse named Lorelei said, “We wouldn’t have needed to have austerity measures if our governments hadn’t stolen so much and bled us dry.” She said she has attended all this week’s anti-government rallies.

Three opposition parties organized Thursday’s march, with protesters arriving in the capital from all over the country. Opposition leaders and Romanian personalities addressed the crowd before the march.

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Embattled Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou is preparing to start talks to try to form a four-month coalition government, aimed at securing continued rescue funds for the near-bankrupt eurozone country.

Papandreou is due to meet President Karolos Papoulias at noon (1000GMT) Saturday, hours after winning a confidence vote in the Socialist-led parliament on a pledge that he was willing to step aside and form a cross-party caretaker government.

But it remains unclear whether the main opposition conservatives and other parties will take part in the talks and abandon their demand for a snap general election.

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Global stocks gave up some of their recent gains Monday amid concerns over Italy’s ability to get a handle on its colossal debt pile, while the yen slid in the wake of another attempt by the Japanese monetary authorities to weaken the currency.

Last week, stocks enjoyed one of their best weeks in months as investors breathed a sigh of relief that eurozone leaders finally presented the broad outlines of a convincing anti-crisis strategy. The three-pronged strategy of boosting the bailout fund, getting private creditors to take a bigger hit on their Greek debt holdings and the banks to raise more capital was largely viewed favorably by the markets, though details need to be ironed out.

Many analysts, however, think that Europe will end up having to do more, especially if bond market investors continue to ask for more in return for buying up Italian debt _ a poorly received auction last Friday has fueled concerns over the country.

Italy is the eurozone’s third largest economy and only Greece has more debt as a percentage of national income. Its debts dwarf the euro1 trillion ($1.4 trillion) Europe’s bailout fund will have at its disposal if last week’s commitments are delivered.

“We remain sceptical that the plan will prove enough to restore financial market stability for long, with some signs of disappointment already starting to creep into the market as Italian 10 year yields continue to march above 6 percent,” said Lee Hardman, an analyst at The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ.

Investors more cautious view of last week’s plan weighed on stock markets Monday.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 1.1 percent at 5,641 while Germany’s DAX fell 1.6 percent to 6,260. The CAC-40 in France was 1.1 percent lower at 3,282.

Wall Street was also poised for a lower opening _ Dow futures were down 0.8 percent at 12,070 while the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 futures fell 1 percent to 1,268.

Earlier, the main point of interest in financial markets was the Bank of Japan’s latest intervention to weaken the yen, which had hit a new post World War II high against the dollar.

The strong yen has dented earnings of Japanese corporations such as Nintendo Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. and hurt the economy’s recovery from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Finance Minister Jun Azumi said monetary authorities could continue intervening.

The dollar surged about 5 percent to above 79 yen for a while, before slipping back to 77.81 yen. Japan’s export sector _ whose fortunes are largely tied to the relative strength of the yen _ rose abruptly. Isuzu Motors Corp. jumped 3.7 percent. Canon Inc. rose 1 percent and Nikon Corp. added 1.8 percent. Nintendo Co. gained 1.5 percent.

Those gains helped limit the losses on Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index. It closed 0.7 percent lower at 8,988.39.

Analysts are skeptical over whether the intervention will have a long-lasting impact. Previous efforts this year have provided short-term relief.

The intervention is likely to feature at a summit of leaders from the Group of 20 industrial and developing nations in Cannes, France, later this week. How to get the global economy moving again is likely to the main topic of debate.

There’s also a lot of U.S. economic data to digest this week, culminating in Friday’s monthly jobs report on Friday.

“This month is going to be another watershed insight into whether we are looking at a low growth environment or something worse,” said Ric Spooner, chief market analyst at CMC Markets in Sydney. “To maintain the low growth environment view, the market is going to want to see positive employment growth.”

The Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank also meet to decide on their monetary policies this week. Mario Draghi will on Thursday hold his first meeting and press conference as chief of the ECB and successor to Jean-Claude Trichet. Investors will be looking for signs that the bank is considering cutting interest rates and that it will continue its program to buy bonds. The program, used intermittently by the ECB, has helped keep bond yields down so far this year in Italy and Spain.

Elsewhere in Asia, mainland Chinese shares were mixed. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index snapped a five-session winning streak by falling 0.2 percent to 2,468.25, while the Shenzhen Composite Index added 0.5 percent to 1,040.93.

In Sydney, shares of Australian flag carrier Qantas Airways Ltd. jumped 4.3 percent after a court ordered employees of the world’s 10th-largest airlines back to work. The airline had grounded its entire fleet on Saturday following weeks of strikes by its workers, but an arbitration court on Sunday ordered an end to the strikes and canceled the staff lockout.

Oil prices tracked equities lower, with the benchmark rate for December delivery down 49 cents at $92.85 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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Politicians hate yielding power. But in recession-hit Greece, more governing Socialists are choosing to do so rather than back Prime Minister George Papandreou’s deeply hated austerity measures.

In growing numbers, Socialist lawmakers are calling for an end to their single-party government, unable to face their angry constituents after two years of punishing tax hikes and slashed pensions, jobs and salaries.

Pressed hard by Papandreou, parliament this week approved some of the harshest cuts since the financial crisis began in order to appease international creditors and keep Greece solvent.

But for many, it was a step too far: Two days of rioting outside parliament left one man dead and nearly 200 wounded. Unions staged a 48-hour general strike that shut down schools, shops, offices and transportation around the country and occupied ministry buildings.

“Papandreou now has large sections of society against him,” said Spyros Tritsas, chief editor of the weekly current affairs magazine Epikaira, which has been critical of Papandreou’s handling of the crisis.

The Socialists themselves showed increasing signs of discontent, as popular support for their party continues to fall dramatically.

Greeks are heading into a fourth year of recession with 16.5 percent unemployment and a rapidly expanding class of poor. Now they face yet more emergency tax hikes, pension cuts, and steep levies on their homes.

One prominent government deputy choked back tears before voting for the tough new measures Thursday, and promised it was the last time she would bow to leadership pressure. Others said they had simply had enough.

“At this point, we have reached our limit … No (party) can carry this burden alone. There must be an emergency government that will be in power for as long as is required,” Socialist deputy Nikos Salagiannis said.

Four other Socialists during the debate also openly demanded that Papandreou hold talks with opposition parties on an emergency power-sharing deal.

In the end, lawmakers approved the latest round of cuts late Thursday, but the vote gnawed at Papandreou’s grip on power, midway through his four-year term in office.

A dissenting Socialist vote cut his majority in parliament to just three seats _ raising new doubts that he will be able to see through two more years of unpopular reforms.

The Greek political crisis comes as European leaders grapple over possible solutions to stop the eurozone debt crisis spreading from the three smaller nations that have already received bailouts _ Greece, Ireland and Portugal _ to major economies that are struggling, such as Italy and Spain.

Since May 2010, Greece has been surviving on rescue loans worth euro110 billion ($152 billion) from eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund. But it has tried to meet deficit-cutting demands mainly by raising taxes, arguing that structural reforms to ease long-term spending on health care and its bloated public sector will take longer to show results.

Attempts at cross-party support for Greece’s recovery effort have fallen flat.

Opposition parties on the left and right oppose the measures as unfair and doomed to fail, while the government says it must meet its commitments as each rescue loan installment _ paid out roughly every quarter _ is essential to prevent a chaotic default payday loans with no fax.

So far, the austerity has hammered Greece’s once-booming private sector.

Since the debt crisis started in late 2009, more than 275,000 people have lost their jobs and store closures have exceeded 20 percent in some parts of Athens and other cities.

“The government is heading toward a state of collapse … because it is unable to stop the rapid decline in people’s living standards,” Tritsas told The Associated Press. “The middle class is being pulled apart, as the measures are now hurting average people and small businesses who had little financial reliance on the state.”

A poll commissioned by the magazine and published in mid-October found that 81 percent of respondents thought Greece’s financial situation had got “much worse” in the past 12 months, and that 55 percent said they would be unable to pay the new emergency taxes. Nearly nine out of 10 Greeks now disagree with Papandreou’s policies in general.

No margin of error was available for the VPRC poll of 1,000 adults conducted earlier in the month.

The Socialists won the 2009 election by a landslide, with nearly 44 percent of the vote and a 10-seat majority in the 300-member parliament. Rival conservatives were widely discredited for corruption scandals, tipping Greece into recession, and hiding the true extent of the country’s economic troubles.

Two years later, seven of Papandreou’s deputies have become anti-government independents and three others have quit politics due to their opposition to the austerity measures.

“If those three deputies had not given up their seats in parliament, the government would already have fallen,” Tritsas said. “Do I think the Socialists themselves could bring down the government? I think it’s likely. It’s hard to see (early) elections being avoided.”

Tritsas said he did not expect deeply entrenched dominance by the country’s two main parties to disappear, but predicted those parties would be forced to reinvent themselves.

Support for the Socialists has sunk to around 20 percent, according to recent opinion polls which give the conservatives a double-digit lead.

And labor unions, once a pillar of Socialist support, are now openly calling for the government to go.

“This government has ignored the popular uprising by approving this terrible law,” Ilias Iliopoulos, secretary-general of the civil servant union, Adedy, told the AP on Friday after two days of riots shook Athens. “Our answer is: get out as fast as you can, there is no place for you in Greece any longer.”

Meanwhile, the remaining 153 members of Papandreou’s parliamentary group dread weekend visits to their constituencies, where opposition-organized groups of “angry citizens” often greet them with eggs, yogurt, and chants of abuse.

Cell-phone videos of the attacks have been frequently posted on the Internet and shown on television.

The Socialists, government lawmaker Andreas Triantafilopoulos told parliament, have been handed an unendurable task.

“We have been insulted, mocked, heckled, and assaulted,” he said. “That’s because we’ve had to shoulder the weight of these reforms alone.”

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The European Union and Moscow on Friday announced a major breakthrough in negotiations to let Russia become a member of the World Trade Organization by the end of the year.

The last bilateral issues with Russia were resolved over the car industry, the export of EU farm products and quotas for wood imports, EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said.

Russia is the last major economy that isn’t a member of the WTO, the international free-trade body, and accession to it is crucial to a broader partnership agreement the European Union wants to establish with the country.

“We have struck a deal on the final outstanding bilateral issues, leaving the way open for Russia to join the WTO by the end of this year,” De Gucht said.

In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with three major radio stations that “all the issues related to Russia’s bid to join the WTO have been settled.”

De Gucht insisted that Russia still needed to overcome a dispute with neighbor Georgia over trade transparency and offered to mediate. Georgia has the power to block Russia’s membership, which has been in the works since 1993, and has been virtually doing so over border control issues in breakaway republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia Business Card Holders.

Lavrov said that “the issues that Georgia is raising have nothing to do with the WTO,” adding that “if we are guided by the WTO’s charter, then Georgia is not an obstacle” to Russia’s accession.”

De Gucht said Russia would now continue negotiating with the WTO at its Geneva headquarters to deal with remaining multilateral trade issues and held out hope Moscow could still join the trade organization in December.

Russian membership would make it easier for two-way trade and improve the overall business climate.

In the past, for example, Russia’s high export duties on wood have hit Nordic paper makers hard, and royalties airlines have to pay when they fly over Siberia have been a major concern. Both issues have now been settled, De Gucht said.

The EU is Russia’s largest trading partner, accounting for 46 percent of its foreign trade. The 27-country bloc is also the biggest investor in the Russian economy.

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Nataliya Vasilyeva contributed to this story from Moscow.

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Austria-based Erste Group Bank AG says it will make a net loss of euro700 to euro800 million ($950 million to $1.1 billion) for 2011 because of the government debt crisis and troubles in Hungary.

The bank said in a statement Monday that the writeoffs will erase what would have been an euro850 million to euro900 million profit.

Hungary has passed a law letting people with foreign currency mortgages pay them off at less than market exchange rates. Hungary writedowns amount to euro760 million, and the bank will put an additional euro600 million more capital into its subsidiary there payday loan.

Erste Group Bank also marked down holdings of bonds issued by troubled governments such as Greece, Portugal, Spain, Ireland and Italy.

The bank has 3,200 branches across Central and Eastern Europe.

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The United Auto Workers union has called local leaders to Detroit on Tuesday, a strong sign that a contract deal with Ford Motor Co. is near.

Such a meeting normally means an agreement has been reached, and union bargainers brief local leaders on the details. UAW spokeswoman Michele Martin said Monday that although no deal has been finalized with the company, the union is hoping it will have one to present to the leaders.

“To get all those people here from across the country, people have to make travel arrangements,” Martin said. “I think they must have some hopeful anticipation to call the meeting.”

Ford spokeswoman Marcey Evans would say only that bargaining continues and it’s progressing.

The four-year deal with Ford is expected to be sweeter than the contract approved by UAW employees at General Motors Co. last week. It’s likely to have profit sharing instead of annual wage increases for Ford’s 41,000 UAW members. It’s also expected to bring down Ford’s hourly labor costs, which are the highest in the U.S. auto industry.

Any deal must be approved by the membership, but that could be a problem because many expected the company to restore pay raises and other benefits they sacrificed to help Ford through tough financial times starting in 2007.

Talks between the union, Ford and GM have gone fairly smoothly this year, with Ford expected to settle more than a month ahead of the last contract reached in 2007 saving account pay day loan. Four years ago, Ford and the union didn’t reach agreement until Nov. 3.

Up next will be Chrysler, where the talks could be more contentious. The company isn’t making as much money as Ford and GM and probably can’t afford the same deals.

The UAW talks are watched closely because they set wages for more than 112,000 workers in the auto industry and set the bar for pay at auto parts makers and in other manufacturing industries.

The GM deal gives workers $5,000 signing bonuses, $1,000 a year for three years to cover inflation and at least $3,500 in profit-sharing this year. The worst GM workers can do is $11,500 over the four years of the contract. GM was able to avoid a pension increase for the first time since 1953, and Ford’s terms are expected to match that.

More than 1,900 entry-level workers at GM, who make about half the roughly $29 per hour paid to a GM factory worker, got raises of more than 20 percent. Ford has only about 70 entry-level workers, and will try to lower its labor costs by hiring more of them.

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Robin Steinmann remembers a time when nurses were pretty much one-size-fits-all.

“It used to be that if you worked in one area of the hospital, you could float around and work anywhere,” said Steinmann, who handles human resources at Anderson Hospital in Maryville.

Those days are long gone.

“Now areas are becoming more specialized, more complicated,” Steinmann said, “and that can’t happen anymore.”

The emphasis on specific medicine is a small factor in a national health care trend that’s being felt in the Metro East more and more: an acute deficit of trained, professional nurses. While the issue has been simmering for years, it’s become more prominent recently, intensified by changes in the health care industry, an aging baby boomer population just starting to tax the system and a recession that’s altered how people take care of themselves.

Metro East health care administrators and educators know all about the concerns. They’re crafting plans to make sure the shortage won’t catch them off guard. But there are real challenges, including the harsh reality that there won’t be enough new nurses entering the workforce for years, maybe decades.

“We only have the capacity to admit so many students based on our resources and classrooms,” said Virginia Cruz, an associate professor in the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville School of Nursing, the only of its kind in this part of the state. “The sky is not the limit for us.”

The perfect storm

In the most basic sense, the dearth of caregivers is simple supply and demand. The number of new nurses graduating from various programs doesn’t meet growing patient needs, both in terms of sheer numbers and severity of treatment. One study estimates the state will have a nursing deficiency of 21,000

A big earnings miss from Caterpillar halted a stock rally that brought the Dow Jones industrial average close to its highest level of the year.

Caterpillar fell nearly 6 percent after the equipment maker earned less than analysts projected last quarter. The company, which is often seen as a bellwether for the global economy because it sells equipment all over the world, told analysts in its earnings call that it expects the U.S. economy to grow moderately.

The weaker results from Caterpillar and a continuing deadlock over raising the U.S. borrowing limit capped the stock market’s gains and left the U.S. out of a broad rally in overseas markets. Stocks gained worldwide after European leaders reached a deal aimed at containing the region’s debt crisis.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 20 points, or 0.2 percent, to 12,704. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index gained 2, or 0.1 percent, to 1,346.

A strong earnings report from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. helped push technology stocks higher. The Nasdaq composite rose 17 points, or 0.6 percent, to 2,851.

AMD jumped nearly 19 percent after the chip maker said it expects more earnings gains in the third quarter. Flash memory card maker SanDisk Corp. rose 10 percent after its earnings rose sharply. And Microsoft Corp. gained 0.3 percent after beating analyst’s income estimates.

Traders kept close watch on negotiations in Washington over a deal to raise the nation’s debt ceiling ahead of an Aug no credit check payday loans. 2 deadline. The impasse has overshadowed an agreement in Europe Thursday to give Greece a second financial lifeline and broaden the powers of a regional bailout fund.

Republicans and Democrats continue to search for a deal to cut the government deficit that would combine cuts to social programs with revenue increases through an overhaul of the tax code.

Concerns that the debt ceiling won’t be raised before the August deadline are becoming more widespread, said Brian Gendreau, market strategist for Cetera Financial Group. “But the background is a growing economy and fairly strong earnings news.”

McDonald’s Corp. rose 3 percent, the most of any stock in the Dow average, after the company’s income and revenue came in higher than analysts were expecting thanks to strong sales in Europe. CEO Jim Skinner said the company’s low prices helped bring in more customers as the economic recovery stumbled. Oil services company Schlumberger Ltd. rose 4 percent after its profits increased on a pickup in drilling in North America.

The Dow has gained more than 200 points this week. It opened Friday 86 points below its high for the year of 12,810.54, which came on April 29.

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Bank of America reported a loss of $9.1billion during the second quarter partly due to the $8.5 billion settlement with investors who claimed the bank had sold them poor-quality mortgage backed bonds. That settlement was announced in June.

The reported loss available to common shareholders was 90 cents per share.

Excluding charges related to investor settlements, Bank of America Corp. earned $3.7 billion, or 33 cents per share payday loan lenders. That compares with net income of $3.1 billion, or 27 cents a share in the same quarter last year.

Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast Bank of America would report a loss of 85 cents per share.

Bank of America shares were up 23 cents in pre-market trading to $9.95

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