Finance & Business World

%3Cp%3EU.S.+stock+futures+rose+Monday%2C+even+as+news+of+North+Korea+ruler+Kim+Jong+Il%27s+death+rattled+Asia+and+European+markets.%3C%2Fp%3E+%09%3Cp%3EEuropean+markets+fell%2C+but+then+rebounded+as+investors+weighed+the+potential+consequences+of+Kim%27s+death.+Asian+indexes+closed+lower.+Analysts+warn+Kim%27s+death+could+cause+an+uncertain+power+transition+and+put+the+brakes+on+talks+aimed+at+getting+the+secretive+communist+state+to+give+up+its+nuclear+weapons.%3C%2Fp%3E+%09%3Cp%3EKim+Jong+Un%2C+the+supreme+leader%27s+untested+third+son+and+heir-apparent%2C+is+expected+to+want+to+consolidate+his+power+and+dispel+any+notions+of+weakness.%3C%2Fp%3E+%09%3Cp%3EDow+Jones+industrial+average+futures+are+up+51%2C+or+0.4+percent+at+11%2C829.+The+broader+Standard+%26amp%3B+Poor%27s+500+index+futures+are+up+7%2C+or+0.6+percent%2C+at+1%2C218.+Nasdaq+100+futures+are+up+13.25%2C+or+0.6+percent%2C+to+2246.%3C%2Fp%3E+%09%3Cp%3E%22The+most+likely+scenario+for+regime+collapse+has+been+the+sudden+death+of+Kim+%28Jong+Il%29.+We+are+now+in+that+scenario%2C%22+said+Victor+Cha%2C+a+former+U.S.+National+Security+Council+director+for+Asian+affairs.%3C%2Fp%3E+%09%3Cp%3EBut+after+Asian+indexes+closed+lower%2C+European+stocks+recovered.+Germany%27s+DAX+rose+0.7+percent+to+5%2C741+and+Paris%27+CAC+40+index+rose+0.2+percent+to+2%2C979.+Britain%27s+FTSE+gained+0.3+percent+to+5%2C405.40.%3C%2Fp%3E+%09%3Cp%3EOvernight+South+Korea%27s+Kospi+index+dived+nearly+5+percent+but+later+recouped+some+losses+to+close+3.4+percent+lower+at+1%2C776.93.+The+Korean+won+also+fell%2C+losing+1.6+percent+against+the+U.S.+dollar%2C+a+traditional+haven+in+times+of+uncertainty.+The+Japanese+yen+and+other+regional+currencies+also+weakened+against+the+dollar.%3C%2Fp%3E+%09%3Cp%3EThe+euro+was+flat+around+%241.3030.%3C%2Fp%3E+%09%3Cp%3EKim%27s+death+overshadowed+what+already+was+a+gloomy+start+to+the+week+after+Fitch+warned+after+the+market+close+on+Friday+that+it+may+downgrade+the+credit+ratings+of+Italy+and+Spain%2C+as+well+as+Belgium%2C+Cyprus%2C+Ireland+and+Slovenia.%3C%2Fp%3E+%09%3Cp%3EEU+finance+ministers+will+later+Monday+discuss+how+much+money+their+countries+will+lend+to+the+International+Monetary+Fund+in+a+conference+call.%3C%2Fp%3E+%09%3Cp%3EThe+ministers+will+seek+to+decide+how+to+split+up+the+euro200+billion+%28%24261+billion%29+EU+leaders+promised+to+send+to+the+IMF+at+a+summit+10+days+ago.+The+money+is+meant+to+boost+the+eurozone%27s+firewall+against+the+escalating+debt+crisis.There+were+some+doubts+whether+the+EU+would+reach+the+euro200+billion+after+several+non-eurozone+countries+balked+at+having+to+support+the+currency+union.+The+ministers+will+also+discuss+in+their+conference+call+a+new+treaty+to+tighten+fiscal+discipline%2C+a+spokesman+for+the+Polish+delegation+to+the+European+said.%3C%2Fp%3E+%09%3Cp%3EOver+the+coming+days%2C+investors+will+remain+alert+to+developments+in+North+Korea%27s+power+transition.%3C%2Fp%3E+%09%3Cp%3EKim+Jong+Il%27s+death%2C+announced+Monday+by+North+Korean+state+television%2C+raises+the+specter+of+more+instability+on+the+divided+Korean+peninsula.%3C%2Fp%3E+%09%3Cp%3EThose+worries+are+most+acute+in+South+Korea+and+Japan%2C+which+have+often+been+the+targets+of+North+Korea%27s+mercurial+military+and+diplomatic+actions.%3C%2Fp%3E+%09%3Cp%3E%22We%27re+seeing+deeper+negative+sentiment+in+some+markets%2C%22+said+Dariusz+Kowalczyk%2C+strategist+at+Credit+Agricole+CIB%2C+in+Hong+Kong.+%22Basically+this+is+because+risk+aversion+on+the+geopolitical+front+has+increased+given+that+there%27s+a+transition+of+power+in+a+relatively+unstable+country.+So+we%27re+seeing+an+impact+on+equities%2C+currencies.%22%3C%2Fp%3E+%09%3Cp%3ESouth+Korea%27s+military+and+police+went+on+alert+and+President+Lee+Myung-bak%2C+convened+a+national+security+council+meeting.+Japanese+leaders+said+they+were+watching+markets+closely+and+in+contact+with+the+U.S.%2C+Kyodo+News+Agency+reported.%3C%2Fp%3E+%09%3Cp%3EKim+was+ailing+after+suffering+what+is+thought+to+have+been+a+stroke+in+2008+and+died+at+age+69+on+Saturday.%3C%2Fp%3E+%09%3Cp%3ENorth+Korea%27s+official+Korean+Central+News+Agency+identified+his+third+son%2C+the+twenty-something+Kim+Jong+Un%2C+as+the+%22great+successor%22+to+the+man+known+officially+as+the+%22Dear+Leader.%22%3C%2Fp%3E+%09%3Cp%3EBut+even+with+the+younger+Kim+designated+as+his+father%27s+successor%2C+and+already+filling+high-ranking+posts%2C+some+experts+fear+a+behind-the-scenes+power+struggle+or+nuclear+instability.%3C%2Fp%3E+%09%3Cp%3EFitch+Ratings+said+it+did+not+view+Kim%27s+death+%22as+a+trigger+for+negative+action+on+South+Korea%27s+sovereign+ratings+in+itself.%22%3C%2Fp%3E+%09%3Cp%3E%22For+now%2C+it%27s+much+too+early+to+say+risks+have+materially+increased%2C+but+clearly+we+will+keep+the+situation+under+close+review%2C%22+said+Andrew+Colquhoun%2C+head+of+Fitch%27s+Asia-Pacific+sovereigns.%3C%2Fp%3E+%09%3Cp%3EMarkets+in+Taiwan%2C+Singapore%2C+Australia%2C+New+Zealand+and+Indonesia+also+sank+on+Monday.%3C%2Fp%3E+%09%3Cp%3EStill%2C+barring+unexpected+developments+in+Pyongyang+the+impact+of+Kim%27s+death+on+markets+is+likely+to+be+passing%2C+analysts+said.%3C%2Fp%3E+%09%3Cp%3E%22In+the+short+term+there+will+be+some+psychological+uncertainty+but+I+think+things+will+go+back+to+the+fundamentals%2C%22+said+Steven+Leung%2C+director+of+institutional+sales+at+UOB-Kay+Hian+Ltd.+in+Hong+Kong.%3C%2Fp%3E+%09%3Cp%3EBenchmark+oil+for+January+delivery+was+up+51+cents+at+%2494.04+a+barrel+in+electronic+trading+on+the+New+York+Mercantile+Exchange.%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3E%3Ca+href%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stltoday.com%2Fbusiness%2Fnational-and-international%2Fus-stocks-edge-higher-after-n-korean-leader-death%2Farticle_e55e0b52-5b48-5395-8e2e-959dfe5f3526.html%27+rel%3D%27nofollow%27%3ESource%3C%2Fa%3E%3C%2Fp%3E+

Comedian and commentator Rick Mercer’s distinct take on Canadian politics and social issues can be caught on the Rick Mercer Report every Tuesday at 8 p.m. on CBC. In our series on the financial habits of notable Canadians Mercer told the Toronto Star’s Emily Mathieu about his $19,500 row house, why trying to make a living in show business is a gamble and why entertainers, thanks to the nature of their industry, tend not to retire.

How did your childhood influence your attitude toward money?

My parents were pathological about living within their means and there simply wasn’t a lot of money. So as a family there were no trips to Florida but lots of camping trips, the driveway wasn’t paved (still isn’t) but there was money for music lessons, the house is small and had one bathroom for a family of six but it was paid for.

For people who had relatively little money my parents didn’t actually stress about money because they avoided debt. They certainly made a lot of sacrifices. As kids we knew that they would help out with post secondary education, for example, but the entire time I was growing up I doubt my father ever paid more than a thousand dollars for a truck, and he would paint them with a brush. I can’t actually think of anything that my father needed that he bought new.

Even now if I mention to Dad that I went to Canadian Tire and bought a lawn mower I know what he is thinking “Hmm, bought a new lawn mower, fool and his money”.

What was the best financial advice they passed on?

My father said never loan money to friends or at least never loan money and expect it back. If you are in a position to help a friend that’s great and you are in fact obligated to, but don’t expect it back. He was adamant that allowing a friendship to be damaged because of bad feelings around money is inexcusable.

What was your first big purchase?

My first house. I was 19 years old, I paid $19,500 for a very skinny row house, attached on both sides, attached to 20 other houses and a Chinese take out. The house was essentially condemned; it came with a huge binder of work orders from the city of St. John’s.

I was the cliché of a starving actor and actually couldn’t afford to live in an apartment. Owning the house allowed me to live on my own and concentrate on working in comedy. My cousin and a few friends rented rooms for $75 bucks a month. I financed it with $4,000 down which was money that my parents had planned to give me for university. I had payments of $300 dollars a month on a $15,000 dollar bank loan. The down payment from my parents was a hand up that changed my life.

How do you prefer to pay, cash, card or debit?

I have no preference no fax payday loans. But I’m careful to pay off my cards monthly. Which I understand is a luxury.

Do you bank online?

Very little.

What has been your savviest investment?

Canadian Banks. Boring old Canadian Banks back in the early 90s.

Have you learned any financial lessons the hard way?

Yes I have and the tip I would give for anyone who is playing around in the market is to avoid people with hot tips.

What advice would you give to people about to enter the entertainment industry?

It depends on what area. There are lots of very good stable jobs in the entertainment industry. It’s an exciting industry. That said if a young person says they want to be a professional actor or musician I generally say don’t. A person doesn’t become an actor, a musician or a dancer because other people encouraged them, they do it because they have to, it is in their blood and they can’t imagine doing anything else.

If you can imagine doing something else you should probably concentrate on that. Being an artist or a performer is a very difficult life, there is no job security. In show business you can’t make a living but you can make a killing, it is a big gamble.

Was there a moment in your career where you felt you had achieved financial security?

Yes and no I don’t care to elaborate.

Do you worry about retirement?

I don’t worry about retirement but I do worry about not working. One of the great things about being an actor or a writer is you never have to stop working. I look forward to playing a crotchety old man.

But all actors worry about not working. When I bump into Gordon Pinsent he will talk about work, where the next job is, etc. He’s worked more than almost any actor alive, he could have retired comfortably decades ago but he is an actor and that’s what actors do, they worry about their next job.

Can money buy happiness?

It certainly doesn’t hurt. Anyone who says otherwise is lying. Money can mean not having to worry about paying the bills and there is no doubt about it for the vast majority of people that is the number one cause of stress in their life. But it all comes back to living within your means.

I’m sure there are people with massive salaries and five million dollar cottages in Muskoka they visit for two weeks a year stressing about bills at the end of the month. So one thing we do know is money can’t buy smarts.

Are money and success the same thing?

Absolutely not.

Source

India’s Cabinet decided Thursday to allow more direct foreign investment in the nation’s huge retail industry, a move that could strengthen the country’s food supply chain and open India to giant global retailers such as Wal-Mart.

The Cabinet approved 51 percent foreign direct investment in multibrand retail and increased the FDI cap in single-brand retail to 100 percent despite resistance from both allies and opposition parties.

India currently allows 51 percent foreign investment in single-brand retailers and 100 percent for wholesale operations.

Top retailers like Wal-Mart, Carrefour, Tesco and IKEA have long lobbied to free the policy further. Foreign multibrand retailers have Indian partners in wholesale operations now but have no retail presence in the country of 1.2 billion people.

The spokesman for the ruling Congress party, Abhishek Manu Singhvi called the decision “centrist and reasonable.” He was speaking to NDTV news channel.

The main opposition, the rightwing Bharatiya Janata Party, decried the move.

“The government has clearly bowed to international pressure,” Chandan Mitra, a spokesman told the same TV channel.

Wal-Mart, British-based Tesco PLC and French-based retailer Carrefour welcomed the decision.

“We believe that allowing 51 percent FDI in multi-brand retail is a first important step,” Raj Jain, president of Walmart India, said in an e-mailed statement. “However, we will need to study the conditions and the finer details of the new policy and the impact that it will have on our ability to do business in India,” the statement added.

“Allowing foreign direct investment in retail would be good news for Indian consumers and businesses, and we await further details on any conditions,” Tesco said in its statement.

Tesco currently has a franchise arrangement with Tata Group’s Star Bazaar hypermarket chain, supplying merchandies to outlets in India.

Carrefour opened a New Delhi store last year and would not say what explansion plans might lie ahead.

“This legal evolution should contribute to modernize the Indian food supply chain and to fight against food inflation for the benefit of Indian customers,” its statement said. It added the decision would help India’s farmers and the nation’s general economic development.

Ashish Sanyal, managing director of AMP Retail Services Pvt. Ltd, said, “It’s a good decision that will benefit everyone.” He is a consultant who helps retailers enter India.

More details on the Cabinet decision were not immediately available.

India’s $400 billion retail market is the nation’s second-largest employer, after agriculture, according to consulting firm Deloitte.

Advocates see the move as a way to strengthen India’s almost absent food supply chain _ which is so beset by spoilage, poor infrastructure, hoarding and middlemen that the government estimates some 30 percent of produce rots in a nation with soaring food costs and tens of millions who go to bed hungry each night.

If companies like Wal-Mart and Tesco are allowed to open shops of their own, they may invest billions in improving farming techniques and getting produce into stores more efficiently, bringing down food inflation _ which has averaged 10.5 percent over the last year _ and possibly improving rural incomes.

The Ministry of Commerce says it will cost 76.9 billion rupees ($1.7 billion) to build the additional 35 million metric tons of food storage India needs.

In a July paper, it suggested that loosening restrictions on foreign investment in India’s retail sector could be the best way to get more storage space built.

Yet the country has struggled to find consensus because of concerns about what it would mean millions of small shopkeepers as well as the poor.

Sanyal said small businesses had nothing to fear.

“At the end of the day this is like the high tide. All boats will rise. We will learn from the big retailers.”

Political deadlock on long-promised reforms like this has helped cool foreign investor interest in India. Policymakers are under acute pressure to find ways to attract foreign currency to help strengthen the rupee, which hit an all-time low against the dollar this week.

Traders say the central bank has been buying rupees in recent days but those measures are unlikely to reverse the currency’s plunge absent more far-sighted policy reform.

In July, this year a government committee studying multi-brand retail had cleared the idea and suggested $100 million as minimum investment for foreign companies.

The discussions on opening up India’s retail sector have been going on for 10 years.

“There is a limit to how much time we can spend on a decision,” Singhvi said.

Source

J.M. Smucker Co. said Thursday its fiscal second-quarter net income fell 15 percent as the food maker’s ingredient costs increased.

The maker of Folger’s coffee, Jif peanut butter and its namesake spreads, like most of its food maker peers, has raised prices to offset soaring costs for ingredients. But companies face a tricky balance between covering costs and not alienating consumers with higher prices. Smucker’s total volume fell 1 percent during the quarter.

Meanwhile, the company’s cost for goods such as oil, flour, milk and peanuts rose 30 percent.

“We are effectively managing this period of significant cost inflation,” said CEO Richard Smucker in a statement. Raising prices on products helped the company grow revenue 18 percent.

Orville, Ohio-based J.M. Smucker earned $127.2 million, or $1.12 per share, from August through October. That compares with $149.7 million, or $1.25 per share, in the same quarter last year.

Excluding one-time items, net income totaled $1.29 per share. That fell short of analyst expectations of $1.39 per share, according to FactSet.

Revenue rose to $1.51 billion from $1.28 billion last year. Analysts expected $1.5 billion.

Shoppers bought more items such as Pillsbury baking mixes and Jif peanut butter, but sales of non-branded drinks, Crisco oils, Folgers coffee and Pillsbury flour fell.

Ingredient costs, particularly for green coffee and peanuts, are expected to remain high for the rest of the year, and the company plans further price increases through April, the end of its fiscal year

Coffee has been an increasing focus for J.M. Smucker. It announced in October that it was buying a chunk of Sara Lee Corp.’s North American coffee and tea foodservice operations for $350 million. The two companies also announced plans at the time for a long-term partnership to work on a new liquid coffee drink.

On Thursday, J.M. Smucker also lowered its full year guidance due to costs related to issuing $750 million in long-term debt in October.

It now expects earnings, excluding restructuring, merger and integration costs and other one-time items, to be $4.90 to $5, from a prior range of $5 to $5.15 per share. Analysts expect net income of $5.11 per share.

The news came as J.M. Smucker said it is recalling 3,000 16-ounce jars of its Smucker’s Natural Peanut Butter Chunky from stores in several states because of possible salmonella contamination.

Another 16,000 jars included in the recall never left warehouses.

Source

The millions that Jon Corzine amassed as head of Goldman Sachs have become an alluring target for investors who were crushed by the collapse of MF Global, the brokerage firm he led until earlier this month.

And Corzine isn’t the only one who may be financially vulnerable after the eighth-largest bankruptcy in U.S. history. Others include MF Global’s other top executives; its auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers; and some big Wall Street banks.

Even MF Global itself, which can’t be sued while in bankruptcy protection, could sue its former executives.

Corzine and other senior executives likely share a liability insurance policy to cover potential lawsuits against them. But experts say potential damages sought could well exceed the limits of their policy.

Corporate bankruptcy is a “litigation nightmare: Everyone ends up suing everyone,” said Charles Elson, a professor and director of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. “The officers and directors are in for a lot of litigation.”

Private litigation has already begun. At least two class-action lawsuits on behalf of MF Global shareholders have been filed against Corzine and three other top executives. They accuse the firm and its top executives of making false and misleading statements about MF Global’s financial strength, internal controls and cash balances.

MF Global filed for bankruptcy protection on Oct. 31 after a disastrous bet on European government debt. In just a week, stock investors lost about $585 million, the shareholders say.

More than $600 million in clients’ money is still missing. Regulators say MF Global moved the money out of client accounts within days as the firm’s cash dried up.

No one at MF Global has been charged with a crime or civil violation. But regulators and the FBI and other criminal investigators are investigating MF Global’s failure, and Corzine has hired a prominent white-collar defense attorney.

A public relations firm hired by Corzine declined to comment Monday. An MF Global spokeswoman had no immediate comment. And Corzine’s lawyer didn’t immediately a return call.

It isn’t clear just how much money Corzine is worth. He spent roughly $100 million of his fortune to win a U.S. Senate seat and the New Jersey governorship. In 2005, the last full year that he was a U.S. senator, he was estimated to be worth between $125 million and $175 million.

Corzine’s disclosure filings as governor, through 2009, provide less detail on his finances. They do show he held interests in real estate partnerships, investment companies, hedge funds and private equity funds.

After the MF Global bankruptcy, Corzine declined to take his $12 million severance pay.

Legal experts say Corzine could be held personally liable for misrepresenting to investors the risks that the firm had taken payday advance online.

MF Global didn’t list the European debt on its balance sheet for all to see. Instead, those holdings were shifted to the company’s “off-balance sheet,” deep in its financial statements. Some separate filings with regulators excluded the European debt entirely.

Under a 2002 anti-corporate fraud law _ which Corzine co-wrote as a U.S. senator _ CEOs of public companies must personally certify the accuracy of their company’s financial statements.

If client money was used by the firm for its own purposes, Corzine could be held responsible, said Thomas Ajamie, an attorney who specializes in financial fraud cases.

“That would be the house gambling with customers’ money,” Ajamie said.

Other top MF Global executives also could face legal jeopardy, experts say. And members of the board of directors could be accused of failing to properly oversee Corzine’s trading strategy and the firm’s risk management.

PricewaterhouseCoopers, MF Global’s auditors, could be targeted, too. So could the Wall Street banks that put up money for floating the firm’s own bonds.

With MF Global in bankruptcy, new potential litigants could step forward, in addition to civil and criminal authorities and shareholders. The trustee the bankruptcy court appointed will conduct an investigation and could sue top executives on behalf of the company to recover money for creditors.

“Anyone who has a deep pocket gets sucked in,” Elson said.

Major companies typically provide liability insurance for top executives and their directors. The insurance covers the legal costs in case they’re sued by shareholders or others and the damages they might have to pay.

The insurance provides a single pot of money for executives and board members, usually in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Companies offer the insurance as a perk to recruit executive talent, experts say. The insurance kicks in if executives or directors are accused of breaches of duty and “wrongful acts” that stop short of fraud, such as misstatements to investors.

Experts say the damages or penalties that could be sought in MF Global’s case could far outstrip executives’ insurance coverage. That’s because multiple parties could sue each executive or director for tens of millions. The payouts could exceed each official’s share of the coverage.

Craig Welin, a lawyer at Frandzel Robins Bloom & Csato, which specializes in bankruptcy and financial litigation, said he thinks Corzine could be tied up in litigation for five to 10 years.

“They’ll be looking under every rock,” Welin said. “And if that rock has deep pockets, they’ll look even closer.”

Source

Bangkok authorities are telling more residents to leave as floodwaters threaten southwestern neighborhoods in the Thai capital.

Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra said people should evacuate three neighborhoods due to surging water levels. He said Sunday pumps were operating around the clock and more pumps were being added to help drain the water.

Still, floodwaters are receding elsewhere. Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said previously the city center would have light flooding if the water penetrated that far but western areas of Bangkok were threatened with inundation savings account payday advance.

The national death toll from floods since late July has reached 536. More than 13.1 million people _ one in five Thais _ are affected.

Source

A town hall meeting with Ben Bernanke and a group of military families discussing family finances wouldn’t normally draw much notice.

But for this particular event, the Federal Reserve chairman is venturing into Texas. And those who watch the Fed say the visit sends a message to Bernanke’s critics: The Fed is independent and won’t be intimidated.

Three months ago, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who is seeking the Republican presidential nod, had sent a veiled threat: Bernanke would be treated “ugly” in Texas if he continued to pursue ever-lower interest rates _ a policy that Perry and some other critics say is akin to recklessly printing money.

Now, Bernanke is visiting Texas for the first time since then, to a U.S. Army fort in El Paso.

His destination may not be coincidental.

“There has to be a political significance to this trip, given what presidential candidate Perry said about the Fed chairman and about how badly he would be treated in Texas,” said David Jones, head of consultant DMJ Advisors and the author of books on the central bank. “The Fed sees Texas as a good place to make a stand to assert the Fed’s independence.”

The Fed wouldn’t say whether the El Paso town hall meeting was planned before or after Perry made his remarks.

Fed officials say only that Fort Bliss was chosen because it has a successful financial literacy program that Bernanke wants to highlight. The town hall meeting is the latest in a series of public outreach efforts Bernanke has made, they say.

Over the past 2 1/2 years, Bernanke has attended a half-dozen informal gatherings in Kansas City, Atlanta, Cleveland and other cities. This week’s town hall meeting is his first in Texas.

David Wyss, an economist and former Fed staffer, said the site of Thursday’s event was likely influenced not just by Perry’s remarks but also by criticism from another Texan seeking the presidency: Rep. Ron Paul, a Republican congressman who favors abolishing the Fed.

“The fact that he is getting a lot of criticism from the two Texas candidates is a good reason to go to Texas,” Wyss said.

Perry’s remarks about Bernanke drew condemnation, including sharp retorts from former Vice President Dick Cheney, political adviser Karl Rove and other members of President George W. Bush’s administration.

Speaking in Iowa in August, Perry had said:

“If this guy prints more money between now and the election, I don’t know what y’all would do to him in Iowa, but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas.”

Perry added that the Fed chairman’s policymaking could be viewed as “treasonous.”

The Perry campaign declined Tuesday to discuss the governor’s previous remarks.

Bernanke, a Republican, served as Bush’s chief economist before being chosen in 2006 to lead the Fed. He hasn’t responded publicly to Perry’s remarks.

On Wednesday morning in Washington, Bernanke will make welcoming remarks at a Fed conference on small business and entrepreneurship.

Last week, Bernanke did address criticism from House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. In September, McConnell and Boehner were among four Republican leaders who signed a letter urging Bernanke to refrain from policies that they said could escalate inflation in the future.

When asked at a news conference last week if that letter had breached the Fed’s political independence, Bernanke was polite but firm.

“We listen to everyone’s input,” he said. “We are going to make our decisions based on what’s good for the economy, and we’re not going to take politics into account.”

Source

Stock indexes are edging higher in early trading ahead of a key confidence vote in Italy that is the next step in Europe’s unfolding debt crisis.

Italian bond yields have spiked this week, a sign that markets are questioning the country’s ability to pay its debts. Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s main coalition ally urged him to step aside Tuesday ahead of a vote that could force his resignation. Many investors believe a new government would enact additional austerity measures that could help Italy cut its massive debt burden payday loans lenders.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 30 points, or 0.2 percent, to 12,097 five minutes after the market opened. The S&P 500 rose 4, or 0.3 percent, to 1,265. The Nasdaq composite gained 16, or 0.6 percent, to 2,712.

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A ballot battle in Ohio that pits the union rights of public workers against Republican efforts to shrink government and limit organized labor’s reach culminates Tuesday in a vote with political consequences from statehouses to Pennsylvania Avenue.

A question called Issue 2 asks voters to accept or reject a voluminous rewrite of Ohio’s collective bargaining law that GOP Gov. John Kasich signed in March, less than three months after his party regained power in the closely divided swing state.

Thousands descended the Statehouse in protest of the legislation known as Senate Bill 5, prompting state officials at one point to lock the doors out of concern for lawmakers’ safety.

The legislation affects more than 350,000 police, firefighters, teachers, nurses and other government workers. It sets mandatory health care and pension minimums for unionized government employees, bans public worker strikes, scraps binding arbitration and prohibits basing promotions solely on seniority.

By including police and firefighters, Ohio’s bill went further than Wisconsin’s, which was the first in a series of union-limiting measures plugged by Republican governors this year as they faced deep budget holes and a tea party movement fed up with government excess. Democratic governors, including New York’s Andrew Cuomo and Connecticut’s Dannel Malloy, have also faced down their public employee unions in attempts to rein in costs.

That’s why labor badly needs a win in Ohio, said Lee Adler, who teaches labor issues at Cornell University’s New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

“If the governor of Ohio is able to hold the line on the legislation that was passed, then it would be a very significant setback for public sector workers and public sector unions in the U.S.,” he said. “Likewise, if the other result happens, then it would certainly provide a considerable amount of hope that, with the proper kind of mobilization and the proper kind of targeting, some of the retrenchment that has been directed at public sector workers can be combated.”

Victory could also galvanize support and build energy within the Democratic-leaning labor movement ahead of the 2012 presidential election, a potential boon for President Barack Obama’s re-election effort.

We Are Ohio, the labor-backed coalition fighting the law, had raised more than $24 million as of mid-October _ more than Obama, John McCain and 18 other presidential contenders raised in combined Ohio contributions during the 2008 presidential election, according to Federal Election Commission data.

Building a Better Ohio, the business-fueled proponent campaign, has raised $8 million. Outside groups including FreedomWorks, Americans for Prosperity and the Virginia-based Alliance for America’s Future are also rallying support for the law. Their spending hasn’t been documented.

“This will eclipse any statewide candidate election in the history of the state, in terms of spending,” said Jason Mauk, a spokesman for Building a Better Ohio. “It’s an unprecedented campaign.”

Ohio voters favored repeal 57 percent to 32 percent, an Oct. 25 Quinnipiac University poll showed. But Mauk said the law’s backers are still cautiously optimistic they can win, and will continue through the weekend to carry the bill’s tea party-friendly message to voters.

“People are tired of government spending more than it makes, more than it collects, and they’re frustrated by the debt and deficit problem in Washington,” he said. “Voters clearly sent a message of concern (in 2010) and they’re demanding that government get its house in order, and that’s the platform John Kasich ran on. This is an effort to try to eliminate government excess and get spending under control.”

Kasich is ranked among America’s least popular governors, thanks in part to his fight against the unions. The former congressman, investment banker and Fox News commentator has traveled the state to rally voters to keep the law and appeared in pro-Issue 2 commercials paid for by Make Ohio Great, a project of the Republican Governors Association.

Voters are eager to help defeat the law because they felt disenfranchised by the process, said Melissa Fazekas, a spokeswoman for the opposition.

The bill was introduced, debated in the Legislature, passed and signed by Kasich in two months. GOP legislative leaders say they heard dozens of hours of testimony and Democrats proposed no amendments to the bill during deliberations.

After it passed, the law’s opponents easily gathered 1.3 million signatures for their ballot effort and now boast a legion of more than 17,000 volunteers of all political stripes.

“I’ve never been involved in something quite like this,” Fazekas said. “I’ve just never seen people so engaged and enthusiastic. I’ve seen situations before where people were willing to sign petitions, but on this issue people were literally grabbing petition booklets out of our hands and taking them out and circulating them.”

Adler said public schools and the post office are the last two big government entities not controlled by corporations, and so are primary targets of union-limiting efforts.

He said “everybody A to Z” will be watching the vote’s outcome because of the state’s long history as a political bellwether: “Ohio tells a story about America every time it votes.”

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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti