My finance view

Sharon Curtis, an Alberta resident, visited a Leon

Something new has appeared at the Libyan front: a semblance of order among rebel forces.

Rebels without training _ sometimes even without weapons _ have rushed in and out of fighting in a free-for-all for weeks, repeatedly getting trounced by Moammar Gadhafi’s more heavily armed forces. But on Friday only former military officers and the lightly trained volunteers serving under them are allowed on the front lines. Some are recent arrivals, hoping to rally against forces loyal to the Libyan leader who have pushed rebels back about 100 miles this week.

The better organized fighters, unlike some of their predecessors, can tell the difference between incoming and outgoing fire. They know how to avoid sticking to the roads, a weakness in the untrained forces that Gadhafi’s troops have exploited. And they know how to take orders.

“The problem with the young untrained guys is they’ll weaken us at the front, so we’re trying to use them as a backup force,” said Mohammed Majah, 33, a former sergeant.

“They don’t even know how to use weapons. They have great enthusiasm, but that’s not enough now,” he said.

Majah said the only people at the front now are former soldiers, “experienced guys who have been in reserves, and about 20 percent are young revolutionaries who have been in training and are in organized units.”

The greater organization was a sign that military forces that split from the regime to join the rebellion were finally taking a greater role in the fight after weeks trying to organize. Fighters cheered Friday as one of their top commanders _ Col. Khalifa Hafter, a former senior figure in Gadhafi’s military _ drove by in a convoy toward the front.

It was too early to say if the improvements will tip the fight in the rebels’ favor. They have been struggling to exploit the opportunity opened by international airstrikes hammering Gadhafi’s forces since March 19.

In a sign the strikes may be eroding Gadhafi’s resilience, his government is trying to hold talks with the U.S., Britain and France in hopes of ending the air campaign, said Abdul-Ati al-Obeidi, a former Libyan prime minister who has served as a Gadhafi envoy during the crisis. “We are trying to find a mutual solution,” he told Britain’s Channel 4 News on Friday.

British officials met with Mohammed Ismail, a Libyan government aide who happened to be in London visiting relatives, and told him Gadhafi must quit, two people familiar with the issue said Friday. The two demanded anonymity to discuss details.

The opposition said Friday in Benghazi, its de facto capital, that it will agree to a cease-fire if Gadhafi pulls his military forces out of cities and allows peaceful protests against his regime.

The rebel condition is that “the Gadhafi brigades and forces withdraw from inside and outside Libyan cities to give freedom to the Libyan people to choose,” said Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, head of the opposition’s interim governing council. “The world will see that they will choose freedom.”

He spoke at a press conference with U.N. envoy Abdelilah Al-Khatib. Al-Khatib met Libyan officials in Tripoli on Thursday before holding talks with rebels in hopes of reaching a political solution.

The U.N. resolution that authorized international airstrikes against Libya called for Gadhafi and the rebels to end hostilities. Gadhafi announced a cease-fire immediately but has shown no sign of heeding it.

His forces continue to attack rebels in the east, which is largely controlled by the opposition, and have besieged the only major rebel-held city in the west, Misrata.

Misrata has been shelled by tanks and artillery for days, said a doctor in a city hospital who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals. Many people have been killed, including eight since Thursday, he said. He said Gadhafi brigades control the port and a main street, but rebels control the heart of the city.

At the main front, which has moved back and forth in a fringe between the rebel-held east and Gadhafi-ruled west, the rebels’ losses this week underlined the inferiority of their equipment, training and organization, compared to the regime’s.

There were signs of at least some rebel improvement in all three areas Friday.

The rebels had mortars, weapons they previously seemed to lack, and on Thursday night they drove in a convoy with at least eight rocket launchers _ more artillery than usual. The rebels also appeared to have more communication equipment such as radios and satellite phones. A newly installed diesel generator, allowing pumps at a gas station east of the main fighting, was another improvement.

They also appeared to get some international air support. Rebels east of Ajdabiya chanted “Allah akbar,” or “God is great,” as two planes flew overhead, and later eight to 10 heavy blasts _ more powerful than regular shelling _ were heard in the west, where Gadhafi’s forces were.

Rebels had pleaded in vain for international airstrikes much of the week. U.S. Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen said Thursday that most combat missions had been grounded by bad weather.

It was unclear where the front line was on Friday. A day earlier, the opposition moved into Brega, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Ajdabiya, but were again pushed out by Gadhafi’s forces.

Ahmed al-Shiri, a 47-year-old former high-ranking officer from Benghazi, said Gadhafi forces were in Bishr, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of Brega.

NATO said it conducted a total of 178 flights, including 74 “strike sorties,” on Thursday, when it formally took control of what had been a U.S.-led military campaign against Gadhafi. The Obama administration, already fighting wars in two Muslim nations, had been eager to give up that responsibility.

The U.S. Defense Department announced it will end command missions in Libya on Saturday, leaving the work for other NATO members. The decision drew incredulous reactions from some in Congress.

The better organized rebel force took a long time to deploy mainly because it was being drawn up from scratch.

“We were setting up and training and establishing units all over Libya,” said Hamid Muftah, 41, a former member of air force now with the rebels. The volunteers got about 25 days of training and have been organized into six- or seven-member groups each led by a defector from the regular military.

“They’re still not that good, but they’ll get experience,” Muftah said.

“We can’t just do what we want now,” said Nasser Zwei, a 40-year-old oil engineer behind the wheel of an oil-company pickup truck, now equipped with an anti-aircraft gun. “We follow directions. It will make a difference.”

Now untrained fighters are turned away at checkpoints. They stay to the rear to hold the line temporarily in case Gadhafi’s forces attempt to flank the trained rebels, said Ali Bin-Amr, a 26-year-old fighter.

Al-Shiri, the former high ranking officer, said the improvements were set up over the past weeks. He blamed “lack of organization” for the rebels’ failure to reach Sirte, the Gadhafi stronghold they were marching on last week when they were turned back by an overwhelming force of artillery and rocket fire.

Now “we get orders from the military council in Benghazi. They’re in control. The army is in control,” he said. The undisciplined fighters “are not leading the way anymore.”

The international effort to stop Gadhafi from attacking his opponents is deeply divided on whether to arm the rebels, but they may soon get their own money to buy weapons. The opposition’s National Transitional Council has reached agreement with Qatar on a plan to sell rebel-held oil to buy weapons and other supplies, according to Ali Tarhouni, who handles finances for the council.

Gadhafi’s greatest losses this week were not military but political. His foreign minister and another member of his inner circle abandoned him Wednesday and Thursday, setting off speculation about other officials who may be next. The defections could sway people who have stuck with Gadhafi despite the uprising that began Feb. 15 and the international airstrikes aimed at keeping the autocrat from attacking his own people.

Libyan state TV aired a phone interview with intelligence chief Bouzeid Dorda to knock down rumors that he also left Gadhafi.

“I am in Libya and will remain here steadfast in the same camp of the revolution despite everything,” Dorda said.

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“The penalties imposed as a result of these violations should serve as a wake-up call to movie theater owners and other employers. Businesses that employ minors are legally and ethically obligated to abide by child labor standards and ensure youth are protected on the job.”

 

 

                        
No. of
banks     
Return on assets*           
Bad loans/Total loans **          

Bad loans and
foreclosed property/Total loans                  

Tier 1 leverage ratio   
Q3 2008
80 0.36% 1.71% 2.61% 10.28% Q4 2008  
79 0.16% 1.58% 2.62% 9.85% Q1 2009 78 0.18% 2.01% 3.14% 9.77% Q2 2009 78 0.15% 2.45% 3.71% 9.69% Q3 2009 79 0.05% 2.67% 3.98% 9.61% Q4 2009 78 -0.07% 2.73% 4.05% 9.37% Q1 2010 78 0.55% 2.90% 4.45% 9.46% Q2 2010 77 0.47% 2.62% 4.21% 9.51% Q3 2010 76 0.46% 2.86% 4.53% 9.52% Q4 2010 75 0.39% 3.06% 4.69% 9.50%

 

* Return on assets: Bank profit as a percent of assets. The higher the number, the better. In good times, the figure is usually more than 1 percent.

** Problem loans to total loans: The percentage of loans upon which payment is very delinquent. The lower the number, the better.

*** Tier 1 leverage ratio: A measure of a bank’s capital adequacy. The number must be at 5 percent or higher for the bank to be considered “well capitalized.”

SOURCE: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

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Now that demand is up and business is finally improving for many companies, they’re doing what they always do at the beginning of an expansion

Better than expected earnings reports and a lift in the manufacturing sector sent stocks higher Tuesday.

Pfizer Inc., United Parcel Service Inc. and agriculture giant Archer Daniels Midland Co. all beat earnings forecasts.

The Institute of Supply Management said Tuesday that manufacturing activity expanded in January at its fastest pace in nearly seven years. Increased spending by businesses and consumers helped push the index higher, the company said.

“This is a good indicator that businesses have come out of the gate strongly in 2011,” said Burt White, chief investment officer for LPL Financial. “We are seeing businesses spend again and this is exactly what we needed to see for this economy to move forward.”

The better economic data helped push stocks broadly higher. The Standard and Poor’s 500 stock index _ the benchmark for most U.S. mutual funds _ traded above 1,300. If it closes above that level, the index will reach its highest point since Aug. 28, 2008.

All 10 company groups that make up the Standard and Poor’s 500-stock index rose. Materials companies rose 2.2 percent, the largest gain of any group.

The S&P index gained 16 points, or 1.2 percent, to 1,301 in morning trading. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 93 points, or 0.8 percent, to 11,984. The Nasdaq composite index rose 38, or 1.4 percent, to 2,738.

Before the market opened, Archer Daniels Midland said that its profit jumped 29 percent last quarter because of growing demand for grains. The agriculture conglomerate easily beat analyst estimates and its stock jumped 6 percent.

United Parcel Service Inc. said its 2011 earnings will likely top its pre-recession levels from 2007. UPS gained 4 percent.

Pfizer Inc. said its fourth-quarter profit nearly quadrupled and its revenues rose 6 percent. The company narrowly beat analyst estimates and gained 4.8 percent.

Electronic Arts and Boston Scientific are among the companies that will report earnings by the end of the day.

Bond prices fell, sending their yields higher. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 3.45 from 3.38 percent late Monday.

Energy stocks led indexes higher Monday, the first day of trading since the growing unrest in Egypt caused the largest one-day drop in the broad stock market in more than three months.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 68 points, or 0.6 percent, to close at 11,891.93 Monday. It finished the month with its best January performance in 14 years. The broader Standard and Poor’s 500 index rose 10, or 0.8 percent, to 1,286.12. The Nasdaq composite index gained 13, or 0.5 percent, to 2,700.08.

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Masked gunmen with rocket launchers are blocking access to what officials believe may be a mass grave site in Ivory Coast, the United Nations said, as concerns grow that the West African nation that suffered a 2002-2003 civil war could return to conflict.

The U.N. reported that heavily armed forces allied with Laurent Gbagbo and joined by masked men, were preventing people from getting to the village of N’Dotre, where the global body said “allegations point to the existence of a mass grave.”

The U.N. did not elaborate on the possible victims, though it has expressed concerns about hundreds of arrests, and dozens of cases of torture and disappearance during the political turmoil since the presidential runoff vote was held nearly a month ago.

“As the violence goes on the number of dead, wounded and missing persons is increasing rapidly,” U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said late Thursday.

Gbagbo has refused to step down from the presidency despite international calls for his ouster from the U.N., U.S., former colonizer France, the European Union and the African Union. The international community recognizes Alassane Ouattara as the winner, though Gbagbo maintains control of the national military.

Alain Toussaint, an adviser for Gbagbo, has said that he didn’t believe soldiers or people close to Gbagbo would carry out the acts of violence that have been reported.

At least 173 deaths already have been confirmed in violence over the vote, and the U.N. is warning there could be untold more since it has been unable to investigate all the allegations. Even the top U.N. envoy in the country was stopped at gunpoint while trying to look into reports of human rights abuses, the U.N. deputy human rights commissioner in Geneva said Thursday.

“Many of the abducted remain missing, and the security forces are refusing to reveal their whereabouts,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement. “Several witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch had come across bodies with bullet wounds of those arrested or abducted, leading to strong fears of extrajudicial executions.”

The U.S. State Department has ordered most of its personnel to leave because of the deteriorating security situation and growing anti-Western sentiment, and former colonizer France is also urging its citizens to leave. A youth leader accused of inciting a pro-Gbagbo group that has led violent attacks against foreigners in the past has called for a demonstration Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Ouattara is trying to assert his control over state institutions in a bid to cement his rule. State television that had been controlled by Gbagbo was yanked from the air in most cities outside Abidjan late Thursday, and Gbagbo’s access to state funds also has been blocked.

Ouattara’s allies hope the move by the West African economic and monetary union late Thursday will set the stage for mass defections if incumbent Gbagbo cannot pay civil servants and soldiers in the military that he still controls.

Officials with the regional monetary union made the announcement after an emergency session, and later said in a statement that only representatives of Ouattara’s government will have signing privileges on state accounts. The regional bank, known by its acronym BCEAO, regroups the treasuries of eight West African countries.

There has been much speculation in recent days as to whether Gbagbo would be able to pay state salaries, despite nightly assurances on state television that the paychecks would be available before Christmas.

On Thursday morning, several banks in downtown Abidjan posted notices in their windows saying that they would not be cashing civil servant paychecks because they hadn’t received a guarantee from the government that they would be reimbursed.

Lines of impatient civil servants formed outside the banks, but just after noon the notices were removed and one by one people started receiving their money.

While Ouattara has the backing of the international community, Gbagbo still controls the country’s military and also had dominated state media until late Thursday. Gbagbo-controlled state television was yanked from the air though in most cities outside Abidjan and remained off the air Friday.

It was not immediately clear how the signal was cut off. Advisers to Ouattara refused to comment, but the event falls in line with a series of strategies Ouattara has been employing to try to break Gbagbo’s stranglehold on the news.

A week ago, Ouattara’s supporters unsuccessfully attempted to seize control of the channel. State TV had run continuous footage of Gbagbo taking the oath of office in the days after he declared victory without mentioning that his claim was heavily contested.

Ivory Coast was once an economic hub because of its role as the world’s top cocoa producer. The 2002-2003 civil war split the country into a rebel-controlled north and a loyalist south. While the country officially reunited in a 2007 peace deal, Ouattara draws his support from the northern half of the country, where he was born, while Gbagbo’s power base is in the south.

Gbagbo claimed victory in the presidential election only after his allies threw out half a million ballots from Ouattara strongholds in the north, a move that infuriated residents there who have long felt that they are treated as foreigners in their own country by southerners.

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The European Union will sell 300 million carbon-dioxide allowances over the next two years from a reserve under its cap-and-trade program in a bid to spur clean- energy projects.

The European Investment Bank will sell the CO2 allowances from the post-2012 reserve for new companies and disburse the revenue via national governments to aid projects for carbon capture and storage and renewable energy. The EIB is the 27- nation EU’s lending arm and the 300 million permits from the reserve are known as the NER300.

“While details, including the starting date of the sales, are not fixed yet, it is expected that all NER300 allowances will be sold before the start of the third trading period of the EU emissions-trading system in January 2013,” the European Commission said in a statement today in Brussels.

The EU decided in 2008 that revenue from the reserve in the post-2012 phase of the emissions-trading system would be used to aid carbon-capture and renewable-energy projects. The system started in 2005 with a three-year trading period, is now in a second phase that ends in 2012 and will enter a third stage running from 2013 through 2020 credit score.

The permits to be sold by the EIB will probably be the first allowances for the next trading period brought to the market. Power producers have said they need phase-three permits immediately to hedge their future electricity sales.

“The EIB has to start sales within a month of the allowances being made available in a registry account,” the commission said. “When further decisions on the sales channel(s) to be used and other details have been taken, and before the sales start, the EIB will publish further information. This will also cover the number of allowances to be sold in 2011 and 2012, respectively.”

In a related step today, the EU opened a contest for the first portion of the roughly 4.3 billion euros ($6 billion) of aid from the reserve. The announcement covers 200 million of the CO2 permits and companies have three months to submit bids.

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A photographic look at the new Amway Center in downtown Orlando.

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State Treasurer Ted Wheeler has recommended a temporary halt to Oregon General Fund-backed public borrowing. Wheeler made the recommendation Thursday during a special meeting he convened of the State Debt Policy Advisory Commission, which he chairs.

The commission unanimously endorsed the temporary halt based on the shrunken pool of General Fund dollars available to repay any debt incurred. The measure is not binding but will be included in Wheeler's report to the state Legislature when it convenes in January.

“We have a responsibility to Oregon taxpayers to protect the state’s strong credit rating and to avoid the mistakes of other state governments that have tried to borrow their way out of deficits,” said Wheeler, in a statement. The state currently has a AA credit rating from Standard & Poor's, a Aa1 credit rating from Moody's Investors Service, and a AA+ rating from Fitch’s Investors Service.

In making his case, Wheeler noted that the state is currently paying $70 million to service $431 million in debt approved by the 2003 Oregon Legislature to cover operating expenses. That debt will be retired in 2013.

The commission also agreed to ask the Department of Administrative Services to reconsider the timing of certain new bond-financed projects that have already been authorized but for which bonds have not yet been sold.

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