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Greece’s prime minister resumed talks late Thursday with top bank negotiators to try and overcome obstacles to a major debt-relief deal needed to avoid bankruptcy.

Premier Lucas Papademos met with Charles Dallara, managing director of the Institute of International Finance, a banking lobby, and Jean Lemierre, senior adviser to the chairman of French bank BNP Paribas.

Private bondholders are being asked to forgive half their Greek debt, and in return accept cash payments and new bonds with longer maturities. The deal is required for a second international bailout with a looming euro14.5 billion bond repayment on March 20 that carries a serious threat of bankruptcy for Greece.

Top eurozone officials are pressing private bondholders to accept the new bonds at a lower interest rate.

A senior Greek government official said, despite delays in concluding the negotiations, Greece was still aiming to submit its formal offer for the bond-swap deal to banks and other private creditors by Feb. 13. The official asked not to be named because the talks are ongoing.

Dallara resumed the talks in Athens for a third successive week.

Eurozone countries have taken a tough stance with the IIF because they would have to provide additional help to Greece if the bond-swap deal falls short of expectations.

“To ensure debt sustainability for Greece, it is essential that a new program be supported by a combination of private sector involvement and official sector support,” William Murray, an IMF spokesman, said late Wednesday.

Murray said the IMF has not asked the European Central Bank, which holds more than euro40 billion ($52 billion) in Greek government bonds, to play any specific role in relieving Greece’s debt pile.

The ECB, as a public sector holder of Greek debt, is protected from any writedown.

“The Fund has no view on the relative contribution of private sector involvement and official sector support in achieving” the target of cutting Greece’s debt-to-GDP ratio to 120 percent, Murray said.

Greece is currently surviving on a euro110-billion loan package from eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund, and has been promised an additional euro130 billion in rescue aid if the bond-swap deal goes through.

EU-IMF debt inspectors are currently in Athens for talks with the Papademos government, to set conditions for the second package that are expected to produce more austerity measures in the recession-hit country.

Hardship facing many Greeks has spurred a huge drop in support for the country’s Socialist party, which won the last general election in 2009 with nearly 44 percent of the vote, and formed a coalition government with rival conservatives two months ago.

A nationwide opinion poll published Thursday found support for the Socialists has dropped to 12 percent, just behind three opposition left-wing parties.

The VPRC survey for the Epikaira news magazine gave the conservatives 30.5 percent support. Sample data was not immediately available.

General elections are expected in late April.

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The cost of living in the U.S. was little changed in December for a second month as stores cut prices to boost holiday sales and fuel expenses fell, reinforcing the Federal Reserve

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Reflecting on a challenging year, President Barack Obama says he’s hoping for more economic progress following action by Congress to prevent tax increases at the start of 2012.

“It was good to see members of Congress do the right thing for millions of working Americans,” said Obama, using his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday to deliver a New Year’s message.

He said the public made itself heard on a Social Security payroll tax cut and that was one big reason that lawmakers agreed to extend it for two more months.

The American people, Obama said, “had the courage to believe your voices could make a difference.”

The president said he expects Congress to finish the job when lawmakers return to Washington in January and extend the tax cut through the end of the year.

Reflecting on 2011, Obama said it was a time of great challenge and progress, including the end of the war in Iraq, the death of Osama bin Laden and signs of an economic recovery.

“There’s no doubt that 2012 will bring even more change,” Obama said. “And as we head into the new year, I’m hopeful that we have what it takes to face that change and come out even stronger _ to grow our economy, create more jobs and strengthen the middle class.”

On the eve of an election year, Obama said the months ahead will help determine “what kind of country we want to be and what kind of world we want our children and grandchildren to grow up in.”

Sen. Johnny Isakson, delivering the GOP address, outlined his party’s commitments to the American people for 2012.

The Georgia lawmaker said his party’s No. 1 goal is to make it easier for small businesses to create jobs.

“We’ll accomplish this by focusing on three things: fundamental tax reform, regulatory reform and energy security,” he said.

Isakson said that while some people may think Congress will be too consumed with the 2012 elections to accomplish anything significant, the public deserves better.

“Americans cannot wait until after the November election,” he said. “They need us to do our job and do it right now to create an economic climate that makes it easier to put people back to work.”

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European Central Bank president Mario Draghi says there’s “no external savior” for heavily indebted governments in the eurozone debt crisis and gave no sign the bank is ready to step in and support their finances.

Draghi said governments must take the tough steps to balance budgets and reform economies to promote growth.

“I will never tire of saying that the first response should be from government,” Draghi said Thursday at a speech in Berlin. “There is no external savior for a country that doesn’t want to save itself.”

As a “firewall” to calm markets in the meantime, Draghi said, the EU has its newly strengthened bailout fund.

Some economists have urged the ECB to support governments with bigger purchases of government bonds. So far the bank has made some purchases but kept them limited and said the program is temporary, stressing that governments must not rely on such help from the ECB.

Draghi said that the purchases were “neither eternal nor infinite.”

In his speech, Draghi focussed instead on the European Financial Stability Facility, the current EU bailout fund, as the “firewall” against the crisis. He urged EU officials to quickly implement decisions to strengthen it to assure markets governments will pay their debts on time.

Governments have agreed on ways to increase the fund’s lending power and are seeking outside investors such as countries in emerging markets to contribute to its lending power, so far without much progress.

Economists say the EFSF is too small to bail out Italy, the most recent focus of the debt crisis that has seen Greece, Ireland and Portugal seek bailouts from other eurozone governments and the International Monetary Fund.

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Employers likely added more jobs in November, encouraged by signs of modest economic growth. But the gains aren’t expected to be enough to lower the unemployment rate.

Economists forecast that employers added a net 125,000 jobs last month, an improvement from October’s gain of 80,000. The unemployment rate is expected to stay at 9 percent for the second straight month.

Some economists have revised their estimates even higher _ to roughly 150,000 _ after a spate of positive economic reports. And payroll provider ADP said Wednesday that private companies added 206,000 jobs last month.

Still, analysts say that while the economy is growing at a steady pace, it’s not accelerating enough to prompt employers to hire more aggressively.

And Europe’s financial crisis threatens to slow U.S. growth next year. A recession in Europe could reduce U.S. exports, hurt global financial markets and dampen business confidence.

Paul Ashworth, an economist at Capital Economics, estimates that the economy will expand 2.5 percent in the last three months of this year. But he expects growth to slow to 1.5 percent in 2012, partly because of the crisis in Europe.

“Things are getting a bit better, but perhaps only temporarily,” Ashworth said.

Weak job growth means companies don’t have to raise pay to keep their employees. Fewer jobs and lower pay leaves consumers with less money to spend. That’s holding back economic growth.

In the past three months, the economy has added an average of 114,000 net jobs per month. That’s barely enough to keep up with population growth. In the first four months of this year, the economy generated an average of 179,000 jobs per month.

For now, most recent economic reports have been positive.

Factories are expanding. The Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing managers, said Thursday that its manufacturing index rose to 52.7 in November, up from 50.8 in October. Any reading above 50 indicates expansion.

The ISM’s report also found that new orders and production both rose to seven-month highs. That’s a good sign for future output. Even export orders increased, despite the turmoil overseas.

Retailers reported a strong start to holiday sales over the Thanksgiving weekend, consumer confidence surged in November to the highest level since July, and Americans’ pay rose in October by the most in seven months.

Car sales also rose sharply in November, normally a lackluster month for the auto industry. Chrysler, Ford, Nissan and Hyundai all reported double-digit gains on Thursday, compared to a year ago.

Another report Thursday showed that U.S. builders spent more in October on new homes, offices and shopping centers. Construction spending rose for a third straight month, the Commerce Department said. Despite the gains, overall construction spending remained depressed.

Those reports have caused many economists to forecast a pickup in growth in the final three months of the year, to about a 3 percent annual rate. That would be an improvement from growth of 2 percent in the July-September period.

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Unemployment rates fell in three-quarters of U.S. states last month, a sign that many parts of the country are experiencing modest job gains.

The Labor Department says unemployment rates fell in 36 states in October and rose in only 5. Rates were unchanged in 9 states. That’s the best showing since April, when rates fell in 39 states.

Nationally, the unemployment rate ticked down to 9 percent in October, from 9.1 percent the previous month. Employers added a modest 80,000 net jobs last month and the previous two months were revised to show much stronger gains payday advance lender.

Still, at least 125,000 jobs a month are needed to keep up with population growth, and at least double that amount to rapidly reduce the unemployment rate.

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Metropolitan Urological Specialists PC, a leading St. Louis area medical practice, appears to be digging itself out of a $1.3 million tax problem.

Public records filed this year indicate that the Chesterfield-based medical practice and its property affiliate — Metropolitan Urological Properties LLC — has owed at least that much in delinquent federal, state and local taxes, interest and fees.

Metropolitan, which operates a sexual health clinic and offers surgery and radiation treatments, has about a dozen physicians. The medical firm has an imaging center, a laboratory, and doctors’ offices at various locations in Crestwood, Creve Coeur, Florissant, and Chesterfield including offices on the campuses of Mercy Hospital St. Louis and St. Luke’s Hospital.

Metropolitan’s new interim chief executive, Bob Lawson, and several doctors did not respond to requests to comment. The firm referred questions to its attorney, Mayer Klein. The medical firm has substantially paid down its tax liabilities in recent months, Klien said. He would not specify Metropolitan’s remaining balance of delinquent withholding taxes, he said, because the company is privately held.

“Metro is strong and very successful and a very solid company,” Klein said. ”I’m aware of our financial condition and we do not have any tax concerns.”

On Sept. 16 of this year, the Internal Revenue Service filed an $855,291 tax lien on “all property and rights to this property” belonging to the medical practice, federal records show.

The IRS filed the tax lien after Metropolitan fell behind on its federal taxes - namely, the employer’s quarterly payments of funds it must withhold from its employee’s paychecks for Social Security and Medicare. “We have made a demand for payment of this liability, but it remains unpaid,” the federal tax lien states.

Earlier this year, the Missouri Department of Revenue placed three tax liens on the firm totaling $154,103 involving overdue withholding taxes, state records show. The smallest of those state tax liens, totaling about $405, has been released.

Metropolitan’s delay in meeting its federal and state tax obligations echoes its difficulties paying its property taxes. The Post-Dispatch reported last week that the medical firm’s property affiliate - Metropolitan Urological Properties LLC - owes state and local tax authorities $338,224 in delinquent taxes, interest and penalties from 2009 and 2010 on two of its properties, which include medical office buildings at 10296 Big Bend Boulevard in Crestwood and at 215 Dunn Road in Florissant, according to St. Louis County Department of Revenue.

According to Missouri Department of Revenue records, Metropolitan’s problems paying its wittholding taxes began in early 2009.

In 2010, Missouri state tax authorities placed a $8,854 tax lien on Metropolitan, but the medical firm paid those delinquent withholding taxes and that lien was released in February of this year.

The medical firm’s former chief executive, Dunard Morris, left the firm last month for unexplained reasons. He did not return calls Thursday for comment.

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TORONTO

With new Toronto condo units averaging just 749 square feet, baby boomers are finding the word downsizing is taking on new meaning

Baby boomers Jack and Leona Anderson made their first big step towards retirement last summer when they flew to Toronto from their home in Regina looking for a condo.

It wasn’t the sticker price that sent the teachers into a mild panic. It was the size of the units.

“I just kept thinking, if I’m going to move into a space this small, it’s going to be at an old folks’ home,” says Jack Anderson, 61.

The Andersons toured soaring glass and steel towers equipped with basketball courts, sprawling exercise rooms, granite countertops galore.

But they couldn’t see a place where they could actually live their new life, until their agent took them on a trip back in time to The Bentley, an almost 30-year-old condo building just steps from the St. Lawrence Market.

In the end, the couple opted to overlook the dated lobby, oak-trimmed kitchen cupboards and two bathrooms in need of updating.

It was the 1,200 square feet of living space that wowed them, along with the building’s wood-burning fireplaces and rooftop garden. They paid $339,000 for the one-bedroom plus den corner unit.

“Our house is 3,000 square feet with two fireplaces. We spend a lot of time outdoors. That (rooftop garden) is a viable substitute. We will be able to go up there in the morning and have our coffee and read the paper,” says Anderson.

With condos getting smaller by the day, especially in the downtown core where new units average just 749 square feet, baby boomers are finding the word downsizing is taking on new meaning.

“There is definitely a disconnect between what the demographics are telling us versus what’s actually getting built,” says Farrell Macdonald, a Coldwell Banker realtor.

“If there is a vulnerability in Toronto’s housing market these days it’s on the condo side — not just because of the sheer numbers we’re building, but because of the size and quality.”

Canadian condo developer Tridel Group says 25 per cent of its buyers are empty nesters and while it does build some larger units, its biggest market by far is first-time buyers for whom affordability is more important than size payday loans online.

“This (demographic) bulge is roaring towards us now and we’ve got people who are demanding alternatives but the market isn’t really responding,” says Macdonald. “We’re building lots of small, cheap and cheerful units but we’re not thinking long term.”

Macdonald hears complaints regularly from boomers who want to trade in family homes for simpler lives close to theatres and restaurants but refuse to be “plunked in a shoebox” better suited to single, young professionals.

That frustration is fuelling a renaissance among older condos, long considered less desirable because they lack flash and modern amenities and tend to have higher maintenance fees, says realtor Colleen Gray.

In the past year, Gray has seen even younger buyers starting to peek at the past.

Much of the renewed interest has been in decades-old buildings along Toronto’s waterfront, near the St. Lawrence Market and in midtown where units are selling for as little as $320 to $350 a square foot. That’s almost half the $600 to $700 per square foot of new units.

The tradeoff is higher maintenance fees. In The Bentley they average 67 cents per square foot (the Andersons pay $700 a month, which includes utilities), compared to about 50 cents in newer buildings, many of which don’t include utilities.

The biggest risk in older buildings is getting hit with costs for a new roof or heating unit that can overwhelm the maintenance fund.

But that day will come for newer units, too, given that fees don’t tend to reflect real costs, says Macdonald.

The Andersons are renting out their unit right now and plan to virtually gut their condo when they get ready to move to Toronto.

They know it will never have the look or feel of a brand-new building, but at the least it will have sparkling new bathrooms and a kitchen with the de rigueur stainless steel and granite, says Anderson.

“There are always going to be people who will want a property like this in downtown Toronto, just because of its square footage. I think in that way it was a very clever investment.

“Someday it’s going to sell itself.” Also read: Why downtown living is more attractive

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WellPoint says its third-quarter earnings fell more than 7 percent even as medical enrollment and revenue grew.

The largest publicly traded health insurer based on enrollment reported net income of $683.2 million, $1.90 per share, in the three months that ended Sept. 30. That’s down from $739.1 million, or $1.74 per share, a year earlier.

Total operating revenue rose almost 6 percent to $15.2 billion.

Analysts polled by FactSet forecast earnings of $1 guaranteed payday loans.68 per share on $15.22 billion in revenue.

WellPoint says enrollment climbed more than 2 percent to 34.4 million members.

The Indianapolis company operates Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in 14 states, including California, New York and Ohio.

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