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Retails sales in the 17-nation eurozone dropped in November, official statistics showed Friday, as consumers felt the bite of austerity measures and feared the currency union could slip deeper into crisis.

Retail sales in the eurozone fell 0.8 percent compared with October and were down 2.5 percent from November 2010, according to Eurostat, the EU’s statistics agency.

The steepest declines were seen in Portugal, which had to be bailed out in April and where sales fell 2.6 percent during the month and were down a massive 9.2 percent from a year earlier.

But even in richer states like Germany and the Netherlands, consumers were more reluctant to part with their money, with retail sales slipping 0.9 percent in both countries during November. That shows how the eurozone’s worsening debt crisis is taking its toll even on countries with strong economies.

For the whole European Union, which includes non-euro members like the U.K. and Sweden, November retail sales dropped 0.6 percent from October and 1.3 percent compared with a year earlier.

Consumers appear worried by high unemployment, which remained stuck at 10.3 percent in November _ unchanged from October but above the 10 percent seen a year earlier _ and a darkening outlook on the economy easy pay day loans.

The weak data also underlines how many people found themselves in a worse position at the end of 2011 than at the end of 2010 _ when there were hopes that the continent was turning a corner after two difficult years brought on by the collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers in 2008.

Spain’s unemployment rate was highest at 22.9 percent, up from 20.4 percent a year earlier. That’s more than four times as high as in Austria, where only 4 percent of people were looking for work. For the whole EU, the unemployment rate remained at 9.8 percent.

The dark mood is set to continue in the eurozone, with a Eurostat economic sentiment indicator falling 0.5 of a point to 93.3 in December, far below the long-term average of 100.

Italy and Spain, the eurozone’s third and forth largest economies which have been pulled into the eye of the crisis in recent months, grew especially pessimistic about the economy. Economic sentiment fell 4.6 points in Italy and 1.3 points in Spain.

In the 27 EU countries, economic sentiment was down 0.8 point at 92.

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Shares in UniCredit, Italy’s largest bank, slid Wednesday after the company priced its euro7.5 billion ($9.8 billion) cash call from shareholders at the bottom end of market expectations.

UniCredit shares dropped 14.5 percent lower at euro5.42, as investors were spooked by the scale of the discount in the company’s rights issue. Other European banks, many of which are looking to raise money to plug financial holes, also saw their share prices take a hit amid concerns that they too would be forced to price their cash calls at low levels too.

The aim of UniCredit’s rights issue _ shareholders have been asked to buy two new shares for every one they hold _ is to help the bank shore up its capital reserves, in line with European regulatory demands. Last month, industry regulator, the European Banking Authority, said the bank needed to raise around euro8 billion.

Earlier in the day, UniCredit shares were briefly suspended after the cash call was priced at a 69 percent discount to Tuesday’s close, much lower than most predictions. So far, only 24 percent of the shares on offer have been taken.

The discount was bigger than those that have been offered by UniCredit’s peers recently and knocked sentiment in Europe’s banking sector as a whole, notably of Germany’s Commerzbank AG, which has been asked to raise euro5.3 billion ($6.9 billion) by the European Banking Authority. Its share price fell 4 percent.

Last month, the EBA said European banks have to raise about euro115 billion ($150 billion) to meet a new standard meant to inoculate the lenders against market turmoil, including bad government debt.

European banks have billions of euros of risky government bonds on their books, and, as the continent’s crisis has deepened, investors have become increasingly concerned the lenders won’t be able weather all of the expected losses on those loans.

That, in turn, has made banks wary of lending to one another _ since they worry that one of their number could go under at any moment. When banks stop lending to one another and businesses, the entire economy seizes up.

Much of the current focus in Europe’s debt crisis has centered on Italy, the third-largest economy in the eurozone.

International markets have punished Italy in recent months for failing to come up with a coherent strategy to deal with its euro1.9 trillion ($2.5 trillion) debt mountain. That drove up the borrowing rates for the eurozone’s third-largest economy and effectively forced Silvio Berlusconi from office.

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Wallets may soon be going the way of typewriters, pay phones and videocassette recorders.

Oh, they’ll still be a great place to carry photos, receipts and odd slips of paper, but technology forecasters say we’ll soon be reaching for cellphones when it’s time to pay or be paid.

It’s a dream that Kevin Stock is ready to live.

For nearly a year, Stock, of St. Louis, has been carrying around a small white plastic device he can attach to his phone at a moment’s notice, creating his very own credit card terminal. All he needs is someone willing to play along.

“I’ve looked for opportunities, for sure,” Stock said. “But I haven’t been too successful.”

So far, the only taker has been his roommate. Once a month they tally up their bills, and Stock collects what he is owed through a swipe of his roommate’s credit card.

And while Stock has been able to travel no further down the mobile payment path, industry experts say it’s only a matter of time — most say it’s several years out — before we witness a radical shift in the way we exchange cash.

“I don’t think it’s going to go away overnight or in the next year. But mobile payments is where it’s headed,” said Trevor Dryer, head of product management, mobile payments and point-of-sale for financial software maker Intuit.

Already, the financial sector is crawling with companies hoping to carve out a piece of a market that sees billions upon billions of dollars changing hands every year in the form of cash.

Much of that exchanging is done by choice, with some people simply preferring to deal in cash or checks. But there’s also the fact that small businesses often find it too expensive to maintain a merchant account — required to accept credit card payments.

Getting around that was the inspiration behind the Square device carried by Stock.

Square, whose founders include St. Louis native and Twitter inventor Jack Dorsey, offers credit card processing services to pretty much anyone with the right smartphone — most iPhones and Android-based phones.

The service is easy to use. An application links your phone and bank account, while the small card reader (the company gives them away) plugs into the earplug jack. From there, you just need someone willing to hand you a credit card and sign the screen with their finger. A day or so later, the money shows up in your bank about, minus a 2.75 percent fee.

The 2-year-old firm has shipped more than 800,000 card readers — 2,500 to St. Louis — and is now processing $2 billion in payments annually. But while that sounds like a lot of money, keep in mind that the nation rings up some $2 trillion annually in credit card charges.

Square is proving popular with a wide range of users, including musicians, massage therapists, restaurants and craft fair vendors.

“Right now, there are 26 million small businesses (in the nation) that only accept cash. It’s a huge market,” said spokeswoman Lindsay Wiese.

Until September, that market included St. Louis Osuwa Taiko, a traditional Japanese drum group that now uses Square a couple of times a month to sell CDs, T-shirts and other souvenirs after shows.

So far, it’s tough to say how much of a boost they’re getting from the device. But Junsei Ito, the group’s treasurer, said they made 20 credit card sales during a three-day Japanese festival over Labor Day Weekend.

“It seems like people buy more,” Ito said. “They don’t tend to carry a lot of cash these days. And they don’t carry checks, either.”

Similar to Square is Intuit’s GoPayment system, which also uses a card reader to send money either to a bank account or a prepaid credit card. Intuit’s mobile division is processing some $5 billion a year in credit card charges, said Dryer, the company’s mobile payments chief.

And while it started as a way to offer contractors, plumbers and electricians an easy way to take credit cards, the company loves to point out that Girl Scouts use the devices while hawking their cookies door to door.

“They are probably using their parents’ phones,” Dryer said. “But it’s a testament to how simple this product is that 9-year-old girls are using it.”

Other systems have looked for ways to remove the physical credit card from the equation. Among them are those using what’s known as near field communication, or NFC. Basically, it lets two devices exchange money when they come into contact with each other.

The technology is at the heart of MasterCard’s PayPass system, in which users tap their credit cards against a PayPass terminal to complete a purchase. In recent years, MasterCard has teamed with Google and several phone and financial services firms to create Google Wallet. Phones equipped with the technology can be used much like credit cards — they make payments simply by tapping them against an NFC terminal.

Several phone developers have included NFC in their devices, with BlackBerry and Nokia making plans to do so. Google’s Android-based devices have it, though the payment service suffered a blow recently when Verizon Wireless blocked its use in the new Galaxy Nexus phone. Verizon is part of a consortium called ISIS that is developing its own payment system.

While MasterCard sees potential in the technology — and the speed with which these trends can catch on — the company isn’t ready to sing the death of plastic. There are, after all, some advantages in having that physical card, said James Anderson, group head of mobile for MasterCard.

Among them, he said: “The batteries don’t go flat.”

One young startup in Des Moines, Iowa, however, is trying to create a new payment system in which credit cards never enter the picture.

Dwolla relies on bank accounts and actually prohibits the use of credit cards. Dwolla’s cost structure is simple: You pay 25 cents for any transaction, regardless of size.

Eliminating credit cards from the system removes the need to collect the types of fees — generally in the 3 percent range — charged on every credit card transaction, said Ben Milne, the company’s founder. Without the credit card fees, he said there’s no reason to base charges on the size of the transaction.

“The cost to move $1 million is the cost to move a dollar,” Milne said.

Not that they come close to moving that much money at any one time. The company’s average transaction is around $450, with a maximum of $10,000 for businesses and $5,000 for consumers. Still, Dwolla is on pace to handle more than $350 million worth of transactions over the next year.

And with some $20 trillion spent every year in cash transactions, Milne sees a lot of room for growth: “It’s likely the biggest market in the world.”

Still, for the Squares, Dwollas, Google Wallets, clearXchanges and GoPayments of the world to achieve widespread acceptance, some things need to happen. Among other things, experts say, there are too many participants. And they expect a wave of acquisitions and failures to thin the herd.

And many of the systems, at least in their present incarnations, are simply too cumbersome, they say.

Andy Schmidt, research director for Commercial Banking & Payments for TowerGroup, believes we’ll eventually get to the point where payments are all based on the simple exchange of phone numbers and email addresses.

As Stock from south St. Louis has seen, people are often reluctant to go through the hassle of pulling out their credit cards for minor exchanges.

“It’s not so much that you might capture my credit card information,” Schmidt said. “It’s that it’s quicker to give you cash. That’s what you are fighting.”

There also are concerns about the potential for identity theft and credit card fraud as credit card information is stored and transmitted through cellphones.

Michelle Jun, a senior attorney for Consumers Union, said consumers should make sure they are protected against fraud.

In general, the best protections are provided by those based on credit cards and, to a lesser degree, debit cards.

Both offer caps on liability in the event of fraud or identity theft. More vulnerable are those that rely on prepaid cards or that link directly to a cellphone account.

“Unfortunately, all of the different protections aren’t the same,” Jun said. “Make sure you know what you are getting into before you start charging away.”

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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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U.K. house prices (UKNBAAMM) may decline in 2012 as economic turmoil emanating from the euro area

Workers in the U.S. earning the minimum wage are worse off now than they were four decades ago.

The CHART OF THE DAY shows that after adjusting for inflation, the federal minimum wage dropped 20 percent from 1967 to 2010, even as the nominal figure climbed to $7.25 an hour from $1.40, a 418 percent gain.

The decline would have been worse if not for increases that took place from 2008 through 2010 in how much employers were legally obligated to pay. Combined with more stable consumer prices, those adjustments helped trim the reduction in earnings from 41 percent at the end of 2007, following a decade of no change in minimum pay.

Turkey and Azerbaijan will sign a memorandum of understanding tomorrow, establishing a consortium that will build a pipeline to ship natural gas from the BP Plc- operated Shah Deniz field to Europe via Anatolia.

State Oil Co. of Azerbaijan, or Socar, Turkey

+%3Cp%3E+It+looks+like+the+millionaire+surtax+is+going+down+again.%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EDemocrats+have+pushed+for+weeks+to+impose+a+millionaire+surtax+to+help+pay+for+the+cost+of+extending+the+payroll+tax+cut.+Republicans+have+said+it+would+be+a+job-killer.%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3E%3Cp%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3E%3Cp%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EOn+Wednesday+night%2C+with+time+running+out+before+Congress+adjourns+for+the+year%2C+it+appeared+that+Democrats+were+ready+to+give+up+in+the+name+of+getting+a+deal+done.+A+source+told+CNN+that+Senate+Democrats+would+propose+a+new+plan+that+did+not+include+the+tax.+%28Read%3A+The+latest+on+negotiations%29%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EThe+demise+of+this+version+of+the+millionaire+tax+would+not+be+a+surprise.+Lawmakers+have+already+voted+down+a+surtax+of+5.6%25%2C+then+3.25%25+and+most+recently+1.9%25.%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EBut+the+idea+of+taxing+the+rich+will+come+up+again+and+again+next+year%2C+since+themes+of+income+inequality+and+tax+fairness+will+be+sounded+repeatedly+on+the+campaign+trail.%3C%2Fp%3EPayroll+tax+cut%3A+What%27s+at+stake%3Cp%3EUrban+Institute+resident+fellow+Howard+Gleckman+points+out+that+an+extra+tax+on+millionaires+may+make+for+great+politics+but+it+would+make+for+awful+policy%2C+although+not+for+the+reasons+that+many+in+the+GOP+suggest.%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3ERepublicans+still+cleave+to+the+notion+that+to+ever+ask+millionaires+to+pay+more+in+taxes+will+bring+the+economy+to+a+screeching+halt+because+it+would+hurt+small+business+job+creation.+%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EBut+there+are+problems+with+that+reasoning%3A%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3E–A+very+small+percentage+of+tax+filers+with+business+income+make+more+than+%241+million.+%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3E–There+is+no+way+to+tell+how+many+new+jobs+those+millionaires+create.+%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3E–And+business+income+can+come+from+activities+that+don%27t+result+in+a+lot+of+hiring%2C+such+as+owning+rental+property+or+investing+in+a+partnership.+%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EFor+Gleckman%2C+a+big+problem+with+the+millionaire+surtax+is+that+it+feeds+the+myth+that+the+super+rich+can+pay+for+everything.+They+can%27t.+There+are+not+enough+of+them.%3C%2Fp%3EPayroll+tax+cut+divide%3A+How+to+pay+for+it%3Cp%3EAnd+by+applying+a+surtax+here+and+a+surtax+there%2C+soon+you%27re+talking+serious+rate+creep+–+to+levels+that+could+be+counterproductive+%3Ca+href%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fus-fast-cash-now.com%22%3Efast+cash%3C%2Fa%3E%3C%21–+.+–%3E.+The+higher+rates+become+the+more+likely+it+is+that+the+rich+will+look+for+ways+to+avoid+paying+them.%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EIf+the+Bush+tax+cuts+expire%2C+the+top+rate+goes+to+39.6%25+and+the+value+of+certain+deductions+goes+down.+Add+in+a+new+Medicare+tax+for+high-income+households+starting+in+2013%2C+and+the+top+rate+could+approach+50%25+if+Congress+passed+a+5.6%25+surtax%2C+Gleckman+noted.+%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EDespite+the+flaws+in+the+parties%27+strategies+–+Democrats+always+reach+first+to+tax+the+rich+and+Republicans+always+rush+to+protect+them+even+at+the+expense+of+everyone+else+–+each+contains+a+bit+of+truth+the+other+side+will+have+to+accept+sooner+or+later.%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3E+%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EBoth+the+rich+and+the+middle+class+eventually+will+have+to+contribute+to+efforts+to+spur+the+economy+and+stabilize+the+federal+budget.%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3E%26quot%3BDemocrats+today+can%27t+solve+our+nation%27s+many+budgetary+woes+primarily+by+taxing+the+rich%2C+and+Republicans+risk+alienating+the+middle+class+when+they+try+to+spare+the+rich+from+sharing+the+additional+burdens+most+Americans+soon+must+bear%2C%26quot%3B+former+Treasury+official+Eugene+Steuerle+wrote+in+his+public+policy+column+%26quot%3BThe+Government+We+Deserve.%26quot%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EThe+rich+will+have+to+pay+more+in+taxes%2C+he+notes%2C+because+even+if+spending+is+cut+across+the+board%2C+they+won%27t+feel+the+pinch+since+they+don%27t+rely+on+government+spending+to+get+by.%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EAnd+the+middle+class+will+eventually+need+to+accept+some+spending+cuts+and+tax+increases%2C+Steuerle+said%2C+%26quot%3Bnot+because+the+rich+can%27t+pay+more%2C+but+because+most+income+in+the+economy+resides+with+that+80+percent+of+the+population+that+is+neither+poor+nor+rich.%26quot%3B%26nbsp%3B+%3C%2Fp%3E++%3Cp%3E%3Ca+href%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fmoney.cnn.com%2F2011%2F12%2F14%2Fnews%2Feconomy%2Fmillionaire_surtax%2Findex.htm%27+rel%3D%27nofollow%27%3ESource%3C%2Fa%3E%3C%2Fp%3E+

U.S. online sales this holiday shopping season are up 15 percent compared to last year, after what may have been the busiest week of the season, said research firm comScore on Sunday.

Shoppers have spent $30.9 billion online from Nov. 1 through Dec. 16, up from $26.9 billion at the same point last year, said the Reston, Va., company, which tracks Web use.

Online sales surpassed $1 billion on four days last week. Total sales for the week climbed 15 percent to $6.31 billion compared to last year.

The five days that ended on Friday “will almost certainly be the heaviest week of the online holiday shopping season,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. Online spending will begin to slow as Christmas draws closer, he said.

But “Cyber Monday,” the Monday after Thanksgiving, is still the largest online shopping day ever, according to comScore. Sales for that day rose 22 percent from last year to $1.25 billion. Cyber Monday sales topped $1 billion for the first time last year.

The holiday shopping season can make up to 40 percent of retailers’ annual revenue. The online sales data point to Americans’ growing comfort with using their personal computers, tablets and smartphones to shop for the holidays.

Discounting and promotions have also boosted shopping this year. ComScore said on Sunday that shoppers have received free shipping on at least half of all their purchases in each week of this year’s holiday shopping season.

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