Russia refrained from cutting interest rates after a surprise reduction in December, signaling for the first time since August that borrowing costs may remain unchanged in the
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Seeking cooperation in a polarized climate, President Barack Obama on Tuesday urged Congress to act quickly on bipartisan measures that would extend tax breaks for small businesses and help startup companies raise money. He said he would sign the legislation “right away.”
Obama plans to include in his 2013 budget proposal later this month a series of business measures that have been percolating in Congress or that already have passed the Republican-controlled House to give entrepreneurs incentives to expand their businesses or start new ones.
Obama made his remarks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House. He noted that for the first time, the head of the Small Business Administration, Karen Mills, was participating as a full member of the Cabinet.
“It is a symbol of how important it is for us to spur entrepreneurship, to help startups, to move aggressively so that we can assure more companies that create the most jobs in our economy are getting a leg up from various programs that we have in our government,” Obama said.
The White House legislative agenda for small businesses includes permanently eliminating taxes on capital gains from investments in small businesses and a one-year extension on the ability of all businesses to immediately deduct all of the costs of equipment and software purchases.
The Obama administration also is seeking a new 10 percent tax credit for small businesses that add jobs or increase wages in 2012.
In addition, the president’s proposals would make it easier for new startup companies to raise money and to go public, embracing a series of measures that already have passed the House or that have bipartisan support in the Senate. Obama also is proposing expanding a government small business investment program from $3 billion to $4 billion.
“The president has made small businesses and particularly startups a key aspect of his economic growth agenda because he understands how much the newest and fastest-growing small businesses drive job growth in our economy,” said Gene Sperling, director of the White House National Economic Council.
Obama said the Homeland Security Department also is seeking ways to change the visa process to attract foreign-born entrepreneurs and high-skilled immigrants to invest in the United States or start new businesses. The State Department also plans a change in regulations to provide longer visas for workers whose employers transfer them from overseas to the United States guaranteed high risk personal loans.
The measures are modest by comparison to Obama’s 2009 economic stimulus or to last year’s jobs bill. But they borrow from past Obama initiatives and from bipartisan legislation that has passed or been proposed in Congress.
Obama’s package includes proposals offered in the Senate by Democrat Chris Coons of Delaware and Republican Marco Rubio of Florida, and another plan by Republican Jerry Moran of Kansas and Democrat Mark Warner of Virginia.
White House officials would not disclose the total cost of the president’s package, but Sperling said it would be more than covered by proposals to reduce tax expenditures and by closed loopholes the administration will call for in its 2013 budget.
With the presidential election set to become the main political preoccupation of 2012, the White House initiative is designed to take advantage of cooperative attempts by Republicans and Democrats to find modest remedies to spur the economy. Most of those efforts have been overshadowed by congressional bickering, the Republican presidential primary and Obama’s growing attention to his re-election.
The proposals come a year after the administration launched a consolidated effort to spur new startup businesses with a high-profile White House event featuring scores of entrepreneurs, some of whom offered testimonials to the job creation possibilities that new businesses can bring to the economy.
Besides the tax breaks, a central element of the Obama package is to assist new entrepreneurs by making it easier for them to raise money, reducing taxes on their startup expenses and removing securities barriers for new companies that have gone public.
“Our small business agenda has a specific focus on removing the barriers that have for too long blocked startups and entrepreneurs from getting the financing they need to accelerate their growth and hiring,” Sperling said.
One of the Obama provisions would increase the amount of money that can be raised through small public offerings that don’t require companies to undergo an extensive Securities and Exchange Commission registration process. The limit for such “mini public offerings” would increase from $5 million a year to $50 million.
The House passed similar legislation last year.
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Lee Enterprises, owner of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, exited bankruptcy Monday, less than two months after the newspaper publisher announced it would seek the protection of the bankruptcy court to push through a debt refinancing plan.
Lee, which is based in Davenport, Iowa, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware on Dec. 12. Lee owns 48 daily newspapers and holds an interest in four other daily newspapers. It also owns 300 specialty publications.
On Jan. 23, Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross confirmed Lee’s prepackaged reorganization plan that includes new terms with creditors, including interest rates that, when combined, jump to 9.2 percent from 5.1 percent. In an unusual move, the company didn’t shed any debt with the plan; instead, the reorganization plan only pushed back the dates when its debts mature.
Under the new terms, Lee’s first lien debt includes a term loan of $689.5 million and a $40 million revolving credit facility that mature in December 2015. A second lien debt includes a $175 million term loan that matures in April 2017.
Lee also extended its remaining debt, called the Pulitzer Notes, that has a balance of $126.4 million. That debt, which was assumed in 2005 when Lee acquired the Post-Dispatch’s parent company, Pulitzer Inc., matures in December 2015.
As part of the refinancing, some Lee creditors also will end up with a 13 percent ownership stake in the company.
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.
President Barack Obama, offering an election-year prescription to spur the economy, said the wealthiest Americans should pay more taxes in the name of fairness, to bring down the deficit and ensure those trying to make ends meet don
Anheuser-Busch President David Peacock, who has led the brewery’s U.S. operations since 2008, has resigned from the company.
Employees were notified today of Peacock’s resignation, which is effective today. He’s leaving to spend more time with his family and pursue other business interests, according to the company.
Peacock will continue to serve in an advisory role, according to an email sent by Luiz Edmond, who is assuming leadership of the brewery’s U payday loans.S. operations based in St. Louis.
Peacock was formerly vice president of marketing at the brewery.
European Union governments returned to German Chancellor Angela Merkel
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
European leaders will this week try to rescue under-fire efforts to deliver new fiscal rules and cut Greece
The Federal Reserve should provide enough policy accommodation to give the unemployment rate, currently at 8.5 percent, a chance to drop, a top Fed official said on Friday.
Chicago Federal Reserve President Charles Evans added he was worried that recent improvements in the U personal loans for people with bad credit.S. jobless rate could be “transitory.”