Michigan House race muddled after bizarre start

NORTHVILLE, Mich. (AP) ? It seemed things couldn't get more muddled after U.S. Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, a Republican who appeared destined for easy re-election in his suburban Detroit district, shockingly failed to qualify for the ballot this summer and then resigned.

Putting aside initial reservations, party leaders closed ranks behind the other Republican in the race, Kerry Bentivolio, a Vietnam and Iraq war veteran, reindeer farmer and Santa Claus impersonator with libertarian leanings. Democrats countered with a local physician, sensing a rare opportunity to capture a congressional seat in normally reliable GOP territory.

But less than two weeks before the election, a sense of the bizarre still permeates the campaign ? and the outcome appears no more certain than when McCotter's political career imploded in July. Either the Democrats will cash in on a fortuitous fluke, or the GOP will avoid the political equivalent of having its pocket picked.

The situation illustrates how candidates' personal stories and quirks can take center stage in some races closer to home, even as the nation grapples with far-reaching issues such as terrorism and the debt crisis while choosing a president.

"It's been a weird election. I want somebody who is going to make the economy start ticking but it's hard to know what either of them would do about it," said one confused voter, Sharon Vesche, 37, who normally backs Republicans.

Bentivolio, 61, is running a low-key campaign and at times has been hard to find as opponents dig up questionable details about his past and portray him as an unstable extremist. Meanwhile, the Democrat, Syed Taj, who emigrated from India and serves on a town board, is short on the charisma and experience needed to lure disaffected Republicans. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which gave him staff assistance to help him exploit his opportunity, doesn't list the race among its top takeover prospects.

A voter listening to exchanges between the two sides might think the choice is between a right-wing buffoon and a radical leftist with suspicious foreign ties.

Mark Brewer, chairman of the state Democratic Party, called on GOP leaders last week to disavow Bentivolio as unfit to serve. "Sending him to Washington would be an embarrassment for the Michigan Republican Party and for the voters of this entire state," he said.

"Shame on the Democrats for attacking a war veteran while supporting a candidate with ties to Islamic extremism," retorted Dave Agema, a Republican National Committee member. He was referring to a donation Taj received from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington-based Muslim advocacy group. Bentivolio's campaign made a similar allegation in comments to The Oakland Press, a local newspaper.

Taj's campaign said the remarks were racial and religious slurs, which Bentivolio's spokesman denied. Taj, 66, is a Muslim who came to the United States three decades ago.

Bentivolio's biggest challenge remains overcoming a reputation for odd behavior and fringe opinions. It didn't help that a fellow Republican ? former state Sen. Nancy Cassis ? labeled him "Krazy Kerry" and denounced his role in a low-budget satirical movie released last year that made thinly veiled references to a conspiracy theory about the Sept. 11, 2011, terrorist attacks. Cassis mounted a write-in campaign after McCotter's withdrawal left Bentivolio as the only Republican on the August primary ballot, but Bentivolio won easily.

In a recent phone interview with The Associated Press, he said he's been unfairly caricatured by political insiders who "don't think an average guy should run for office."

"I'm a Ronald Reagan Republican. They called him crazy, too," said Bentivolio, who previously has spoken admiringly of libertarian Ron Paul and is supported by tea party groups. In an earlier interview, he said he'd never expected to unseat McCotter but became a candidate because he didn't think the incumbent was tough enough on government spending.

Brewer, the Democratic chairman, raised other character issues about Bentivolio, including a report by the Detroit Free Press that he resigned this year as a teacher at Fowlerville High School after being reprimanded for intimidating behavior in the classroom. Bentivolio told the AP the disciplinary action was politically motivated and provided copies of recommendation letters from several colleagues.

Bentivolio filed a libel and slander lawsuit in 1993 involving a business matter. During legal proceedings, he discussed his part-time venture called Old Fashion Santa, for which he makes appearances in a Santa Claus outfit with the reindeer he raises. He testified at one point, "Actually, I'd like to say I'm really Santa Claus and I play somebody else the rest of the year."

Brewer said that statement and others from the case suggest Bentivolio is mentally unstable. Bentivolio told the AP the comments referred to his desire to seem authentic when appearing as Santa in public.

He contends Taj is the real extremist in the race ? a leftist who supports government-run health care.

Taj says he's a moderate who cooperates with Republican colleagues on the Canton Township Board of Trustees. "I'm a good example of the American dream," he said. "I was told I'd never win in this town because I'm a Democrat and not a Caucasian, but I did."

The crossfire over credentials and character has overshadowed the candidates' positions on issues such as spending and taxes.

Sue Campbell, 51, a Democrat from neighboring Novi, said she was supporting Taj because "he sounds like a reasonable guy, from what I've read." But she said the contest didn't seem to be generating much interest. "It really is a strange race," she said. "People aren't sure what to think."

Vesche said she's not sure what she'll do.

"I always go Republican but I want to sort things out this time and see which is more qualified," she said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/michigan-house-race-muddled-bizarre-start-080332082--election.html

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New food label system 'by 2013'

24 October 2012 Last updated at 05:24 ET By Nick Triggle Health correspondent, BBC News

A consistent system of front-of-pack food labelling will be introduced in the UK next year, the government says.

A combination of guideline daily amounts, colour coding and "high, medium or low" wording will be used to show how much fat, salt and sugar and how many calories are in each product.

The scheme will be voluntary, but ministers are confident they have the food industry on board.

Talks will take place later this week over the exact design of the labels.

If those discussions go well it could mark the end of what has been a long-running campaign to introduce front-of-pack labelling.

The issue has been under discussion for the past decade with campaigners seeing it as a way of tackling the rising rates of obesity.

But the introduction of a consistent system has proved difficult, and instead a range of different labels have gradually been introduced over the years.

Continue reading the main story

Analysis

Despite the government's confident announcement, this is still not quite a done deal.

Within the food industry - and particularly among manufacturers rather than the supermarkets themselves - there are still grumblings about front-of-pack labelling.

But after years of discussions and research and a detailed consultation over the summer, ministers are effectively sticking their necks out to force the sector over the line.

Talks are due to take place on Thursday and by making this announcement now it puts the pressure on industry representatives to sign up.

If a consistent system is not in place by the summer of next year the government will feel it can lay the blame elsewhere.

Some retailers and manufacturers have used "traffic-light" labelling, in which the least healthy foods are labelled red and the most healthy are in green, while others use guideline daily amounts - or GDAs - which give the percentage of recommended intake. Some use both.

There has also been confusion over how a system could be introduced.

To make it mandatory, regulations would have to be agreed on a European level, but agreement between countries has been hard to reach.

The situation meant the UK government sought to introduce a voluntary system.

It carried out a consultation on the issue over the summer, which paved the way for this announcement.

Continue reading the main story

What the new labels might look like

• Consumers prefer the traffic light system because it offers key information 'at a glance', according to a Food Standards Agency study.
• The GDA system is based on percentages of daily value for fat, sugar, and salt. The study suggests GDA proponents prefer more information over the simplistic colour coding system.
• For each nutritional category there are specfic high, medium and low ranges that are based on recommended daily values.

Public Health Minister Anna Soubry said: "The UK already has the largest number of products with front-of-pack labels in Europe, but research has shown that consumers get confused by the wide variety of labels used.

"By having a consistent system we will all be able to see, at a glance, what is in our food. This will help us all choose healthier options and control our calorie intake.

"Obesity and poor diet cost the NHS billions of pounds every year. Making small changes to our diet can have a big impact on our health and could stop us getting serious illnesses - such as heart disease - later in life."

She said she expected the new system to be in use by the summer of 2013.

Guideline daily amounts (GDA)
Source: Institute of Grocery Distribution
	Women	Men	Children (5-10 years)
Calories (kcal)	2000	2500	1800
Protein	45g	55g	24g
Carbohydrate	230g	300g	220g
Fat	70g	95g	70g
Fibre	24g	24g	15g
Sodium	2.4g	2.4g	1.4g

Prof Alan Maryon-Davis, an expert in health promotion from King's College London and a former president of the UK Faculty of Public Health, said: "This is welcome news - at long last.

"The Food Standards Agency recommended this scheme years ago - but a few big retailers succeeded in blocking it until now.

"This is a triumph for public health and common sense - but just goes to show how the voluntary approach can be so much slower than government regulation."

But Barbara Gallani, of the Food and Drink Federation, said the industry in the UK had "led the way" on the issue.

She added: "Our members are committed to continuing to provide clear nutrition information to consumers and we well be actively engaged in further discussions with the Department of Health following today's announcement."

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20050420#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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Pica: Unearthing a hidden dietary behavior

ScienceDaily (Oct. 24, 2012) ? Though it was identified as a disorder as early as the 14th century, pica, or the eating of non-food items, has for years believed to be all but non-existent in a few corners of the globe -- a 2006 study that reviewed research on pica found just four regions -- the South of South America, Japan, Korea and Madagascar -where the behavior had never been observed.

A new Harvard study, however, is showing that pica -- and particularly geophagy, or the eating of soil or clay, is far more prevalent in Madagascar, and may be more prevalent worldwide, than researchers previously thought.

As described in an October 17 paper published in PLoS ONE, Christopher Golden '05, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard University Center for the Environment, and colleagues from Madagascar Health and Environmental Research, Universit? d'Antananarivo and Cornell University surveyed 760 people living in 16 villages in the northeastern corner of the island nation, and found that more than half had engaged in geophagy.

"We found the practice, though somewhat concealed, is incredibly widespread in Madagascar," Golden said. "Perhaps even more interesting, our findings suggest that the population that is engaging in this behavior doesn't fit with the traditional characterization of pica."

In earlier studies of pica, researchers found nearly all cases occurred in adolescents or pregnant women- periods of increased nutritional demands. As expected, Golden and colleagues found high rates of both pica and geophagy among women in Madagascar, but they were surprised to uncover equally high rates among men, and even observed cases of young children as young as five years old engaging in the behavior.

Among the men surveyed by the researchers, 63 percent admitted to geophagy, while 44 percent of children and a quarter of adolescent males also engaged in the practice. Though most often associated with pregnancy, the researchers also found that just over a quarter of non-pregnant women engaged in the behavior.

"We found no significant difference between men and women," Golden said. "That suggests that sex is unimportant to the behavior, and that's never been shown before. To be fair, it may simply be that the behavior hasn't been studied in men because earlier studies had focused on pregnant women, but it also suggests that we should be asking question about both sexes and across all ages to fully understand the motivations for this behavior."

One explanation for the seemingly high rate of the behavior, Golden explained, is that soil is a key component of a natural medicine called aody andro, used by many Malagasy people as a "good luck" medicine to avoid becoming sick.

"It doesn't fit into the strict definition of pica, because it's not a craving, they're using it to self-medicate," Golden said. "But that could account for part of the reason the practice seems to be so widespread."

While the study doesn't speculate as to why people in Madagascar engage in pica or geophagy -- the two most popular theories suggest that people are absorbing nutrients like iron, zinc and magnesium from the soil, or that the soil acts as a natural de-worming treatment -- Golden said he hopes to answer those questions with additional research.

"These questions fall under the larger umbrella of what I'm interested in exploring, which is environmental resource use and human health," he said. "It would be interesting to see if the soils are imparting any nutritional benefits.

"But additionally, this research is interesting because it begs for further analysis of other areas of the world," he added. "It could be that Madagascar is a very unique case because men engage in this behavior as widely as women, but it could also be that the earlier methods we used to research this slanted the results in a particular way because of the way researchers approached the subject."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Harvard University, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Christopher D. Golden, B. J. Rodolph Rasolofoniaina, Rakoto Benjamin, Sera L. Young. Pica and Amylophagy Are Common among Malagasy Men, Women and Children. PLoS ONE, 2012; 7 (10): e47129 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0047129

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/rhRPK3yMW_U/121024111524.htm

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Pending home sales rise modestly in September

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What does health reform mean for me today? | Get Smart Get ...

Are you benefiting from the health reform law? Has the Affordable Care Act had an impact on your life?

Pretty much everyone with health insurance has benefited in some way from the health reform law, whether they know it or not. For example, lifetime coverage limits are now a thing of the past and there?s more guaranteed access to preventive medical care now than there was a few years ago.

That said, not everyone is benefiting equally or in the most direct way right now. The most far-reaching consumer provisions of the law don?t actually come into effect until January 2014.

At Get Smart ? Get Covered, we don?t have a political position on Obamacare. The law is what it is, and our role is to explain it to consumers. In that vein, here?s a summary of the health reform law, what?s in effect now and what?s still on its way in 2014

Provisions of the ACA Currently in Effect:

Tax Breaks for Small Business ? Though not subject to the ?employer mandate? (see above), businesses with fewer than fifty full-time workers may qualify for special tax incentives when they choose to purchase group health insurance for workers. These tax incentives are in place now, and they?re scheduled to be expanded in 2014.

Medical Loss Ratio ? This provision of the ACA went into effect in 2011 and requires insurance companies to spend 80-85% of member premiums directly on member medical expenses. The insurance company?s costs and profits are limited to the remaining 15-20% of premium income. Insurance plans that do not meet these medical loss ratio (MLR) criteria are required to issue rebates to policyholders.

Children?s Coverage ? An early provision of the ACA prevents health insurance companies from declining coverage for children (age 18 and under) due solely to the presence of pre-existing medical conditions. This provision of the law has been in effect since September 2010. As an unintended consequence of the rule, insurance companies in some states stopped offering so-called ?child-only? plans ? that is, policies without a parent or guardian listed on the same application. Some states have tried to fill in the gap by requiring insurers to offer child-only coverage during special enrollment periods.

Young Adult Coverage ? A popular 2010 provision of the ACA allows young adults to retain coverage under a parent?s health insurance policy until age 26, even when the adult child is no longer in school or claimed as a dependent on the parent?s tax return.

Preventive Medical Care ? A September 2010 provision of the ACA mandated better coverage for specified preventive medical services and screenings. These benefits were made available on most new and existing individually-purchased or employer-sponsored health insurance plans with no out-of-pocket cost to the member seeking medical care.

Lifetime Coverage Caps ? The ACA did away with lifetime coverage limits for most medical services on most health insurance plans. This provision of the law went into effect in 2010. Prior to this, it was common for a person?s lifetime coverage under a health insurance policy to max out at between $1-6 million.

Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plans ? As a sort of stop-gap prior to 2014, the ACA provides additional funding for state high-risk pools and ?pre-existing condition insurance plans,? or PCIPs.? These are subsidized health insurance plans for people with complicated medical histories that prevent them from qualifying for individually-purchased health insurance on their own. Funding for these plans is scheduled to sunset in 2014 when the ?guaranteed issue? provision of the law will require all health insurance plans to accept applicants regardless of pre-existing medical conditions.

Provisions of the ACA Not in Effect Until 2014:

Individual Mandate ? The ?individual mandate? is the provision of the ACA requiring most consumers to purchase health insurance ? if they don?t get coverage through an employer ? or pay a tax penalty. It is scheduled to come into effect in 2014. In the language of the ACA, the individual mandate is considered necessary to make coverage for pre-existing conditions affordable, by bringing more healthy people into the insurance system and thereby balancing costs. The individual mandate is one of the most controversial provisions of the law and was one of the primary targets of the prosecution in the case before the Supreme Court.

Pre-existing Condition Coverage ? This, the so-called ?guaranteed issue? provision of the law, is scheduled to go into effect in 2014, and will require health insurance companies to extend coverage to all applicants regardless of their medical history or the presence of pre-existing medical conditions. While a handful of states have guaranteed issue laws already, it?s currently possible in most states to be declined for individually-purchased health insurance based on pre-existing medical conditions.

Employer Mandate ? This provision of the ACA requires employers with fifty or more full-time workers (or the equivalent in part-time workers) to provide employer-sponsored health insurance to employees. Like the individual mandate, this provision of the law is not scheduled to go into effect until 2014. Employers who fall under the employer mandate in 2014 but who choose not to provide health insurance to workers may face financial penalties.

Subsidies ? The ACA establishes subsidies to help individuals and families earning up to 400% of the federal poverty level purchase health insurance on their own, unless they qualify for government coverage programs like Medicaid, Medicare, CHIP, etc. The amount of subsidy assistance received by consumers will vary and is structured so that the insurance premium an individual or family will have to pay will not exceed a specific percentage of income, ranging from 2% for those with incomes up to 133% of the poverty level to 9.5% for those with incomes between 300 and 400% of the poverty level. The subsidies are scheduled to go into effect in 2014, at the same time as the individual mandate.

Online Health Insurance Exchanges ? The ACA calls for the establishment of online state health insurance exchanges by 2014, websites where individual consumers and small businesses can shop for and compare health insurance plans available in their state. State-sponsored health insurance exchanges would facilitate online enrollment in health insurance plans and enable eligible persons to have federal subsidies applied toward their premiums. Private, commercial versions of health insurance exchanges with online enrollment capabilities exist today and will continue to serve consumers in the post-2014 market too.

Source: http://blog.ehealthinsurance.com/2012/10/are-you-benefiting-from-health-reform-today/

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Swing-state voters hit with mail ad barrage

In this photo taken Oct. 19, 2012, Jean Gianfagna displays some of the political mailers her family receives at her home in Westlake, Ohio. Gianfagna says her family is ?deluged? and sometimes gets four of the same piece at a time _ her husband and two grown kids all get their own. (AP Photo/Mark Duncan)

In this photo taken Oct. 19, 2012, Jean Gianfagna displays some of the political mailers her family receives at her home in Westlake, Ohio. Gianfagna says her family is ?deluged? and sometimes gets four of the same piece at a time _ her husband and two grown kids all get their own. (AP Photo/Mark Duncan)

MANITOWOC, Wis. (AP) ? Around lunchtime each day, the latest missives promoting or pillorying Democratic President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney arrive in Diane Ouradnik's mailbox. Before long, they're in her trash.

Tearing and tossing has become routine for battleground-state voters drenched in caustic mail ads from the presidential candidates, political parties and their allied groups.

Television commercials may be king, but millions of dollars a week are fueling the pinpointed mail ads: Gun owners are told Obama is a threat and Romney is "the clear choice." Bilingual ads going to Latino voters are questioning Romney's commitment to opportunities for "regular people." Senior citizens are getting dueling pieces from Obama and Romney casting the other as detrimental to Medicare.

"I don't even read it. It's just too overwhelming. It's too much ? from all sides," says Ouradnik, a customer service representative in this lakeside Wisconsin city. She voted for Obama four years ago but is leaning toward Romney this time because she feels the incumbent has let her down and is too willing to blame others.

Political mail at all levels is big business. Some 1.8 billion political mail pieces were sent in 2010, resulting in $338 million in revenue for the U.S. Postal Service, a spokesman said. The Postal Service expects to significantly surpass those marks in 2012.

In Romney's corner, the super political action committee known as Restore Our Future sank more than $1 million into its direct mail efforts in the past two weeks alone. Another $1 million was spent last week on anti-Obama mail by Citizens Awareness Project Inc., a new group that hasn't disclosed its donors.

Aiding Obama, the AFL-CIO has sent tens of thousands of candidate contrast fliers to union households in battleground states. A healthy share of NARAL Pro-Choice America's $1.1 million of independent spending on the race has been on bulk mail.

Strategists count on voters to at least scan what they get. In the best case, people hand the ads off to undecided neighbors or carry them to the voting booth for reference.

In a presidential campaign dominated by a focus on jobs and the economy, the mail ads often tackle peripheral issues important to niche voters.

A tri-fold flier from the pro-Romney group Crossroads GPS pans Obama as weak on border security and in favor of a plan that "rolls out the red carpet for illegal immigrants." The New Hampshire Democratic Party has a piece charging that Romney would give too much power to employers and insurance companies to deny coverage of contraceptives. A group called Catholics for Ohio addresses the birth control debate from the opposite angle with a mail piece saying Obama "wants to tell the Catholic Church what to do."

The mailers are typically more cost-effective than television ads, with some pieces costing a dime or less. And they have a more scientific reach.

"It's the difference between using a rifle and a shotgun," said Randy Borntrager, political director of People for the American Way, which is sending anti-Romney mail into Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin. "With a shotgun you have a pretty widespread approach, with a more targeted rifle approach you can aim at a target at who you think is going to be persuadable."

Within the battleground states, the pieces are more likely to be steered to people with a regular history of voting. Groups like the National Rifle Association and the AFL-CIO feed off their well-honed lists. Organizations hoping to convert 2008 Obama voters have concentrated on geographic areas that backed the president four years ago but a Republican gubernatorial or congressional candidate two years later.

The Ending Spending Action Fund, a conservative super PAC bankrolled by billionaire Joe Ricketts, was on pace to send out nearly 2 million mail pieces in the month before the election, mostly in the presidential race. The group is focused on Iowa, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin. In one mailing, Obama is slammed for rising debt, nagging unemployment and higher dependency on food stamps. "Obama made things worse," it says.

Brian Baker, the group's president, said the mailers are a key part of a "surround sound campaign" to also drive the same message over the airwaves, on doorsteps and through email.

On the political left, People for the American Way is directing its mail efforts at pushing up the Latino vote, a crucial bloc for Obama. The group's mailers are printed in English and Spanish, and they portray Romney as an elitist whose policies would squeeze funding for Head Start, special education and college Pell Grants. "No dejes que te enganen ? Don't be fooled ? Mitt Romney is not for us," the ad concludes.

There are drawbacks to the mail pitches. Mail takes more time to develop and distribute, so pieces prepared for the stretch run won't pivot off late-breaking moments in the same way radio and television spots can. And there's no denying that even mail can reach a saturation point.

Outside Cleveland, Jean Gianfagna has days when six or seven political mailings come in ? occasionally four versions of the same one for herself, her husband and two college-age students. The marketing consultant knows the power of mail persuasion, but even she questions whether the investment is worth it at this stage.

"At some point you reach burnout and everyone I know is completely burned out in this election. We see hundreds and hundreds of ads," said Gianfagna, who is backing Obama but getting mail from both sides. "At some point you just tune it all out."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-10-24-US-Campaign-Mail-Pitches/id-1550b9c57d4b48a3b7616eef39927aec

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Eurozone debt hits 90 percent of its economy

Police stand guard behind a banner reading: "new parliament and new budget" outside the Parliament as lawmakers debate budget spending cuts for 2013 in Madrid, Spain, Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2012. Spain's economy continued to shrink in the third quarter, contracting by 0.4 percent compared with the previous three months, according to central bank estimates Tuesday that will increase pressure on Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to seek financial help from Europe. Several thousand people were expected to take part in a demonstration later Tuesday outside Parliament as lawmakers debate budget spending cuts for 2013. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

Police stand guard behind a banner reading: "new parliament and new budget" outside the Parliament as lawmakers debate budget spending cuts for 2013 in Madrid, Spain, Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2012. Spain's economy continued to shrink in the third quarter, contracting by 0.4 percent compared with the previous three months, according to central bank estimates Tuesday that will increase pressure on Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to seek financial help from Europe. Several thousand people were expected to take part in a demonstration later Tuesday outside Parliament as lawmakers debate budget spending cuts for 2013. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

A homeless man sleeps on a piece of cardboard next to cash dispenser, in Pamplona, northern Spain, Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2012. Spain's economy continued to shrink in the third quarter, contracting by 0.4 percent compared with the previous three months, according to central bank estimates Tuesday that will increase pressure on Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to seek financial help from Europe(AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos)

LONDON (AP) ? In spite of years of harsh spending cuts and tax increases, Europe's debt problems are getting worse.

Official figures showed Wednesday that the total debt of the 17 countries that use the single currency at the end of the second quarter was worth 90 percent of the value of the group's economy ? the highest level since the euro was launched in 1999.

The rise from the previous quarter's 88.2 percent and the previous year's equivalent of 87.1 percent, as reported by Eurostat, the EU's statistics office, is a result of the eurozone's economic problems ? which are making it harder for countries to handle their debts.

"The euro area economy remains stuck in a rut," said James Ashley, senior European economist at RBC Capital Markets.

According to Eurostat five of the countries that use the euro are in recession ? Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Cyprus. Many analysts expect the eurozone to slip back into recession in the third quarter of the year when official figures are published next month. A recession is technically defined as two quarters of negative growth in a row.

Other figures Wednesday pointed to a deepening economic crisis in the eurozone. The purchasing managers' index ? a gauge of business activity ? from financial information company Markit fell from the previous month's 46.1 to 45.8 in October ? its lowest level in more than three years. Any figure below 50 indicates a contraction in activity.

Meanwhile, a closely watched survey from the Ifo Institute found business confidence in Germany, Europe's biggest economy, confounded expectations of a modest increase and dropped for the sixth month in a row. Ifo's key figure for October dropped to 100 from 101.4 in September.

Germany has been the main reason why the eurozone has not fallen into recession. The country's powerhouse exporters, such as Volkswagen and BMW, have taken a slice of rising trade volumes around the world while its consumers have shown an increasing appetite to spend. However, the country's economy has recently lost its momentum as the debt troubles on its doorstep have weighed on economic confidence.

A shrinking economy makes the value of a country's debt as a proportion of the size of its economy worse. Over the past year, Italy's debt burden, for example, has risen from 123.7 percent in the first quarter to 126.1 percent in the second quarter ? that's come while its economy has shrunk for four straight quarters.

Greece's finances, though, are in a league of their own. The country, which is struggling to convince debt inspectors that it's fulfilling pledges it has made in return for billions of euros worth of bailout cash, saw the biggest quarterly increase in its debt burden to 150.3 percent of national income in the second quarter from 136.9 percent in the first.

The increase comes despite a dramatic fall in debt in the first quarter after Greece had successfully negotiated a deal with private bondholders to accept a writedown of their Greek holdings. The country's debt was reduced to ?280 billion in the first quarter from ?341 billion in the second quarter of 2011 as a result of the writedown.

But any advantage gained is slowly being whittled away by the country's deep recession, which appears headed for a sixth year. Interest on the debt, as well as continued budget deficits, pushed the debt back above ?300 billion in the second quarter of 2012.

In the second quarter of 2012, the Greek economy was 6.2 percent smaller than the same period the previous year and all forecasters think the recession will last for a while longer, especially as the country readies to implement even more austerity measures. Lower wages, for example, will impact consumer spending, often a vital ingredient of economic growth.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-10-24-Europe-Financial%20Crisis/id-0a3e0c1e06c945dc8d6bf7649dfd77b4

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Ohio State study finds that more education means more debt

College-educated people were shown to be more likely than those with less education to have a risky amount of debt, according to a recent Ohio State study.

The study was co-authored by Sherman Hanna, an OSU consumer sciences professor. Hanna and the other researchers looked at data from six rounds of the U.S. Survey of Consumer Finances held between 1992 and 2007, according to a university press release.

The study accounted for the fact that those with higher educations generally have higher incomes. Debt was defined as ?rent or mortgage, vehicle leases or loan payments, property taxes, credit cards, student loans and more.? The line for a risky amount of debt was drawn at 40 percent of income, which included data from 25,889 households, according to a university press release.

?The fact that education was positively related to having the higher debt burden just sort of raises some questions about how do we solve this,? Hanna said.

It was also found that more renters had a heavy debt burden in 2007 than homeowners, leading to the implication that the financial crisis of 2007 was equally precipitated by all types of households and lenders ? not just homeowners and those with less education, according to the release.

In 2007, the U.S. entered into the ?Great Recession? caused mostly by the burst of a ?housing bubble.? This recession led to a peak unemployment rate of about 10 percent in October 2009, according to data from the research group Moody?s Analytics based in U.S., Europe, Asia and Japan.

The recession led to an increase in U.S. unemployment and home foreclosure.

Between 1992 and 2008, the total percentage of Americans who were paying more than 40 percent of their income to debt increased from 17 percent in 1992 to 27 percent in 2007. There was only one short drop-off period around 2001 where this percentage decreased when the U.S. went through a short recession, according to the press release.

In 2011, the average student loan debt increased more than 5 percent for graduates. Ohio students had the seventh highest average debt in the U.S. at more than $28,600, according to findings from the Institute for College Access and Success, a non-profit higher education research group.

Some OSU students felt like this debt was dependent on a student?s parent?s financial status.

?It does depend on the student, but it also depends on whether or not their parents have enough money to pay, you know. It just depends on what the student decides to do with their future,? said Kristina Akhmametyeva, a second-year in biology. ?The only reason I don?t have debt right now is because I have my parents paying for my education, but if I didn?t have my parents paying, I would have just as much debt as anybody else.?

Other students had an optimistic take on their financial future.

?I feel like in the end we?ll finally get out of this recession and jobs will appear, so that?ll change and having the experience of being at college and getting a degree will help in the end. Right now it does look a little darker, but picking a major where there?s lots of openings and different options for it also helps to make sure that I?m not in debt as much,? said Lauren Leddy, a second-year in electrical engineering.

The study found that people who reported being optimistic about the future were also more likely to have heavier debt burdens, according to the press release.

?Since it?s optimism that leads some households to take on high burdens, and it may be that up until about 2006, maybe the optimism was justified by a lot of the people, but obviously in 2007 and 2008, we just had basically the worst economic crisis in a lifetime,? Hanna said. ?In a sense it means that financial education to help people, it doesn?t necessarily have to focus on sort of the details of household finances but more on like, ?Okay, maybe you should be pessimistic in your assumptions and making financial decisions on how much to borrow.?
?(Being pessimistic about the future) is very hard for a lot of students to accept,? Hanna said. ?That?s a very hard idea for a lot of people to accept.?

However, some students thought that being pessimistic about financial planning was logical.

?If you?re more aware of your surroundings and you plan ahead, that means you?re probably gonna be well off,? Akhmametyeva said.

Other students agreed that being realistic was the right mindset to have when thinking financially.

?I think that makes sense because they?re planning for outcomes that may not happen and they?re being cautious and taking all of the aspects into (account) instead of just assuming that things will work out somehow,? Leddy said.

Hanna said she thinks that planning realistically has gotten easier because of the recession.

?I think it?s easier now because of the terrible economic times we?ve had in the last four years ? It?s a lesson that has to be learned every five or 10 or 15 years, I guess,? Hanna said. ?In terms of like, OK, you can hope that things will go great in your career or business but you shouldn?t necessarily spend like they?re gonna be good forever.?

Source: http://www.thelantern.com/campus/ohio-state-study-finds-that-more-education-means-more-debt-1.2933057

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Apple set to unwrap mini-iPad to take on Amazon, Google

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/apple-set-unwrap-mini-ipad-amazon-google-012636310--finance.html

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Obama's bear-hugger invited to the debate

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Stock market wavers as investors digest earnings

FILE - In this Monday, Oct. 15, 2012, file photo, Traders Ronald Madarasz, left, and Vincent Quinones work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Rising speculation that Spain will soon ask for help to keep its borrowing costs down continued to shore up markets Wednesday Oct. 17, 2012 in the run-up to a meeting of European leaders. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

FILE - In this Monday, Oct. 15, 2012, file photo, Traders Ronald Madarasz, left, and Vincent Quinones work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Rising speculation that Spain will soon ask for help to keep its borrowing costs down continued to shore up markets Wednesday Oct. 17, 2012 in the run-up to a meeting of European leaders. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

NEW YORK (AP) ? A surprisingly strong housing report helped push the stock market mostly higher Wednesday, even as weak earnings reports from Intel and IBM weighed on the Dow Jones industrial average.

The Dow was down 23points at 13,529 as of 2:15 p.m., while the Standard & Poor's 500 index gained four points to 1,458.

Even though the two tech giants disappointed, overall earnings results have come in much better than some investors had feared, said Dan Veru, chief investment officer at Palisade Capital Management in Fort Lee, N.J.

"Everyone is breathing a sigh of relief that things aren't all that bad," Veru said. "That's what you see happening now."

Global heavyweights such as FedEx and Caterpillar had warned investors that China's slowing economy and Europe's ongoing debt crisis would weigh on quarterly profits.

The stock market shot higher Tuesday as results from Mattel, Goldman Sachs, and Johnson & Johnson beat expectations. For the week, the Dow is now up 1.5 percent and the S&P 500 is up 2.1 percent.

Analysts still expect that third-quarter earnings for companies in the S&P 500 will shrink for the first time since 2009.

IBM reported sales late Tuesday that dropped below Wall Street's expectations. On a call with analysts, IBM's chief financial officer said the company faced "more challenging" market conditions in September, the final month of the quarter, as cautious customers and a weakening euro undercut its results. IBM stock sank $11.76 in afternoon trading to $199.24.

Without the drop in IBM, the Dow would be 90 points higher. Stocks with higher prices carry more weight in the average of 30 large companies. Every move of $1 in any Dow stock is equivalent to moving the Dow average 7.68 points.

Intel warned that sales of personal computers will likely remain weak during the holiday season this year. The chip-maker cut its revenue estimates for the year-end quarter when it reported results late Tuesday. Intel's stock fell 64 cents to $21.72.

The Commerce Department said Wednesday that builders broke ground on building new single-family houses and apartments at the fastest pace since July 2008. Housing starts surged to an annual rate of 872,000 in September, far above estimates by economists.

"You might think it's a misprint," said Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at BTIG, in a note to clients. But over the past year, housing starts have climbed by 43 percent.

"If there was any doubt that the housing market was undergoing a recovery, even a modest one in the face of the terrible 2008 decline, those doubts should be erased by now," Greenhaus said.

In other trading, the Nasdaq composite index edged down two points to 3,098.

The housing report helped push the yield on the 10-year Treasury note up to 1.80 percent from 1.72 percent late Tuesday. Better economic news usually sends traders out of safe assets like Treasurys.

Associated Press

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Battle lines being drawn at Brussels summit

French President Francois Hollande, center, arrives for a meeting of European Socialist Party leaders prior to an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday, Oct. 18, 2012. European leaders are gathering again in Brussels to discuss how to save the euro currency from collapse and support countries facing too much debt and not enough growth. (AP Photo/Yves Logghe)

French President Francois Hollande, center, arrives for a meeting of European Socialist Party leaders prior to an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday, Oct. 18, 2012. European leaders are gathering again in Brussels to discuss how to save the euro currency from collapse and support countries facing too much debt and not enough growth. (AP Photo/Yves Logghe)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks during a meeting of the German Federal Parliament, Bundestag, in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2012. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, center, looks at Director General of Business Europe Philippe de Buck during a media conference at an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday, Oct. 18, 2012. European leaders are gathering again in Brussels to discuss how to save the euro currency from collapse and support countries facing too much debt and not enough growth. At left is European Council President Herman Van Rompuy. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

British Prime Minister David Cameron arrives for a meeting at a hotel prior to an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday, Oct. 18, 2012. European leaders are gathering again in Brussels to discuss how to save the euro currency from collapse and support countries facing too much debt and not enough growth. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

BRUSSELS (AP) ? European Union leaders are tussling over how much power they want to cede to central authorities during a summit meeting in Brussels focused on how to ensure their debt crisis never repeats itself.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is pushing a proposal that the European Union's monetary affairs commissioner should become an enforcer of the bloc's budget rules ? including the power to refuse member countries' proposed spending and tax plans and send them back for changes.

Germany hopes that having a "budget czar" ? a move that's been bandied about for months ? will help keep Europe from repeating past mistakes by stopping governments from overspending and needing expensive bailouts. But some countries, like France, are wary of handing control over their finances to unelected officials in a foreign capital.

"I am astonished that, no sooner does someone make a progressive proposal ... the cry immediately comes that this won't work, Germany is isolated, we can't do it," Merkel said in Parliament ahead of the summit.

President Francois Hollande of France ? increasingly the counterpoint to Germany's weight in the EU ? brushed off the suggestion as simply not on the table at this summit. But Hollande is backing another plan that would also see at least members of the eurozone ? the 17 countries that use the euro as their currency ? hand over a great deal of sovereignty.

"The only decision that we have to take, to confirm, is putting in place a banking union by the end of the year," he said. "The first step is a banking supervisor."

Hollande wants the bank supervisor in place because leaders have agreed that, once there is proper supervision, struggling financial institutions will be able to tap Europe's bailout fund directly. That would be a huge relief to countries like Spain, which are facing the prospect of taking on enormous debts ? and worrying markets in the process ? in order to bail out their banks.

After an apparently unanimous agreement on the need for a supervisor at a summit in June, some European governments ? including Germany, the Netherlands and Finland ? have tried to put the brakes on any decision about a banking union.

That could mean that few concrete decisions will emerge from meetings of the 27 national leaders in Brussels on Thursday and Friday.

Merkel again insisted Thursday that "quality must come before speed" in setting up the bank supervisor.

"There are a lot of very complicated legal questions, and I am not making the issue more difficult than it actually is," Merkel said.

With unemployment in the region at a record 10.5 percent, and growth grinding to a halt around the continent, the back-and-forth is beginning to frustrate some European officials. Jose Manuel Barroso, who is president of the EU's executive arm, the European Commission, criticized the heel-dragging ahead of the meeting.

"There is not all over Europe the same sense of urgency," said Barroso.

With no relief in sight for beleaguered Spain, the question of whether it will ask for a bailout itself will likely be discussed. The government in Madrid said this week that it would decide in the coming weeks ? although it is still hoping it can avoid asking for any kind of aid.

But the political pressure on Spain is great because should investors become convinced that Madrid will not request aid, they may once again sell off the country's bonds, causing its borrowing rates to rise. If Spain were to be locked out of bond markets because of excessively high rates, the 17 countries that make up the eurozone would have to rescue it at huge financial cost.

"It would be helpful ... if Spain asked for ESM (European bailout fund) aid," said Herman Van Rompuy, who is president of the European Council, the body composed of the leaders of all the EU countries. "But it is up to Spain to make up its mind."

Leaders could also discuss Greece, where rioters were pelting police with Molotov cocktails and chunks of marble on Thursday to protest the stringent budget cuts the country has had to implement to secure its rescue loans.

Greece's bailout creditors ? the EU, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank ? have been engaged in tough negotiations in recent weeks over more budget cuts. The group of creditors, known collectively as the troika, has said it won't release the next batch of loans until more savings are made. Without those loans, Greece will default and probably be forced to leave the eurozone.

Budget cuts have been blamed for sinking many countries in Europe into recession and have unleashed protests around the continent.

Van Rompuy said countries were starting to see the first positive effects of austerity, with deficit levels down and borrowing costs falling. But countries "are still suffering a lot," he said. Some 25 million people are without a job in the EU and economic growth prospects are weak.

Long-term proposals for overhauling the EU will likely be key topics of debate in Brussels. They include creating a European budget that could be used to support countries going through deep recessions ? as Spain and Greece are now. That idea appeared in a report Van Rompuy put together for the summit, but has met with some stiff opposition.

___

Raf Casert, Don Melvin and Robert Wielaard in Brussels and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this story.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-10-18-Europe-Financial%20Crisis/id-c3143e4486874201a91c59b965696b5b

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