Answer: Sure. Almost anyone with earned income can open a nondeductible IRA. Your granddaughter can contribute up to $4,000 this year and $5,000 next year. (People 50 and older can throw in an extra $1,000.) There's no cap on how much one can earn and still contribute.
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The only requirement is that the account owner (or that person's spouse) have compensation income at least equal to the amount being contributed. So a married couple would need compensation income of $8,000 or more to contribute $4,000 apiece to nondeductible IRAs.
In short, there's nothing to prevent you from giving your granddaughter a matching contribution that she can invest in a nondeductible IRA. The real question is should your granddaughter (or anyone else, for that matter) bother with a nondeductible IRA?
Until recently, I would probably have said no. The reason: since there's no tax deduction for a contribution to a nondeductible IRA, all you're really getting is tax-deferral on investment gains. That's valuable. But you can effectively get that by investing in tax-efficient investments such as tax-managed funds, index funds or ETFs within a taxable account.
And if you hold those investments longer than a year, a very large portion of your gains will be taxed at the long-term capital gains rate, which maxes out at 15 percent. Gains in the nondeductible IRA, by contrast, are taxed at ordinary income rates, which can go as high as 35 percent.
Given this less favorable tax treatment, I've never been a big fan of nondeductible IRAs. But thanks to Congress (three words I don't often get to use in a positive way), funding a nondeductible IRA can be a good deal. Not because something has fundamentally changed about nondeductible IRAs. Rather, it's because they can now be used as a back-end way for high-income people to invest into a Roth IRA and get a shot at tax-free withdrawals in the future.
Let me explain. Last year, Congress passed legislation that, among other things, eliminated a restriction barring anyone with modified adjusted gross income over $100,000 from converting a traditional IRA (whether deductible or nondeductible) to a Roth IRA.
This new provision doesn't go into effect until 2010. But starting in that year, anyone who has a traditional deductible or nondeductible IRA will be able to convert it to a Roth. The income eligibility rules that prevent your granddaughter from making an annual contribution to a Roth will still apply.
But there's an easy way around them: Just open a nondeductible IRA and then convert it to a Roth. So with your help your granddaughter can fund a nondeductible IRA in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 and then convert that account to a Roth in 2010. In subsequent years, your granddaughter can simply fund a nondeductible IRA and immediately convert it to a Roth.
20 timeless money rulesOf course, if her income changes so that she's eligible to make an annual Roth contribution - or if Congress has another good idea and streamlines the Roth rules so people don't have to go through this ridiculous nondeductible IRA-to-Roth IRA charade - then she can fund the Roth directly in later years.
There is one caveat to keep in mind when making the switch to a Roth. When you convert, you owe tax on any dollars in the IRA that haven't already been taxed - which is basically everything except after-tax contributions, which includes nondeductible contributions to an IRA and after-tax contributions to a 401(k), if you made such contributions and then subsequently rolled the money into an IRA.
Not surprisingly, many people who have money in both deductible and nondeductible IRAs and are considering converting think, "Hmm, I'll just pull out my nondeductible, or after-tax, contributions and move them to the Roth. Since that money has already been taxed, I won't have to pay any tax on the conversion." Nice try, but the IRS won't let you get away with that ploy.
When you convert, you have to look at all the money in all the non-Roth IRAs you own - that is, deductible, nondeductible and rollover IRAs. You must then figure out how much of your total balance for all those accounts consists of money on which no tax is owed (nondeductible and/or after-tax contributions) versus money that has yet to be taxed (deductible contributions, pre-tax contributions and all earnings). Whatever the proportion of untaxed-to-taxed money is in your IRA accounts overall, the same ratio applies to the money you're converting.
When to cash in your IRASo let's say you have $50,000 in all your IRAs and let's further assume that $40,000 (or 80 percent of the total) is in deductible contributions and earnings, while the remaining $10,000 (or 20 percent) is nondeductible contributions. If you were to convert $25,000 to a Roth, then no matter which IRA or IRAs you take the money from, $20,000 (80 percent of the conversion amount) would be subject to tax, while the remaining $5,000 (20 percent of $25,000) would go untaxed.
If you were to convert the whole shebang, then you don't need to calculate any percentages. All the $40,000 in earnings and deductible contributions would be taxed and the remaining ten grand would go untaxed.
Bottom line: As long as you're so inclined, you can continue your matching-funds program with your granddaughter, explaining that she should open a nondeductible IRA and then convert the money to a Roth starting in 2010. And as long as her income remains too high to make direct annual contributions to a Roth IRA, she can continue to do the end-run of funding a nondeductible IRA and then immediately converting it to a Roth.
You might also tell your granddaughter that, aside from the inherent attractiveness of the Roth's tax-free withdrawals, adding a Roth complement to her 401(k) is a good idea because it allows her to diversify the tax exposure of her retirement savings and give her more flexibility for managing withdrawals in retirement. (For more on this concept of tax diversification, click here.)
One final note: I hope other grandparents and parents out there who have the financial wherewithal to do so will consider adopting your excellent incentive system to induce their kids and grandkids to save more.
Explaining the benefits of saving for retirement is one thing. But I've always found that cold hard cash more convincing than mere words. ]]>
While most economists still don't believe the nation will fall into a recession, there is general agreement that the economy now faces a greater risk than there was only a month or two ago.
It's not clear how much Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will be able to do if the U.S. economy does start to slide towards recession. Problems in the financial credit markets are only part of the risk faced by the U.S. economy.CNNMoney.com) Problems in housing, the financial markets and the first job decline in four years have made a Federal Reserve rate cut next week all but certain. But it has also raised talk about a recession and whether the Fed is able to prevent one.
While most economists still don't believe the nation will fall into a recession, there is general agreement that the economy now faces a greater risk than there was only a month or two ago.
It's not clear how much Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will be able to do if the U.S. economy does start to slide towards recession. Problems in the financial credit markets are only part of the risk faced by the U.S. economy.
But many economists also say that the Fed can do little at this point to address many of the factors threatening continued economic growth. Some economists even argue that rate cuts could make matters worse.
The mortgage market would seem to be where the Fed could have the most effect. Most directly, a rate cut will reduce the rates for adjustable rate mortgages, one of the types of loans that has caused the problems for lenders and subprime borrowers, those with less-than-perfect credit.
An estimated 2 million homeowners face sharply higher mortgage payments when their current loans reset over the next year. So a Fed rate cut could possibly stave off a wave of foreclosures.
That's key since more foreclosures could have the potential to hurt consumer spending as a whole, said David Wyss, chief economist for Standard & Poor's.
"About 1 or 2 percent of the population is going to be seriously affected by these resets. That's not trivial," said Wyss. "One thing a Fed rate cut will do is reduce that reset shock fairly quickly."
But others say a rate cut won't solve the problem for those who have been paying low teaser rates on their mortgages with the expectations that they would be able to refinance before rates reset. The fact that investors no longer are willing to buy securities backed by such non-traditional mortgages could make it impossible for hundred of thousands of those homeowners to refinance.
"A rate cut even down to zero percent doesn't make those attractive investments," said Edward Leamer, director of the UCLA Anderson Forecast, which now puts the chance of recession at about 30 to 35 percent. "The Fed is in the situation where they should not be thinking about saving housing, they should be thinking about isolating the problem strictly to the housing sector."
The mortgage problems have clearly led to a broader credit crunch in financial markets, which has already put a crimp on the financing of some proposed mergers.
While a Fed rate cut may help get those markets functioning more fluidly once again, there is debate among economists about how great a risk the credit crunch poses to the overall economy.
Massive Motown foreclosure auction"It's pretty hard to draw strong lines between the credit crunch on Wall Street and the economy, except in real estate," said David Kelly, economic advisor for Putnam Investments. "If there are some deals delayed, it's not a problem for real economic activity. In fact, usually mergers and acquisitions cost jobs. They don't create jobs, except with Wall Street firms. Outside New York, there shouldn't be much impact."
But Gus Faucher, director of macroeconomics for Moody's Economy.com, said that getting the credit markets working again is important for business confidence, which is a key driver in decisions by companies whether to hire new workers and invest in plants and equipment.
"Businesses are still sitting on a ton of cash. The question is if they are going to go out and use that," he said. And he believes this is an area where a Fed rate cut can have the most positive effect.
"They need to know if the Fed is on the job and ready to respond," he said.
But Putnam's Kelly said that if the Fed signals that next week's cut is the first of a series of many, it could put some needed spending by businesses and consumers on hold, as they wait to see how low the rates will fall, and how much the economy is going to slowdown.
Mortgage reset shock: Not so bad"The Fed could contribute to the problem while fixing it if they're not careful," said Kelly. "If the Fed promises further cuts, it gives people reasons to have doubts about the economy and a reason to wait to make investment decisions. If you're trying to pick up a house at a bargain will you do it now or wait 6 months? You'll wait six months."
Another risk to the economy would be a drop in foreign investment here, according to some economists. And a Fed rate cut might cause more problems than it fixes because lower rates would make some U.S. investments, such as government-issued Treasurys, less attractive to foreigners.
Leamer and Wyss said a steeper drop in foreign investment would be a big problem for the economy because that flow of funds has been key to keeping long-term rates low.
"Last year we had $1 trillion came in net foreign investment, most of it into the bond market, and most into private bonds, not Treasurys," said Wyss. "If that money stops coming in, that's going to be a big increase in borrowing costs."
Subprime: Let the finger pointing beginA sharp drop in foreign investment would also feed into the slide in the value of the dollar, which hit a record low against the euro on Thursday. While that would make U.S. exports more competitive, it also would likely raise the price of imported goods and hurt the spending power of U.S. consumers, who have come to count on low-price imports for everything from food to clothes to cars.
Wyss and Leamer say they're not predicting a sharp drop in foreign investment but that it is a concern. And economists say there's relatively little the Fed can do to keep investors from outside the United States from pulling back on U.S. assets if it is cutting rates.
"The Fed has to make its primary concern what is happening to the domestic economy," said Wyss. "You can't focus on the dollar."
The Fed also has little ability to affect another risk to the economy: high oil prices. Crude oil prices hit $80 a barrel for the first time Wednesday.
While the economy has kept growing with oil in the $60s and $70s, economists say rising prices are a bigger risk now given how vulnerable the economy is. High oil and gas prices would be just one more thing for an already nervous consumer to worry about.
"I think if this lasts for two to three months, it's going to be a problem," said Faucher about oil prices. "If this was happening when the economy was going great guns, I wouldn't be as concerned. But more than just the costs, this can affect consumer psychology. If it shows up at the pump, then we've got some problems." ]]>
As a result, Christensen has dissected everything from the way Roddick marketed her earth-friendly products to her skills in serving as the public face of her brand. "I've relied heavily on Anita's story to get the younger generation interested in entrepreneurship," says the assistant professor. "They're fascinated by how interchangeable her name and her company are."
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ears, Body Shop founder Anita Roddick's work has inspired Lisa Jones Christensen's students at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina. Many young MBAs want to follow the passionate and politically-minded entrepreneur's lead in building fast-growth firms that embrace ideals such as protecting the environment.
As a result, Christensen has dissected everything from the way Roddick marketed her earth-friendly products to her skills in serving as the public face of her brand. "I've relied heavily on Anita's story to get the younger generation interested in entrepreneurship," says the assistant professor. "They're fascinated by how interchangeable her name and her company are."
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The death of Roddick, 64, on Monday after a brain hemorrhage marked the passing of a forerunner of social entrepreneurship, a now popular discipline embraced by the nation's top business schools. She was one of the best-known founders of a company that combined the goal of making a profit with giving back to society.
With no training in business, Roddick opened the first Body Shop store in Brighton, England in 1976 at her husband's suggestion, making her own products out of natural ingredients. She grew the outfit through franchising and took it public eight years after first opening its doors. In 2006 Roddick sold the The Body Shop to L'Oreal, so she could dedicate her time to philanthropy. Five years ago, she and her husband, Gordon, stepped down as co-chairmen, but continued to hold a stake in the company.
"There are no words to describe how inspiring she was," says Verne Harnish, founder of the The Entrepreneurs' Organization and CEO of Gazelles, a consulting firm for fast-growth companies in Ashburn, Va. "She transformed her industry by being everything at once: philanthropist, entrepreneur, and an amazing woman."
At a time when few female business owners were prominent, her work introduced new generations of women to the possibility that they could run their own ventures and thrive outside of corporate America. "She was deeply interested in speaking to women entrepreneurs, and I believe she cared about setting the right standards for the future," says Marsha Firestone, president and founder of the Women Presidents' Organization.
]]>The amount of outstanding commercial paper fell by $8.2 billion to $1.92 ]]> LONDON (CNNMoney.com) Investors shunned a key short-term debt market for a fifth straight week, according to the latest statistics from the Federal Reserve.
The amount of outstanding commercial paper fell by $8.2 billion to $1.92 trillion in the week ended Wednesday. Paper backed by assets like home loans fell by $21.6 billion to $945.1 billion.
NMoney.com) Investors shunned a key short-term debt market for a fifth straight week, according to the latest statistics from the Federal Reserve.The amount of outstanding commercial paper fell by $8.2 billion to $1.92 trillion in the week ended Wednesday. Paper backed by assets like home loans fell by $21.6 billion to $945.1 billion.
Companies and financial institutions rely on commercial paper - which usually matures in about 30 days - to raise money for short periods of time. But the market seized up last month as investors turned away from risk.
This short-term financing market continues to contract, but figures from the Fed show the declines are slowing. The latest $8.2 billion fall is a far cry from the sharp $91.1 billion decline the market saw in the week ended Aug. 15.
While the market appears to be shoring up, it's uncertain whether this stability will be sustained. (Read more about why the commercial paper market matters.)
The outstanding volume of commercial paper has declined by about 13 percent since the end of July, when there was an estimated $2.2 trillion outstanding, with asset-backed paper accounting for slightly more than half of that amount. ]]>
As a result, Christensen has dissected everything from the way Roddick marketed her earth-friendly products to her skills in serving as the public face of her brand. "I've relied heavily on Anita's story to get the younger generation interested in entrepreneurship," says the assistant professor. "They're fascinated by how interchangeable her name and her company are."
More from FSB
Raising prices, keeping customers
Anita Roddick's entrepreneurial legacy
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Current Issue
ears, Body Shop founder Anita Roddick's work has inspired Lisa Jones Christensen's students at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina. Many young MBAs want to follow the passionate and politically-minded entrepreneur's lead in building fast-growth firms that embrace ideals such as protecting the environment.
As a result, Christensen has dissected everything from the way Roddick marketed her earth-friendly products to her skills in serving as the public face of her brand. "I've relied heavily on Anita's story to get the younger generation interested in entrepreneurship," says the assistant professor. "They're fascinated by how interchangeable her name and her company are."
More from FSB
Raising prices, keeping customers
Anita Roddick's entrepreneurial legacy
A better prenatal test?
Current Issue
The death of Roddick, 64, on Monday after a brain hemorrhage marked the passing of a forerunner of social entrepreneurship, a now popular discipline embraced by the nation's top business schools. She was one of the best-known founders of a company that combined the goal of making a profit with giving back to society.
With no training in business, Roddick opened the first Body Shop store in Brighton, England in 1976 at her husband's suggestion, making her own products out of natural ingredients. She grew the outfit through franchising and took it public eight years after first opening its doors. In 2006 Roddick sold the The Body Shop to L'Oreal, so she could dedicate her time to philanthropy. Five years ago, she and her husband, Gordon, stepped down as co-chairmen, but continued to hold a stake in the company.
"There are no words to describe how inspiring she was," says Verne Harnish, founder of the The Entrepreneurs' Organization and CEO of Gazelles, a consulting firm for fast-growth companies in Ashburn, Va. "She transformed her industry by being everything at once: philanthropist, entrepreneur, and an amazing woman."
At a time when few female business owners were prominent, her work introduced new generations of women to the possibility that they could run their own ventures and thrive outside of corporate America. "She was deeply interested in speaking to women entrepreneurs, and I believe she cared about setting the right standards for the future," says Marsha Firestone, president and founder of the Women Presidents' Organization.
]]>As explained by a representative of the Kentucky Department of Insurance, in Kentucky when you purchase auto liability coverage you also purchase PIP coverage for you, your family and guest passengers (choose the no-fault system).
In Kentucky however, you are allowed to reject PIP for you and your dependents (under the age of majority) but not a spouse. Your spouse can reject as well but he/she must sign the rejection form. This means that you, your spouse and your household are choosing the tort system.
Under Kentucky law, the policyholder cannot reject PIP coverage for any guest passenger, thus Guest PIP is required to be carried. This coverage entitles the guest passenger to at least $10,000 of medical expenses, lost wages and similar "out-of-pocket" costs if injured while riding in the covered vehicle.
So if you choose a tort system each driver involved in an accident is responsible for the property damage and/or bodily injury they caused. Also with a KY tort system you retain the right to sue the other driver in an accident for the cost of expenses related to injuries sustained in the accident.
Under the KY no-fault insurance system, you are required to purchase personal injury protection (PIP) coverage that helps pay the cost of injuries regardless of who was at fault in the accident. A PIP policy in Kentucky covers medical expenses, lost wages, substitute (replacement) serves and funeral expenses. Total payments covered by PIP are limited to $10,000 per person, per incident. When you purchase PIP coverage, you will need to select a deductible amount.
When you purchase basic PIP you can also buy additional personal injury protection. With additional PIP you would be provided with additional coverage in increments of $10,000 for policies that carry personal injury protection.
When buying the basic PIP coverage in Kentucky you give up your right to sue the other driver in an accident for the cost of injuries, unless the cost exceeds a certain level set by the state. Kentucky insurance companies will allow you to buy back that right (even though you carry PIP) for an increase in your premium.
Guest personal injury protection is required when all drivers / insured on your policy reject no-fault coverage. When you and the other drivers on your policy have selected the tort system instead of the no-fault system for their auto insurance policy in Kentucky then the state requires Guest PIP must be purchased to cover guest passengers that may travel with you in your vehicle.
Guests are usually defined as those in your vehicle that are not immediate family members. Additional PIP is not normally afforded to a policy that includes Guest PIP coverage only.
]]>The goals of the DLA are to require each state to honor licenses issued by other member s
]]> tts is not part of the Drivers License Compact (DLC) but Connecticut is. However they both are members of the Drivers License Agreement (DLA).The goals of the DLA are to require each state to honor licenses issued by other member states; to require each state to report traffic convictions to the licensing state; to prohibit a member state from confiscating an out-of-state driver's license or jailing an out-of-state driver for a minor violation; and to require each state to maintain a complete driver's history, including withdrawals and traffic convictions including non-DLA states.
According to the Massachusetts driver's manual, located at the MA Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV), MA has arranged to share driving record and criminal violation information with other states. The MA RMV does not list which states they hold agreements with but since both MA and CT are members of the DLA it would appear that these two states would exchange information regarding moving violation convictions.
The MA driver handbook also states that certain traffic offenses committed by a MA driver in other states will be placed on their driving record and treated as if the violation has occurred in MA.
The RMV notes as well that out of state violation convictions may count toward surcharge-able events and thus possible license suspensions and Safe Driver Insurance Plan (SDIP) surcharges. Surcharge-able events are considered motor vehicle violations and at-fault accidents.
The Code of Massachusetts portion that discusses this Safe Driver Insurance Plan (211 CMR 134) states specially that The Plan shall take into consideration certain major and minor out of state traffic violations.
From this information it would appear that your out of state CT speeding ticket will be put on your MA driving record and will likely affect your auto insurance. To find out how much your premiums could change due to this citation, check with your insurance provider or the MA Division of Insurance.
To see if there is a way in which to take care of your CT traffic ticket but keep it from your MA driving record contact the court listed on the citation. There may be traffic school or some other means that will allow you to get the ticket taken care of without it being considered a conviction and sent to the MA RMV.
]]>So 4Kids set out to beat Pokémon at its own game. The company formed a joint venture with Chaotic USA, which had snapped up a Danish trading-card game called Chaotic. The companies revised the game, added an online element, and are planning a U.S. launch in September that's tied in with a cartoon on the Fox network.
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2.0 Magazine) Most adults still find Pokémon difficult to grasp. The numbers are easier: The franchise, originally based on a trading-card game, has raked in a total of $15 billion for owner Nintendo. It was less lucrative for 4Kids Entertainment, the New York-based company that licensed the U.S. rights for Pokémon merchandise until two years ago. "We got a royalty, which was great," says 4Kids CEO Alfred Kahn. "But we didn't get the gross margin."
So 4Kids set out to beat Pokémon at its own game. The company formed a joint venture with Chaotic USA, which had snapped up a Danish trading-card game called Chaotic. The companies revised the game, added an online element, and are planning a U.S. launch in September that's tied in with a cartoon on the Fox network.
4Kids Entertainment hopes its new card game, Chaotic, will earn as much as the Japanese hit it licensed: Pokemon ($15 billion, total revenue)More from Business 2.0
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Each Chaotic card has a unique code that players can enter at Chaoticgame.com. That means they'll be able to play as easily online as in person. It also means that 4Kids won't lose as much money to counterfeit cards as it did on Pokémon. Indeed, every item in the Chaotic franchise - from T-shirts to action figures to bedsheets - will have its own code that can be entered online, enabling players to display and trade anything in their collections.
The idea is to mix the game-playing aspect of Pokémon with the preteen social networking of Club Penguin. Liam Burke, an analyst at Ferris Baker Watts, says it will likely soar - or sink without a trace. "This is a fad business," he says. "The highs are really high, and the lows are really low."
]]>The move came in respo]]> WASHINGTON (AP) A Senate panel on Wednesday approved an increase in the limit on the national debt to $9.82 trillion, the fifth increase in the government's borrowing limit since President Bush took office.
The move came in response to a request by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to increase the debt limit before the government reaches the current $8.97 trillion limit in early October. The Senate Finance Committee approved the $850 billion debt limit increase by voice vote.
(AP) A Senate panel on Wednesday approved an increase in the limit on the national debt to $9.82 trillion, the fifth increase in the government's borrowing limit since President Bush took office.The move came in response to a request by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to increase the debt limit before the government reaches the current $8.97 trillion limit in early October. The Senate Finance Committee approved the $850 billion debt limit increase by voice vote.
It's not clear when the measure will come before the full Senate, but leaders of both parties are likely to try to orchestrate smooth passage of the measure.
The government has never defaulted on its obligations, and Congress has no choice but to enact an increase. The need to act also gave senators a chance to debate the reasons why the increase is necessary.
How to run a budget like an idiotDemocrats blame Bush's tax cuts and the war in Iraq.
"We have now raised the debt limit of the United States nearly $4 trillion on his watch," said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D.
The House approved the measure in May when adopting the annual congressional budget resolution, a nonbinding blueprint that sets terms for subsequent budget legislation. ]]>
The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union and the eight workers named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit seek unspecified damages and an order to stop U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from conducting what the union says are illegal raids.
. (AP) A union representing workers at six Swift & Co. meatpacking plants sued federal immigration authorities Wednesday, alleging agents violated the workers' rights during raids by roughly handling even those not suspected of crimes.The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union and the eight workers named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit seek unspecified damages and an order to stop U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from conducting what the union says are illegal raids.
ICE officials investigating identity theft arrested 1,297 workers at the plants in December, but union officials have said that more than 12,000 workers were detained against their will during the raids. Swift has estimated the financial impact at up to $50 million.
Union president Joseph Hansen said workers were handcuffed and held for hours and denied access to phones, bathrooms, legal counsel and their families.
"What happened to the Swift workers ... is absolutely an outrage," Hansen said Tuesday.
Care packages for the folks back homeAccording to ICE, 274 of those arrested during the raids were charged with identity theft or other crimes unrelated to immigration law. Nearly all were convicted, ICE spokesman Tim Counts said Tuesday. He disputed the claim that workers weren't allowed access to phones.
Of those arrested for being in the country illegally, 649 had been deported as of March 1, according to the most recent numbers available from ICE. All were sent to Latin American countries.
ICE returned to the plants in July and arrested 20 more people, including a human resources manager and a union representative on charges of recruiting and harboring illegal immigrants. The latter two cases are pending.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Amarillo, Texas, names as defendants Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Assistant Secretary Julie Myers, the two agencies and unnamed federal agents who conducted the raids.
Will the immigration crackdown work?A Department of Homeland Security official referred questions to ICE. Counts said ICE attorneys had not yet seen the lawsuit but planned to fight it.
"From what we've heard from the complaints, they are baseless," Counts said.
Counts said civil search warrants gave the agency the right to fully search the plants and question everyone there. Workers were allowed to use their cell phones, company phones and even the phones of federal agents during the operation, he said.
The Food and Commercial Workers union represents 1.3 million workers in the United States, including 250,000 workers in packing and food processing. The plants raided were in Grand Island, Neb.; Cactus, Texas; Greeley, Colo.; Hyrum, Utah; Marshalltown, Iowa; and Worthington, Minn.
Swift attorney Chad Hamilton declined to comment Wednesday because the company is not a party in the lawsuit.
Brazilian firm JBS S.A. acquired Swift from a private equity firm for about $1.5 billion in July, making the company the world's largest beef processor. ]]>
After hovering near record lows against the euro in recent ]]> NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) With the dollar slipping to an all-time low against the euro, currency strategists say the greenback is not likely to rebound anytime soon.
After hovering near record lows against the euro in recent weeks, the dollar quietly slipped to a new low of $1.3914 early Wednesday, passing the previous record set in July.
Tales of the crash of 2007 CNNMoney.com) With the dollar slipping to an all-time low against the euro, currency strategists say the greenback is not likely to rebound anytime soon.After hovering near record lows against the euro in recent weeks, the dollar quietly slipped to a new low of $1.3914 early Wednesday, passing the previous record set in July.
Tales of the crash of 2007And that's about where the dollar will be for awhile, foreign exchange experts say. The euro is not likely to trade much higher than $1.40 in the coming weeks, especially if the U.S. economy is hit with more negative news such as a disappointing read on August retail sales due out on Friday.
"I don't think we would sustain a move above that," said Ezechiel Copic, a senior currency analyst with IDEAGlobal in New York.
Since mid-August the dollar has steadily declined against the euro amid the widening subprime and credit market crisis, and fell sharply following last week's employment report, which revealed that the U.S. job market contracted for the first time in four years.
While a lower dollar drives domestic and overseas demand for U.S. goods, it also poses an inflationary risk to the U.S. economy, limits consumers' buying power overseas and typically pushes up the price of oil.
Widespread expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates by 25 basis points or more Tuesday has also added pressure to the dollar. At the same time, the belief that the European Central Bank will raise rates again before the year's end has helped prop up the euro.
"The divergence between the two in terms of monetary policy is what's driving the flow towards the euro," said Boris Schlossberg, senior currency strategist at DailyFX.com. "However, the open-ended question is just how loose will Fed policy be."
Cutting interest rates could help bail out financial markets and soothe credit crunch pains, but such a move would also hurt the dollar by reducing the returns on dollar-denominated investments.
But the Fed's actions won't solely determine the direction of the dollar. Experts say it will take more positive economic news or clarity about the scope of the recent credit crisis to turn the dollar around. ]]>
Eager to price more efficiently, Wickard, a techie, devised a digital pricing program, at first just for his own stores. The program, sold through Wickard's software firm (crickerywood.com), surfs e-commerce sites seeking CDs that are in a record store's inventory and are offered online at higher prices. When the software finds its target, it creates a comparably priced listing for the title on Amazon or eBay. It discovered, for example, that a Britney Spears CD, reduced to $6 at Bull Moose, was going for more on Amazon. Bull Moose then sold 25 copies for an average of $12 each. Says Wickard: "Now we can reach rabid fans who want certain titles but who will never visit our stores."
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ine) What's it worth to you? A CD seller and software developer spins a pricing strategy that gets results. Brett Wickard's homemade pricing software is playing well for him and fellow indie CD retailers, struggling to survive as more music sales move online. Wickard, 38, is CEO of Bull Moose (bullmoose.com), based in Portland, Maine, with ten stores and about $15 million in annual revenue.
Eager to price more efficiently, Wickard, a techie, devised a digital pricing program, at first just for his own stores. The program, sold through Wickard's software firm (crickerywood.com), surfs e-commerce sites seeking CDs that are in a record store's inventory and are offered online at higher prices. When the software finds its target, it creates a comparably priced listing for the title on Amazon or eBay. It discovered, for example, that a Britney Spears CD, reduced to $6 at Bull Moose, was going for more on Amazon. Bull Moose then sold 25 copies for an average of $12 each. Says Wickard: "Now we can reach rabid fans who want certain titles but who will never visit our stores."
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From 2001 to 2005, Wickard says, Bull Moose saw 10% annual jumps in sales and net profits. While 2006 revenue and profit growth slowed to low single digits, given an industrywide slump, Wickard is just glad to be profitable. He expects to collect about $1 million this year for licensing his software to other indie CD sellers, includ-ing Kyle Newton, operations manager for Sacramento's Dimple Records (dimple.com). Newton says Wickard's program "has especially helped with used CDs, where we've seen double-digit growth some years."
]]>After Oprah Winfrey recommended A Million Little Pieces on her talk show in 2005, sending it to #1 on the New York Times bestsellers list, it was discovered that parts of the memoir were untrue.
CNNMoney.com) Book publisher HarperCollins has acquired North American rights to Bright Shiny Morning, a novel by James Frey, author of the admittedly embellished non-fiction memoir, A Million Little Pieces.After Oprah Winfrey recommended A Million Little Pieces on her talk show in 2005, sending it to #1 on the New York Times bestsellers list, it was discovered that parts of the memoir were untrue.
Frey, who wrote two New York Times #1 bestsellers, A Million Little Pieces published in 2003 and My Friend Leonard published in 2005, has also worked as a screenwriter, director and producer.
Bright Shiny Morning will be published in the summer of 2008, and will also be available as an e-book from HarperCollins and on CD and downloadable audio from Harper Audio, the publishing house said it a statement Wednesday.
The deal was negotiated by HarperCollins publisher Jonathan Burnham and Eric Simonoff of Janklow & Nesbit Associates.
HarperCollins is a unit of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp (Charts). Specific terms of the deal were not disclosed. ]]>
The company employs rou]]> MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) First Horizon National Corp. said Wednesday it will cut at least 1,500 jobs by early next year due to challenging conditions in its mortgage, national real estate and banking businesses.
The company employs roughly 11,300 workers, a spokeswoman said.
enn. (AP) First Horizon National Corp. said Wednesday it will cut at least 1,500 jobs by early next year due to challenging conditions in its mortgage, national real estate and banking businesses.The company employs roughly 11,300 workers, a spokeswoman said.
The company said it plans to cut up to 50 percent of its mortgage sales force, reduce support staff and close underperforming mortgage branches.
The company plans to trim the real estate portfolios on its balance sheet by making further changes in its consumer and construction lending business. New originations are expected to decline significantly as a result, First Horizon said.
"We're going to be aggressive and dramatically improve our performance and efficiency by keeping only our most productive sales performers, who for us generate almost 90 percent of our production," Jerry Baker, chief executive, said in a statement "This strategic shift will reduce our real estate exposure and position us appropriately for the expected ongoing contraction of the housing market." said Baker.
Countrywide plans to slash up to 12,000 jobsThe company also will exit certain unidentified national markets for business banking, and it will move the national cross-sales of deposit products to an Internet-based model, eliminating the need for banking specialists in mortgage offices.
First Horizon National (up $0.26 to $29.46, Charts), which reported a 78 percent decline in its second-quarter profit, announced in July it would sell, shut or consolidate certain branches.
In after-hours trading, shares were a penny higher on the New York Stock Exchange. ]]>
If the ticket instead had been written as a type of equipment tic
]]> ly your friend receiving a speeding ticket in your vehicle would not affect you or your insurance rates if the ticket was written to them, which it should have been.If the ticket instead had been written as a type of equipment ticket, suspended registration, etc that would be written to the vehicle or car owner, you, then it may have affected you. Or in the friend had been in an accident where claims would have been placed against your policy then your insurance rates may have been affected.
Instead when a moving violation ticket is written to the driver of a vehicle it should be in their name and thus when they are convicted of it, it will be placed on their driving record. Your car would normally be listed on the ticket, but only as a reference for the police showing what car they saw speeding.
Insurance companies look up the motor vehicle record (MVR) of drivers, not a car history. Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) keep records on what violations a driver has been convicted of, normally there is no such type of record for a car that is kept or could be looked at by an insurer. If a car gets a ticket written against it, such as a suspended registration, this would go on the car owner's record.
If you have violations on your own record that is affect your insurance rates you may want to shop around for car insurance. You can get a low cost car insurance quote here with us.
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