Business and Finance

Greece should remain in the euro region where its problems “will be unequivocally easier to solve,” rather than allowing a new currency to devalue, pushing up inflation and interest rates, the central bank governor said.

A new currency would not be like “waving a magic wand,” George Provopoulos said in an article for the Financial Times. A weakened currency could increase the cost of imports, stoking inflation, and boost the cost of servicing public debt.

Concern that Greece’s government will struggle to tame the European Union’s biggest budget deficit this week pushed the yield premium investors demand to hold the nation’s debt instead of German bunds to the highest since the euro’s debut in 1999. Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said yesterday that Greece won’t need a rescue package to reduce its debt.

“It will be immensely less costly for Greece to eradicate its problems from within the euro zone,” Provopoulos wrote. “Greece will not be tempted by these short-term options, but will undertake the necessary, bold adjustments.”

Greece’s debt has contributed to a slide in the euro against the U.S. dollar. The euro traded at $1.4124 at 3:01 p.m. in Sydney, close to its lowest level in almost six months.

‘Homer’s Sirens’

The idea of Greece leaving Europe’s monetary union “is based on flawed reasoning,” Provopoulos said fast cash online. “Those who suggest Greece might leave the euro zone are like Homer’s sirens.”

Prime Minister George Papandreou has said that the “unprecedented” crisis in Greece has led to “discussion on the euro, if the currency is stable.” He said there is “not one day to lose” in bolstering the nation’s finances.

Finance Minister Papaconstantinou denied a report yesterday in EuropeanVoice that EU officials were looking into a possible loan to help Greece tackle its deficit, the highest in the region at 12.7 percent of economic output. Amelia Torres, the spokeswoman for EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia, said she wasn’t aware of any talks on a loan. A spokesman for the European Central Bank declined to comment.

Germany said it won’t support any EU loan to help Greece cut its deficit. “Greece must solve its problems through its own efforts,” German Finance Ministry spokesman Michael Offer said yesterday in an e-mailed statement.

While Greece’s problems are “extremely serious,” its economic future is “unwaveringly tied to the mast provided by the euro,” Provopoulos wrote in the Financial Times. “It will be unequivocally easier to solve these problems from within the euro area,” he said.

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The biggest threat to Brazil’s economy next year is the acceleration of growth beyond 6.5 percent, Banco Safra de Investimento said.

“As long as growth estimates stay between 5.5 percent and 6.5 percent, it is still possible for the central bank to manage the growth-inflation issue,” Cristiano Oliveira, chief economist at Banco Safra, said in a telephone interview from Sao Paulo. “Above that, it will be difficult.”

Banco Safra — wholly owned by Joseph Safra, the world’s 62nd richest person, according to Forbes magazine — forecasts the central bank will raise the benchmark interest rate to 10.75 percent by the end of 2010 from a record low of 8.75 percent.

Consumer spending and capital expenditures will boost growth in Latin America’s largest economy to 5.6 percent next year, following an estimated 0.2 percent contraction in 2009, Oliveira said. Brazilian economists project a 5.1 percent expansion in 2010, according to a weekly central bank survey of about 100 financial institutions published today.

Increasing imports and profit remittances by multinationals to headquarters abroad will widen next year’s current-account deficit to “at least $54 billion,” Oliveira said. Brazilian economists expect a record $40.8 billion shortfall, according to the central bank survey.

The current-account deficit will be more than offset by $62 billion in foreign direct and portfolio investments, lifting the real to 1.65 per U.S. dollar by the end of next year, Oliveira said. The currency gained 1.2 percent at 1.7415 per dollar at 1:50 p.m. in New York, compared with 1.7630 on Dec. 24.

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Not all credit card rewards programs are created equal, Denis Agar discovered a few years ago while trying to decide which card would give his family the biggest payback.

The 21-year-old student of urban planning ended up talking his dad into choosing the MBNA Starwood Preferred Guest MasterCard.

The card, linked to the Starwood hotel chain, paid out rewards worth as much as 6 per cent of the value of a hotel stay, a level far exceeding the industry average of 2 per cent.

Agar says the family did not use the hotel’s services much, except on holidays, but it still paid off because it came with so many bonus points and special offers. The card recently has been discontinued.

Agar decided to help others make the same informed decision. He created a chart based on card issuers’ publicly available information.

"You see the ad and it says `Earn points!’ And then you look at the fine print and it says (the rate is) 0.05 per cent (of the value of goods purchased)," Agar notes. That means for every $100 you spend, you get back 50 cents worth of free stuff, not a very good deal in his estimation No teletrack payday loans.

The chart is published on www.redflagdeals.com, Canada’s largest comparison-shopping site, with 2.2 million unique visitors a month. His review is limited to the top 20 no-fee cards that offer rewards programs.

His current top pick is the MBNA Smart Cash Card (it pays 3 per cent in points on the value of all grocery and gas station buys). He adds other good choices might better meet your shopping patterns or goals.

Some rewards are better value than others, he adds, because retailers set the reward cost based on the value to them as a business.

To maximize points, use your card everywhere and remember 200 points on one card is worth more than 100 points each on two cards.

Agar added new advice this year:

"Be mindful of the fact that Tim Hortons can probably swallow the credit card fees, but your local independent coffee shop might have a harder time with that."

Dana Flavelle

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The number of Americans filing for initial unemployment insurance jumped last week, the government said Thursday, with a figure that was above analysts’ expectations.

There were 474,000 initial job claims filed in the week ended Dec. 5, up 17,000 from the previous week’s unrevised 457,000, the lowest level since September 2008, the Labor Department said in its weekly report.

A consensus estimate of economists surveyed by Briefing.com expected 455,000 new claims.

The 4-week moving average of initial claims was 473,750, down 7,750 from the previous week’s revised average of 481,500

"Today’s number is less surprising than last week’s and takes the wind out of the sails for hopes of a super fast recovery. But 474,000 would have been a welcoming number not too long ago." Said Tim Quinlan, economist at Wells Fargo. "We’re still seeing a gradual, relative improvement in the job market."

Continuing claims: The government said 5,157,000 people filed continuing claims in the week ended Nov. 28, the most recent data available. That’s 303,000 down from the preceding week’s revised 5,460,000 claims.

The 4-week moving average for ongoing claims fell by 123,500 to 5,416,500 from the previous week’s revised 5,540,000.

But the slide may signal that more filers are dropping off those rolls into extended benefits.

Continuing claims reflect people filing each week after their initial claim until the end of their standard benefits, which usually last 26 weeks. The figures do not include those who have moved to state or federal extensions, or people whose benefits have expired.

Congress passed legislation last month to extend federally paid benefits up to 99 weeks, depending on the state, but the law only helps those who exhaust the unemployment lifelines by the year’s end no fax payday loans.

Lawmakers in the House and the Senate introduced bills last week to push the deadline to apply for unemployment benefits as far back as 2011.

State-by-state: Jobless claims in 21 states declined by more than 1,000 for the week ended Nov. 28, the most recent data available. Claims in California dropped the most, by 28,672, which the state attributed to a shorter work week due to the Thanksgiving holiday and fewer layoffs in the service industry.

Seven states said the claims increased by more than 1,000. Claims in Wisconsin jumped by 8,067, which a state-supplied comment said was due to layoffs in the construction, service and manufacturing industries.

Outlook. While claims popped from their downward trajectory, Quinlan said the figure is lower than the number filed in October and most of November, and a significant improvement from the filings in March that were above 600,000.

"One week is not a trend maker," said Quinlan, adding that when claims fell from 580,000 to 534,000 between mid-August and mid-September, they jumped back up above 550,000 in the last week of September before declining again.

"We’ve seen a recovery in every sector of the economy except the job market, and now that last segment is finally falling into place," he said. "The second half of 2009 has been characterized by a slowing in the pace of job losses. The first half of 2010, we should see actual job growth."  

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With rising unemployment stymying the president’s economic revival plans, the Obama administration is huddling with business leaders, academics and other experts Thursday to find a way to jumpstart hiring.

Some 130 people will gather for the afternoon jobs summit at the White House on the eve of the government’s November unemployment report. The nation is expected to have lost another 114,000 jobs, with unemployment remaining at 10.2%, the highest in 26 years, according to an economists’ survey.

The employment picture is certainly grim. Nearly 16 million Americans are out of work, one-third of whom have been unemployed for more than six months. There are now six workers competing for every job vacancy.

President Obama and some lawmakers are searching for a way to stem this unrelenting loss of jobs, which is casting doubt on effectiveness of many of his economic programs, from his $787 billion stimulus plan to his $75 billion foreclosure prevention initiative.

"We are going to be bringing together people from all across the country … to explore how we can jumpstart the hiring that typically lags behind economic growth, but we don’t want to wait," Obama said last week.

Invited executives include Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Disney chief Bob Iger, Boeing head James McNerney and AT&T’s Randall Stephenson. Also expected are United Steel Workers president Leo Gerard, San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, former Fed vice chairman Alan Blinder and Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist.

The guests will also include small business owners, academics and non-profit leaders.

On the schedule are discussions on green jobs, small business employment, infrastructure and exports. Also, breakout groups will look at ways to encourage business competitiveness and to better prepare workers for the economy of the future.

The discussions will be led by top administration officials, including Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Council of Economic Advisers Chair Christina Romer, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and Energy Secretary Steven Chu. Obama will make opening and closing remarks.

There’s no shortage of job growth proposals being bandied about. Though all sides agree that rising unemployment must be addressed, the solutions run the gamut. Some left-leaning economists and politicians are pushing for another round of stimulus, while their conservative counterparts are calling for tax breaks, such as a hiring credit for companies who add to their payrolls.

Indicative of just how contentious job creation is, House Republicans are holding an alternate roundtable on Thursday to discuss what they call the administration’s "job-threatening" policies.

"From the Obama administration, which produced a trillion-dollar ’stimulus’ that didn’t create jobs "immediately" as promised, comes a "jobs summit" that won’t actually help create jobs," said House Republican Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio. "Now more than ever, America needs more jobs, not more debt online payday loans."

Just how much Washington can do to boost hiring remains to be seen.

The administration and Congress are tied up with health care reform and foreign policy issues. And their ability to institute new programs will be hampered by the nation’s record budget deficit.

Though experts say the economy is recovering, they don’t expect jobs to return anytime soon. The National Association for Business Economics pushed recently pushed back their expectations for when companies will start adding positions to mid-2010. They previously had predicted a gain of 12,000 jobs a month in the first quarter.

Some of the proposals

Some of the leading ideas under discussion include:

• offering a payroll tax holiday, which would temporarily suspend the 12.4% tax on workers’ first $106,800 of wages;
• creating a new jobs hiring credit;
• giving more money to states and localities to close budget deficits. These shortfalls could cost 900,000 jobs in 2010 alone, according to one think tank;
• and offering public-service employment.

One measure that is more likely to be enacted is an extension of unemployment benefits. One million people could lose unemployment benefits in January if Congress doesn’t lengthen the deadline to apply for federal aid beyond Dec. 31, according to the National Employment Law Center.

This week, two groups at opposite ends of the political spectrum offered a bevy of suggestions on how to spur job creation.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Monday sent a letter to the president with seven policies that it said are crucial to job creation. Its suggestion include expanding infrastructure investment by removing regulatory and other requirements, as well as better preparing American students for future jobs and lowering tax rates on entrepreneurs.

"While the government can help support some jobs in the short run, the only way to meet this challenge over the long term is through a vibrant and dynamic free enterprise system," Thomas Donohue, the chamber’s president.

The Economic Policy Institute, on the other hand, supports more government spending on transportation infrastructure and school buildings, as well as the creation of one million public service positions.

The labor-supported group, which released a five-point plan Monday that it says will create 4.6 million jobs in its first year, also supports extending unemployment benefits and health insurance subsidies. And it wants to see the president and lawmakers send more funds to state and local governments and create a hiring credit.

"Some people have questioned whether we can afford to do more to create jobs, but they’ve got it backwards," said Lawrence Mishel, EPI’s president. "We can’t afford not to do more." 

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Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum fired one senior aide and removed three others from the board of Dubai’s main holding company as the debt-laden emirate tries to secure a second $10 billion injection of funds.

On Nov. 20, Sheikh Mohammed removed the governor of the Dubai International Financial Centre, Omar Bin Sulaiman, who had led efforts to transform Dubai into a Middle East finance hub. A day earlier, he dropped Mohammad al-Gergawi, Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem and Mohammed Ali Alabbar from the board of the Investment Corporation of Dubai. The three were at the forefront of a construction drive that began in 2002 and collapsed last year after the global financial crisis engulfed Dubai.

Sheikh Mohammed’s moves were aimed at exerting more control over the web of competing, state-owned companies that he used to accelerate diversification away from oil and which amassed $80 billion of debts. Shares in Dubai fell to a two-month low yesterday following the reshuffle.

“Dubai is trying to get the maximum investor subscription for this $10 billion bond issue,” said Christopher Davidson, a professor at Durham University in the U.K. and author of the 2008 book “Dubai: The Vulnerability of Success.” “Sheikh Mohammed needs to put new people in who are not tainted by the bubble economy of past years.”

The Dubai Financial Market General Index yesterday lost 2.6 percent, falling to 2,073.66. Abu Dhabi’s measure slipped 2 percent to its lowest since Sept. 2.

The sheikh’s sweeping changes introduced “a degree of uncertainty” which unsettled the markets, said Farouk Soussa, an analyst with Standard & Poors in Dubai.

Bond Issue

The Dubai government is in the final stages of preparing the second half of the bond issue, Alabbar said on Nov. 20. Investors will buy a “reasonable chunk” of the bond, he said. The bonds will be issued before the end of the year, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, chairman of the emirate’s Supreme Fiscal Committee, said on Nov. 16.

The remainder is likely to be bought by the federal government in Abu Dhabi, which has 90 percent of the oil in the U.A.E. and bailed out Dubai in February with a $10 billion bond issue subscribed entirely by the U.A.E. central bank.

Dubai’s real-estate market was the worst affected by the global financial crisis. Home prices have tumbled about 50 percent from their peak, and may drop another 20 percent this year, Deutsche Bank AG said in June.

Waterfront Development

Bin Sulayem is chairman of Dubai World, a state-run holding company that has about $59 billion of debt and other liabilities paydayloans. It controls property developer Nakheel PJSC, which has had to cancel plans for a new waterfront development the size of Hong Kong Island. Nakheel has to repay a $3.52 billion bond maturing in December.

Al-Gergawi is chairman of Dubai Holding, which owns developers including Dubai Properties LLC, Sama Dubai LLC and Tatweer LLC. Tatweer has put on hold a project to build “Dubailand,” a Disneyland-style leisure park that would be three times the size of Manhattan. Alabbar is chairman of Emaar Properties PJSC, the largest developer in the U.A.E., which is building the world’s tallest tower.

The cost of protecting Dubai bonds from default rose 3 percent to 313 basis points on Nov. 20, five-year credit-default swap prices show. The contracts, which get more expensive as perceptions of credit quality worsen, traded at 287 basis points on Oct. 20, the lowest in 12 months, Bloomberg data show.

‘More Carefully’

The emirate will study the viability of projects more closely in the future, Sheikh Mohammed said Sept. 9. “We’ll be more careful now,” he said.

In June, Emaar said it was in talks to combine with Dubai Properties, Sama Dubai and Tatweer as it aims to control the supply of new buildings amid a glut of homes.

The replacement of the DIFC governor is part of efforts to improve the efficiency of government institutions and companies, and “consolidate the emirate’s growing importance as an international center for finance, business, trade, tourism and all services,” Mohammed Ibrahim Al Shaibani, director-general of the ruler’s court, said in an e-mailed statement on Nov. 20.

Ahmed Humaid al-Tayer, the new governor of the DIFC, which is home to regional offices of banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Deutsche Bank AG, said Nov. 21 he would pursue the same strategy as his predecessor. Al-Tayer is also chairman of Emirates NBD PJSC, the U.A.E.’s biggest bank by assets, and remains a member of the ICD board along with Al Shaibani, the head of the ruler’s court.

The other four board members are Sheikh Mohammed, two of his sons and his uncle.

The four sidelined Dubai powerbrokers have to some extent been made scapegoats, said Simon Henderson, an expert on the Gulf monarchies at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

“They were given authority and access to capital and told to go out there and expand Dubai, they were given a license and latitude, and to that extent, they were obeying orders,” he said.

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The cost of living in the U.S. rose more than forecast in October as Americans paid more for fuel, while so-called core prices held at a pace that supports the Federal Reserve’s forecast for tame inflation.

The 0.3 percent rise in the consumer-price index followed a 0.2 percent increase in September, figures from the Labor Department showed today in Washington. Excluding food and energy costs, the core index rose 0.2 percent for a second month.

Unemployment at a 26-year high of 10.2 percent and wages that were down 5.2 percent in September from a year earlier are giving companies such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. little room to raise prices. Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said Nov. 16 that the economic “headwinds” will limit the recovery, allowing interest rates to stay low for an “extended period.”

“I don’t see anything in the report that suggests there’s any real inflation flare-up,” said Joseph LaVorgna, chief U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. in New York. “The Fed is comfortably on hold.”

Economists forecast the consumer price index would rise 0.2 percent, according to the median of 78 projections in a Bloomberg News survey. Estimates ranged from a decline of 0.2 percent to a rise of 0.5 percent.

The core index was forecast to rise 0.1 percent, according to the Bloomberg survey.

Housing Starts Fall

U.S. stock-index futures erased gains after the Commerce Department said housing starts unexpectedly plunged 11 percent last month to the lowest level since April. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index were down 0.1 percent to 1,106.0 at 9:02 a.m. after rising as much as 0.3 percent.

Treasuries remained lower after the consumer price report and before the U.S. announces tomorrow the amounts of 2-, 5- and 7-year notes it will sell next week. The 10-year note yield rose two basis points to 3.34 percent at 8:35 a.m. in New York.

Compared with a year earlier, consumer prices were down 0.2 percent. Core prices rose 1.7 percent from October 2008 after a 1.5 percent year-over-year gain in September.

Energy costs increased 1.5 percent in October, led by fuel oil and gasoline.

The year-over-year declines in the consumer price index are getting smaller as crude oil prices increase from an almost five-year low in December 2008.

Crude Oil

The U.S. on Nov. 10 raised its forecast for crude oil prices this year and next on speculation that demand will rise as the global economy improves. West Texas Intermediate oil, the U loan till payday.S. benchmark, will average $62 a barrel in 2009, up from last month’s forecast of $59.90. Crude oil will average $78.13 in 2010, according to the monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook report from the Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration.

Crude oil traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange averaged $75.82 a barrel in October, compared with $69.47 in September. Prices have continued to increase this month, averaging $78.69.

Gasoline prices in October averaged $2.56 a gallon in October, compared with $2.55 a month earlier, according to AAA.

Food prices, which account for 14.6 percent of the CPI, increased 0.1 percent in October, reflecting higher dairy costs. Prices for meats and fruits and vegetables declined during the month.

Walmart Cost Cuts

Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, is experiencing “ongoing deflation across our businesses,” Michael T. Durke, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company’s chief executive officer said Nov. 12. Walmart accelerated efforts to cut costs in the third quarter as falling food prices and the worst U.S. unemployment rate in a quarter century muted revenue.

Owners-equivalent rent, one of the categories used to track rental prices, was unchanged. In September, the measure dropped 0.1 percent, the first decline since 1992.

Costs of medical care increased 0.2 percent in October and are up 3.5 percent from the same month last year. Airline fares rose 1.7 percent last month.

The CPI is the broadest of the three monthly price gauges from the Labor Department because it includes goods and services. A report yesterday showed wholesale prices rose 0.3 percent. The cost of imported goods rose 0.7 percent, the government said last week.

Almost 60 percent of the CPI covers prices consumers pay for services ranging from medical visits to airline fares and movie tickets.

The Fed earlier this month repeated that it will keep interest rates near zero for “an extended period” and specified for the first time that policy will stay unchanged as long as inflation expectations are stable and unemployment fails to decline.

“Inflation seems likely to remain subdued for some time,” Bernanke said in a Nov. 16 speech to the Economic Club of New York. The weak labor market and reduced bank lending He also said “significant economic challenges remain.”

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Pushing for tougher changes in U.S. financial regulations, the Senate’s top banking legislator on Tuesday proposed a new super-cop to police banks, a systemic risk agency and strong consumer protections.

Senator Christopher Dodd, who is fighting for his political life back home in Connecticut, unveiled a 1,136-page bill that leaps ahead of previous, more moderate financial reform proposals.

The long-awaited Dodd bill raises the stakes in a struggle under way for more than a year now, with Democrats working to bring the outdated U.S. regulatory system into the 21st century and prevent a repeat of the capital market crisis that last year pushed the financial system to the brink of disaster.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters there were no signs yet of Republican support for the bill.

Dodd would create a single bank regulator by closing two existing regulators and stripping two others, including the Federal Reserve, of direct bank supervision duties.

He also seeks crackdowns on over-the-counter derivatives, hedge funds, mortgage-backed securities, credit rating agencies and executive pay, reflecting Obama administration proposals in some ways, but charting new territory in others.

Flanked by eight other Democratic senators, Dodd released his comprehensive bill at a news conference. He said he is targeting early December for debate to begin in the Senate Banking Committee, which he chairs.

“The financial crisis exposed a financial regulatory structure … unable to prevent threats to our economic security,” Dodd said. “This proposal will create a new architecture to make our financial institutions more transparent, more responsible, and more accountable online cash advances.”

The late 2008 collapse of ex-Wall Street giant Lehman Brothers and massive taxpayer bailouts of firms such as AIG and Citigroup sparked a flood of concern over the risks of firms considered “too-big-to-fail,” exotic investment instruments and other areas.

While bank lobbyists and most Republicans are trying to preserve the status quo, the administration and Democrats in the House of Representatives have been making some halting progress.

REPUBLICAN SUPPORT LACKING

The Dodd bill will restore momentum in the Senate to the issue. But it was expected to win little or no support from Republicans, setting the stage for still more debate, with analysts expecting no final Senate action until 2010.

The size, complexity and controversy of the Dodd measure mean “it is unlikely that the bill will be passed by the Senate before the end of the year,” said policy analyst Brian Gardner at investment firm Keefe Bruyette & Woods.

Reaction to the bill off and on Capitol Hill was mixed. Lobbyists for big banks and small alike criticized the proposed single bank regulator, while insurance industry groups questioned portions of the legislation.

Democratic colleagues of Dodd and consumer activists praised his support for the Obama administration’s proposal to create a Consumer Financial Protection Agency that would regulate mortgages, credit cards and other financial products. 

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The college application process that dominates senior year for many high school students is always stressful, but this year it’s even worse.

A report from the College Board shows that college costs continue to rise far faster than parents’ salaries: In-state public schools are pushing $20,000 a year and it costs double that to attend the average private college.

At the same time, college savings account balances have fallen, other costs have risen as many parents face unemployment, debt problems and other financial challenges. And more students than ever are applying for college, providing increased competition for the most coveted seats and scholarship programs.

Feel discouraged yet? Don’t be. Instead, remember that there are many, many paths to happiness and success that don’t run through Harvard yard or Yale’s central campus or even straight through any four-year program.

Go out and talk to folks in their mid 20s, and you’ll discover many, many people in great jobs and happy relationships who transferred into (and out of) those top name brand schools, took pre-college breaks, started at community colleges, finished at their state schools or took myriad other routes to their current situations.

So avoid worrying and avoid the stress-spewing mother (you know who she is) who waits for you in the parking lot at all of the soccer games wanting to know how your kid is doing on his apps.

Instead, focus on taking a practical, educated and smart approach to the whole college applications and financial aid process that will get your kid into a college he’s happy with and that will give you a payment strategy that won’t bankrupt either one of you.

To do that, focus on finances from the start. Here’s how:

– Have your child apply to a broad list of schools, including multiple schools that compete with each other for students. Don’t just consider state colleges and universities, because many private schools have larger endowments from which they can make bigger grant awards. When considering the list of schools, don’t look only at the academic or social issues, look at their budgets. One new college planning site, www.wisechoice.com , offers students and their families estimates of how much aid they are likely to get from every school they put on their list. They calculate this based on the aid awards the schools have given in the past.

– Do a rough cut of your family finances. Use the estimated financial aid calculators here to see how much money your family will be expected to contribute to tuition, room, board and expenses. If it’s an entirely unrealistic amount, based on what you’ve got in savings and how much you expect to earn over the next few years, start making alternative plans fast payday loan no faxing. These could include lining up other sources of money, such as a home equity line of credit or a loan from Grandma, or they could be alternative academic plans, such as having your child focus on schools that pay large amounts of merit aid, which is based on the student’s accomplishments and not on family need.

– Be ready to get the financial aid numbers in early. Send those aid applications in before the end of January, even if you have to later revise some answers. Schools tend to be more generous with financial aid awards early in the season. Position your 2009 income to be as low as possible before the end of the year is out. That includes deferring any bonuses or extra income you expect to make until 2010, taking tax losses and sending in any extra deductible health-care or tax payments before the end of the year. It could help your family qualify for financial aid for the 2010-2011 school year.

– Consider lots of alternatives. Community colleges are among the best. Even students who attend top-flight colleges have figured out they can take some of their basic required courses at a local two-year school and save on tuition. Most community colleges have agreements with state university systems; if you get reasonable grades in the first two years of community college you can transfer automatically into the flagship four-year school. That will save you money and give you time to decide on a major and build savings for the last two years. Other alternatives worth considering: Take a year off between high school and college to work and save money; squeeze four years of college into three or three and a half; attend college part time and work full time, or sign up for a four-year combined bachelor’s/master’s program.

– Plan to make the investment fit the projected results. A quick glance at Payscale.com (here) will reinforce what you probably already know: Starting salaries for engineers and scientists are a lot higher (roughly $60,000) than they are for liberal arts grads and social workers (under $40,000). And most social workers need to go on to collect their master’s degree to progress in their career. While the post-graduate paycheck may not be the most important consideration in a college plan, it is worth looking at in deciding how much debt to get into. Federal student loans do offer special repayment options for people who go into low-paying fields, but if you expect graduate school to be in the future, don’t spend every penny on undergraduate school.

(editing by Gunna Dickson)

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Citigroup Inc posted a quarterly per-share loss as it suffered $8 billion of credit losses, raising questions about when the bank can return to sustained profitability.

The loss per share was narrower than analysts expected but still underlined how far the bank has to go to catch up with stronger rivals like JPMorgan Chase & Co. Citigroup has received $45 billion of capital from the U.S. government and is now one-third owned by taxpayers, while JPMorgan has paid back the government bailout it received last year.

Citigroup’s shares were down 6 percent to $4.70 in afternoon trade.

“On first blush, this is not particularly optimistic,” said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer of Solaris Asset Management in Bedford Hills, New York. “They did beat on earnings and revenue, but the $8 billion credit losses … is a reminder that we are in a weak economic environment.”

The bank did post net income of $101 million, but it reported a $529 million loss from continuing operations before taxes. The ultimate bottom line for shareholders was negative, including one-time losses from converting preferred shares into common stock, and tax benefits.

Results were further muddied by accounting losses that resulted from the bank’s bonds performing better.

“It can give you brain damage trying to figure this out,” said Walter Todd, portfolio manager at Greenwood Capital Management in Greenwood, South Carolina. “With all the other opportunities out there in the financial space, I don’t know why you’d spend the time to try to understand what the heck’s going on here, unless you can take a lot of risk.”

Citigroup set aside less money to cover bad loans than it did in last year’s third quarter, but that may make sense because the bank’s assets also declined from the year-ago period, and net credit losses declined from the second quarter. The bank said it has enough money set aside to cover losses in consumers loans for the next 13.3 months, the highest level in at least two years.

Analysts have struggled to nail down when Citigroup will start posting profits from its main businesses. Some have forecast a return to “core profitability” as soon as early next year.

The bank’s inability to post earnings from its main businesses has made some analysts impatient. But others argue that by the time the bank is clearly profitable, its shares will no longer be cheap. The shares trade at about three-quarters of their book value, while competitors trade above their book value.

A key source of uncertainty for Citigroup is the performance of its U.S. credit card and mortgage loans, which have suffered and may be stabilizing.

“Clearly, U.S. consumer credit remains the number one issue affecting our near-term results,” Chief Executive Vikram Pandit said on a conference call with analysts.

Citigroup has posted more than $100 billion of writedowns and consumer credit losses since the credit crisis began. It posted more than $37 billion of net losses between the fourth quarter of 2007 and the fourth quarter of 2008.

In the third quarter, it posted a net loss to shareholders of $3.2 billion, or 27 cents a share, compared with a loss of $2.9 billion, or 61 cents a share, a year earlier.

Analysts’ average forecast was a loss to shareholders of 38 cents a share. 

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