Business and Finance

Those baggage fees really add up: The airline industry raked in nearly $8 billion from fees last year, according to a government report.

The revenue from so-called ancillary fees totaled $7.8 billion in 2009, according to U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics. That’s a 40% increase from 2008, when the revenue from ancillary fees totaled $5.5 billion, the bureau said.

The tally does not include air fares. It’s made up of the plethora of extra fees that airlines have tacked on over the last few years, including fees to transport checked bags, pets, and musical instruments.

The fees are also applied to other services, such as curbside check-in or ordering tickets over the phone. The fees vary from airline to airline.

In 2009, the airlines collected $2.7 billion in baggage fees, $2.4 billion from reservation change fees and $2.7 billion from an assortment of other ancillary fees, such as frequent flyer award program mileage sales.

Delta Air Lines (DAL, Fortune 500) was the leading collector of ancillary fee revenue, bringing in more than $1.6 billion in 2009.

But the carrier that relies the most on extra charges is Spirit Airlines. In the fourth quarter of 2009, 21% of the airline’s operating revenue came from ancillary fees, a larger percentage than any of its rivals.

In April, Spirit Airlines began charging extra fees for carry-on bags. Because that that measure was imposed in 2010, it’s not included in the 2009 numbers. 

Source

About 4,000 laid off workers from companies including Freescale Semiconductor Inc. are eligible to apply for Trade Adjustment Assistance, the U.S. Department of Labor announced Thursday.

The federal Trade Adjustment Assistance Program is designed to help workers who have lost their jobs as a result of foreign trade.

The workers in 10 states are covered by the latest TAA certifications and will be contacted by state officials with instructions on how to apply for individual benefits and services, officials said.

Those who apply may receive case management and re-employment services, training in new occupational skills and trade readjustment allowances that provide income support for workers enrolled in training. Some workers may also receive job search and relocation allowances, and the health coverage tax credit.

Austin-based Freescale, which manufactures semiconductor chips, employs about 19,500 workers nationally, including 5,000 in Austin. The company was founded in 2004 as a Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) spinoff. In early 2009, Freescale cut about 700 local jobs as part of companywide reduction of 2,400 positions.

Although Trade Adjustment Assistance is open to eligible workers of all ages, workers 50 and older may elect to receive Re-employment Trade Adjustment Assistance instead. If a worker obtains new employment at wages less than $55,000 and less than those earned in adversely affected employment, the RTAA program will pay 50 percent of the difference between the old wage and the new wage, up to $12,000 during a two-year period, officials said.

Source

Average Oahu hotel occupancy rose 6.8 percentage points year-over-year to 77.7 percent for the week ending March 27, the highest rate among the major Hawaiian Islands.

At the same time, Oahu’s hotel room rates fell 1.1 percent to $153.39.

Statewide, room occupancy was up 4 percentage points to 71.7 percent, while room rates slid 5.4 percent to $177.37.

Occupancy and room rates for other Hawaii islands were as follows:

• Maui’s average occupancy rose 5.8 percentage points to 74.2 percent, while room rates plunged 9.3 percent to $230.69;

• Kauai occupancy was down 0.8 percentage points to 58.2 percent, while room rates dropped 8.7 percent to $191.42; and

• Big Island occupancy fell 5.1 percentage points to 55.4 percent, while room rates declined 7.5 percent to $166.66.

Nationwide hotel room occupancy inched up 3.3 percentage points to 59.9 percent, while room rates were off 1.6 percent to average $98.29 a night.

The weekly Hawaii hotel industry snapshot, based on a daily hotel survey of approximately 100 properties, is conducted by Smith Travel Research and Hospitality Advisors.

Source

A former controller for Cepia LLC, maker of the popular Zhu Zhu Pets robotic hamster toys, was indicted for mail fraud for allegedly embezzling more than $400,000 from the Clayton-based company.

Joseph Van Gronigen, 41, of Hillsboro, was indicted by a federal grand jury on two felony counts of mail fraud, the U.S. attorney’s office said Thursday. He is expected to appear in federal court later this week.

According to the indictment, between September 2007 to January 2010, Van Gronigen allegedly embezzled more than $400,000 from Cepia for his own use and to pay his own expenses cash advance no faxing. He was employed by Cepia from 2005 to January this year and had been the company’s controller since 2008.

Cepia brought the situation to the attention of the FBI and attorney general’s office.

Russell Hornsby is founder, owner and chief executive of Cepia LLC. His Zhu Zhu Pets were the must-have toy of Christmas 2009 and were named Toy of the Year in February by the Toy Industry Association.

Source

If you haven’t heard, big changes are soon coming for the credit card business.

The CARD Act, which was signed into law last May, will finally go into effect Monday, meaning big changes for the millions of card-carrying Americans across the country.

Among other things, it will eliminate some of the more egregious practices of the past like so-called "double-cycle billing", arbitrary rate increases and hefty fees for exceeding your credit limit.

But while the new law also promises consumers more transparency about their credit card bill, cardholders still need to watch out for a whole new series of traps and tricks.

Higher fees: For starters, consumers could suddenly find themselves socked with a variety of new fees and charges.

Banks and other card issuers have already been aggressively implementing new fees or raising existing ones to help make up for any potential revenue lost as a result of the CARD Act.

Last May, for example, Discover Financial Services (DFS, Fortune 500) announced it would start charging a 2% fee on all purchases made outside the United States.

And whereas 3% was once the standard charge for rolling over a balance from one credit card to another, issuers like JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) are now assessing customers a 5% fee, according to Bill Hardekopf, CEO of the card rating site LowCards.com.

But with the new law setting no restrictions on the types of fees issuers can implement, consumers should pay particularly close attention to the "Terms and Conditions" section of their statement so they know exactly what they are being charged for, warn experts.

"Fees are the one source of revenue that will become more and more important," said Hardekopf.

Tougher to get a card: As Congress moved closer to passing the law last spring, banking industry advocates cautioned that shaking up the status quo would mean that credit would be more difficult to come by for consumers.

So far, that seems to be playing out as predicted.

The amount of credit made available to consumers by credit card companies plunged by $252 billion, or 7%, between March and September of last year, according to IRA Bank Monitor.

Credit is poised to tighten even further. As part of the CARD Act, credit card companies will be severely restricted in how they market cards to college students, potentially shrinking an important part of their business.

But issuers are also expected to implement much more severe underwriting practices. Some may demand, for example, details on an applicant’s income or proof of other savings.

Consumers with poor or even a mediocre credit history, as a result, may find it much more difficult to get a card or have their credit limit extended after the new law takes effect on Feb. 22, said Joseph Ridout of the advocacy group Consumer Action.

"I think it is fair to assume that credit card companies are going to scrutinize their potential customers a lot more closely than they did in the past," he said.

Fewer rewards: Consumers may also be increasingly unable to enjoy the fruits of their spending as a result of the new law.

It wasn’t that long ago where a cardholder could easily earn credit towards a free airline ticket or cash back for every dollar spent. But issuers are now quietly becoming more stingy with their rewards in an effort to save money.

American Express (AXP, Fortune 500), for example, recently told its co-branded card customers they would not be able to accrue reward points on their purchases if they were late with a payment. Only by paying a $29 fee could they recoup those points.

To avoid missing out, experts suggest that consumers carefully read any notices they get from their credit card company about changes to their loyalty or rewards program.

"Rewards can be another way of penalizing people too," notes Nick Bourke, manager of the Pew Safe Credit Cards Project.

Rising rates: One of the biggest victories for consumers in the new law are a series of limits on how and when credit card companies can set interest rates.

Whereas in the past, banks could raise your annual percentage rate just for missing a payment on your cell phone bill or without giving a consumer much advance notice, such practices will soon be outlawed. Issuers now have to alert you at least 45 days in advance before raising your rate under the CARD Act.

The new law won’t shield consumers from rate hikes altogether, though.

In recent months, banks have moved consumers over to so-called variable rate cards, whose rates fluctuate based on the direction of the prime rate. And with that rate at historic lows, experts said consumers should be prepared for at least a moderate increase in their APR at some point.

The new law also does not include any sort of interest rate cap banks and issuers can charge customers that are late on their payment by two months or more.

Credit card companies may remain reluctant to impose any usurious rates ahead of a review of penalty rates and fees by the Federal Reserve scheduled for later this year and given the public discontent for banks these days.

But that doesn’t mean the days of big rate hikes are gone for good, Bourke said — especially for consumers who are overwhelmed by debt. So experts suggest consumers should take extra care to stay current on their bills.

"The [CARD] Act doesn’t absolve anyone from having to pay back their bills or take people out of harm’s way if they run into trouble," said Bourke.

Talkback: Are you college student or under 21 and concerned or pleased about the tougher standards that will make it more difficult for some young adults to get a credit card? E-mail your story to jennifer.liberto@turner.com and you could be part of an upcoming article. For the CNNMoney.com Comment Policy, click here. 

Source

Crammed into a small Detroit office filled with pipe fittings, hydraulic tubing, and a device that looks like a gas pump combined with a supercomputer, Dave Shaw sums up how his life has changed.

Tipping back in a cheap office chair, the former auto executive points beneath the folding table that is his desk. "We had a ton of people working for us," Shaw says, crossing his stocky arms over his chest. "Now you have to do it all yourself. See that trash can? If I want it emptied, I empty it myself."

Two of Shaw’s colleagues at Clean Emission Fluids grin knowingly. All three once worked for auto companies or their suppliers. Today, as Shaw says, they are wearing many more hats than they ever did working for the Big Three: They are engineering, assembling, and marketing a highly sophisticated biodiesel blending machine that they hope will propel their three-year-old startup to huge success.

The machine makes any biofuel easily available in whatever mixture of traditional diesel and alternative fuel a trucker or fleet might choose. The result is cleaner-burning engines. "We aren’t waiting for the auto industry to come save us," says Clean Emission CEO Oliver Baer, a ThyssenKrupp alumnus. "We’re going to save ourselves."

Clean Emission is one of 160 startups that are part of a nonprofit incubator in central Detroit called TechTown. Founded by Wayne State University in 2000, the research park set out to make technology and entrepreneurship an engine of economic growth in a city that depended too much on, well, engines. With the U.S. auto industry in a shambles, TechTown’s mission seems more critical than ever.

Detroit isn’t known today for its entrepreneurism — or its tech prowess. But TechTown’s neighborhood is surrounded by reminders of Detroit’s innovative, ambitious past: There are ornate buildings, many of them vacant, that formerly housed the headquarters of GM, its Cadillac division, and its suppliers. According to local lore, the third floor of TechTown was where GM engineers conceived and designed the iconic Chevy Corvette.

These days TechTown is bustling. Over the summer nearly 1,000 people registered to attend a series of classes aimed at educating would-be entrepreneurs Business Card Holders. Almost a quarter came directly out of GM, Ford (F, Fortune 500), and Chrysler, and almost half were between the ages of 35 and 55. TechTown hopes to create jobs by helping give birth to 400 new companies in the next three years, says Randal Charlton, executive director of the incubator.

Will they all succeed? Clearly not, but don’t dismiss Detroit just because it isn’t Silicon Valley. The area is rich in skilled electrical, mechanical, and software engineers, and Detroiters have deep expertise in some industries with growth potential, such as alternative energy (hello, electric cars), health-care technology (until 2008, Pfizer (PFE, Fortune 500) had one of its largest R&D centers in the region), and logistics and supply-chain management, thanks to its manufacturing roots.

Detroit’s would-be entrepreneurs also have something that many of their counterparts in California’s Mountain View and Sunnyvale lack: community spirit.

Don’t laugh. A lot of hotshot engineers and executives tend to be mercenary, readily relocating to the company — and region — that offers the best salary or the most stock options.

Not Greg Auner. "I was born and raised in Detroit," says Auner, a Wayne State professor and founding partner of Visca, a TechTown company that makes a handheld sensing device. Visca could be headquartered anywhere, but Auner is committed to staying in his hometown. "I am dedicated to this region and bringing about a rebirth here."

Civic pride also motivates Leah Robinson and Ashara Shepard, Ph.D. candidates and former schoolteachers who launched COOL School Technologies, a sort of educational Facebook. The women wanted to create a tool to help inspire and motivate students in Detroit, who don’t have the same auto industry job opportunities that their parents and grandparents had.

Then again, if Shepard and Robinson — and others in TechTown — are successful, Detroit’s next generation won’t miss those auto jobs; they’ll all be working for tech firms. 

Source

Bank of America spent $4.4 billion last year on its Wall Street bankers , according to a person familiar with the matter.

The nation’s largest bank used 19% of the $23 billion in revenues it generated in 2009 within its markets and investment banking businesses to pay workers’ salaries benefits as well as year-end bonuses.

That works out to an average of about $440,000 per employee. The bank has roughly 10,000 workers in its markets and investment banking units.

Bob Stickler, a spokesman for Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), would not confirm the figures, although he said that the company tried to walk a fine line when it structured worker pay this year.

"We are trying to balance the need to pay competitively and to respond to concerns about the level of compensation on Wall Street," said Stickler.

Faced with a public backlash over outsized bonuses, many of the nation’s largest financial firms have incrementally lowered pay levels for traders and investment bankers.

Many institutions have offered workers less cash and more stock, in an effort to tie workers’ performance with the firm’s fortunes and the interest of shareholders.

The use of so-called "clawback" provisions, which would reclaim pay from workers whose actions may damage the firm’s long-term financial health, have also gained momentum recently.

The issue of compensation has haunted Bank of America for much of the past year after it was revealed that the firm paid $3.6 billion in year-end bonuses to Merrill Lynch workers for fiscal year 2008. The firm is currently facing two legal actions by the Securities and Exchange Commission over the matter.

Compared to some of its peers, the amount Bank of America spent on its Wall Street employees appeared to fall in the middle of the pack.

Last month, JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) said it spent $9.33 billion to compensate workers in its investment banking division. Divided among the nearly 25,000 individuals in this business, the average annual compensation per employee was nearly $380,000.

Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500) also revealed during the latest earnings season it spent approximately $498,461 a person, if its compensation pool were divided evenly among the firm’s 32,500 employees. 

Source

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.

Source

Sri Lanka’s central bank Governor Nivard Cabraal kept benchmark interest rates unchanged at a five-year low to spur investments and aid economic growth after the end of a 26-year civil war.

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka left the reverse repurchase rate at 9.75 percent, the Colombo-based bank said. The repurchase rate was also maintained at 7.5 percent. The economy will expand more than 6 percent this year, Cabraal said in a Bloomberg Television interview today.

“The rate is sufficient to stimulate growth as well as ensure that any risk of inflation is also curtailed,” Cabraal said. “We need not have any fear” of inflation now, he said.

The island’s biggest companies including John Keells Holdings Plc and Aitken Spence & Co. are expanding their hotel and shipping businesses to take advantage of a rebound in the $41 billion economy. President Mahinda Rajapaksa is holding an election two years before his mandate expires after the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels in May helped push growth above 4 percent in the third quarter.

“Growth will likely take off, especially in the second half of the year, with rates and inflation still low,” said Bimanee Meepagala, an analyst at NDB Aviva Wealth Management Ltd., the nation’s biggest non-state fund.

The benchmark stock index rose 0.1 percent at 9:35 a.m. in Colombo. The Sri Lankan rupee traded at 114.15 to the dollar compared with 114.26 yesterday, according to Bloomberg data.

Close Election

“Markets, especially equities, are waiting for direction after the election, Meepagala said. “The rate decision was mostly expected. There will be some volatility leading up to the elections as it’s expected to be a very close race.”

Sri Lanka’s benchmark stock index, the Colombo All-Share Index, jumped 125 percent last year, outperforming the rest of Asia and trailing only Russia worldwide, on prospects of an economic rebound in the Indian Ocean island.

The country’s inflation rate was 4.8 percent in December, less than half that in January 2009. Today’s rate decision took into consideration a potential pickup in inflation, Cabraal said in the interview before the central bank policy statement.

“Projections of inflation for 2010 indicate benign inflationary pressures, enabling inflation to be in single digits by year end,” the central bank said in the statement.

Faster Growth

The economy may grow 7 percent in 2010, the fastest pace in four years, spurred by company investments and construction of new roads, ports and power plants, Cabraal said Jan. 4.

“The central bank wants loan books to grow and money to flow into the economy,” Saminda Weerasinghe, research manager at Acuity Stockbrokers Pvt. in Colombo, said before the report. “Inflation pressures aren’t that great.”

John Keells, Sri Lanka’s biggest diversified company, said in November it will invest about $100 million to build new resorts to benefit from a tourism revival after the war.

Aitken Spence, Sri Lanka’s biggest operator of resorts, plans to expand its hotel and shipping businesses while Commercial Bank of Ceylon Plc, the nation’s biggest private lender by assets, aims to extend more loans in the northern and eastern regions, which were recaptured from the Tamil Tigers.

Rajapaksa scheduled presidential elections to be held on Jan. 26, betting the economy’s recovery will boost his popularity.

Cabraal has kept interest rates unchanged for two straight months. He lowered the central bank’s reverse repurchase rate by 75 basis points and the repurchase rate by 50 basis points in November. A basis point is 0.01 of a percentage point.

“We have seen a sharp increase in lending during the past month which indicates to us there is stimulation taking place,” Cabraal said. “If we find there is a bubble being formed or too much liquidity being created, then we would think it’s time for us to increase the rates. But we haven’t seen any such danger right now.”

The International Monetary Fund, which granted Sri Lanka a $2.6 billion aid package in July, expects the island’s economic growth and credit demand to pick up.

Source

Morgan Stanley Asia Ltd. Chairman Stephen Roach said U.S. policy makers should start to exit emergency stimulus measures now if the economic recovery is as strong as they say it is.

“There is never an easy time to do it,” Roach said on Bloomberg Television today. “The longer they wait, the greater the chance they sow the seeds for the next bubble. So I’m in favor of an early exit strategy.”

The Federal Reserve on Dec. 16 pledged to keep interest rates “exceptionally low” for an “extended period” even as officials said financial markets were healthy enough to allow most emergency lending programs to expire at the end of this month. Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and his fellow policy makers cut the benchmark rate almost to zero in December 2008.

“We’ve seen the most extraordinary monetary stimulus on the record in the 15, 16 months post-Lehman Brothers,” Roach said. “We’ll have to see the most extraordinary withdrawal of stimulus on record” and “if this recovery is as strong as Bernanke and markets think it is, the time to exit is now.”

Data since the Nov. 3-4 Fed meeting showed that “economic activity has continued to pick up and that the deterioration in the labor market is abating,” the Open Market Committee said in a Dec. 16 statement. “Financial market conditions have become more supportive of economic growth,” while the economy is “likely to remain weak for a time,” policy makers said free business cards.

Roach, in a separate interview on WBBR radio, also disagreed with Bernanke’s argument put forward on Jan. 3 that low central bank interest rates didn’t cause the housing bubble of the past decade.

‘Ludicrous’ Claim

“I think it’s ludicrous to think that monetary policy didn’t play any role in causing the so-called subprime crisis,” Roach said. “Bernanke is really digging in his heels here, this is a point of view that he developed as an academic when he was at Princeton.”

Roach argued during the boom that central banks should prevent asset prices from rising too far, in contrast with Fed officials including former Chairman Alan Greenspan.

Bernanke “embraced Greenspan’s philosophy in the same fashion, arguing that monetary policy should not be used to address asset bubbles, this is more of a regulatory oversight issue,” Roach said. “The regulatory oversight function failed hugely in the last seven or eight years but I would argue so did monetary policy.”

“I think we need to take a very careful look at monetary policy and central bankers who do not believe that interest rates played a role in this crisis,” he said. “I think that view is dead wrong.”

Source