The CEO of Bank of America was paid $7.5 million last year _ six times what he got in 2010. That’s according to an Associated Press analysis of a regulatory filing out Wednesday.
The bank says Brian Moynihan’s pay package for 2011 included a salary of $950,000, a $6.1 million stock award and about $420,000 worth of use of company aircraft and tax and financial advice.
It happened in a year when Bank of America stock plunged 58 percent. The bank struggled with lawsuits from investors who had bought securities backed by problematic mortgage loans online cash advance.
The AP uses a calculation that isolates the value a company’s board places on the CEO’s total pay package. The figure includes salary, bonus, incentives, perks and the estimated value of stock options and awards.
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President Obama on Friday nominated Dr. Jim Yong Kim, the president of Dartmouth College, to be the next president of the World Bank.
Kim’s background is in medicine, not economics or business as has been the case with most previous World Bank presidents. He has worked with international organizations, serving as a senior official at the World Health Organization.
Kim is particularly known for his efforts addressing health concerns, including AIDS, in developing countries. He was one of the founders and former executive director of Partners In Health, a not-for-profit organization that supports health programs in poor countries.
"Despite its name, the World Bank is more than just a bank. It’s one of the most powerful tools we have to reduce poverty and raise standards of living in some of the poorest countries on the planet," Obama said in introducing Kim in the White House rose garden. "It’s time for a development professional to lead the world’s largest development agency."
The World Bank was created along with the International Monetary Fund in 1944 to help the Allied powers shape the post-World War II economic order. It now includes 187 member states, offering loans and grants as well as technical expertise for development projects around the world.
World Bank to China: Free up your economy or bust
But while the World Bank’s influence is felt most directly in the developing world, it’s the United States that has a stranglehold on its leadership. Under a tacit agreement in place since their inception, an American has always headed the bank while a European has been in charge of the IMF.
The World Bank and the IMF get funding from their members, also known as shareholders, and it is this funding that is the basis for voting power on the organizations’ boards.
The board will vote on the new leader for the bank, but it is widely assumed that the U.S. nominee will be the one confirmed by the full body.
As the largest contributor to the bank and the IMF, the United States has the most voting shares on their boards at roughly 16%. The United States and Europe together have roughly half these shares, and have long been able to impose their will in matters of leadership.
The World Bank announced its short list of nominees late Friday, so Obama was facing a deadline for his pick. The organization expects to pick the new president by its spring meeting the week of April 16.
Earlier Friday, South Africa announced it had nominated Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala for the post. Jose Antonio Ocampo, formerly the finance minister of Colombia, has also been nominated.
World Bank chief nixes return to gold standard
One other American who had been lobbying for the job, Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs, withdrew his self-nomination Friday, saying he supported Kim 100%.
The World Bank’s projects range from health and education to infrastructure and private sector initiatives. It’s a massive organization, comprising more than 9,000 employees in over 100 locations and offering nearly $250 billion worth of financial assistance over the past five years.
"It’s the premier institution in the development arena," said Colin Bradford, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who has also worked at the World Bank and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Last year, France’s Christine Lagarde took over the top job at the IMF from her countryman Dominique Strauss-Kahn after he resigned in the wake of sexual assault charges that were later dropped.
At that time, however, the so-called BRICS countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — issued a joint statement following Strauss-Kahn’s resignation calling Europe’s leadership of the IMF an "obsolete, unwritten convention."
Some in Washington have argued that it’s important for the World Bank head to continue to be an American to ensure continued Congressional funding for the institution. But there is pressure building internationally for a non-American to take over the post.
Kim might be a seen as a compromise between those two competing pressures.
According to Dartmouth’s Web site, Kim was born in South Korea. His family emigrated to the United States when he was five, and he grew up in Muscatine, Iowa. He had an all-American childhood, becoming valedictorian and president of his high school class, and playing quarterback for the high school football team.
Kim got his bachelor’s degree at Brown and his medical and Ph.D. degrees at Harvard, according to the Dartmouth site.
While many of the previous World Bank presidents have a background in business and finance, it is not always the case. Paul Wolfowitz — a nominee of President George W. Bush — served as the 10th president from 2005 to 2007, coming from a career in academia and government service. His post immediately before joining the bank was Deputy Secretary of Defense.
The position became vacant when current president Robert Zoellick, a former deputy secretary of state who also served as international vice chairman at Goldman Sachs (, Fortune 500), announced in February that he would depart when his term concludes at the end of June.
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Treasury just scored a big win — it got rid of one of its financial-crisis era portfolios of mortgage-backed securities and made a $25 billion profit, the department announced Monday.
Treasury bought $225 billion worth of mortgage-backed securities during the height of the financial crisis starting from October 2008 through December 2009.
Some of those securities were backing up loans thought to be worthless, financial analysts reported at the time. But Treasury’s portfolio was made up mostly of 30-year fixed rate mortgage backed securities were guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, making them more valuable.
Last March, Treasury started the process of selling those securities. The agency reported that the total of cash from the sales, the principal and interest paid taxpayers back $250 billion.
However, if the mortgages behind those securities fail, taxpayers will still be on the hook, since federal housing giants guarantee the loans and taxpayers have been propping up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Treasury heralded the profit, calling it a successful winddown of a useful program that helped the nation navigate the financial crisis.
"The successful sale of these securities marks another important milestone in the wind down of the government’s emergency financial crisis response efforts," said Assistant Secretary for Financial Markets Mary Miller in a statement online payday loans.
Fights brewing over House Republicans’ budget
The profit from the sale of the mortgage-backed securities appears to be the largest Treasury has made on any of its crisis-related programs.
Treasury’s Mortgage Backed Securities program was tied to saving Fannie and Freddie. That program was separate from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, when Congress gave Treasury some $700 billion to bail out banks and save the economy. Of that, Treasury only paid out $411 billion.
Several parts of TARP have also turned a profit, like its bank bailout program. Treasury still owns a big chunk of American International Group (, Fortune 500) and a smaller chunk part of General Motors (, Fortune 500), among other firms.
Congress authorized $700 billion for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, but Treasury only paid out $414 billion. Of that amount, $331 billion has been paid back, including profits, interest and dividends made from investments.
The repayments from the mortgage-backed security program will go to pay down debt, unless Congress decides otherwise.
Cisco Systems Inc. is buying digital video technology company NDS Group Ltd. for about $4 billion to enhance its video offerings to pay-TV providers and expand in emerging markets.
The purchase would be Cisco’s biggest since the company bought Norwegian teleconferencing company Tandberg in April 2010 for $3.4 billion.
In the meantime, the networking gear maker has been working on turning its business around. It missed the early stages of the economic recovery and lost out to competitors on rebounding orders.
Cisco said Thursday that buying NDS will speed up the delivery of its Videoscape entertainment platform and help it grow in emerging markets such as China and India, where NDS already does business. Videoscape lets customers watch video on mobile gadgets and laptops along with their TVs.
In addition to the $4 billion it is paying for NDS Group, Cisco will assume $1 billion of NDS debt.
San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco has been narrowing its focus by culling divisions and cutting costs through layoffs. It shuttered its consumer-oriented Flip video camera business last year but video offerings for businesses have remained a big part of its focus. It acquired Scientific-Atlanta, a maker of TV set-top boxes, in 2006 for $7.1 billion and online conference provider WebEx a year later for $3 billion.
Brian Marshall, an analyst with ISI Group, said the deal makes sense for Cisco as it focuses on video offerings for service providers. NDS, which competes with Cisco, counts pay-TV operators such as DirecTV, Vodafone, Cox and BSkyB among its customers.
NDS, based in the United Kingdom, is jointly owned by News Corp. and private equity firm Permira. Its software helps cable and satellite TV companies deliver content to subscribers’ digital video recorders, tablets, smart phones and other devices. It had filed documents as part of a planned initial public offering before agreeing to the deal with Cisco.
Cisco is acquiring NDS’ sites in Britain, Israel, France, India and China and is absorbing its 5,000 employees. The boards of both companies have approved the deal, and it’s expected to close in the second half of this year.
Marshall said that while the acquisition is a “good use of offshore cash” for Cisco, the company is paying a lot. He estimates that Cisco is paying about 25 times NDS’s earnings, while Cisco’s stock trades at about 10 times its earnings.
Cisco stock fell 29 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $19.91 in midday trading Thursday after trading as high as $20.20 earlier in the session. That was near its 52-week high of $20.49 reach about a month ago.
Oil prices rose to a fresh nine-month high near $109 a barrel Friday in Asia amid signs the U.S. economy is improving against a backdrop of elevated tensions in the Middle East over Iran’s nuclear program.
Benchmark crude for April delivery was up 75 cents to $108.58 per barrel midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.55 to settle at $107.83 in New York on Thursday.
Brent crude was up 50 cents at $124.22 per barrel in London.
The government said Thursday that the number of people seeking unemployment benefits last week was unchanged and that the four-week average was the lowest in four years.
Traders brushed off evidence that crude demand in the U.S. remains weak. The Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration said Thursday crude inventories rose 1.6 million barrels last week and that oil demand has dropped 6.7 percent from a year ago.
“The ability of crude to post new highs in the face of what appeared to be a bearish EIA report attests to the underlying strength of this price advance,” energy trader and consultant Ritterbusch and Associates said in a report. “The oil market has evolved into somewhat of a self perpetuating cycle in which new highs beget new buying that forces new highs.”
Crude has jumped from $96 earlier this month amid growing tension over Iran’s nuclear program and fears global crude supplies could be disrupted. Some analysts expect economic sanctions by the U.S. and Europe and countermeasures by Iran will help keep crude prices elevated this year.
“There is a relatively high and growing probability to a scenario in which there is no resolution in 2012, in which oil prices grind higher along with a gradual escalation of tension,” Barclays Capital said in a report.
In other energy trading, heating oil rose 0.1 cent to $3.29 per gallon and gasoline futures added 0.8 cent to $3.30 per gallon. Natural gas fell 3.2 cents to $2.59 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Firefighters doused smoldering buildings and cleanup crews swept rubble from the streets of central Athens on Monday following a night of rioting during which lawmakers approved harsh new austerity measures demanded by bailout creditors to save the nation from bankruptcy.
Police said rioters destroyed or damaged more than 110 buildings, of which 50 were burned. They included nine listed as national heritage buildings, mostly in the neoclassical style, while 30 stores were looted.
Smoke still rose from the remains of a landmark 1870 building which had housed one of the capital’s most loved cinemas, the Attikon, since 1916. About 100 people held a candle-light protest outside the gutted structure late Monday.
“Criminals targeted all that was best in the city of Athens, its neoclassical monuments,” said Thanassis Davakis, cultural policy chief of the conservative New Democracy party, a coalition government partner. “The damage must be swiftly redressed and the city’s memory restored.”
The stench of tear gas still hung in the air on Monday, choking passers-by, while traffic lights at many major intersections were out after being smashed. The Athens municipality said cleanup crews had gathered an estimated 40 tons of broken marble and rocks from the streets of the center, while railings, drainage covers and paving stones from sidewalks also suffered extensive damage.
More than 170 people were hurt in the rioting which also broke out in other Greek cities. Authorities said 109 police needed medical care after being injured by gasoline bombs, rocks and other objects hurled at them, while at least 70 protesters were hospitalized.
Police arrested 79 people _ including a 14-year-old _ and detained a further 92, while in several cases they had to escort fire crews to burning buildings after hooded and masked protesters prevented access, injuring four firefighters. Police also said they were investigating a complaint from a businessman that rioters demanded money to leave his establishment intact.
A police statement said the suspects would be charged with offenses ranging from attempted murder and possession of explosives to looting.
“(The rioters) intentionally picked traditional buildings to burn,” New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras said. “These scum must know that when the time comes I will rip off their hoods.”
Athens Traders’ Association head Panaghis Karellas demanded the dismissal of Public Order Minister Christos Papoutsis, and said afflicted shopowners should receive state compensation.
“Once again, those in positions of responsibility, even though they should have been prepared, were unable to fulfill their duty and secure the well-being of citizens and visitors, cultural landmarks and historic buildings, public and private property and our country’s international image,” the association said in a statement.
The ESEE national commerce confederation said most of the badly damaged shops will very likely never open again. “The center of the capital looks as if it has been bombed,” an ESEE statement said.
The rioting began Sunday afternoon after more than 100,000 protesters marched to the parliament ahead of a vote on drastic austerity measures that include axing one in five civil service jobs over the next three years and slashing the minimum wage by more than a fifth no fax cash advance.
Lawmakers approved the bill in a 199-74 vote, to the relief of investors who pushed the Athens stock index up 4.7 percent.
The vote was crucial for the country to secure euro130 billion ($172 billion) in new rescue loans and avoid a potentially catastrophic default next month _ bankruptcy could push Greece out of Europe’s euro currency union, drag down other troubled eurozone countries and further roil global markets.
The new bailout deal, which has not yet been finalized, will be combined with a massive bond swap deal to write off half the country’s privately held debt, reducing Greece’s debt load by about euro100 billion.
However, it could take time before the country receives any of the cash. For both deals to materialize, Greece has to persuade deeply skeptical creditors it has the will to implement spending cuts and public sector reforms that will end years of fiscal profligacy and tame gaping budget deficits.
Eurozone finance ministers meet on Wednesday to discuss the issue, after refusing to approve the plan during a meeting last week, saying Athens had to first approve the new austerity measures.
But German Finance Ministry spokeswoman Marianne Kothe said the ministers will not make a final decision on the second aid package Wednesday. She said the bond swap agreement must be finalized first, and the ministers will focus on measures “necessary for the second Greek package.”
Before signing off on the bailout, the eurozone ministers also want Greek political leaders to commit in writing to uphold the austerity plan even after the general election in April. Government spokesman Pantelis Kapsis said the written guarantees are needed by Wednesday.
Although the bill passed the Parliamentary vote, there was strong dissent among the majority Socialists and rival Conservatives who make up Greece’s interim coalition government. The Socialists and Conservatives expelled the 22 and 21 lawmakers respectively, reducing their majority in the 300-member parliament from 236 to 193.
Germany gave the vote result a cautious welcome, with Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle describing it as “a first significant step along the right road.”
“However, the actual difficult work with implementing the reforms that have been agreed on is only just starting now,” he said. “That is the decisive precondition for Germany and the other euro partners being able to stand by Greece with a further rescue package.”
The new austerity comes after two years of deep spending cuts and repeated tax hikes that have sent unemployment soaring to more than 20 percent and left the country struggling through a fifth year of recession.
Those measures were taken in return for a first, euro110 billion ($145 billion) package of rescue loans, but despite the cutbacks, Greece repeatedly failed to meet its targets in reducing its debt and deficit and increasing economic competitiveness.
____
Geir Moulson and Juergen Baetz in Berlin and Nicholas Paphitis in Athens contributed to this report.
Iraq has opened the taps at a new oil export terminal in the Persian Gulf in a vital step to bringing sorely needed cash for reconstruction after decades of war and international sanctions.
Oil Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad says oil exports through southern Iraq _ which currently stand at about 1.7 million barrels a day _ will be boosted by about 200,000 barrels per day beginning in March.
Jihad said the new single point mooring (SPM) was inaugurated Sunday by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki during a ceremony in the oil-rich province of Basra.
Iraq’s total daily oil exports averaged 2.145 million barrels in December. The government relies on oil exports for 95 percent of its revenue.
Federal Reserve regional bank presidents provided unprecedented disclosure of their wealth, revealing assets ranging from a Missouri farm and Texas ranchland to stocks and Treasury Inflation Protected Securities.
The officials, who oversee Fed operations ranging from bank supervision to emergency lending, disclosed the documents today in response to requests from Bloomberg News under the Freedom of Information Act. The regional banks said they weren
Valuations for U.S. equities have been stuck below the five-decade average for the longest period since Richard Nixon
Outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh will leave soon to Oman, en route to medical treatment in the United States, Yemeni officials said on Saturday, part of an American effort to get the embattled strongman out of the country to allow a peaceful transition from his rule.
Washington has been trying for weeks to find a country where Saleh can live in exile, since it does not want him to settle permanently in the United States. The mercurial president, who has ruled for more than 33 years, has repeatedly gone back and forth on whether he would leave.
The officials’ comments Saturday suggested Oman, Yemen’s neighbor, could be a potential home for him. Three officials said he would go, but they were divided on whether he would remain in exile in Oman or return to Yemen after treatment. His return, even if he no longer holds the post of president, could mean continued turmoil for the impoverished nation at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula.
After nearly a year of protests demanding his ouster, Saleh in November handed his powers over to his vice president and agreed to step down. A unity government between his party and the opposition has since been created. However, Saleh _ still formally the president _ has continued to influence politics from behind the scenes through his family and loyalists in power positions.
The U.S. does not want to take him in, concerned it would be seen by Yemenis as harboring a leader they say has blood on his hands for the killings of protesters. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates already have rejected Saleh, American officials said.
Senior ruling party figure Mohammed al-Shayef told The Associated Press that Saleh would travel “in the coming days” to Oman, then head to the United States for treatment of wounds he suffered in an June assassination attempt.
After treatment, Saleh would return to Yemen to head his People’s Congress Party, said al-Shayef, who is also a prominent tribal leader. Another top party official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk of the plans, gave the same itinerary, though he said Saleh would pass through Ethiopia en route from Oman to the U.S.
Saleh himself has spoken in recent weeks of working as an opposition politician after he leaves the presidency.
However, an official in the prime minister’s office said Saleh “is supposed” to return to Oman to stay after his U.S. treatment is completed.
The official said Saleh’s powerful son Ahmed was currently in Oman, arranging a residence for his father. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk the press. It did not seem that Ahmed, who commands the elite Republican Guard that has been at the forefront of the crackdown on protests, would remain in Oman.
The unity government has been struggling to establish its authority in the face of Saleh’s continuing strength in the country. Like Saleh’s son Ahmed, Saleh’s nephew also commands one of Yemen’s best trained and equipped security forces, and the president’s loyalists remain in place in the government and bureaucracy.
Saleh agreed to step down under a U.S.-approved and Gulf-mediated accord with the opposition in return for immunity for prosecution.
Yemen’s parliament on Saturday approved the immunity law, a key step toward Saleh’s formal retirement from his post. Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi signed it into law later in the day.
Saleh is scheduled to hand over the presidency to his vice president on Feb. 21.
The law grants Saleh complete immunity for any crimes committed during his rule, including the killing of protesters during the uprising against his regime. However, parliament limited the scope of immunity for other regime officials and excluded immunity for terrorism-related crimes.
Initially, the law would have similarly given complete immunity to everyone who served Saleh’s governments throughout his rule, sparking a public outcry and a new wave of protests. In response, the law was changed to grant them immunity only on “politically motivated” criminal acts. That apparently would not cover corruption charges.
Most protesters have rejected the accord entirely, saying Saleh should not be given immunity and demanding he be prosecuted.
Human Rights Watch said Saturday in a statement that the law allows senior officials to “get away with murder” and “sends the disgraceful message that there is no consequence for killing those who express dissent.”
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