Tag Archives: Last March

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

The Hartford Announces Expanded Hedging Program That Effectively Eliminates Currency And Equity Mark

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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The Hartford Announces Expanded Hedging Program That Effectively Eliminates Currency And Equity Market Risks On Japan Variable Annuity Block

  • Talcott Resolution, The Hartford’s life run-off operations, now capital self-sufficient
  • Expects first quarter 2013 DAC charge of $600 million to net income due to expansion of hedging program
  • Company’s capital flexibility significantly enhanced

HARTFORD, Conn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– At its investor meeting being held today, The Hartford said that the risk profile of its legacy variable annuity block has been significantly improved as a result of actions the company has taken, including an expanded Japan variable annuity (VA) hedging program, as well as the benefit of favorable yen weakening and global equity market movements.

“Last March, we announced a new strategy for The Hartford focused on positioning the organization, over time, to generate greater shareholder value by reducing the company’s exposure to market volatility, lowering our cost of capital and increasing capital flexibility,” said The Hartford’s Chairman, President and CEO Liam E. McGee. “A key element of that strategy, along with profitably growing our go forward businesses, is to reduce the size and risk of the legacy VA block. We are pleased that as a result of actions we have taken and global market movements, the risk profile of the legacy VA block has dramatically improved and Talcott’s operations are now capital self-sufficient.”

“The company’s capital flexibility is significantly enhanced since year end, and our capital generation outlook heading into 2014 and beyond is improved,” said The Hartford’s Chief Financial Officer Christopher J. Swift. “With the significant progress we have made on The Hartford’s transformation, excess capital generated by the go forward businesses — property and casualty, group benefits and mutual funds — will be available for potential capital management actions or reinvestment in the businesses for future profitable growth.”

The company also announced that financial results for the first quarter of 2013 will include a deferred acquisition charge (DAC) of approximately $600 million, after tax. The charge reflects the elimination of future estimated gross profits on the Japan VA block due to the increased costs

From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/11/the-hartford-announces-expanded-hedging-program-th/

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Strong Sales Continue for Ford's Hot New Models

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By John Rosevear, The Motley Fool

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March was another solid month for Ford , as the automaker once again posted U.S. sales gains well above analysts’ sales estimates.

Ford said on Tuesday that its March U.S. sales were up 6% over strong year-ago totals, well ahead of the 4.4% consensus expectation from analysts.

Solid sales of Ford’s F-Series pickups, which were up 16% over year-ago numbers, were a big contributor to the good results.

But the highlights were the exceptionally strong results for the automakers two newest models, the Escape SUV and the Fusion sedan.

In fact, Ford may be having trouble keeping up with demand for these hot models.

Ford’s latest models are becoming big sales hits…
“We are working harder than ever to keep pace with demand” for the Fusion and Escape, Ford’s U.S. sales chief Ken Czubay said in a statement on Tuesday. That demand has been torrid, as both models hit all-time highs for monthly U.S. sales in March.

Sales of the Escape were up more than 27% over year-ago totals, a strong sign that the redesigned model is finding its stride with customers.

Fusion sales were up just 6% over year-ago numbers, but that’s a more impressive amount than it might seem. Last March was another “best month ever” for the Fusion, as Ford was beginning the process of selling down inventories of the outgoing last-generation model.

It has been clear in recent months that the new Fusion, a visually striking car with many luxury features, has significantly elevated Ford’s game in this segment. The Fusion appears to be stealing sales from well-entrenched rivals like Toyota‘s Camry and Honda‘s Accord, the longtime class leaders.

Those strong March results capped the best-ever quarter for the two nameplates, Ford’s newest U.S. models. It’s a sign that the company’s “One Ford” product strategy is continuing to find favor with American customers.

But as Czubay’s comment on Tuesday suggested, the automaker is facing an interesting challenge: Building enough of these well-regarded vehicles to meet demand.

…but keeping up with demand will be a challenge
After years of painful restructuring, Ford is facing an interesting challenge in North America: Many of its factories are running at or near maximum capacity, but demand for its strong new products continues to increase.

In a way, this is a classic “good problem to have”. An industry rule of thumb is that auto factories break even at 80% of “full capacity”, generally defined as two eight-hour shifts. The further you get above that 80%, the more profitable your factory.

Ford said last fall that its North American plants were running at 114% of capacity, the automaker’s highest level in over 30 years. That means that some are already running around the clock, which is a big part of why Ford’s North American division has been so profitable recently.

But that also means that increasing production will require some expensive investments in new assembly lines.

Ford is already committed to making some of those investments. A <a target=_blank …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Will Michael Bloomberg's Policies Topple the Domestic Tobacco Industry?

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By Sean Williams, The Motley Fool

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If you’re a smoker, you know it’s been a rough ride over the past two decades. Advocacy groups have been increasing awareness regarding the dangers of smoking since the early 1990s, and even more recently, both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration have been tag-teaming the tobacco industry to bring light to these dangers.

Last March, the CDC announced a $54 million, three-month graphic advertising campaign targeting TV, radio, print, billboard, and online viewers in the hope of getting 50,000 smokers to quit. Just weeks later, the FDA hit the tobacco industry with a request to be supplied with the quantities of 20 chemicals in cigarettes known to cause cancer, lung disease, and other health problems, including formaldehyde, carbon monoxide, and ammonia. The FDA plans to release its findings to the public next month in the hope that increased awareness will reduce the amount of active smokers.

Big Tobacco’s big worry
Yet for all of these concerns, none may be more pressing for Big Tobacco companies such as Altria , Lorillard , and Reynolds American than what mayor Michael Bloomberg is doing in New York City.

In 2011, Mayor Bloomberg passed a ban outlawing smoking on New York City’s beaches, public plazas, boardwalks, and parks. Since then, Bloomberg has taken numerous other supposed “vices” to the woodshed, including sugary drinks, which he banned in any amount greater than 16 ounces within the city, and Styrofoam trays, which were the latest item to fall under his legislative guillotine. Many of you are probably of the opinion that the actions of one little old mayor probably don’t make a lot of difference … until you see Bloomberg’s track record according to Forbes.

In December 2006, a Bloomberg initiative went into effect that required restaurants to include calorie values on menus and menu boards. This was done to combat rising obesity within New York City, and not surprisingly, visible calorie values have become a norm throughout much of the country. Also in December 2006, a Bloomberg initiative to ban trans-fats within the city was passed by the Board of Health and gave restaurants 18 months to completely remove them from their foods. Lo and behold, not only did McDonald’s stop using cooking oil that was trans-fat free in New York City by the deadline, but it had also stopped using trans-fat oils throughout North America.

To sum up: When Bloomberg takes action, the result is often much bigger than what occurs within the city of New York.

The question then becomes whether this is a major problem for domestic tobacco companies. I’m going to go out on a limb based on Bloomberg’s previous track record and venture my best guess by saying “yes,” that this has a chance to become a progressively tougher ban that could threaten to sweep to other cities.

The trend is not your friend
Domestic cigarette sales have been in a …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

News, Politics, Government

Saudi religious police arrest Ethiopian workers for practicing Christianity

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By Benjamin Weinthal

Saudi Arabia‘s notorious religious police, known as the mutawa, swooped in on a private gathering of at least 53 Ethiopian Christians this month, shutting down their private prayer, and arresting the peacefulgroup of foreign workers for merely practicing their faith, FoxNews.com has learned.

The mixed group of men and womenwas seized in a private residence in the city of Dammam, the capital of the wealthy oil province in Eastern Arabia, and Saudi authorities chargedthree Christian leaders with seeking to convert Muslims to Christianity. The latest crackdown on Christianity in the ultra-fundamental Islamic country comes on the heels of abrutal 2011/2012 incarceration and torture of 36 Ethiopian Christians, and drew a sharp rebuke from a U.S. lawmaker.

“Nations that wish to be a part of the responsible nations of the world must see the protection of religious freedom and the principles of reason as an essential part of the duty of the state,” Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb., who sits on the Caucus on Religious Minorities in the Middle East, told FoxNews.com.

During Advent in 2011, Saudi authorities stormed a prayer meeting at the private home of one of the Ethiopian workers in the Red Sea city of Jeddah. The Saudi mutawa imprisoned 29 women and six men for more than seven months in barbaric prison conditions, where the men faced severe beatings and the women were subjected to sexually intrusive torture methods. After Christian organizations and human rights groups, as well as the United States government, complained, the Saudisdeported the35 Christian Ethiopian workers in August 2012.

Last March, Abdulaziz ibn Abdullah Al al-Sheikh, the grand mufti of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, declared it is “necessary to destroy all the churches in the Arabian Peninsula.”

Still, Saudi officials claim to tolerate other faiths even as the mutawa, or Commission to Promote Virtue and Prevent Vice, mount their crackdowns, said Dwight Bashir, deputy director for policy at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

“During an official USCIRF visit to the Kingdom earlier this month, Saudi officials reiterated the government‘s long-standing policy that members of the Commission to Promote Virtue and Prevent Vice, also known as the religious police, should not interfere in private worship,” Bashir said. “However, the past year has seen an uptick of reports that private religious gatherings have been raided resulting in arrests, harassment and deportations of foreign expatriate workers.

“The U.S. government and international community should demand that any expatriate worker detained and held without charge for private religious activity in the Kingdom should be released immediately,” Bashir added.

A spokeswoman for the Saudi Embassy in Washington said she “is not allowed” to give her nameand referred a FoxNews.com query to Nail al-Jubeir, a spokesman for the Saudi Embassy in Washington. He did not immediately return FoxNews.com telephone and email requests. Diplomats from Ethiopia‘s embassy in Washington told FoxNews.com they are looking into preparing a statement about the arrests.

Nina Shea, the director of the Washington-based Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, told FoxNews.com that the arrests in Dammam are “part of Saudi Arabia‘s policy to …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

Texas couple with 2 kids on old bus makes progress

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Home for a Southeast Texas family is still an old school bus with no engine and no front wheels.

But child welfare officials are delighted with the commitment the parents have shown since their two young kids were discovered living there virtually unsupervised almost a year ago while their father and mother were in federal prison.

Child Protective Services officials are expected to recommend a judge dismiss the welfare agency’s case against Mark and Sherrie Shorten in court Tuesday, allowing the couple to regain full custody of their 12-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son.

“That’s what I’ve been targeting all along,” Mark Shorten said.

The children are in school and the parents have complied with CPS care plans, evaluations and therapy, agency spokeswoman Gwen Carter said.

“They’re doing really well and the family is doing really well,” she said. “The staff is very proud of them.”

Last March, a postal worker, after repeatedly spotting two disheveled children in the Montgomery County neighborhood about 35 miles northeast of Houston, became concerned and notified authorities. Welfare officials quickly arrived and placed the kids in foster care while media coverage led with images of the outwardly dilapidated bus on a trash-littered lot.

Carter said officials are accustomed to poor families living in tough conditions and while it’s not illegal to live in a bus, “sadly, that was the sensational part, the condition of their living environment and they were left there all day.”

“Let’s be blunt,” Mark Shorten said. “Once I saw pictures on the news and read the full story, I was glad somebody pulled my children out of that mess. Both of them suffered through that mess.”

At the time, Shorten and his wife were in separate federal prisons both serving 18 months for convictions for conspiracy to embezzle money from victims of Hurricane Ike, which struck in 2008. They had arranged for their children to be supervised by an aunt, who told authorities she became overwhelmed between working 12-hour days and trying to care for them.

“There was a lot of emotional and mental anguish put on the kids,” said Sherrie Shorten, who was released from prison several weeks after the children were removed. “And that’s what we were upset about.”

Her husband was released in July and their children were returned to them, under CPS supervision, in September.

“My main focus when I got home was getting my kids back home,” Mark Shorten said. “And I did that. Life’s as good as it’s going to get at the moment but we’re trying to make it better.”

Despite its worn appearance, the bus inside had been renovated, furnished, had hot and cold water and a bathroom, and was air-conditioned. The family moved it from Louisiana after their home there was flooded from Hurricane Ike. It was intended as a temporary home until they could build on the lot, where the trash has been cleared and items outside, like a lumber pile, are neatly stacked.

“We’d still like to (build), but we have some restrictions,” said Sherrie Shorten, who with her husband is on supervised federal release for three years and also looking at more than $100,000 in court-ordered restitution. “We have a lot of issues rebuilding our lives and getting back on track.”

Mark Shorten maintains neither he nor his wife, an accountant, were guilty.

“I don’t want to sound like somebody who is bitter and mad, because I’m not,” he said. “We’re trying to move forward.”

___

Online

http://www.theschoolbusfamily.com

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News

News, Politics, Government

Pakistan court orders arrest of Prime Minister Ashraf

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Pakistan‘s Supreme Court has ordered the arrest of Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf for allegedly receiving kickbacks from a power plant company in exchange for awarding contracts.

A panel of judges ordered the arrest of 16 people, including Prime Minister Ashraf, and authorities are expected to present the suspects in court tomorrow to face charges.

Senator (Barrister) Aitzaz Ahsan, A PPP leader, tells Fox News, “Mr. Ashraf will remain prime minister till a vote of confidence is lodged against him.” He said that,”there will be a political turmoil in the country as a result of this decision.”

While Minister of Water and Power, Ashraf allegedly received kickbacks and a percentage of revenue from Rental Power Plant companies and individuals, granting them contracts to setup power production to meet the chronic power crisis of the country.

More than $225 million was advanced to nine firms to start power production by the government, according to the court case documents. A majority of the firms failed to deploy the power production facility and others set up the power plants after much delay, widening the power deficit in Pakistan. During this time, Ashraf earned the public name “Raja Rental” from disgruntled Pakistanis.

Last March, Pakistan‘s Supreme Court declared the Rental Power contracts translucent and ordered them null and void.

The country’s anti-corruption and economic intelligence office, or National Accountability Bureau, has been tasked to take action by the top court against individuals who were part of the power scam between 2006 and 2008, the beginning of the energy shortfall caused by circular debit left by the Musharraf regime.

In June 2012, the Supreme Court of Pakistan disqualified former Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani for failing to write a letter to the Swiss court to reopen graft cases against President Asif Ali Zaradari.

The Apex court has in the past sentenced an elected prime minister to death, imprisonment, and another to life, and forced many politicians into self exile.

Pakistan‘s defense minister, Naveed Qamar, who also served as former Water and Power Minister, is also among those facing criminal charges in the case.

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News