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stl jobwatch

Highlights from our blog tracking trends in employment, the economy and labor in St. Louis and beyond. stltoday.com/jobwatch

St. Louis cab company is cited for job discrimination

A St. Louis taxi company has been ordered to pay damages totaling $85,000 for denying a driving position to a candidate after he disclosed a prior medical condition during the applications process.

The Laclede Cab Company’s rejection of the applicant constituted workplace discriminaton, according to a report filed by the Missouri Commission on Human Rights.

Laclede Cab claimed its insurance carrier wouldn’t cover a driver because he’d suffered a stroke some years before.

The commission said the driver had been employed by other cab companies in the years after he was stricken.

“A company violates the law when it assumes that a person with a disability cannot perform a job,” commission executive director Alisa Warren said in a statement issued Monday morning.

“Such stereotypes deny people with disabilities the chance to earn a living and it also deprives employers of capable and dedicated employees.”

The commission, a division of the Missouri Department of Labor, ordered Laclede Cab to pay $50,000 in damages and another $35,000 for violating the applicant’s civil rights.

Dave McNutt, the owner of Laclede Cab, said the company is appealing the commission’s ruling.

(09.13.11)

Missouri unemployment edges up slightly

TORONTO

As Germany emerged from the destruction of World War II, it rebuilt its economy on a system of strong rules governing virtually every aspect of business, from auto manufacturing to competition among regional newspapers.

Today, the German economy is Europe’s strongest, a regional powerhouse that its indebted neighbors depend on for billions of euros they need to cope their staggering indebtedness. Germany is insisting that they, too, adopt strict rules before it’s prepared to release its money.

Left, right and center, a vast majority of Germans and their leaders believe that the combination of free markets and strict competition controls was the key to their country’s economic success.

“At the root of the concept is that you put down the rules and let people have a go, but you don’t screw with the rules,” said Jackson Janes, Executive Director of the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies in Washington.

“That’s a very different attitude that doesn’t apply in places like Greece,” he said. “It’s very difficult to get people to focus on that structure that has worked so well for the Germans.”

Germans point to their nation’s 3.6 percent growth last year, the strongest in Europe, that allowed them to recover swiftly from the 2009 global downturn as proof.

The belief in “Ordnungspolitik,” or “order politics,” underlies Berlin’s years of repeated demands for the European Union to force restrictions on its members in exchange for German funds to rescue neighbors no longer able to service their staggering national debts.

Those demands will be on display Tuesday when Chancellor Angela Merkel travels to Paris armed with plans for a new EU body to enforce strict budget limits and fiscal policy, and calls for all 17 eurozone nations to follow Germany’s example and enshrine a balanced budget in their constitution.

Such disagreements over “order politics” are viewed abroad as having hampered Europe’s response to the crisis, spawning long political battles with countries that see strict, unchanging rules as unsuited to their economies. That squabbling has undermined investors’ faith in the eurozone’s ability to manage its members’ debt, and the euro and the continent’s stock markets have been hit by seemingly unending turmoil.

When Greece first appealed for help in 2010, Merkel demanded a permanent crisis resolution mechanism before it would agree to loosen its pursestrings, ultimately delaying a bailout.

Germany came under fire for insisting that EU members agree to tougher sanctions for countries that have excessive government debt before endorsing the euro110 billion ($157 billion) bailout package.

In the end, Merkel backed down, the aid to Greece went through, the regulations didn’t and Germany emerged facing accusations of foot-dragging and tightfistedness. Yet the situation continued to worsen. Within months, there was talk of Ireland and then Portugal needing aid.

In Germany, the move had been an attempt to make the package more palatable to voters who feel they repeatedly tightened their belts after the expensive reunification of East and West Germany in the 1990s, and others should do the same.

After the bailout, German tabloids howled that taxpayers’ hard-earned savings were being squandered to bail out a nation viewed as indulgent and lazy. The media were flooded with stories of Greek tax-dodging and corruption.

“Germans are a very disciplined people, this characteristic has also made us masters of export in the global economy,” said Peter Walschburger, a professor at Berlin’s Free University who specializes in the psychology of economics. “The Greeks, by contrast are governed more by emotion and impulse.”

Some 90 percent of Germans say they believe state regulation is needed to govern large financial institutes from banks to big businesses, according to the 2010 Pew Global Attitudes survey. Last year, Germany’s federal debt increased 21.9 percent to euro1.28 trillion ($1.82 trillion), largely due to the need to bail out ailing banks.

EU countries have been patchy at best in keeping their debts below 60 percent and their deficits below 3 percent of economic output as stipulated by the so-called Stability and Growth Pact, pushed in the 1990s by Germany’s finance minister at the time, Theo Waigel.

But Germany and France later agreed to weaken the rules, inviting other countries’ profligacy.

Now, Berlin’s response has been to push for even stricter and more automatic sanctions at the EU level.

“The Germans have set up this whole concept of, here are the parameters, now go to it,” Janes said. “When they see them violated, or when they see people cheating on them, it basically makes them enforce it that much more.”

Merkel has repeatedly called for a “stability culture on budgets and finances,” as she told reporters in October, pointing to Germany as an example.

During Germany’s 2007 turn at the presidency of the Group of Eight, Merkel pushed hard for more transparency on global financial markets. But her efforts ran into stiff resistance from Washington and London.

Once the global economic downturn hit in 2009, Berlin clashed again with Washington and London over how best to combat that crisis. Merkel came under fire for failing to launch wider stimulus programs, while expressing criticism of President Barack Obama’s decision to push money at the problem in the United States as a rescue measure.

The second Greek bailout package this year only made the situation worse on the home front.

The prospect of yet more eurozone aid has added to tensions within Merkel’s center-right coalition, which has spent much of its tenure since winning office in 2009 immersed in internal squabbles over issues ranging from pledges of tax cuts to nuclear energy. The issue is awkward for Merkel because conservatives tend to be particular sticklers for “order politics.”

With an election late in 2013 beginning to loom on the horizon, Merkel is caught between being viewed from abroad as not doing enough, and annoying supporters in Germany, where she faces charges of selling out. At the same time, the first signs of a slowing German economy are beginning to show. Numbers last week showed German exports fell 1.2 percent on the month in June.

At a time when strong leadership and clear signals are being called for to calm jittery markets and reassure investors, Germany will be challenged to convince its partners that playing by the rules is enough to guarantee economic success.

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The stock market buckled Monday under the weight of a crisis in Europe and danger of recession at home. Reeling from a downgrade of American debt, the Dow Jones industrials plunged 634 points.

It was the worst day for the market since the financial crisis in the fall of 2008 and extended Wall Street’s sudden, sharp decline. Stocks have lost 15 percent of their value in just two and a half weeks.

Monday was the first trading day since Standard and Poor’s downgraded the United States’ risk-free credit rating, and the selling started at the opening bell. The Dow dropped 250 points in minutes. For the rest of the day, investors looked for safer places for their money. With few buyers left for stocks, the market could only drift lower.

The Dow finished the day down 5.5 percent. The point decline was the worst since Dec. 1, 2008, and the sixth-steepest ever. The average ended at 10,809.85, its first close under 11,000 since November.

In a bit of irony following the S&P downgrade, investors decided U.S. debt was one of the safest places to be. They also sought refuge in gold, which set a record price.

“The S&P downgrade of U.S. government debt is the least of our problems,” said economist Scott Brown at Raymond James & Associates. “The bigger worry is subpar economic growth and the threat of a new recession.”

Economists at Goldman Sachs peg the chances of another recession at one in three, most likely in the next six to nine months. The threat was barely talked about earlier this summer.

The U.S. economy grew at a feeble 0.8 percent annual pace the first half of 2011, its slowest since the end of the Great Recession in June 2009. Manufacturing and consumer spending have slowed dramatically.

Oil prices plunged 6 percent to the lowest price of the year Monday _ $81.31 a barrel. Investors predict a weakening economy means that consumers and businesses will buy less gasoline.

The turmoil in the U.S. markets was the end of a daylong rout that swept the world. Stocks lost 4 percent in South Korea and 2 percent in Japan, then 5 percent in Germany and 4 percent in France.

In the U.S., stocks fell even though Moody’s, another major credit rating agency, stood by its top rating of Aaa for the United States. It said it could downgrade the U.S. if it did not cut its deficit, “but it is early to conclude that such measures will not be forthcoming.”

Financial markets were not comforted by an afternoon statement by President Barack Obama, who said Washington needs more “common sense and compromise” to tame its debt.

“Markets will rise and fall,” he said. “But this is the United States of America. No matter what some agency may say, we’ve always been and always will be a triple-A country.”

Across the Atlantic, policymakers struggled to contain a debt crisis of their own. The threat of default has spread from relatively small countries like Greece and Portugal to bigger ones _ Italy and Spain.

If those countries failed to meet their debt payments, Italian and Spanish banks would absorb losses on their holdings of their countries’ government bonds.

Then the pain could spread outward _ to foreign banks that made loans to Spanish or Italian banks and beyond.

The European Central Bank stepped in Monday, buying billions of euros’ worth of Italian and Spanish bonds to drive down dangerously high interest rates. But the move does nothing to address the underlying problem: huge Italian and Spanish debts that could require a bailout and strain the resources of the European Union.

S&P added to the anxieties Friday night by downgrading long-term U.S. government debt _ Treasury securities with maturities of more than a year _ by one notch, from AAA to AA+.

Then on Monday, it downgraded the credit ratings of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and other government agencies that rely on the creditworthiness of the federal government cash advance in one hour.

In withdrawing the top credit rating, S&P blamed political paralysis in Washington. Republicans and Democrats agree on the need to reduce massive annual budget deficits that have left the United States holding $14.3 trillion in debt. But they can’t agree how to do it. Republicans refuse to raise tax revenues, and Democrats resist cuts to social programs such as Medicare and Social Security.

But in their first opportunity to buy long-term Treasurys after S&P declared them riskier, investors paid a premium for them. The yield on 10-year Treasury bonds fell to 2.34 percent Monday from 2.56 percent Friday as investors bid prices up.

“What you’re seeing amply demonstrated today is that, should there be any question about the stability of the global economic backdrop, the U.S. dollar rises in value, and Treasurys are still the pre-eminent flight-to-quality security in the world markets,” said Robert Tipp, chief investment strategist with Prudential Fixed Income.

The drop in Treasury yields signals that investors are more worried about slowing growth than they are about the credit risk posed by the U.S. government. Investors showed Monday that nothing has shaken their confidence that the U.S. will pay its creditors.

Many investors flee to Treasurys when there are signs economic growth is deteriorating. Steven Major, a strategist at HSBC Bank, said 10-year yields could drop as low as 2 percent if the U.S. stumbles back into recession. It fell as low as 2.06 percent during the financial crisis in 2008.

S&P’s decision does pose one risk, said Jan Hatzius, Goldman Sachs’ chief economist: It could force the U.S. government to cut spending and reduce its budget deficit faster than it would otherwise.

Hatzius is already forecasting that cuts in government spending could reduce U.S. growth by 1 percentage point in 2012. Overall, the U.S. economy is likely to grow a meager 2 percent to 2.5 percent through next year, Hatzius said in a conference call Monday.

But the pressure on policymakers to reduce government deficits could lead to additional steps that will slow growth. For example, the White House and Congress could allow a cut in Social Security taxes to expire at the end of this year, as scheduled. That could subtract another one-half percentage point from the economy’s growth rate, Hatzius said, and raise the risk of a recession.

Government spending cuts, especially at the state and local level, are already a drag on economic growth. From April through June, public cuts lowered economic growth, which was running at a weak 1.3 percent annual rate, by 0.23 percentage points.

Since the federal government seems unlikely to do much to stimulate the economy, attention is turning again to the Federal Reserve, which meets Tuesday.

Doug Roberts, chief investment strategist at Channel Capital Research, said the weakening economy and international turmoil mean the odds have “increased substantially” that the Fed will ultimately announce a new round of bond purchases designed to jolt the economy by pushing down long-term interest rates. The Fed ended a $600 billion bond-buying program in June.

“What’s rocking the market is a growth scare,” said Kathleen Gaffney, co-manager of the $20 billion Loomis Sayles bond fund.

She said the market is worried not about the downgrade but about how the U.S. and Europe will grow their way out of their debt problems.

“The gravity of the situation won’t be dealt with until the market continues to riot to get their attention,” she said.

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Medical device maker Boston Scientific is reporting a nearly 50 percent increase in second-quarter profit and says it will cut up to 1,400 employees to streamline operations.

The company is announcing a restructuring program to eliminate unnecessary administrative positions and automate other production work. The company expects to shed between 1,200 and 1,400 employees by the end of 2013. Boston Scientific expects the cuts to save between $225 and $275 million annually, some of which will be invested in other areas of the company.

For the second quarter, the Natick, Mass., company earned $146 million, or 10 cents per share, up from $98 million, or 6 cents per share, in the prior-year period.

Company sales grew 2 percent to $1.98 billion, which was above Wall Street estimates.

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PNC Bank has filed a federal lawsuit against an owner of two multi-family properties in St. Louis County seeking to recoup nearly $6 million in outstanding loans and asking the court to appoint receivers to take over management of both properties.

PNC Bank filed the suit in the District Court of St. Louis on April 18 against Gannon Partnership 19 LP and Aspen Cove Townhomes LLC, which are both affiliates of Gannon International, a privately-held business based in Creve Coeur.

PNC alleges Gannon defaulted on a loan for the 272-unit Springwood Apartments in Bel Ridge in North St. Louis County and owes nearly $5.7 million. PNC further alleges that Gannon has not adequately cared for the Springwood Apartments, as required under its loan terms. To support this allegation, PNC attached a copy of a letter Bel-Ridge city officials sent to Gannon in mid-March listing dozens of necessary repairs, including falling catwalks, broken windows and hanging gutters. The property is currently leased to tenants.

“PNC is informed and believes that the failure to make such repairs will result in Bel-Ridge’s refusal to issue occupancy permits,” PNC says in the suit. PNC asks the court to appoint a receiver to take over management of Springwood.

Calls to Gannon were not returned.

Wendi Alper-Pressman, an attorney representing PNC Bank, declined to comment on the pending litigation.

The lawsuit also alleges Gannon owes PNC $272,438 for a loan secured by Aspen Cove Townhomes in Ellisville, which has 78 units. Some of the apartment units have been converted to condominiums and are owned by parties not affiliated with the lawsuit. PNC alleges Gannon is in default on the loan and requested that the court appoint a receiver for the property to oversee leases and sales contracts.

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President Barack Obama is telling a civil rights group that his administration has more work to do to create opportunities for all Americans and close gaps in education and employment rates between different groups.

The president said Americans of all types are struggling to make good. But he also said the black community faces higher unemployment than other groups. And he said the poorest in society had to sacrifice the most during the recession.

The president made his comments Wednesday before the Rev. Al Sharpton’s civil rights group in New York City, making good on a promise he made as a presidential candidate to return there.

Obama spoke about making education more accessible and affordable, calling it the “civil rights issue of our time.”

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

Pitching the promise of energy independence, President Barack Obama cautioned Wednesday that it’s going to be tough to transition from America’s oil-dependent economy and acknowledged there’s little he can do to lower gas prices over the short term.

“I’m just going to be honest with you. There’s not much we can do next week or two weeks from now,” the president told workers at a wind turbine plant. It’s a theme Obama’s struck before as he tries to show voters he’s attuned to a top economic concern with gas prices pushing toward $4 a gallon.

Obama said he wants to move toward “a future where America is less dependent on foreign oil, more reliant on clean energy produced by workers like you.” That will happen by reducing oil imports, tapping domestic energy sources and shifting the nation to renewable and less polluting sources of energy, such as wind, the president says. He has set a goal of reducing oil imports by one-third by 2025.

But the president said it won’t happen overnight and if any politician says it’s easy, “they’re not telling the truth.”

“Gas prices? They’re going to still fluctuate until we can start making these broader changes, and that’s going to take a couple of years to have serious effect,” Obama said.

Obama needled one questioner who asked about gas prices, now averaging close to $3.70 a gallon nationwide, and suggested that the gentleman consider getting rid of his gas-guzzling vehicle.

“If you’re complaining about the price of gas and you’re only getting 8 miles a gallon, you know,” Obama said laughingly direct payday lenders. “You might want to think about a trade-in.”

The president spoke at a town hall meeting at Gamesa Technology Corp., a Spanish company that makes giant turbines that use wind to generate electricity. According to the White House, it is the first overseas company of its kind to set up shop in the U.S.

Back in Washington, negotiations continued on a budget deal to avert a government shutdown Friday and Obama urged lawmakers to get it done. The president said he wants to cut spending, but not at the expense of cutting priorities like energy and education.

As fuel prices rise because of growing demand worldwide and political unrest in oil-producing nations in North Africa and the Middle East, drivers are feeling pinched at the pump. Republicans blame Obama and his policies and he, in turn, is striving to show the public that he gets it.

Gasoline prices rose another 2 cents Tuesday to a new national average of just over $3.68 a gallon, according to AAA and other sources. Obama’s visit to Gamesa was his fourth energy event since March 11. He’s scheduled a fifth for Friday in Indianapolis.

Obama argues that shifting to cleaner and domestic energy sources will help create jobs and boost U.S. competitiveness.

Education is another item on Obama’s competitiveness agenda. That issue was to be the focus of a speech he was giving later Wednesday to the Rev. Al Sharpton’s civil rights group in New York City. Obama’s appearance keeps a promise he made to the National Action Network when he spoke there as a presidential candidate in 2007. Obama pledged to return, win or lose.

He returns just two days after launching his re-election bid. He is facing a key constituency that at times has scolded him for not being attentive enough to certain issues, such as double-digit black unemployment, but continues to hold him in high regard.

Obama deflects such criticism by arguing that his polices to expand the economy, create jobs and improve the education system, among other goals, will help the country as a whole, blacks included.

Ninety-five percent of blacks who voted, opted for Obama in 2008. A Gallup poll released last week showed his job approval among blacks holding at 84 percent, about the same as six months earlier.

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LaBarge Inc., the Ladue-based maker of electronic circuit boards, cables and other components, is being acquired by Ducommun, a California-based aerospace supplier, for $340 million.

The sale means the loss of a corporate headquarters for the St. Louis area, although Ducommun is not saying whether it will close LaBarge’s Ladue offices at 9900 Clayton Road.

Ducommun is buying LaBarge for $19.25 per share, and the sale price includes assuming LaBarge’s debt.

Pending regulatory approval and approval from LaBarge’s shareholders, the combined company will have $730 million in sales. The deal should close in June.

The Ducommun LaBarge Technologies subsidiary will be based at Ducommun’s headquarters in Carson, Calif., and will be led by LaBarge’s chief operating officer, Randy Buschling.

LaBarge’s Chairman and Chief Executive Craig LaBarge will continue working at the company during the transition, LaBarge said in an emailed response to questions Monday.

LaBarge traces its local history to 1953 when it began as LaBarge Pipe and Steel Co. LaBarge has 40 employees at its Ladue headquarters.

Over the past decade, LaBarge’s annual revenue has grown by an average of 14 percent, and some of its largest customers are Boeing, Raytheon and General Electric. Last year, LaBarge won an $18 cash advances pay day loan.9 million multiyear contract to supply electronics to support lighting and power systems for UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters. LaBarge’s 2010 revenue was $324 million.

“The name LaBarge is well- known and respected across the industry landscape,” Ducommun’s Chief Executive Tony Reardon said Monday during a conference call with analysts.

During the call, Reardon said buying LaBarge will help diversify Ducommun’s customer base so it’s not so heavily concentrated in the defense sector. Additionally, buying LaBarge will add electronic assemblies to its product lineup, which Ducommun doesn’t currently offer.

“They not only make the component parts, but they drive these into much larger assemblies, which I think is where the marketplace is going,” he said.

Reardon said during Monday’s conference call that he has formed an integration team to evaluate the two companies’ facilities and operations.

LaBarge has more than 1,500 employees at 11 manufacturing facilities, including a cable plant in Joplin, Mo., that employs 370 people.

“We have not identified any consolidations at this time,” Reardon said.

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BP PLC’s partners in Russian joint venture TNK-BP rejected a proposal by the British oil company on Saturday regarding its disputed tie-up with OAO Rosneft, Russia’s top crude producer.

BP said the consortium of Russian billionaire shareholders did not accept an offer to involve them in talks about the Rosneft deal at a TNK-BP board meeting in Paris.

“A proposal by BP’s nominated directors, which would have allowed TNK-BP to hold initial discussions with Rosneft about pursuing the Arctic opportunity, was rejected by Alfa, Access and Renova (AAR),” BP said in a statement.

The AAR consortium, which has four representatives on the TNK-BP board _ alongside four BP-nominated directors and three independent directors _ has argued that BP’s proposed $8 billion share swap deal with Rosneft violates the TNK-BP shareholders’ agreement and would erode the joint venture’s competitive advantage.

AAR last month won a High Court injunction in London that has put the deal on ice until the dispute is resolved. The two sides underwent court-ordered arbitration this week and a ruling is expected by the end of the month.

The increasingly acrimonious dispute is giving BP a major headache as it tries to regroup and move on from the disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The Rosneft deal to explore the Arctic seabed would allow BP to hedge its production options as it faces new restrictions in the United States.

BP said Saturday that it “remains committed to finding a reasonable businesslike resolution to the matters raised by AAR… This will be through arbitration and direct talks with all parties involved.”

The London-based company added that it “continues to act constructively and reasonably.”

Rosneft was more blunt in a warning statement issued ahead of the board meeting, saying it never considered TNK-BP as a possible participant in its alliance with BP “due to its lack of the relevant competence and TNK-BP never made any proposals to Rosneft expressing its interest in working on the shelf.”

“Any activities aimed at disrupting the deal that cause damage to Rosneft will be closely examined,” it added. “Based on such examination, Rosneft will undertake all measures to defend the rights of its shareholders, with all the resulting consequences.”

Saturday’s extraordinary board meeting in Paris, called by AAR, was the third board meeting to be called on the dispute after the first two failed to find a resolution.

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Iraq’s oil exports climbed to their highest level in February since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, boosted by a resumption in exports from the semiautonomous Kurdish region in the north, a senior oil official said Tuesday.

The country, which overwhelmingly relies of oil revenues for its budget, also benefited from the spike in higher crude prices triggered by the violent uprising in Libya that has led to a 50 percent cut in production from that OPEC member.

Iraqi oil exports averaged 2.202 million barrels per day in February, up from 2.161 million barrels per day the previous month, said Falah al-Amiri, head of the State Oil Marketing Organization. At prices ranging between $97-$98 per barrel, Iraq generated more than $6 billion from oil sales in February, he said.

The increase is crucial for Iraq which, although sitting atop the world’s fourth largest proven reserves of conventional crude, has been struggling to rebuild its oil sector after years of war, sanctions, neglect and more recently, sabotage. But the country’s precarious security situation, coupled with feuding between the central government in Baghdad and the Kurds in the north have slowed efforts to bolster the vital sector.

The Kurds have sought greater control over oil in their crude-rich region, while Baghdad has argued that the oil is a national resource that should be under central government control.

The resumption of exports from the north helped boost February’s figures. The Kurdish region’s prime minister said Sunday that oil exports were running slightly over 80,000 barrels per day from two northern fields.

In all, Iraq exported an average of 1.708 million barrels per day through the south while 484,000 barrels per day were pumped through to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, through the north, said al-Amiri. In addition, another 10,000 barrels per day were exported to neighboring Jordan using tanker trucks.

Exports from the north were halted a few months after they started in June 2009 amid a disagreement between the Baghdad government and Kurdish officials over payments. Earlier this year, an agreement was reached to resume the exports.

The government aims to raise daily output to 12 million barrels by 2017, a level that would put it nearly on par with Saudi Arabia’s current production capacity. Many analysts, however, say the target is unrealistic.

Even so, the current boost in exports and oil prices will likely help ease pressure on Iraq’s budget.

The government has set an $82.6 billion budget for 2011, based on an average oil price of $76.5 per barrel and 2.2 million barrels per day in oil exports. The deficit is projected at about $13.4 billion.

Underscoring the challenges Iraq faces, gunmen last week stormed the 310,000-barrels-a-day Beiji refinery _ the country’s biggest _ and bombed the facility, forcing its shutdown. Hours later, the 30,000 barrel per day Samawa refinery was shut down due to a fire in a storage unit.

On Monday, the Oil Ministry said it had restarted operations partially at Beiji refinery and full operations at Samawa. Beiji produces refined fuels for the local market, and a prolonged outage at the plant can mean electricity cuts and long lines at the pumps for Iraqis who are already fed up with corruption and the pace of development in the country.

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