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April 8, 2005
House to Consider Bankruptcy Bill Next Wednesday
The House will not be in session Monday, but will return on Tuesday
for a series of votes on the suspension calendar. On Wednesday, the
House will take up the Senate-passed bankruptcy bill,
CongressDaily reported. The bill is expected to pass the
House and would have been taken up this week, but action was postponed
to accommodate a congressional delegation to Rome to attend the funeral
services of Pope John Paul II.
Sen. Specter Says Asbestos Consensus Close
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Arlen Specter (R–Pa.) has
scheduled meetings with Senate Republican leaders and key Democrats for
next week, citing a “few threads outstanding” in reaching
bipartisan legislation, Reuters reported. “I see a realistic bill
coming out which will be a compromise bill,” Specter told
reporters yesterday. Specter has spent months drafting the bill
establishing a $140 billion fund to compensate asbestos victims, while
ending their right to sue. The fund would be financed by asbestos
defendant companies and their insurers.
59 Percent of Americans Plan to Spend Their Tax Refunds on Everyday
Purchases or Make Bill Payments
Nearly six out of ten Americans (59 percent) who have received or
anticipate a tax refund this year plan to spend it on everyday purchases
or make bill payments, down from 68 percent in 2004, according to the
Cambridge Consumer Credit Index. Of those surveyed, 31 percent, up from
27 percent in 2004, plan to save their refunds in a bank account or
invest the money in stocks, bonds or mutual funds. This year, 69 percent
of Americans expect to receive a tax refund, while 21 percent will owe
money and 10 percent will not be paying any taxes.
Tom’s Foods Files Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
Five months after defaulting on more than $60 million in debt,
Tom’s Foods Inc. has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection
from its creditors, the Atlanta Business Chronicle
reported. In an April 6 filing with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, the Columbus, Ga.–based snack foods company said it
has hired Corporate Revitalization Partners of Dallas to assist in its
turnaround. Tom’s also is asking the bankruptcy court for $5
million in interim financing.
United to Replace Regional Partner Air Wisconsin
United Airlines has decided to drop regional flight partner Air
Wisconsin, which has agreed to take a stake in bankrupt US Airways in
exchange for becoming a regional affiliate, United said on Thursday,
Reuters reported. A mediator appointed by the court overseeing
United’s bankruptcy in Chicago ad determined this week that Air
Wisconsin’s financing and equity deal with US Airways posed no
conflict with Air Wisconsin’s current relationship with
United.
Two Rivals Make Tentative Deal for Adelphia
Time Warner and its bidding partner, Comcast, have reached a
tentative deal to acquire Adelphia Communications for nearly $18 billion
in cash and stock, executives involved in the discussions said
yesterday, the New York Times reported. Adelphia, the
nation’s fifth-largest cable TV operator, has been in bankruptcy
protection since 2002.
MCI
No New Offer as MCI Talks With Qwest
Bankers for Qwest Communications International and MCI were in
contact yesterday, leaving open the possibility that Qwest might renew
its takeover bidding, the New York Times reported. The
discussions, according to an executive briefed on the talks, were short
and did not lead to any concrete proposals. But they came a day after
MCI’s board reaffirmed its agreement with Verizon Communications
at $23.10 a share, and deemed Qwest’s bid of $27.50 “not
superior.”
MCI Wants No State Audits of Two Tax Years Says Source
MCI, which is being sued for back taxes by a number of U.S. states,
wants them to agree not to audit its 2003 and 2004 tax returns as part
of a settlement, a source familiar with the issues said on Thursday,
Reuters reported. The long distance carrier also wants to keep net
operating losses to offset future profits, the source added.
Fed’s Pianalto: U.S. Consumers’ Financial Skills Must Be
Boosted
A Federal Reserve policy-maker said today that the knowledge of many
U.S. consumers hasn’t kept pace with the increasing complexity of
the financial tools they’re called upon to use, a shortcoming that
she said could be “disastrous” for them, the online
Wall Street Journal reported.
“As the financial world has become more complex, consumers have
been able to choose from an increasing number of new tools,”
Sandra Pianalto, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland,
said at a conference on consumer finance. “But all of these
choices can prove to be a double-edged sword… if they’re not
managed correctly to meet the consumers’ needs and goals, they can
be disastrous,” he said, the online newspaper reported.
CEOs More Optimistic About Economy
Corporate executives’ confidence in the U.S. economy increased
in the first quarter, marking the first such improvement in a year, the
Conference Board reported yesterday, Bloomberg News reported. Other
reports found that the number of workers filing for unemployment
benefits declined last week and that sales at wholesalers fell in
February for the first time in 21 months.
The New York–based Conference Board’s measure of
sentiment among chief executives of U.S. companies rose to 62 in the
first quarter of 2005, compared with 61 in the fourth quarter of last
year. A gauge of current conditions versus those of six months ago
jumped to 65 from 61, the newswire reported.