Finance and Economic

The idea popped into Laura Stude’s head when she happened on a stack of legacy books while shopping last year for a Mother’s Day gift.

Eyeing the blank-paged journals, with prompts for parents and grandparents to reminisce about their lives, Laura Stude pondered a 21st Century alternative.

“Instead of writing something that no one could read or might get burned in a house fire, I thought ‘How cool would it be if you could put something online,’” Stude recalled.

The thought became a concept that Stude thought might appeal to appeal to the aging baby boomer population.

Last week, she decided to see if it had legs.

Startup Weekend, an event that has gained popularity at worldwide venues since the economy turned the mega-corporation world on its head, made its St. Louis debut a week ago tonight when 41 entrepreneurs brought an equal number of business proposals to a downtown incubator for information technology ventures.

Each arrived with a 60-second pitch outlining the strategies they envisioned as money-makers, the next social media phenomena or, in the case of one participant hoping to “create a better world through kindness and community,” a software application aligned with an over-arching goal of “changing the world.”

The proposals were put to a vote.

When the balloting was completed, teams headed by the 12 finalists - Stude included - adjourned to the conference rooms where they would spend nearly every hour of the next two days perfecting entrepreneurial ventures. Their ideas ranged from an application to synchronize smart phones with concert arena light shows to a software program designed to promote better childhood behavior.

It was Super Bowl weekend for would-be entrepreneurs like Alex Kliman, 26, sales representative by day and formulator of grand ideas by night.

“I’m one of those people who thinks they have a million dollar idea every time they wake up,” said the Dogtown resident, the creator of the pulsating “event-driven” smart phone program he envisions illuminating the concert halls and sporting venues of the future.

It became clear from the get go that time is the enemy at Startup Weekends: Come Sunday night, a panel of four judges would observe presentations from each team and select a winner based on originality, feasibility, marketability and, not least, financial viability.

The stakes were not high.

When I asked the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association executive who helped coordinate the weekend about the first place prize, Jay DeLong responded by patting me on the back.

OK, there was a bit more incentive than that.

But not much: The teams were vying for a break on the rent for incubator office space, gift certificates from downtown businesses and tee-shirts.

Still, the contestants went at it like a million bucks was on the line, working until midnight Saturday despite a schedule that called for adjournment in the early evening.

Most of the teams were comprised of total strangers.

Carl Foster of  Chicago joined forces with University City’s Stude because the idea he brought to the table - which didn’t muster enough votes - closely matched her online legacy book project.

With an eye toward the myriad obstacles standing in the way of successful start-ups, Stude assembled a crew capable of covering all the bases from software and website development to marketing to projected financial outcomes.

“Everybody brought a unique skill that moved the chains forward,” she said.

The team didn’t let her down.

They looked for ways to fine-tune the band-width to accommodate baby-boomers who prefer video over the written word business cards. They tweaked Stude’s four-minute presentation the judges and convinced the team leader to abandon her pet name for the project - “Time in a Bottle” - in favor of “StoryBucket.”

Laura Stude went before the judges shortly before 6 o’clock Sunday night.

“Do it before you croak,” she said, launching the presentation with the catch phrase formulated by the team barely an hour before. “Fill the bucket, before you kick the bucket.”

Supported by a PowerPoint presentation, she walked the judges through the various attributes of the project, in particular a process that is a marked upgrade over the arcane pen and paper.

The wait for the judges’ decision, slightly more than hour, seemed interminable for a 100-plus would-be entrepreneurs who’d spent the last two days burning through creative energy like coal.

Dragging out the tension a few minutes longer, the judges reviewed each entry prior to announcing the winners.

They praised StoryBucket, but advised that success rested on the ability to differentiate itself from Facebook, Flickr and other social media that lend themselves to story sharing.

It served as a hint of what lay ahead.

The winning team, “Analytic Just-Us” began the weekend as an amorphous proposal for a comprehensive database to provide background to attorneys preparing civil and criminal cases.

By Sunday the idea had evolved into an entry with the potential to analyze the decisions of juries and judges in every corner of the country.

“What Money Ball was for baseball this will be for lawyers,” predicted Andrew Winship, a St. Louis attorney and a member of the “Analytic Just-Us” team.

Though judges didn’t rank StoryBucket among the top five ideas, Stude remained upbeat. An idea born of happenstance during a shopping excursion had survived two days of intense scrutiny and readjustment.

Even more encouraging, Stude received word via Twitter following her presentation that an investor might be interested in helping her further pursue the StoryBucket proposal.

“If nothing else, it was good for affirmation,” said Stude, vowing, “this is just the start.”

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“It’s a real culture shock. After tax, $150,000 is not much. It probably won’t even pay for the private-school education tabs for their kids. It’s going to be a tough time of readjustment.” - New York compensation consultant James Reda on the hardships reduced bonuses incur on Wall Street executives.

Source: The New York Post

BY THE NUMBERS

5.6 million - Number of health care sector jobs the U.S. economy is expected to add from 2010-2012.

Source: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Employment Projections

FINAL WORD

“I call myself frayed white collar - part of the privileged poor. I have a college degree, a career and an array of middle-class, working-class and more economically privileged friends; together we are a fairly good representation of the 97 percent, or maybe the 95 percent. And most of us are hard-pressed; even my teacher friends, making about $60,000 a year, are perpetually flat-lined economically, eking across each month’s finish line thanks to credit cards.” - Christopher D. Cook in an essay on the humility of applying for food stamps.

Source: Salon

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Germany’s controversial suggestion of a European debt regulator with direct control over Greece’s spending turned out to be such a touchy subject that Chancellor Angela didn’t even mention the idea to the leaders at Monday’s European Union summit in Brussels.

In what was seen as a blow for Germany’s push for tighter European integration, national sovereignty appeared to have won the argument Monday.

Over the weekend, Germany had made a pre-summit call to give a powerful European debt watchdog direct control over Greece’s budget decisions. Despite often stinging criticism over how Greece runs it financial affairs, having a foreigner directly run a nation’s budget found no takers among the other leaders.

Even Merkel’s staunch ally, Nicolas Sarkozy, who is so close that they have morphed into the diplomatic couple “Merkozy”, could not back her.

“We cannot put a country under trusteeship and run it from abroad. It would not be reasonable, not democratic, and, in short, not efficient,” Sarkozy said after the summit.

Going into the summit, German Economics Minister Philipp Roesler had suggested the EU should take over the “leadership and supervision” of Greece’s budget.

Athens is teetering on the brink of a disorderly default and is seeking a key agreement to get a second euro130 billion ($170.43 billion) bailout. The country has been surviving since May 2010 on an initial euro110 billion package of rescue loans from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund.

Greece must also cut its deficit further and push through painful public sector layoffs and sell off several state companies, and its partners are unhappy with the pace of action.

Still, a “Sparkommissar” in German_ or “savings Czar” _ was beyond the pale for Greece.

“Our partners do know that European integration is based on … the respect of their national identity and dignity,” Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos wrote in an angry retort.

“I am certain that the political leaderships of all European nations _ particularly bigger nations that bear increased responsibility for the course of Europe _ are aware of how friends and partners, who have joined their historical destinies, raise questions,” he wrote on Sunday.

Merkel got the message.

“I believe that we are having a discussion that we shouldn’t be having,” she said entering the summit.

Other European leaders have said that the Commission, the EU’s executive, needed the power to block bad spending decisions, but not only in Greece but also other highly indebted countries.

But taking over the leadership of budget went too far.

“It can only be put in place by the Greeks, in a democratic way,” said Sarkozy.

Ever since Greece threw the eurozone into financial turmoil in 2009 when it admitted previous governments had played down the amount of debt, it has been criticized as a profligate nation living off the wealthy northern nations.

It has since committed itself, under often intense pressure, to slowly move back toward a degree of fiscal discipline.

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How much is it worth to suffer through a terrifying cruise ship grounding?

Italian ship operator Costa Crociere SpA on Friday put the figure at euro11,000 ($14,460) plus reimbursement for the cost of cruise tickets and extra travel expenses, seeking to cut a deal with as many passengers as possible to take the wind out of class-action lawsuits stemming from the Jan. 13 grounding of its Costa Concordia cruise liner off Tuscany.

But many passengers are refusing to accept the deal, saying they can’t yet put a figure on the costs of the trauma they endured. And lawyers are backing them up, telling passengers it’s far too soon to know how people’s lives and livelihoods might be affected by the experience.

“We’re very worried about the children,” said Claudia Urru of Cagliari, Sardinia, who was on the Concordia with her husband and two sons, aged three and 12, when it capsized.

Her elder son is seeing a psychiatrist: He won’t speak about the incident or even look at television footage of the grounding.

“He’s terrorized at night,” she told The Associated Press. “He can’t go to the bathroom alone. We’re all sleeping together, except my husband, who has gone into another room because we don’t all fit.”

As a result, she said, her family retained a lawyer because they don’t know what the real impact _ financial or otherwise _ of the trauma will be. She said her family simply isn’t able to make such decisions now.

“We are having a very, very hard time,” she said.

Costa’s offer, which covers compensation for lost baggage and psychological trauma, was the result of negotiations with several consumer groups who say they are representing 3,206 passengers from 61 countries who suffered no physical harm when the massive cruise ship hit a reef off the island of Giglio.

It’s not clear, though, how many of those passengers will take the deal, even though they’re guaranteed payment within a week of signing on.

In addition to the lump-sum indemnity, Costa, a unit of the world’s biggest cruise operator, Miami-based Carnival Corp., said it would reimburse uninjured passengers the full costs of their cruise, their return travel expenses and any medical expenses they sustained after the grounding.

Costa said the euro11,000 figure is higher than current indemnification limits provided for by law, and added that it wouldn’t deduct anything that insurance companies might kick in.

The deal does not apply to the hundreds of crew on the ship, many of whom have lost their jobs, the roughly 100 people who were injured in the chaotic evacuation, or the families who lost loved ones.

Sixteen bodies have already been recovered from the disaster and another 16 people who were on board are missing and presumed dead.

On Friday, the first known lawsuit was filed against Costa and Carnival by one of the Concordia’s crew members, Gary Lobaton of Peru. The suit, filed in Chicago federal court, accuses Carnival and Costa of negligence because of an unsafe evacuation and is seeking class-action status.

In Italy, some consumer groups have already signed on as injured parties in the criminal case against the Concordia’s captain, Francesco Schettino, who is accused of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning the ship before all those aboard were evacuated.

Schettino, who is under house arrest, deviated from the ship’s charted course to bring the Concordia closer to Giglio, gashing the hull on a reef a few hundred meters offshore. He has said the reef wasn’t on his nautical charts.

In addition, Codacons, one of Italy’s best-known consumer groups, has teamed up with two U.S. law firms to launch a class-action lawsuit against Costa and Carnival in Miami, claiming that it expects to get anywhere from euro125,000 ($164,000) to euro1 million ($1.3 million) per passenger.

German attorney Hans Reinhardt, who currently represents 15 Germans who survived the accident and is in talks to represent families who lost loved ones, said he is advising his clients not to take the settlement.

Instead, he along with Codacons is working with one of the U.S. law firms to pursue the class-action suit in Miami.

“What they have lost is much more than euro11,000,” he said of his clients.

But Roberto Corbella, who represented Costa in the negotiations with consumer groups that led to the offer, said the deal provides passengers with quick and “generous” restitution that with all the reimbursements could amount to some euro14,000 ($18,500) per passenger, even non-paying children.

“The big advantage that they have is an immediate response, no legal expenses, and they can put this whole thing behind them,” he told AP.

Melissa Goduti, of Wallingford, Connecticut, is trying to do just that but hasn’t quite been able to. The 28-year-old, who was traveling with her mother aboard the Concordia, says she can’t sleep at night _ “nothing works, even meds” _ and has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

She said Costa had offered to pay for three to five counseling sessions for the PTSD, but that she’ll need more.

“That will not fix my problem,” she said in an email. “No one is going to get over this tragic event in 3-5 counseling sessions.”

Passenger Ophelie Gondelle of Marseille, France, said euro11,000 was paltry “especially considering the psychological” trauma she endured. She said she and her boyfriend are taking part in a French class-action effort underway instead.

Urru, the Sardinian mother of two, said her family was so traumatized by the grounding that when it came time to go home the day after, they flew to Sardinia from Rome rather than take the ferry because everyone was too terrified to go near a ship.

“It was impossible,” to go by boat, she said.

For the past several days, she has kept busy by preparing a box of goods to send to a resident on the island of Giglio who let her family and their friends _ a total of 10 people _ stay in a holiday apartment the night of the grounding.

Urru said she was sending seven sweaters and two blankets to make up for the things that her family took from the apartment, since they had nothing to guard against the freezing Tuscan chill. She said she was also sending the homeowner some cheese and salami and typical Sardinian sweets.

“Inside this apartment, it was so warm, so welcoming. They gave us everything that was inside the house,” Urru said. “They were truly, truly wonderful.”

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Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon will name the state’s new top job creation official on Friday, his office said Thursday.

The new director of the Department of Economic Development will replace David Kerr, who’s stepping down this month after a little more than two years in the post.

The former AT&T executive and Kansas Commerce Secretary worked to significantly boost Missouri’s exports and led an overhaul of the state’s strategic economic development plan. He also played a key role in negotiations with both Ford and General Motors about plant expansions in the state.

But his tenure was also marked by sluggish job growth and, in recent months, controversy over a sugar plant deal gone awry in Moberly. Meanwhile, efforts by the Nixon administration to re-tool Missouri’s menu of economic incentives largely stalled in the General Assembly. Kerr replaced Nixon’s first economic development chief, St. Louis attorney Linda Martinez, who lasted less than a year in the job.

Whoever takes the seat next will do so ahead of a re-election campaign in which the economy is expected to be a major issue. They will also take the seat on the eve of a Legislative session where tax credits will, again, likely see much debate.

Nixon will visit Kansas City and Springfield (though not St. Louis) to make the announcement.

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NATO warplanes bombed three Libyan state TV satellite transmitters in Tripoli overnight, targeting facilities that have been used to incite violence and threaten civilians, the military alliance said Saturday.

A series of loud explosions echoed across the capital before dawn. There was no immediate comment from Libyan officials on what had been hit, but state TV was still on the air in Tripoli as of Saturday morning.

NATO said the airstrikes aimed to degrade Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s “use of satellite television as a means to intimidate the Libyan people and incite acts of violence against them.”

“Striking specifically these critical satellite dishes will reduce the regime’s ability to oppress civilians while (preserving) television broadcast infrastructure that will be needed after the conflict,” the alliance said in a statement posted on its website.

It said Gadhafi’s inflammatory TV broadcasts were intended to mobilize his supporters.

In addition to the three TV transmitters, during the past 24 hours alliance aircraft targeted military vehicles, radars, ammunition dumps, anti-aircraft guns, and command centers near the front lines in the east and west, NATO said in a statement.

The attempt to silence the government’s TV broadcasts comes at a sensitive time for the rebels, who appeared to be in disarray after the mysterious death of their chief military commander. Abdel-Fattah Younis’ body was found Thursday, dumped outside the rebels’ de facto capital of Benghazi, along with the bodies of two colonels who were his top aides. They had been shot and their bodies burned.

NATO too has been increasingly embarrassed by the failure of its bombing campaign, now in its fifth month, to dislodge Gadhafi’s regime. With the fasting month of Ramadan due to start in August, there is growing realization within the alliance that the costly campaign will drag on into the autumn and possibly longer.

NATO had originally hoped that a series of quick, sharp strikes would quickly force Gadhafi to give up power. The alliance has carried out about 6,500 strike sorties and a total of 17,000 sorties since March.

Eight NATO members have been participating in air campaign in Libya: the U.S., Britain, France, Belgium, Canada, Norway, Denmark and Italy. They have carried out a total of more than 6,500 strike sorties.

But this coalition has been gradually fraying amid growing public opposition in Europe to the costs of the campaign _ estimated at more than a billion euros _ at a time of budget cuts and other austerity measures.

The United States was the first to limit its participation, deciding to only provide support to the European allies. Then Italy withdrew its only aircraft carrier and part of its air force contingent. Meanwhile, Norway has announced it will pull all of its F-16 warplanes out of the operation by Monday.

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Nissan’s quarterly profit dropped 20 percent as Japanese automakers took a battering from the quake and tsunami disaster that disrupted car production and destroyed dealerships.

A soaring yen and rising material costs also helped drag net profit for the fiscal first quarter down to 85 billion yen ($1 billion) from 106.6 billion yen in the April-June quarter last year, Nissan Motor Co. said Wednesday.

But Nissan Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said the numbers show the maker of the Leaf electric car and Infiniti luxury models is holding up despite the huge odds.

The magnitude-9.0 earthquake on March 11 in northeastern Japan destroyed key suppliers of components, disrupting production for all Japanese automakers.

But Nissan’s production has been recovering faster than its rivals _ and Nissan officials acknowledge faster than they had expected themselves.

The result also outdid forecasts. A FactSet survey of analysts forecast a profit of 55 billion yen ($705 million).

Nissan sold 1.056 million vehicles in the quarter, up 10.6 percent from a year earlier. Quarterly sales edged up 1.6 percent to 2.08 trillion yen ($26.7 billion).

“Our rapid recovery from the natural disasters in March once again shows the power of Nissan in responding effectively and decisively to crisis,” Ghosn said.

Last month, Ghosn disclosed a six-year growth plan, his most ambitious since the revival plan for Nissan that he set in motion in 1999. At that time, Nissan was on the verge of collapse, and Ghosn was sent in by alliance partner Renault SA to turn it around.

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The U.S. Justice Department is investigating Credit Suisse Group’s offshore business with wealthy American clients as part of a larger probe into suspected U.S. tax evaders, the Swiss bank said Friday.

Credit Suisse said it was informed of the investigation Thursday and will cooperate with U.S. authorities within the limits set by Swiss banking secrecy.

“The investigation concerns historical private banking services provided on a cross-border basis to U.S. persons,” the bank said in a statement. “It has been reported that the U.S. authorities are conducting a broader industry inquiry,” it added.

Credit Suisse is the most high-profile Swiss bank to be targeted by U.S. investigators since rival UBS AG became embroiled in a tax evasion probe three years ago. Zurich-based UBS admitted to helping U.S. clients hide money on offshore accounts and ended up paying a fine and giving U.S. authorities details on thousands of American account holders instant credit report. The case prompted Switzerland to soften its strict banking secrecy rules in response to international pressure.

Observers had expected a formal investigation against Credit Suisse after three former and one current employee of the bank were indicted by U.S. authorities in February on charges of conspiring to help American tax cheats.

Analysts at Zuercher Kantonalbank noted that a new treaty currently being discussed by Bern and Washington _ which would automatically tax the accounts of American bank clients in Switzerland _ might ease the pressure on Credit Suisse and other Swiss banks.

Shares in Credit Suisse were down 1.5 percent at 30.13 Swiss francs ($36.88) on the Zurich exchange.

The bank releases its second-quarter results July 28.

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Italian markets are buoyant on expectations that the Senate will approve a package of austerity measures that is key to shoring up confidence in the country’s financial future.

The benchmark FTSE MIB was up 0.5 percent, the only European index to trade higher Thursday morning.

Italy’s finance minister has vowed that the austerity measures, which aim to balance the budget by 2014, will get final approval by the lower house of parliament on Friday.

The government fast-tracked the approval _ from an original deadline of August _ to soothe jittery markets.

Italy will also hold its second bond sale this week, seeking to raise euro5 billion ($7 billion) in 5- to 15-year bonds from the markets. Italy easily raised euro6.75 billion in 12-month debt on Tuesday, though at higher rates.

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OTTAWA

Israel has agreed to transfer to the Palestinians cash it withheld after the rival Palestinian factions signed a unity pact.

Israel collects tax funds and customs fees from Palestinians who work in Israel on the Palestinians’ behalf. It is supposed to transfer the money to the Western-backed Palestinian Authority.

But it held up the transfer this month, saying it feared money would reach militants in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Earlier this month, the Palestinian Authority signed a unity deal with the Iranian-backed Hamas, which has killed hundreds of Israelis.

Israel had come under heavy international pressure to release the funds.

The Finance Ministry said Monday the exact sum transferred would be determined in a meeting with Palestinian officials.

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

JERUSALEM (AP) _ The military says Israel’s frontiers are quiet after a violent day of border breaches, though security forces remain on alert for more violence.

Police, meanwhile, say they arrested an unarmed man from Syria who tried to make his way out of the Golan Heights into Israel.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says the man was stopped in a taxi driven by a Palestinian from east Jerusalem at the exit of the Golan village of Majdal Shams.

Rosenfeld says police carried out house-to-house searches in Majdal Shams all night looking for some of the hundreds of people from Syria who burst through a border fence into the village Sunday.

Other Arab protesters marched on Israel’s borders with Lebanon and Gaza.

The protests sparked clashes that killed at least 15 people.

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