TV Networks Recast the Role of Commercials

Abstract: Monday’s season premiere of the NBC reality singing competition “The Voice” will include a bonus interview with last season’s winner. During “Blindspot,” the hit hourlong drama about a mysterious tattooed woman, there will be interviews with the show’s creator and two of its stars. The “Today” show will feature an extended segment with Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb, and “Late Night with Seth Meyers” will have an additional comedy sketch. The extra programming will eat into time typically occupied by commercials. But those additional segments will actually be ads in their own right, brought to you by American Express. The move by NBC may be a bit of a gimmick — after all, the extra programming on leap day, Feb. 29, will add only 11 more minutes of content over all. But it could also provide a glimpse into the future of television advertising. Long dependent on conventional commercials, television networks are now re-evaluating their advertising strategies as fears about cord-cutting and steep ratings declines intensify. “We see a great challenge but also a great opportunity to reinvent what the advertising experience can look like in different shows and in different environments,” said Alison Tarrant, executive vice president for client partnerships at NBCUniversal. In recent months, Turner, which is part of Time Warner, and Viacom, which owns MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon, have said they were looking to reduce the amount of advertising on their cable networks. Vice Media, which will introduce its new cable channel, Viceland, on Monday, has adopted an advertising strategy that involves more programming sponsored by brands — as it already has online — and fewer traditional 30-second commercials. The shift in TV advertising is likely to happen gradually, but it has also been a long time coming. For years, networks crammed in more ads, in part to offset lower ratings, said Brian Wieser, a media analyst at Pivotal Research. Commercials on broadcast networks accounted for 17.3 percent of programming time last year, from 16.8 percent in 2012 according to Mr. Wieser’s analysis of Nielsen data. On cable networks, commercials accounted for 20.6 percent of program time, from 19.3 percent in 2012. That strategy, however, may have pushed away more viewers and lowered ratings further. “You never know that the ratings fell because of it, but your intuition and every bone in your being says it must have had some effect,” Mr. Wieser said. The proliferation of on-demand and ad-free streaming options has given viewers a more palatable television experience and further prompted networks to rethink advertising, whether by reducing the volume of traditional commercials or coming up with new ways to advertise. Image Jordan Smith, last season’s winner on “The Voice.” Credit Doug Strickland/Chattanooga Times Free Press, via Associated Press “Now I think is the time that we really need to take a look at where we are with what the consumers are looking for and what their behavior is,” said Donna Speciale, president of ad sales at Turner. “The experience right now on television across the board is just not what it should be — it’s not ideal.” Ms. Speciale says Turner is in the process of testing different options to limit commercial time — including reducing the number of commercial breaks and presenting some shows entirely ad-free — with the goal of running eight to 10 more minutes of programming per hour during certain shows on truTV and TNT. The company aims to cut truTV’s ad load in half during original prime-time shows, starting in the fourth quarter. But the ad-reduction strategy carries a risk. While advertisers may pay a higher price for commercial time that is in more limited supply, the price may not be enough to offset the decrease in commercial time. During an earnings call on Feb. 9, Philippe P. Dauman, the chief executive of Viacom, said the recent reduction in the number of ads on the company’s networks “might have suppressed some of the short-term advertising growth.” Still, the television industry’s fledgling efforts to make the traditional television viewing experience less commercial-heavy have resonated with marketers and advertising agencies. Ms. Speciale says her company’s plans to reduce the ad load on its networks have garnered kudos from clients, even before any changes have fully taken shape. “We’ve been getting applause across the industry from clients and agencies basically saying, ‘Thank you, and we agree with it,’ ” she said. Joe Bihlmier, vice president of global media at American Express, said he saw the partnership with NBC as an opportunity to “create a different paradigm” for television advertising in a fragmented media world. Sponsoring segments rather than running a 30-second spot during a crowded commercial break could also help American Express stand out, he added, because it will not be competing for attention. BuzzFeed, which secured a $200 million investment from NBCUniversal last summer, will produce online posts related to the sponsored programming. American Express, which approached NBCUniversal with the advertising idea in December, will use the segments to promote its Blue Cash Everyday credit card. If NBC’s sponsored-content strategy is successful, it could become a model for other networks. But Ms. Tarrant also said the industry as a whole had to be willing to experiment. “We have to test to learn,” she said. “We need to be more nimble, we need to be more creative and we need to take more risks.”

TV
American Express
NBCUniversal
advertising,marketing


Republicans Question Rangel’s Tax Break Support

Abstract: Republican lawmakers called on the House ethics committee on Tuesday to investigate Representative Charles B. Rangel ’s efforts to preserve a tax loophole for an oil-drilling company at the same time that its chief executive pledged $1 million to a City College of New York school that will bear the congressman’s name. And Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said that he would renew his effort to close the loophole, which has allowed Nabors Industries to save an estimated tens of millions of dollars a year in federal taxes since 2002 by opening a small office in Bermuda and declaring itself a foreign corporation. Democratic House leaders, who last week re-elected Mr. Rangel as chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, said they would not discuss the matter until the ethics committee completed its other inquiries involving Mr. Rangel. The chairman of the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, Gene Green, a Democrat from Texas, would also not discuss whether the committee’s current inquiry into Mr. Rangel’s fund-raising for City College would be expanded to investigate his role in saving the tax shelter. “The ethics committee needs to investigate, and Charlie Rangel needs to resign as Ways and Means Committee chairman,” said Darrell Issa, a Republican from California. “This was pay-to-play that cost taxpayers $1.1 billion in lost taxes. It’s clear he thinks he can do anything he wants for himself or those he wants to help.” Mr. Rangel and Nabors’s chief executive, Eugene M. Isenberg, both said that the donation was not related to the congressman’s efforts to preserve the loophole — which Mr. Rangel said was part of his longstanding opposition to tax hikes that could be considered retroactive. In a press release issued on Tuesday, Mr. Rangel said: “At no time — never — did I entertain, promote or secure a tax break or any special favor for anyone as an inducement or reward for a contribution to the City College of New York.” The New York Times reported on Tuesday that Mr. Rangel helped preserve the loophole for a company whose chief executive made a $1 million pledge to help build the Charles B. Rangel School of Public Service. Nabors was one of four companies to benefit from the loophole. In 2004, Mr. Rangel led the fight against Republicans trying to establish the loophole. Mr. Isenberg acknowledged pledging $1 million to help build the school several weeks after meeting with Mr. Rangel and college fund-raising officials in September 2006 about the project. After making a $100,000 donation on Dec. 19, 2006, Mr. Isenberg met with Mr. Rangel again on Feb 12, 2007 — the day the bill was being marked up in Mr. Rangel’s committee — at the Carlyle Hotel in Manhattan. First, they discussed the project with the Manhattan district attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, Mr. Isenberg said. Then he and Mr. Rangel walked across the room and spoke with Kenneth Kies, a lobbyist for Nabors, who asked for — and got — assurances that Mr. Rangel would oppose efforts to close the loophole, according to both Mr. Kies and Mr. Isenberg. Mr. Isenberg said he gave another $100,000 check made out to “The Rangel Center” on Feb. 7. It cleared on Feb. 23, he said. Both Mr. Isenberg and Leslie Kiernan, a lawyer representing Mr. Rangel, have said there was no connection between the donation and the tax matter. Federal law and House rules prohibit members from asking for anything of value from “anyone who seeks official action from the House, does business with the House or has interests which may be substantially affected by the performance of official duties.” Members are also prohibited from taking official action to induce someone else to provide a benefit to a third party. Even before the reports about his dealings with Nabors, Mr. Rangel had been the subject of ethics inquiries into an assortment of issues related to his fund-raising and personal finances; using congressional stationery to ask foundations to support the school project; failing to report or pay taxes on $75,000 in rental income from his villa in the Dominican Republic; and occupying four rent-stabilized apartments in a Harlem apartment building. Several Republican lawmakers, including John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House minority leader, renewed their call for Mr. Rangel to be stripped of his chairman’s position on Tuesday. Brendan Daly, a spokesman for the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said that Democratic leaders would leave it to the ethics committee to decide whether it would expand its investigation to include Mr. Rangel’s dealings with Nabors. Melanie Sloan, executive director of the nonpartisan Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said that Democratic House leaders were eroding their credibility by failing to address Mr. Rangel’s behavior. “Representative Rangel’s ethics problems continue to mount, yet the ethics committee and the Democratic leadership remain silent,” she said. “Members of Congress often seem to believe that rules are for other people, and sadly, the ethics committee does nothing to correct that assumption,” she said. “It is long past time for Representative Rangel to be called to account for his repeated ethics violations.”

Ethics
Rangel Charles B
Isenberg Eugene M
Nabors Industries Ltd
United States Politics and Government
Taxation
Federal Taxes (US)
House of Representatives


2 Men Tied to Neighborhood Watch Group Plead Guilty to Attack

Abstract: Two men linked to a Hasidic neighborhood watch group in Brooklyn admitted on Wednesday that they had taken part in a brutal attack three years ago on a young black man in the ultra-Orthodox section of Williamsburg. The men, Abraham Winkler, 42, and Pinchas Braver, 21, were originally charged with assault and faced up to 25 years in prison, but under an agreement with the Brooklyn district attorney’s office, they each pleaded guilty in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn to the lesser crime of unlawful imprisonment. As part of the agreement, the men are expected to be sentenced in August to three years of probation and 150 hours of community service, which they must perform outside their neighborhood. In the early morning of Dec. 1, 2013, prosecutors said, Mr. Winkler and Mr. Braver were among five Hasidic men who attacked Taj Patterson, then a 22-year-old fashion student who was walking home through the neighborhood after a night out drinking. The men, described by prosecutors as members or associates of the Williamsburg Safety Patrol, a private security group also known as a shomrim, were responding to an ultimately incorrect report that someone in the area had been vandalizing cars. When the men saw Mr. Patterson, they mistook him for the vandal, prosecutors said, holding him down, kicking him and eventually fracturing his eye socket so badly that he lost vision in his right eye. Despite the fact that police officers at the scene spoke to four witnesses and had the license plate number of a car that at least one of the attackers used to flee, the case was quickly closed. It remained so until Mr. Patterson’s mother went to the press with her son’s story and the police reopened the investigation. In April 2014, Mr. Winkler, Mr. Braver and three other men — Joseph Fried, Aharon Hollender and Mayer Herskovic — were arrested and charged with assaulting Mr. Patterson. But in the months that followed, the case began to fall apart. Last year, prosecutors dismissed charges against Mr. Fried and Mr. Hollender, saying that the witnesses who had initially identified them had recanted. In court on Wednesday, prosecutors cited a similar reason for offering Mr. Winkler and Mr. Braver the opportunity to plead guilty to lesser charges and avoid time in prison. The case against Mr. Herskovic remains; he is scheduled to stand trial beginning Aug. 9. “We’re thrilled to see that two of the people in Taj’s beating are now convicted criminals,” Andrew Stoll, Mr. Patterson’s lawyer, said. Mr. Stoll added that the pleas were “not the end of the matter, but the beginning.” Mr. Patterson has filed a lawsuit against the Williamsburg Safety Patrol for negligent hiring practices, and Mr. Stoll said he planned to use the suit to explore the connection between the shomrim and the Police Department.

Hasidism
Abraham Winkler
Pinchas Braver
Assault
Taj Patterson
Judaism
Williamsburg Brooklyn
Shomrim Volunteer Patrol


House Sets Votes on Two Resolutions Critical of U.S. Role in Libyan Conflict

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The House will vote Friday on two measures that are strongly critical of President Obama ’s decision to maintain an American role in NATO operations in Libya , reflecting increasing disenchantment among elements of both parties about the United States ’ involvement in the conflict. The decision to put the resolutions to a vote came after Republican leaders earlier this week postponed consideration of one of them, which would direct the president to end American’s military involvement in the operations. It was sponsored by Representative Dennis J. Kucinich , the Ohio Democrat who is one of the most liberal members of the House. The leadership feared that the Kucinich measure would pass with backing from an unlikely coalition of liberals and conservatives, a step they contended would send the wrong message to allies engaged in other conflicts with the United States. On Thursday, Speaker John A. Boehner took the unusual step of presenting his own resolution to his caucus to be voted on by the full House on Friday, along with the Kucinich measure. If either or both were to pass, it would represent the most assertive stance by Congress to date on the Libya conflict and highlight the chronic tensions between the executive and legislative branches over the president’s ability to wage war without Congress’s express approval. The United States is currently providing NATO with intelligence, logistical support and armed drones in what is largely a bombing campaign against Libyan government forces. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates was in Singapore on Thursday, where the Pentagon press secretary, Geoff Morrell, expressed concerns over the prospect of Congress voting against American support for the operations in Libya. “It sends an unhelpful message of disunity and uncertainty to our troops, our allies and, most importantly, the Qaddafi regime,” Mr. Morrell said. He also warned that the Kucinich measure could harm American relations with NATO allies contributing troops to Afghanistan . Mr. Boehner’s resolution notes that Mr. Obama has not obtained Congressional authorization for the air offensive in Libya. It demands that the administration provide, within 14 days, detailed information about the nature, cost and objectives of the American contribution to the NATO operation, as well as an explanation for why the White House did not come to Congress for permission. Last month, Mr. Obama sent a letter to Congress emphasizing that the United States had turned control of the operation over to NATO and that it was primarily providing support to allies. The letter also said the administration supported the idea of lawmakers expressing their support for the operation, but it did not concede that such authorization was legally necessary. Early in the conflict, the administration said it was within Mr. Obama’s power to initiate American participation in the hostilities without Congress because the combat was of limited scope and duration. But the War Powers Resolution says that presidents must terminate hostilities after 60 days if they have not been authorized by Congress. That deadline passed on May 20, and the administration has not explained why it thinks it was lawful for the operation to continue. Congressional opposition to American involvement in Libya sits at center of several otherwise unconnected points of view: the antiwar leanings of the left, the strong dislike of the president by many Republicans, fiscal concerns among Tea Party -backed lawmakers who are increasingly worried about the costs of military conflicts, and a broad feeling on Capitol Hill that the powers of Congress were usurped by the president’s decision not to seek explicit authorization to continue American involvement. Last week, the House approved an amendment to a military authorization bill that would prevent the deployment of American ground troops to Libya. “There is a question of how far we stretch our troops,” said Representative Tim Scott of South Carolina , a freshman Republican. “Also, what is the reason that we are there? I don’t think the answer to either of those questions is clear here.” Mr. Kucinich’s resolution, citing the War Powers Resolution, directs the president to remove American armed forces from Libya 15 days after the date of adoption. It could conceivably find more support among Republicans than Democrats, some of whom will find themselves squeamish about rebuking a Democratic president. But the Republican leadership opposes the Kucinich measure. It “would undermine our troops in harm’s way and undercut our allies who have stood by us in Afghanistan and other areas abroad,” Mr. Boehner said in a statement. “Regardless of how we got here, we cannot suddenly turn our backs on our troops and our NATO partners who have stuck by us for the last 10 years.” The Democratic leadership suggested that it would not back either resolution. “The resolutions by Speaker Boehner and Congressman Kucinich, as currently drafted, do not advance our efforts in the region and send the wrong message to our NATO partners,” said Representative Nancy Pelosi in a statement. Several Republicans leaving a meeting with Mr. Boehner Thursday said that they would have to consider both measures. “As a 22-year combat veteran, I would be happy to stand beside Dennis Kucinich on this,” said Representative Allen B. West of Florida , a Republican freshman. In that, Mr. West joins an unlikely alliance with Representative Jerrold Nadler , Democrat of New York. “The president had no authority to go into Libya,” Mr. Nadler said. “There was no threat to the United States, and I think the action was illegal and wrong as a matter of constitutional law.” Mr. Boehner’s measure is an appealing alternative to some members. “I think the president, if he’d come here to make the case, probably would have had widespread support,” said Representative Adam Kinzinger, Republican of Illinois . However, Mr. Kinzinger said he did not support removing American forces from the operation in Libya and supported the overall mission as vital to American interests. Even if passed by the House and the Senate, it is unclear how much impact either measure would have. A 1983 Supreme Court ruling raised doubts about the constitutionality of any attempt by Congress to direct the executive branch to do something using a resolution that the president has no chance to veto. However, such a resolution could increase political pressure on the White House and set the stage for a later effort to cut off funds for further operations in Libya in a budget bill.

Libya
Legislation
War Powers Resolution
House of Representatives
Barack Obama
John Boehner
Dennis J Kucinich
Arab Spring


Bad Luck or Bad Practices? It’s Tough for Mets to Tell

Abstract: So extensive is the growing list of Mets pitchers who have needed Tommy John surgery in recent years that even their general manager had difficulty recalling all of them on Monday. “I don’t have all the cases in front of me,” the general manager, Sandy Alderson, said on a conference call with reporters, “but the four I can think of are deGrom, Matz, Wheeler now and Harvey. As well as Hefner, I guess, will be five.” More formally, the five are Jacob deGrom, Steven Matz, Matt Harvey, Jeremy Hefner and Zack Wheeler, who is the latest Mets pitcher found to have a tear in his ulnar collateral ligament, that tiny bit of sinew in the elbow that has cost so many pitchers at least a year of their careers. Alderson did not mention four other past and present Mets pitchers of note — Jenrry Mejia, Mike Pelfrey, Bobby Parnell and Josh Edgin — who have required the operation since 2010, with the team announcing Sunday that Edgin would have it this week. That makes for nine Mets pitchers in all — or 10 if you factor in that Hefner has had the procedure twice — a total that seems excessive even as teams across baseball lose more and more pitchers to elbow injuries. “You can always look at your practices in developing pitching,” Alderson said during the conference call. “Also look at mechanics and whether mechanics are clean or not clean, velocities, types and assortments of pitches. We will certainly continue to look at what we’re doing. But this is an industrywide problem, and there is some suggestion this goes back to pitching loads and things that predate even college. So it’s something baseball has to continue to look at. We do as well.” Because there is no real consensus on why so many pitchers are tearing their elbow ligaments, Alderson and the Mets will have a hard time figuring out whether they have simply been victims of bad luck or whether practices within the organization need to be addressed. “It does seem as if the Mets are consistently dealing with this issue,” said Dr. Craig Levitz, the chairman of orthopedic surgery at South Nassau Communities Hospital on Long Island. “It could be some of the things they are doing, it could be the pitchers that they pursue, and it could just be bad luck. It’s very hard to know.” After Harvey hurt his elbow in 2013, the Mets looked into pitch counts and rest days but made no substantial changes regarding the way their pitchers were treated, Alderson said. “Caution is the best thing one can learn from any of these,” he said. Still, the Mets did not act more cautiously with Wheeler in camp this year than they did with other pitchers, Alderson said, citing advice from the team’s medical staff. Wheeler had pitched with elbow discomfort in 2014 and had magnetic resonance imaging tests on his elbow in September and January. “If the doctors had felt that we needed to treat him in a different way, we would have,” Alderson said. Levitz, who has worked alongside Dr. James Andrews, the orthopedic surgeon widely regarded as the leading expert on Tommy John surgery, has not examined Wheeler but followed his case in recent days through published reports . Levitz said Wheeler’s injury — a full tear of the ligament, as detected by an M.R.I. over the weekend — almost certainly did not come out of nowhere in the last week. In all likelihood, Levitz said, the two previous M.R.I.s missed a small partial tear in Wheeler’s elbow that eventually became a full one. Had the full tear occurred several months from now, in the middle of the season, it might have been independent of the elbow tendinitis that Wheeler was feeling last year, Levitz said. But the fact that he felt discomfort after only one spring training start indicated that it was related to his problems from last season. M.R.I.s sometimes give false negatives, especially when they are used without a dye that can help expose even the smallest tears, Levitz said. But Levitz, citing the three M.R.I.s the Mets gave Wheeler in seven months, said it was clear that the team’s doctors had been suspicious of something. “It was probably ulnar collateral ligament stuff that masqueraded as tendinitis because the M.R.I. was normal,” Levitz said. “Ulnar collateral ligament tears are very difficult to diagnose sometimes. It could have been a very small tear that didn’t show up, and even if it did, you might have followed the same protocol for the player that they did.”

Mets
Jacob deGrom
Matt Harvey
Jeremy Hefner
Zack Wheeler
Bobby Parnell
Josh Edgin
Baseball
Sports injury


Loopholes Seen in New Ethics Disclosure Rules for New York Legislators

Abstract: ALBANY — Lawmakers who are convicted of public corruption may have to forfeit their pensions. Those who are lawyers will be forced to reveal, with some exceptions, the names of their clients. And all legislators will have to verify their whereabouts to collect their daily travel stipend. After a year of tumult that included the arrest of Assemblyman Sheldon Silver, a former speaker, on corruption charges, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said the new ethics measures proposed in the New York State budget would go a long way to cleaning up Albany. But government watchdog groups said the fine print that emerged on Tuesday suggests much will remain in the shadows. Politicians who work for law firms with clients who have business before the state will not be required to disclose the potential conflict except under narrow circumstances such as if the lawyer worked on the client’s matter. Lawmakers who receive a flat fee from a law firm for advice will now have to list the “principal duties” they performed for compensation, though it remains to be seen how much detail they will actually provide. Even the pension forfeiture law, which broadens an existing law, comes with caveats: It requires a constitutional amendment, which must be approved by voters, and the corrupt lawmaker’s spouse and children can get a slice of the government-funded pension as long as they are not also found to be corrupt. Five good-government groups, which have been pushing for broad changes to the state’s ethics laws, denounced the proposals as “incremental reform” and added that it did not address a loophole in state law that allowed corporations to give large campaign donations as smaller gifts that disguise the source of the money. They also criticized lawmakers for not releasing details of the reform until just hours before they were set to vote on it Tuesday night, the deadline for passing the state budget, leaving little time for public discussion. “It is hard to see how these changes in the law will have any meaningful effect on public corruption,” Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, a Democrat, said in an interview. “There was clearly pressure for reform after the indictment of the speaker,” said Mr. Schneiderman, who recently called for a ban on lawmakers’ earning outside income. “It appears to me these are not reforms that will have any significant effect on the sort of problems we are seeing in Albany today.” In a statement, Mr. Cuomo asserted that the ethics reforms would put in place “the nation’s strongest and most comprehensive rules for disclosure of outside income by public officials.” “I said I would not sign a budget without real ethics reform, and this budget does just that,” Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, said. Mr. Cuomo has a troubled history pushing ethics reform. In 2010, he ran for governor on a promise to clean up Albany, and the agreement this week is the third time in four years that he has hailed what he called a significant breakthrough. He billed his ethics reforms in 2011 as a “historic piece of legislation” that brought “unprecedented disclosure,” only to be followed in 2014 by “historic reform never before done in the state of New York.” That year, he also moved to shut down the Moreland Commission, an anticorruption panel he set up but quickly disbanded after its investigators began to look at groups with ties to Mr. Cuomo or on issues that might reflect poorly on him. The decision became a dark stain on his first term in office, and ethics reform took a back seat until the arrest of Mr. Silver, a Manhattan Democrat. He is accused of steering real estate developers to a law firm that paid him kickbacks, and of funneling state money to a doctor who referred asbestos victims to a second law firm he worked for. Mr. Silver has pleaded not guilty. On Saturday, in discussing the current reforms, Mr. Cuomo again described his latest effort as “historic,” calling it “ethics reform that you haven’t seen in 50 years.” Mr. Cuomo has made strides over the years, and in addition to the ethics measures, this year’s budget provides an extra $1.2 million for the Joint Commission on Public Ethics to be used for administering and enforcing the new rules. But achieving meaningful change on ethics is not easy, largely because it requires the very consent of the lawmakers governed by it. The most significant piece of Mr. Cuomo’s measures is the part that places new disclosure requirements on members of the Assembly and Senate. Lawyers in both chambers will have to disclose the names of their clients who were billed more than $5,000 annually. There are some exceptions, including clients who are involved in bankruptcy proceedings or police investigations. Still, critics say much will remain unknown about the legal work of these lawmakers, especially those who do not represent clients and are paid a fixed salary for general advice or simply to lend prestige to a law firm. The budget also tries to crack down on abuse of per diems, the $172-a-day travel reimbursements that lawmakers receive for when they are in Albany. The legislation calls for the use of an electronic verification system requiring lawmakers prove they are in the capital in order to receive per diems. Separately, the budget puts more restrictions barring the use of campaign money for personal expenses, another area that has long been exploited by some Albany lawmakers. Those new restrictions also come with wiggle room. Campaign funds cannot be spent on clothes, for example, but an exception is made for “items that are used in the campaign or in the execution of the duties of public office or party position.” Dick Dadey, executive director of Citizens Union, a watchdog group, said there was too much leeway: “The loopholes are large enough to allow them to evade the intent of the law.”

New York
Budget
Ethics Misconduct Malfeasance
Andrew Cuomo
State legislature
Politics


In Emerging Markets, Rapid Growth and Hints of Uncertainty

Abstract: NEW DELHI — This was a lost decade for the American stock market. But for much of developing world, it was the Roaring ’00s — a period of soaring markets and breakneck investment that left even some bulls wondering if the good times can last. While the broad American market lost about a fifth of its value in the last 10 years, emerging markets like Brazil, Russia, China and India powered ahead with gains in the double or even triple digits. The numbers are staggering. On Ukraine’s PFTS Stock Exchange — a Wild East of investing that did not even exist until 1997 — shares soared more than 1,350 percent over the last decade. In Peru, stocks jumped more than 660 percent. Here in India, the Sensex index leaped more than 240 percent. To believers, those heady gains underscore profound shifts taking place in the global economy, where investment dollars, euros and yen whiz across borders and time zones with the stroke of a computer key. As many Americans wait for an economic recovery, money is pouring into the fast-growing economies of Asia and Latin America, as well as into oil-rich Russia and the former Soviet bloc. “What we’re living through now is something of epic proportions,” said Allan Conway, the head of emerging markets equities at Schroders, the big money management company in London. He likened the economic rise of nations like Brazil, Russia, India and China — the so-called BRIC countries — to that of postwar Japan. Amid all this euphoria, even some longtime bulls wonder if investors are getting a bit carried away. Emerging markets have a history of giddy booms and crushing busts dating back to the 19th century. They collapsed spectacularly in 1997, as a chain reaction of currency devaluations, bankruptcies and recessions rocked East Asia. In 1998, the Russian market plunged more than 80 percent after the country defaulted on its debts. More recently, emerging markets tanked with the rest of the world in 2008, after shellshocked money managers took cash from anywhere that seemed risky. But they were a bright spot in 2009 — the MSCI Emerging Markets index increased 73 percent in 2009, compared with a 25 percent jump in the S.& P. 500 index. Despite 2009’s gains, few predict a major setback today. Since the 1998 debacle, some developing countries have cleaned up their acts, balancing their budgets and improving their trade balances. As their economies grow, domestic investors have become big supporters of these countries’ stock markets. With interest rates low around the world, companies based in emerging markets, like their counterparts in the developed world, enjoy access to cheap money. High commodities prices have buoyed stock and bond markets in nations that are big exporters of commodities. But the recent travails of Dubai, where a debt-driven bubble economy is now bursting, provide a powerful reminder that in up-and-coming economies, what goes up can come down — and fast. That these markets have gained so much, so quickly — with some white-knuckled drops along the way — gives some investment professionals pause. Mark Mobius, one of the deans of emerging market investing, said that while developing markets still have room to run, the first half of 2010 could be bumpy. “We continue to see upside, but with substantial corrections along the way, which could be as much as 20 percent,” said Mr. Mobius, the executive chairman of Franklin Templeton Investments, which is based in San Mateo, Calif. Some market specialists worry that asset bubbles akin to the one that inflated and burst in the American housing market might be growing in places like China and Hong Kong. Others fret over the risks posed by volatile commodities prices, as well as over the inevitable end of this period of ultralow interest rates. Leon Goldfeld, the chief investment officer for HSBC Global Asset Management in Hong Kong, told reporters this month that HSBC had cut its exposure to Asian equities, anticipating a 10 percent to 15 percent decline in early 2010. After that, Mr. Goldfeld said, Asian stocks would represent a “good buying opportunity.” As long-term investments go, emerging markets seem to have a lot going for them. On average, developing countries have less sovereign, corporate and household debt than developed countries. Their economies are also growing faster than industrialized ones. Merrill Lynch predicts that emerging market economies will grow 6.3 percent next year, while the global economy expands by 4.4 percent. Emerging markets are eclipsing their developed peers in other ways as well. Imports to the BRIC nations are likely to surpass imports to the United States for the first time ever in 2009, according to Morgan Stanley. For the moment, the developing world is the engine of global growth. Emerging markets accounted for virtually all of the year’s growth in global output, because developed economies shrank or were flat. Even if developed countries recover completely in 2010, emerging economies will account for 70 to 75 percent of the growth in global output “for the foreseeable future,” said Mr. Conway of Schroders. Developing nations are also assuming a bigger role in the world economy. Morgan Stanley predicts that developing countries, including those in the Middle East, will account for 36 percent of total global gross domestic product in 2010, up from 21 percent in 1999. All of this is a big lure to investors. Funds focused on equities in emerging markets attracted a record $75.4 billion this year, far surpassing their previous high of $54 billion in 2007, according to EPFR Global, which tracks fund flows. Even after that influx, emerging markets still account for only a small fraction of investment portfolios in United States and Europe, the world’s money management centers. Less than 3 percent of assets managed by United States fund managers are invested in emerging markets. That number could double in the next five years, some investment experts say. Even normally conservative investors might be tempted to jump into emerging markets, given the sluggish outlook in the United States and Europe. After a dismal decade for the American stock market, the developing countries might seem attractive. “Investors are starting to look at this asset class and realize that it is a pretty safe place,” said Kevin Daly, who manages $1.7 billion in emerging market debt at Aberdeen Asset Management. Despite their volatile history, emerging markets strike some money managers as relatively secure places to invest. Of course, such hopes have been dashed before.

Stocks and Bonds
Two Thousands (Decade)
International Trade and World Market
Economic Conditions and Trends


Auctioneer Removes Baseball Pioneer’s Letters From Sale

Abstract: Since the Federal Bureau of Investigation is still investigating whether some 19th-century baseball letters that were supposed to be sold at next week’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game auction were stolen from the New York Public Library , the auction house has removed the items from the sale. Hunt Auctions, which was hired by Major League Baseball to coordinate the sales, was contacted by The New York Times about two weeks ago about the possibility the letters were stolen. At the time, David Hunt, the president of Hunt Auctions, said he was confident the items were not connected to any missing materials from the library, and baseball officials concurred. But after the F.B.I. started examining the situation and evidence emerged that at least one letter was from the library collection, Hunt said in a statement that the items were no longer for sale. “ Hunt Auctions has been working closely with the F.B.I. throughout the investigative process, and since many questions still remain unanswered, it is our belief that the items should be removed from the auction,” said Hunt, who for the first time acknowledged that he had spoken with the F.B.I. “This proactive step is being taken in order to insure that all the facts can be determined; at which point an appropriate course of action may be set.” Hunt was trying to auction 25 lots of letters to Harry Wright, the manager, general manager and a center fielder for the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, baseball’s first professional team. At least 23 of the 25 lots in the auction corresponded to years that the library said it was missing Wright’s scrapbooks. Wright, who has been called one of the fathers of professional baseball, was meticulous about saving and chronicling his letters for historical purposes. Now that Hunt has acknowledged that these letters might have been taken, Major League Baseball is in an awkward position of having to explain why it coordinated an auction in which it was selling potentially stolen letters. Major League Baseball declined interview requests and issued a statement from Bob DuPuy, its president and chief operating officer. “Since 2001, Major League Baseball has run an internally-operated authentication program to protect against the illegal sale of baseball merchandise to our fans,” DuPuy said. “We are pleased that reputable companies like Hunt Auctions use sound judgment in deciding to withdraw merchandise that is not properly documented, especially with items from periods prior to the start of our program.” One letter was from James Devlin , a player who had been banished for fixing games, to Wright on Nov. 11, 1877. Dorothy Seymour Mills helped Harold Seymour, her husband, research a doctoral dissertation at Cornell in 1956 titled, “The Rise of Major League Baseball to 1891.” The footnotes included a reference to Devlin’s letter of Nov. 11, 1877. Seymour Mills said she and her husband had read the letter in the library’s collection. “I am deeply distressed at the news that this collection is disappearing and that ‘collectors’ are profiting by its gradual disappearance,” she said in an e-mail message.

Baseball
Major League Baseball
New York Public Library
Wright Harry


Inditex, Owner of Zara, Beats Profit Forecasts in First Quarter

Abstract: MADRID — Inditex, the world’s biggest clothing retailer, beat forecasts on Wednesday with a 6 percent rise in profits, driven by strong sales as fast turnover allowed the owner of the fashion chain Zara to react quickly to unseasonable weather. The first-quarter results sent shares in Inditex, one of the most expensive retail stocks globally, up 3.2 percent, outperforming its Swedish rival, H&M, which reported a pickup in sales growth in May after a fall in its first-quarter profit. Inditex, known for whisking the latest trends from runway to stores in a matter of days, is bucking a broader industry trend as other major fashion retailers complain of weak demand. The group said its full stable of brands — from the housewares store Zara Home to the upmarket clothing label Massimo Dutti — would have an online presence in all European countries and Turkey by the end of this financial year. Inditex reported a net profit of 554 million euros, or $623 million, for the three months to April 30, beating a Reuters forecast of €541 million, as sales jumped 12 percent above the same period a year earlier. However, results were tempered by negative currency effects. Sales of lingerie-inspired dresses, oversize shirts and other items from Zara also helped push sales across the group’s brands up 15 percent, at constant exchange rates, in the first weeks of the second quarter, from May 1 to June 13, the company said. “In a market environment where most retailers are bemoaning the weather, Inditex’s results demonstrate the strength of the business model and its ability to deliver superior results,” said Jamie Merriman, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein.

Zara
Retail
Fashion
Inditex Group
Earnings Reports


Tom Danielson Suspended for Testosterone

Abstract: The American cyclist Tom Danielson tested positive for synthetic testosterone in an out-of-competition test last month and was immediately suspended by the Cannondale Garmin team. Danielson, 36, a former teammate of Lance Armstrong’s, said in a post on Twitter that he did not take a banned substance. As a result of the July 9 positive result from the United States Anti-Doping Agency, Danielson withdrew from the Tour of Utah, where he had been set to compete from Aug. 3 to Aug. 9.


Cano Is Quiet in Mariners’ Rout of Yankees, but Fans in Bronx Aren’t

Abstract: A rainout at the end of April allowed Robinson Cano a temporary reprieve from the jeers he had heard upon his previous return to Yankee Stadium. By the time Cano came back to the Bronx with the Seattle Mariners to make up the postponed game, he would have been more integrated onto his new team, and perhaps Yankee fans would have softened their stance on a player who had been a critical part of the team’s success in the last decade. But that was not the case. Much as in April, Cano was booed unmercifully Monday. So while Cano — who was 1 for 3 with two walks in his return to the lineup after missing four games with a contusion to his left hand — did not factor much in Seattle’s 10-2 win against the Yankees, his presence continued to loom large. The few times the mostly placid crowd grew lively were during Cano’s at-bats. The Seattle ace Felix Hernandez allowed two runs and eight hits in seven innings for his eighth win of the season. The Mariners broke a 2-2 tie in the seventh inning with four runs against starter David Phelps, who allowed six runs in six-plus innings. Seattle scored four runs in the ninth against reliever Alfredo Aceves. Kyle Seager did much of the damage for the Mariners, going 4 for 5 — he had two triples and fell a single short of the cycle — as he drove in three runs and scored three more. “We’re not a club right now that’s hitting the ball out of the ballpark,” Yankees Manager Joe Girardi said. “So you have to put a lot of base hits together.” That was something the Yankees could not seem to do against Hernandez. “His ball was moving as much as I’ve seen it,” Derek Jeter said. Having Cano in their lineup would certainly have been a boost for the offensively challenged Yankees, who have not scored more than three runs in their last four games. Cano was again diplomatic before the game when discussing the reception he received in April. But he was thankful that some former teammates, notably C. C. Sabathia, had stood up for him. “It’s fans, and you can’t control that,” Cano said. “I understand their side. It’s always good, and you feel good when you have guys that you played with, guys that have your back and support you. That’s something that makes you feel good, because not only are you friends when you’re there but also when you’re not there. Those are guys who know when things are right and things aren’t right.” Cano, who is hitting .327 with 31 runs batted in but with only two home runs, has not quite been himself this season at the plate. It is uncertain what exactly has caused a drop in Cano’s power numbers, but going from Yankee Stadium’s short right-field porch to the more cavernous Safeco Field would seem to be a factor. Cano, though, said he thought he was being pitched to differently from any time in his career. “I just go by the way they are pitching me,” Cano said. “All I see is more middle away. If they pitch in, it’s way in. Like I’ve said, I’m not a home run guy. You play here, you take advantage of the short porch.” Cano added that he thought not having the same protection behind him in the lineup that he had with the Yankees has changed the way pitchers approach him. Phelps did not give Cano anything to hit in his first two at-bats, which resulted in walks. “I’m not saying that we don’t have that guy here, but that’s the way they are pitching me,” Cano said. “They’re pitching more away.” But the numbers do not necessarily bear that out. In 2012, when he hit .313 with a .929 on-base plus slugging percentage, Cano saw pitches on the lower outside corner of the plate 5.32 percent of the time, according to Pitchf/x data from Brooks Baseball. This season, Cano has seen pitches in that same area 5.56 percent of the time, hardly a difference. More stark is the difference in the pitches Cano sees down and away from the strike zone. In 2012, that percentage was 9.87; this season, it is 7.88. So Cano actually saw more pitches down and away in his standout 2012 season than he is seeing now. One explanation for Cano’s struggles is that he is walking less: only 7.1 percent of the time this year, compared with 9.5 percent last year and 8.8 percent in 2012. But the biggest difference for Cano between then and this season is that he is hitting the ball on the ground more than before. Cano’s ratio of ground balls to fly balls this year is a career-high 2.11. Last year, it was 1.49. In 2012, it was 1.89. All three of the balls Cano put in play Monday, including a single, were hit on the ground. By the time Cano came to the plate in the ninth for his final at-bat, the announced crowd of 41,539 had thinned, and the game appeared out of reach. But for a few moments, the crowd mustered one last rousing jeer.

Mariners
Yankees
Robinson Cano
David Phelps
Baseball


Chávez Goes to Cuba for Cancer Surgery

Abstract: CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela arrived in Cuba early Monday to have surgery for what appears to be an aggressive form of cancer, leaving behind a nation hanging on the outcome of his treatment. He was greeted by President Raúl Castro of Cuba at the airport in Havana, news agencies reported, while President Rafael Correa of Ecuador flew there as well, saying that he had gone to support Mr. Chávez and hug such “an extraordinary human being,” according to the Venezuelan information ministry. Back home, Mr. Chávez’s supporters prayed for his recovery as opponents tried to adjust to what could be a vastly changed political landscape two months after an electoral defeat left them demoralized and scrambling to keep from losing more ground. On Saturday Mr. Chávez, 58, a fiery leftist who has used Venezuela’s oil riches to steer the country toward his very personalized vision of socialist revolution, announced that an examination in Cuba had found malignant cancer cells that required immediate surgery. He also said that he was often in acute pain. For the first time Mr. Chávez named a political successor, asking his followers to throw their support behind Vice President Nicolás Maduro, and spoke about the possibility that he might not be able to continue as the nation’s leader if his health deteriorated. Dr. Julio Pow-Sang, chairman of urology at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla., said the most likely possibility was that Mr. Chávez was having a recurrence of cancer, in which case “the outlook would be very poor.” Dr. Pow-Sang has not been involved in Mr. Chávez’s care, but, noting that Mr. Chávez was first treated in June 2011, he said, “The whole process has taken no more than a year and a half, as opposed to some cancers which are very protracted and could take years.” The apparently rapid timeline, Dr. Pow-Sang said, did not suggest a good prognosis. Given that Mr. Chávez already has had at least two cancer operations and chemotherapy and radiation treatment, the purpose this time is more likely to be palliative — to relieve symptoms — than an attempt to cure the disease, Dr. Pow-Sang said. Dr. Edward W. Greeno, medical director for oncology services at the University of Minnesota, seemed to agree. “My guess would be, if he’s had several surgeries and at least one extended course of chemotherapy and some radiation, it’s probably bad,” he said. “Usually, our opportunity to cure people of cancer comes with the first one or two things we do, and after that it’s just controlling the disease.” Dr. Greeno added that Mr. Chavez’s prominence and the pressure to save him might inspire measures that are actually ill-advised. “When you get into the care of high-profile people,” he said, “you may have people doing things that aren’t a good idea, like picking out bits and pieces of somebody’s cancer where it’s not a good therapy, where we wouldn’t say it’s curative.” Only two months ago, Mr. Chávez stood in triumph on the balcony of the presidential palace, waving to masses of red-shirted supporters after winning re-election to another six-year term. His allies called it a perfect victory. Now Mr. Chávez’s apparent turn for the worse — and the possibility that he will soon be forced off the political stage by ill health — could change that. Mr. Chávez is scheduled to be sworn in for his new term on Jan. 10. But if he is too ill or if he becomes incapacitated in the first four years, new elections would be called. Venezuelans on both sides of the political divide said the country was on autopilot waiting for news of Mr. Chávez’s health. “Not just in Venezuela, but the whole world is focused on him and his sickness,” said Haidé Bastardo, 47, of Carúpano, in the eastern part of the country. Ms. Bastardo said that she had voted against Mr. Chávez but hoped he would recover. If he has terminal cancer, however, she said he should step down to make way for new elections. José López, an airport porter from La Guaira, near Caracas, said that as a supporter of Mr. Chávez, he was deeply worried. “You don’t know what will happen in Venezuela if something tragic were to happen to the president,” he said. “You don’t know how Venezuelans would react.” Since Mr. Chávez’s cancer was discovered in June 2011, he has refused to reveal details about his illness, like what kind of cancer it is and where it was found. On Sunday, when legislators unanimously gave approval for Mr. Chávez to travel abroad for treatment, an opposition lawmaker, Julio Borges, criticized the secrecy around the president’s illness. “Venezuela has a right to know the truth,” Mr. Borges said, according to The Associated Press.

Cuba
Cancer
Venezuela
Chavez Hugo
Maduro Nicolas
Appointments and Executive Changes
Castro Raul
Correa Rafael


For Some Atlanta Hawks, a Revved-Up Game of Uno Is Diversion No. 1

Abstract: PHILADELPHIA — Lamar Patterson was new to the Atlanta Hawks when he discovered several teammates playing a popular card game at training camp. Patterson asked if he could join them. He thought he knew the rules. “I’m sitting down with these guys for the first time, and I play all the time, you know what I’m saying?” Patterson, a reserve shooting guard, said before a recent game here. “But they were all like, ‘No, see, we play this way, with the Draw 2s and the Draw 4s from the extra decks. We lay the heat.’ And I was like, ‘Wow.’ ” The Hawks were laying the heat — playing Uno, the colorful card game favored by countless schoolchildren and, yes, by a group of millionaires aboard the Hawks’ private plane. “Uno,” forward Kent Bazemore said, “is always a thrill.” The Hawks, like many professional sports teams, have a lot of free time to kill, much of it spent on airplanes. Some of the players keep busy by watching movies. Many sleep. Others play cards, a popular pastime for athletes who are competitive by nature. Yet the Hawks’ card game of choice might come as a surprise. Teammates who have resisted the urge to wade into the Uno fray know enough to keep a safe distance. “They get serious,” guard Justin Holiday said. “Real serious.” It all started innocently enough when Jeff Teague, the starting point guard, brought a deck of Uno cards on a trip last season. He gradually recruited several teammates — Bazemore, center Al Horford and guards Kyle Korver and Dennis Schroder — to start participating in a regular game. The conventional objective — first player to get rid of all his cards wins — was enough to keep them interested, but they soon wanted to spice things up. So Bazemore and Schroder hatched the idea of adding some of the more notorious cards from at least two other decks — all the Draw 2s, Wild Draw 4s, Reverses and Skips. The players referred to the extra cards as “heat.” The game was born anew. “I think everyone should play it that way, because it’s no-holds-barred,” Bazemore said. “It’s the W.W.E. of Uno, man. It’s crazy.” The games almost always continue from takeoff to landing, and each player is expected to be a full participant, with no excused absences. Guard Tim Hardaway Jr., who was a part of the group earlier this season, learned that lesson. After a couple of weeks spent honing his Uno expertise, teammates said, he wanted to take a break, if only for one flight. “He said he was tired and wanted to rest,” Schroder said. “So we had to kick him out.” Hardaway has not been invited back. Those who have stuck with the game cite the value of chemistry and camaraderie. “You get all these long flights, and you can only watch so many movies,” Horford said. “So it’s a good way for us to interact as a group.” Horford said they played purely for pride. There are clear rivalries. “It’s usually Kent and Dennis who are mouthing off most of the time,” Horford said. Mike Muscala, a reserve forward who sits near the Uno players, has grown accustomed to their histrionics. Muscala has no pressing desire to join the game, he said. He saw what happened to Hardaway, after all, and is aware of the group’s unusual demands — commitments Muscala does not want to make. He typically occupies himself on flights by sleeping, reading and eating. Mostly eating, he said. “It’s a very tightknit group,” Muscala said. “Even if I wanted to play, they probably wouldn’t allow me. I’m sure there would be some sort of initiation.” In a twist, four teammates — guard Shelvin Mack and forwards Paul Millsap, Thabo Sefolosha and Mike Scott — play a regular game of Spades on the Hawks’ flights. But it is a low-key affair. Compared with the Uno players, they sound as if they are at a yoga retreat. “The Uno guys are screaming and cheering,” the assistant coach Darvin Ham said. “It’s every emotion possible.” For the first 20 games this season, Schroder said, the Uno group had a prime location on the plane: a section in the middle with a large table. It was glorious, he said. He sounded almost wistful describing it. Image Clockwise from left, the Hawks’ Dennis Schröder, Kyle Korver, Thabo Sefolosha, Jeff Teague and Al Horford played a game of Uno on a flight last year in a photo from Kent Bazemore’s Instagram account. Credit Kent Bazemore “But then we started losing,” Schroder said, “and the coaches said we had to go.” Banished to a spot toward the front of the plane and suddenly absent their table, the group had no choice but to improvise, draping a blanket over Schroder’s suitcase. It had the advantage of being large, with ample surface area. “He can fit a lot of clothes in it,” Bazemore observed. For the record, Ham said the Uno players were relocated because of safety issues — the plane’s crew needed a clear path through the aisle — and not because the team was struggling. But if the players were under the impression that it was a punitive measure, Ham did not seem to mind. Schroder acknowledged that he misses the Uno table. “We have to take care of business,” Schroder said. It has reached a point, Schroder said, that the team’s Uno aficionados actually look forward to packing their bags and boarding the plane for their next trip. Schroder is responsible for the cards, stashing them in his designer backpack. “Dennis takes real good care of the deck,” Bazemore said. Some of the group’s rules are more complicated than others. If a player is holding the same type of card that was just thrown by an opponent, he can play it out of turn. And depending on the circumstances, a player who throws a Draw 4 card can actually force an opponent to draw eight. To explain other tweaks to the game might require a flowchart. “It’s such a strategized game,” Bazemore said. “You can’t just go up there and play reckless.” In any case, there is often a flurry of late-game action. Bazemore recently had to draw 50 cards after opponents conspired to hit him with a series of Draw 4s. “That was pretty memorable,” Horford said, “just because we’d never seen that happen before.” Horford was the group’s top player last season, he said, so dominant — and his victory total so unapproachable — that the players created a new system in which they compete to 10 wins. Once a champion is crowned, the players’ totals are reset for the next round. Horford keeps track of the score on his mobile phone. He recites the totals after each game to avoid any appearance of impropriety. “There’s been some controversy,” he said. Patterson owns the current championship belt — a figurative one for now, although Bazemore has been tasked with ordering an actual belt online. It will be very glamorous, Bazemore said, befitting the high stakes of their game-away-from-the-game. “I can’t wait,” Patterson said. “I’m going to be walking around with it everywhere I go.”


New Haven Event for Women Only

Abstract: New Haven’s professional tennis tournament is becoming a women’s-only event, with Yale and several companies replacing a single title sponsor. The tournament, which had been one of just four sanctioned by both the men’s ATP Tour and the women’s WTA Tour, will be a WTA event called the New Haven Open at Yale in 2011. Tournament and Yale officials made the announcement Thursday at the Connecticut Tennis Center. The sponsorship also includes Aetna and American Express. Pilot Pen had been the tournament’s main sponsor for 15 years but, citing financial reasons, ended its relationship after this year’s tournament.

Tennis
Connecticut Tennis Center
Women and Girls
Yale University
Women's Tennis Assn


Profit Rises at Wal-Mart, but a Key Indicator Slips

Abstract: Even as more consumers flocked to Wal-Mart the last few months for deals on brand-name electronics, the company cut prices drastically to keep up with competitors, undermining its sales. Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer and an increasingly important player in electronics retailing, posted strong third-quarter earnings on Thursday. Though the company has gained market share during the recession , sales at stores open at least a year — an important measure of retail health — fell slightly. Wal-Mart attributed the decline to price deflation in groceries and, especially, in electronics. “Prices have declined dramatically,” said Riddhi Patel, principal analyst with the market research firm iSuppli. She added that, industrywide, prices for LCD televisions fell 23 percent and prices for plasma TVs fell 18 percent from the third quarter of 2008 to the third quarter of this year. Electronics analysts said prices dropped as retailers vied to sell to tight-fisted consumers. “Wal-Mart and Best Buy are locked in this life-and-death struggle for market share,” said Paul Gagnon, director of North American TV research for DisplaySearch, a research firm. “They’ve both been pretty aggressive in dropping prices.” And for good reason. Low prices are crucial to winning in this economy, analysts said. “When consumers go out in the market, what they have in mind is a price point — ‘O.K., I’m going to spend $800,’ ” Ms. Patel said. Wal-Mart’s strategy these days is to pick up new consumers, and then hang onto them as the job market improves. The retailer said Thursday that it sold 25 percent more flat-panel televisions this year than last year. The average price for each unit fell by more than 20 percent. Eduardo Castro-Wright, who oversees Wal-Mart’s United States operations, said in a recorded call that sales of televisions were also hurt because “there has been little new technology and fewer movie releases this year compared to the last.” And Mr. Gagnon said that television prices typically went through cycles where prices dropped significantly until a new technology emerged. Retailers began experiencing that last year, he said. Bill Dreher, a senior research analyst with Deutsche Bank Securities, said Wal-Mart was being strategic about where to sacrifice profit margins. “They’re focusing on gaining market share and gaining categories — food, toys and consumer electronics,” he said. “They’re being very aggressive in reminding the customer that they have low prices in these key categories that are important to the customer.” For the three months ended Oct. 31, Wal-Mart had profits of $3.24 billion, or 84 cents a share, up from $3.14 billion, or 80 cents a share, a year ago. Revenue rose to $99.4 billion from $98.3 billion. Sales at Wal-Mart stores open at least a year in the United States, a measure of retail health known as same-store sales, fell 0.4 percent, not including the impact of fuel sales. Given consumers’ mood and the fact that Wal-Mart posted strong sales last Christmas, the retailer said it expected same-store sales in its next three-month reporting period to be about the same as last year. “The sales environment continued to be difficult this quarter,” Mike Duke, Wal-Mart’s president and chief executive, said in a statement on Thursday, “but customer traffic is up throughout the company.” Wal-Mart’s strongest categories were grocery and health and wellness, both of which had year-over-year sales increases. “Our customer is really taking advantage of Wal-Mart’s low price on prescriptions and over-the-counter products,” Mr. Castro-Wright said during the call. Wal-Mart raised its profit projection for the year, to $3.57 to $3.61 a share, up from $3.50 to $3.60 a share.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc
Kohl's Corp
Shopping and Retail
Company Reports


In Extra Rib, a Harbinger of Mammoth’s Doom

Abstract: Many woolly mammoths from the North Sea had a superfluous rib attached to their seventh vertebra, a sign that they suffered from inbreeding and harsh conditions during pregnancy, researchers report. This may have contributed to their eventual extinction, say the scientists who looked at fossil samples that date to the late Pleistocene age, which ended about 12,000 years ago. At the time, mammoths were battling disease, famine and cold, which led to smaller populations. This led to inbreeding and unfit mammoths, said Frietson Galis , an evolutionary developmental biologist at Leiden University in the Netherlands. “It’s what you call an extinction vortex that becomes difficult to stop,” she said. Writing in the journal PeerJ , she and her colleagues report that the peculiar rib occurred in woolly mammoths 10 times as frequently as it does in modern elephants. Most mammals have seven neck vertebrae, Dr. Galis said, and extra ribs are not normal. Though the rib is harmless, it is generally a sign of some other sort of abnormality, she said. In humans and other mammals, cervical ribs are associated with stillbirths and congenital abnormalities. Woolly mammoths died out 12,000 to 10,000 years ago, when flowery plant covers disappeared from the tundra. Human hunting may also have contributed to their demise. But the cervical ribs are a clear indication that “they were already struggling before that,” Dr. Galis said. SINDYA N. BHANOO

Woolly mammoth
Fossil
PeerJ
Endangered Species
Paleontology


30 Seconds With Danny Wuerffel

Abstract: Danny Wuerffel won the Heisman Trophy in 1996 and led the Florida Gators to the national championship that season. He played in the N.F.L. for six seasons before becoming involved with Desire Street Ministries, which is devoted to causes in the inner city. He is now the chief executive of the nonprofit Desire Street, which is based in Atlanta. RAY GLIER WHAT MAKES THAT OTHER FLORIDA QUARTERBACK, TIM TEBOW, A FOLK HERO TO SOME PEOPLE? First thing is he wins football games; people love winners. Second, he combines several aspects in a football player that usually don’t end in the same person. He throws the ball accurately, like a Dan Marino, but he also runs the ball powerfully, like a Mike Alstott-type of fullback. He plays with the emotion of a middle linebacker, which inspires teammates and fans, but he also plays levelheaded as a quarterback. Rarely do you find a player who can be an emotional spark plug for their team and play the role as the calm, collected quarterback. KURT WARNER IS 37 YEARS OLD. YOU ARE 34. ANY TEMPTATION TO GET BACK OUT THERE? None. Every now and then I feel a little spark, then I will notice guys like Kurt Warner getting concussions. The other reason is I am just so passionate about what I am doing now that I could not imagine going back. There was a point several years ago when I was with Desire Street in New Orleans when Peyton Manning broke Marino’s record for touchdowns, and I was visiting with a kid and I saw this picture of Peyton Manning. I looked at the kid and I looked at the Manning picture, and there was no question I wouldn’t have changed places with Peyton. WHAT IS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE FOR AN INNER-CITY MINISTRY LIKE DESIRE STREET? When you work in the inner city, it takes a very long time to develop trust with the people you work with, so you have to be involved in the community and working in the community for a long time. The other challenge is these are under-resourced communities, and the resources to get the job done are very scarce.

Heisman Trophy
Football
Wuerffel Danny
College Athletics


Walter Cronkite, 92, Dies; Trusted Voice of TV News

Abstract: Walter Cronkite , who pioneered and then mastered the role of television news anchorman with such plain-spoken grace that he was called the most trusted man in America, died Friday at his home in New York. He was 92. The cause was complications of dementia, said Chip Cronkite, his son. From 1962 to 1981, Mr. Cronkite was a nightly presence in American homes and always a reassuring one, guiding viewers through national triumphs and tragedies alike, from moonwalks to war, in an era when network news was central to many people’s lives. He became something of a national institution, with an unflappable delivery, a distinctively avuncular voice and a daily benediction: “And that’s the way it is.” He was Uncle Walter to many: respected, liked and listened to. With his trimmed mustache and calm manner, he even bore a resemblance to another trusted American fixture, another Walter — Walt Disney. Along with Chet Huntley and David Brinkley on NBC, Mr. Cronkite was among the first celebrity anchormen. In 1995, 14 years after he retired from the “CBS Evening News,” a TV Guide poll ranked him No. 1 in seven of eight categories for measuring television journalists. (He professed incomprehension that Maria Shriver beat him out in the eighth category, attractiveness.) Yet he was a reluctant star. He was genuinely perplexed when people rushed to see him rather than the politicians he was covering, and even more astonished by the repeated suggestions that he run for office himself. He saw himself as an old-fashioned newsman — his title was managing editor of the “CBS Evening News” — and so did his audience. “The viewers could more readily picture Walter Cronkite jumping into a car to cover a 10-alarm fire than they could visualize him doing cerebral commentary on a great summit meeting in Geneva,” David Halberstam wrote in “The Powers That Be,” his 1979 book about the news media. As anchorman and reporter, Mr. Cronkite described wars, natural disasters, nuclear explosions, social upheavals and space flights, from Alan Shepard’s 15-minute ride to lunar landings. On July 20, 1969, when the Eagle touched down on the moon, Mr. Cronkite exclaimed, “Oh, boy!” On the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, Mr. Cronkite briefly lost his composure in announcing that the president had been pronounced dead at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas. Taking off his black-framed glasses and blinking back tears, he registered the emotions of millions. It was an uncharacteristically personal note from a newsman who was uncomfortable expressing opinion. “I am a news presenter, a news broadcaster, an anchorman, a managing editor — not a commentator or analyst,” he said in an interview with The Christian Science Monitor in 1973. “I feel no compulsion to be a pundit.” But when he did pronounce judgment, the impact was large. In 1968, he visited Vietnam and returned to do a rare special program on the war. He called the conflict a stalemate and advocated a negotiated peace. President Lyndon B. Johnson watched the broadcast, Mr. Cronkite wrote in his 1996 memoir, “A Reporter’s Life,” quoting a description of the scene by Bill Moyers, then a Johnson aide. “The president flipped off the set,” Mr. Moyers recalled, “and said, ‘If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost middle America.’ ” Mr. Cronkite sometimes pushed beyond the usual two-minute limit to news items. On Oct. 27, 1972, his 14-minute report on Watergate, followed by an eight-minute segment four days later, “put the Watergate story clearly and substantially before millions of Americans” for the first time, the broadcast historian Marvin Barrett wrote in “Moments of Truth?” (1975). In 1977, his separate interviews with President Anwar el-Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel were instrumental in Sadat’s visiting Jerusalem. The countries later signed a peace treaty. “From his earliest days,” Mr. Halberstam wrote, “he was one of the hungriest reporters around, wildly competitive, no one was going to beat Walter Cronkite on a story, and as he grew older and more successful, the marvel of it was that he never changed, the wild fires still burned.” Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. was born on Nov. 4, 1916, in St. Joseph, Mo., the son of Walter Leland Cronkite Sr., a dentist, and the former Helen Lena Fritsche. His ancestors had settled in New Amsterdam, the Dutch colony that became New York. As a boy, Walter peddled magazines door to door and hawked newspapers. As a teenager, after the family had moved to Houston, he got a job with The Houston Post as a copy boy and cub reporter. At the same time, he had a paper route delivering The Post to his neighbors. “As far as I know, there were no other journalists delivering the morning paper with their own compositions inside,” he wrote in his autobiography. When he was 16, Mr. Cronkite went with friends to Chicago for the 1933 World’s Fair. He volunteered to help demonstrate an experimental version of television. “I could honestly say to all of my colleagues, ‘I was in television long before you were,’ ” he said in an interview with CBS News in 1996. Mr. Cronkite attended the University of Texas for two years, studying political science, economics and journalism, working on the school newspaper and picking up journalism jobs with The Houston Press and other newspapers. He also auditioned to be an announcer at an Austin radio station but was turned down. He left college in 1935 without graduating to take a job as a reporter with The Press. While visiting Kansas City, Mo., he was hired by the radio station KCMO to read news and broadcast football games under the name Walter Wilcox. (Radio stations at the time wanted to “own” announcers’ names so that popular ones could not be taken elsewhere.) He was not at the games but received cryptic summaries of each play by telegraph. These provided fodder for vivid descriptions of the action. He added details of what local men in the stands were wearing, which he learned by calling their wives. He found out in advance what music the band would be playing so he could describe halftime festivities. At KCMO, Mr. Cronkite met an advertising writer named Mary Elizabeth Maxwell. The two read a commercial together. One of Mr. Cronkite’s lines was, “You look like an angel.” They were married for 64 years until her death in 2005. In addition to his son, Walter Leland III, known as Chip, Mr. Cronkite is survived by his daughters, Nancy Elizabeth and Mary Kathleen; and four grandsons. In his last years, Joanna Simon, a former opera singer and sister of Carly Simon, was his frequent companion. The family said it was planning a private service at St. Bartholomew’s Church in New York. After being fired from KCMO in a dispute over journalism practices he considered shabby, Mr. Cronkite in 1939 landed a job at the United Press news agency, now United Press International. He reported from Houston, Dallas, El Paso and Kansas City. The stint ended when he returned to radio and then took a job with Braniff International Airways in Kansas City, selling tickets and doing public relations. Returning to United Press after a few months, he became one of the first reporters accredited to American forces with the outbreak of World War II. He gained fame as a war correspondent, crash-landing a glider in the Netherlands, accompanying the first Allied troops into North Africa, reporting on the Normandy invasion and covering major battles, including the Battle of the Bulge, in 1944. In 1943, Edward R. Murrow asked Mr. Cronkite to join his wartime broadcast team in CBS’s Moscow bureau. In “The Murrow Boys: Pioneers on the Front Lines of Broadcast Journalism” (1996), Stanley Cloud and Lynne Olson wrote that Murrow was astounded when Mr. Cronkite rejected his $125-a-week job offer and decided to stay with United Press for $92 a week. That year Mr. Cronkite was one of eight journalists selected for an Army Air Forces program that took them on a bombing mission to Germany aboard B-17 Flying Fortresses. Mr. Cronkite manned a machine gun until he was “up to my hips in spent .50-caliber shells,” he wrote in his memoir. After covering the Nuremberg war-crimes trials and then reporting from Moscow from 1946 to 1948, he again left print journalism to become the Washington correspondent for a dozen Midwestern radio stations. In 1950, Murrow successfully recruited him for CBS. Mr. Cronkite was assigned to develop the news department of a new CBS station in Washington. Within a year he was appearing on nationally broadcast public affairs programs like “Man of the Week,” “It’s News to Me” and “Pick the Winner.” In February 1953 he narrated the first installment of his long-running series “You Are There,” which recreated historic events like the Battle of the Alamo or the Hindenburg disaster and reported them as if they were breaking news. Sidney Lumet, soon to become a well-known filmmaker, directed the series. “What sort of day was it?” Mr. Cronkite said at the end of each episode. “A day like all days, filled with those events that alter and illuminate our times. And you were there.” In 1954, when CBS challenged NBC’s popular morning program “Today” with the short-lived “Morning Show,” it tapped Mr. Cronkite to be the host. Early on he riled the sponsor, the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, by grammatically correcting its well-known advertising slogan, declaring, “Winston tastes good as a cigarette should.” When not interviewing guests, he mulled over the news with a witty and erudite puppet lion, Charlemagne. Occasionally he ventured outside the studio — using a tugboat, for example, to meet luxury liners so he could interview celebrities before they landed. In 1952, the first presidential year in which television outshined radio, Mr. Cronkite was chosen to lead the coverage of the Democratic and Republican national conventions. By Mr. Cronkite’s account, it was then that the term “anchor” was first used — by Sig Mickelson, the first director of television news for CBS, who had likened the chief announcer’s job to an anchor that holds a boat in place. Paul Levitan, another CBS executive, and Don Hewitt, then a young producer, have also been credited with the phrase. The term "anchorman" was applied to some other broadcasters in other contexts earlier than it was to Mr. Cronkite. The 1952 conventions made Mr. Cronkite a star. Mr. Mickelson, he recalled, told him: “You’re famous now. And you’re going to want a lot more money. You’d better get an agent.” Mr. Cronkite went on to anchor every national political convention and election night until 1980, with the exception of 1964. That year he was replaced at the Democratic convention in Atlantic City by Roger Mudd and Robert Trout in an effort to challenge NBC’s Huntley and Brinkley team, which had won the ratings battle at the Republican convention in San Francisco that summer. In 1961, Mr. Cronkite replaced Murrow as CBS’s senior correspondent, and on April 16, 1962, he began anchoring the evening news, succeeding Douglas Edwards, whose ratings had been low. As managing editor, Mr. Cronkite also helped shape the nightly report. The evening broadcast had been a 15-minute program, but on Sept. 2, 1963, CBS doubled the length to a half-hour, over the objections of its affiliates. Mr. Cronkite interviewed President Kennedy on the first longer broadcast, renamed the “CBS Evening News With Walter Cronkite.” He also broadcast from a real newsroom and not, as Edwards had done, from a studio set. At the time the broadcast was lengthened, Mr. Cronkite inaugurated his famous sign-off, “And that’s the way it is.” The original idea, he later wrote, had been to end each broadcast with a quirky news item, after which he would recite the line with humor, sadness or irony. Richard S. Salant, the president of CBS News, hated the line from the beginning — it ate up a precious four seconds a night — and the offbeat items were never done. “I began to think Dick was right, but I was too stubborn to drop it,” Mr. Cronkite wrote. Starting with Herbert Hoover, Mr. Cronkite knew every president, not always pleasantly. A top aide to President Richard M. Nixon, Charles Colson, harangued the network’s chairman, William S. Paley, after Mr. Cronkite’s 14-minute Watergate broadcast. The next segment was shortened. In 1960, during the Wisconsin primary, Mr. Cronkite asked Kennedy, then a senator, about his Roman Catholic religion. As Mr. Cronkite recalled in his memoir, Kennedy called Frank Stanton, CBS’s president, to complain that questions about the subject had earlier been ruled out of bounds. He then reminded Mr. Stanton that if he were elected he would be appointing members of the Federal Communications Commission. Mr. Stanton “courageously stood up to the threat,” Mr. Cronkite wrote. By contrast, Mr. Cronkite’s relations with President Dwight D. Eisenhower were so cordial that President Kennedy incorrectly assumed Mr. Cronkite, a political independent, was a Republican. Mr. Cronkite also enjoyed the company of President Ronald Reagan, with whom he exchanged often off-color jokes. And he whimsically competed with his friend Johnny Carson to see who could take the most vacation time without getting fired. Mr. Cronkite raced sports cars but switched to sailing so he could spend more time with his family. He liked old-time pubs and friendly restaurants; there was even one in Midtown Manhattan where his regular chair was marked with his initials. In an interview with The New York Times in 2002, Mr. Cronkite scrunched his eyes and lowered his voice into a theatrical sob when asked if he regretted missing out on the huge salaries subsequent anchors had received. “Yes,” he said, adding, “I frequently call myself the Mickey Mantle of network news.” Mr. Cronkite retired in 1981 at 64. He had repeatedly promised to do so, but few had either believed him or chosen to hear. CBS was eager to replace him with Dan Rather, who was flirting with ABC, but both Mr. Cronkite and the network said he had not been pushed. After his retirement he continued to be seen on CBS as the host of “Walter Cronkite’s Universe,” a science series that began in 1980 and ran until 1982. The network also named him a special correspondent; the position turned out to be largely honorary, though news reports said it paid $1 million a year. But after he spent 10 years on the board of CBS, where he chafed at the cuts that the network’s chairman, Laurence A. Tisch, had made in a once-generous news budget, more and more of his broadcast work appeared on CNN, National Public Radio and elsewhere, not CBS. By the time Mr. Rather was leaving the “CBS Evening News” in 2005, Mr. Cronkite had abandoned mincing words. He criticized his successor as “playing the role of newsman” rather than being one. Mr. Rather should have been replaced years earlier, he said. When Katie Couric took over the job in September 2006, Mr. Cronkite introduced her on the air and praised her in interviews. His long “retirement” was not leisurely. When Senator John Glenn went back into space on the shuttle Discovery in 1998, 36 years after his astronaut days, Mr. Cronkite did an encore in covering the event for CNN. He made some 60 documentaries. And among many other things, he was the voice of Benjamin Franklin on the PBS cartoon series “Liberty’s Kids,” covered a British general election for a British network and for many years served as host of the annual Kennedy Center Honors. He had already won Emmy Awards, a Peabody and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (in 1981), and he continued to pile up accolades. Arizona State University named its journalism school after him. In July 2006, PBS broadcast a 90-minute “American Masters” special on Mr. Cronkite’s career. Mr. Lumet, the filmmaker, appeared and said, “He seemed to me incorruptible in a profession that was easily corrupted.” On his 90th birthday, Mr. Cronkite told The Daily News, “I would like to think I’m still quite capable of covering a story.” But he knew he had to stop sometime, he allowed in his autobiography. He promised at the time to continue to follow news developments “from a perch yet to be determined.” “I just hope that wherever that is, folks will still stop me, as they do today, and ask, ‘Didn’t you used to be Walter Cronkite?’ ”

Television
Cronkite Walter
CBS Corp
Deaths (Obituaries)
News and News Media


Stephen Curry as Best Player? Sure. Most Valuable? Maybe Not.

Abstract: Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors was the best player on basketball’s best team. Yet he might not have been deserving of the Most Valuable Player Award he easily won. The key is the phrase “most valuable.” In most of the major sports, the M.V.P. has morphed into a “best player” trophy, but if the original intent to honor the player most valuable to his team is kept, there is a case to be made that Curry should have finished behind a few other players. Using Basketball-Reference’s win share statistic , which tries to determine how many wins a player contributed to his team, Curry was worth 15.7 this season, third in the N.B.A. behind James Harden (16.4) and Chris Paul (16.1) and just ahead of Anthony Davis (14). Image Without Anthony Davis, the New Orleans Pelicans would almost certainly have missed the playoffs. Credit Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press But imagine a world in which Curry did not exist. Curry’s team won 67 games with him, so if the win share statistic holds true, it would have won around 51.3 games without him, which would still make it a playoff team in the competitive Western Conference. That makes sense, as the Warriors were a deep, well-coached team that also featured another sharpshooting All-Star guard, Klay Thompson, and the player who garnered the most first-place votes for defensive player of the year, Draymond Green. Without Curry the team could also have reasonably expected more from Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston. Compare that to the Houston Rockets, a team that won 56 games, good enough for the No. 2 seed in the conference. If you remove Harden’s win shares, it would lower Houston to 39.6 wins and drop it from playoff contention. Houston lost Chandler Parsons to free agency and played much of the season without Dwight Howard, so Harden had to carry a disproportionate load. Twenty-five voters thought Harden was the M.V.P., but that put him well short of Curry, who had 100 of 130 first-place votes. Image The Rockets’ James Harden, passing against the Clippers on Monday, was the M.V.P. runner-up but had the N.B.A.’s highest win-share total. Credit David J. Phillip/Associated Press Harden’s value to his team and Paul’s to the Los Angeles Clippers, while huge, were nothing compared with how valuable Davis was to the New Orleans Pelicans. He led the N.B.A. in player efficiency rating and established himself as a two-way force, making the case that he is becoming the league’s best player. If you were to remove his win shares from the Pelicans’ 45-37 record, which just barely got them the No. 8 seed, it would take the team down to 31 wins and another trip to the lottery. Despite that, Davis did not receive a single first-place vote and finished fifth in the voting behind Curry, Harden, LeBron James and Russell Westbrook. While James had a case for executive of the year after engineering the rebuilding process in Cleveland, the player who finished just below him in the voting was a better M.V.P. candidate. Asked to carry the Oklahoma City Thunder for much of the season without the injured Kevin Durant, Westbrook responded by morphing into the closest thing the league has ever seen to Michael J. Fox’s “Teen Wolf.” He scored, rebounded and passed with a ferocity no player has in recent years and had 11 triple-doubles to show for it. At 10.7 win shares, Westbrook was well off the league leaders, but without him the 45-win Thunder would have won an estimated 34.3 games, and for those who watched him dominate, that may be a rather conservative estimate. No advanced statistic is perfect, and basketball is a team sport. But win shares is one of the best efforts to date to get in the range of a player’s value. While it supports the notion that Curry was one of the league’s three or four best players — and few would argue he was not the league’s most fun player to watch — it seems the voters may have once again ignored the word “valuable” in the award’s name. Harden or Davis may have been robbed of what was rightfully theirs.

Stephen Curry
Golden State Warriors
Basketball
James Harden
Anthony Davis
LeBron James
Russell Westbrook


South Africa: Minister’s Wife Guilty of Drug Trafficking

Abstract: Sheryl Cwele, the wife of State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele, was convicted Thursday on drug trafficking charges, the South African Press Association reported. Mr. Cwele heads the country’s intelligence services, and the case against his wife has embarrassed the administration of President Jacob Zuma .

South Africa
Zuma Jacob G
Drug Abuse and Traffic


Britons Are Warned of Lingering Austerity

Abstract: LONDON — Britons, many already weary of government austerity budgets that some economists say are impeding the country’s recovery, are going to have to wait even longer for relief. The architect of the austerity program, George Osborne, the chancellor of the Exchequer, told Parliament on Wednesday that the government had missed one of its self-imposed debt-cutting goals and would have to extend the belt-tightening into 2018, a year longer than previously promised. Although Mr. Osborne maintained that the debt reduction plan was still on track, his presentation drew heckling and laughter from some opposition lawmakers, particularly after he argued that new tax measures would show that “we’re all in this together.” The next general election in Britain will take place in 2015, well before the end of austerity measures that have included cuts in welfare services and the elimination of tens of thousands of public sector jobs. On Wednesday, the Office for Budget Responsibility, a nonpartisan body that is monitoring the economy, said it now expected full-year data to show that the economy shrank 0.1 percent this year, instead of growing 0.8 percent, as the office had previously forecast. It also said the economy would grow 1.2 percent next year as opposed to the 2 percent predicted earlier. “It’s a hard road but we are getting there,” Mr. Osborne told Parliament. “Britain is on the right track. Turning back now would be a disaster.” Reducing the budget deficit and truly getting the economy back on track has been the overriding objective binding the uneasy coalition between Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative Party and Liberal Democrat lawmakers that has governed Britain since 2010. Both parties have been betting that imposing the most severe government spending cuts in recent decades will reap economic rewards before the next general election. But the last missed target for cutting debt, combined with a painfully slow recovery, risks undermining the entire political strategy and stoking tensions within the coalition. And it undermines the coalition’s message that it is better equipped to deal with the economy than the Labour Party. “The government’s strategy is to combine deficit reduction with economic recovery, but at the moment we are not getting much of either,” said Andrew Smith, chief economist at the auditing and advisory firm KPMG. The government has been defending its austerity measures, which include tax increases and spending cuts, by saying they help to keep Britain’s borrowing costs low and so will contribute to a revival of the British economy. Compared with the Continent, Britain has a relatively better economic outlook, and its borrowing costs are much lower. Mr. Osborne said the British economy was facing “a multitude of problems” at home and abroad, making the recovery more difficult. He mentioned uncertainty about averting the so-called fiscal cliff crisis in the United States in January, slowing growth in China and the euro zone recession. “They really need some growth now,” said David Tinsley, an economist at BNP Paribas. “Making the cuts when the economy is stuck is really difficult.” Ed Balls, economic spokesman for the Labour Party, said Wednesday that Mr. Osborne’s statements illustrated an economic failure of government. “The defining purpose of the government, the cornerstone of the coalition, the one test they set themselves — to balance the books and get the debt falling by 2015 — is now in tatters,” he said. Labour, which is leading in some recent national polls, has been criticizing Mr. Osborne’s austerity plan as going too far and trying to cut debt too quickly without offering any investments to fuel economic growth. But economists said that with public finances stretched as they were, there was little Mr. Osborne could spend on a revival. He announced a one percentage point cut in the corporation tax, to 21 percent, and canceled a planned increase in the fuel tax paid by consumers. He also said the government planned to be much stricter on going after tax dodgers. “I know these tax measures will not be welcomed by all,” Mr. Osborne said. “But we must show we’re all in this together.” So far, Mr. Osborne has managed to balance the competing demands of Conservatives, who generally favor tax and benefit cuts, and Liberal Democrats who would rather increase the burden on the wealthy if necessary. But blaming the weakness of the British economy for the euro zone crisis may become a less effective political weapon if the single-currency area begins to stabilize. “The strains are muted because people understand the seriousness of the situation and the absence of any obvious way of getting out of it,” said one senior member of the Liberal Democrats, who was not authorized to speak publicly. “But as it goes on for longer, the strains under which the coalition begins to operate will become greater.”

Great Britain
Economic Conditions and Trends
European Sovereign Debt Crisis (2010- )
Budgets and Budgeting
Osborne George