FACT CHECK: Romney's clunker claim on auto bailout

Republican presidential candidate businessman Herman Cain speaks during a Republican Presidential Debate at Oakland University in Auburn Hills, Mich., Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2011. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Republican presidential candidate businessman Herman Cain speaks during a Republican Presidential Debate at Oakland University in Auburn Hills, Mich., Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2011. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Republican presidential candidate former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, speaks during a Republican Presidential Debate at Oakland University in Auburn Hills, Mich., Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2011. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Republican presidential candidate Texas Gov. Rick Perry speaks during a Republican Presidential Debate at Oakland University in Auburn Hills, Mich., Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2011. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Republican presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., speaks during a Republican Presidential Debate at Oakland University in Auburn Hills, Mich., Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2011. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Mitt Romney's claim that President Barack Obama "gave GM" to the United Auto Workers stood as one of the overstatements of the night Wednesday when Republican presidential candidates grappled with the economy in their latest debate. Several drifted from reality too in portraying regulations as a killer of jobs, if not the country itself.

A look at some of the claims in the debate and how they compare with the facts:

ROMNEY: President Barack Obama "gave GM to UAW, he gave Chrysler to Fiat."

THE FACTS: That's not what happened in the bailout.

A trust owned by the United Auto Workers received a 17.5 percent ownership stake in GM to help that trust pay for its retirees' health care. That stake has declined since then, after the company went public in November 2010. The trust now owns about 10 percent of General Motors. That's much smaller than the government's stake of about 30 percent, and it doesn't support the notion that the government "gave" the company to the union.

Moreover, the union did not get free rein in return for its share. It was barred from going on strike over wage issues during recent contract talks with GM and Chrysler, as a condition of the bailouts.

Nor did Obama give Chrysler to Fiat.

The Italian automaker Fiat received an initial 20 percent stake in Chrysler as Chrysler emerged from bankruptcy in 2009 in exchange for only management expertise and technology. Since then, Fiat has paid $1.8 billion to boost its stake to 53.3 percent, including a $500 million payment to the U.S. Treasury to purchase the government's 6 percent share of the company.

Debating in Michigan, where the bailout was popular and credited with helping to save automakers, Republican candidates struggled at times to explain why they opposed the deal.

___

RICK PERRY: "Pull back all the regulations. It's the regulatory world that is killing America. ... It doesn't make any difference whether it's the EPA or whether it's the federal banking, the Dodd-Frank or Obamacare, that's what's killing America."

MICHELE BACHMANN: "Our biggest problem right now is our regulatory burden. The biggest regulatory problem we have is Obamacare and Dodd-Frank (financial regulations). I will repeal those bills."

NEWT GINGRICH: "If the Republican House next week would repeal Dodd-Frank and allow us to put pressure on the Senate to repeal Dodd-Frank, you'd see the housing market start to improve overnight."

THE FACTS: It has become an article of faith in the GOP field that regulations are a leading drag on jobs, but Labor Department data show that few companies where large layoffs occur say government regulation was the reason. Just two-tenths of 1 percent of layoffs since Obama took office have been due to government regulation, the data show.

Moreover, there is little evidence that the regulatory burden is any worse now than in the past or that it is costing significant numbers of jobs. Most economists believe there is a simpler explanation: Companies aren't hiring because there isn't enough consumer demand. And economists believe high levels of economic uncertainty are a leading complication for business, arising more from struggles over taxes and spending in Washington than from regulations ? an unwelcome quantity, for sure, but a known one.

The National Federation of Independent Business asks its small-business membership each month to name the single most important problem they're facing. Last month, the most common response was "poor sales," cited by 26 percent. Government regulation came in second, at 19 percent.

Bachmann has plenty of company in the GOP field in blaming the regulatory burden of Obama's health care law for economic ills. But the evidence so far is thin; most of the law's provisions don't take effect until 2014.

Indeed, the health care industry has been one of the few reliable sources of hiring during the recession and its aftermath. The industry has added 313,000 jobs in the past year.

___

ROMNEY: "If we stay on the course we're on, with the level of borrowing this administration is carrying out, if we don't get serious about cutting and capping our spending and balancing our budget, you're going to find America in the same position Italy is in four or five years from now, and that is unacceptable."

THE FACTS: To be sure, calamity can spread from Europe's debt crisis in any number of ways. Americans are already seeing the effects from losses in their international investments, and governments are swimming in debt on both sides of the Atlantic. There are some important differences, though, between the troubles of Greece, Italy and Europe at large, and the United States.

For one thing, while creditors keep demanding higher and higher interest rate levels from troubled European countries to justify the added risk of such loans, U.S. debt in the form of Treasury bonds and other securities remains among the safest havens of all international investment.

Even the Standard and Poor's downgrade of the U.S. credit rating in August did not result in the United States being forced to pay higher interest rates. Instead, demand for Treasury bonds increased, pushing rates down more.

Also, the United States deals with its debt in part by printing money, if the Federal Reserve so desires. While that might cause inflation down the road, it also can make the debt proportionally smaller. In sharing a common currency, the euro, the 17 members of the euro zone do not have that flexibility.

And while there are doubts about the outcome, a special congressional committee is working toward a trillion-dollar-plus reduction in the U.S. deficit, with a deadline for a deal of Nov. 23.

___

GINGRICH: "Dodd-Frank kills small banks; it kills small business."

HERMAN CAIN: "Then you get the regulators off of the backs of the banks ... get the regulators out of the way, such that the small banks and the medium-sized banks aren't being forced out of the business."

THE FACTS: The financial regulation overhaul known as Dodd-Frank is mostly targeted at large banks and Wall Street firms, which got billions of dollars in 2009 from the government's bailout. Small banks are exempted from many of the requirements.

Also, community banks, which have less than $10 billion in assets and make up 98 percent of U.S. banks, lobbied and received an exemption from the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. While they have to follow the rules the new agency sets, they aren't subject to its enforcement authority. Instead, existing regulators will oversee the community banks' compliance.

That hasn't stopped most of the candidates from criticizing the regulations as a drain on small institutions.

Their point that regulators are holding back lending doesn't square with surveys, mostly of larger banks, by the Federal Reserve. Those surveys have found that banks have been easing their credit standards for business loans for the past year.

The survey also found that loan demand fell in the third quarter. Paul Dales, an economist at Capital Economics, wrote Monday that the findings "suggest it is not the supply of credit that's holding the economy back. Instead, the problem is demand for credit."

___

Associated Press writers Tom Raum and Marcy Gordon contributed to this report.

Associated Press

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"Family Circus" creator Bil Keane dies at age 89 (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? "The Family Circus" creator Bil Keane, whose kid-friendly comic strip gave readers a funny version of his own life at home and became one of the most widely syndicated cartoon panels in the world, has died at age 89, his distributor said on Wednesday.

Keane died on Tuesday of congestive heart failure at his home in Paradise Valley, Arizona, said Claudia Smith, a spokeswoman for syndication company King Features.

"The Family Circus" first appeared in 1960, and Keane modeled its two parents and four boisterous kids on himself, his wife and children. The comic still appears in 1,500 newspapers although Keane's son, Jeff, has helped with it.

"If 'The Family Circus' has any social value, it shows parents that their children are normal," the late Keane said in a statement provided by King Features.

"And if there is a philosophy behind the feature, it's this: A home filled with love and laughter is the happiest place in the world," he said.

"The Family Circus" is characterized by traditional family values and a round border that Keane used on his panels, to emphasize the closeness between the characters.

The strip features the characters Daddy, Mommy and their children Billy, Dolly, Jeffy and P.J.

King Features said the comic is among the most widely syndicated panels in the world and appears in about 1,500 newspapers.

"We are fortunate that his son, Jeff, who has worked with him for years, will remain at the helm of the great feature and continue his father's tradition of putting a smile on readers' faces every day," Brendan Burford, comics editor for King Features Syndicate, said in a statement.

The comic's humor typically comes from the children's guileless attitude, or their misunderstanding of what is occurring around them.

In one typical panel from the 1970s, the oldest boy holds out a hand in a snow storm and complains "I CAUGHT one of those snowflakes but I can't find it!"

Keane, a native of Philadelphia, taught himself to draw in high school. He first imitated the drawing styles of some of The New Yorker magazine cartoonists of the late 1930s, before developing his own approach.

He served in the U.S. Army during World War Two and met the woman who would become his wife, Thel Carne, while stationed in Australia.

Aside from appearing as a character in his strip, Thel also helped her husband as an editor and consultant.

After World War Two, Keane worked at the Philadelphia Bulletin as a staff artist, and moved his family to Arizona the year before launching his most famous comic strip.

He is survived by his children, nine grandchildren and one great-grandchild. His wife, Thel, died in 2008.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Jerry Norton and Cynthia Osterman)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111109/people_nm/us_bilkeane

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Appointment-Plus

Editor's Note: This product has not yet been tested. The following coverage is based on information provided by the manufacturer or developer.

What does a hairstylist have in common with a brain surgeon? They both need to schedule appointments with their clients. And they're not alone: Any service provider whose buisiness depends on meeting with individual customers needs to schedule appointments--from personal trainers to pastors. Appointment-Plus leverages the internet to make the process easier for both the provider and the reciever of services.

The service is intended for businesses and organizations large and small alike, and offers custom branding so that the appointment makers feel like they're on your site, not Appointment-Plus's. But you don't even need your own site to use the service. Advanced features include the ability to view multiple staff members' appointments at once, set recurring appointments, manage payments, and autmatic e-mail reminders.

Appointment-Plus offers three levels of service: Bronze ($39/month), Silver ($49/month), and Gold ($79/month). All allow unlimited staff and users, customer appointment history and notes, automated emails, reports, and payments. Silver adds mobile access, multiple location support, and premium service. Gold brings advanced analytics, schedule templates, and more advanced customization. A 15-day trial is available for each level.

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GOP ponders tax options for debt 'supercommittee' (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Capitol Hill Republicans say the GOP members of a deficit-reduction supercommittee are showing flexibility on revenue increases as the panel heads closer to its Thanksgiving deadline.

GOP aides said Tuesday that a plan floated by Republicans, including tea party favorite Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, is one that would place sharp limits on the total amount of tax deductions and credits that a person could claim, in exchange for significantly lower income tax rates. At the same time, Republicans are willing to accept an about $300 billion net increase in individual income tax revenues.

The idea, discussed by a bipartisan subgroup of supercommittee lawmakers Monday evening, is similar in concept to a proposal put forward last summer in negotiations between House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and President Barack Obama. Boehner and Obama discussed a complete overhaul of the tax code that would have garnered some $800 billion in new revenue over a decade.

The plan proposed Monday was more modest, congressional aides said, raising about $250 billion from individual tax reform and another $40 billion from using a new inflation adjustment when updating the income levels for tax brackets. An overhaul of the corporate tax code could raise another $60 billion, the aides said.

The plan also would include about $700 billion in spending cuts, as well as other revenues from proposals such as auctioning broadcast spectrum, raising Medicare premiums and increasing aviation security fees.

Aides to supercommittee Democrats pushed back sharply, saying the GOP plan for a top individual tax rate of 28 percent would give wealthier earners large tax cuts while many middle income taxpayers would lose tax deductions important to them. The GOP assumes that the full menu of Bush-era tax cuts ? including a generous cut in the estate tax enacted last year ? would be made permanent when calculating the revenue "baseline" from which to start tax reform.

Obama wants to eliminate the Bush tax cuts for upper-income earners, which would generate about $800 billion over the coming decade.

The top tax bracket is presently 35 percent and is set to rise to 39.6 percent when the Bush-era tax cuts expire at the end of next year.

The aides required anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the negotiations. Democratic aides said the offer was mostly spin, but some Democratic members of the panel weren't as quick to dismiss it.

Asked whether Republicans were negotiating seriously, supercommittee member Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., said, "Oh, yes, I think so. On balance, yes."

Toomey was the chief sponsor of the offer but has support from other Republicans on the panel. The supercommittee is charged with producing legislation to cut $1.2 trillion from the deficit over the coming decade. The fact that Toomey, who was elected last year with tea party support, was willing to entertain higher tax revenues was a noteworthy break from an earlier GOP proposal forwarded two weeks ago that assumed revenue would come chiefly from non-tax sources like Medicare premiums and economic growth spurred by a simplified tax code.

"We've made a little bit of progress but it's not enough, in our judgment," said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., a member of the deficit panel. "We have some distance to go."

Republicans are asking a high price ? cuts to important benefit programs like Medicare and Medicaid ? in exchange for potential revenue hikes. Democrats are pressing for more than $1 trillion in revenue over the coming decade.

"I have yet to see a real, credible plan that raises revenue in a significant way to bring use to a fair, balanced proposal," said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the panel's co-chair.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111108/ap_on_go_co/us_debt_supercommittee

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Power regulator says tariffs likely to increase (Reuters)

MUMBAI (Reuters) ? An increase in power tariffs in India is inevitable given the sharp rise in coal prices, the head of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission told reporters on Thursday.

Indian power utilities have been scouting oversees for coal assets to fuel the burgeoning power demand from Asia's third largest economy, with state-run Coal India, the world's largest coal miner, unable to fulfil the entire domestic demand.

Global thermal coal prices have been trading at around $120 a tonne, more than 20 percent higher than prices a year ago when prices were below $100 per tonne.

(Reporting by Ketan Bondre; Editing by Aradhana Aravindan)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/energy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111110/india_nm/india604379

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Oil soars but motorists don't need to worry yet (AP)

NEW YORK ? Oil prices are soaring again, but motorists don't need to worry ? yet.

The price of crude has jumped 22 percent since the beginning of October and is nearing $100 a barrel. For most of the summer, oil prices drifted lower on fears that the U.S. was headed toward another recession. But those concerns have started to wane as the economy stabilizes. Political tensions in the Middle East, which produces 29 percent of the world's oil, also have helped drive up crude prices at the fastest clip since February.

So far, the big jump hasn't translated into a surge in prices at the gasoline pump. Gasoline has crept up less than 1 percent, or 3.1 cents, to $3.41 per gallon, over the same period.

That's partly because people drive less once vacations wind down after Labor Day. This year, Americans have also bought less gasoline because of the weaker economy. That lackluster demand has kept prices in check, even as oil soars. If crude continues to rise, however, gasoline eventually will be forced to follow.

"Enjoy it while you can," said Ben Brockwell, pricing director at the Oil Price Information Service. "We may be in for a spike" in the spring. Brockwell expects gasoline prices ? which peaked at $3.98 per barrel on May 5 ? to flirt with $4 per gallon early next year.

As signs emerge that the U.S. isn't headed for another recession, the price of oil has risen. When economies improve, demand for oil goes up.

At the same time, some of the world's biggest sources of oil appear to be increasingly at risk. Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil exporter, is suspected of developing nuclear weapons, according to a United Nations report released Tuesday. Its nuclear program could lead to international trade sanctions, and Israel has threatened military action.

And in Nigeria, one of the top five oil exporters to the U.S., production continues to be hampered by spills, sabotage and thefts of its crude.

Meanwhile, the world's thirst for oil continues to grow. Developing nations in Asia and the Middle East have been importing more barrels as they build factories and their people buy more cars. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said Tuesday that global oil demand should rise to a record 92.9 million barrels per day by 2015. That's up 1.9 million barrels per day from the previous forecast.

OPEC said it was making the change to reflect a "swifter than expected" recovery in energy demand since the recession.

Oil prices have climbed from $79.20 a barrel at the beginning of October to $96.80 Tuesday. The last time they rose that swiftly was in the spring, when rebels in Libya started to clash with forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi. Oil shot up 25 percent to $105 from February to March as the rebellion cut off Libya's exports, increasing pressure on already-tight world supplies.

Gasoline prices followed oil higher earlier this year. Since October, thought, they seem to be moving to their own beat.

Gasoline prices have leveled off as motorists buy less fuel. MasterCard SpendingPulse, which tracks gasoline purchases around the country, said Tuesday that American drivers have bought less fuel for four months in a row.

Pump prices in the U.S. are increasingly influenced by oil produced in foreign countries, and those varieties haven't risen as sharply as the U.S. benchmark crude. Refineries that make gasoline also are producing cheaper winter fuel blends for this time of year.

The government is forecasting that gasoline prices should continue to fall through the end of the year and analysts say it could touch $3.25 by New Year's.

Chris Kahn can be reached at _http://twitter.com/ChrisKahnAP

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111108/ap_on_bi_ge/oil_prices

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Hallmark.com

It's never been easier or more convenient to create greeting cards from home. Even if you couldn't photo-edit your way out of a paper bag, online services such as Hallmark.com, simplify the process by taking the pressure off you as the designer. Hallmark's online site, which is free to use, lets you choose or create and personalize holiday cards, birthday cards, invitations, and a wide variety of other kinds of cards. Prices vary and typically run a little higher than other sites that offer similar services, such as Snapfish and Zazzle, but Hallmark has the best options for shipping. The quality of the finished product is high, which is what you should expect for the slightly higher price, and while the site does restrict you with some design limitations, it's often for the best, reigning you in toward a look that's elegant and impressive for a customized card.

?

Features?
Hallmark.com is free to use, but it does require creating an account. Having an account works to your benefit if, like me, you tend to get caught up in one card-making project that derails you from completing the much longer list of cards that you originally set out to do. All your work will be saved in the Hallmark account, where you can restart it any time.

Hallmark.com offers a wide variety of cards in different sizes and paperstock, folded or flat, postcard or greeting, and on and on. You can make baby announcements, customized with a photo of your newborn (say it with me: "Aww!"), a year's end family photo card, and even specialty paper plates for theme parties.

To make a card, Hallmark has you start with a template, rather than a blank slate, to steer you toward a professional looking design. Templates are grouped by occasion for cards (thank you, get well, etc.) and type of product for other goods, including keepsake ornaments, story books, and the aforementioned party plates.

Limitations
In most cases, you can't customize every inch of the template. You can always customize the inside message, but depending on the design, some other elements, like color or font, will be fixed. It varies by template, which can be frustrating if you've found a design you mostly like and want to change something about it that's set in stone. For example, I made a birthday card that have a chic green flower print on the cover; I wanted a contrasting color for the text, but Hallmark locked me in to using the same green as the design. For many people, these limitations will probably result in a net positive gain?or to put in more bluntly, it will stop you from designing anything too ugly. But if you want to tweak, you may be frustrated.

The online tools for customizing the cards work well enough, but aren't perfect. The photo uploading instructions walk you through the process of grabbing photos from your computer or importing them from Facebook, Photobucket, Picknik, but not Flickr, one of the most popular photo-hosting sites, or Picasa.

When customizing text, I had a hard time seeing the final type in Hallmark's online system, though it's worth noting that it was just as bad with most of the competing tools. The only service that zooms in on text well enough to help you actually read what you are writing is Snapfish. The iPhone app Cards does a decent job of zooming, although on the iPhone's tiny screen, you can barely see more than a few letters at a time.

One thing you can always customize in Hallmark is the address on the envelope, but that doesn't mean you have to ship the card directly to the recipient. Hallmark's shipping options can't be beat. If you want to mail the card directly to the recipient, you can, but you can also opt to have it mailed to you. You can then hand-address the envelope if you prefer, or use the printed one, as two envelopes are included. Optionally, you can have the envelope pre-stamped, too. Another shipping option is to have your cards delivered to a Hallmark store where you can pick them up.

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