SARAH SKIDMORE, AP Business Writer
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Reebok will need to tone down advertising for its shoes that claim to reshape your backside.
The athletic shoe and clothing company will pay $25 million in customer refunds to settle charges by the Federal Trade Commission that it falsely advertised that its "toning" shoes could measurably strengthen the muscles in the legs, thighs and buttocks. As part of the settlement, Reebok also is barred from making some of these claims without scientific evidence.
"Settling does not mean we agree with the FTC's allegations," Dan Sarro, a Reebok spokesman, said in a statement Wednesday. "We do not. We have received overwhelmingly enthusiastic feedback from thousands of EasyTone customers."
It's the latest controversy surrounding so-called toning shoes, which are designed with a rounded or otherwise unstable sole. Shoemakers say the shoes force wearers to use more muscle to maintain balance and consumers clamored for them, turning toning shoes into a $1.1 billion market in just a few years. Companies such as Reebok, New Balance and Skechers have faced lawsuits over their advertising claims. But the FTC settlement, announced Wednesday, is the first time the government has stepped in.
Reebok International Ltd. makes a range of toning products, including its RunTone running shoes, EasyTone walking shoes and flip flops and some clothing. The company, which is owned by Adidas AG, said that its toning shoes were one of its most popular product launches ever when they debuted in 2009. The company marketed them heavily with ads featuring women in short shorts and with shapely bottoms; one ad even said the shoes would "make your boobs jealous".
The FTC took issue with Reebok's ads that claimed its EasyTone footwear had been proven to lead to 28 percent more strength and tone in the buttock muscles and 11 percent more strength and tone in hamstring and calf muscles than regular walking shoes. The FTC said it could not disclose if it was pursuing similar actions against other shoe makers.
"We think this is a real victory for consumers," said Dana Barragate, an FTC attorney involved in the case. "We hope it sends a message to businesses that if they are going to make claims they must be justified."
Shoe makers, including Reebok, have funded studies and say they have anecdotal evidence that proves they are effective. Several experts have questioned their validity and the American Council on Exercise, a nonprofit fitness organization, conducted a study that found toning shoes failed to live up to the claims of shoe makers. However, the council said the shoes could be beneficial to one's health if they motivate people to get moving.
Christopher Svezia, with the Susquehanna Financial Group, said many shoemakers have changed their advertising approach as criticism has mounted. "The emphasis has moved to fitness instead of making these kinds of claims and promises," he said. "The question is who is next and how much is it going to cost them." Read more
Hope for women in end of career - a re-entry is possible
How middle-aged women re-entering workforce can land dream jobs
Washington, Sept 24 (ANI): A new study has found that higher education coupled with vocational or computer training could benefit middle-aged women who are planning to return to the workforce after a long absence
The study found that the top characteristic that resulted in job interviews for middle-aged women seeking an entry level job was vocational or computer training...Read more
Washington, Sept 24 (ANI): A new study has found that higher education coupled with vocational or computer training could benefit middle-aged women who are planning to return to the workforce after a long absence
The study found that the top characteristic that resulted in job interviews for middle-aged women seeking an entry level job was vocational or computer training...Read more
Housing market in bad shape
Big housing blow: New home sales fall, again
By Derek Kravitz, Associated Press
WASHINGTON – Sales of new U.S. homes fell to a six-month low in August. The fourth straight monthly decline during the peak buying season suggests the housing market is years away from a recovery.
The Commerce Department said Monday that new-home sales fell 2.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 295,000. That's less than half the roughly 700,000 that economists say must be sold to sustain a healthy housing market.
New-homes sales are on pace for the worst year since the government began keeping records a half century ago.
High unemployment, larger required down payments and tougher lending standards are preventing many people from buying homes. Plunging stocks and a growing fear that the U.S. could tip back into another recession are also keeping people from entering the housing market.
Pierre Ellis, an analyst at Decision Economics, said that until wages increase and hiring picks up, home sales will languish.
The "bad news is the evident absence of optimism that sales will pick up to any degree," Ellis said.
While new homes represent less than one-fifth of the housing market, they have an outsize impact on the economy. Each home built creates an average of three jobs for a year and generates about $90,000 in taxes, according to the National Association of Home Builders.
Last year was also the fifth straight year that sales have fallen. It followed five straight years of record highs, when housing was booming. Read more
By Derek Kravitz, Associated Press
WASHINGTON – Sales of new U.S. homes fell to a six-month low in August. The fourth straight monthly decline during the peak buying season suggests the housing market is years away from a recovery.
The Commerce Department said Monday that new-home sales fell 2.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 295,000. That's less than half the roughly 700,000 that economists say must be sold to sustain a healthy housing market.
New-homes sales are on pace for the worst year since the government began keeping records a half century ago.
High unemployment, larger required down payments and tougher lending standards are preventing many people from buying homes. Plunging stocks and a growing fear that the U.S. could tip back into another recession are also keeping people from entering the housing market.
Pierre Ellis, an analyst at Decision Economics, said that until wages increase and hiring picks up, home sales will languish.
The "bad news is the evident absence of optimism that sales will pick up to any degree," Ellis said.
While new homes represent less than one-fifth of the housing market, they have an outsize impact on the economy. Each home built creates an average of three jobs for a year and generates about $90,000 in taxes, according to the National Association of Home Builders.
Last year was also the fifth straight year that sales have fallen. It followed five straight years of record highs, when housing was booming. Read more
Obama deficit plan aimed at Democratic base
By Alister Bull and Caren Bohan
WASHINGTON | Mon Sep 19, 2011 10:02am EDT
(Reuters) - President Barack Obama will lay out a plan on Monday to cut the U.S. deficit that will raise taxes on the rich, striking a populist tone to motivate his Democratic Party base before the November 2012 election.
Obama will vow to veto any cuts proposed for the government-run Medicare health program for the elderly unless Congress agrees to lift taxes on companies and the wealthy.
His plan, which has little chance of getting through Congress in one piece, sets up the congressional and presidential elections as an ideological battle over taxes and spending.
With opinion polls showing most Americans disillusioned with his economic leadership, winning re-election may hinge on his success in painting Republicans as the party of the rich.
Republicans have consistently opposed any measures resembling tax hikes, saying they will hurt the struggling U.S. economy. "It is disappointing the president has nothing but a fresh slogan for the same job-killing small business tax hikes opposed by bipartisan majorities in Congress," said Michael Steel, a spokesman for top House Republican John Boehner.
The president's recommendations to a congressional "super committee" would deliver deficit savings of more than $3 trillion over the next decade, his aides said, with roughly half of those savings coming from higher tax revenues. Read more
WASHINGTON | Mon Sep 19, 2011 10:02am EDT
(Reuters) - President Barack Obama will lay out a plan on Monday to cut the U.S. deficit that will raise taxes on the rich, striking a populist tone to motivate his Democratic Party base before the November 2012 election.
Obama will vow to veto any cuts proposed for the government-run Medicare health program for the elderly unless Congress agrees to lift taxes on companies and the wealthy.
His plan, which has little chance of getting through Congress in one piece, sets up the congressional and presidential elections as an ideological battle over taxes and spending.
With opinion polls showing most Americans disillusioned with his economic leadership, winning re-election may hinge on his success in painting Republicans as the party of the rich.
Republicans have consistently opposed any measures resembling tax hikes, saying they will hurt the struggling U.S. economy. "It is disappointing the president has nothing but a fresh slogan for the same job-killing small business tax hikes opposed by bipartisan majorities in Congress," said Michael Steel, a spokesman for top House Republican John Boehner.
The president's recommendations to a congressional "super committee" would deliver deficit savings of more than $3 trillion over the next decade, his aides said, with roughly half of those savings coming from higher tax revenues. Read more
Obama calls on Congress to act on jobs bill
By ERICA WERNER - Associated Press,JULIE PACE - Associated Press | AP – 12 septembre 2011
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama bluntly challenged Congress Monday to act immediately on his new jobs plan, brandishing a copy of the legislation in the Rose Garden and demanding: "No games, no politics, no delays."
Surrounded by police officers, firefighters, teachers, construction workers and others he said would be helped by the $447 billion package, the president said the only thing that would block its passage would be lawmakers deciding it wasn't good politics to work with him. "We can't afford these same political games, not now," Obama said.
The president said he was sending the package to Congress later Monday, after unveiling it last week in a speech to a joint session of Congress. Then he's heading out to try to sell it to the public, on Tuesday in Ohio — home state of House Speaker John Boehner — and Wednesday in North Carolina.
At the same time, the Democratic National Committee is backing up the effort with a new ad campaign in politically key states from Nevada to New Hampshire.
The centerpiece of the plan cuts payroll taxes that pay for Social Security, giving a tax break to workers and businesses. There's also new spending for teachers and school construction, and an extension of jobless benefits, among other elements. Republican lawmakers who control the House have promised quick review of the legislation and seem open to the tax-cutting elements, but some have already rejected new spending.
Obama has said the plan could be passed without adding to the nation's deficit, and on Monday, the White House detailed the specifics of how the legislation would be paid for. It would rely on a series of tax hikes that have all previously been proposed by the White House and rejected by Republicans. They are:
—$400 billion from limiting the itemized deductions for charitable contributions and other deductions that can be taken by individuals making over $200,000 a year and families making over $250,000;
—$40 billion from closing loopholes for oil and gas companies;
—$18 billion from requiring fund managers to pay higher taxes on certain income;
—$3 billion from changing the tax treatment of corporate jets.
White House budget director Jacob Lew said that Obama will also include those tax proposals in a broader debt-cutting package he plans to submit to a congressional supercommittee charged with finding $1.2 trillion in savings later this year. He said that the supercommittee would have the option of accepting the payment mechanisms for the jobs bill proposed by Obama, or proposing new ones.
Boehner's initial response to Obama's comments Monday morning was measured, with the Ohio Republican pledging to review the bill carefully. But a Boehner spokesman was less enthusiastic about the White House proposal after the administration released the details on how it planned to pay for the measure.
"We remain eager to work together on ways to support job growth, but this proposal doesn't appear to have been offered in that bipartisan spirit," Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck said.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., one of the president's fiercest foes on Capitol Hill, also appeared to foreshadow the possibility of a fight ahead.
"For the president to sit here and say, 'It's pass my bill all or nothing,' that's just not the way things are done anywhere in Washington," he said.
In his Rose Garden comments, Obama adopted a newly sharp tone that has pleased dispirited Democrats, deriding Republican opposition at a time when the economy has stalled and unemployment stands at 9.1 percent.
"Instead of just talking about America's jobs creators, let's actually do something for America's jobs creators," Obama said. "We can do that by passing this bill."
But despite his suggestion that the GOP is playing politics, Obama himself has a huge political stake in success of the legislation. The 2012 presidential campaign is ramping up with Republican hopefuls attacking Obama at every turn over his stewardship of the economy, and polls showing deep public unhappiness with his economic leadership.
The new DNC ad campaign was to air beginning Monday in eight swing and early voting states, urging viewers to "Read it. Fight for it. ... Pass the President's Jobs Plan."
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama bluntly challenged Congress Monday to act immediately on his new jobs plan, brandishing a copy of the legislation in the Rose Garden and demanding: "No games, no politics, no delays."
Surrounded by police officers, firefighters, teachers, construction workers and others he said would be helped by the $447 billion package, the president said the only thing that would block its passage would be lawmakers deciding it wasn't good politics to work with him. "We can't afford these same political games, not now," Obama said.
The president said he was sending the package to Congress later Monday, after unveiling it last week in a speech to a joint session of Congress. Then he's heading out to try to sell it to the public, on Tuesday in Ohio — home state of House Speaker John Boehner — and Wednesday in North Carolina.
At the same time, the Democratic National Committee is backing up the effort with a new ad campaign in politically key states from Nevada to New Hampshire.
The centerpiece of the plan cuts payroll taxes that pay for Social Security, giving a tax break to workers and businesses. There's also new spending for teachers and school construction, and an extension of jobless benefits, among other elements. Republican lawmakers who control the House have promised quick review of the legislation and seem open to the tax-cutting elements, but some have already rejected new spending.
Obama has said the plan could be passed without adding to the nation's deficit, and on Monday, the White House detailed the specifics of how the legislation would be paid for. It would rely on a series of tax hikes that have all previously been proposed by the White House and rejected by Republicans. They are:
—$400 billion from limiting the itemized deductions for charitable contributions and other deductions that can be taken by individuals making over $200,000 a year and families making over $250,000;
—$40 billion from closing loopholes for oil and gas companies;
—$18 billion from requiring fund managers to pay higher taxes on certain income;
—$3 billion from changing the tax treatment of corporate jets.
White House budget director Jacob Lew said that Obama will also include those tax proposals in a broader debt-cutting package he plans to submit to a congressional supercommittee charged with finding $1.2 trillion in savings later this year. He said that the supercommittee would have the option of accepting the payment mechanisms for the jobs bill proposed by Obama, or proposing new ones.
Boehner's initial response to Obama's comments Monday morning was measured, with the Ohio Republican pledging to review the bill carefully. But a Boehner spokesman was less enthusiastic about the White House proposal after the administration released the details on how it planned to pay for the measure.
"We remain eager to work together on ways to support job growth, but this proposal doesn't appear to have been offered in that bipartisan spirit," Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck said.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., one of the president's fiercest foes on Capitol Hill, also appeared to foreshadow the possibility of a fight ahead.
"For the president to sit here and say, 'It's pass my bill all or nothing,' that's just not the way things are done anywhere in Washington," he said.
In his Rose Garden comments, Obama adopted a newly sharp tone that has pleased dispirited Democrats, deriding Republican opposition at a time when the economy has stalled and unemployment stands at 9.1 percent.
"Instead of just talking about America's jobs creators, let's actually do something for America's jobs creators," Obama said. "We can do that by passing this bill."
But despite his suggestion that the GOP is playing politics, Obama himself has a huge political stake in success of the legislation. The 2012 presidential campaign is ramping up with Republican hopefuls attacking Obama at every turn over his stewardship of the economy, and polls showing deep public unhappiness with his economic leadership.
The new DNC ad campaign was to air beginning Monday in eight swing and early voting states, urging viewers to "Read it. Fight for it. ... Pass the President's Jobs Plan."
Bank of America to Cut $5 Billion in Costs by End-2013
By DAVID BENOIT
NEW YORK—Bank of America Corp. will cut $5 billion in annual costs by the end of 2013 and slash 30,000 jobs out of its consumer-oriented businesses, part of an important trimming program at the bank.
Chief Executive Brian Moynihan, speaking at the Barclays Capital financial conference in New York, reiterated promises to trim excess expenses and businesses to reshape the nation's biggest bank by assets and put behind it a series of missteps. Mr. Moynihan has sold off businesses and investments and is now working on the final details of what has been dubbed "Project New BAC."
Mr. Moynihan said Monday that the planning for the first phase of Project New BAC has been completed. The bank will take the $5 billion, or about 18%, in annual expenses out of $27 billion in consumer and small banking expenses, card costs, global technology and other areas. Read more
NEW YORK—Bank of America Corp. will cut $5 billion in annual costs by the end of 2013 and slash 30,000 jobs out of its consumer-oriented businesses, part of an important trimming program at the bank.
Chief Executive Brian Moynihan, speaking at the Barclays Capital financial conference in New York, reiterated promises to trim excess expenses and businesses to reshape the nation's biggest bank by assets and put behind it a series of missteps. Mr. Moynihan has sold off businesses and investments and is now working on the final details of what has been dubbed "Project New BAC."
Mr. Moynihan said Monday that the planning for the first phase of Project New BAC has been completed. The bank will take the $5 billion, or about 18%, in annual expenses out of $27 billion in consumer and small banking expenses, card costs, global technology and other areas. Read more
What can Greece do to avoid debt default ?
Greece Takes Step to Avoid Debt Default
By ALKMAN GRANITSAS
THESSALONIKI, Greece—The Greek government said Sunday it will impose a new property tax to cover a €2 billion ($2.7 billion) shortfall in budget targets this year, which it has promised its international creditors in exchange for receiving fresh aid.
In a news conference, Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said the property tax, which will be imposed over the next two years, was decided by an extraordinary cabinet meeting and comes amid growing fears of a Greek default in the weeks ahead.
"We need about €2 billion and a bit for us to cover our goals" for this year, Mr. Venizelos said, insisting the government would meet its deficit goals of €17.1 billion in 2011 and €14.9 billion next year.
"We have to find something that is fair, something that will be accepted by the community…something that can be implemented quickly, that will produce results immediately," he added. "The only measure that has all those characteristics, that can be universally applied, but which is just with social characteristics, is a special property tax."
He said the tax, which will be collected through monthly electricity bills, would average about €4 per square meter and range between 50 cents and €10 depending on the neighborhood.
His remarks come as Greece's embattled government scrambles to cut public spending and step up its reform drive amid ultimatums from other euro-zone governments that further rescue money will be withheld if Athens doesn't deliver on promises.
Earlier this month, talks between Greece and officials from the European Commission, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank—which assess the country's eligibility for fresh aid—were suspended in a dispute over whether Greece would need to take further measures.
Without the aid, Greece is expected to run out of money within weeks, according to senior Greek officials. Read more
By ALKMAN GRANITSAS
THESSALONIKI, Greece—The Greek government said Sunday it will impose a new property tax to cover a €2 billion ($2.7 billion) shortfall in budget targets this year, which it has promised its international creditors in exchange for receiving fresh aid.
In a news conference, Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said the property tax, which will be imposed over the next two years, was decided by an extraordinary cabinet meeting and comes amid growing fears of a Greek default in the weeks ahead.
"We need about €2 billion and a bit for us to cover our goals" for this year, Mr. Venizelos said, insisting the government would meet its deficit goals of €17.1 billion in 2011 and €14.9 billion next year.
"We have to find something that is fair, something that will be accepted by the community…something that can be implemented quickly, that will produce results immediately," he added. "The only measure that has all those characteristics, that can be universally applied, but which is just with social characteristics, is a special property tax."
He said the tax, which will be collected through monthly electricity bills, would average about €4 per square meter and range between 50 cents and €10 depending on the neighborhood.
His remarks come as Greece's embattled government scrambles to cut public spending and step up its reform drive amid ultimatums from other euro-zone governments that further rescue money will be withheld if Athens doesn't deliver on promises.
Earlier this month, talks between Greece and officials from the European Commission, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank—which assess the country's eligibility for fresh aid—were suspended in a dispute over whether Greece would need to take further measures.
Without the aid, Greece is expected to run out of money within weeks, according to senior Greek officials. Read more
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