Geithner in Beijing faces uphill struggle on Iran
BEIJING (AP) — U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is visiting Beijing this week looking for support for U.S. sanctions on Iran’s oil industry – but he is likely to be disappointed.
China buys almost one-third of Iran’s oil exports and has rejected the U.S. sanctions as a tool to rein in Tehran’s nuclear program. That sets Washington up for a public setback if the government of the world’s second-largest economy refuses to cooperate.
“China has no reason to go along with this,” said Wang Lian, an Iran expert at Peking University’s School of International Relations. “China does not want to be seen as helping the U.S. when China’s own interest is concerned.”
Geithner was due in Beijing for a dinner meeting Tuesday with Vice Premier Wang Qishan, his counterpart in a regular high-level U.S.-Chinese dialogue. Geithner is to meet Wednesday with Premier Wen Jiabao, Vice President Xi Jinping – in line to become China’s next leader – and Vice Premier Li Keqiang, another rising star.
U.S.
RICHARDSON APPEARS ON WWL TO DISCUSS BOWL GAMES’ IMPACT
NEW ORLEANS – James Richardson, director of the LSU Public Administration Institute and the Harris J. and Marie P. Chustz Distinguished Professor in Business Administration, appeared on WWL to discuss the impact the All-State Sugar Bowl and the Bowl Championship Series National Championship Game have for the area.
“Brand new people, tourists that would not be there except for these two games being played there,” Richardson said.
Richardson went on to say that because this is New Orleans’ turn to host the championship game, the exposure is all the more greater.
Aftershocks are still shaking the insurance sector
After one of the worst years of natural disasters, including storms, tsunamis, earthquakes, tornadoes and the recent $12 billion flood in Thailand, IAG Australia has completed its reinsurance coverage for 2012. Not surprisingly the costs have ballooned, along with the amount of risk the company has had to take on its own books.
For shareholders, it will mean little – as long as there isn’t a string of mid-sized disasters – as the company reconfirmed an insurance margin of between 10 per cent and 12 per cent for this year. But for customers, the increase in reinsurance costs, estimated to be up to 40 per cent higher, will translate into more rises in insurance premiums.
Being the last of the big insurers to renegotiate its catastrophe reinsurance policy for the year, IAG was always going to face a challenge, particularly given the massive losses endured by global reinsurers over the past few years.
Suncorp, QBE and Wesfarmers have already run the gauntlet and renegotiated their reinsurance policy renewals in June.
Woman takes Honda to small-claims court over hybrid’s mpg
A California woman is suing American Honda Motor Co. over its 2006 hybrid Civic, pictured here, which she says never got the gas mileage the company advertised. (Mark Elias, Bloomberg file )
TORRANCE, Calif. A Los Angeles woman who expected her hybrid Honda Civic to be a high-mileage machine wants the automaker to pay for not delivering the 50 mpg it promised. But rather than being one of thousands in a class-action lawsuit, she took her case Tuesday to small-claims court.
Experts said Heather Peters has a better chance of winning her case in a court with more relaxed standards and could get a payout many times higher than the few hundred dollars offered to class-action plaintiffs.
Peters said she has been contacted by hundreds of owners who also want to take their chances in small-claims court, where there are no attorney fees and cases are decided quickly.
“If I prevail and get $10,000, they have 200,000 of these cars out there,” Peters said.
Peters, a state employee and former lawyer, argued that Honda knew her car wouldn’t get the 50 mpg as advertised before a judge in Torrance, where American Honda Motor Co.
Holiday travel: Busier roads, quieter skies this season, AAA says
Nearly one in three Americans is expected to travel for the holidays, making for a slightly more busy travel season compared with a year ago.
About 91.9 million Americans are forecast to travel 50 miles or more from home, up 1.4 percent compared with the 90.7 million people who traveled last year. It marks the highest travel volume since 2006, according to a report released Wednesday by travel club AAA.
AAA called the travel gains a “notable milestone in the travel industry’s recovery.”
In Florida, 4.8 million people are expected to travel during the 11-day holiday period, up 1.2 percent compared with a year ago.
Though the number of people on the roads is expected to grow, air travel is forecast to take a hit this year. AAA forecast about 5.4 million leisure travelers will fly during the year-end holiday period, down 9.7 percent from a year ago.