The official Purchasing Managers

Abe announced the five-year commitment of public and private support in a speech today at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development. Officials from about 50 nations are attending the meeting, held every five years, which is the biggest African development event outside the continent since it began in 1993.

Africa

After Wednesday’s gutsy bullpen effort to secure a cleanly played shutout victory, the Jays needed a strong outing from Dickey on which to build something of an extended streak.

But on Thursday the knuckleballer’s disappointing season continued as Dickey gave up a season-high 11 hits and the Jays fell 11-3 to the Atlanta Braves.

True, only two of Atlanta’s hits went for extra bases and few were struck hard — blooped into the shallow outfield or squirted through infield holes — but the free-swinging Braves went after Dickey’s pitch without a care, rarely missing when they swung.

With a Jays lineup depleted by Brett Lawrie’s absence, Henry Blanco’s presence — to catch Dickey — and the lack of a designated hitter, they mounted little offence against Mike Minor, the Braves’ tough lefty, who held the Jays scoreless through the first five innings.

Meanwhile, the Braves hopped out to an early 3-0 lead with six hits through the first three innings, including a two-out homer by Freddie Freeman in the third.

It was the fifth time this season Dickey has allowed a run in the opening frame. He has now allowed a dozen first-inning runs in as many starts.

The Jays clawed back to tie the game 3-3 with a sixth-inning rally kicked off by Dickey, who legged out an infield single by hustling down the line on a soft grounder. Then the Jays capitalized on a rare mistake by the Braves’ usually sharp young shortstop Andrelton Simmons, who bobbled a Jose Bautista groundball, before Edwin Encarnacion and Mark DeRosa — hitting cleanup with both Adam Lind and J.P. Arencibia out of the lineup —combined to drive home three runs.

But Dickey failed to shut down the Braves when he needed to, giving up three runs on four hits as the home side re-took the lead in the bottom half of the inning.

In doing so Dickey earned his seventh loss of the season, one more than he had all of last year. He also allowed his 12th home run, already half as many as he did a year ago.

But in last year’s Cy Young season he did once allow 11 hits, and Turner Field has never been kind to Dickey.

Heading into Thursday’s game he was 0-2 with a 7.26 earned-run average over five career starts and three relief appearances.

Fans looking for bright sides should note that Dickey did not battle his command as he has of late, issuing just one walk on the night.

But most distressing are the lack of strikeouts. He had only two on Thursday to give him 59 on the season — good for 36th in the majors.

Last year he led the majors in strikeouts.

The biggest difference is his reduced velocity and inability to go to his hard knuckleball, which typically sits in the high-70s or low-80s and was his primary strikeout weapon last season. Dickey has said the nagging back and neck soreness he dealt with earlier in the season was to blame for his lack of arm strength, but the longer his struggles continue, the more distressing his reduced velocity becomes.

The Jays chose not to make a roster move on Thursday, continuing to carry an eight-man bullpen and shortened bench, even in a National League park without the benefits of a designated hitter.

“We’re still a little bit beat up down there,” Gibbons said before the game, referring to the overtaxed bullpen.

Before the game, Gibbons was reluctant to call the game a “benchmark.”

“We look at ’em all the same,” he said. “We got to play steady baseball for here on out.”

He’s right. The thinking is that if the Jays can get to .500 by the end of June, when Jose Reyes is expected to return, they will still have a shot at turning the season around.

But with Thursday’s loss they are back to eight games under.

JOSH JOHNSON MAKES FINAL REHAB START

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The Red Cross often leads the charge after natural disasters, like the deadly tornado in Moore, Okla., that killed 24, injured more than 200 and wiped out thousands of homes on Monday.

But every dollar you give isn’t going directly to the victims you’re intending to help. In fact, an average of nine cents of every dollar you donate is going to Red Cross expenses, like employee salaries and fundraising efforts.

While nine cents may seem small, it adds up the more you give — if you donate $3,000, nearly $300 of that money goes to administrative costs, and that amount jumps to a whopping $90,000 for a donation of $1 million.

That nine cents per dollar isn’t necessarily going to waste, however. Charities like the Red Cross need money to keep their organizations running, pay employees, raise funds and ensure that your money is used properly.

Last year, an average of five cents of every dollar went to fundraising costs, and four cents went to administrative expenses. And compared to other charities and nonprofit organizations, that overall nine cents per dollar, or 9%, is very low, according to charity evaluator CharityWatch.

“These funds ensure proper oversight of donations and provide for the overall administration of our organization,” a Red Cross spokeswoman said. “We are proud that we keep these expenses low and that we invest such a large amount in our humanitarian services.”

To get the biggest bang for the buck, CharityWatch advises, consumers should donate to charities that use at least 75% of donations for direct aid. The Red Cross, at 91%, is well above that mark.

Another charity, Feeding America, generally puts 98% of donations toward feeding the hungry guaranteed online payday loans. But in the wake of disasters like the recent tornado, 100% is used for feeding victims, thanks to funding it receives from insurer AllState for its disaster relief program.

The Salvation Army typically spends 82% of donations on aid. But during disasters, it draws from its budget so it can direct 100% at relief efforts.

Meanwhile, 85% of donations to World Vision and 92% of donations to Feed the Children are put toward relief efforts.

Since this information isn’t always clearly stated when you’re making a donation, it helps to research each charity first.

Charity Navigator is a good place to start, It rates charities and provides information on the percentage of each donation spent on charitable programs versus overhead expenses. CharityWatch provides similar figures, but they are only based on cash donations, which can skew a rating for an organization that mainly receives food donations, like Feeding America, or clothing items, like Goodwill.

While crowdfunding websites allow people to donate directly to individual victims without the overhead costs of large charities and nonprofits, fees can eat away at your donation. Three of the most active sites — Fundly, GoFundMe and GiveForward — charge transaction fees of 5%. That means 95% of your donation gets into the hands of victims. Extra credit card processing fees of as much as 3% are often charged as well.

And even though many crowdfunding websites vet campaign organizers to safeguard against scams, fraudsters can be very clever. So it’s hard to be absolutely sure that your money is going where you intended.

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The City Press newspaper said that the South African Revenue Service fined the double-amputee runner “less than one million rand” (under $105,000), which he paid.

Pistorius’ uncle, Arnold Pistorius, said “Oscar is tax compliant” in a brief statement to The Associated Press later Sunday without elaborating further on any of the details of the report.

Oscar Pistorius is charged with premeditated murder for the Valentine’s Day shooting death of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp at his upscale house in Pretoria in the pre-dawn hours of Feb. 14, and will appear in court on June 4 for what prosecutors say will be a brief hearing while the police investigation of his killing of Steenkamp continues.

He denies murder and says he shot Steenkamp in error after mistaking her for an intruder in his home.

The 26-year-old Pistorius declared in a court affidavit during his application to be freed on bail in February that he earned around $630,000 a year and owned three houses and a vacant plot in South Africa with a combined value of nearly $1 million.

The City Press said he owns another house in Johannesburg, which the newspaper claims he bought for 9.8 million rand ($1.02 million) this year. That house was not declared as part of his assets in his affidavit. City Press did not say if that house was bought before or after the killing of Steenkamp at Pistorius’ $500,000 Pretoria villa, which Pistorius said was his main residence.

Much of Pistorius’ income is believed to have come from big-name sponsors Nike and eyewear company Oakley, which suspended their deals with the Paralympic champion after he was charged with murder.

His family has denied previous media reports that he is facing financial ruin because of spiralling legal costs, saying in a statement in March that those legal bills, while huge, were “under control business cards.”

“While the family doesn’t deny that Oscar’s legal expenses are massive and that he has sold off some of his investments, including his racehorses … Oscar will evaluate the cost situation on a day-to-day basis and make decisions as required,” the family said.

Pistorius, now free on $113,000 bail, also has decided to step away from competition for the rest of the year to focus on his upcoming trial, which is likely to be long and expensive for him and where he will face a life sentence in prison with a minimum of 25 years before parole if convicted of premeditated murder in Steenkamp’s killing.

One of Pistorius’ teammates from last year’s London Olympics, LJ van Zyl, said in Britain that the Blade Runner’s case and his absence from track competition also was taking a heavy toll on South African athletics and its other athletes.

“If Oscar is at the competition, the South African stadium is full and now that has gone,” said Van Zyl, who ran with Pistorius on South Africa’s 4×400 relay team in the Olympic final in London and trained at the same track as the double-amputee in Pretoria.

“So athletics is really taking a dip now he is off the track. In the beginning it was really tough for every one of us.

“It was media crazy at the track. Now it’s still painful for all the athletes. It’s sad, but I try to focus on my thing,” he said.

Van Zyl said he was planning to travel and stay with Pistorius in Manchester for Saturday’s Great City Games before Pistorius had to cancel all his competitions in the wake of Steenkamp’s death and his murder charge.

“I get like a weird, sorry feeling and I also miss Oscar,” Van Zyl said. “We planned to stay together here and also travel to Manchester and now it’s all gone.”

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Zillow, the real estate website, says 26.4 percent of metro St. Louis homeowners with mortgages owed more than their homes are worth in the first quarter of this year.  That was down slightly from 26.9 percent in the last quarter of 2012.

Zillow actually expects that number to rise slightly to 26.7 percent by early 2014 as the national housing price recovery skips St. Louis this year.

About a third of homes carry no mortgages and aren’t counted in the Zillow percentages.

Being upside down on a mortgage makes it impossible to sell a home unless the owner can bring a check to the closing, or unless the bank will agree to accept less than it is owed — a so-called “short sale.”  The situation also can make it difficult, and often impossible, to refinance at today’s low mortgage rates.

The company says 47 percent here have less than 20 percent equity in their homes, which can make it difficult to refinance a mortgage at the best terms.

Zillow counts 148,000 upside-down homeowners in the St. Louis metro area.  The rate among homeowners with mortgages was 28.5 percent in St. Louis County, 26.5 percent in St. Charles County, 25.8 percent in Jefferson County, 21.5 percent in St. Louis city and 18.5 percent in Franklin County.

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Purchases of existing houses increased 0.6 percent to an annual rate of 4.97 million, the most since November 2009, the National Association of Realtors reported today in Washington. The median price rose 11 percent compared with April 2012, the fifth consecutive month that property values advanced more than 10 percent year over year.

The fewest number of homes for sale in more than a decade, lingering lender aversion to housing debt and conservative appraisals are probably preventing the market from making bigger strides. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke today said policy makers are aware that a jump in interest rates may derail the expansion, a signal central bankers will continue to hold borrowing costs down.

]]> http://myfinnotes.com/sales-of-existing-us-homes-climb-to-2009-high-economy-bloomberg/feed/ http://myfinnotes.com/measure-to-split-top-jobs-at-jpmorgan-fails/ http://myfinnotes.com/measure-to-split-top-jobs-at-jpmorgan-fails/#comments Tue, 21 May 2013 16:46:07 +0000 Fred http://myfinnotes.com/measure-to-split-top-jobs-at-jpmorgan-fails/ TAMPA, Fla. • Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO JPMorgan Chase, told shareholders Tuesday that last year’s $6 billion trading loss had been expensive and “extremely embarrassing,” but he also asked shareholders not to fixate on the issue.

“It would have been a terrible shame if that one issue were allowed to damage the company from doing all the things it was supposed to do,” Dimon told shareholders at the bank’s annual shareholder meeting.

Shareholders rejected a measure to force Dimon, chairman and CEO of the country’s largest bank, to relinquish his role as bank chairman. The measure received less than one-third of shareholder votes, less than it did last year.

It’s a topic that has turned into a referendum on Dimon, who emerged from the financial crisis heading one of the strongest banks in the country. His reputation has been tarnished over the past year over fallout from the so-called “London whale” trading loss, nicknamed for its size and the location of the trader who made the outsized bets on complex debt securities that went wrong.

At the meeting, held at company offices on the outskirts of Tampa, Fla., off a highway exit populated with gas stations and the Florida State fairgrounds, had fewer theatrics than last year, which was held just days after the trading loss was disclosed. Last year, two or three dozen protesters showed up, but Tuesday was quieter. One woman with a cardboard sign was spotted, but only briefly.

The bank is facing regulatory investigations and lawsuits, not only over the trading loss but other practices including foreclosures and alleged rigging of power prices. Michael Garland from the New York City Comptroller’s Office, which supports splitting the roles, said he appreciated that JPMorgan led its peers by certain financial measures. But, he added, “it also leads its peers in regulatory investigations.”

Lisa Lindsley from the union group AFSCME, which filed the proposal asking to split the jobs, said the bank needed “a new tone at the top.” She said the proposal was never intended as a referendum against Dimon or a “personality contest,” but as a measure for the best risk management.

AP reporters Tamara Lush and Chris O’Meara contributed.

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