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Price index soars on spike in energy costs

By TIMES WIRES
Published April 18, 2007

Washington

The Consumer Price Index surged 0.6 percent last month, the biggest jump in 11 months, the Labor Department reported Tuesday. The March increase was driven by a 5.9 percent spike in energy costs, the largest gain in this area since September 2005, when Katrina shut down Gulf Coast refineries. Gasoline prices shot up 10.6 percent. Prices had risen 0.4 percent in February. But outside of gasoline and other energy products, inflation was well contained in March, the CPI report showed. Food costs slowed after two months of big gains triggered by crop damage in winter growing areas, while clothing costs plunged by 1 percent, the biggest drop in six years.

Court: Feds rule bank subsidiaries

The federal government is the sole regulator of national bank subsidiaries, the Supreme Court said Tuesday, ruling against state financial regulators. The 5-3 decision involving a mortgage subsidiary in Michigan is a victory for the 1,600 national banks, which say they should not have to face a dual system of federal-state regulation in a growing area of their business. The number of national bank subsidiaries has grown to about 500 in recent years. They are permitted to engage in mortgage lending and a wide range of other activities, from acting as a finder for used car sales to Medicare and Medicaid counseling. National banks in the United States have $6-trillion in assets. Wachovia Bank, the subject of the court ruling, is the fourth-largest in the country. The Bush administration supported the position of Wachovia Corp. in the case.

New York

Credit woes widen, indexes indicate

Credit performance worsened across the board in February for the first time since 2003, largely due to a rise in personal bankruptcy filings, according to Moody's Investors Service. All five of Moody's credit card indexes, which track more than $410-billion of U.S. bank credit card loans backing securities rated by Moody's, deteriorated in February. Moody's noted, however, that the year-over-year losses were skewed by the unusually strong readings seen in 2006. The delinquency rate, the proportion of account balances for which a monthly payment is more than 30 days late, rose to 3.89 percent from 3.78 percent a year ago.

Tampa

Chairman to leave port authority post

Tampa Port Authority chairman Steven Pinney has resigned from the agency's governing board effective June 1 to take a promotion at the Mosaic Co. in Minnesota. Pinney was among the first two members to fill board seats set aside under state law to represent for maritime community. He will become senior vice president for phosphate and supply chain at company's headquarters in Plymouth, Minn., outside Minneapolis.

Internet company plans 2 new offices

Bayshore Solutions, a Tampa company that designs Web sites and Internet marketing plans for businesses, said it is interviewing staff for a new office in Dallas and plans to open a Washington, D.C., office in coming months. Bayshore's other locations are Fort Lauderdale and Atlanta.

[Last modified April 18, 2007, 02:41:04]