Tokyo tops global survey of workers’ buying power
Geneva – Residents of Tokyo have the highest purchasing power in the world, edging out people in Los Angeles, London, Toronto and Sydney, Australia, according to a survey by the Swiss banking giant UBS that uses McDonald’s Big Mac sandwich as its benchmark.
Tokyo scored at the top of the survey, which aims to eliminate variables such as exchange rates, even though it is one of the most expensive cities in the world, UBS said in the “Prices and Earnings” report released Wednesday.
“Wages only become meaningful in relation to prices – that is, what can be bought with the money earned,” it said.
The bank calculated the “weighted net hourly wage in 14 professions” and divided it into the local price of “a globally available product,” for which it chose McDonald’s flagship hamburger.
“On a global average, 35 minutes of work buys a Big Mac,” it said. “But the disparities are huge: In Nairobi, 1 1/2 hours’ work is needed to buy the burger with the net hourly wage there. In the U.S. cities of Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Miami, a maximum of 13 minutes’ labor is needed.”
In Tokyo, it takes 10 minutes. Bogotá, Colombia, came in last among the 70 cities surveyed at 97 minutes.
DENVER
Metro area fourth in nation in foreclosures
The Denver-Boulder-Greeley metro area ranked fourth among the nation’s 100 largest metro areas for its home-foreclosure rate during the second quarter, according to RealtyTrac, a California company that tracks foreclosures.
One out of every 128 households in the metro area was in some stage of foreclosure during the second quarter, compared with one in 425 nationally.
Indianapolis, Atlanta and Dallas-Fort Worth ranked ahead of metro Denver for foreclosures in the second quarter, as they did in the first quarter. Colorado Springs ranked 12th.
Overall, the number of Denver-area foreclosures was down 17.9 percent in the second quarter compared with the first.
DENVER
Electric reliability panel begins to meet
The Colorado Public Utilities Commission will convene an interim task force Aug. 21 to study electric-transmission reliability issues in Colorado.
The initial meeting of the task force will be at 1:30 p.m. in Hearing Room A at the PUC, 1580 Logan St., in Denver. The meeting is open to the public.
A bill creating the Task Force on Reliable Electricity Infrastructure was approved by the general assembly earlier this year.
BALTIMORE
Redstone son may go ahead with lawsuit
A Maryland judge has ruled that media titan Sumner Redstone’s son may proceed with his lawsuit seeking the breakup of family-owned National Amusements Inc.
Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Evelyn Omega Cannon on Monday denied National Amusement’s motion to dismiss the claims of Brent Redstone, who lives on a ranch in Clear Creek County.
His suit, filed in February, seeks to dissolve National Amusements so that he can cash out his one-sixth ownership worth an estimated $1.3 billion.
COLORADO SPRINGS
Westmoreland Coal avoids Amex delisting
Westmoreland Coal Co. announced Wednesday that the American Stock Exchange has accepted its updated plan to meet listing standards and will continue to list the company through the plan period pursuant to an extension.
The plan was necessitated by the company’s inability to file timely quarterly reports this year.
The revised plan calls for the company to file the reports by Sept 13.
DETROIT
Toyota’s Lexus takes car study’s top honors
Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp. won top honors in eight categories – more than any other company – in a closely watched vehicle-dependability study.
In the study, mainstream brands closed in on luxury nameplates, J.D. Power and Associates said Wednesday.
Lexus, Toyota’s luxury brand, was the top-ranked nameplate for the 12th consecutive year.
It was followed by Mercury, a branch of Ford Motor Co., and General Motors Corp.’s Buick and Cadillac.
WASHINGTON
Fannie Mae: Probe has done its work
Fannie Mae said Wednesday it believes a massive review of its accounting has uncovered the last of its errors, clearing the way for the mortgage company to complete the restatement of its 2004 earnings by the end of this year.
The company disclosed that the multibillion-dollar correction could be less than estimated previously.
The government-sponsored company finances one of every five home loans in the United States. It also said it would miss a regulatory deadline Wednesday for filing its financial report for the second quarter of 2006.
NEW YORK
Ban attendants strike, Northwest asks court
Northwest Airlines Corp., saying a strike by flight attendants could force the company into liquidation, asked a federal bankruptcy judge to bar a walkout.
“If in fact the flight attendants were to strike a flight in late August, we could sustain that,” Julie Hagen Showers, Northwest’s vice president of labor relations, testified at a hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York. “But they also refer to shutting down a hub for a week. That is the type of thing we can’t sustain.”
Showers said Northwest “has not finalized” a contingency plan in the event of a strike.
NEW YORK
Morgan Stanley buys 3rd mortgage concern
Morgan Stanley, the world’s biggest securities firm, said Wednesday it agreed to buy Saxon Capital Inc. for $706 million, its third acquisition of a mortgage company in eight months.
The purchase of Glen Allen, Va.-based Saxon will provide Morgan Stanley with a stream of home loans as it seeks to expand in the business of packaging mortgages into securities.
HOUSTON
Lay lawyers back in fight to clear his name
Lawyers for Enron Corp. founder Ken Lay took their first official step Wednesday toward erasing his felony convictions after his death last month in Aspen.
Lay, 64, was convicted May 25 of fraud and conspiracy in the federal government’s foremost criminal trial to emerge from the disgraced company’s flameout.
His co-defendant, former Enron chief executive Jeff Skilling, 52, was convicted of 19 counts of fraud, conspiracy, insider trading and lying to auditors.
