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McKendree University has acquired the 18-hole Locust Hills Golf Course in Lebanon for $1.4 million, nearly doubling the size of the school’s campus.
McKendree bought the public golf course for its future development needs but plans to keep the course open for now, the school said in a statement. The golf course is located at 1015 Belleville St. and is adjacent to the school’s McKendree West student apartment complex on College Road.
The purchase increases the size of the school’s campus from 125 acres to 234 acres.
“Our immediate plans are to operate it as a public golf course and to make any necessary improvements or enhancements as we are able,” the university’s president, Dr. James Dennis, said in the statement.
Long-term, the school will evaluate potential educational uses for the property. “Owning the golf course allows us to offer our students a variety of educational opportunities in the future,” Dennis said in the statement. “Locust Hills has natural water features that our biology department could potentially use as an outdoor laboratory to study aquatic organisms and plant habitats. Our sport management majors could learn about golf course and recreational facilities management. It’s exciting to imagine the possibilities.”
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Dubai’s DryDocks World has secured support from a significant majority of creditors to implement its $2.2 billion debt restructuring, the state-owned shipyard operator said Saturday.
The company, a division of the emirate’s debt-laden Dubai World conglomerate, has been in talks with lenders for months to hammer out new terms on the debt. It didn’t provide details of the revised repayment terms or say how many lenders agreed to the deal.
While it has sufficient support to implement the restructuring, a “small minority” of lenders have not signed on to the plan, the company said.
“The group has always sought the support of all its syndicated lenders and its proposals were designed to achieve that,” Chairman Khamis Juma Buamim said in a statement. “The group remains confident the absence of support from this minority will have no impact on the … restructuring.”
DryDocks’ debt talks were complicated by a lawsuit by one of its creditors, Monarch Alternative Capital, which was seeking about $45 million it was owed on line pay day loans. A British court ruled in Monarch’s favor earlier this year.
DryDocks World operates the Middle East’s largest shipyard in Dubai, where it builds and repairs ships and oil drilling rigs. It also owns shipyards in Singapore and Indonesia, and other Asian businesses including a fleet of more than 100 vessels, including tankers, cargo ships, tugboats and barges.
Its parent company, Dubai World, sent markets reeling in 2009 when it acknowledged it couldn’t pay back billions it owed. It signed an agreement to restructure some $25 billion in debt last March. Subsidiary companies such as DryDocks World have since tried to retool the terms on their own piles of debt.
Credit rating firm Moody’s Investors Service in December estimated that Dubai and its many state-linked companies owe creditors at least $101.5 billion.
A bill designed to enact President Barack Obama’s plan for a “Buffett rule” tax on the wealthy would rake in just $31 billion over the next 11 years, according to an estimate by Congress’ official tax analysts obtained by The Associated Press.
That figure would be a drop in the bucket of the over $7 trillion in federal budget deficits projected during that period. It is also minuscule compared to the many hundreds of billions it would cost to repeal the alternative minimum tax, which Obama’s budget last month said he would replace with the Buffett rule tax.
The alternative minimum tax, originally aimed at ensuring that wealthy Americans pay taxes despite deductions and other breaks, has begun affecting upper middle-class families. Congress acts every year to minimize its impact.
The Buffett rule has become a leading symbol of Obama’s and congressional Democrats’ election-year efforts to persuade voters that they are the party championing economic fairness. Republicans have mocked it as one aimed at scoring political points that would have little real budgetary impact.
The plan is named for billionaire investor Warren Buffett, who has said taxes on the rich are too low. Obama has proposed requiring that people earning at least $1 million annually pay at least 30 percent of their income in taxes, but has provided few details.
In an analysis provided to The AP on Tuesday, Congress’ Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that a bill introduced last month by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., attempting to enshrine Obama’s proposal into law would collect $31 billion through 2022. The measure has little chance of advancing soon, especially before the November elections.
“Now that we have this analysis, I hope the president will stop the class warfare and start leading by putting out real proposals to bring down our debt, get rid of the AMT and reform our broken tax code,” Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said in a written statement, using the alternative minimum tax’s acronym.
Hatch’s Finance committee GOP aides requested the study.
Whitehouse said other groups, including the respected bipartisan Tax Policy Center, have estimated that the proposal could earn more than $31 billion.
“No matter how you slice it, that’s real money that could help bring down our deficit. Most important: It’s simply the right thing to do,” he said in a statement.
Whitehouse’s bill would require people making at least $2 million a year pay at least 30 percent of their earnings in taxes, though they could deduct certain amounts for their charitable contributions. The tax would be phased in for people earning at least $1 million annually.
Australia
Robert Zoellick plans to step down from his post at the head of the World Bank when his current term ends on June 30.
Zoellick, 58, informed the bank’s board of his decision on Wednesday. The World Bank, a multinational organization, provides financial assistance to developing countries — $247 billion during his five-year term.
"I’m honored to have led such a world-class institution," he said in his statement. "When the world needed the bank to step up, our shareholders responded with expanded resources and support for key reforms that made us quicker, more effective and more open." (The world’s 10 largest economies)
The bank said it had its first general capital increase in more than 20 years under Zoellick’s term. He emphasized that the bank’s health made it a "natural time to move on."
Zoellick previously served as international vice chairman at Goldman Sachs (, Fortune 500) and in various government positions, including U.S. trade representative. He was also an executive vice president of Fannie Mae from 1993 to 1997.
The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund were the two major multinational organizations started in the wake of World War II to provide assistance and economic stability to troubled nations in an effort to help maintain global economic growth.
Zoellick is the 11th head of the World Bank since its founding in 1946. Historically, the World Bank has been headed by an American, while the IMF has been headed by a European.
But last year, when the IMF was looking for a new managing director, there were calls for a non-European in the position, due to the IMF’s role in backstopping emerging economies. Given the World Bank’s similar focus, there could also be a push for a non-American as its next president.
Despite those calls, French finance minister Christine Lagarde won the IMF job, which opened up due to Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s resignation in the wake of sexual assault charges that were later dropped.
Asian stocks rose Wednesday as investors stayed calm in the face of a possible debt default by Greece to search for good deals in technology shares boosted by stunning results from Apple Inc.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index rose 1 percent to 8,870.22. South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.8 percent at 1,964.72 and Australia’s S&P ASX 200 added 1 percent to 4,268.70. Benchmarks in Singapore and New Zealand rose, while shares in the Philippines fell.
Markets in Hong Kong, mainland China and Taiwan remained closed for Chinese New Year.
Japan’s powerhouse export sector got a lift from a moderation in the yen’s strength even as the country reported its first annual trade deficit since 1980. A strong yen, which hit multiple historic highs last year against the dollar, shrinks the value of overseas earnings when repatriated and makes Japanese products less competitive.
Honda Motor Corp. rose 3.3 percent. Mitsubishi Motor Corp. jumped 4.4 percent and Sony Corp. added 3.1 percent. Tire-maker Bridgestone Corp. added 3.4 percent.
Technology stocks were elevated after Apple Inc. reported earnings that sailed past analyst estimates. Apple said late Tuesday said it sold 37 million iPhones in the last three months of 2011, vastly exceeding estimates and propelling the company to record quarterly results.
That stellar performance reverberated throughout the global tech industry. South Korea’s LG Electronics Inc business card., which ranks No. 2 globally in flat screen televisions, jumped 4.1 percent. Hynix Semiconductor Inc., the world’s second-largest memory chip maker, added 2.2 percent.
Stan Shamu of IG Markets in Melbourne said in an email that the gains in Asia suggested “investors are now starting to pay less attention” to Greece, which is struggling to reach a deal with creditors to prevent a chaotic default on its massive debts. A default could trigger a financial crisis in Europe and likely beyond.
Greece is trying to get its creditors to swap Greek government bonds for new ones that have half the face value. Greece faces an important bond repayment deadline in March.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 33 points at 12,676 on Tuesday. The Standard & Poor’s 500 lost a point to close at 1,315. The Nasdaq added two points to close at 2,787.
Benchmark oil for March delivery rose 35 cents to $99.26 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 63 cents to end at $98.95 per barrel on the Nymex on Tuesday.
In currency trading, the euro rose to $1.3026 from $1.3021 late Tuesday in New York. The dollar rose to 77.91 yen from 77.73 yen.
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said the Fed probably won
The Philippines pledged to speed up a proposed offering of infrastructure projects to investors as President Benigno Aquino seeks investments to shield the economy from a global slowdown.
The government may offer eight to 16 of the so-called public-private partnership projects worth as much as 142 billion pesos ($3.2 billion) this year, Cosette Canilao, executive director of the program, said in an interview in her Manila office yesterday. One contract was awarded last year, against an earlier estimate of as many as 10. San Miguel Corp., Ayala Corp. (AC) and Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. are among companies that have expressed interest in some of the projects, she said.
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