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South Korea’s economy may shrink in the first and second quarters of next year, affected by a global economic slowdown, President Lee Myung Bak said today.

“The world economy is difficult and South Korea is heavily dependent on the external side,” Lee said at a meeting at the presidential house in Seoul today, according to his office Web site. “Even though we may post positive annual growth, we’re in danger of negative growth in the first and second quarters.”

South Korea’s economy will expand 2 percent, the slowest pace in 11 years, in 2009 as the deepening global recession cools demand at home and abroad, the central bank said on Dec. 12. The economy last contracted for two consecutive quarters in 1998, and Lee’s comments come after he pledged last week to ensure growth next year.

“Negative growth is unavoidable,” said Chun Chong Woo, senior economist at SC First Bank Korea Ltd. “We’re bound to be affected by the global slump, and the government will have to think of more aggressive policies to help spur the economy.”

Exports of goods will rise 1.3 percent, slowing from an estimated 3.6 percent gain in 2008, the central bank forecast in its 2009 outlook. The nation targets exports of $450 billion next year, the Minister of Knowledge Economy said yesterday, trimming its November forecast of $500 billion payday loans.

Cut & Stimulate

South Korea should use interest-rate cuts and fiscal stimulus to cushion the economy from the global recession and avoid depleting its foreign-currency reserves to prop up the won, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said on Dec. 17.

The Bank of Korea has cut its key rate by 2.25 percentage points since October, the most aggressive easing since it first set a benchmark in 1999. The bank most recently cut the benchmark rate by 1 percentage point to a record low 3 percent on Dec. 11.

South Korea is also pumping funds into banks, cutting taxes and boosting public spending to limit the fallout from the global credit crisis, which sent the Korean won down more than 28 percent and the stock index tumbling 41 percent this year.

“We see the first and second quarters to be the bottom,” Lee said. “There’s hardly any country posting economic growth from the fourth quarter to the first quarter.

“There is an end to this agony,” he said. “It won’t last 10 or 20 years.”

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Sentiment among Japan’s largest manufacturers fell the most in 34 years, signaling companies are likely to cancel spending plans and cut more jobs, pushing the economy further into recession.

An index that measures confidence among large makers of cars and electronics dropped to minus 24 from minus 3, the Bank of Japan’s quarterly Tankan survey showed today. A negative number means pessimists outnumber optimists.

The yen’s surge to a 13-year high last week has compounded woes for Japanese manufacturers who are already reeling from a collapse in export markets. Job cuts by companies including Sony Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp. have brought the recession home to households and increased the risk of a prolonged slump.

“The overseas situation is worsening so quickly and so dramatically; it’s really getting dangerous,” said Tomoko Fujii, head of economics and strategy at Bank of America Corp. in Tokyo. “The next few months are going to be a very severe period.”

The drop in confidence, which was in line with economists’ expectations, didn’t dissuade investors from buying stocks on speculation U.S. authorities will help General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC avoid bankruptcy. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average climbed 4.7 percent in morning trading in Tokyo. The gauge is down 44 percent this year.

Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa and his colleagues will discuss the Tankan result at a policy meeting ending Dec. 19. The board will probably keep its benchmark interest rate at 0.3 percent at the gathering, according to all 11 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

Rate Cut ‘Option’

The bank lowered the rate for the first time in seven years in October, and another cut at some point “is an option,” former Deputy Governor Toshiro Muto said in an interview on Dec. 11. Still, he added, “with the interest rate already so low, a further reduction would have only a limited impact.”

The 21-point decline in the large-manufacturer index was the biggest since February 1975. In the current survey’s 34-year history, only a 26-point drop during the first oil shock in August 1974 was larger.

Sentiment among large non-manufacturers fell to minus 9 from 1, entering negative territory for the first time in five years, the central bank said. Large companies said they plan to cut spending 0.2 percent in the year ending March.

“The global financial crisis has caused serious damage to exporters but the repercussion effects are spreading,” said Takahide Kiuchi, chief economist at Nomura Securities Co. in Tokyo.

Gloomy Automakers

Sentiment among automakers plunged to minus 41 from 5, the steepest drop ever. Japanese carmakers have been hardest hit by the recession in the U.S., where consumer credit is drying up and household confidence is close to a record low advance payday loans.

Toyota, which forecasts profit will fall 74 percent this fiscal year, last month said it will halve its temporary work force to 3,000 employees. The company is considering production and investment cuts in India, Brazil, China and the U.S.

The yen’s 17 percent gain against the dollar since September has lowered the value of overseas sales and undermined the competitiveness of Japanese cars, cameras and televisions.

Japan’s currency traded at 90.95 per dollar from 90.68 before the Tankan was published and 88.53 on Dec. 12, the strongest since August 1995. Large manufacturers expect the yen to trade at 103.32 in the year ending March, the survey showed.

The world’s second-largest economy shrank in each of the past two quarters, entering the first recession since 2001. Companies will keep trimming production and payrolls in coming months, prolonging the downturn, said Bank of America’s Fujii.

Too Many Workers

“The recession is likely to persist through the first half of next year,” Fujii said. “We have tighter lending conditions, excess capacity, excess labor — these all point to downside risks in the pipeline.”

The capacity index for large manufacturers climbed to 11 points from 2, the highest since March 2004. A measure of labor demand rose to a four-year high of 8 from minus 2, the first time companies said they had too many workers since 2005.

Sony last week said it would fire 16,000 employees worldwide, including 8,000 full-time staff. Canon Inc., Sharp Corp. and Nissan Motor Co. eliminated temporary and part-time positions over the past month, pushing consumer sentiment to a record low and stoking anxiety among voters.

Prime Minister Taro Aso, facing tumbling approval ratings, last week announced his second economic stimulus package since becoming leader in September. Aso still hasn’t submitted a bill to parliament to fund measures announced in October.

LDP Rift

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party may split apart before elections required by September 2009 because lawmakers don’t believe victory is possible under Aso, independent lower-house member Kenji Eda said last week.

Big companies expect business to get worse in coming months. Large manufacturers see their index falling to minus 36 in the next survey in April, and service companies expect a drop to minus 14 points.

Some economists downplayed the result.

“These forward-looking indicators have a rather poor track record when it comes to predictions,” said Jan Lambregts, head of Asian research at Rabobank International in Hong Kong. “It could have been a whole lot worse.”

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Timothy Geithner, President-elect Barack Obama's choice for U.S. Treasury Secretary, is seeking to push Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair out of office.

Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, has argued Bair isn't a team player and is too focused on protecting her agency rather than the financial system as a whole, according to two congressional officials and a person familiar with his thinking. Bair has battled with Geithner and fellow regulators over aid to Citigroup Inc. and other emergency actions, making her enemies in the Bush administration.

“The idea of having an independent actor on the stage with you who might not be singing the same tune can make you nervous,” said Wayne Abernathy, a former Treasury official who is now executive vice president with the American Bankers Association in Washington. “They recognize that she's a very independent person.”

It isn't clear that Obama would ask Bair to step down. Such a move would be fraught with political risk for the new administration, especially on Capitol Hill, where Bair's campaign to rework mortgages for struggling homeowners has won respect from top lawmakers, including Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd and Barney Frank, his counterpart in the House.

Bair's spokesman Andrew Gray declined to comment. Obama's transition spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter had no immediate comment.

Obama Plan

Even if Bair remains at the FDIC, the Obama economic team has decided that she won't play a central role in policy, the people said. While Bair, like Obama, has favored aid for Main Street as well as Wall Street, the new administration will have its own plan to help the millions of people facing eviction from their homes. It will also have its own team to run the government's $700 billion bailout program, they added.

Pushing out the head of the FDIC, which oversees more than 5,000 banks and savings institutions, would clash with the pledges made by Obama's own transition team. Bair has become the most prominent Republican regulator, and the incoming administration has promised to give Republicans important jobs.

“You'll see Republicans again, in his administration, not just a token member in the Cabinet, but you'll see them spread throughout the administration,” transition director John Podesta said in an interview with Bloomberg Television last week.

Frank Proposal

Bair, who was appointed by President George W. Bush to a term as chairman that ends in 2011, has been lobbying behind the scenes for a stepped-up role in the Obama administration. Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, has suggested that she be named to a special post to oversee government-wide programs to stop foreclosures.

Bair “brings a lot of credibility” on crafting ideas to ease the mortgage crisis, said Kevin Petrasic, a former Office of Thrift Supervision official who now works at law firm Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker in Washington.

In public comments, Bair, 54, has indicated she'd like to stay on, while she'd be prepared to depart if Obama wants someone else to take the helm at the FDIC.

She said at a press conference in Washington Nov. 25 she'd work “in whatever role they want me in this institution to play.” The month before, Bair said in an interview on “Political Capital with Al Hunt” on Bloomberg Television that “I'm happy to go back to academia too. So I want to be flexible for the next president.”

Protecting Fund

Geithner became increasingly wary of Bair as she worked with the other regulatory agencies on emergency bailouts of banks in recent months fast cash advance. The New York fed chief has been concerned that Bair was more worried about keeping the FDIC's insurance program protected than she was about the entire financial system, one person said.

Bair twice sparred with her colleagues at the Fed and Treasury over efforts involving Citigroup. In October, she acquiesced to Wachovia Corp.'s agreement to a takeover by Wells Fargo & Co. days after agreeing to back an initial deal with Citigroup. Geithner was concerned that allowing the Citigroup transaction to fail would inhibit other lenders from working with the FDIC on any subsequent rescues, the people said.

Wells Fargo offered about $15 billion for Wachovia, compared with Citigroup's $2.2 billion deal to acquire Wachovia's banking operations, and didn't need any FDIC aid.

Citigroup Crisis

Citigroup's position weakened, with its shares losing as much as 65 percent after the failed Wachovia deal amid a collapse in investor confidence — precipitating another rescue attempt.

Again, Bair held out for concessions as the Fed and Treasury sought to shield Citigroup from losses in its holdings of toxic assets. Bair insisted on getting preferred shares for the FDIC in the New York-based bank. She also demanded that Citigroup agree to implement mortgage modifications according to a model developed by her agency.

At one point during a Nov. 23 Fed board meeting about the Citigroup rescue, Chairman Ben S. Bernanke stepped out to take a call from Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Returning a few moments later, Bernanke told his colleagues that the secretary was still locked in negotiations with Bair, whose demands were delaying the deal.

The political peril of ousting a popular regulator who has sided with struggling homeowners and sought tougher conditions on financial firms could fuel charges that Geithner and other Obama appointees are too closely connected to Wall Street.

'Willing to Stand Up'

“I don't think you want an FDIC chairman who isn't willing to stand up,” former FDIC Chairman William Isaac, who is now head of Secura Group LLC in Falls Church, Virginia, said in an interview.

On other issues, too, Bair has stepped out in front of her Bush administration colleagues.

As the mortgage bust deepened, Bair repeatedly pushed Fed and Treasury officials to boost aid for homeowners.

In 2007, Bair told lawmakers the Fed should use its authority over home-loan standards to tighten oversight and crack down on the practices that contributed to the subprime mortgage mess.

This year, Bair has proposed using taxpayer funds to help refinance loans for struggling homeowners. She told legislators at an Oct. 23 hearing that the Treasury could use its $700 billion financial-rescue fund to set terms for mortgage modifications and offer guarantees for loans that meet the standards.

Senators pressed Neel Kashkari, the Treasury official overseeing the Troubled Asset Relief Program, on his department's reaction. “We are looking very hard” on the proposal, he said.

The White House later that month sought to scale back Bair's idea to use as much as $50 billion from the program. Yesterday, an official said Paulson instead is considering a proposal to drive down home-loan rates through purchases of mortgage-backed securities.

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President-elect Barack Obama warned that the U.S. is “trapped in a vicious cycle” and faces the loss of “millions of jobs” unless immediate steps are taken to stimulate the economy and to rescue the nation’s automakers.

“If we do not act swiftly and act boldly, most experts now believe we could lose millions of jobs next year,” Obama said at a press conference today in Chicago. “We do not have a minute to waste.”

Obama, 47, said he will nominate New York Federal Reserve Bank President Timothy Geithner as Treasury secretary and has picked former Treasury chief Lawrence Summers to be his White House economic director. Obama also named Christina Romer to head the Council of Economic Advisers, and Melody Barnes to serve as director of the Domestic Policy Council.

“We need to bring together the best minds in America to guide us, and that is what I’ve sought to do in assembling my economic team,” he said.

The president-elect vowed to push for a large economic- stimulus package, though he declined to say how big it would be, saying only that the spending needs to be “of a size and scope that is necessary to get this economy back on track.”

“We have to make sure the stimulus is significant enough that it really gives a jolt to the economy,” he said, adding that it will focus on creating jobs and restoring business confidence.

$700 Billion Plan

Democratic lawmakers including Senator Charles Schumer of New York said this weekend they plan to design a package as large as $700 billion and deliver it to Obama on his first day in office.

Obama said any economic-recovery plan should also address clean energy and education. “Not only do I want this stimulus package to deal with the immediate crisis, I want it also to lay the groundwork for long-term, sustained economic growth.”

He conceded that any plan is “going to be costly” and lead to a substantial budget deficit.

Obama also pledged to aid American automakers in avoiding a cash shortage and possible bankruptcies, saying, “We can’t allow the auto industry simply to vanish.”

Still, he said, the Big Three automakers must present a plan on how they will overhaul their operations to become more competitive with foreign automakers, and take into account environmental and energy concerns.

Help for Automakers

“We should help the auto industry, but what we should expect is that any additional money that we put into the auto industry, any help that we provide is designed to assure a long- term sustainable auto industry and not just kicking the can down the road,” he said business cards.

U.S. automakers have been lobbying Congress for $25 billion in aid to stave off a cash shortage by year-end. Lawmakers have put off until December a vote on a bailout, telling the carmakers to submit plans to reform themselves by Dec. 2.

“Americans take great pride in the history of the American automobile industry, but taxpayers don’t want to see more money wasted,” Obama said.

Obama said he plans to follow through on campaign promises to pass a tax cut for most Americans and to raise taxes on the wealthiest, saying they can afford to “pay a little bit more for us to be able to invest and get the economy back on track.”

Talks With Bush

Obama said he spoke to both President George W. Bush and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke today about the $700 billion financial market rescue plan, and that they “are united in making sure that the financial system works and operates the way it needs to.”

“We have to do whatever is required to keep the financial system working and capital flowing,” he said. The Treasury and Fed need to use their authority under the legislation to “forcefully” resolve the crisis created by banks burdened with deteriorating assets related to subprime mortgages. He said the government rescue of Citigroup Inc. announced over the weekend highlighted the magnitude of the challenge facing the nation and his administration.

“Our economy is trapped in a vicious cycle,” he said. “The turmoil on Wall Street means a new round of belt- tightening for families and businesses on Main Street, and as folks produce less and consume less, that just deepens the problems in our financial markets.”

Balancing Tax Code

He didn’t specify whether he wanted Bush’s tax cuts to be repealed or to let them expire in 2010, as scheduled.

“We’ve got to restore some balance to our tax code,” Obama said. “Whether that’s done through repeal or whether that’s done because the Bush tax cuts are not renewed is something that my economic team will be providing me a recommendation on.”

Obama warned against expectations of “shortcuts or quick fixes” to the crisis. “The economy is likely to get worse before it gets better,” he said.

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The year 2009 will bring a dose of optimism to major U.S. airline carriers due to the effects of lower oil prices, falling domestic capacity and revenue-per-available-seat-mile growth, senior analyst Michael Derchin with FTN Midwest Securities Corp. said.

Derchin added that weaker carriers have already been forced to close operations, a sign that weaker carriers are leaving the marketplace.

Derchin added that the Delta Air Lines Inc.-Northwest Airlines Corp. merger along with consolidation and a tightening in airline capacity nationwide have created a situation where the airlines stand to profit from higher fares and the elimination of inefficient flights.

Atlanta-based Delta (NYSE: DAL) received approval to merge Oct american cash advance. 29 with Eagan, Minn.-based Northwest (NYSE: NWA). Combined the carriers have made cuts in domestic capacity of about 15 percent, though international capacity is up.

Derchin predicts that with all factors considered, the airline industry is in-line to record a small profit in the fourth quarter of 2008. He counts Dallas-Fort Worth-based AMR Corp. (NYSE: AMR), the parent of American Airlines among his favorites in the new year, as well as Dallas-based Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV).

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Barack Obama won't have time to catch his breath.

Having won the longest election in U.S. history, toppling two formidable rivals and succeeding in his improbable quest to become the first African-American president, he will immediately begin the arduous work of turning campaign promises into a viable agenda, aides said.

Illinois Senator Obama inherits neither peace nor prosperity, but rather the toughest environment for a new president since Franklin D. Roosevelt. He takes office with the nation in the grip of the worst economic crisis in three- quarters of a century and embroiled in two foreign wars.

“It's been decades since we've seen something like this, where a president has to deal with major crises in national security and economic policy at the same time,'' said presidential historian Michael Beschloss.

Obama, 47, acknowledged as much in his acceptance speech before at least 125,000 people in Chicago's Grant Park shortly after midnight.

`Planet in Peril'

“Even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime — two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century,'' he said. “There is new energy to harness and new jobs to be created; new schools to build and threats to meet and alliances to repair.''

On the campaign trail, Obama vowed to pursue an “Apollo- style'' program to transform the country's energy economy, a massive overhaul of the health-care system, and a slew of other proposals to bolster the middle class and restore economic confidence.

When President George W. Bush took office in 2001, he inherited a record budget surplus and a nation at peace. Bush's initial to-do list — spending that surplus, pursuing a “humble foreign policy,'' and raising school test scores — now sounds trivial. By contrast, the Obama administration will begin as economic indicators suggest the U.S. may be headed for the deepest recession in a quarter century and the most complicated financial crisis since the Great Depression. Wages are stagnant, credit is squeezed and costs are escalating.

Deficits

Obama has two months to form a government and prioritize a long list of costly demands at a time of unprecedented deficits. Though FDR had to tackle an unemployment rate four times the current 6 percent jobless figure, he didn't inherit two wars, a global terrorist threat or a world with unstable nuclear-armed states.

The new president is likely to confront stiff resistance from Republicans accustomed to decades of partisan fights in Washington. The task of governing will be both monumental and delicate.

So far, Obama has shown no signs of curbing his ambitious proposals. The turmoil, he has said, makes his agenda for taxes, energy, health care, education and the financial industry more pressing.

“The crisis crystallized in so many ways what was really at stake,'' said Anita Dunn, a senior Obama adviser. “We had been saying it's a big election about big things.'' For many people, the Wall Street crisis and the $700 billion bailout brought “into focus how big the challenges are.''

About three weeks ago, as the crises deepened and financial markets reeled, Obama increased the proposed cost of his “middle-class rescue plan'' to $175 billion from $115 billion.

Advisers said pushing through that stimulus, which would direct funds to financially strapped states, rebuild infrastructure and give a $1,000 tax rebate to eligible families, will be Obama's top priority in January if Congress doesn't pass a comparable plan this month.

Public Confidence

Taking the helm during the Great Depression, Roosevelt's first step was to shore up the confidence of the public. The 32nd president staved off a run on banks and put in place dozens of programs to stimulate the economy, create jobs, regulate the financial system, rebuild infrastructure and create a social safety net bad credit pay day loans.

With Obama's skill at oratory and the unflappable air he projected during the bailout vote, he could likewise send a reassuring message.

“The model should be FDR,'' tamping down panic and letting America know that “action is essential,'' said political scientist Fred I. Greenstein, author of “The Presidential Difference: Leadership Style from FDR to George W. Bush.''

The public's unease goes deeper than the immediate crisis. The nation has “been through some terrible shocks in last 10 years — a contested election, the 9/11 attacks, two wars, Hurricane Katrina. The president is going to have to heal the country,'' Beschloss said.

Agenda Needed

That will take more than a calm demeanor and rhetorical skill; Obama needs an agenda that achieves promises he has made, and that will require buy-in from financial and military leaders and Congress.

“It's going to be a challenge of leadership. Can government fix anything, can it overcome gridlock?'' said Julian Zelizer, a historian at Princeton University in New Jersey.

Roosevelt invented a measure by which he could be judged: the First 100 Days. It's been the yardstick ever since. Republican Ronald Reagan focused his agenda early; Democrats Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton didn't.

“FDR had 15 major bills in his famous 100 days, and the Reagan Revolution was all within a year,'' said Alan Lichtman, professor of history at American University in Washington. “The next president has to try a lot of things and see what works.''

Manageable Goals

Obama must set priorities and select a few manageable goals he can accomplish quickly, historians said. A president's mandate is usually strongest at the beginning, giving him the best chance to pass his agenda and administer bitter medicine.

“You sort which things you can do quickly and which you have to explain to your country will take time,'' said Stephen Hess, an analyst at the Brookings Institution in Washington who has been involved in every presidential transition since Dwight D. Eisenhower's handoff to John F. Kennedy.

“Ronald Reagan could list on the fingers of one hand exactly the things he wanted to do on Jan. 20, 1981,'' Hess said.

David Eisenhower, director of the Institute for Public Service at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School in Philadelphia, said Obama would have to divide programs into three phases: “Relief, Reform, and Recovery.''

“Relief must begin with banking, the insurance industry. Recovery includes energy, education, foreign policy, relations with NATO, new overtures in the Mideast,'' said Eisenhower, grandson of President Eisenhower. “Reform would be taxes, health, re-industrialization.''

Foreign Policy

While economic and domestic concerns are front and center, Obama can't leave foreign policy on the back burner. He inherits two wars, a defiant Iran and an ever-present al-Qaeda. Middle East peace talks are flagging, Europe faces an assertive Russia and hurdles remain over an agreement to end North Korea's nuclear program.

In Iraq, Obama has vowed to withdraw most combat troops within 16 months, while sending more forces to Afghanistan, where a resurgent Taliban is staging attacks from tribal areas along the border with Pakistan, an unstable nuclear-armed U.S. ally.

Obama has pledged to work more closely with allies and engage adversaries such as Iran in talks.

Speaking in Ohio on Oct. 13, Obama said his agenda wouldn't “be easy or come without cost.''

That, he said, means investing in “energy, education and health care that bear directly on our economic future, while deferring other things we can afford to do without.''

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U.S. stock markets were headed for a lower opening bell Friday as investors awaited the latest data on consumer spending.

Futures tied to the Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 19 points to 943 at 7:40 a.m. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures lost 153 points to 9073. Nasdaq 100 futures retreated 30 points to 1315.

The Commerce Department is scheduled to release personal spending figures Friday. The average forecast is for a 0.2 percent decline in September. Personal incomes are forecast up by 0.1 percent freecreditreport.

European stock markets gave up ground Friday. At 7:36 a.m. the FTSE 100 Index was down 91 points, or 2 percent, to 4200 on the London Stock Exchange. The Dax Index slipped 5 points, or 0.1 percent, to 4864 on the Frankfort Stock Exchange.

Overnight, the Nikkei 225 dropped 453points, or 5 percent, to 8577 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

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Wall Street’s Friday sell-off was not as bad as some had feared, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average working off a good part of its 500 point morning loss.

By the closing bell, the Dow was still down 312 points, a 3.6 percent Friday loss, closing at 8379. For the week, the Dow fell 5.4 percent. The S&P500 Index lost 7 percent in weeklong trading, while the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 9 percent this week.

Friday’s selloff followed even steeper one day losses for major markets in Asia and in Europe free credit report without a credit card. In London, the FTSE100 Index fell 5 percent Friday. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell 9.6 percent Friday.

The S&P500 Index is now down just over 40 percent this year.

Commodity prices also continued to fall, with crude oil futures in New York dropping below $65 a barrel.

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Houston-based Waste Management Inc. on Monday withdrew its $6.73 billion bid to take over Florida trash hauler Republic Services Inc., paving the way for its planned merger with Allied Waste Industries of Phoenix.

Waste Management (NYSE:WMI) officials pointed to the current state of the financial markets in its decision.

"We believe that it would not be prudent to continue to pursue the acquisition of Republic," Waste Management CEO David Steiner said in a news release approved payday advance in seconds.

Republic (NYSE:RSG) reached a $6.2 billion takeover deal for rival Allied Waste (NYSE:AW) in June with the headquarters to be located in Phoenix.

Republic shares closed up $2 on Monday to end the day at $24.50. The 52-week high was $36.52 on Sept. 19. The 52-week low was $19.99 Oct. 10.

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Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday.

The New York-based bank has two office locations in Dallas — one on Crescent Court, another on St. Paul Street downtown.

Lehman (NYSE: LEH) did not elaborate on how many offices or employees will be impacted by the decision, but specified that its broker-dealer subsidiaries and other subsidiaries of LBHI are not included in the filing.

Subsidiaries Neuberger Berman LLC and Lehman Brothers Asset Management also are excluded from the bankruptcy filing and will move forward with business as usual no fax payday loan.

The company added, “Customers of Lehman Brothers, including customers of its wholly owned subsidiary, Neuberger Berman Holdings LLC, may continue to trade or take other actions with respect to their accounts.”

At the moment, Lehman is exploring the possible sale of its broker-dealer operations and is moving forward with discussions about the sale of its Investment Management Division to interested parties.

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