ECB board nomination delayed by spain

BRUSSELS (AP) -- The European Union's member states have failed to name Luxembourg' top central banker to the executive board of the European Central Bank after Spain raised objections to his appointment. The member states were expected to approve Yves Mersch joining the six-person board over the objections of the European Parliament on Monday, but officials said Spain unexpectedly voiced concerns. The issue will now be left the EU leaders at their Nov. 22-23 summit, or a later one in December. The EU Parliament voted against Mersch's appointment last month to protest the lack of women among the ECB's top echelons

Bank of Virginia Announces Extension of Rights Offering

(www.bankofva.com), (the Bank) today announced that it has extended its rights offering deadline to 5:00 pmEastern time on November 13, 2012 from the original expiration date of November6, 2012. The Bank decided to extend the rights offering because of the effects of Hurricane Sandy and the impediments that the storm may have caused for stockholders seeking to submit their rights offering documents in a timely manner. The Bank's majority shareholder, Cordia Bancorp Inc., previously announced its investment of $3 million inthe Bank's common stock on the same terms being offered to the Bank's minority shareholders in the rights offering. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or asolicitation of an offer to buy the securities, nor shall therebe any offer, solicitation or sale of the securities in any state in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification ofthe securities under the securities laws of such state. The rights offering will be made only by means of the offering circular dated October 12, 2012, copies of which were mailed to all stockholders of record as of September 20, 2012. Stockholders may request a copy of the offering circular by contacting the informationagent for the rights offering, Eagle Rock Proxy Advisors, LLC at 855-706-2375(toll free).

Time Warner Cable Q3 Earnings Miss On Video Losses

Time Warner Cable ( TWC ) reported Monday morning third-quarter profit and salesthat missed expectations as video subscriber losses swelled and broadband customer growth cooled. The cable operator said Q3 earnings rose 27% vs. a yearearlier to $1.41 a share, excluding items. Revenue rose 9.2% to $5.36 billion. Analysts had estimated EPS of $1.43 with revenue climbing 9.6% to $5.38 billion. Shares gapped down at the open, falling 6.3% as of 10:29 a.m. ET. Several other cable and satellite rivals also retreated. Time Warner cable said it lost140,000 video customers in the three months ended Sept. 30, more than the 128,000 it lost in the year-earlier period. Comcast ( CMCSA ), which reported Q3 earnings last week, had narrowed its video subscriber losses. Time Warner Cable said it added 85,000 customers for high-speed video services compared to 89,000 a year earlier. "Our third-quarter results were good, with most trendssimilar to the preceding quarter. Our operating results were driven by continued strong performance in residential high-speed data and business services, an acceleration in high-margin political advertising and the contributions from our Insight systems," said CEO Glenn Britt in a statement."During the quarter, we remained focused on investing in growing our business, while at the same time ramping capital returns to our shareholders." Bryan Kraft, analyst at Evercore Partners said in an analyst note, "Overall, the quarter was a slight miss relative to our expectations, with video revenue and broadband net adds comingin light, but partially offset by lower operating expensesand a smaller residential video subscriber decline. Kraft added, "Revenue was slightly lower than we forecasted at $5.36B vs. our$5.39B estimate, driven by lower video ARPU. The softness in video ARPU was due to both lower VOD and subscription ARPU. Business services revenue was slightlyhigher than we estimated." Capital spending came in$100 million higher than expected, said ISI Group analyst Vijay Jayant. The company had rescheduled earnings from Oct. 31 after hurricane Sandy hit the East coast. Analysts had lowered EPS estimates from $1.49 to $1.43a week ago

True Religion 3rd-quarter net income edges up

VERNON, Calif. (AP) -- Clothing company True Religion Inc. said Monday itsthird quarter net income rose ahead of expectations, helped by its wholesale business. The company, which is exploring strategic options, including putting itself up for sale, said net income for the three months ended Sept. 30 rose 2 percent to$12.3 million, or 49 cents pershare. That compares with$12.1 million, or 48 cents pershare, last year. Analysts, on average, expected 45 cents per share, according to FactSet. True Religion makes premium jeans that retail for around $200, and other clothing. Revenue rose 9 percent to $118.5 million from $108.4 million a year ago. Analysts expected$113.2 million. Revenue in stores open at least one year fell 4.7 percent. The measure is a key gauge of a retailer's financial health because it excludes stores that open or close during the year. Net sales for its U.S. wholesale segment, which means clothing sold via stores not owned by True Religion, rose 35 percent to$29.8 million. Sales at off-price and specialty stores drove the increase. International revenue fell 3 percent to 22.7 million, hurt by a slowdown in Korea and Germany. The company now expects net income or the year of$1.80 to $1.86 per share, on revenue of $458 million to$463 million. Previously it had forecast revenue of $450million to $455 million. Analysts, on average, expect$1.83 per share, with estimates ranging from $1.82to $1.86. Wall Street's average revenue projection is $453.3 million, with estimates ranging from$446.3 million to $456.2 million. For the fourth quarter, True Religion expects net income of 52 cents to 58 cents per share, on revenue of $128 million to $133 million. Analysts, on average, expect net income of 58 cents per share on revenue of $128 million. Susan Anderson, an analyst with Citi Investment Research, saw reason to be concerned in the decline in sales at stores open at least a year and the weakening of the company's U.S. retail business. She noted it was the first time that figure had turned negative since the company began reporting it in the fourth quarter of 2009. "Additionally, while wholesale sales were up significantly, a primary driverof the increase was lower margin off-price sales," Anderson wrote in a note to clients. "We continue to be concerned about slowing U.S. sales, which has been driving earnings per share, and topline/profitability issues in international." She kept a "Neutral" rating on the stock, with a $27 price target. True Religion shares fell 95 cents, or 3.6 percent, to$25.61 during morning trading. The stock started thesession down 23 percent so far this year.

HSBC Sets Aside Extra $800Million for U.S. Money Laundering Case

LONDON -- HSBC Holdings said on Monday that it had set aside a further $800 million connected to a money-laundering investigation in the United States as the bank's net profit halved in the third quarter of the year. The bank, which is based inLondon, said it had made the new provision to cover potential fines, settlements and other expenses related to the money-laundering inquiry as the firm continued to negotiate with U.S. authorities. In total, HSBC has now earmarked a combined $1.5 billion for expenses related to the case. The figure does not include legal costs. The announcement follows a U.S. government report earlier this year that accused HSBC of helping clients to illegally bring money into the U.S. that waslinked to drug trafficking activities and from Middle Eastern banks with ties to terrorists. "We deeply regret what took place took place in the United States and Mexico," HSBC's chief executive, Stuart Gulliver, told reporters on a conference call on Monday. "A numberof people have left the bank and have had clawbacks against their compensation," related to the case. The bank added that a resolution to the matter would probably include corporate criminal and civil charges, as well as sizeable fines against the bank. HSBC said some of the charges could be offset through a potential settlement agreement. The firm did not say when a settlement with U.S. authorities could be announced. The new provisions related to the money-laundering case and additional $353 million set aside to compensate British customers who were inappropriately sold insurance weighed on HSBC's third quarter net results. The bank said its net profit halved, to $2.8 billion, in the three months through Sept. 30, compared with thesame period last year. The British firm also said it had incurred a quarterly chargeof $1.7 billion on the value of its own debt. Without the adjustments, HSBC's pretax profit in the third quarter more than doubled, to $5 billion. The unadjusted figure was slightly below many analysts' estimates.

Relief for storm affected customers as Banks extend fee waivers.

It's an effort to ease pressureon customers to make bill payments when nearly 1.8 million homes and businesses remain without power across a swath of states. 49 Photos Sandy's devastation on Staten Island View the Full Gallery » JPMorgan Chase Inc., Citigroup Inc., Wells Fargo Inc., PNC Financial Services Inc., Bank of America Inc. and HSBC are among the institutions that have offered such help for their customers. Most have extended their deadlines until Nov. 7. The banks themselves still face power outages, forcing the shutdown of dozens of branches and ATMs in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and the District of Columbia.

Keynesian School

Keynesian School Reacting to the severity of the worldwide depression, John Maynard Keynes in 1936 broke from the Classical tradition with the publication of the General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money. The Classical view assumed that in a recession, wages and prices would decline to restore full employment. Keynes held that the opposite was true. Falling prices and wages, by depressing people's incomes, would prevent a revival of spending. He insisted that direct government intervention wasnecessary to increase total spending. Keynes' arguments proved the modern rationale for the use of government spendingand taxing to stabilize the economy. Government would spend and decrease taxes when private spendingwas insufficient and threatened a recession; it would reduce spending andincrease taxes when private spending was too great and threatened inflation. His analytic framework, focusing on the factors that determinetotal spending, remains the core of modern macroeconomic analysis

Institutionalist School

Institutionalist economists regard individual economic behavior as part of a larger social pattern influenced by current ways of living and modes of thought. They rejected the narrow Classical view that people are primarily motivated by economic self-interest. Opposing the laissez-faire attitude towards government's role in the economy, the Institutionalistscalled for government controls and social reform to bring about a more equal distribution of income.

Marxist School (economic term)

The Marxist School challenged the foundations of Classical theory. Writing during the mid-19th century, Karl Marx saw capitalism as an evolutionary phase in economic development. He believed that capitalism would ultimately destroy itself and be succeeded by a world without private property. An advocate of a labor theory of value, Marx believed that all production belongs to labor because workers produce all value within society. He believed that the market system allowscapitalists, the owners of machinery and factories, to exploit workers by denying them a fair share of what they produce. Marx predicted that capitalism would produce growing misery for workers as competition for profit led capitalists to adopt labor-saving machinery, creating a"reserve army of the unemployed" who would eventually rise up and seize the means of production.

Marginalist School (economic term)

Marginalist School Classical economists theorized that prices are determined by the costs of production. Marginalist economists emphasized that prices also depend upon thelevel of demand, which in turn depends upon the amount of consumer satisfaction provided by individual goods and services. Marginalists provided modern macroeconomics with the basic analytic tools of demand and supply, consumer utility, and a mathematical framework for using those tools. Marginalists also showed thatin a free market economy, the factors of production -- land, labor, and capital -- receive returns equal to theircontributions to production. This principle was sometimes used to justify the existing distribution of income: that people earned exactly what they or their property contributed to production.