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An increasingly likely playoff berth and fan interest in hockey after the Vancouver Olympics could be accounting for the increase in attendance at Phoenix Coyotes games.

The Coyotes, which have won two straight games, drew a crowd of just under 15,000 on Saturday against the Anaheim Ducks and 12,400 on Thursday against the Colorado Avalanche. The Coyotes average a National Hockey League attendance low of 11,200 fans per game.

The team is in fourth place in the NHL's Western Conference. The top eight teams make the playoffs, and the Coyotes are getting close to assuring themselves a spot. The team has not made the playoffs since 2002.

Strong performance on the ice and fan interest in hockey during the Olympics could help bolster the Coyotes. The team could have moved to Canada in the offseason while they were in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The Coyotes even are promoting Stanley Cup playoff ticket deals to season ticket holders.

The 15,000-fan draw for the Coyotes also comes on a night when they were competing directly with the Phoenix Suns and Cactus League baseball for fans. The Suns drew 18,200 for their win over the Indiana Pacers.

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Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke sought to defuse congressional efforts to audit monetary policy by backing the release of more information on emergency aid to investment banks and corporations.

The Fed will support legislation to let government auditors probe six temporary programs created to combat the financial crisis such as the Primary Dealer Credit Facility, Bernanke said yesterday in House testimony. While he would support the delayed release of names of firms getting aid from those programs, he said banks borrowing through the longstanding discount window must be allowed to remain anonymous.

Bernanke’s move toward greater openness may not dissuade lawmakers who want the Fed to disclose more information about the Fed’s lending and policy decisions. Lawmakers are responding to public anger over the Fed’s role in the $182.3 billion bailout of American International Group Inc.

“You’ve certainly seen changes for more transparency in the past 18 months,” said Representative Scott Garrett, a New Jersey Republican. “But I still support the legislation and I think the majority of the House still does as well.”

Representative Ron Paul won House passage in December of broader audits than Bernanke advocates. House members “signed on to the bill because there has been a public outcry, and this has given them a chance to express themselves and identify with that position,” Paul said in an interview yesterday.

Bernanke yesterday offered “full transparency” on the emergency programs, including revealing the names of borrowers.

Lehman Collapse

Most of the programs were created in response to the Bear Stearns Cos. near-collapse and the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and were closed by the Fed as of Feb. 1 because of improvements in financial markets. They include facilities backing investment banks, companies issuing commercial paper and money-market mutual funds. Loans outstanding under the programs peaked at a combined $930.1 billion and stood at $50.1 billion as of last week.

The Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, designed to spur consumer and business lending, closes June 30.

“He is definitely trying to defuse the Ron Paul issue,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Chicago-based Mesirow Financial Inc., which oversees $37.4 billion in assets. “The best he can do at the moment is to play more offense than defense.”

The openness can’t apply to the Fed’s discount window, used by banks facing temporary shortages of cash, Bernanke said.

Role in Panics

Borrowers would be reluctant to use the window if they knew their names would become known, and that would “intensify the crisis or panic, and therefore the whole purpose of the discount window to try to eliminate financial panics would be severely damaged,” Bernanke said during the hearing under questioning from Representative Michele Bachmann, a Minnesota Republican.

The proposed law to allow audits of interest-rate decisions could have “bad effects on markets” because it could create the perception that the central bank is subject to political pressure, Bernanke said make quick cash.

Telling the public more about the operations of the central bank was one of the goals Bernanke listed for his second term when he was sworn in on Feb. 3. He pledged to “ensure maximum transparency” without compromising the “ability to conduct policy in the public interest.”

The Senate confirmed Bernanke for a second four-year term by a 70-30 vote last month, the most opposition in history for a Fed chief. Today Bernanke, 56, appears before the Senate Banking Committee to deliver his monetary policy report.

Senate Opposition

Opposition in the Senate to Paul’s audit measure was likely to doom the populist cause after it passed in the House Dec. 11, Gregory R. Valliere, a chief strategist at Potomac Research Group in Washington, said earlier this month.

“I still think the large majority will stick with me,” Paul said yesterday.

Vermont Independent Bernard Sanders, the measure’s main backer in the Senate, has 32 co-sponsors for a version of Paul’s audit provision, short of the 60 votes it will probably need to overcome procedural hurdles.

Bernanke “indicated the need for more transparency than before and a willingness to work with Congress,” Alabama Representative Spencer Bachus, the senior Republican on the House panel, said in an interview. “I really want to sit down with him.”

Bernanke’s comments were part of testimony in which the Fed chief said the U.S. economy is in a “nascent” recovery that still requires low interest rates to encourage demand by consumers and businesses once federal stimulus expires.

Low Inflation

Bernanke said slack labor markets and low inflation will allow the Federal Open Market Committee to keep the benchmark lending rate, which has been in a range of zero to 0.25 percent for more than a year, low “for an extended period.” He said the Fed will need to start tightening policy “at some point.”

The central bank hasn’t dropped its opposition to revealing data on borrowers through the Freedom of Information Act, which requires federal agencies to respond to public requests for government documents within 20 days. Fed spokeswoman Barbara Hagenbaugh declined to comment.

The Fed is appealing a U.S. district judge’s August 2009 order compelling it to release names of banks that took emergency loans during the 2007-2008 financial crisis. The suit was brought under the FOIA by New York-based Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.

“Chairman Bernanke’s testimony is consistent with our position in the litigation,” said Paul Saltzman, general counsel for The Clearing House Association LLP, a trade group for the largest U.S. banks that joined the Fed in fighting Bloomberg’s lawsuit.

Banks have counted on confidentiality when borrowing from the Fed — and if those rules are to change, “we believe that Congress, working with the Fed, is best situated to address disclosure issues,” Saltzman said.

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Japan’s economy grew faster than economists anticipated last quarter, reducing the risk of falling back into a recession even as deflation intensifies.

Gross domestic product rose at an annual 4.6 percent pace in the three months ended Dec. 31, the Cabinet Office said in Tokyo today, more than the 3.5 percent median estimate of economists surveyed. The GDP deflator, the broadest measure of prices in the economy, fell a record 3 percent.

Exports led the expansion, aided by a global recovery that prompted manufacturers from Panasonic Corp. to Nissan Motor Co. to raise their profit forecasts this month. An increase in consumer spending may not last as government stimulus measures fade and households expect prices to keep falling along with their wages, said economist Hiroshi Miyazaki.

“The benefits from the global recovery are spilling over,” said Miyazaki, chief economist at Shinkin Asset Management Co. in Tokyo. “The economy will keep recovering even if the government does little to fight deflation, but the risks are heightening that growth ahead will be slow.”

The yen traded at 90.15 per dollar at 3:20 p.m. in Tokyo from 90.03 before the report. The currency has gained 5 percent in the past six months, eroding exporters’ earnings. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 0.8 percent, extending this year’s losses to 5.1 percent.

The world’s second-largest economy expanded 1.1 percent from the previous quarter, today’s report showed, more than the 0.9 percent median estimate of economists surveyed.

Revised to Zero

Third-quarter GDP was revised to zero from an annualized 1.3 percent growth, reflecting a change in how the Cabinet Office calculates exports and imports on a seasonally adjusted basis to account for the global trade collapse in 2008.

Overseas shipments increased 5 percent from the previous three months, the report said. Net exports, or shipments minus imports, added 0.5 percentage point to growth.

“Risks for a double-dip recession are receding,” Finance Minister Naoto Kan told reporters in Tokyo today. “We’re starting to see some bright signs emerge from the clouds, but we can’t be complacent.”

The GDP deflator’s year-on-year decline was the biggest since records began in 1955. Without adjusting for price changes, Japan grew an annualized 0.9 percent from the previous quarter.

The Bank of Japan, amid pressure from politicians, stepped up its fight against deflation in December, saying it “does not tolerate” price declines. Governor Masaaki Shirakawa and his colleagues, who will decide policy on Feb. 17-18, will keep the benchmark interest rate at 0.1 percent for all of 2010, according to all 17 economists surveyed by Bloomberg last month.

‘More Pressure’

“It’s likely that the Finance Ministry will put more pressure on the BOJ to implement more accommodative policies, highlighting today’s figures that point to deflation,” said Miyazaki at Shinkin Asset business cards. “That pressure is likely to run the BOJ into a corner.”

Compounding the woes from deflation, in the past month Standard and Poor’s has warned that the nation’s debt rating may be cut and Toyota Motor Corp., the country’s biggest automaker, has recalled 8 million vehicles because of accelerator and brake problems.

Kan said yesterday that the government will next month begin debating whether to overhaul the sales tax amid concerns about the widening deficit.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano said today that the government must do its utmost to avoid another recession. Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, whose Democratic Party of Japan faces an upper-house election in July, received parliament’s approval for a 7.2 trillion yen ($80 billion) stimulus package last month.

Spearheading Revival

Asia spearheaded the export revival, led by China, Japan’s biggest overseas customer, which grew the most since 2007. U.S. demand is also improving after the nation’s GDP expanded the most in six years last quarter. Still, a report last week showed Europe’s economy almost stalled in the period, underscoring the frailty of the world recovery.

Panasonic, the world’s largest maker of plasma televisions, raised its operating profit forecast by 25 percent this month. Flat-panel TV sales rose 48 percent from a year earlier, driven by purchases in regions including China and South America.

Nissan Motor predicted a return to profit this fiscal year, scrapping an earlier loss estimate, citing government incentives that boosted demand for vehicles in China and Japan. The country’s third-largest carmaker expects net income of 35 billion yen in the year ending March 31, compared with an earlier forecast of a 40 billion yen loss.

A separate report today showed industrial production growth in December was revised to 1.9 percent from 2.2 percent.

Consumer Spending

Spending by consumers, which accounts for more than half of the economy, rose 0.7 percent in the fourth quarter, today’s report showed. Business investment climbed 1 percent, the first positive reading in seven quarters.

The gain in capital spending “signals a turning point in the economy toward a sustainable recovery,” said Kyohei Morita, chief economist at Barclays Capital in Tokyo.

Even as exports improve, Japan’s expansion may lose momentum as the effects of stimulus spending at home fade.

“Consumption has been sluggish if you exclude purchases of autos and flat-panel televisions, which have received a direct boost from government stimulus,” said Ryutaro Kono, chief economist at BNP Paribas in Tokyo. “Many households perceive income declines since late 2008 not just as a result of the economy’s growth cycle but as permanent declines.”

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Novelis Inc. is relocating its North American headquarters from Cleveland to Atlanta, bringing 80 jobs to the city.

The company announced the move late Thursday.

Novelis, an aluminum products giant that has been a major supplier of bottlers of The Coca-Cola Co., said it will consolidate its North American headquarters with its existing world headquarters.

The consolidation, combined with other hires, will bring Novelis’ Atlanta staff to about 220 by the end of 2010.

The company's world headquarters is housed in Buckhead's Lenox Building.

Recently, however, company executives have been touring other Buckhead buildings where they might consolidate and expand, including Two Alliance Center and Phipps Tower. Two Alliance appears to be the frontrunner, and Novelis could be in the market to lease about 100,000 square feet.

"North America is one of our biggest markets, and it just makes good business sense to consolidate these operations at our Atlanta-based corporate headquarters," Philip Martens, president and chief operating officer of Novelis, said in a statement.

Novelis is a $10.2 billion company focused on aluminum products and aluminum can recycling. It has about 12,000 employees in 11 countries.

Novelis selected Atlanta as its world headquarters in 2005 when it was spun off from Canadian aluminum producer Alcan payday loans.

The move is the latest in a series of steps taken during the past year to streamline the company.

“Novelis’ consolidation of North American operations at its Atlanta headquarters provides additional evidence that multi-national corporations thrive in our city,” said Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed. “Atlanta is a global center of international commerce with a vibrant corporate community. I am delighted to welcome the North American headquarters staff of Novelis to our great city.”

The Atlanta Development Authority and the Metro Atlanta Chamber also helped in the relocation.

Rob Metcalf of Jones Lang LaSalle represented Novelis in its real estate transaction.

“We’re delighted that we could help entice Novelis to expand its Atlanta headquarters. We look forward to a long-term relationship with the company as it continues to grow,” said Gregg Simon, manager of business engagement for ADA. ”Novelis is a wonderful corporate citizen, and its decision highlights the positive business climate offered in the city of Atlanta.”

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Government employment in Hawaii has fallen about 5.6 percent in the past year, with state government taking the biggest hit with the loss of about 8,000 jobs.

Government still directly employs more people in Hawaii than any other industry, including tourism.

Even with the latest cuts, government employment has risen by 7.3 percent or by about 10,000 jobs since 2000, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

By comparison, employment in leisure and hospitality stood at 101,000 in December 2009, the same as in December 2000.

Total government employment in Hawaii fell from 130,500 in November 2008 to 123,200 in November 2009, according to the latest data available. The state began the bulk of more than 2,000 layoffs in November and says more than 2,000 positions haven’t been filled.

As of November 2009, the state employed 71,200 people, down from 79,400 a year earlier.

Even at the lower number, it’s still higher than the number who worked for the state in 2005.

Local government employs 18,600 people, down only about 100 from the previous year.

The federal government has added about 1,000 civilian jobs in Hawaii in the past year and now employs 33,400 people, the highest number ever.

The Hawaii Legislature begins its 2010 session this week and faces a projected shortfall of $1.5 billion.

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Anyone having to take care of business with the state of Colorado before the end of 2009 should plan to do it Wednesday, as most state government offices will be closed Thursday.

The New Year’s Eve closings are one of eight unpaid furlough days that some 15,500 non-essential state personnel are being made to take in order to help close a budget shortfall this fiscal year. The furlough days are expected to save a combined total of $27.2 million.

Among the offices closed Thursday are state driver’s license offices, the attorney general’s office, state administrative offices, state history museums, Division of Wildlife service centers and the Department of Public Health and Environment’s vital records office.

Essential state services that will remain open Thursday include the state unemployment benefits office, the state judicial branch, the Treasurer’s Office, the Secretary of State’s Office, Colorado State Parks and the transportation department’s snow plows and maintenance crews.

State offices also will be closed Friday for New Year’s Day.

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In a reversal of earlier gains, more states lost jobs than added them in November, signaling that hiring is occurring only sporadically around the country.

Thirty-one states and the District of Columbia suffered a net loss of jobs, the Labor Department reported Friday quick guaranteed personal loans. Nineteen states added jobs in November, down from 28 in October.

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The Federal Reserve may cause another crisis by botching the withdrawal of liquidity from the U.S. economy, Morgan Stanley Asia Chairman Stephen Roach said.

The Fed is the “weak link” among central banks and may fail to tighten monetary policy in time to stop asset bubbles from forming, Roach said at a conference in Berlin today. The Fed helped trigger the boom and then bust of the subprime mortgage market by being “quick to slash, slow to normalize” interest rates, he said.

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said Dec. 3 he doesn’t rule out using monetary policy to prevent unfounded increases in asset prices, though he said financial regulation is a better approach. Bernanke said this week the U.S. economy continues to face “formidable headwinds,” signaling the Fed will keep its benchmark interest rate near zero for an extended period.

“They need to be very early in executing their exit strategies,” Roach, a former Fed economist, told Bloomberg Television. “I take Mr. Bernanke at his word that he’s looking for an extended period of monetary accommodation, which, quite frankly, I find very worrisome in assessing the prospects of a next bubble and the next crisis.”

‘Ludicrous’ View

The traditional view of central bankers that asset bubbles are hard to spot and deflate with rates is “ludicrous,” he said.

“This is a failed flaw in the intellectual construction of modern central banking that must be addressed,” said Roach. “If we don’t fix this problem we’re doomed to repeat the failed asymmetric policies of the past and set ourselves up” for another crisis.

Roach recommended the Fed be required to “hardwire” the goal of preserving financial stability into its mandate, alongside the pursuit of full employment and low inflation paydayloans. Central banks should not be “allowed to outsource their responsibilities” to regulatory bodies, he said.

Nobel laureate Robert Mundell told the conference that the Fed mismanaged monetary policy by not raising interest rates fast enough in the last recovery when gold and commodity prices rose.

It was an “insane, stupid policy,” he said. “Where’s the mea culpa from the Fed?”

Asset Bubbles?

While no Fed official spoke at the Berlin event, European Central Bank Vice President Lucas Papademos told reporters that in the future “there may be scope for the use of monetary policy as an instrument to also contribute to financial stability” in harness with other tools such as supervision.

Asked if he was concerned that asset bubbles are now forming, Papademos said he “wouldn’t come to this conclusion” because even with recoveries in markets and at banks, the financial system “is still facing challenges.”

“Overall financial conditions have not reached a stage that are signaling risks to financial stability,” he said.

Papademos defended central banks as having “avoided the meltdown of the financial system and through a variety of measures we are contributing to the return of the financial system to conditions of normality.”

Bernanke said on Dec. 3 that “regulation of the financial system is the strongest, most effective” way to deal with bubbles. “I do not rule out using monetary policy if necessary, if that situation does become worrisome and threatening,” though there are no signs of “extreme misvaluations,” Bernanke told the Senate Banking Committee.

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Swiss bank UBS is threatening to move its headquarters out of Switzerland if the authorities impose too many new regulations in the wake of the global financial crisis, Swiss weekly paper Sonntag CH said.

Oswald Gruebel, chief executive of Switzerland’s biggest bank by assets, made the threat in a speech to businessmen last week, citing the possibility that the authorities would force major banks to reorganize as holding companies, the paper said on Sunday.

A UBS spokeswoman declined to comment on the report.

Gruebel spoke to the Zurich Business Club on Thursday at a closed-door event at which reporters were not present.

The idea of forcing banks in Switzerland to operate as holding companies is part of the discussion on supervising banks deemed “too big to fail.”

Switzerland’s relatively small economy is dominated by two mega-banks, UBS and Credit Suisse.

Swiss National Bank Vice-Chairman Philipp Hildebrand, noting total banking assets are more than seven times the size of Swiss gross domestic product, said earlier this month that the country urgently needed tougher regulatory standards than other countries given the relative size of its banks. [ID:nLI129832]

The Swiss government bailed out UBS in October 2008 by injecting 6 billion Swiss francs ($5.95 billion) in return for a stake of some 9 percent, subsequently sold at a profit.

UBS also originally planned to transfer some $60 billion in illiquid assets to the central bank, but this was later reduced to $39 billion.

Swiss regulators believe that forcing multinational banks to operate as national institutions in different countries, controlled by a central holding company, would allow the authorities in a crisis to rescue the Swiss company while letting foreign subsidies go under, the paper said.

But such a structure would oblige the bank to inject capital into the subsidiaries, which would be expensive.

In such circumstances it would be logical to move the holding company abroad, the paper quoted Gruebel as saying.

Gruebel is not the only banker to threaten a move.

Bankers and hedge funds in London often say they will move to Switzerland if UK regulation and taxation becomes too oppressive.

($1=1.009 Swiss Franc)

(Reporting by Jonathan Lynn; Editing by Mike Nesbit)

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Rogers Communications Inc. says it's laying off about 900 employees across Canada, mostly in executive and management positions, in an effort to streamline operations as it grapples with intensifying competition.

A spokeswoman for the telecommunications and media giant didn't give a precise figure for the number of people affected but said the layoffs represent three per cent of the company's total workforce of 30,000 across the country.

"The goal was to streamline the organization, remove the number of layers and enable quick and faster decision making," said Rogers spokeswoman Terrie Tweddle in an interview Thursday.

Areas of the company affected by the cuts include marketing and communications, human resources, and technology support operations.

Tweddle added that the cuts have a minimal effect on "frontline" operations, such as call centres and customer services.

"We actually continue to hire and invest in resources, particularly in customer-facing areas, while we're going through the reorganization," she said.

The job cuts come as Rogers, which owns Canada's largest wireless phone service, faces heated competition from established rivals Bell and Telus and new entrants who plan to offer cheaper wireless airtime packages.

This holiday season is considered crucial for Rogers because it's the first time the company hasn't held the exclusive rights to the popular iPhone in Canada. Both Telus and Bell now offer the device, which was previously only available through Rogers Wireless and its Fido brand.

Both BCE Inc.'s Bell and Telus hope that holding the iPhone will help them lure away some of Rogers' customer base before new competitors enter the market next year.

Wireless profits are a crucial piece of Rogers' overall operations, and in the third quarter represented more than 70 per cent of the company's overall operating profit of $1.15 billion.

Industry analyst Carmi Levy of AR Communications Inc. said that while Rogers is facing pressure from its competitors, it's also having to respond to subscribers who demand lower-priced wireless packages.

"The industry is facing a bit of a double-edged sword. Consumers are demanding more service for less money," Levy said.

"As a result, service providers need to raise the level of their game by delivering richer, more complete services while at the same time holding the line on costs."

Rogers also owns numerous publications, broadcast outlets, specialty cable networks, the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team and Rogers Cable, which dominates Ontario's largest urban areas.

Rogers announced separately on Thursday that it has increased its stake in Canada's fourth-largest cable company, Cogeco Cable Inc. and its parent Cogeco Inc.

Rogers says it spent a total of $163 million cash, plus commissions, to increase its minority stakes in the two Montreal-based companies, which are controlled by the founding Audet family through their ownership of multiple-vote shares.

The Cogeco cable systems serve communities in an area that stretches from the tip of southwestern Ontario to the Gaspe region in eastern Quebec.

As a result, Cogeco is Ontario's second-largest cable provider after Rogers and Quebec's second-largest cable company after Quebecor's Videotron.

In September, the Rogers announced plans to further integrate its cable and wireless businesses to better respond to its customers.

"Our industry is in transition with products and networks converging, product cycles maturing and customer expectations increasing. To remain the industry leader, we need to work and operate differently," Rogers president and CEO Nadir Mohamed said at the time.

Even before that, Rogers had laid off an unspecified number of employees in its media division last December. Some external estimates suggested that about 100 jobs were affected, including staff at the Blue Jays baseball team operations and Citytv stations, though the company refused to confirm the amount.

"Rogers is, in effect, testing the waters," Levy said of the recent layoffs.

"They're slicing off relatively thin amounts of their infrastructure to see what works in today's business environment. After this 900 employee layoff they'll likely take some time to measure the impact on their ability to deliver services and see if subsequent cuts are needed."

Bell and Telus could mirror the Rogers cuts within their own operations before new wireless entrants Public Mobile and DAVE wireless debut next year, Levy suggested.

"I'd suspect they're all looking at their employee levels," he said.

"They need to clean up their house before the neighbourhood changes."

On Tuesday, a judge in B.C. decided that Rogers cannot continue to claim it has "Canada's Most Reliable" wireless network without qualification. The decision followed a request by competitor Telus Corp. to prevent Rogers from making the statement in its advertisements. Rogers says it plans to appeal.

Shares of the company fell 54 cents to $32.21 on the Toronto Stock Exchange in the afternoon.

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