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Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans said the central bank needs a clear low- rate commitment or a third round of purchases of Treasuries and mortgage bonds to further stimulate a still struggling economy.
People outside the Fed have

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An accounting error is forcing Enterprise Financial Services Corp. to slash the profits it reported for 2010 and the first nine months of last year.
Earnings in 2010 may fall by as much as 55 percent from what the bank had claimed, Enterprise announced today. Profits could be cut as much as 33 percent from the […]

The official in charge of rescue efforts for the Costa Concordia says unregistered passengers might have been aboard the cruise liner when it struck a reef and capsized.
Civil protection chief Franco Gabrielli also told reporters Sunday that relatives of a Hungarian woman have told Italian authorities that she had telephoned them from aboard the ship […]

Greece is confident a debt relief deal with private creditors that is crucial to avoid default can be reached “very soon,” a government spokesman said Friday.
Prime Minister Lucas Papademos met for a third day with negotiators from the Institute of International Finance, which represents the private creditors who are being asked to take a loss […]

An Italian coast guard official vehemently demanded that the captain go back to his crippled cruise ship to oversee its evacuation, but the captain repeatedly resisted, according to a shocking audiotape made public Tuesday.
Prosecutors have accused Capt. Francesco Schettino of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his vessel before all passengers were evacuated during the […]

Home sales and construction will improve this year, contributing

A national strike fueled by widespread dissent over spiraling gas prices paralyzed Nigeria on Monday, as tens of thousands of protesters took over the empty streets to criticize government corruption in one voice.
Protests remained largely peaceful across the country on the strike’s first day, though a police shooting in Lagos left one dead and four […]

Fewer Americans filed claims for unemployment insurance payments last week, showing the labor market is starting 2012 on better footing than a year earlier.
Applications for jobless benefits (INJCJC) decreased 15,000 in the week ended Dec. 31 to 372,000, Labor Department figures showed today. The median estimate of 38 economists in a Bloomberg News survey […]

SPREAD THE REGION: Sandy Weber, VP and district director with US Bank, has been elected to a one-year term as chairwoman of North County Inc., a regional development organization.
Weber succeeds Patty Gould, the Pattonville School District’s school and business partnership director, who was chair of the board for 2011.
In announcing Weber’s appointment, Gould said Weber […]