As the good housewifery struggles, high style designers like Vera Wang and Stella McCartney are finding good luck in selling lower-priced lines

by Pallavi Gogoi

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This week the world’s top fashion designers are showcasing their best ideas for spring on the runways of New York’s Fashion Week. Featuring Hollywood celebrities sitting in the front row and deep-pocketed buyers from upscale stores like Neiman Marcus, Barneys and Bergdorf Goodman, it is a posh incident.

Exclusive as the result is, almost all top designers yearn for ubiquity and wider recognition with the masses. And similar to the U.S. economy continues to falter with consumer spending in the doldrums, designers are keen to tap into a broader base. It’s not one wonder then that more and more of them are designing affordable lines. Just last month, Jill Stuart, the designer known for her cutesy garments line, opened a store in Tokyo that features apparel which is at smallest 35% less expensive than her regular designer line. Later this fall designer Norma Kamali will launch her newly come line of affordable clothing at the extreme drawback doom: Wal-Mart (WMT). "Through the Wal-Mart supplies and Web site I have power to reach more people and affect more lives than in any other venue," says Kamali, president and designer of Norma Kamali Inc.

Indeed, the trend, what one. has been termed "High-Low" for featuring high-end designers at low prices, made its flashiest debut when Isaac Mizrahi launched his line of clothing for Target (TGT) in 2003. Mizrahi’s Target line, which featured $13 T-shirts and dresses for $29.99, ended up being single in kind of the greatest in number successful partnerships in the business, growing to annual sales of $300 million. "Fashion design is a very competitive and fragmented business, and this kind of a partnership can have existence extremely rewarding financially," says Patricia Pao, founder of the Pao Principle, a New York retail consultant.

The real take aback was that the discount-store hit revived Mizrahi’s haute couture reputation and revived sales of his high-end outfits at Bergdorf Goodman, where the average note of hand for a Mizrahi made-to-order outfit ran between $12,000 and $15,000. This year, Mizrahi joined Liz Claiborne (LIZ) in the manner that a creative director, and his stain will appear at Target stores only end the end of this year.

Mizrahi’s success quickly lured other rise aloft designers looking for a lucrative deal and exposure. Vera Wang, the doyenne of designer wedding gowns, launched her affordable line of clothing for discount department store Kohl’s (KOH) in 2007, time Nicole Miller started subtle greater quantity affordable clothing for J.C. Penney (JCP) in 2005.

The popularity of fast-fashion stores preference Swedish import H&M (HMB.ST) and Zara from Spain, which were intelligent to emulate designs from the runway into their racks at affordable prices, led to one more wave of the hottest fashion designers launching limited-edition affordable lines. Karl Lagerfeld and Stella McCartney, designers on the highest rung of fashion, created clothes for H&M that sold out within hours.

Target continues to rely on new designers to bring some excitement into its supplies. On Sept. 12, for instance, the retailer is opening four temporary locations for four days in New York City. The stores, called bodegas, will feature clothes, accessories, and shoes with an average price of $25 from 22 designers. Among them is hot Scottish designer Jonathan Saunders, whose cocktail dresses and gowns are sold at upscale provision Jeffrey at prices between $1,500 and $5,000. "We have found it to be an extremely successful formula," says Target spokesman Joshua Thomas. "Our shoppers have existence assured of that they be able to get complete design without breaking the course, that is a great lure in today’s environment."

Click through BusinessWeek.com’s slide external appearance of the most affordable configuration designers.

Many successful CEOs love wine, and some choose to make their have a title to. Then they find disclosed virtuous how difficult—and costly—it be able to be

by Nick Passmore

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Frank Grace, an American based in London and group chair of Team Relocations, a corporate relocations company, recently discovered one of the great secrets of the wine business: You make a destiny more money selling 30,000 cases of $15 wine than you do selling 6,000 cases of $75 wine.

It is the reason that such high book vineyards as Kendall-Jackson’s Vintners Reserve and Yellow Tail receive made fortunes for their owners. However it is a scolding that many CEOs, successful in other fields and financially secure, never learn. As often as not they are not in the same manner much concerned with making money from owning a winery as garnering prestige and enjoying the lifestyle of being a gentleman farmer in such salubrious spots as Napa or Tuscany.

Grace originally purchased Il Molino di Grace in the core of Italy’s Chianti region as a vacation home and, because the property contained vines, he began making high-end Chianti Classico and Super Tuscans.

Over time, though, he place his involvement in the winemaking aspects of Il Molino have assumed a far greater demand on his time than he anticipated. The winemaking started as a hobby but is now developing into a money-making operation, a viable business. He has learned that "you can’t protect your quality unless you’re making money and besides, it’s off my science of duty to not make money. If something’s not working financially, finally it’s not going to live on."

This is the central dilemma faced by any CEO looking to act wine because the reason that a hobby: It’s a very expensive hobby.

Last year, though, Il Molino di Grace began to make money on an operating basis, after 11 years, thanks to its new, lower-priced label, Il Volano, which retails for around $15 a bottle—about half the price of its Chianti Classico Riserva. But Grace is also learning what everybody who owns a winery learns: particularly, that any avails has to be pumped right back into the business. As he puts it, "any money you make, you quickly fall in with ways to incur expense."

Another aspect of owning a winery that surprises numerous charged with execution amateurs is how you have to wear multiplied different hats. Susan Hoff, former senior vice-president at Best Buy (BBY) recalls for what cause she and her husband were so excited then they received the first order at their new winery, Fantesca Estate in Napa Valley, but then realized that neither of them knew how to process the credit-card payment. "You are so not used to that, having to turn to care of everything yourself, then you gait off the corporate runway" she explains.

Bill Murphy of Clos LaChance in Santa Cruz, Calif., able the same something when he left his senior-vice-president predication at Hewlett-Packard (HP). His wife cautioned him that she wasn’t going to book his plane tickets. "I had people to do things like that!" he exclaims in mock indignation. "Now I be under the necessity to make my acknowledge make progress arrangements."

On a to a greater degree solemn note, he advises any of high proprietor that there are influential decisions that esteem to be made going in. "Do you want to be in it as fun thing, to go to the Napa Valley Wine Auction and try to make the world’s best Bordeaux blend, where it’s more of a pacing horse than a serious business? Or do you want to make a calling off of it?"

He cautions that "if you want to do the former, that’s minute, it can be a lot of fun, even though it will cost you a assign of money. But it’s hard for people to portray you seriously granting that that’s all you are going to do."

Richard Parsons, chairman and recently retired CEO of Time Warner (TWX), finds the rewards of owning Il Palazzone in Montalcino, Italy, are duplicate. "It is a personal experience and the very opposite of what I do in my generation job…and the end product is something material and beautiful."

The pleasure he takes his winery and its wine is summed up in its motto: "We drink altogether we can and sell the rest!"

He also finds great diversion in being in Tuscany, telling some earlier interviewer that "for someone like me, who lives and works in the chaos of New York, spending a few days immersed in silence, surrounded by these splendid hills, it is a dream."

For Joe Anderson, chairman and CEO of health-care-management and consulting company Schaller Anderson, and now owner, along with his wife, Mary Dewane, of the Benovia Winery in California’s Russian River Valley, the biggest reward of owning a winery is the ability to participate in a long-term project. "It really changes your whole approach to life understanding that you’re alone along for the ride. You can provide all the input that’s necessary, but the all thing will happen in continuance the vines’ schedule, not yours. You’ve got to sit back, sip some wine, watch the vines, and be happy."

Not an approach many CEO are in the dress of adopting in their professional the breath of one’s nostrils, end in that case perhaps that’s the point.

Click here to see that CEOs divide their time between the board room and the vineyard.

The hospitality and travel concourse hadn’t anticipated going outside the family at the time Chairman Marilyn Carlson Nelson stepped down as CEO, so in that place were in no degree Plan B candidates

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Family-run businesses usually have the benefit of a clearly defined chain prepare: When Mom or Dad retires, their child assumes the top job after existence groomed for it for years. But which happens when the next-in-line clearly isn’t right for the role?

That was the dilemma faced in 2006 by the Carlson Companies, the Minnetonka (Minn.)-based operator of T.G.I. Friday’s restaurants and Radisson hotels that had been run by the Carlson family since its beginnings as the Gold Bond Stamp Co. in the 1930s. In 2006, third-generation Chief Executive Marilyn Carlson Nelson was embroiled in a dispute with her son and heir apparent, Curtis. According to Nelson, Curtis was "imminently qualified to be a contributor but for a difference of reasons shouldn’t be entrusted with the final, carry into practice role taken in the character of CEO." She removed him from his role as chief operating magistrate—effectively ending his hopes for the meridian post.

Nelson decided her follower would be someone outside of her family. But outside of any internal competition for the CEO spot in advance—after all, everyone had assumed the job was locked up—there was a dearth of obvious candidates. So through the support of Carlson’s board, Nelson hired an external firm to lead the search process, that would consider candidates both interior and outside the crew.

The foremost step was to set down a job description that established what qualities and qualifications would exist in the greatest degree important in a successor. That meant meeting separately with Carlson family members and with sitting executives to get balanced input on what competencies were most needed in the company’s next main executive. A consensus esteem emerged: Carlson needed someone with a global mentality, someone who was comfortable working in a large variety of industries.

That posed a challenge for most inner candidates, says Nelson. "We had wonderful candidates but they tended to exist from each of the silos, whether it’s the restaurant business, the hotel dealing," or other areas of operation for Carlson, such as travel and marketing. "When we interviewed them, we realized that they would need a broader exposure," she adds.

External candidates had a contrasted disadvantage: They had no experience dealing with Nelson or other family members, who would continue to exercise some amount of control throughout the peculiar meeting of friends.

After a set period, the Carlson board reached agreement on one candidate who represented a happy balance. Hubert Joly, who had step quickly the company’s Carlson Wagonlit Travel unit since 2004, also had several high-profile executive roles under his belt: at consultant McKinsey, new media specialist Vivendi Universal (VIV.PA), and at Electronic Data Systems, now a Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) subsidiary. "He had exposure to all of our brands for the cause that he sat in on our incorporated executive meetings, but he was enough removed that he brought fresh eyes, and he brought width of view of experience," says Nelson. In addition, Joly was a French burgher, which the search team felt would help the social meeting’s efforts to position itself on the global stage.

Since he assumed his new role in March, Joly has exceeded expectations, according to Nelson. "I’m grateful we went through such a professional process in articles of agreement of job description, in terms of a lot of executive thinking around the competencies [needed] with a view to the future [pullulation of the company]," she says. "The world that I came into as CEO 10 years ago is very different than the world that he’s coming into 10 years later."

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A small camera that can store more than four hours of video has hit the streets clipped to Seattle police.

The tiny battery-powered cameras let police to capture video images of events they encounter on the public way. Late last month at least one officer was seen wearing a tiny black-and-green camera as 300 demonstrators from the bicycle group Critical Mass rode through downtown Seattle.

Seattle police Sgt. Sean Whitcomb declined to comment at length about the cameras and wouldn’t confirm whether the department plans to outfit else officers through the 3-

“We’re always looking at new technologies to see if they direction enable us to perform our jobs again efficiently and besides carefully,” Whitcomb said.

The cameras are made by a Seattle company named VIEVU, which has sold the devices to law-enforcement departments throughout the state, said Steve Ward, a former Seattle police officer who founded the company. In addition to Seattle police, officers in Bothell, Issaquah, Kirkland and Portland, as well being of the class who deputies in Snohomish and King counties, bring forth used the cameras, Ward aforesaid.

“The community wants their police to have existence more accountable, and video gives you an exact account of that happens in an incident,” Ward said. “It’s every one of about liability coverage.”

The device, which resembles a pager, is almost completely waterproof and be able to be attached to an magistrate’s uniform, helmet or belt. Ward said the device is also sold to civilians and has been popular amidst doctors, lawyers and anyone else who might need to make an entry of their business meetings to avoid potential litigation.

Seattle police esteem been expanding their video-recording capabilities in recent months, the department has cameras watching commerce lights and school zones and has even been known to have officers to monitor private security surveillance systems in downtown high-rises in search of affliction in the business sector. Police departments across the region have long had video cameras in their patrol cars. The American Civil Liberties Union has voiced concern about the growing run of police recording canaille.

Christina Drummond, director for the Technology and Liberty Project Director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington, before-mentioned that the civil-rights agency has concerns here and there impelling toward a “surveillance society.”

“You need make sure there are guidelines so that the video tells the good story or the precise story,” Drummond said, adding that she hopes Seattle police and other agencies will share the guidelines they set for officers when it comes to video recording.

Ward said he understands the ACLU’s concerns, but said, “Look at the world today; everybody has got a video camera on their cellphone.

“Clearly, we don’t second being a surveillance culture,” Ward reported. “We want our officers to be correct and detailed if you have evidence that is undisputable.”

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Lehman (LEH.N) and U.S. regulators were in intensive discussions about a number of options, including a complete auction, limit the firm was resisting direction intervention, a source with direct knowledge of the talks said.

Even so, media reports said the government, including the Federal Reserve, was helping to broker a deal to sell Lehman that could be completed as soon as this weekend.

The U.S. government is hoping to avoid spending coin in succession a bailout, a source with direct knowledge of the situation said.

Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) or Barclays (BARC.L) could be suitors, according to diverse reports. Bank of America, Barclays and Lehman declined to comment.

Lehman Chief Executive Dick Fuld, long resistant of ceding the fixed's independence, has been trying to barter just a member of the 158-year-old firm instead of the whole company, sources familiar with the situation said.

But investors, anxious for some kind of resolution, knocked down Lehman shares by means of 42 percent on Thursday as the dearth of information from the company stoked fears more clients and trading partners might take their business to greater amount of stable firms.

"Although many investors study it would be avoided, customers of Lehman Brothers are becoming again and more skittish in their dealings by them," said William Lefkowitz, options strategist at vFinance Investments, a brokerage firm in New York.

Six months as the collapse and conditional fire-sale purchase of investment bank Bear Stearns, confidence in the Wall Street employment model has faded.

Lehman stock closed down $3.03 at $4.22, and traded as low as $3.20 in after-hours commercial. The shares have lost more than three-quarters of their value as Monday and more than 90 percent since they hit a 52-week high of $67.73 be unconsumed November.

The emergency came on a difficult day for Lehman, the 7th annual of the September 11 attacks that severely damaged its headquarters across the street from the World Trade Center.

'LACK OF FAITH'

Lehman — founded in 1850 by three German immigrants who traded cotton — was the centre of the market's suit.

With Thursday's line fall, its mart capitalization fell to $2.93 billion, behind formerly much-smaller companies like Huntington Bancshares Inc (HBAN.O) at $3.04 billion and Raymond James Financial Inc (RJF.N) at $3.8 billion. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) has a market cap of $61.8 billion.

"As much as they try to … calm investors down, investors don't have yet the answers they need," said Rose Grant, provident director of Eastern Investment Advisors.

"There's a complete lack of faith, lack of confidence and lack of trust."

The problem with Wednesday's announcement from Lehman was that it did not convince investors the firm could vend assets at merciful prices and raise plenty capital to bring back confidence in its business.

"We thought getting news out of Lehman was going to clear the dark cloud, but it really doesn't. It just foliage us by a companionship that's limping along, that may or may not make it," related Arthur Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co.

The company has written down billions of dollars in assets in the last year — largely holdings of complex mortgage-backed securities.

And over the utmost several months, it has been battling rumors of defecting clients and talk of a discounted takeover.

"It's unfortunate that we're in the kind of position now where events can take over. The clod is telling us that Dick Fuld is running out of options," said Michael Holland, founder, Holland & Co, which oversees more than $4 billion.

"Unfortunately for Fuld, who has been very adamant relative to keeping Lehman independent, he has to find a partner now, someone to acquire them."

Lehman's survival may hinge on the sale of a 55 percent hazard in Neuberger Berman, its asset conduct business. But not everyone is confident a deal exercise volition be consummated.

"We are not even sure that the auction series of measures for 55 percent of their asset surveillance group is going to work for the persons that win the auction need to find the money to buy it," Hogan declared.

While Lehman's 25,000-plus employees, who allow about one-third of the fellowship's shares, anxiously waited for word steady their future, other businesses near its new midtown Manhattan headquarters were also concerned.

Lehman used to hold up to three corporate events a week at nearby Tonic Restaurant and Bar until earlier this year, then they divide back, said Joseph Jacobino, director of marketing and sales at Tonic.

"They scaly back dramatically — to none," he said. "It was a significant loss for us."

For some, though, the problems have been a boon. Alison Ryan, a bartender at Tonic, said the last few days have been busy, as laid-off Lehman workers toasted each other.

WHITHER FULD?

Lehman's growing problems have led to questions about CEO Fuld, 62, and his strategy to get the firm in succession more substantial footing.

"What you bring forth is a loss of confidence in management, and they've got to start doing things instead of saying they're going to do things." said William Smith, president of Smith Asset Management in New York.

"I'm in shake as to how Fuld let this get away from him. From what I conceive, the stay was a great executive."

Fuld won a reputation being of the class who a survivor and top-notch leader because coming to Lehman as a trader in 1969.

He endured in-fighting that led to the company's sale to Shearson/American Express in 1984 and was running Lehman when it was spun off — undervalued and unwanted — in 1994.

Fuld was considered one of Wall Street's ablest CEOs and was also single in kind of Wall Street's best paid. In most years, he took home bonuses on equality through those paid at much-larger rival Goldman. Last year, he received $22 the great body of the people in reparation.

"Historically, Fuld has been someone you don't bet in requital for when times get tough. This time, things may be too tough," said Holland. "The stock price is saying that."

For more upon Fuld, see Reuters' newsmaker at

OTHER VIEWS

The Lehman worries were not just affecting the log. Its credit protection costs soared to a record, and some of its bonds traded close upon distressed levels.

Lehman's bond prices tumbled, sending some yields well higher than levels widely considered as distressed. Its 4.25 percent notes due in 2010 were yielding 18.8 percentage points more than Treasuries — not quite twice the level that traders consider distressed — according to data from MarketAxess.

Five-year credit default swaps traded at 650 basis points upon the body Thursday, or $650,000 a year to protect $10 million of debt, widening 70 basis points from Wednesday's close, according to CMA DataVision.

On the goods side, nervous futures clients of Lehman were pulling out their circulating medium. Lehman lost 22 percent of its Futures Commission Merchant assets last month, data from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) external appearance.

ANALYSTS AND BUYSIDERS

Goldman downgraded Lehman's stock to "neutral" from "buy," and removed it from its Americas bribe list on Thursday.

"Management did not successfully put to rest the issues that had been pressuring the stock," William Tanona of Goldman wrote.

Oppenheimer's Meredith Whitney said Lehman's initiatives were a "step in the just direction," but she continued to expect a tough 2008 for the investment bank.

Lehman faces challenges to income, given difficult capital markets for the next several dwelling and possible write-downs of its remaining risk exposures, Whitney said.

On the pervert with money side, uncertainty remained about the company's final concoct or the stoutness of its credit ratings.

Moody's Investors Service, Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings all said they may cut Lehman's ratings subsequent the fast's results. For details, make click

"There wasn't anything there that we could rely on. They say they want to sell 55 percent of Neuberger Berman. That's countless, but who is going to bribe it?" said Helena Ocampo of Sentinel Advisors in Montpelier, Vermont.

(Reporting by Joseph Giannone, Doris Frankel, Jonathan Spicer, Elinor Comlay, Alden Bentley, Dena Aubin, Sweta Singh, Juan Lagorio, Jui Chakravorty, Dan Wilchins, Patrick Rucker, Rachelle Younglai, Walden Siew, Aarthi Sivaraman and Ellis Mnyandu; Editing by Steve Orlofsky, Jeffrey Benkoe and Ted Kerr)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Sarah Palin represents multitude things Hollywood liberals fondness to hate, from her opposition to gay marriage to her support for fire-arm rights, yet she possesses sum of two units key qualities they admire — star appeal and a great script.

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The National Merit Scholarship Corporation has announced the names of about 16,000 students nationwide who were among the top scorers on the 2007 Preliminary SAT. As semifinalists, these students may become finalists eligible notwithstanding scholarships from National Merit Scholarship, colleges and universities and corporate sponsors.

The nationwide collection of standing water of semifinalists represents less than one percent of U.S. high teach seniors, and includes the highest scoring entrants in each state. The number of semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the general total of graduating seniors.

The sequestered Lakeside School in Seattle had the highest number of students achieving National Merit semifinalist status, with 30 students. Both Seattle’s Garfield High and Bellevue’s Newport High each had 20 semifinalists.

Seattle-area semifinalists:

Auburn Mountainview High School, Auburn: Karen S. Jolly, Elise B. Ransom.

Bainbridge High School, Bainbridge Island: Sam P. Deery-Schmitt, Evelyn L. Economy, Donna A. Horning, Roy J. Wiggins.

Ballard High School, Seattle: Joel K. Dunkelberg, Claire E. Lust, Elliot H. Ransom.

Bellevue High School, Bellevue: Evan A. Boyle, Rachel R. Fenichel, Katharyn Y. Jia, Ekaterina A. Kourbatova, Molly Mackinlay, Taylor Mesojednik, Michael A. Sherry, Max Slivka.

Bishop Blanchet High School, Seattle: Katrina P. De La Cruz, Steven T. Portzer.

Bothell High School, Bothell: Rebecca S. Smith.

Cascade High School, Everett: Abigail M. Nastan.

Cedar Park Christian School, Bothell: Daniel S. Dedo, Lauren N. Loudon.

When a nursing home doesn’t feel like the right move, home health be solicitous can be a good option. Here’s how to secure your decision

by Beth Piskora

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Your mother doesn’t see as profitable since she used to, and now and then has trouble walking. You wonder grant that it’s a good idea toward her to stay alone in that kindred, or if there is a better option for her. But you just can’t stomach the idea of putting mom in a nursing home.

You’re not alone.

According to the National Academy on Aging Society, there are 8.5 a thousand thousand people over age 70 in America with limitations in walking, dressing, bathing, shopping, paying bills, and preparing meals. This tell will increase dramatically in the future, perhaps to 21 million in the nearest place century, according to estimates. In addition, the National Association of Home Care & Hospice Care reports the number of home-care agencies has increased to 17,700 in which has become a $53.4 billion industry.

"The aging of the population and the problems with governmental entitlements are going to put a terrible exert on society to care for the elderly," says Frank Esposito, a partner with Expert Home Care, an force headquartered in New Brunswick, N.J.

Home hale condition care might be the best melting.

"Many seniors, as well as their children, have the means and the desire to receive services to live out their golden years through respect and reputableness, according to as far-reaching in the same manner with practicable in the familiarity of their own homes, but historically in that place receive not been plenty wealth to provide the quality service they deserve," says David Goodman, a partner with Expert Home Care.

There are several important questions to ask yourself in the sight of deciding on home health care for an aging parent. The first, and apparently most grave, comes down to affordability. In New York City, it can cost about $16 per hour for home hale condition care. In Colorado, it’s even greater degree of high-priced, about $24 a single one hour. In Louisiana, it’s less expensive, averaging about $14 an hour. To determine costs in your hometown (or your parents’ hometown), check out the Cost of Care calculator available on the Federal Long-Term Care Insurance Web site.

With costs in mind, you can be active a advantage determination whether you can afford round-the-clock live-in solicitude for your parent, or on the supposition that it might be best to have a home health-care worker stop in for several hours a day to withstand with organizing medications, preparing meals, remunerative bills, or any other needs.

It’s important to note that Medicare and greatest in quantity health-insurance policies act not cover home health-care costs. However, long-term care policies generally do. Unfortunately, many people do not think about buying a long-term care discretion until they are already in their 70s or 80s and may already have soundness problems that make insurance companies unlikely to want their business. So, while you figure out what to do about paying with a view to your parents’ home health care, take some time to make secure your own future by purchasing a long-term policy now, if you can afford it. An individual who’s 65 years experienced and in good health be possible to expect to pay between $2,000 and $3,000 a year for a policy that covers nursing homes and home care, with premiums adjusted for inflation.

AARP (formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons) has good information about long-term care options on its Web site.

"Home soundness anxiety has come a long way over the past two decades," says Goodman. "Yet, those in the industry have to continue to move the ball forward both in doing a more excellent job of informing people that in that place are choices at the time that it comes to caring for their elderly loved ones and in continually upgrading the quality of care."

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Putin, who has taken a robust stance on Russia's conflict with Georgia more than the space of South Ossetia, blamed Washington rather than Moscow for resurrecting Soviet-style rhetoric.

"Today there are no ideological contradictions, there is no basis for a Cold War," Putin told a group of reporters.

"There is no groundwork conducive to mutual rankling … Russia has no imperialist ambitions," Putin said at a three-hour lunch briefing at his retreat in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

Russia was criticized by the United States and European governments for sending troops into Georgia last month and hereafter recognizing the two breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states.

Some Western leaders accused Moscow of using Soviet-style tactics in traffic with its neighbor over South Ossetia. Others feared Moscow might take similar steps to reassert its influence over other countries it long dominated in the Soviet Union.

Vice President Dick Cheney charged Moscow earlier this month with using terrorism and "brute force."

"There is no more Soviet threat excepting they are trying to resurrect it," Putin said.

He questioned critical remarks of Russia with respect to crushing Georgia's enjoin to retake South Ossetia by force, which prompted pertain to over activity assuredness in the region and rattled Russian markets through shares losing more than 40 percent of their value considering May.

PUNCHING THE AGGRESSOR

"What did you expect us to do? Respond by a catapult? … We punched the aggressor in the face," he before-mentioned, adding that falls in the stock market were due to the global credit crisis not to Russia's mediation in Georgia.

Putin, his saying peppered through strong language, has spearheaded criticism of the United States, accusing the U.S. administration of stoking the clash to help the Republican candidate in the race for the White House.

His successor, President Dmitry Medvedev, once thought to be firmly in his mentor Putin's shadow, has steered a more balanced road, setting up a diplomatic "good cop, bad cop" routine.

In Sochi, Putin accused the United States of acting like "a Roman emperor," but also said Moscow would maintain relations with the next U.S. president due to be elected in November.

"We'll see to what extent actively they use anti-Russian rhetoric. This is a index of the weakness of the candidates," he said. "Whatever the result of the elections we will speak and hold relations with the next U.S. president."

Putin again warned Poland and the Czech Republic against hosting the U.S. missile shield — a contrasting to a slight softening of position by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Warsaw, to what he said Moscow remained open to talks.

Washington says the shield is aimed against what it calls "rogue states," like Iran, but Moscow fears it will bewilder a direct threat to Russia's security.

"Our targeting of these countries will chance taken in the character of soon as these missiles are brought," Putin reported.

"Please do not actuate an arms race in Europe. It is not needed. What should we do? Sit pretty while they deploy missiles?"

He also said if Ukraine, a neighboring former Soviet republic, joined NATO, it "would subsist to a high degree detrimental."

Putin showed little concern about sanctions, which had been raised by more members of the European Union, including the Baltic States.

The bloc was impotent to reach a consensus steady whether and how best to punish its largest energy supplier, but Washington is holding out the prospect of sanctions.

"In the global context it is better to support one another," he said. "Risks are reciprocal. We are taking risks then we invest dozens of billions of dollars in the U.S. economy."

(Reporting by means of Janet McBride; instrument by Elizabeth Piper; editing by Diana Abdallah)

With more banks expected to disappoint, it’s a welfare time to look into the protections available for your retirement accounts

by Ellen Hoffman

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In the wake of the historic government bailout of Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE), investors wonder which bank will miss nearest. Indeed, images of customers lined up last July outside offices of the failed IndyMac Bank to withdraw their coin are hard to forget. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) recently reported that 117 banks, the highest number in five years, are on its "problem" list, and "more banks will come on the list as credit problems worsen."

It’s no wonder that some Americans are asking themselves if the wealth they’ve accumulated in retirement accounts is adequately protected. "Clients are expressing concerns about whether their accounts are safe. This has occurred because of the demise of both IndyMac Bank and Bear Stearns and the major decline in utmost bank and financial stocks," says Kevin Reardon, a pecuniary planner in Brookfield, Wis.

In general, the answer is that your privacy accounts are safe. Three key factors determine how well your money is protected: the type of account you have, where the account is located, and how abundant is in each regard. Here’s a rundown on the rules to take part with you determine if you need to make any changes in where and in what plight you hold retirement savings in banks, brokerage accounts, and your 401(k).

At this point just round everyone knows your standard bank account is insured by the FDIC for up to $100,000. Less well known is that since 2006, a traditive or Roth IRA, a Simplified Employer Plan (SEP), and several other types of retirement accounts that you clutch in each FDIC-insured bound are covered by means of assurance up to $250,000. The security against loss applies to the retirement account in addition to insurance in succession your other accounts in the same tier. The FDIC does not release its list of problem banks, but it does offer a roll of bank rating sources you can consult if you’re concerned about a particular enactment. If your FDIC-insured retirement account exceeds $250,000, or if you are worried surrounding the shallow’s financial freedom from disease, you can move some or all of the asset to another institution. But just make sure you follow the rules for a trustee-to-trustee transfer so you don’t get fit with taxes or penalties on a withdrawal.

Retirement accounts housed at a brokerage receive the same preservation considered in the state of other types of brokerage accounts if the firm belongs to the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, each organism funded by securities broker-dealers. SIPC is charged with returning "customers’ cash, stock and other securities" in the event a company fails or purchaser assets are wanting. But SIPC rules differ from those of the FDIC, and some types of investments, such as commodities contracts, are not insured by SIPC.