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Consumer confidence rose more than expected in December, hitting an eight-month high, as Americans grew more upbeat about the labor market and their financial situation.

The Conference Board, an industry group, said its index of consumer sentiment increased to 64.5 from a downwardly revised 55.2 in November.

Economists had expected a reading of 58.3 from a previously reported 56.0 in November.

The rise in sentiment offered hope for a pick-up in consumer spending after a tepid performance in November.

Labor market conditions have improved in recent months, with the unemployment rate falling to a 2-1/2 year low in November and applications for first time jobless benefits at the lowest since April 2008.

The survey’s present situation index rose to 46.7 this month — the highest since September 2008 — from 38.3 in November. The expectations index surged to 76.4 from 66.4 in November.

“Consumers are more optimistic that business conditions, employment prospects and their financial situations will get better,” the Conference Board said in a statement.

“While consumers are ending the year in a somewhat more upbeat mood, it is too soon to tell if this is a rebound from earlier declines or a sustainable shift in attitudes.”

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World stocks began the week with a jolt Monday as the death of North Korea’s absolute ruler, Kim Jong Il, added to the uncertainties clouding the outlook for financial markets.

South Korea’s Kospi index dived nearly 5 percent but later recouped some losses to close 3.4 percent lower at 1,776.93. The Korean won also fell, losing 1.6 percent against the U.S. dollar, a traditional haven in times of uncertainty. The Japanese yen, euro and other regional currencies also weakened against the dollar.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index dropped 1.3 percent to 8,296.12. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slid 1.2 percent to 18,070.21 and the Shanghai Composite Index rebounded from earlier losses to finish down 0.3 percent at 2,218.24.

Kim Jong Il’s death, announced Monday by North Korean state television, raises the spectre of more instability on the divided Korean peninsula as the reclusive regime undergoes a leadership succession.

Those worries are most acute in South Korea and Japan, which have often been the targets of North Korea’s mercurial military and diplomatic actions.

“We’re seeing deeper negative sentiment in some markets,” said Dariusz Kowalczyk, strategist at Credit Agricole CIB, in Hong Kong. “Basically this is because risk aversion on the geopolitical front has increased given that there’s a transition of power in a relatively unstable country. So we’re seeing an impact on equities, currencies.”

In Europe, Britain’s FTSE 100 lost 0.5 percent to 5,363.11 and Germany’s DAX slipped 0.3 percent to 5,687.62. France’s CAC-40 fell 0.3 percent to 2,961.74. Wall Street was set to open lower with Dow futures off 0.1 percent at 11,770. Broader S&P 500 futures shed 0.1 percent to 1,210.20.

South Korea’s military and police went on alert and President Lee Myung-bak, convened a national security council meeting. Japanese leaders said they were watching markets closely and in contact with the U.S., Kyodo News Agency reported.

“We need to prepare for any contingencies,” Kyodo quoted Jun Azumi, the Japanese finance minister, as saying.

Kim was ailing after suffering what is thought to have been a stroke in 2008 and died at age 69 on Saturday.

North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency on Monday identified his third son, the twenty-something Kim Jong Un, as the “great successor” to the man known officially as the “Dear Leader.”

But even with the younger Kim designated as his father’s successor, and already filling high-ranking posts, some experts fear a behind-the-scenes power struggle or nuclear instability fast cash now.

Fitch Ratings, which spooked markets across the globe with a warning Friday it may downgrade ratings of a half-dozen European countries, said it did not view Kim’s death “as a trigger for negative action on South Korea’s sovereign ratings in itself.”

“For now, it’s much too early to say risks have materially increased, but clearly we will keep the situation under close review,” said Andrew Colquhoun, head of Fitch’s Asia-Pacific sovereigns.

Markets in Taiwan, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia also sank on Monday.

“Particularly with the bearish market sentiment now, any negative news will make the market much more gloomy,” said Kwong Man Bun, chief operating officer at KGI Securities in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong benchmark dipped 100 points after North Korea’s announcement which “reflects concern over potential political instability,” he said.

Still, barring unexpected developments in Pyongyang the impact of Kim’s death on markets is likely to be passing, analysts said.

“In the short term there will be some psychological uncertainty but I think things will go back to the fundamentals,” said Steven Leung, director of institutional sales at UOB-Kay Hian Ltd. in Hong Kong.

Kim’s death overshadowed what already was a gloomy start to the week after Fitch warned it may downgrade the credit ratings of heavyweights Italy and Spain, as well as Belgium, Cyprus, Ireland and Slovenia.

Coming just a week after EU leaders struck a deal they thought would contain the continent’s debt crisis, that and other negative news dashed hopes of an end to the turmoil endangering the euro _ the currency used by 17 European nations _ and threatening the entire global economy.

“Everyone is waiting to see what comes from the next conference of European nations. Hopefully something good,” said Jackson Wong of Tanrich Securities, in Hong Kong.

Benchmark oil for January delivery was down 21 cents at $93.32 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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In his annual report tabled last week, Auditor General Jim McCarter accused the Ontario government of mismanaging the prices of auto insurance, electricity and liquor.

If his findings had been available for scrutiny before the Oct. 6 election, Ontario voters might have given even fewer seats to the Liberal party, which ended up with a one-seat minority.

I wish the Opposition parties were as comprehensive in their criticism as McCarter was. They had an opportunity to attack the government on pocketbook issues and came up short.

Here are some numbers that tell the story from a mammoth 462-page report, available online at www.auditor.on.ca.

Auto insurance: The Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO) approves rate filings by insurers and protects consumers from being charged an incorrect rate.

In a five-year period, FSCO reviewed 22 complaints about incorrect rates — and only five of them were initiated by the public. (The rest were self-reported by insurers.)

“Such errors can have a significant impact on consumers — we noted examples of overbilling that totalled between $1 million to $11 million,” the auditor’s report says.

“However, FSCO did not have any procedures for periodically checking that insurers were charging the approved rates.”

The agency said it planned to verify that insurers were charging only authorized rates. But why didn’t it do so earlier? It’s been approving insurance rates for several decades.

Electricity: The Ontario Energy Board has a responsibility to educate consumers on how to understand their complex electricity bills.

They need to understand the risks and potential benefits of signing retail fixed-price contracts. They need to know about the time-of-use system and how they can save by adjusting power usage.

But in a 2010 focus group, many people said they couldn’t figure out the electricity charges on their bills and weren’t aware of the board’s role in protecting them.

Meanwhile, the board received 17,000 complaints in five years. Most were about electricity retailers misrepresenting themselves, switching supply without a contract, even forging signatures on contracts.

Since it licenses retailers, the board is expected to play a proactive role in protecting consumers from unfair business practices.

“Despite the high number of public complaints, we noted little enforcement action against retailers with repeated offences. Since July 2003, the board has issued only four enforcement orders in 2009 and just one in 2010,” the report said.

Right on, Jim McCarter. Why has so little been done to discipline the brazen door-to-door sellers who break all the rules? This has gone on for a decade.

Liquor: The Liquor Control Board of Ontario can set retail prices for the products it sells. In the latest fiscal year, it had sales of $4.6 billion and net income of $1.56 billion (virtually all the profit goes to the province).

Most large retailers use their buying power to negotiate with suppliers to drive down costs. But the LCBO, one of the world’s largest purchasers of beverage alcohol, doesn’t do so.

It has no incentive to negotiate lower wholesale costs — since that would result in lower prices and, in turn, lower profits for the province.

“The LCBO should assess the feasibility of negotiating as low a price as possible with its suppliers,” McCarter said after releasing the report.

“With retail prices still kept at desired levels, this could result in higher profits for the province while still encouraging responsible consumption.”

Let’s be grateful that the auditor is doing his job and telling the truth. Ontario consumers pay too much for basic services and get too little from government agencies that are supposed to protect their interests.

Let’s hope his efforts continue to bear fruit in the years to come.

Ellen Roseman writes about personal finance and consumer issues. You can reach her at eroseman@thestar.ca.

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The cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service said Monday it is seeking to move quickly to close 252 mail processing centers and slow first-class delivery next spring, citing steadily declining mail volume.

The cuts are part of $3 billion in reductions aimed at helping the agency avert bankruptcy next year. It would virtually eliminate the chance for stamped letters to arrive the next day, a change in first-class delivery standards that have been in place since 1971.

The plant closures are expected to result in the elimination of roughly 28,000 jobs nationwide.

At a news briefing, postal vice president David Williams stressed the move was necessary to cut costs as more people turn to the Internet for email communications and bill payment. After reaching a peak of 98 million in 2006, first-class mail volume is now at 78 million. It is projected to drop by roughly half by 2020.

“Are we writing off first class mail? No,” Williams said. “Customers are making their choices, and what we are doing is responding to the current market conditions and placing the postal service on a path to allow us to respond to future changes.”

The cuts, now being finalized, would close 252 out of 461 mail processing centers across the country starting next April. Because the consolidations typically would lengthen the distance mail travels from post office to processing center, the agency also would lower delivery standards.

Currently, first-class mail is supposed to be delivered to homes and businesses within the continental U.S. in one day to three days. That will lengthen to two days to three days, meaning mailers no longer could expect next-day delivery in surrounding communities. Periodicals could take between two days and nine days.

Williams said in certain narrow situations first-class mail might be delivered the next day _ if, for example, newspapers, magazines or other bulk mailers are able to meet new tighter deadlines and drop off shipments directly at the processing centers that remain open.

But in the vast majority of cases, everyday users of first-class mail will see delays of one or two days, including those who pay bills by check, send birthday cards, write letters, or receive prescription drugs or Netflix DVDs by mail no faxing 1 hour payday loans.

After five years in the red, the post office faces imminent default this month on a $5.5 billion annual payment to the Treasury for retiree health benefits. It is projected to have a record loss of $14.1 billion next year. The Postal Service has said the agency must make cuts of $20 billion by 2015 to be profitable.

It already has announced a 1-cent increase in first-class mail to 45 cents beginning Jan. 22.

Separate bills that have passed House and Senate committees would give the Postal Service more authority and liquidity to stave off immediate bankruptcy. But prospects are somewhat dim for final congressional action on those bills anytime soon, especially if the measures are seen in an election year as promoting layoffs and cuts to neighborhood post offices.

On Monday, the Postal Service said it welcomed congressional changes that would give it more authority to reduce delivery to five days a week, raise stamp prices and reduce health care and other labor costs. But the Postal Service said it was opposed to provisions in both the House and Senate measures that would require additional layers of review before it could close post offices and processing centers.

“Speed is very important to the Postal Service in our ability to capture savings,” Williams said.

Maine Sen. Susan Collins, the top Republican on the Senate committee that oversees the post office, believes the agency is taking the wrong approach. She says service cuts will only push more consumers to online bill payment or private carriers such as UPS or FedEx, leading to lower revenue in the future.

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Online: List of facilities to be closed: http://about.usps.com/news/electronic-press-kits/our-future-network/study-list-110915.pdf

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TOKYO — Honda Motor Co. is recalling 27,000 cars in Canada, and 304,000 vehicles globally, for airbags that may inflate with too much pressure in a crash, send metal and plastic pieces flying and cause injuries or deaths.

Honda said there have been 20 accidents so far related to this problem, including two deaths in the U.S. in 2009.

The Japanese automaker announced the recall Friday, which affects the Accord, Civic, Odyssey, Pilot, CR-V and other models, manufactured in 2001 and 2002.

Photos: A sea of Hondas left behind after Thailand flood

More: After harsh reviews, Honda scrambles to redo Civic in 2013

The recall spans 273,000 vehicles in the U.S., some 27,000 in Canada, nearly 2,000 vehicles in Japan and another 2,000 in other countries. It affected 359 vehicles in Europe — 200 in Germany, 158 in Israel and one in Great Britain, according to Honda.

The latest recall is an expansion of recalls for the same problem in 2008, and again carried out in 2009, as well as last year. The recall now covers about 2 million vehicles worldwide, according to Tokyo-based Honda.

Honda spokesman Hajime Kaneko said the cause for the latest recall was the use of incorrect material in the chemical used to deploy airbags.

The initial cause of the recall was excessive moisture in the inflator propellant, which is part of what inflates the airbag.

But that problem was found later to affect more vehicles than initially estimated, as incidents didn’t stop, and the recall was expanded to account for the possibility that the problem was caused by a defective stamping machine used during production, he said.

Honda is extremely sorry about the recalls but believes the problem has now been taken care of, with no more recalls linked to this problem expected, he said.

Also included in the latest recall are 912 airbag service parts sold for installation in vehicles for collision repair and other reasons, Honda said.

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The plan central banks announced Wednesday could ease financial strains that threaten Europe’s common currency and may tip the global economy into recession.

The Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the central banks of Canada, Japan and Switzerland said they’d make it easier for banks to get the dollars they need to lend.

The move was a powerful confidence-booster, a signal that central banks are prepared to act in concert to encourage lending.

Stocks rocketed in response.

“The coordination was a big thing,” said Michael Hanson, an economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. “It had a psychological effect.”

Still, the plan isn’t a permanent fix. It doesn’t address the root of Europe’s crisis: Debt burdens are overwhelming Spain, Italy and some other nations and spreading fears that they’ll default. A default by one or more governments could topple the entire continent’s economy. Skittish banks that hold much of these countries’ bonds have been reluctant to lend to each other.

On Tuesday, the finance ministers of the 17 countries that use the euro failed to reach an agreement on resolving the crisis. Their failure raised the stakes for the leaders of the 27 countries in the European Union who will hold their own meeting next week. Investors will be looking to the leaders to show progress toward a longer-term solution.

Analysts say the eurozone nations ultimately must approve closer coordination of their spending policies so fiscal discipline can be imposed on individual countries.

Here are some questions and answers about the move and the European crisis.

Q. What did the Fed and other central banks do Wednesday?

A. They agreed to make it easier for banks to obtain U.S. dollars to fund loans all over the world. This should lead banks to loosen credit, which had tightened because of Europe’s financial crisis. Many banks lend in dollars because so much trade and investment is denominated in the U.S. currency. The Fed, the ECB and the other central banks agreed to lower the interest rate on dollar loans.

Q. How would this help?

A. The Fed has provided dollars to all five central banks since May 2010. But the interest rates were too high for many banks. The Fed and the other central banks are easing those rates. And the ECB will reduce the collateral banks must provide to get dollar loans. All this should lead more European banks to borrow dollars from the ECB. That’s important because those banks have had less access to dollars through other means, such as American money market funds. The money funds have reduced lending to European banks for fear the banks have too much debt from troubled countries. If those countries defaulted, banks in Europe could collapse.

Q. Does this mean the Fed is “bailing out” European banks?

A. No. Here’s how it works: The Fed provides dollars to the ECB. In exchange, it gets an equal amount of euros. The ECB then lends the dollars to banks. If the banks don’t pay back the loans, the ECB absorbs the loss. The ECB returns the dollars to the Fed at the same exchange rate as the initial swap.

Q. How will we know if this plan works?

A. One sign will be what happens when the ECB offers dollar loans on Wednesday. Most analysts expect many more banks to take advantage of the dollar loans now that the terms have eased.

Q. Will this do anything for governments like Greece and Italy that are on the verge of default?

A. Not really. It might help calm investors’ nervousness about the overall crisis. It could slightly lower rates that those countries pay. But it won’t reduce their debt burdens. It does buy European leaders time by keeping credit flowing. But investors will soon turn attention to the European leaders’ meeting next Friday. Geoffrey Yu, a strategist at UBS, said markets could plummet if that meeting doesn’t produce results.

Q: How did Europe get into this mess?

A: The euro made it easier to do business across Europe and made the continent a potent economic bloc. Yet the experiment was flawed. Countries were harnessed to one another despite different economies and cultures. Banks lent at low rates even to weaker countries like Greece. The euro meant lenders didn’t have to worry that individual countries would run up inflation that would reduce the value of the loans. Governments overspent for years and got away with it because they could borrow at low rates. But once the Great Recession struck, their debts became devastating.

Q: Why is a solution so hard?

A: The ECB and Germany have resisted aggressive action. Many economists want the central bank to buy the debt of Italy and other struggling countries. That would push down interest rates and ease those countries’ borrowing costs. The ECB has bought Italian and Spanish bonds. But it’s loath to do so in a big way. The ECB says it must control inflation, not be a lender of last resort to governments. And it doesn’t want to set a precedent for bailing out financially ailing nations. Germany opposes one idea _ creating joint bonds backed by the whole eurozone _ because it fears its own borrowing costs would surge if it had to borrow jointly with weaker countries.

Q: What options are European officials considering?

A: Things that would have been unthinkable just weeks ago. One option is to have countries cede control of their budgets to a central authority. That authority would stop countries from spending beyond their means. There has also been talk of forming an elite group of euro nations to guarantee each other’s loans. It would require fiscal discipline from any country that wants to join. Once that happens, the ECB might be more willing to buy government bonds aggressively, thereby pushing down interest rates and easing governments’ debt burdens. Analysts say that some progress toward such a solution at the summit next Friday is crucial.

Q: Can Europe’s leaders solve this mess?

A: The coordinated move the central banks announced Wednesday is expected to ease pressure on the financial system in the short run. But a lasting resolution requires persuading up to 17 countries and the ECB to agree to a solution to both ease government debt loads and impose budgetary discipline. “This is not just a crisis of Greece or this or that country,” says Nicolas Veron, senior fellow at the Brussels-based think tank Bruegel. “It’s a crisis of European institutions.”

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A huge oil discovery by the Spanish company Repsol has sharply boosted Argentina’s potential to cash in on energy and could eventually attract an infusion of investment to exploit the shale oil.

Experts said Tuesday the find is very promising, but it is unclear how much time and investment may be needed to capitalize on the oil beneath the rocky, barren plains of Patagonia. The company said the discovery includes 927 million barrels of recoverable oil and natural gas, of which 741 million barrels is oil.

Shares in Repsol YPF SA soared a day after the find was announced, rising 6.3 percent by the close of trading in Madrid and climbing 6 percent in afternoon trading in New York.

Former Argentine Energy Minister Jorge Lapena said it’s a “spectacular announcement” but that the reserves have yet to be proven and that studies on economic feasibility and environmental impact still need to be carried out.

“There’s still a long path to go from resources to reserves, and then to put them into production,” Lapena told reporters. He said the find, if proven, appears to represent about 40 percent of Argentina’s reserves.

Though potentially a game-changer for Argentina, the find is small compared to Brazil’s recent deep-sea oil discoveries, which experts have estimated could represent as much as 55 billion barrels. Venezuela, South America’s largest oil exporter, has a whopping 296.5 billion barrels in proven crude reserves.

Still, for Argentina the find could lead to an eventual increase in oil output, and other areas remain to be explored.

“It must be proven first of all that they’re commercially exploitable reserves, that’s to say the economic feasibility,” Daniel Bosque, editor of the Argentina-based website Enernews.

Jason Schenker, an energy analyst and president of Austin, Texas-based Prestige Economics LLC, said such oil discoveries “will be critical to meet rising global oil demand.”

“A significant oil find at current price levels is very positive for firms that can verify their size and extract them efficiently,” Schenker said. “Now, the questions will be: How quickly can this oil be brought into production … and at what price?”

Those are questions that Repsol isn’t immediately ready to answer with specifics.

But Kristian Rix, a Repsol spokesman in Madrid, said that because 15 vertical wells have already been drilled in the area and are producing 5,000 barrels a day of shale oil, “the development of this is uncomplicated from our point of view.”

“It’s a producing region, so all the infrastructure is there already, so putting new wells on line is very fast,” Rix said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

He said that while it’s typical in the industry to have a lag time of five to seven years between exploration and production, “this is clearly not the case here, because we’re already producing from wells.” He said it’s too soon to comment on projected investment or how long it could take.

“We are still at a very intense exploration stage,” Rix said.

He said the oil would be extracted by hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” the technique that involves injecting water, sand and chemicals at high pressure to force out the fuel. It’s not yet clear which water sources would be used in that process.

The shale oil was discovered in the arid “Vaca Muerta,” or “Dead Cow,” basin of Neuquen province in northern Patagonia, a region of treeless plains dotted with dry brush where there are two nearby lakes.

Repsol YPF owns oil rights to 12,000 square kilometers (4,600 square miles) of the basin, but like other oil companies, has just begun to search them. The discovery came while exploring an area of just 428 square kilometers (165 square miles) known as “Loma la Lata Norte.”

The company now plans to expand its drilling in a nearby area of about the same size that shows similar potential, Rix said.

Repsol YPF SA is based in Spain but operates in more than 30 countries around the world. As of Monday, Argentina is home to two-thirds of the 3 billion barrels of oil deposits that the company considers recoverable, up from half.

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Associated Press writers Ian James in Caracas, Venezuela, Bradley Brooks in Sao Paulo and Alan Clendenning in Madrid contributed to this report.

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Rodney Diverlus’s parents qualified to vote for the first time in last month’s provincial election after moving to Canada from Haiti — and they voted Liberal.

The reason: With a son and four daughters in or approaching university, they were swayed by liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty’s pledge to slash college and university tuition fees by 30 per cent.

But Rodney — a third-year student at Ryerson University, also voting in his first election, shunned the Liberals.

The reason: He sees too many holes and unanswered questions in the program.

McGuinty’s pledge sounded straightforward enough.

The province would give most undergraduate university and college students a grant amounting to 30 per cent of their fees. The grant would be paid directly to the university or college, which would then reduce the students’ fees accordingly.

Families with incomes above $160,000 would not qualify for the grants, nor would students at professional schools. And the grants would only apply to students within four years of graduating from high school.

The Liberals said five out of six students in the province would benefit from the program, which they said will start Jan. 1.

It was certainly going to cost real money: The Liberals estimated $423 million starting in 2012-13, and rising to $486 million in four years.

Rodney Diverlus was delighted when he first heard about the program. A performance dance student, he was accustomed to regular tuition fee increases. He has a student loan of $16,000.

“To know that the tuition fee would be reduced by 30 per cent, I was dumbfounded,” he said in an interview.

So were his parents. He has an older sister in graduate school, a younger sister graduating from high school this year, and two other sisters only a few years away from college or university.

But Diverlus found his initial enthusiasm cooling as he started pulling back the layers of the promise.

He began to realize, at the outset, that he might not be eligible for the grants on several grounds.

First, the program isn’t open to professional schools. That seemed to be targeted at law and medical schools, where nearly all students have degrees.

But what about performance arts programs, such as dance and music? And architecture, business and nursing? All are undergraduate programs, but could be deemed professional fast payday loan no faxing.

And the grant for all students is a flat $1,600 for university and $730 for college — despite the fact that some programs have significantly higher fees than the arts and science fees on which the basic 30 per cent grant is calculated.

Diverlus has another issue. He cut back to part-time status this year because he’s active in student government, but part-time students don’t get the grants.

Student organizations say there are other questions.

Nora Loreto of the Canadian Federation of Students notes that grants are only issued to students within four years of completing high school. Since many students take a year or more away from studies, they’ll lose grants when they do.

Others who work part time and take more than four years to get through a regular course will also be out of luck in their fifth and later years.

This is a particular issue for college students, who have often spent time in the workforce before returning to upgrade qualifications, she says.

Students are also puzzled by how the $160,000 limit on family income will be measured. Universities, who will be given the grant money to allot, don’t know their students’ family incomes.

Who will make the call? The Ontario Student Assistance Program has family income information on some students, but not all students use the program.

There’s even the question of whether the Liberal plan will require legislation or whether it can be set up under existing statutes. Steering new legislation through a minority legislature could be tricky.

When questions about the program’s details were put to the premier’s office, a spokesperson replied: “We’re looking forward to having more to say on implementation in the future.”

Diverlus and Loreto suggest the plan could be made simpler if it reduced fees for all students across the board.

That would spread the available money across a greater number of students, so the fees reduction would be less than 30 per cent, they acknowledge.

But it would be simpler to administer, and would bring part-time and older students into the tent.

Also read:

Easy ways to save for your child’s educationE

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Germany’s unemployment rate slipped to 6.5 percent in October, an improvement credited to seasonal factors.

The Federal Labor Agency said Wednesday that 2.737 million people were registered as jobless in Europe’s biggest economy last month _ 59,000 fewer than the previous month. The unadjusted jobless rate was down from 6.6 percent in October.

However, the agency says that the seasonally adjusted jobless rate ticked up to 7 percent from 6.9 percent. In adjusted terms, the number of unemployed people increased by 10,000 following months of declines.

Germany’s economic growth has been losing steam lately amid clouds over the global economy and the eurozone debt crisis.

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