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SINGAPORE — The global economic crisis may have damped the appetite for most high-end goods, but one small daily luxury —gourmet tea — has been posting surprisingly strong sales, prompting some brands to consider expanding around the world.

With names such as Silver Moon, Emperor’s White Garden, Gout Russe Douchka and Sakura, Sakura, the teas reflect a wide range of exotic flavors, attracting an almost religious following among tea lovers.

While the rarest teas, such as yellow teas, can cost $2,120 for 2 instant payday loan.2 pounds, gourmet teas cost 30 percent more than standard teas on average, making them an affordable luxury for many.

"There is definitely no crisis when it comes down to gourmet tea; our sales have been increasing every year by 15 to 25 percent ever since we started in 1987," said Francois-Xavier Delmas, founder and chief executive of Le Palais des Thes in Paris.

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A U.S. decision to impose special duties on Chinese tires could trigger a host of trade complaints against Chinese products and a backlash from Beijing, creating tensions as Western nations seek China’s support at a G20 meeting.

China responded swiftly to President Barack Obama’s announcement Friday of safeguard duties on tire imports from China, saying on Monday it would request World Trade Organization consultations with the U.S. over the duties.

It also announced its own anti-dumping investigations of chicken products from the United States, a trade worth $800 million a year, as well as U.S. automotive exports.

Looming in the United States are complaints about products ranging from electric blankets to a steelmaking ingredient, while Chinese and European trade negotiators are gearing up for a fight over shoes.

Obama, in a speech on Wall Street, said he was committed to expanding world trade and denied protectionist intent.

“When, as happened this weekend, we invoke provisions of existing agreements, we do so not to be provocative or to promote self-defeating protectionism,” he said.

“We do so because enforcing trade agreements is part and parcel of maintaining an open and free trading system.”

The United Steelworkers union filed the tire protection petition earlier this year. It said a tripling of Chinese tire imports from 2004 to 2008 had cost more than 5,000 U.S. jobs.

The U.S. trade deficit with China totaled $103 billion in the first half of 2009, down 13 percent from last year but it has grown considerably over the last decade.

The imbalance is a source of much ire in Washington and the rest of the country.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the Obama administration will strongly object to any attempt by China to retaliate against chicken exports.

“There is no reason why another country should try to even the scale, if you will, by focusing on agricultural products,” Vilsack told a National Farmers Union conference.

Stocks on Wall Street slipped shortly after the opening bell on Monday in part over concerns about the trade dispute but finished squarely ahead, with the Dow industrials up 19 points to 9,624. U.S. tire makers Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co and Cooper Tire & Rubber Co ended higher.

NO FULL-SCALE TRADE WAR

While the intensified sparring between two of the world’s biggest economies could trigger a bout of nerves in financial markets, it is unlikely to spiral into a full-scale trade war. 

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Taking on corporate giants can feel like tilting at windmills, but John Kopchinski’s six-year legal battle against Pfizer Inc just made him a rich man.

The Gulf War veteran and former Pfizer sales representative will earn more than $51.5 million as a result of his whistleblower lawsuit against the world’s biggest drugmaker and the record penalty the company must pay the U.S. government for its massive marketing transgressions.

The unassuming Texas resident celebrated his windfall by having a family portrait photograph taken Wednesday morning.

“We’re going to be staying right here in San Antonio in the same house, and my wife tells me when we go to the movies we’re still getting one tub of popcorn — the large tub,” Kopchinski said in a telephone interview.

Kopchinski, appalled by Pfizer’s tactics in selling the pain drug Bextra, filed a “qui tam” lawsuit in 2003, sparking federal and state probes that led to Wednesday’s agreement by the company to pay $2.3 billion in civil and criminal penalties and plead guilty to a felony charge for promoting Bextra and 12 other drugs for unapproved uses and doses.

“In the Army I was expected to protect people at all costs,” Kopchinski said in a statement. “At Pfizer I was expected to increase profits at all costs, even when sales meant endangering lives.

“I couldn’t do that,” added Kopchinski, 45, who was fired by Pfizer in March of 2003, two years before the company pulled Bextra from the market over concerns it raised the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

At the time of his dismissal after raising his concerns with the company, Kopchinski had a baby son and his wife was pregnant with twins. He went from earning about $125,000 a year to living off his retirement fund before landing a job with an insurance company for $40,000 a year.

“It was a lot of stress on the family. I pretty much depleted my entire 401(k),” he said.

“The last six years have been pretty hard, so going forward it’s going to be pretty much easier,” said Kopchinski, noting that college for his young children “is taken care of.”

Erika Kelton, Kopchinski’s lead attorney from the firm of Phillips & Cohen LLP, said large rewards are justified because of what whistleblowers must endure, often for many years, after complaints within the company go unheeded.

“Particularly in pharma, it’s no secret that it’s an industry that can blackball former employees,” Kelton said, “so the reward is important both to encourage people to step forward and to recognize that their contributions are huge.”

Kopchinski and five other whistleblowers will earn more than $102 million in payments from the U.S. government under the False Claims Act through which individuals can reap rewards for exposing corporate wrongdoing.

“The use of whistleblowers has really opened up the keys to the kingdom in terms of what’s going on in these companies,” said Dean Zerbe, senior counsel for the National Whistleblower Center and a partner at the law firm of Zerbe, Fingeret, Frank and Jadav in Washington.

“You’d never find out what’s happening without this kind of reward structure,” Zerbe said. 

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The court-appointed trustee in charge of the Bernard Madoff Ponzi case is preparing to file civil complaints against Madoff’s two sons, as well as his brother, CBS News reported on Tuesday.

Trustee Irving Picard will seek more than $50 million, including at least $30 million in loans to the sons, the report said, citing a source. It added the aim was to recapture money diverted from Madoff’s massive Ponzi scheme.

Picard also wants to force the Madoffs to reveal all of their assets, including bank accounts and a home one son, Mark, bought for $6.5 million in cash, the report said, citing other sources.

Picard could not be immediately reached at his New York office.

Madoff, 71, is serving a 150-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to engineering the long-running $65 billion fraud, Wall Street’s biggest. His sons, Mark and Andrew, ran the trading division at their father’s firm, while Madoff’s brother, Peter, was its chief compliance officer.

(Reporting by Jonathan Spicer; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

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BIRMINGHAM–General Electric Co. said Friday it will build a $100 million manufacturing technology center in Michigan that will eventually employ more than 1,100 workers.

The Advanced Manufacturing and Software Technology Center will include a GE research and development facility with scientists and engineers who will develop manufacturing technologies for GE's renewable energy, aircraft engine, gas turbine and other products.

The center, which is expected to open later this year in Van Buren Township, Michigan, also will work on software development, networking and other services.

GE, which is based in Fairfield, Conn., says it will build a 100,000-square-foot facility to house the manufacturing center. The state of Michigan is providing more than $60 million in incentives over the next 12 years to support the center payday loan online.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm, appearing with Immelt on the CNBC cable network Friday, said the new center will bring high-skilled jobs to Michigan, which has been reeling from the recession and the downturn in the auto industry.

"These aren't just any old jobs," Granholm said.

The research employees at the Michigan facility will join 2,800 researchers and employees at GE's four other research facilities. GE said it expects to establish partnerships with local universities on training programs for its employees at the center.

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WASHINGTON — With unemployment likely to hit double digits this year, the Federal Reserve must strike a reassuring message this week: that it stands ready to take further steps to nurse the economy back to health, but also make clear that too much medicine could spur worries about inflation.

Some economists say that at the end of their two-day meeting Wednesday, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues may say they will stretch out their purchases of government debt to avoid an abrupt end to that effort, now slated for August. Doing so could help avert possible market disruptions and help ease fears about a stimulative overdose that could trigger inflation.

"I think there’s a good chance the Fed will exert more flexibility in the timing of purchases to slow them down," said Michael Feroli, an economist at JPMorgan Economics.

What’s all but certain is that policymakers will hold a key lending rate to banks at a record low near zero. They also are likely to repeat a pledge to keep rates there for "an extended period."

Most economists say that means the Fed will keep the target range for its bank lending rate between zero and 0.25 percent through the rest of this year and probably into next online cash advance. That means commercial banks’ prime lending rate, used to peg rates on home equity loans, certain credit cards and other consumer loans, will stay around 3.25 percent, the lowest in decades.

Most economists say the Fed won’t be inclined to boost its purchases of government debt or mortgage-backed securities at this week’s meeting, preferring to take time to assess the impact of its actions already taken.

There will be "no fireworks from the Fed," predicted Michael Darda, chief economist at MKM Partners. With unemployment expected to worsen and with factory production sagging, Darda said inflation is unlikely to sprout any time soon.

"Don’t expect the Fed to start laying the groundwork for tighter monetary policy" until there is sustained turnaround in factory and employment activity, he said.

And that will take awhile, because an eventual recovery is likely to be tepid. Still, Fed policymakers will continue to explore how and when to wean the economy off stimulative medicine to avoid fanning inflation.

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Resale prices for Canadian homes rose to their highest average on record in May, while sales activity climbed for a fourth straight month as consumer confidence strengthened, according to an industry report released Monday.

But rebounding sales in some of the most expensive markets skewed the national average, the Canadian Real Estate Association said in the report.

The average home price last month rose 0.4 percent to C$319,757 ($282,971), topping the previous record set a year ago. It was the first year-over-year increase since May last year.

The average price has recovered 16.4 percent from the low reached in January, CREA said.

Home sales rose 8 percent to 37,649 units in May from April, the fourth consecutive monthly increase on a seasonally adjusted basis. Nationally, 49,521 units changed hands in May, down 0.8 percent from a year ago.

"New records were posted in only 15 percent of local markets in May, none of which are among the most active or expensive," CREA said bad credit cash loans.

"The strong rebound in sales activity, not price, in Canada’s most expensive markets is driving up average prices nationally and in some provinces, just as a sharp decline in activity in these markets pushed average prices lower in late 2008."

Of the 25 major markets that CREA tracks, 14 reported rises in unit sales year-over-year, with five markets, mostly in the western provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, posting double-digit increases.

Prices rose in 14 markets, led by a 17.3 percent increase in Newfoundland and Labrador and a 12.1 percent climb in Saint John, New Brunswick.

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Replacing a furnace is costly, ranging from $3,000 to $5,000 installed.

You can wait for an older furnace to reach the end of its life, which happens (on average) between 18 and 22 years. Or you can replace it before a breakdown to enjoy a variety of rebates, grants and tax credits that subsidize the cost.

Who knows if a helping hand will still be around by the time your furnace breathes its last?

Here are some subsidies for furnace upgrades:

• Up to $1,250 in federal and provincial rebates under the ecoEnergy retrofit program. You have to get a home energy audit and do the work within 18 months, followed by a second energy audit.
• A $125 rebate on a mid-efficiency or high-efficiency furnace with an electronically commutated motor, installed by Dec. 31, from the Ontario Power Authority’s Every Kilowatt Counts program.
• A $100 rebate from Enbridge Gas for a high-efficiency natural gas furnace, installed by Nov. 30, which carries the Energy Star mark.
• A 15 per cent tax credit on home renovation spending from $1,000 to $10,000, incurred by Feb. 1, 2010.

New federal rules will come into effect next year to stop the sale of mid-efficiency furnaces manufactured after Dec. 31.

A mid-efficiency furnace burns about 80 per cent of the gas you pay for. It’s better than a conventional gas furnace, which is 60 per cent efficient.

But with a new high-efficiency furnace, you can keep 90 to 97 per cent of the fuel inside your home.

So, why do some homeowners opt for a mid-efficiency furnace? It uses the chimney to vent gases.

A high-efficiency furnace doesn’t use the chimney. The gases are vented through a plastic pipe out the side wall or basement of the home.

Venting can be an issue if you live in a compact house in a densely packed urban area cash loans for bad credit. You can’t drill holes too close to windows or dryer outlets.

"There are real challenges doing venting in the city," says Roger Grochmal, president of Atlas Cares, a home heating and air conditioning contractor.

"Even if your mid-efficiency furnace hasn’t reached the end of its useful life, you may want to think about replacing it now."

Mid-efficiency furnaces are still installed every day, says Direct Energy’s Dave Walton, director of home ideas.

"Some people just have a preference. It’s more about venting concerns."

A home energy audit can help you pick the right furnace for your house. The cost is $300 to $350, partially offset by a $150 rebate from the Ontario government.

Many homeowners are replacing their central air conditioning, too.

"It’s a really good time to do an upgrade," says Grochmal. "Of every 10 furnaces we install, we’re doing six to seven air conditioning units at the same time."

You can get up to $500 in federal and provincial rebates for upgrading central air conditioning under the ecoEnergy retrofit program.

Another rebate for air conditioning replacement is offered by the Every Kilowatt Counts program. It’s $250 or $400, depending on the seasonal energy efficiency rating (SEER).

"The ways to max out the grants are quite astonishing. There are serious savings to be had," says Walton.

But you shouldn’t let the rebates drive your decision-making, Grochmal warns. There may be a better solution for your home that doesn’t get you the maximum rebate.

Next week, we’ll look at geothermal and solar heating systems.

eroseman@thestar.ca

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Global consumer confidence is stabilizing after falling for 18 months, providing a glimmer of hope for a shattered world economy in which three quarters of households cut spending, a survey showed on Tuesday.

Some 40 percent of consumers blame the banking and finance industry for the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, while 19 percent also hold former U.S. President George W. Bush’s administration and their own governments responsible, the Ipsos/Reuters poll of 23 countries found.

The survey of 23,000 people, conducted between April 14 and May 7, showed 29 percent thought that the economic situation in their country is very good or somewhat good, only a slight dip from 31 percent in November 2008, but well down on 43 percent in April 2008 and 54 percent in October 2007.

“It looks like we have hit bottom and so there are glimmers of hope,” said Clifford Young of Ipsos Global Public Affairs, the international market research and polling company that carried out the online poll.

“What we’re seeing is that consumers for the most part have been scared, they have cut expenditures and increased savings,” he said. “The uptick won’t be as fast as the decline, but if the United States is stabilized that’s really important in the global sense.”

Ipsos polled people in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, South Korea, China, Japan, Australia, India, Russia, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Turkey, Sweden, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, Spain, and Britain.

“The stabilization is basically happening in the United States, India and China and that has staunched a bit the bleed around the world,” Young said no teletrack cash advance. “That being said Europe is still dicey as well as Brazil and Russia.”

In the United States, which sparked the global economic downturn, consumer confidence rose two percentage points to 13 percent, while in China it jumped to 61 percent from 46 percent and in India it increased five points to 70 percent.

The effect of the financial crisis has lagged in Brazil, but consumer confidence in Latin America’s largest economy dropped to 56 percent from 61 percent in the past six months, while Russian optimism fell to 35 percent from 52 percent and Europe dropped nine points to 23 percent.

“It’s an issue of confidence in institutions,” Young said of the continued fall in Europe. “For better or worse in the United States the people saw the government taking extreme actions. Though this happened in Europe it happened less so.”

The 23 countries polled make up 75 percent of the world’s gross domestic product.

Cuts in household spending have remained constant during the past six months with entertainment, vacations and luxury items the first to go for nearly three quarters of families followed by clothing for 61 percent, energy consumption for 53 percent and gasoline/driving for 42 percent.

Respondents in the online poll were recruited and screened, the survey said. The results are then balanced by age, gender, city population and education levels. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percent.

(Editing by Jackie Frank)

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Sales of newly constructed homes were almost flat in April — but in a sickly housing market, economists saw a few reasons for hope.

The Commerce Department said new home sales ticked up 0.3% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 352,000. That was from a downwardly revised reading of 351,000 in March.

Analysts were looking for the rate of new home sales to rise to 360,000, according to a consensus estimate of economists compiled by Briefing.com.

"We aren’t seeing a huge upswing in market conditions. But we aren’t seeing things fall apart again, either," said Mike Larson, real estate and interest rate analyst at Weiss Research, in a research note.

New home sales — which have plunged as builders struggle to construct homes to compete with drastically cheapened foreclosure properties — were 34% below the same month a year ago, when they estimate stood at a 533,000 annual rate.

The median sales price of new homes rose to $209,700 in April, up nearly 4% from a revised median home price of $202,200. That was still 14.9% behind the median price of $246,400 the same month a year ago. The average sales price was $254,000, down 1% from a revised $257,100 in March.

Inventory reduced: Drastically reduced prices have lured in enough buyers to start chipping away at the glut of inventory that has been weighing down the market. At the end of April, the seasonally adjusted estimate of new homes for sale was 297,000, or a 10.1 month supply at the current sales rate. In January, there was a revised 12.4 months of supply on the market.

"Inventory levels continued to improve and broke through 300,000 for the first time since 2001," said Adam York, economist at Wachovia, in a research note. "We are encouraged by the relative stability in sales and the continued improvement in inventory levels installment payday loans."

Plunging mortgage rates also served to attract buyers into the market. But as Treasury yields have risen recently, so have mortgage rates. According to a weekly survey from Bankrate.com, the 30-year fixed mortgage rates rose to 5.45% in the week ended Wednesday, up from 5.24% in the prior week.

However, last week’s rate was still significantly below the 6.20% of a year ago, and the historically low rates could continue to bring buyers, according to one economist.

"We still think the combination of very low mortgage rates and falling inventory will entice people back into the market in greater numbers over the next few months," said Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, in a research note.

But he called the April sales rate "a bit disappointing, given the hefty increase in homebuilder sentiment in the past couple of months."

Slow and steady: Going forward, if indeed the worst is over, economists say improvement will be slow and steady.

"Looking back, January may turn out to have been the bottom in new home sales," said Wachovia’s York. "We do not expect a major pick-up in the near term, but stability over the summer would not be a surprise."

Even with home inventory levels shrinking and home prices attracting new buyers, "there is no evidence whatsoever of a renewed housing boom — just a gradual increase in activity in some markets, brought about by lower prices, lower mortgage rates, and tax and builder incentives," said Weiss’ Larson. 

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