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Greek party leaders are to resume power-sharing talks Monday as negotiations to create a government drag into a second week, raising the specter of fresh elections that could threaten the crisis-stricken country’s international bailout and its membership of the euro.

President Karolos Papoulias has summoned party leaders back to negotiations at 7:30 p.m. (1630GMT), after talks on Sunday failed to lead to the creation of a coalition government.

The conservatives New Democracy party won May 6 general elections, but the poll failed to produce an outright winner. The second-placed left wing party, Syriza, has refused to join a coalition, demanding that the terms of an international bailout be scrapped or radically renegotiated.

Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras will not attend Monday’s meeting, party officials said.

“They are looking for an accomplice to continue their catastrophic work _ we will not help them,” Panos Skourletis, a spokesman for the party, told Mega television.

The political turmoil has taken a toll on markets across Europe, with shares on the Athens Stock Exchange 3.5 percent lower at 590.38 in midday trading.

“Voices of support (in Europe) to Greece … are becoming fewer and fewer, while there is a frenetic increase of those that are predicting the country’s exit from the euro,” an editorial in Greece’s top-selling Ta Nea said. “The dramatic drop in state revenues during the election campaign and the serious souring of the atmosphere in Europe toward Greece mean that after almost certain repeat elections there will be a need for even tougher austerity measures.”

Greece’s two traditionally dominant parties, New Democracy and the Socialist PASOK were hammered on May 6, as the bailed-out country suffers through a fifth year of recession, with more than one in five Greeks out of work.

Since the election, Syriza has gained support, and in a survey published Monday led with a projected 20.5 percent of public support, pushing New Democracy to second place with 19.4 percent, while PASOK was third with 11.8 percent. No margin of error was given in the Rass poll of 1,002 people, conducted May 10-11 for the Eleftheros Typos newspaper.

New Democracy and PASOK could form a government without Syriza, but the small Democratic Left party that would provide the required support is insisting that such a coalition would be unworkable.

“The president has invited us to a new meeting and I will attend,” Democratic Left leader Fotis Kouvelis told Antenna television. “I will repeat my position, that without the participation of the second largest party, the government would not have sufficient popular and parliamentary support.

Shut out of main debt markets, Greece is surviving on rescue loans from other euro countries and the International Monetary Fund, who have repeatedly warned that payments will only continue if the country continues its draconian cost-cutting program.

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Lending cash to individuals looking for cash advance or payday loans.

For most of its 63 years, Cutco Cutlery has sold its knives and kitchen tools through a network of sales representatives doing in-home visits where they demonstrate, among other things, how the company’s shears can cut through a penny.

But earlier this month, the largest kitchen cutlery manufacturer in North America took a step toward a gradual paradigm shift for the company: It opened a retail store in a shopping strip in Creve Coeur. It is the New York-based company’s fourth physical store — and could be followed by dozens more nationwide.

“It could be 50 — it could be 150,” said Tim McCreadie, a Cutco executive spearheading the store expansion. “We just don’t know at this point. We’re still in the learning stage. We’re new to retail.”

Company officials say they chose the St. Louis region for one of the first stores because it’s the company’s fifth most productive sales unit and has an estimated 130,000 customers in the area who have bought Cutco knives over the years.

The local office, by the way, also has some of the company’s top salespeople, including one man who holds the all-time record of more than $3 million in sales.

So why after so many years doing business the same way has Cutco finally decided to branch out into retail stores?

Well, most of the company’s sales force is made up of college students who sell the products during their summer breaks, McCreadie said. When those students graduate, customers can lose touch with the company.

“We have over 15 million Cutco customers in the U.S.,” he said recently while giving a tour of the store at 11641 Olive Boulevard. “So we had all of these Cutco customers that wanted their products serviced and even wanted to buy more products, but didn’t have a gateway to be able to do that.”

Still, the company has been testing the retail waters slowly, careful to make sure the stores don’t cannibalize sales of its representatives. But so far, McCreadie said, so good.

Sales have been up. And about 95 percent of people who visit the stores are already Cutco customers, he said. They either come in to get their knives sharpened or replaced as part of the company’s “forever” guarantee or stop by to find out about new products.

An added benefit is that the stores are a good way to build more excitement about the brand among sales representatives, some of whom may not be familiar with the company when they first start, he said.

Next on the horizon for Cutco is online sales. Other companies with similar business models such as Avon and Pampered Chef have made the leap. There’s no timetable for Cutco to do so, but McCreadie said the company is gearing up for the transition while also trying to ensure that the company doesn’t lose its reputation for great service.

W. Scott Downey, a Purdue University professor who has incorporated Cutco’s model into his sales classes for years, said the company has stayed true to its mission of making a direct connection with its customers payday loans in one hour. So it has been slow to go online where that personal touch can be lost, he said.

But he added that online is a natural progression for Cutco. After all, customers have been able to buy products over the phone through Cutco for some time now.

“They’ve been very careful, which I think is a tribute to them,” Downey said. “They’re a pretty conservative company. That personal connection is really important to them.”

Amy Robinson, spokeswoman for the trade group Direct Selling Association, said a number of direct selling companies have some sort of online component. But online sales haven’t replaced those companies’ reliance on sales representatives, she said.

“When the Internet was first becoming popular, a lot of people said, ‘Gosh, who needs direct sellers now?’” she said. “But that’s a wholly different sales model. The sales force is the backbone of these companies.”

And a lot of these products do better by demonstration — such as the Tupperware’s famous burping technique — which doesn’t resonate the same way when someone just sees it on a shelf, she said.

Over the years, Cutco and its sales division, Vector Marketing, have occasionally come under fire from college students who have complained about everything from recruiting tactics on college campuses to the $150 deposit sales reps had to put down to get a starter kit to use for demonstrations. (Cutco sets sell for between $399 and $1,999 with individual knives starting at $50.)

But a couple years ago, Cutco did away with the deposit fee. McCreadie said the company did so to remove a possible barrier of entry for college students.

As a result, the company has also stepped up its screening process to make sure recruits are serious about selling the products since they’re now giving the kits on loan for free, said Justin Donald, a Cutco division manager.

With jobs hard to come by these days, Donald said he is getting more inquiries than ever. The local office has between 30 and 50 active sales reps throughout the year. But that sales force swells to more than 100 during the summer when college students join the ranks, Donald said.

Of course, selling is not everyone, which some students quickly find out. That’s one of the reasons Purdue’s Downey has students sell Cutco products as part of his class to show them what it’s really like to work in sales.

“In many ways, it’s an emotional business,” he said. “It’s difficult for customers to tell you no, so we want students to have that experience.”

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Learn what faxless payday loans are and how online payday loans can be used as a quick fix to pay off your bills.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke called for new steps to curb

Japan’s quarterly central bank survey shows no improvement in business confidence from the previous quarter. The worse-than-expected result reflects a deteriorating outlook among medium and smaller manufacturers despite easing worries over the crisis in Europe.

The Bank of Japan’s quarterly “tankan,” released Monday, showed the main index for big manufacturers was at minus 4 for the January-March quarter, unchanged from the last quarter of 2011. Many analysts had forecast an improvement to minus 1 faxless pay day loans.

A negative reading indicates greater pessimism than optimism among those surveyed.

Data released last week showed weaker than expected factory production in February, underscoring the fragility of the economic recovery as growth in Asia slows.

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Bentley Motors Ltd. and Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd. are preparing to be occupied by India

JEFFERSON CITY – A state-sponsored workers’ compensation company has given out huge severance checks to its former executives and hefty bonuses to other employees, according to a state audit released today.

The company, Columbia-based Missouri Employers Mutual Insurance Co., also has bankrolled lavish vacation trips to Hawaii and Mexico as well as paid for sporting events tickets for its board members, executives, employees and guests, the auditor found.

The audit paints a picture of a firm that operates like a private entity, while enjoying federal tax-exempt status and other advantages that its private competitors lack.

Because it is considered an “independent public corporation,” the company has been able to avoid about $50 million in federal taxes since 1993, the audit revealed. That tax exemption has enabled the company to accumulate a surplus of $163 million. The firm has never paid any dividends to its members.

“MEM essentially operates as a private entity, compensates officers and employees at rates that are in excess of public sector entities, incurs expenses that are not considered acceptable in the public sector, and does so without complying with state open records laws,” the audit states.

Missouri Auditor Tom Schweich released the findings today. He undertook the audit after the Post-Dispatch raised questions last year about MEM’s public records policy and the legal status of its board members, along with its executive compensation and other expenditures. The auditor concluded that MEM is a “quasi-public governmental body for purposes of the Sunshine Law” – and thus subject to public records requests.

In a formal response filed with the audit, the company said: “The auditor’s report raises some immaterial, questionable expenditures that MEM already had identified and addressed prior the audit. MEM’s new management has strengthened governmental policies to be sure that expense policies are clearly understood and followed and that the company follows best practices. MEM’s board and management are responsible stewards who operate with integrity.”

The Legislature established Missouri Employers Mutual in 1993 to encourage competition and lower workers’ compensation premiums for employers, particularly small businesses. The state provided a start-up loan of $5 million, which was repaid in 1999 with interest.

Since then, Missouri Employers Mutual has become the leading workers’ compensation insurer in the state, controlling about 16 percent of the market.

The firm’s inner workings drew questions last spring after two former board members were indicted separately for alleged theft and fraud involving other organizations. Questions mounted in June when the company fired its chief executive officer, former Missouri Gov. Roger Wilson, without explanation.

In August, the board agreed to a one-time audit by Schweich. Amid the swirling controversy, both indicted board members – Doug Morgan and Karen Pletz – died late last year. The company is now run by chief executive officer Jim Owen of Chesterfield, a law school classmate and close friend of Gov. Jay Nixon’s.

The 20-page audit sheds light on MEM’s executive compensation, perks, severance benefits, freebies, and political contributions, as well as legal questions surrounding the company’s taxes and refusal to observe public records laws.

According to the audit, MEM also paid about $1.58 million in severance benefits or settlement payments to four former top executives and employees who either resigned or whose employment was terminated in 2009 and 2010.

Schweich’s audit does not name names, so it is impossible to tell who received the severance money. Former state Sen. Dennis Smith served as the company’s first chief executive from 1994 through June 2009, when he became “CEO emeritus.”

The audit called the severance benefits “excessive” and said that “recent discussions with a MEM official indicate that any future severance benefits paid to executives will be substantially reduced, or eliminated.”

Executive compensation at MEM also “appears significantly higher than would be considered appropriate for a public sector entity,” the audit states.

During 2010, MEM’s top 10 compensated employees made salaries totaling $1.8 million. The top salary was $312,820.

In addition to their salaries, MEM paid its top 10 executives a total of $659,405 in incentives, for an average bonus of $65,940. In other words, when bonuses are counted on top of salaries, the top 10 employees were paid an average almost $250,000 apiece.

Lower-level MEM employees also received substantial bonuses, based on the company’s “performance benchmarks” such as premium growth.

“Compensation and employee incentive bonuses for 2010 totaled over $17 million for approximately 200 employees, an average total payout of approximately $85,000 per employee,” the audit said.

MEM executives also received valuable perks such as the use of company automobiles, paid health insurance coverage for a spouse, five weeks paid time off, paid dues in professional societies and paid memberships in golf and athletic clubs.

Responding to the audit, MEM wrote that its “compensation and expenses are reasonable and necessary for a mutual insurance company. … MEM’s employee compensation averages in the 50th percentile” of other private insurers.

The audit also highlights numerous miscellaneous expenditures that MEM paid:

 A total of $300,000 for an all-inclusive “Presidents Trip” for 64 invitees including MEM board members, top executives, top performing employees, and other guests to Lanai, Hawaii, from Feb. 20 through Feb. 25, 2010. In 2009, MEM’s board chairman, vice chairman and their guests attended the company’s President’s Trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. About $17,000 for St. Louis Cardinals suite tickets. The suite was used to entertain insurance agents as an incentive to doing business with MEM. The tickets were purchased from an unnamed associate of a former board member. About $60,000 for a suite, tickets, and parking passes for University of Missouri football games; an additional $12,000 for basketball tickets and parking passes; and about $5,000 to cater its tailgate party at the university’s homecoming in 2010. $80,000 for company functions in 2010, including $10,000 for a board of directors retreat in Ridgeville, Mo.; $16,000 for MEM’s annual golf tournament; about $8,800 for 15-year anniversary jackets; and about $7,000 for a 15-year anniversary luncheon.

In addition, the audit challenges MEM’s $7.2 million purchase of a for-profit subsidiary. Under state law, the auditor concluded, it is unclear whether the company may legally insure workers who work outside the state.

The audit also noted that MEM conducted an internal inquiry, which revealed that company funds were used for $8,000 in political contributions to the Missouri Democratic Party; $7,400 in cash and in-kind donations to the Insurance Coalition Political Action Committee; $4,000 in donations to gubernatorial inaugural festivities in 2005 and 2009; and $8,000 for a former top executive’s personal legal fees.

The audit is likely to raise additional questions in the Legislature about whether Missouri Employers Mutual should continue to enjoy tax-free status and other advantages over private insurers.

Originally, the company was supposed to become a private firm after the governor appointed the original five board members. But instead, the state has retained control. The governor appoints three of the firms’ five board members, based on nominations from the board and policyholders.

The structure is authorized in company bylaws but not in state law. Schweich said he took no position on whether MEM can prolong its public corporation status beyond that allowed by law by amending its bylaws.

MEM contended that it faces special mandates that partially offset its tax advantages. For example, it must let any of the 4,000 workers compensation insurance agents in the state write a policy for MEM. The company also is required to design and monitor work safety programs for policyholders.

Schweich said the firm was unable to quantify the impact of those requirements.

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Ralcorp board OKs spinoff — Ralcorp Holdings Inc.’s board has approved the spinoff of its Post cereals business, the food maker said Tuesday, and the stock distribution is set to happen Feb. 3. The St. Louis company said it will complete the separation of the two businesses by giving at least 80 percent of Post Holdings Inc.’s outstanding stock to Ralcorp shareholders of record as of Jan. 30. Each stockholder will get one share of Post for every two shares of Ralcorp held on the record date. Ralcorp will maintain a stake in Post. Ralcorp’s stock will continue to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the “RAH” ticker symbol. Post is expected to start trading on the NYSE under the “POST” ticker symbol Feb. 3.

Will new car sales rise? — That clunker in America’s driveway has reached a record old age, but there are signs that people may be growing confident enough in the economy to get a whiff of that fresh new car scent very soon. The average age of a car or truck in the U.S. hit a record 10.8 years last year as job security and other economic worries kept many people from making big-ticket purchases. That’s up from the old record of 10.6 years in 2010, and it and continues a trend that dates to 1995, when the average age of a car was 8.4 years, according to a study of state vehicle registration data by the Southfield, Mich.-based Polk automotive research firm. However, Polk Vice President Mark Seng says that a rebound in sales last year and expected growth for the next couple of years is likely to slow the growth rate in the age of cars as a whole in America.

Airbus touts record in orders — Airbus took in a record number of orders for new commercial aircraft last year as strong demand for its revamped single-aisle plane helped it best U.S. rival Boeing Co. in the race for orders for the fourth year running. The European jet maker said Tuesday that it took in 1,419 net new orders in 2011, worth $140 billion, well above Boeing’s total of 805 aircraft. That topped the previous record of 1,413 net orders recorded by Boeing in 2007. Airbus also delivered 534 aircraft last year, up from 510 a year earlier and keeping the title of world’s biggest jet maker that it has held since 2003. Boeing delivered 477 aircraft last year.

Yahoo co-founder leaves firm — Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang is leaving the struggling company’s board. The departure, announced Tuesday, comes just two weeks after Yahoo Inc. hired former PayPal executive Scott Thompson as its CEO. Yang expressed his support of Thompson in his resignation. He had been on Yahoo’s board of directors since the company’s 1995 inception. Yang also is stepping down from the boards of China’s Alibaba Group and Yahoo Japan. Yahoo is negotiating to sell its stakes in both companies.

earnings

Citigroup’s loan portfolio improved late last year, partly because Americans were better about paying down credit card debt. But choppy financial markets hurt its investment banking profits, and the bank missed expectations. Profit fell 11 percent in the last three months of last year. to $1.16 billion, or 38 cents per share, on revenue of $17.2 billion. A year earlier, Citigroup made $1.3 billion on revenue of $18.4 billion.

Lee Enterprises, owner of the Post-Dispatch and other newspapers, reported a profit of $14.6 million, or 32 cents per share, for the quarter that ended Dec. 25. That compares to $19 million, or 42 cents per share, in the same quarter of 2010. Lee, based in Davenport, Iowa, said the year-over-year comparison would be positive if not for refinancing costs and other unusual items. Excluding such matters, profits would equal 38 cents per share for the recent quarter, compared with 32 cents a year earlier. Operating revenue was down 3.9 percent in the quarter compared with a year earlier. As in earlier periods, Lee showed sharp gains in digital advertising while print ads, which make up the bulk of its advertising, continued to decline. Combined print and digital advertising was down 6.1 percent. Lee filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last month, submitting a reorganization plan pre-approved by the vast majority of its creditors. Chief Financial Officer Carl Schmidt said Tuesday that the court will be asked to set Jan. 30 as the date to make the plan effective, allowing the company to exit bankruptcy. (Staff reports)

Pulaski Financial Corp., owner of Pulaski Bank, reported a slight decline in profit in the first fiscal quarter, compared with a year earlier. The bank earned of $2.525 million, or 23 cents per share, compared with $2.601 million, or 24 cents, a year earlier. CEO Gary Douglass said he expects “meaningful, year-over-year earnings improvement” for this year. (Jim Gallagher)

TD Ameritrade said its fiscal first-quarter net income grew 5 percent, though its revenue was almost unchanged. The online brokerage posted $152 million in net income, or about 27 cents per share, up from $145 million, or 25 cents, a year earlier. Revenue fell less than 1 percent to $653.4 million.

A steadier mortgage business, higher commercial lending and an increase in deposits lifted Wells Fargo & Co.’s fourth-quarter profit by 20 percent. The bank reported that the amount of mortgages it wrote in the last three months of last year jumped 35 percent compared with the third quarter, to $120 billion. Overall loan balances rose to $769.6 billion, up 2 percent from a year earlier. The bank, the largest consumer lender in the U.S., reported a 2 percent increase in commercial loans, to $5.6 billion, reflecting direct lending and the purchase of portfolios from other lenders. The bank’s brokerage division, Wells Fargo Advisors, is based in St. Louis.

— Find full versions of these stories at stltoday.com/business

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Those that count out exact change for their morning brew at Tim Hortons will either have to practice ordering a different size or fork over a few extra pennies.

The beloved Canadian coffee joint will shift the names of its sizes starting next Monday to make room for a 24 oz. cup

Despite warnings from professionals, many individuals had minds of their own. Or maybe it wasn’t their minds at all but rather their stomachs that led them away from the nauseating stock market losses and spasms of the last few years.

Regardless of intent, their approach to investing turned out to be a winning one. As the early-year stock surge gave way to a 17 percent plunge and record volatility after May, many an individual fled from stock funds and clung to bonds, savings accounts and gold.

By the end of 2011, they had earned a shocking 17 percent in 10-year U.S. Treasury bonds, an unusual gain given the historic average of just 5.5 percent a year in Treasurys and the warnings from professionals that U.S. government bonds were likely to turn into losers.

Investors also earned almost 10 percent in gold, and they avoided a 20 percent loss if they ignored the emerging-market funds that professionals had been lauding while the U.S. and Europe struggled with debt problems.

It turned out that financial troubles in Europe crimped demand for emerging markets’ basic materials. And as stressed European banks held off on loans to developing countries, the refuge that investment professionals had envisioned began to fade. Although the Standard & Poor’s 500 ended 2011 up less than a half percent, funds that invest in Latin America declined 22 percent, and China funds fell 24 percent, according to Lipper.

Whipsawed by historically high stock market volatility, a collapse of confidence in American and European leadership, the threat of a global banking crisis and a fragile economy, investors pulled $112 billion out of U.S. stock funds for the year and poured $133 billion into bond funds as a safe haven, said Charles Biderman, chief executive of Trim Tabs.

But the quest for safety went farther than bond funds.

People poured $710 billion into savings accounts, the fifth-highest amount in history, Biderman said.

“People have been burned so many times in equities in the last decade they weren’t going to take a chance,” said Biderman. “It’s going to take a long time for huge inflows into equity funds again.”

In fact, investors have been scared since 2008. During the last three years, investors have poured a remarkable $900 billion into bond funds and yanked $242 billion from U.S. stock funds, said Biderman. Despite stronger performance by the U.S. stock market than foreign markets, investors bet more on global funds than U.S. funds. They have put about $89 billion into global funds.

Investors have not regained the money they lost when the market started its 57 percent decline in October 2007. Investing in the Wilshire 5000, or the full stock market of large and small stocks, has left investors with a loss of about 17 percent, or about $4 trillion collectively free online credit report.

Sticking with solid dividend-paying stocks in defensive sectors such as health care, utilities and consumer staples such as soap and toothpaste did help in 2011, as investors worried about the global economy’s sliding back into a recession. The Dow Jones industrial average of blue-chip stocks climbed about 5.5 percent for the year, and funds that invest in health care stocks and utilities averaged gains of more than 7.5 percent as investors sought security and income from dividends. The Vanguard High Dividend Yield exchange-traded fund, which selects stocks paying high dividends, gave investors a 10.5 percent gain.

Amid worries of a new global banking collapse, banks throughout the world were among the worst performers. Funds that invest in U.S. banks declined about 13 percent.

One of the biggest mistakes of the year was to equate precious metal stock funds with gold investing. The precious metal funds, which include gold and silver mining companies, lost 22 percent, while the SPDR Gold Trust exchange-traded fund gained 9.6 percent. The gold ETF invests in gold bullion, not stocks. Still, gold shed a significant amount of its gains late in the year. By August, as investors worried about U.S. and European debt, gold had climbed 33 percent in 2011.

The other mistake was to bet on interest rates’ rising. If rates had risen, advisers’ warnings to avoid bonds would have been wise. But instead, Treasurys soared 17 percent, and the average U.S. bond fund climbed about 8 percent because investors worried about a recession. In recessions, investors tend to want the safety of bonds, and as they pour money into them, interest rates and yields drop while values of the bonds climb.

With yields near record low levels, it’s not likely Treasurys can repeat 2011 gains again.

“Investors need to realize they can lose money in bonds” if interest rates start climbing, said Biderman. Still, 2011 was humbling for anyone making any prediction, and analysts are expecting the same for early this year, as great uncertainty remains about Europe’s fate.

Given that scenario, holding a mixture of roughly half stocks and half bonds may be the best policy. It will relieve dependence on either stocks or bonds and insulate investors from losses in each. That approach with funds for people retiring in 2015 gave near-retirees a 0.11 percent loss in 2011 — a disappointment, to be sure, but also not the type of loss that will ruin a retirement.

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