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The Bank of Japan will hold an emergency board meeting tomorrow to consider ways to help companies obtain funds as the recession deepens.

The policy board will discuss expanding the range of corporate debt it accepts from lenders to encourage banks to increase funding for businesses, the central bank said on its Web site today. The meeting will start at 1 p.m. in Tokyo and Governor Masaaki Shirakawa will brief the press at 3:30 p.m., the statement said.

Shirakawa said today that companies’ access to funding is deteriorating “at an accelerating pace” and likened an increase in borrowing costs to the country’s credit crunch 10 years ago. Japanese banks are once again becoming less willing to lend on concern that businesses won’t repay debt.

The credit squeeze “may have already depressed capital spending as smaller firms hoarded cash in order to meet year-end obligations,” said Naomi Fink, Japan strategist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in Tokyo. “A shock to small and midsize companies who dominate the services sector could prove the straw that broke the camel’s back for the Japanese economy.”

Public broadcaster NHK reported earlier today that the policy board will discuss allowing banks to use corporate bonds with lower credit ratings as collateral for obtaining cash from the central bank. The program would stay in place until April, NHK reported, without saying where it got the information.

Year-End Funding

The central bank is working on ways to help companies obtain funds to settle accounts “during the run-up to the calendar and fiscal year-ends,” Shirakawa said in a speech today. Diminishing access to credit may “depress economic activity from the financial side,” he said.

“Success in supplying greater liquidity could mean the difference between an uneventful year-end and an acute corporate funding squeeze,” said Fink at Tokyo-Mitsubishi.

Shirakawa said that while yields on corporate debt are “somewhat lower” than they were during Japan’s credit crunch a decade ago, they are rising at a pace “comparable to that in 1998 and 1999.”

Corporate bond sales in Japan plunged 45 percent in November from a year ago, data compiled by Bloomberg show. NTT DoCoMo Inc. and Nippon Steel Corp. paid higher yield premiums last week when they sold the first bonds outside the public works sector since Oct. 15. The shortage of credit drove bankruptcies among publicly traded companies to a record 30 this year, after property developer Morimoto Co need cash. collapsed last week.

Rate Cut

Lending between banks has tightened even after the central bank’s Oct. 31 decision to cut its overnight lending rate to 0.3 percent from 0.5 percent. The three-month Tokyo interbank offering rate, or Tibor, rose for the 16th straight day to 0.883 percent, 583 basis points higher than the target for overnight lending. Three-month Tibor was 388 basis points higher on Oct. 30.

Future policy decisions depend on developments in the economy and financial system, Shirakawa said. The governor acknowledged last month that the rate cut has done little to lower other borrowing costs.

“It’s still doubtful whether the central bank’s additional measures to help corporate financing alone will be enough to counter the economy’s rapid deterioration,” said Kiichi Murashima, chief economist at Nikko Citigroup Ltd. in Tokyo. “The central bank may be forced to lower the key rate further.”

Collateral Accepted

The Bank of Japan currently accepts the top seven of 10 investment-grade corporate bonds that are publicly placed. It also takes AAA-rated asset-backed securities and some higher grades of asset-backed commercial paper.

The balance of commercial paper, which companies use for short-term funding, fell to 12.8 trillion yen ($134 billion) in October, the lowest since March 2002.

Shirakawa repeated that he’s reluctant to lower the benchmark rate again and revive a 2001-2006 policy of keeping borrowing costs near zero percent. Further reductions could impede the flow of funds in the money market by making returns so low that investors have little incentive to trade, he said.

The central bank is also watching the risk that prices will fall as oil and commodity costs drop, the governor said. Gains in consumer prices excluding fresh food will ease “at a rapid pace,” he said, adding that the key gauge of inflation may turn negative in the year starting April, he said.

Core inflation slowed for a second month to 1.9 percent in October, the government said last week, and the central bank forecasts the index will slow to zero next fiscal year.

The global economy won’t show clear signs of a recovery until mid-2009 at the earliest, Shirakawa said.

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Singapore's economy probably shrank last quarter as a manufacturing slump and easing demand for financial services drove the nation into its first recession since 2002, adding pressure on policy makers to stimulate growth.

Gross domestic product declined an annualized 6.3 percent from the second quarter, after shrinking 5.7 percent in the previous three months, according to the median estimate of 10 economists in a Bloomberg survey. That matches last month's initial estimate by the government, which will release the revised data at 8 a.m. tomorrow.

Singapore is bringing forward its 2009 budget announcement to January from February and plans to help companies secure loans and train retrenched workers as the global credit crunch pushes the world into a recession. The central bank, which ended a policy favoring gains in its currency to bolster the economy last month, may seek a weakening by April, analysts say.

“The situation warrants urgency,'' said Vishnu Varathan, an economist at Forecast Singapore Pte. “We can expect a generous budget aimed at mitigating the sharp slowdown that is expected in growth. As far as monetary policy is concerned, we expect that more easing moves will be under way given the escalation of risks from the deterioration in global economic and financial conditions.''

The Singapore dollar fell as much as 0.3 percent to 1.5336 against the U.S. currency today, and traded at 1.5293 as at 10:28 a.m. local time.

Policy Announcements

Traders are awaiting the growth data “and likely some growth-supportive fiscal policy announcements, with some market speculation about an inter-meeting easing on the monetary policy front,'' analysts including Emmanuel Ng at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp cash in 1 hour. said in a research note to clients today.

There is “a very high chance'' that the central bank will ease policy before the next meeting in April, Varathan said.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore, which conducts monetary policy by guiding the currency within an undisclosed band based on a basket of major trading partners' currencies, may be open to depreciation to help revive exports and the economy, UBS AG currency strategists Ashley Davies and Nizam Idris wrote this week.

Asian policy makers and their counterparts around the world have lowered interest rates and announced economic stimulus plans in recent weeks as the global financial crisis that's toppled banks in the U.S. and Europe forced companies such as Citigroup Inc. to eliminate thousands of jobs. That's pushed the U.S., Japan, Europe, Hong Kong and New Zealand into recession, hurting demand for Singapore's exports.

The island's exports have dropped for six straight months and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong foresees several years of slow growth. The trade ministry predicts Singapore will grow about 3 percent in 2008 from a year earlier, the weakest pace in seven years.

The $161 billion economy probably shrank 0.5 percent from a year ago last quarter, after gaining 2.3 percent between April and June, a separate survey showed. That prediction matches the government's estimate released Oct. 10.

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Belmont University broke ground Tuesday on a permanent home for the Belmont School of Pharmacy.

The $30 million building will provide a consolidation of all the university’s health science studies: pharmacy, nursing, social work, occupational therapy and physical therapy.

“Establishing a permanent, state-of-the-art facility for our school of pharmacy represents another significant step for Belmont University in addressing a serious health care provider shortage in this country, especially as it relates to pharmacists and nurses,” Belmont President Bob Fisher says in a statement one hour cash loan.

The 90,000-square-foot building will contain laboratories for student and faculty research and a licensed, state-of-the-art pharmacy. The building will also include a four-level underground parking garage to provide additional spaces for Belmont’s growing student body.

The architect for the project is Nashville-based Earl Swensson Associates. R.C. Mathews, another Nashville-based firm, is the contractor.

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Denver was removed Friday from the state’s election “watch list,” with Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman saying the city had fixed problems that arose during the 2006 election.

Coffman said he acted in response to a request for watch-list removal from Stephanie O’Malley, clerk and recorder for the City and County of Denver.

Coffman said he agreed with O’Malley that Denver had established procedures that would help it to keep voter wait times to a reasonable limit on election day, Nov. 4.

“Following Clerk O’Malley’s election in 2007, she has been tireless in her commitment to ensure that her voters won’t experience excessive wait times,” Coffman said in a statement. “The voters in Denver should have the upmost respect for Clerk O’Malley and confidence in the elections held in the county free credit report and score.”

In 2006, many Denver voters met with long waits at the polls as the city adopted a system of using centralized “vote centers.”

Coffman said Denver has since switched to a voting system that makes use of precinct-based voting and paper ballots. He also said the city had added to its election staff and beefed up pollworker training.

Denver was one of several counties that Coffman placed on the watch list after they experienced problems in the 2006 election. Some have since been removed.

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Nouriel Roubini, the professor who two years ago predicted the financial crisis, said world financial officials should orchestrate interest-rate cuts of at least 1.5 percentage points to help avert a depression.

A temporary guarantee of all bank deposits, unlimited liquidity for solvent financial institutions and fiscal-stimulus measures are also needed, the New York University professor of economics said in a commentary e-mailed today to Roubini Global Economics subscribers.

“It will take a significant change in leadership of economic policy and very radical, coordinated policy actions among all advanced and emerging-market economies to avoid this economic and financial disaster,'' said Roubini, 50. From late 2006, he highlighted the dangers flowing from a likely U.S. housing crisis.

The economist urged immediate action as officials from the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and Group of Seven nations meet in Washington this weekend. Stocks tumbled around the world today as the yearlong credit crisis deepened, sending Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average to its worst weekly drop in history. The MSCI World Index was set for its biggest weekly decline since records began in 1970.

In the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell below 9,000 for the first time since 2003 yesterday. More than $4 trillion has been erased from global equities this week.

Investor Panic

“At this stage the risk of an imminent stock-market crash — like the one-day collapse of 20 percent plus in U.S. stock prices in 1987 cannot be ruled out,'' said Roubini. “The financial system is breaking down, panic and lack of confidence in any counterparty is sharply rising and investors have totally lost faith in the ability of policy authorities to control the meltdown.''

In a coordinated emergency move on Oct. 8, the Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, Bank of England, Bank of Canada and Sweden's Riksbank cut their benchmark rates by half a percentage point. Switzerland also took part and China announced a cut at the same time.

Roubini proposed “another rapid round of policy rate cuts of the order of at least 150 basis points on average globally.''

Officials are trying a range of approaches. U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson plans to buy stakes in banks, U.K. Chancellor Alistair Darling wants guarantees for their lending and German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck is pushing for greater regulation.

Bursting Bubbles

One of Roubini's proposals is an agreement between countries with current-account deficits and those with surpluses to maintain orderly financing of deficits and “avoid a disorderly adjustment of such imbalances.''

The world is experiencing the simultaneous bursting of housing, equity, bond, credit, commodity, hedge-fund and private-equity bubbles, the economist said, and even better- performing economies such as Brazil, Russia, India and China are at risk of “a hard landing.''

The threat of a global financial meltdown means a decade- long “L-shaped'' recession — like Japan's after its real estate and equity bubbles burst — cannot be ruled out, Roubini said.

As demand falls, the next challenge may be deflation as the world faces a glut of excess capacity and goods, he said.

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The Sacramento Kings will air all but one of their 2008-09 contests on local TV, team officials said.

The team’s Dec. 13 game against the New York Knicks will be broadcast on NBA-TV, spokesman Mitch Germann said.

Comcast SportsNet California will carry 75 Kings games, of which 38 are home games. Local ABC affiliate KXTC Channel 10 will air 15 contests.

The season begins Oct bad credit payday advance. 29 on the road against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

All games will be broadcast on radio on Sports 1140 KHTK-AM.

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Ecuador registered a budget surplus in the first half that will allow the government to keep investing, President Rafael Correa said.

Ecuador's central government had a surplus of $508 million and public-sector entities such as municipalities and state-run universities had a $2.17 billion surplus, he said today in his weekly television address.

“This surplus is excessive,'' Correa said. “We have to boost our efficiency in investing.''

On Sept. 28, Ecuador will hold a referendum on a new constitution that calls for raising spending on health and education payday loan. Correa this week replaced Finance Minister Wilma Salgado after she said that Ecuador faces a budget deficit of about $2.4 billion next year and recommended slowing the pace of spending.

“$3.9 billion in investments will be carried out this year,'' Correa said.

With high prices for crude oil, the OPEC member's main export, Ecuador has met its repayment schedule on its $3.9 billion in foreign debt during Correa's term.

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Electric distribution company Oncor, a subsidiary of Energy Future Holdings Corp., said that 58,000 of its consumers in southeast Texas remain without power around noon on Monday, in the wake of Hurricane Ike.

Oncor said 3,000 employees are working in affected areas, primarily southeast Texas, and aim to restore power to customers by the end of this week. As of Saturday, about 108,000 homes and businesses in Oncor’s specific service area were without power. That figure has been cut in half over the last two days cashadvance.com.

According to the Public Utilities Commission, a total of 2.4 million consumers in the region lost power as a result of the devastating hurricane.

Although there were no power outages in Oncor’s Dallas-Fort Worth service area, the company says areas such as Lufkin, Nacogdoches and Tyler did take a hit.

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The European Central Bank and the Bank of England joined the Federal Reserve in taking action to soothe financial markets spooked by Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s bankruptcy filing.

The ECB said it awarded banks 30 billion euros ($43 billion) in a one-day money-market auction that was more than three times oversubscribed. The Bank of England loaned banks 5 billion pounds ($9 billion) for three days. Earlier, the Federal Reserve widened the collateral it accepts for loans to securities firms.

Stocks plunged and the cost of borrowing dollars surged after Lehman became the latest victim of a yearlong credit squeeze. Financial institutions worldwide have reported more than $500 billion in losses and writedowns and the credit-market turmoil has erased $11 trillion from global stocks in the past year.

“It remains to be seen whether today's operation will be sufficient to restore market confidence,'' said Jacques Cailloux, chief euro-area economist at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc. “The ECB will likely wait for the U.S. open to consider more aggressive action. Key will be how credit and equity markets develop in the coming days.''

The ECB said it injected the funds at a marginal rate of 4.30 percent. The Swiss central bank offered liquidity through its overnight facility for the first time since Feb. 22.

“We have to be extraordinarily alert,'' ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet told reporters in Frankfurt today. “We have said it in recent weeks'' that “it's an ongoing market correction'' with “episodes of a high level of volatility.''

China, Australia

China cut interest rates for the first time in six years and the Reserve Bank of Australia added A$2.1 billion ($1.7 billion) through so-called repurchase agreements today. The Bank of Japan, whose markets were closed today for a holiday, said it was monitoring the situation.

“The job of central banks now is to ensure there is sufficient liquidity in the system and they're assuring market participants of that,'' said Thomas Mayer, co-chief economist at Deutsche Bank AG in London.

The Fed also yesterday boosted its program for lending Treasuries to bond dealers by $25 billion, bringing it to $200 billion quick payday. At the same time, a group of 10 banks that includes JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc. formed a $70 billion fund to ensure market liquidity.

Yields on two-year Treasury notes fell below 2 percent for the first time since April on speculation the Fed will need to cut rates. U.S. index futures dropped, with December contracts on the Standard & Poor's 500 Index falling 3.3 percent. The cost of borrowing dollars overnight jumped to 3.11 percent today from 2.15 percent.

No Rate Cut Yet

The ECB and the Bank of England may nevertheless hold off cutting rates right away as they seek to curb inflation. The ECB has spent much of the past year arguing that it can use its money market operations to tackle the credit crisis and doesn't need to resort to rate cuts.

“Rate cuts are only likely to be forthcoming if financial markets melt down in the coming days or weeks,'' said David Mackie, chief European economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. “For the time being, European policy makers look like they will continue to hold the line on the separation of powers. At some point though, that line could be reached.''

Trichet said in his speech today that “price stability is a prerequisite for financial stability, a very important objective at the current juncture.''

The ECB was the first central bank to respond when credit markets first seized up in August last year by offering financial institutions unlimited funds. Banks today asked for 90.3 billion euros in funds, close to the 94.8 billion euros bid on the first day of the crisis last year.

“The results of the one-day refinancing bill auction show that demand for liquidity is currently very high and highlights how fragile the current situation is,'' said Cailloux. “The ECB will likely take note that the financial system remains starved of cash and that it might thus be forced to step in again.''

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Gasoline prices fell yet again, according to a nationwide survey of gas station credit card swipes. The decline comes as focus turns toward Hurrican Ike — expected to hit the central to southern coast of Texas by the end of the week.

The average price of regular unleaded gasoline fell 0.6 cents to $3.652 a gallon from $3.658 a day earlier, motorist group AAA said Tuesday.

Hurricane Ike front and center and on a path toward the Gulf of Mexico, where it could make landfall anywhere from northern Mexico to southern Louisiana. Ike was downgraded to a Category 1 storm late Monday but could still regain strength. It cut through Cuba as a Category 3 hurricane late Sunday.

Gas prices eased Texas and Florida but rose in the Carolinas, Louisiana and Georgia. Nationwide, Alaska and Hawaii remained the two states with gas prices still tracking above $4 a gallon. The cheapest gas was now found in New Jersey, where prices averaged $3.426 a gallon bad credit payday loans.

Crude prices have trended lower amid heightened concern about weakening demand and in reaction to the slew of storms and hurricanes. Last week, oil prices fell to their lowest level in five months.

On Monday, crude futures for October delivery gave up nearly $3 in gains to end little changed as concerns about Ike dissipated. Early Tuesday, oil prices fell $1.15 a barrel to $105.19.

Meanwhile, Gas has fallen about 11.2%, or 46 cents, from the record high average of $4.114 that AAA reported on July 17, but they are still 83 cents above this time last year.

While Americans had cut back on driving during the typically heavy traffic summer months, it remains to be seen whether the trend will hold. 

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