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Republican senators and Gov. Jay Nixon have sparred regularly the last few years about how to grow Missouri’s economy. Now they’re sparring over who to put in charge of the effort.

Senate leaders are poised this week to sink Nixon’s nomination of St. Louis attorney Jason Hall to lead the Department of Economic Development, claiming the 36-year-old lacks the experience necessary for the job. The Senate committee that approves nominations declined to take up Hall’s on Wednesday. And if they don’t by week’s end, not only will his nomination expire, but Hall will be barred for life from holding the post.

Senate President Pro Tem Robert Mayer, R-Dexter, said Wednesday he has no plans to approve Hall this week, and people familiar with the talks said his nomination is basically dead.

But there was no official word from Nixon’s office, which put out a statement saying Hall is “highly qualified.” Hall himself did not return messages seeking comment.

The son of a Granite City steelworker and founder of a group for gay lawyers in St. Louis, Hall was an attorney at Bryan Cave before Nixon tapped him to lead the quasi-governmental Missouri Technology Corp. in 2009. In December, Nixon picked Hall to replace outgoing DED director David Kerr, calling him “exactly the type of bright, energetic leader we need to help create jobs and move Missouri’s economy forward.”

But Hall’s nomination came on the eve of an election year, on the heels of a legislative special session where lawmakers couldn’t agree on job-creation tools, and amid probes into DED’s handling of a sweetener plant deal that collapsed in Moberly last fall.

All those factors likely played a role in Senate opposition to Hall, said Dan Mehan, president of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

“This appointment became that much more critical and focused on,” Mehan said. “It was going to get attention because there is this opinion out there, rightly or wrongly, that [DED] needs to be fixed.”

Mehan is one of several business leaders who’ve said they support Hall’s nomination. He called Hall well-qualified, and pointed out that Missouri has had many officials - from both parties - who served in top roles while in their 30’s.

“[Hall’s] a quality guy and would be a great benefit to the state,” Mehan said.

Mayer sees it differently. Talking to reporters in Jefferson City today, he noted the nominee has “very little experience in private industry or business.”

“Most senators believe he’s a bright, articulate young man,” Mayer said. “But at this stage in his life, I don’t think he’s ready to take on the position of the Department of Economic Development.”

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British police searched the offices of Rupert Murdoch’s British newspapers Saturday after arresting a police officer and four current and former staff of his tabloid The Sun as part of an investigation into police bribery by journalists.

The arrests spread the scandal over tabloid wrongdoing _ which has already caused the closure of one tabloid, the News of the World _ to a second Murdoch newspaper.

London’s Metropolitan Police said two men aged 48 and one aged 56 were arrested on suspicion of corruption early in the morning at homes in and around London. A 42-year-old man was detained later at a London police station.

Murdoch’s News Corp. confirmed that all four were current or former Sun employees.

A fifth man, a 29-year-old police officer, was arrested at the London station where he works.

The investigation into whether reporters illegally paid police for information is running parallel to a police inquiry into phone hacking by Murdoch’s now-defunct News of the World.

Officers were searching the men’s homes and the east London headquarters of the media mogul’s British newspapers for evidence.

Police said Saturday’s arrests were made as a result of information provided by the Management and Standards Committee of Murdoch’s News Corp.

News Corp. said it was cooperating with police.

“News Corporation made a commitment last summer that unacceptable news gathering practices by individuals in the past would not be repeated,” it said in a statement.

A dozen people have now been arrested in the bribery probe, though none has yet been charged.

They include former Rebekah Brooks, former chief executive of Murdoch’s News International, ex-News of the World editor Andy Coulson _ who is also Prime Minister David Cameron’s former communications chief _ and journalists from the News of the World and The Sun.

Two of the London police force’s top officers resigned in the wake of the revelation last July that the News of the World had eavesdropped on the cell phone voicemail messages of celebrities, athletes, politicians and even an abducted teenager in its quest for stories.

Murdoch shut down the 168-year-old tabloid, and the scandal has triggered a continuing public inquiry into media ethics and the relationship between the press, police and politicians.

An earlier police investigation failed to find evidence hacking went beyond one reporter and a private investigator, but News Corp. has now acknowledged it was much more widespread.

Last week the company agreed to pay damages to 37 hacking victims, including actor Jude Law, soccer star Ashley Cole and British politician John Prescott.

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Prime Minister Stephen Harper is gaining support among Canadians for his plan to ship oilsands crude to China after President Barack Obama rejected TransCanada Corp. (TRP)

The biggest year for overseas buyouts by Japan

Australia unexpectedly lost jobs for a second straight month in December, capping the nation

One of the biggest suppliers of oil to the United States may shut off the spigot this weekend, pushing crude and gasoline prices higher for Americans.

Nigeria, which supplies 8 percent of U.S. oil imports, could see production halted if striking workers walk off the job Sunday. Workers are demanding the return of a vital government fuel subsidy that has kept gasoline prices low in that impoverished and restive nation of 160 million people.

It’s unclear how much of Nigeria’s production would be affected. At worst, the country’s 20,000 unionized oil workers could take as much as 2.4 million barrels of daily crude production off the market, striking at the heart of Nigeria’s oil-dependent economy.

Even if strikers are only partially successful, fears of tightened global supplies could raise oil prices by $5-$10 per barrel on futures markets next week. Gasoline prices would follow, rising by as much as 10 cents per gallon and forcing U.S. drivers to spend an additional $36 million a day at the pump.

Gasoline now costs $3.39 per gallon (89 cents a liter) after rising 11 cents since the start of the year. Experts predict the national average could rise as high as $4.25 per gallon ($1.12 a liter) in 2012.

The Nigerian government already has offered a smaller, temporary fuel subsidy and will meet with union leaders on Saturday. The strike could be called off but protesters have promised to halt production if they don’t get the full, $8 billion subsidy restored.

Disruptions would have a long-term impact on Nigeria’s economy. Union president Babatunde Ogun said it could take six months to a year to restart oil fields once they’re shut down.

“If everything comes to a standstill, the government will budge,” Ogun told reporters this week in Lagos.

The threat to shut off oil production is the latest move by protesters after a week of violent, anti-government clashes throughout the country. The strike began Monday to challenge President Goodluck Jonathan’s decision to abandon the fuel subsidy.

“It’s going to be a showdown this weekend,” in Nigeria, Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Fadel Gheit said. “You can only hope that cooler heads will prevail.”

It’s hard to predict how effective a national oil worker strike would be.

Oil production facilities are usually automated, allowing them to pump oil out of the ground without anyone at the platform. But if something breaks, if the pressure in the well fluctuates, or if other problems occur that cause an automatic system shutdown, there wouldn’t be anyone there to get production running again.

It’s likely oil companies operating in the region _Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., Total SA and Eni S.P.A. _ would simply shutter their platforms and wait for political tensions to subside, Gheit said. Oil companies could still export oil from storage terminals on the coast; that is, if union workers at the terminals stay on the job.

The price of oil already has swung up and down this year because of supply concerns in another oil-rich part of the world, the Persian Gulf. Iran, the world’s third-largest crude exporter, is sparring with the U.S. and Europe over its nuclear program.

While Iranian imports are banned in the U.S. because of long-standing tensions, the country supplies 2.2 million barrels per day to the rest of the world, including Europe. Meanwhile, Libya is quickly restarting oil fields that were shut down during the anti-government uprising last year. It has about 1 million barrels per day back online, and it expects to increase production to pre-rebellion levels of 1.6 million barrels per day by mid-year.

Oil prices fell by $2.86 this week to end at $98.70 per barrel in New York. Prices dropped as Europe delayed a decision to ban Iranian imports. But they could snap back up given the variety of geopolitical problems affecting world supplies, including the threat of a Nigerian oil worker strike.

The U.S. government expects the price of oil to average $100.25 per barrel this year.

Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research, said oil could jump by $5-$10 per barrel if the strike begins Sunday. Nigeria ranks behind Canada, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Venezuela in oil exports to the U.S. It produces a valuable crude variety that is easier and cheaper to turn into gasoline than others.

Investors, who have been numbed from years of political unrest in Nigeria that included sabotage, thievery, environmental protests and other operating problems, may wait to see how the government works with the union. Nigerian oil always seems to be under a perpetual threat of some kind, Lynch said.

“Though this time seems more serious,” he said.

Nigerians have been upset for years as international oil production damaged the environment with little apparent domestic benefits. One of the only visible perks was the fuel subsidy. Removing it forced gasoline prices to jump overnight from $1.70 per gallon to at least $3.50 per gallon _ a crippling increase for a nation where most people live on less than $2 a day.

The government still seems determined to have its way, Barclays analyst Helima Croft said, but an oil field strike would be a game changer. If workers can shut down oil production, it’s only a matter of time before declining oil revenues will force the government to cave, she said.

“Any disruptions in either oil production or exports would severely constrain government activities and its ability to meet its obligations,” Croft said.

Eighty percent of the country’s revenue comes from oil.

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Get set for a messy fight for control of Canadian Pacific Railway.

Bill Ackman, the no-holds barred activist investor behind U.S. hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, has made it no secret that he wants CP

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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When investors look at the change in McDonald’s share price last year, they can think only one thing: "I’m lovin’ it."

The fast food giant was the best performer on the Dow Jones industrial average () in 2011, up 31%. That was enough to beat out Warren Buffett’s newest favorite, IBM (, Fortune 500), No. 2 among the blue chip winners.

At the other end of the spectrum was Bank of America (, Fortune 500), which suffered a 58% plunge to lows not seen since 2009. That slump gave it an easy win over Alcoa (, Fortune 500), whose shares lost 44%, in the competition for dubious distinction of ‘biggest loser.’

But those troubled giants were the exception among Dow stocks in 2011.

Overall, the index rose 5.5% in 2011, outpacing the performance of not just the S&P 500 (), down only 0.003%, but also the tech-heavy Nasdaq () and the broader Wilshire 5000 (), which finished the year lower.

And of the 30 Dow components, 18 finished in positive territory for the year.

Fortune 500: Worst performers of 2011

McDonald’s (, Fortune 500) has been helped by strong sales both domestically and globally. Shares hit an all-time high of $100.82 this week before settling back a bit to close Friday at $100.33.

Meanwhile, No. 2 IBM had already achieved its run up by the time Buffett disclosed in November that Berkshire Hathaway (, Fortune 500) had purchased a 5% stake in the company. Its shares are down slightly since then but still managed a 25% gain for the year.

Buffett didn’t do as well when he threw Bank of America a $5 billion lifeline, buying preferred shares of the troubled bank in a deal announced in August. Since then, the bank’s stock has continued to slide, putting the investment in the red, even with the $300 million in annual dividends that Berkshire will pocket.

Bank of America has also been shrinking, announcing plans to shed 30,000 employees and close branches, and losing its title of the nation’s largest bank to rival JPMorgan Chase (, Fortune 500) in the third quarter. It was also forced to reverse course and drop a $5-a-month debit card fee after strong customer backlash.

In comparison to Bank of America’s high profile problems, aluminum maker Alcoa’s stock suffered a relatively quiet slide, as concerns about a looming recession in Europe and a possible slowdown in Chinese production hammered pricing and profits.

The company’s third-quarter earnings miss added to its disappointing share performance. 

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