Delors: Euro unstable, doomed from Day 1
LONDON, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- Former European Commission President Jacques Delors, architect of the single euro currency, told The Daily Telegraph the euro was doomed from the start.
Delors, 86, told the British newspaper errors made during the birth of the euro assured the continent would be engulfed in the current debt crisis, adding leaders are doing "too little, too late" to rescue the project.
The Telegraph interviewed Delors a day after the leaders of France, Germany and the United Kingdom said they would push for full "fiscal union" within the European Union.
"The finance ministers did not want to see anything disagreeable which they would be forced to deal with," Delors, who headed the European Commission from 1985 to 1995, said, adding the debt crisis is a threat to the West and its democratic values.
Delors said "Anglo-Saxons" "had a point" when they asserted a single currency without a single state would be inherently unstable.
"Everyone must examine their consciences," he told The Telegraph.
Verizon, cable companies join forces
NEW YORK, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- Verizon Wireless has entered a marketing and access agreement with three major cable providers to take advantage of unused airwaves.
Verizon will pay a total of $3.6 billion to Comcast, Time Warner and Bright House Networks in a move that will transform consumer access to television, cellphone and Internet services, The Washington Post reported Friday.
The deal also includes unprecedented marketing coordination that will see the companies "become agents to sell one another's products" -- raising concerns from regulators and advocacy groups.
The cable companies will for the most part abandon plans to enter the mobile-phone industry, leaving it to Verizon, which would gain access to new customers through Comcast stores.
The deal is "a complete reordering of the competitive universe as we know it today," Bernstein Research analyst Craig Moffett told the Post. It "amounts to a partnership between formerly mortal enemies, not just outside of Verizon's [home TV and Internet service] FiOS territories, but even within them."
Regulators at the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice will review the agreement.
"A flag is raised when two rival networks move to start selling each other's services," a source familiar with federal antitrust officials' concerns told the Post. "They lose their desire, impetus, to compete. That is a big antitrust flag."
Small-business workers want retirement
COLUMBUS, Ohio, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- Three-quarters of small-business owners say so many Americans are financially unprepared for retirement it's reached crisis levels, a survey says.
A survey of small-business owners by Nationwide Financial indicates small businesses may add to the problem because only 19 percent of these businesses offer their employees a 401(k) or other employee self-funded retirement plan.
The Harris Poll of 501 small-business owners indicates only 11 percent say they are likely to add an employee sponsored 401(k) plan within the next two years, 69 percent say they won't because their business is too small, and more than half say it would be too expensive.
Thirty-seven percent of small-business owners with more than six employees say they are under pressure from employees to offer a retirement plan, and 78 percent of that group say having a retirement plan is effective in helping to attract qualified employees.
"Our survey found 46 percent of small business owners were not aware or were unsure that an employee self-funded retirement plan could be offered without having to match employee contributions," Anne Arvia, senior vice president of retirement plans for Nationwide Financial, said in a statement "The provisions in the Small Businesses Add Value for Employees (SAVE) Act before Congress will encourages small businesses to pool together resources under a single plan with easier administrative requirements."
Upscale burgers a hot item
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Dec. 3 (UPI) -- Gourmet hamburgers with premium beef, high-quality cheese and other extra touches are a fast-growing item in the restaurant trade.
Datassential, a Los Angeles company that tracks business trends, says the number of restaurants with hamburgers on the menu is up 4 percent since 2005, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported. Almost one in five restaurants that serve hamburgers are classified as fine dining.
"This isn't a new concept, it's just a renewed one," Tom Prakas, a South Florida real estate broker who has helped restaurants develop burgers, told the newspaper. "It's a steak on a bun; we've just elevated it from the fast food chains."
Brian Connors, who teaches at Johnson & Wales University in North Miami, suggested the economic slump has been good for burgers.
"Customers know what quality is, they want meats like black angus and braised short rib in their burger, but they want it at a good price," he said. "They want the Ritz Carlton experience but for the Ritz Cracker price."
