So when he heard last week of Financial Resources’s sudden closure, MacDonald decided to pay a visit to those properties – to see what stood behind his investments. That’s how he found himself at an empty lot in Chichester last Tuesday. “I think I hold the mortgage on units 6, 7, and 8,” MacDonald said, referring to the condo project he said he invested $150,000 in at the suggestion of Scott Farah, Financial Resources’s president. “But there’s nothing there. Nothing at all. No building permit has even been pulled.”

MacDonald is one of dozens of people wondering what they’re left with since Financial Resources Mortgage and a related company, CL&M Inc., shut down abruptly two weeks ago. The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office, the FBI and state banking and securities regulators are investigating the circumstances surrounding the companies’ sudden closure.

The scope of Farah’s dealings is unclear, but authorities say dozens of people claiming to have lost nearly $23 million have come forward so far. In addition, about 20 people have filed suit in New Hampshire courts, claiming Farah and his associates defrauded them of their savings. Among those who have sued:

• An extended family from Gilford whose members say they invested more than $3 million in real estate through Farah, including a $500,000 investment last month with no paperwork.

• A Texas man who gave Farah $1.6 million to finance, among other projects, a condo development in Peterborough, homes in Oklahoma and Maine, and a company called Earth Protection Systems.

• A Center Harbor woman who fears she has lost hundreds of thousands of dollars from her late husband’s trust, money she said she relies on to support her in retirement.

The attorney general is trying to force Financial Resources Mortgage and CL&M into bankruptcy to make it easier to sort out what money, if any, is available to investors. Farah’s lawyer, Michael Ramsdell, said he will be available for court appearances.

Farah has not been charged with any crime, and it’s not known whether he profited illegally from the investments people made with him. Attempts to reach Farah and his family last week were unsuccessful. But interviews with investors, borrowers and co-workers depict a driven man who loved to broker deals: ski resort housing in Colorado, waterfront developments in Georgia, shopping complexes in Florida. His investors included lawyers, financial analysts and developers, as well as retirees and widowers.

“He was on the phone the second he woke up until the second he went to bed,” said Daniel Borer, a Massachusetts developer who borrowed from Farah and also worked for him as a salesman. “He’d call someone up, ask them for $100,000, and if they said no, he’d say, ‘Okay, just do 30 grand with me.’ He was extremely directed.”

But some of his investors claim that Farah also collected deposits on real estate that was never developed and promoted building projects that did not exist. When deals went sour and investors demanded their money back, Farah would often persuade them to reinvest in a new project, or even lend him more money, according to court documents.

“We’re going to try to unwind all of the transactions between all the accounts, but it could take years to unravel all of this,” said Peter McGrath, a Concord lawyer and former federal prosecutor who is representing some of Farah’s former clients.

Making deals

At Financial Resources Mortgage, Farah specialized in a specific type of investment: “hard money” or “bridge” loans. They’re typically short-term, high-interest loans with high upfront fees and funded by a pool of private investors. They have become common in large construction in recent years, as the financial crisis has led banks to avoid lending to big commercial projects, especially when the developer has poor credit or high debt.

Several developers who borrowed from Farah said they had no choice but to seek out a “hard money” lender who charged upward of 12 percent interest. After completing the project, builders would try to refinance the loan at more conventional terms or profit from the sale or leasing of the real estate.

The agreement was discussed Tuesday at a status hearing in federal bankruptcy court and will need to be finalized. The deal could be completed by mid-January.

Plaintiffs’ attorney Ken Roosa said some of the payoff would be put aside to pursue as much as another $100 million from two of four insurance companies for the diocese that have balked in court at paying on behalf of the church. The rest would be divided among alleged victims, depending on the severity of abuse.

“It’s a long time coming. It’s a big step in the right direction,” said victims’ advocate, Elsie Boudreau, who received $1 million from the diocese to settle her sexual abuse claims against a priest four years ago.

Roosa said the diocese would accept liability for “many, many” millions of dollars. In return, a committee representing claimants would agree that it can’t collect that money from the diocese, but instead would go after the insurance companies.

“It’s a pretty big drop in a huge bucket,” Roosa said of the smaller settlement with the diocese. “This is not the entire amount.”

Complaints of sexual abuse of a minor have been filed in recent years against the diocese, with some allegations dating back 50 years.

The diocese filed for bankruptcy protection last year and all proceedings are overseen in bankruptcy court in Anchorage.

The diocese was “extraordinarily pleased” with the agreement, according to a spokesman, who called it an important milestone in its reorganization effort.

“We look forward to working with the claimants so that the insurance companies fulfill their obligations,” Chancellor Robert Hannon said. “This is all about finding a just way to compensate those who were harmed and we’ll have much work to do to restore their trust.”

Roosa said the agreement with the diocese is an improvement over an offer last month that would have guaranteed each alleged victim $5,500 apiece in a reorganization plan that would provide $11 million to victims and creditors.

Diocese attorneys had said the secured pay would have been a minimum to settle the claims and that there would be roughly $7.5 million more later for plaintiffs.

Roosa said the amount was not hard money, but based on property sales minus paying off debts including legal fees, and that victims would have received just a fraction of the money.

“We said ‘no,’” he said. “We want money set out — hard cash directly going to the victims, to the survivors.”

Another hearing is scheduled for Dec. 4 before U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Donald MacDonald to hear unresolved insurance issues pertaining to the diocese’s revised reorganization plan.

Professor Andrew de Mello, Imperial’s Professor of Chemical Nanosciences, shows me an iPod-sized device designed to test blood, urine or saliva. They will cost less than £1 each to make.

“This could be huge,” he boasts, “It’s a very simple way of taking a lot of treatment out of hospitals and allowing people to take charge of monitoring their own diseases.” So it must be fitting that he has called his company Molecular Vision.

A few doors down in a futuristic complex in the heart of Imperial College, I find Danny Green of BioCeramic Therapeutics.

He extols the powers of a glass-like ceramic substance, fresh out of the furnace, to fill the gaps between broken bones and help them heal.

“We are starting with bone, then cartilage,” Danny says, “Then with our second generation materials, it’ll be heart tissue, bladder tissue. We’re trying to regenerate the tissues so that they are more like those of a younger person.”

Andrew and Danny’s companies are being mollycoddled in Imperial’s incubator, along with 16 ventures covering healthcare, engineering and recycling.

Convincing

The incubator is run by Imperial Innovations, which is itself a spin-off from the university. Its job is to bring on new ideas and invest in them using money raised on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM), the London Stock Exchange’s junior market.

“We still have a problem in the UK in that there is a very big early stage funding gap,” says Susan Searle, who runs Imperial Innovations. “If I look at investors in the sector we work in, I can count them on one hand.”

Life in the incubator is not as cosy as it sounds. There is a frantic effort to develop a convincing prototype or product demonstration, a search for customers and a lot of trying to work out business plans to impress investors.

The ideas have to be convincing, because Imperial Innovations will only commit its money alongside outside investors, including venture capital funds and wealthy individuals.

“I’ve learned that technology is not everything. It’s technology plus the package that goes round it,” reflects Michael Lamperth, a Swiss specialist on electric motors, “Also, knowing that money is not expensive but time is expensive. We really need to hit the deadlines.”

He founded Evo Electric to sell a new motor which is much lighter than other designs on the market, but produces more power. He is working on versions for trolley buses and London cabs.

“Connect”

Michael raised £1.5m while inside the incubator. But as Evo Electric grew he found he needed more space, more employees and he needed to be able to make more noise.

He has just moved to an industrial unit in Woking and hopes to raise a further £6m to keep going. Evo Electric is chewing up £80,000 a week.

So far, five companies have graduated from the incubator. Another is Quantasol, set up to develop solar cells to generate electricity.

The technology was invented by Professor Keith Barnham who uses gallium arsenide to create much more productive cells.

“It’s been used to power satellites up in space, but it’s expensive,” explains Prof Barnham, “The reason we can use it on earth as that people are developing simple mirrors and plastic lenses to concentrate the light.”

Quantasol’s chief executive, Kevin Arthur, has a track record building up companies. It’s standard practice for Imperial Innovations to install a commercial brain, like his, to galvanise the academics.

“The key lesson is to connect with customers as soon as you possibly can,” warns Kevin, “There is a catalogue of errors in technology start-ups, where you produce something because you can, then you find that there’s no market for it.”

Rewards

The lure of profit and business success is a big motivator for the Imperial scientists. But there is also an urge to “make a difference” by commercialising ideas which might remain unexploited in a university lab.

That is how newcomer Nikolaos Vlasopoulos feels. His research is into replacements for Portland cement, which he says is responsible for 5% of all man-made carbon emissions.

“We want to make a difference to the environment, to at least help to stop global warming,” Nikolaos enthuses.

He has come up with magnesium oxide as a viable substitute for traditional cement, claiming that his manufacturing and construction process will actually reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.

It’s a key concern for Michael Lamperth as well: “I’ve got four kids. They ask me what I’m doing to stop global warming.

“Now, I can give a much better answer than saying I’m going off to teach. I can say I’m going off to build machines to help reduce CO2.”

Imperial Innovations has invested £18m in spin-offs in the incubator, hoping to reap the rewards later. Some of the start-ups could take a while to flourish but Evo Electric says it aims to be in profit within two years

We like it because it is unconventional.

We look at this and apply the same sort of reasoning to why we follow writers like Chuck Butler or Bill Bonner.

You get some entertaining “voice” about the issues that trickle down to hard money.

Most of us don’t have a ton of cash sitting around waiting to be invested in currencies or in day trading. But we can certainly pay attention and learn about the big picture and do what we have to (add a few silver coins to our little stash from time to time).

And by the way, if you want an overview of Rick’s technical approach to trading, check out his video

Some of you will be intrigued by the technical analysis and one more about the approach that Rick uses for trading.

(To be fair, we only got about 10 minutes into and realized that it it was a little bit over our heads).

But the e-mail newsletter is a different story. It won’t take up much space in your inbox.

Most importantly, he’s in our camp. Through his commentary you’ll find that his opinion and perspective on the macro economy and the news that effects or influences markets is on the same page with those of us who see silver as a way to keep a little nest egg incubating.

Here is where I “discovered” him at GATA.

“Bernanke & Friends are probably throwing everything they’ve got at gold right now to suppress its price. And for all we know, Uncle Sam has loaned every ingot (supposedly) in Fort Knox to carry-traders at J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs. The ability of these well-connected bullion bankers to borrow more or less unlimited quantities of physical gold is for them even better than a license to print money, since money itself is most surely not what it used to be. The feather merchants have repaid the government’s kindness by sitting on gold futures prices. This price-fixing operation is all the more impressive because its perpetrators have managed so far to peg bullion to $1,000 even though the U.S. dollar has broken some key technical supports in recent days.”

You can practically say the same thing for silver, though we all know silver is a different animal.

You can find out pretty much everything else you need to know about Rick here.

The nice thing about signing up for feeds and newsletters is that you don’t really have to feel that pressure you get when you discover a great site, rich in content, and the pressing need to digest it all at once.

You can simply sign up and start getting e-mails to get a ticket to justice what it’s all about.

Okay, so for the average silver investor (that’s me), What does Rick have to offer?

Well first of all, we need to understand silver in the context of not only the macro economy, but also the nano economy.

Nano economy?

Yeah, that’s the economy of the regular guy. The typical silver coin investor.

The guy who just wants to take delivery of a few silver coins to protect his nest egg or maybe just be prepared (diversified) in case of a really big crisis. No one wants to think about bartering with silver coins, but whiskey never lasts long in our house, so that won’t be an option.

So, I was pleasantly surprised after reading through a couple of months of Rick’s posts.

And for those who aspire to get the word out, wake somebody up, or just make it in an Internet publishing capacity, we could learn a lot by the way Rick delivers the goods… Short, up front, wise, and funny.

Anyway, lo and behold, here’s what he has to say on his about page:

“Indeed, we are quite possibly entering an economic period unlike any before it – one in which, paradoxically, deflation’s grip on the global economy has intensified even as credit and money growth have soared to unprecedented extremes. We are not in Kansas any more, for sure, and the old investment strategies are becoming increasingly risky as the weeks and months go by. Forget about doubling your money on the next Big Thing. It is time to safeguard the bulk of your nest egg while setting aside a modest portion of it to pursue exceptional gains. This is where Rick’s Pick’s aims to be of greatest value to you: in shaping your trading and investment decisions so that risk and reward are in optimal balance. Discover how you can confidently chart your own path to a financially secure future.”

As far as the trading stuff and stock picks, I look forward the day, (perhaps not far off), of having the ability to make more of these kind of trading and investment decisions.

I think most silver (coin) bugs understand that this day may come soon. Never hurts to be prepared.

Because after silver really takes off, I might have enough money left to play in the world of chart investing, Elliott wave analysis, or technical fund buying, etc.

This language gives rise to a spectrum of information ranging from the professional investor to the curious amateur-local-yocal-market-observer. Like us.

Those interested in precious metals for asset protection or as a long-term investment need open discussion of the important issues -from all perspectives.

On one hand, gold (and especially silver) are industrial commodities and with the forces that influence the way they trade.

On the other hand, gold and silver have always been money – at least as far as civilization goes.

Currencies trade on the world platform, influenced according to how the central banks see fit and much of this is on the grand stage of politics.

You probably know some of the bartenders.

We chose three letters for this review – all from the week of July 7. In the midst of summer doldrums, yet in the calm before a storm that seems even more likely on its way.

‘Whiskey’ is an Agora product. It is one of many, and true to form, you get outstanding content with some persuasion to reciprocate.

Our only beef is the overly-strategic ’special reports’, interesting stories in and of themselves, but dropped in on the articles.

These are sometimes sent out as separate email offers all together – which are perhaps a better way to cut to the chase.

The overall content certainly appeals to the broad audience – indeed attracting those who are interested in the energy, agriculture, and commodities sectors.

They cover the macro news and politics. And the big companies, the broader economic sectors, as well as gold and silver.

I suppose there are those who routinely stop at the coin shop in order to pick up a few ounces here and there, when the money is available – who might rationalize that the big picture stuff might be a little disconnected from the main street perspective.

Not us.

Our keen manipulation sensors pick up on the basic messages and see them through to the relationship they have to the word on the street.

Currently, 48.8 per cent of all variable-rate accounts pay the bank rate or less and 22.8 per cent pay customers 0.1 per cent on their savings.

In the last month, 3.9 per cent of banks have made reductions in their interest rates, ranging from between 0.05 per cent up to 0.86 per cent.

The independent financial advisor found that by contrast, only 3.5 per cent of accounts have had their rates increase as institutions try to attract more savers.

Michelle Slade, spokesperson for Moneyfacts, said the cuts are another bitter blow for savers already experiencing low returns on their investments.

At the beginning of November, new regulations were introduced meaning that banks had to give two months’ notice of any changes disadvantageous to their customers.

“It appears that a number of providers have pre-empted these changes and reduced rates before the new rules came into force,” said Ms Slade.

Moneyfacts reported in September that banks were targeting savers with fixed-rate accounts with five-year deals. The company found though that most savers were only looking for two-year commitments.

Fritz Henderson, GM chief executive, said on Thursday that Opel could afford to pay back the remaining €900m ($1.3bn) of the €1.5bn bridge loan, which Berlin had extended to Opel in May to keep it afloat after GM entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

“While it has certainly been a challenging environment for us [Opel], the company has operated at or better than planned and so we have the resources to basically pay off the bridge loan,” Mr Henderson said.

His comments came two days after GM’s board decided to keep the Opel unit and its UK Vauxhall subsidiary instead of approving a sale of a majority stake to Canada’s Magna International and Russia’s Sberbank.

GM’s decision sparked furious reactions from the German and Russian governments, as well as Opel’s German workforce, which had all backed the Magna plan. Berlin responded by demanding the repayment of the bridge loan by the end of the month.

Several people close to the carmaker said Opel had amassed more than €1bn in cash in recent months, thanks mainly to the scrapping incentives for old cars launched by the German and other governments.

Mr Henderson also disclosed that GM could, if necessary, fund at least part of Opel’s restructuring from the US. As part of its bail-out by Washington earlier this year, GM was restricted from using cash from its domestic operations to support unprofitable overseas operations, such as Opel. But Mr Henderson said on Thursday that GM’s court-led restructuring gave it more leeway to fund overseas operations.

Mr Henderson said this would not necessarily take the form of a cash injection. He indicated that if European governments did not come up with funding, GM could lower or temporarily forego royalty payments from Opel. “We do have the ability to provide support directly, but that’s only if necessary,” he said.

The Detroit carmaker had said this week it would initially turn to the governments of Germany, the UK, Spain and Poland to provide the €3bn that it needs to sustain Opel-Vauxhall.

More details of GM’s plans to finance Opel emerged as the US carmaker’s U-turn caused further political backlash and anger among Opel workers in Germany. Klaus Franz, head of Opel’s works council, said “there won’t be a single cent’s worth of concessions from workers” to back GM’s restructuring plan. “The credibility of GM’s management is close to zero,” Mr Franz said at a protest rally of 10,000 workers in Rüsselsheim, Opel’s headquarters.

Mr Henderson acknowledged that the upheavals at Opel had strained relations with trade unions. “We have some fence-mending and repair that needs to be done,” he said.

Oddly enough, stocks roared at yesterday’s opening by nearly 150 points, a response to the GOP sweep in New Jersey and Virginia. The government’s health-insurance takeover plan looks dead after the elections. Nancy Pelosi is walking off a cliff with her Saturday vote in the House. I don’t think she’s got the numbers. Post-election, Blue Dog Democrats are going to have a hard time voting for big tax hikes, big spending, big government, and a $500 billion Medicare cut. Independents, seniors, and affluent suburbanites all moved to the GOP column on Tuesday, a negative referendum on the Democrats’ big-government scheme.

For whatever reason, stocks sold off yesterday afternoon — right after the Fed signaled easy money for as far as the eye can see. To quote the Fed: “exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate for an extended period.” Today, however, it looks like stocks took another read of the zero interest rate and the exploding Fed balance sheet and decided that there will be at least another six months of pump-priming and dollar-creation from the central bank.

Of course, gold keeps rising. It’s now $1,090. But the Fed doesn’t care about gold — or the declining dollar, or rising commodity prices, or even the higher inflation expectations that are being built into the Treasury bond market.

Fed head Ben Bernanke is targeting the unemployment rate and something called “substantial resource slack.” He is ignoring the financial and commodity-price indicators which are all signaling that the target rate is too low and the rate of money-creation is too high.

Back in mid-2008, after the dollar plunged and oil prices exploded, the CPI inflation rate peaked at nearly 6 percent — this, despite the fact that the U.S. economy was already in recession and slack resources were by then suffering from recessionary underutilization. Oil prices already have jumped to $80 a barrel in response to today’s cheap dollar, and retail gas prices at the pump have moved up nationwide from $1.80 to close to $2.70. That’s a tax hike on consumers and the rest of the economy. It’s one of the many consequences of dollar neglect.

So while the stock market is cheering easy money, the cheering is very short-sighted. I wouldn’t buck the tape, but I regard the Fed’s policy as a storm cloud over stocks and the future economy. The financial-market emergency and deep recession are over, but you wouldn’t know it from the Fed’s behavior. Even a 2 percent fed funds rate would be accommodative today, as Andrew Bary of Barron’s has written. But the Fed will have to hit the breaks a lot harder in the future if it continues its bubble headed policy at present.

One more thought. The highly volatile go-stop-go-stop Fed policy of the last ten years is exactly what has wreaked so much havoc. The Volcker-Greenspan Fed of the early 1980s to the late 1990s was much more stable and pro-growth. But over the last decade the Fed’s pillar-to-post policies and Phillips Curve obsession with unemployment rather than inflation has caused nothing but trouble.

This is one of many reasons why I think the Republican party should return to its Reagan roots as the hard-money party. Hard money will protect consumers and businesses, and would complement a low-tax-rate fiscal approach. A steady King Dollar is a strong incentive for investment, production, and employment, and of course price stability.

But in the meantime, investors are riding the easy money wave to higher share prices.

Currency trading has become one of the quickest and the easiest way to make money. Currency trading is nothing but the exchange of currency between individuals on the basis of the currency’s present price. The main concept of currency trading is to buy foreign currency and sell them at higher value to make a good profit.

Currency trading, also known as Forex trading, was generally thought be as the simple transaction of foreign cash. But slowly with the financial market’s changing dynamics, currency trading has emerged as one of the biggest and the most emerging sectors in financial world that has seen a tremendous leap in the number of investors.

But it is very important to know which is the right time to put your best foot forward and buy foreign currency in bulk and wait for the right time to sell them. But more often you are found short of cash when the time is ripe to secure great currency deals.

In such cases, emergency loans have become very popular source of fund in securing great currency deals. But emergency loans should only be the last step in your bid to arrange cash for securing great currency trading deals.

There are several payday loan lenders who are operating in the market to offer you emergency loan sources. One of the great sources is Fastwire Cash – The right partner for avoiding bounced checks and covering unexpected expenses, such as auto repairs, home repairs or health emergencies.

However, be cautious – The biggest disadvantage of getting a loan from payday loan lenders is that they give you emergency cash at very high interest rates.

But once you get the cash loan from payday loan lenders, you should invest it properly in securing great currency trading deals so that you reap benefits out of it.

“Snowmaggedon’s” accumulations broke records across a wide swath of the eastern U.S., closing schools and governments, canceling flights, shuttering businesses and denying some workers their paychecks.

The impact was tough on workers who don’t get paid when they don’t work. Sara Brinda, for instance, is a 23-year-old Washington resident who has a temporary job at a communications firm and is paid by the hour. Her office has been closed all week, costing her $126 each day she didn’t work, to be exact, according to Ms. Brinda. “All of my other friends are having a great time with these snow days,” she said, but “I’m not making any money right now.”

Losses from weather events come in two forms: Business that is postponed, the sweater not bought today, but bought next week, and business that is lost forever, such as restaurant-goers who can’t make it through snowdrifts.

“Generally, these kinds of things don’t have a meaningful effect on the economy,” said Moody’s Economy.com economist Mark Zandi. “It affects the timing of economic activity, but in terms of dollars and cents, these kinds of things don’t add up to much.”

The storm kept travelers out of Washington hotels, a definite minus to the city’s hospitality industry. But some hotels filled up rooms with local residents who lost power at home. Jill and Michael Gold checked into the downtown Mayflower Hotel last Saturday with three children and four pets in tow, including a dog named Ziggy and a gecko named Gordon. They checked out Tuesday, just as another storm was about to wallop the nation’s capital.

Mr. Zandi estimates that the economic output of the area stretching from Washington to New York City is $10.1 billion a day, adjusting for seasonal fluctuations. If a day of economic activity was lost entirely as a result of the storm, an assumption that Mr. Zandi thinks is “a stretch,” it would knock 0.28 percentage point off the first quarter’s annual rate of growth in gross domestic product, the total value of all goods and services produced in the economy.

Based on early estimates, losses will be far smaller. Southwest Airlines Co., which flies more passengers inside the U.S. than any other carrier, canceled the most flights ever in a seven-day period as a result of the snow. But the financial impact on U.S. airlines isn’t expected to be significant, very possibly totaling less than $10 million for all of them combined, according to industry estimates.

Building contractors also get zinged as most outdoor work halts. Some can expect work removing fallen trees or fixing damaged roofs, but most consider the week lost. “The snow has put them way behind on projects,” said Steven Vermillion, chief executive of Associated General Contractors of Virginia Inc., a trade group. “It’s messed things up.”

But other businesses prosper from snow. Strong winds caused snowdrifts that forced Whitetail Resort in Mercersburg, Pa., to close its slopes Thursday, but it is expected to open again Friday. “It helps so much with excitement,” Matt See, the resort’s marketing coordinator, said of the heavy snowfall. Last Saturday’s snowstorm meant fewer skiers that day, but far more the rest of the week. There were 3,000 to 4,000 skiers once roads opened and skiers could make it to the mountain, as opposed to an average of about 1,500 midweek skiers in normal times. Whitetail has sold about three times as many season passes as usual, and this season may be the best in the resort’s history, he said.

Others make things that are in heavy demand to deal with snow. Ariens Co., a snow blower manufacturer based in Brillion, Wis., emptied its Massachusetts warehouse to meet surging demand for their machines in places like Baltimore. Daniel Ariens, the company’s CEO, says he’s now essentially sold out for the season and is planning to increase production for next winter by 15%, in part to replenish stockpiles.

The storm will create near-term job losses, but those will dissipate, says MF Global economist James O’Sullivan. He points to past storms as evidence: A blizzard in January 1996, which dumped 20 inches on New York and 17 inches on Washington, led to a dismal jobs number for that month, as the government found U.S. payrolls fell by 201,000. However, later revisions to these figures showed a much more modest 19,000 jobs lost.

The death toll from the recent storms included one person killed in a car accident in Pennsylvania on Wednesday, and a New Jersey man who reportedly died when a snow-laden tree branch fell on him. Some 60 people were injured in a 50-car pileup in Williamsburg, Va., on Wednesday. Schools throughout the region were closed—with those in the Washington and Baltimore areas not expected to reopen until after Monday’s President’s Day holiday. Federal agencies in the Washington area are open Friday, but employees are allowed to arrive two hours late. Commercial Loan Workout