BUSINESS BRIEFS
Redeem those Circuit City gift cards soon
Advertiser news services
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Circuit City's plans to close its 567 stores will not likely mean higher prices or fewer electronics choices for shoppers at other stores, but the retailer's gift card holders will need to use them quickly.
All gift cards will be redeemed at full value as long as stores are open and inventory remains. But that will be by the end of March at the latest. Limiting options further: www.circuitcity.com shut down over the weekend.
As the second-largest electronics retailer after Best Buy, Circuit City was once well-positioned. But most experts point to the chain's 2007 layoff of thousands of its highest-paid — and most experienced — sales clerks as the start of its rapid descent.
N.Y. TO SUFFER MOST JOB LOSSES
NEW YORK — Only five metropolitan areas in the U.S. will escape job losses this year, according to a forecast released Saturday by the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
New York is expected to take the biggest hit as thousands of jobs are lost on Wall Street. Big financial firms are slashing workers as they cope with bad debt. Other companies have gone under, including Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., which filed for bankruptcy in September.
The New York area is expected to lose 181,000 jobs in 2009, the report said. Consulting company IHS Global Insight produced the report for the group.
The Los Angeles, Miami and Chicago areas also are expected to see huge job losses.
BRITISH BANKS GET MORE HELP
LONDON — Britain is bailing out its banks. Again.
Only three months after the government put about $55 billion into shoring up its shattered financial system, Prime Minister Gordon Brown says he's about to announce new measures to help Britain's banks stay on their feet.
At the root of the problem lies what Brown's treasury chief, Alistair Darling, said yesterday were "blockages in the system" that have prevented the money pumped into the financial sector from seeping into the wider economy. Interest rates on mortgages remain high and the number of loans remains low. With banks poised to return dismal earnings reports, Britain is again putting up taxpayer money to guarantee their wobbly balance sheets.
Just how much money Brown is prepared to insure, and the exact mechanism involved, isn't clear.
