Colleges slashing tuition, offering 3-year degrees

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- A growing number of colleges are taking extreme measures to attract more students by cutting tuition or speeding up the rate at which they graduate.
While some private colleges are introducing double-digit percentage cuts in tuition or freezing prices altogether, other schools are offering three-year degree programs or four-year graduation guarantees.
In part, these schools are responding to consumers' concerns about the rising cost of college, said Tony Pals, spokesman for the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. "These types of initiatives have been used to some degree in the past, but have become increasingly prevalent since the economic downturn -- and we expect to continue to see them spread," he said.
But colleges have their own motivations as well. By offering a more competitive price, they are ultimately hoping to attract more students -- and increase their bottom line, said Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of financial aid website Finaid.org.
"This is about boosting enrollment, local competition and improving an individual school's finances rather than any noble purpose," Kantrowitz said.
While making school more affordable for students has become more common, it's still far from a widespread trend. Many more schools continue to hike tuition, he said. Overall, tuition at private colleges has been increasing more than 4% each year for the past three years, according to the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.
Tuition at a discount: After seeing enrollment decline for the first time in a decade, the University of Charleston, in West Virginia, cut its tuition by 22% to $19,500 per year.
In addition, Seton Hall University in New Jersey, Lincoln College in Illinois, and Pennsylvania's Cabrini College have all slashed tuition by at least 10% for the upcoming academic year.

5 colleges slashing tuition

But there's a tradeoff: ! "Te mporary tuition cuts and freezes are usually accompanied by financial aid cuts -- so the money isn't all going back to students," Kantrowitz said.
The University of Charleston, for example, may be slashing tuition but it's also reducing the amount of financial assistance that's available to students to $10 million from $15 million.
Instead of making cuts, other schools are freezing tuition at current levels or giving students four-year tuition guarantees.
For the upcoming academic year, Burlington College in Vermont is guaranteeing it won't increase tuition for four years. Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts is also holding tuition steady -- its first tuition freeze since 1968.
"[C]olleges and universities cannot continue to threaten access and add to already burgeoning loan burdens for students," Mount Holyoke president Lynn Pasquerella said in a statement.
Pals said at least 14 additional colleges have frozen tuition for the upcoming school year -- the highest number of tuition freezes on record.
Other colleges are joining forces with community colleges to increase enrollment and lower costs for students.
Baylor University in Texas, for example, is offering a pilot program this fall where students can take most of their classes at a local community college for a year or two before transferring to Baylor, where they will eventually graduate.
Texas students enrolled in the program that take 12 hours at McLennan Community College and three hours at Baylor will pay about $20,000 per year -- less than half of Baylor's $45,000 annual cost, including tuition, fees, and room and board.
A degree in four years or less: With average tuition at four-year private colleges costing $28,500 a year, according to the College Board, failing to graduate on time is a costly proposition. As a result, some colleges are reducing the time it takes to graduate or guaranteeing that students will get their degree in four years.
Beginn ing next year, Ashland University in Ohio is granting bachelor's degrees that can be completed in three years instead of four -- saving students an estimated $34,000 in tuition costs and giving them a year's head start in the work force.

College 101: Everything you need to know

Ohio's Baldwin-Wallace College is introducing a "Four-Year Graduation Guarantee" program this fall. Under the program, the school guarantees that students who meet certain requirements, like maintaining a GPA of 2.0 or higher, will graduate in four years. If not, the college will pay for the extra time.
Some colleges are taking it a step further by offering joint-degree programs that allow students to graduate with both a bachelor's and master's degree in four years. Simmons College in Boston is offering joint-degrees in areas including social work and public policy, while Wilson College in Pennsylvania is launching a program that lets students graduate with both a bachelor's and master's degree in humanities.
Meanwhile, Lipscomb University in Tennessee is reducing the number of credits students need to take to graduate on time from 132 hours to 126 hours for the 2012 school year -- the equivalent of about two classes.

How much does college actually cost?

While tuition cuts and freezes likely won't have an impact on the quality of the education that the colleges provide -- unless enrollments increase so much that the student-to-teacher ratio climbs too high -- some fast-tracked degrees are another matter, Kantrowitz said.
"If you eliminate core requirements to become more job-focused, it may allow you to cut a semester off, but the purpose of core requirements is to teach the very basic skills like the ability to write and read critically that also have an impact on job performance," he said. 

Gingrich: U.S. should reconsider gold standard

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is calling for the United States to think about returning to the gold standard.
Speaking at a foreign policy forum in South Carolina on Tuesday, Gingrich advocated a "commission on gold to look at the whole concept of how do we get back to hard money."
Gingrich, a former Speaker of the House, has spoken in favor of a "hard money" policy in the past, but these were his strongest comments to support reinstating the gold standard.
Gingrich would model his "gold commission" after one put in place after Ronald Reagan was elected, when the nation was battling double-digit inflation. But even then, the commission overwhelmingly rejected the idea of a return to the gold standard.
One of only two members of the 17-member commission to endorse a return to the gold standard was Ron Paul, one of Gingrich's rivals for the GOP nomination.
The United States first moved away from the gold standard, under which the dollar was backed by the nation's gold reserves, in 1933, and dropped it altogether in 1971. Despite support for its return by some on the political right, few mainstream economists support its reinstatement.

Local currencies: 'In the U.S. we don't trust'

Chief among the problems is that with a dollar pegged to gold, U.S. goods could become uncompetitive on the global markets compared to goods priced in euros or yen.
The return to a gold standard is a central point in the campaign of Paul, a Congressman from Texas who also advocates abolishing the Federal Reserve.
In his comments Tuesday, Gingrich also spoke sharply against the Fed, saying it should focus on keeping prices in check, dropping the dual mandate of job growth and fighting inflation.
"We need to say to the Federal Reserve: Your only job is to maintain the stability of the dollar because we want a dollar to be worth thirty years from now what it is worth now," he said. &q! uot;Hard money is a discipline. It means you can't inflate away your difficulties."
The Fed has become a major target of Republicans in the last year. Republican congressional leaders wrote to the Fed in September asking it to not take any additional steps to help spur the economy.
Other leading Republicans have echoed Gingrich's call to end the Fed's dual mandate. Texas Gov. Rick Perry, another presidential candidate, even suggested Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke might be guilty of treason if the Fed moved to buy more Treasuries in an attempt to spur greater growth. 

Higher profit seen at Disney in 2012

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) ' Walt Disney Co. is expected to post higher profit for the quarter ended Dec. 31, though difficult comparisons with very strong results at ESPN and in home video in the year-earlier period could have an impact.

Disney DIS 'is expected to post a fiscal first-quarter profit of 75 cents a share, excluding stock-option payments, on revenue of $11.19 billion, according to a consensus poll of analysts by Thomson Reuters.

In the same period a year earlier, the company earned 68 cents a share on revenue of $10.7 billion.

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NFL boasts another super thriller

Ben Cohen talks about the N.Y. Giants' win against the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI. (Photo: Getty Images)

Jeffrey Thomson of Hilliard Lyons said late last year that Disney's December quarter 'is likely to produce the smallest year-over-year increase' of fiscal 2012, 'due in part to a tough comparison to the year-ago quarter ' a period that included considerable growth at ESPN and benefits of robust DVD sales of 'Toy Story 3.''

Across the media and entertainment industries, there is optimism about the advertising market, especially in television, which has held most of its appeal for advertisers as one of the few remaining ways to reach mass audiences.

Ad sales and rates are expected to once again be strong at ESPN, where! NBA gam es, college basketball and various shows around the NFL have led to solid ratings gains, but Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger warned in November that comparisons with the fiscal fourth quarter of 2010 would be difficult.

At ABC, the network's situation comedies have received solid ratings, though it ranks third among the Big Four networks among adults 18 to 49 years old ' the group most desired by advertisers because of its apparent willingness to switch brands.

Analysts will look forward to getting more insights from Iger on the online-video model and its potential effect on traditional TV. Comcast Corp. CMCSA 'and Disney unveiled a 10-year deal last month that will make Disney shows available on a wide variety of Comcast platforms, including regular TV, video-on-demand, phones and tablets. Under the deal, Comcast customers can watch Disney shows online that can't otherwise be viewed on the Web.

Disney executives will probably also be asked what last month's Italian cruise-ship tragedy could mean for its own cruise ships. The Carnival Cruise-owned Costa Concordia foundered off the coast of Italy, killing at least 16, and observers fear that the incident could be a concern to would-be passengers in the near term.

Disney recently launched its third ship, the Disney Dream, and some analysts speculated that a fourth could be launched in fiscal 2012.

With or Without "Obamacare" These Healthcare Stocks Are Headed Higher

The fat lady hasn't sung yet...but she is warming up.

Three days of arguments before the Supreme Court have made it abundantly clear - "Obamacare" is in danger of being gutted or completely wiped off the books.

Only one thing's for sure. Investors will want to keep buying healthcare stocks -especially as 10,000 baby boomers a day turn 65 years old for the next 20 years.

But there's one segment of the healthcare sector that will be sitting in the driver's seat when it comes to delivering healthy profits and investment returns - no matter how the court rules.

Here's what you need to know...

Obamacare's Confusing Details

Fact is, analysts have been struggling to figure out how the Affordable Care Act (ACA) would impact various segments of the healthcare sector ever since the bill was passed.

"For most companies, the bill is neither very good nor very bad," Dan Mendelson, CEO of Avalere Health, told NPR after the bill passed in 2010. "Across each of the different segments there are pieces that will be good and pieces that will be more challenging."

That's because in addition to a slew of new taxes on pharmaceutical, hospital, and insurance businesses, Obamacare includes a dizzying array of incentives that will have a dramatic effect on industry profits.

Uncertainty surrounding the law is already rattling stocks.

Healthcare stocks have underperformed the broader market this year, up 6.4% compared to the S&P 500's 11.6% gain.
With the bill's fate up in the air, major players will have to devise new strategies for either outcome.

What Obamacare Means for
Healthcare Stocks

Here's what the law might mean for major players.

Big Pharma - Big drug makers like Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) and Eli Lilly & Co (NYSE: LLY), would pay about ! $85 bill ion over 10 years to fund ACA. They also made concessions that would save the Medicare system billions of dollars a year.

In return, they were able to kill a proposal to allow cheaper prescription drugs from Canada and were granted longer patents on generic versions of biotech drugs.

On balance, they probably would come out ahead.

Insurance Companies - The picture appears positive for insurance companies. The infusion of 40 million new people into the system is seen as a gigantic shot in the arm.

But there are huge tradeoffs.

Most importantly, the insurers would no longer be able to deny people coverage based on pre-existing conditions. They also would face billions of dollars in new taxes and restrictions.

But insurers supported the plan for one simple reason - they can pass any cost increases on to their customers.

Hospitals & Doctors -Over the next 10 years, hospitals and doctors would contribute $155 billion to paying for the legislation by taking smaller payments from Medicare and other government programs.

But if the court rules that the individual mandate is constitutional, hospitals would no longer be forced to treat patients who can't pay for their services.

The Ultimate Winner in the Obamacare Debate

There's only one sector that is likely to benefit no matter what the court decides.

Managed care companies, typically known as Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO) and Preferred Provider Organizations (PPO), are already heavily involved in reducing health care costs.

They do that through a variety of techniques to reduce unnecessary health care costs by reviewing the necessity of services, controlling admissions and lengths of stay and intensive management of health care cases.

Although widely criticized for denying medical services, they are also credited with subduing medical cost inflation.
!
But here's the kicker: fully 90% of insured Americans are enrolled in plans with some form of managed care, according the industry's trade association.

That puts them in a position to profit delivering investors solid returns for years to come -- no matter how the Supreme Court weighs in.

Here are three managed-care companies that stand to thrive - whether Obamacare survives or not.

UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE: UNH) - the largest managed care company provides services to more than 78 million members. Its products include risk-based health insurance and plan management for mid-sized employers, small businesses, and individuals. Shares are up 6.2% this year and have a three-year average annual return of 36%.

WellPoint Inc. (NYSE: WLP) -- is one of the largest U.S. managed care firms with over 34 million members. The company offers various network-based managed care plans to large and small employers, individual, and Medicaid markets. The stock is up 1% this year and has a three-year average annual return of 24%.

Aetna (NYSE: AET) -- the nation's third-largest managed-care organization with a market value of $16 billion, Aetna provides medical, pharmacy, dental, and vision plans. Shares are up 8.5% this year and have a three-year average annual return of 24%.

News & Related Story Links:

• Money Morning:
  Drug Companies and Hospitals Get a Boost from Healthcare Reform
• Money Morning:
  From Obamacare to Taxes: 5 Hot Topics Politicians Love to Lie About
• NPR:
  Health Care Firms See Mixed Blessing In Overhaul
• Yahoo Finance:
  Health Care Sector Is a Winner Regardless of Supreme Court Ruling

There's plenty of chefs in the public offering kitchen

The IPO process is extremely complex. A company must abide by onerous�regulations, such as the Securities Act of 1934 and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. As a result, even top-notch companies can have problems somewhere down the line. Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM), Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN) and Zynga (NASDAQ:ZNGA) all faced missteps along the way.

To deal with the complexities, a company must hire a variety of top-notch advisers. Not to mention, businesses also have to get funding from private investors. By the time a company goes public, a ton of people have had their hands in the mix in one way or another. To sort it all out, let’s take a look at the main players in an IPO:
Venture Capitalists

Venture capitalists (also just called VCs) are people or firms that invest in early-stage companies. The funding amounts can range from $1 million to $100 million or more.

A VC often will have a board seat to take an active role with a company. This can include finding top employees, snagging customers and even making acquisitions.

For VCs, it’s usually just a handful of deals that will generate strong returns, as the risks are substantial for start-up companies. But in some cases, the returns can be enormous. An example is Accel Partners, which invested $12.7 million in Facebook in 2005 — and could see a return of more than $11 billion once the company goes public.

Some of the top VCs in the game include Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Accel, Benchmark Capital, NEA, Kleiner Perkins and Greylock Partners.

See Also: 4 Reasons Companies Go Public
Investment Bank

An inve stment bank (also known as an underwriter) is a Wall Street firm such as Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) and JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) that essentially manages the whole IPO process. This means drafting the necessary documents, coming up with a valuation, finding the right investors and conducting the road show.

For its services, an investment bank will be paid based on the amount of money raised. This usually amounts to a percentage ranging between 2% and 7%.
Attorneys

Companies usually will have in-house counsel, as well as an outside firm that will handle SEC disclosures. Both groups will help put in better check systems and engage in “corporate cleanup,” which means making adjustments to contracts and so on.

Some of the top IPO law firms include Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Latham & Watkins, O’Melveny & Myers, Shearman & Sterling and Sullivan & Cromwell.

See Also: How an IPO Works
Auditors

A company will have an internal auditor and an external auditor. They will focus on making sure a company’s financials are in compliance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). The external auditor then will write a “comfort letter” that vouches for the financials.

Having a well-known auditor is extremely important, especially considering the kind of damage an accounting scandal can do. Top auditors include PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG and Deloitte & Touche.
Public Relations Firm

When a company is in the IPO process, it must abide by the “quiet period.” This means management and insiders are limited in what they can say to the media, as to not hype the offering.

No doubt, this isn’t a f! un task for public relations firms, which traditionally want to increase their clients’ visibility. But experienced PR firms will know how to play within the rules while still keeping the lines of communication open.
Financial Printer

It seems archaic, but a company must print all its SEC filings. This can be a hassle, as S-1 filings can easily be several hundred pages. And speed is important, as an IPO filing often must be turned around to the SEC within 24 hours.

One of the top names in financial printing is R.R. Donnelley & Sons (NASDAQ:RRD), which acquired longtime printer Bowne & Co. in 2010.

Tom Taulli runs the InvestorPlace blog IPO Playbook, a site dedicated to the hottest news and rumors about initial public offerings. He also is the author of �The Complete M&A Handbook”, �All About Short Selling� and �All About Commodities.� Follow him on Twitter at @ttaulli or reach him via email. As of this writing, he did not own a position in any of the aforementioned securities.

Financial Management Tips For Selling Your Home

If your home market has started to peak, you may be ready to sell your home. In the seller’s market, there’s a lot to research in order to keep your edge on the housing market. To walk away with the best price, you’ll have to keep tabs on priorities like where you’ll move to next; how you’ll improve your resale value; and how you can encourage buyers to accept your asking price, or even bid higher. You can’t discount solid research when entering the home market. Taking care of a few actionable items with good financial management can mean the difference between sitting on your home for eight months, and turning it around in three.
The first step to take before selling your home is to figure out where you’ll move once you’ve handed over the keys. You don’t want to be left holding your bags and boxes by the curb side, so start researching a new place — or if you plan to rent, look for apartments and make sure they’re available when the time comes.
Be as prepared as possible, since selling is no small feat. Your first step is to look into a home loan pre-approval, and examining your credit ratings to be sure you’ll get a good percentage. If you’re interested in moving up-market with your next house, too, be sure you can make a sufficient down payment so your monthly payments will be reasonable.

Check your credit ratings. Unlike credit reports, credit scores are a formulated rating which lets you know where you stand in terms of creditworthiness. One of the most popular and credible credit score are FICO scores from Fair Issac, which are used by 90% of the largest U.S. banks.

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While you go through this process of pre-approved finances, you’ll want to be sure that you also check the rules on your current mortgage. Does your current mortgage have pre-payment penalties? If so, how much are you looking for in penalties? You’ll want to keep these in mind as you consider a listing price for your current home.
As you look at your possible early pre-payment penalties costs, request a mortgage payoff amount as well: It’s is the amount of money you’ll need in order to pay off the loan right now. You’ll need that information — as well as the info on pre-payment penalties —to determine a good listing price for the home as well.
Quick Fixes: Home Improvement
Let’s focus on that listing price for a moment, though. Obviously when you sell your home, you’re looking for the best price possible. Often, then, that means doing small to even major renovations so that you land in a good segment of the market. If you’re skeptical, don’t worry: you’ll be surprised at your return-on-investment for these improvements. Focusing on areas like bathrooms, kitchens, and the master suite becomes especially valuable at this stage. A clean, smart-looking, and upgraded kitchen can add an enormous amount of value to your home and can also improve its general appeal to your buyers.
Other home improvements can be easier to manage, as well: You can improve the value of your bathroom, for example, by replacing its faucets, shower heads, fixtures, and lighting. It’s also a good idea to replace the toilet and to examine the floors and counter tops for wear. Last but not least, your walls could probably use a facelift: especially if your bathroom has a show! er, wall s can accumulate mold or mildew. Most people prefer painted bathroom walls over wallpaper, as well, so you may want to rip out that old floral pattern and give it a more modern look.
A few other cheap upgrades for your home include replacing its carpeting and doing minor landscaping in your yard. Clear out weeds and debris outside, power-wash your driveway, and don’t forget to repaint or re-stain those old wooden fences. A fresh coat of paint on the outside of the home — in a natural, neutral tone — will also give your home that curb appeal it desperately needs for a quick and easy sale.
Finally, The Appraisal
Your next step in the process of selling your home is to order an appraisal! This is important, because a professional will be able to assess the fair market value of your home. Appraisals are tricky, though: don’t fall under the assumption that you’re automatically going to get a buying price for the amount at which your home was appraised. A myriad of other factors come into play, and you could end up selling for more or less depending on the surrounding neighborhood’s market, the number of buyers on the market, and the current standard interest rates.
Key Costs
Since everything here in the end is about improving your personal finance situation, you need to know what the costs of selling your home will actually be. Some key factors in determining your overall costs are:

• To get your home out into the market, you’ll need to advertise — which may include costs for listings in newspapers, on websites, using signs near the home to announce your sale, and flyers for the home that potential buyers can use as a reference.
• Even though your buyer should pay for surveys and inspections, it’s good to keep these expenses in mind as your buyer will need to consider them when considering their purchase.
• If you use a real estate agency to sell your home, you’ll ne! ed to kn ow the real estate commission amount and any possible miscellaneous fees.
• Don’t forget to include prorated costs for annual expenses like property tax, propane tank rentals, home owner association fees (if applicable), or any other rental fees for the home.
• The excise tax for the sale will make a difference in your total.
• Closing costs, escrow fees, and any possible attorney or professional fees factor in, as well.

As you look for a real estate agent to sell your home, you’ll want to look for a reputable company with experience in both selling homes and in your particular area, so that they can get the most value for your home possible. Don’t forget to ask what their commission will be, right from the start. Look for a reasonable rate that is likely to both save you money and still be worth the real estate agent’s time.
Now that you’re armed and ready to sell, you’ll need to exercise patience and maintain a clean home for potential buyers to view. If you use a real estate agent, you shouldn’t have much to worry about. Simply keep your finances in order, keep in mind the costs of selling your home, pre-payment penalties, and mortgage payoff amounts when considering a potential sale, so you can leave confidently with a tidy sum at the end of the sale.
Your personal finances are important, especially when selling a home. Be smart in your choices, stay informed, and be prepared for when that real sale occurs — so that you’re not left knocking on your in-laws’ door for a place to stay!

Banking is back in Latin America

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) � Banking is back in Latin America. While most of the rest of the world is still recovering from the global financial crisis of 2008, Latin American banks have recovered.

Five factors have fueled that growth: a growing middle class, access to banks for the previously �unbanked� population, growth in deposits, a broader and expanding loan portfolio, and greater efficiency by Latin American banks.

Brazilian banks have led the surge, occupying the top five spots on The Banker�s list of the best Latin American banks. They�ve done this mainly by focusing on the growth of the middle class. The middle class in Latin America has grown to 51% of the population in the major economies in 2011, from just 41% in 2001. That growth in the middle class has pushed per capita income to $11,900 from $7,600 a decade ago.

It has also increased the demand for consumer loans: be they mortgages, car loans, or small business or industry loans.

Itau Unibanco Holdings SA ITUB , has focused on reducing costs and streamlining efficiency since the two banks merged in November 2008 to form Brazil�s largest bank. �But I can guarantee that we will not reduce our investment plans as part of that effort,� CEO Roberto Setubal said. Itau Unibanco has been rapidly expanding both within Brazil and across Latin America, capitalizing on success in consumer banking.

Regional growth

Itau Unibanco is just one of several banks with eyes on the rest of Latin America. �The flow of investments among the region�s various countries is increasing strongly,� said Andre Esteves, BancoBTG Pactual�s chief executive, in a statement. �Capita! l market s are developing at a fast pace in Colombia and Peru. Even the more mature markets, such as Brazil and Chile, continue to have high growth rates. We are very optimistic about the perspectives for Latin America.�

With money from Abu Dhabi, Singapore and China, BTG Pactual has grown to become one of Brazil�s top-10 banks. It recently expanded into Chile, Colombia and Peru and has reportedly been meeting with investment banks to launch its own shares over the next few months.

Recent analyst reports have suggested the major banks in Latin America, such as Itau Unibanco and BancoBradesco BBD , are losing market share to smaller, regional banks. We don�t see this as a reason not to invest in the larger banks. While they may end up losing share nationally, we believe the bigger banks will gain from their cross-border initiatives and from the rapid overall growth of banking in Latin America. Even if they did lose market share, that doesn�t mean their growth will slow. Like elsewhere, being bigger is a plus in Latin America�s banking industry.

There has been some backlash in Latin America as a result of the global financial crisis. Latin American countries have been more apt to approve regulations to protect consumers against fraud since 2008, and these same rules have not just protected consumers, but also shielded the local banking industry from foreign predators.

Even without better regulations, we expect you will start to see more intra-Latin America mergers and fewer acquisitions from developed countries. Already Latin American banks have pushed foreign banks from the top positions, in businesses including retail banking and investment banking. Last year, Itau Unibanco pushed Citigroup C �and Credit Suisse Group CS �CH:CSGN �from their top positions in investment banking.

But retail banking remains the key that most banks are after. In a survey for the Economist Intelligence Unit, most executives (27%) expect the greatest increase in competition in retail banking, compared with 17% in investment banking, 15% in corporate banking and 12% in consumer finance and cards.

The one country in Latin America where foreign banks have held onto their positions, and in some cases increased, is Mexico. Indeed, Spain�s Banco Santander ES:SAN �has amplified its penetration in Mexico, while also actively playing a large role in banking in Argentina, Uruguay, Chile and, to a lesser extent, in Brazil. Citibank, with its control of Banamex, has also benefited from its Mexico operations by penetrating retail banking and issuing more than a million credit cards per year.

Unbanked

And that brings us back to one of the strongest reasons to invest in Latin American banks: reaching the unbanked population. Half of the population in Latin America still does not use banks. In Brazil, 58% still use cash at supermarkets, with just 15% of purchases coming from credit cards and another 15% from debit cards.

A study by GrupoBursatilMexicano shows the potential of Latin American countries in bank loans to the private sector: If Chile is the model with close to 70% of private sector loans as a percentage of GDP, Brazil is still far behind at 50%, and Colombia (30% of! GDP) an d Mexico (less than 20%) are even further behind.

Latin Americans have devised their own ways to bring the unbanked into the mainstream. Even if it�s using a prepaid card for purchases, or having bank branches or ATMs in supermarkets, the growth of these will only pick up as the emerging middle class expands.

In Brazil, as in many South American countries, ATMs are often not operated by banks but by third parties. These kiosks are often much more prominent than the ATMs of banks. The largest of these is TecBan, which is planning to expand its network of Banco24Horas ATMs to 13,000 by the end of 2012, from 11,000 currently. TecBan plans to install ATMs at gas stations, supermarkets, shopping centers, drug stores, and subway, bus and rail stations. The company generates revenue by charging financial institutions a fixed price per transaction.

In summary, we think the banking sector in Latin America is going to benefit long-term from the growth of the middle class, and from greater access to the unbanked population, especially as new technologies gain adoption such as mobile banking and innovations in credit cards.

Best Wall St. Stocks Today: GM

The wooden but plucky CEO of GM (GM), Rick Wagoner, told the press that if his company is allowed to go into Chapter 11, it will end up being a simple liquidation. GM will be torn into pieces and sold off as scrap. He made one good point to support his point of view. If a bankruptcy of the No. 1 US car company drags on for several months, potential auto buyers will purchase vehicles from competitors that they view as being �safe�.” No one wants to buy a car that won�t be serviced. Wagoner has made this point before, but it is more compelling now that the deadline for the government to approve or disapprove GM�s restructuring plan is only two weeks away.
GM has effectively taken a page out of the AIG playbook for gaming the Administration and Congress. Henry Paulson and his associates were led to believe, perhaps rightly, that if AIG failed it would cost other financial companies so significantly that the government would have to bailout almost every large financial firm in the country. GM�s argument is even simpler. A liquidation of the car firm would probably cost tens of thousands of jobs at the company, and many times that at suppliers. That argument is also old, but with the chance of liquidation in the next few months becoming more likely, it refreshes the strength of the logic.
GM has been in the middle of quietly challenging the government�s plan to close it down for three months now. The Administration has now sent its car experts to Detroit, and they have said that a bankruptcy of either GM or Chrysler is undesirable. They did not elaborate much on this analysis, but, from the standpoint of the car companies, they do not need to. It is enough that the blue chip analysts sent by the President to evaluate the car companies have a belief system that matches the one in The Motor City.
The financial and car industries have effectively ganged up on the government. They would seem to be weak because of their remarkable failures and reliance on out! side hel p to keep them alive. The opposite is true. By being terribly crippled, they are sucking all of the money out of the US Treasury because the Administration knows that if these parts of American business fail, replacing the jobs and capital will be insurmountable tasks. The recession would get much, much worse. Staying ahead of the job losses would become impossible.
AIG has led the way for GM. It has taken government money and made it clear that a great deal of the cash has been wasted. Even with the evidence of that completely uncovered, the Administration has so little power that it cannot let AIG go under, as a punishment for taking taxpayer money and using it for multimillion dollar bonuses.
No one at GM is going to get a raise because the government will give it another $20 billion or $30 billion. The car industry embezzlement is more artful. With more than one million jobs at risk and unemployment rising at a pace rarely seen in American history, letting GM fail would completely compromise any chance of keeping the unemployment rate below 10%. If this figure rises above that number, it will make every American shudder.

Does Frontier Communications Pass Buffett's Test

We'd all like to invest like the legendary Warren Buffett, turning thousands into millions or more. Buffett analyzes companies by calculating return on invested capital, or ROIC, in order to help determine whether a company has an economic moat -- the ability to earn returns on its money above that money's cost.
In this series, we examine several companies in a single industry to determine their ROIC. Let's take a look at Frontier Communications (NYSE: FTR  ) and three of its industry peers, to see how efficiently they use cash.
Of course, it's not the only metric in value investing, but ROIC may be the most important one. By determining a company's ROIC, you can see how well it's using the cash you entrust to it and whether it's creating value for you. Simply put, it divides a company's operating profit by how much investment it took to get that profit. The formula is:

ROIC = net operating profit after taxes / Invested capital

(You can get further details on the nuances of the formula.)
This one-size-fits-all calculation cuts out many of the legal accounting tricks (such as excessive debt) that managers use to boost earnings numbers, and it provides you with an apples-to-apples way to evaluate businesses, even across industries. The higher the ROIC, the more efficiently the company uses capital.
Ultimately, we're looking for companies that can invest their money at rates that are higher than the cost of capital, which for most businesses is between 8% and 12%. Ideally, we want to see ROIC above 12%, at a minimum, and a history of increasing returns, or at least steady returns, which indicate some durability to the company's economic moat.
Here are the ROIC figures for Frontier and three industry peers over a few periods.

Company	TTM< /p>	1 Year Ago	3 Years Ago	5 Years Ago
Frontier Communications	4%	2.8%	6.9%	8.2%
Windstream (Nasdaq: WIN  )	6.9%	7.2%	12.4%	7.9%
CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL  )	2.9%	7.5%	6.7%	6%
AT&T (NYSE: T  )	5.6%	5.9%*	6%	6.5%

Source: S&P Capital IQ. TTM=trailing 12 months.
*Because T did not report an effective tax rate for one year ago, we used its 35% effective tax rate from three years ago.

Frontier's returns on invested capital are less than half of what they were five years ago. The other companies have also seen declines in their ROIC from five years ago, suggesting that the telecom space is particularly difficult.
One thing that makes Frontier so attractive to investors is its high dividend yield. Unfortunately, its low returns, which are shrinking over time, suggest that Frontier may not be able to grow its dividend in the future. In fact, Frontier already had to decrease its dividend by 25% last year, and its shrinking ROIC suggests that it may have to reduce those yields even more.
On the upside, Frontier's acquisition of Verizon assets last year gives it the potential to take advantage of economies of scale, which could help it improve its returns on invested capital in the future. Its increase in returns! from la st year offers some hope in Frontier's ability to improve its ROIC to a more attractive level.
Businesses with consistently high ROIC show that they're efficiently using capital. They also have the ability to treat shareholders well, because they can then use their extra cash to pay out dividends to us, buy back shares, or further invest in their franchise. And healthy and growing dividends are something that Warren Buffett has long loved.
So for more successful investments, dig a little deeper than the earnings headlines to find the company's ROIC. Feel free to add these companies to your Watchlist:

• Add Windstream to My Watchlist.
• Add AT&T to My Watchlist.
• Add Frontier�Communications to My Watchlist.
• Add CenturyLink to My Watchlist.

Best Stocks For 2013 - Las Vegas Sands Beats on Revenue, Matches Expectations on EPS

Best Stocks For 2013 - Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS  ) reported earnings on Feb. 1. Here are the numbers you need to know.
The 10-second takeaway
For the quarter ended Dec. 31 (Q4), Las Vegas Sands beat expectations on revenues and met expectations on earnings per share.
Compared to the prior-year quarter, revenue expanded significantly and GAAP earnings per share expanded.
Gross margins dropped, operating margins improved, and net margins grew.
Revenue details
Las Vegas Sands tallied revenue of $2.54 billion. The 15 analysts polled by S&P Capital IQ predicted revenue of $2.47 billion. Sales were 26% higher than the prior-year quarter's $2.02 billion.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Dollar amounts in millions.

Best Stocks For 2013 - EPS details
Non-GAAP EPS came in at $0.57. The 19 earnings estimates compiled by S&P Capital IQ forecast $0.57 per share on the same basis. GAAP EPS of $0.39 for Q4 were 15% higher than the prior-year quarter's $0.34 per share.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Figures may be non-GAAP to maintain comparability with estimates.

Margin details
For the quarter, gross margin was 37.4%, 960 basis points worse than the prior-year quarter. Operating margin was 26.1%, 190 basis points better than the prior-year quarter. Net margin was 17.1%, 90 basis points better than the prior-year quarter.
Looking ahead
Next quarter's average estimate for revenue is $2.47 billion. On the bottom line, the average EPS estimate is $0.56.
Next year's average estimate for revenue is $11.18 billion. The average ! EPS esti mate is $2.56.
Best Stocks For 2013 - Investor sentiment
The stock has a two-star rating (out of five) at Motley Fool CAPS, with 1,755 members out of 2,081 rating the stock outperform, and 326 members rating it underperform. Among 506 CAPS All-Star picks (recommendations by the highest-ranked CAPS members), 434 give Las Vegas Sands a green thumbs-up, and 72 give it a red thumbs-down.
Of Wall Street recommendations tracked by S&P Capital IQ, the average opinion on Las Vegas Sands is outperform, with an average price target of $59.82.

• Add Las Vegas Sands to My Watchlist.