Business Blog

Get used to the idea of $85 billion in automatic cuts to defense and domestic programs starting next Friday under a sequester deal Congress made with the White House in August 2011. At least that’s the indication U.S. Rep. Gregg Harper gave during a stop Wednesday at the Mississippi Capitol for the Madison County Business [...]

  Mississippi Treasurer Lynn Fitch is halfway to her goal of initiating financial literacy requirements in the state’s public high schools. Her proposal, contained in House Bill 637, cleared the House Wednesday on an 118-1 vote. Similar support in the Senate would assure easy sailing for the measure. However, if the Senate does not act [...]

The Mississippi Economic Council Insight Tour has a couple of more weeks to go before arriving in Hattiesburg on March 1 for its final stop. The tour, which began in Gulfport on Jan. 24, is gathering thoughts and suggestions on strengthening the state’s business climate and offers participants a chance to network with business people [...]

Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood now has ample company in a fight to force Standard and Poor’s to give up hundreds of millions it made in profits in exchange for suspect ratings of mortgage bonds before the financial crisis of 2008. In essence, enforcement actions filed Tuesday by the states and U.S. Justice Department accuse [...]

Mississippi manufacturers that want to begin export operations or expand current ones can get details on resources and other help available to them at a Feb. 7 workshop in Indianola sponsored by the Delta Regional Authority. Mississippi State University’s Franklin Furniture Institute is hosting the Getting to Know Your Export Resources workshop. It is funded [...]

Metropolitan BancGroup Inc., holding company for Metropolitan Bank, ended the year with its 13th consecutive quarter and fourth consecutive year of increased earnings, the bank, co-headquartered in Ridgeland and Memphis, said in a press statement. The privately held Metropolitan Bank reported pre-tax, full-year earnings of approximately $5.02 million for the year ending Dec. 31, 2012. [...]

Tupelo’s BancorpSouth closed the final quarter of 2012 with net income of $17 million and earnings of 18 cents s share, a two-penny increase over the same quarter a year ago. BancorpSouth attributed its 4th quarter showing to stronger mortgage lending and improved asset management, particularly in the disposal of Real Estate Owned properties. However, [...]

Regions Financial (RF) reported fourth-quarter earnings that beat analysts’ estimates as its net interest margin, a gauge of lending profitability, widened, Bloomberg reports. Net income was $265 million, or 18 cents a share, compared with a loss of $548 million, or 48 cents, a year earlier, when the lender posted a non-cash charge tied to [...]

Proclaiming that a full scale attack on the Public Employees’ Retirement System of Mississippi is soon to be underway at the Capitol, Democratic legislators gathered Tuesday to pledge a fight to the finish on the issue. “We’re going to be a blockade,” declared House Minority Leader Bobby Moak at the close of a late morning [...]

    The Women’s Fund of Mississippi is marking its first decade by investing $346,000 in 10 nonprofits across Mississippi for programs that support programs that support women and girls.   In announcing the 2013 grants, the Jackson-based Women’s Fund said the awards will help provide young women across the state with access to teen-oriented [...]