Menus will sport new calorie labels for alcohol

WASHINGTON — Don't want to be confronted with the number of calories in that margarita or craft beer? Then avoid the menu and order at the bar.

New menu labeling rules from the Food and Drug Administration will require chain restaurants with 20 or more outlets to list the amount of calories in alcoholic drinks, along with other foods, on menus by next November. The idea is that people often don't know — or even think about — how many calories they are imbibing.

But the rules don't apply to drinks ordered at the bar or any drinks that aren't listed on the main menu. The wine list will also be guilt-free — individual calorie amounts aren't required there either. And unlike other beverages and foods, most bottles and cans don't have to list full nutritional information.

After years of lobbying for more nutritional information on alcoholic beverages, public health advocates say the menu labeling rules are a first step.

"Alcoholic beverages are a key contributor to the calories Americans are consuming, and most of the time when people have a drink they have absolutely no idea what its caloric impact is," says Margo Wootan of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Her group petitioned the government more than a decade ago to require that bottles and cans be labeled with robust nutritional information.

The FDA's proposed menu labeling rules in 2011 exempted alcohol. But FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said the agency decided to include it in the final rules this year after those who commented on the rule were largely in favor of such labeling because of its potential impact on public health.

The beer, wine and spirits industries objected, arguing that they were regulated by the Treasury Department, not the FDA, a setup that dates back to Prohibition. Treasury's oversight, which includes minimal input from FDA, has "well served the consuming public," a coalition of alcohol groups wrote in a 2011 comment asking to be left out of the menu labeling rules.

The new rules are designed to not be too burdensome for the alcohol industries or restaurants. Endless combinations of mixed drinks won't have to be labeled at bars, unless they are listed on a menu, and the FDA is allowing restaurants to use estimates of calories and ranges of calories without listing the exact amount in every different drink. That means menus will list the average amount of calories in a glass of red or white wine, but won't list calories by every brand of wine on the wine list. Same with beers and spirits.

So every winery or craft brewery won't have to pay to have their products' nutritional content analyzed — for now, at least.

The labeling rules have "more of an indirect effect on our business," says Wendell Lee of the California-based Wine Institute. Lee says brand-specific menu calorie labels could be especially burdensome on the wine industry, where every vintage and varietal is different.

Craft brewers, with many varied brands and styles, have similar concerns.

The regulations "could have a slight chilling effect" on small breweries if some restaurants decide to go beyond them and list calories for individual beers, said Paul Gatza of the Brewers Association, which represents craft breweries.

The rules could have advantages too, he said.

"The more customers know about a brewery, the more they feel connected with it," Gatza said.

Off the menu, labeling rules appear further away.

For years, most alcohol companies have tried to put off mandatory bottle and can nutrition labeling as public health advocates have fought for it. Rules proposed in 2007 would have made such labels mandatory, but the FDA never made the rules final.

Last year, Treasury's Alcohol and Tobacco Trade and Tax Bureau said for the first time that beer, wine and spirits companies could use labels that include serving size, servings per container, calories, carbohydrates, protein and fat per serving. The labels are voluntary and will likely be used mostly by liquor companies touting low calories and low carbohydrates in their products.

Current labeling law for bottles and cans is complicated.

Wines containing 14 percent or more alcohol by volume must list alcohol content. Wines that are 7 percent to 14 percent alcohol by volume may list alcohol content or put "light" or "table" wine on the label. "Light" beers must list calorie and carbohydrate content. Liquor must list percent alcohol content by volume and may also list proof, a measure of alcoholic strength.

Wine, beer and liquor manufacturers don't have to list ingredients but must list substances people might be sensitive to, such as sulfites, certain food colorings and aspartame.

Tom Hogue of the Tobacco Trade and Tax Bureau said the current goal is to make sure that companies that want to label may do so, and that labeling is consistent. It is important that labels "don't mislead the consumer," he said.

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Follow Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mcjalonick

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Fed pondering change in rate hike signals

WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy is finally doing better, and the Federal Reserve may be ready to acknowledge that fact.

In a statement it will issue Wednesday after two days of discussion, the Fed may no longer say it plans to keep a key interest rate near zero for a "considerable time." Dropping that language would be viewed as a signal that the Fed is moving closer to a hike.

Yet even if it drops the "considerable time" phrase, few envision an imminent rate hike. Most economists think the Fed will wait at least until June to raise short-term rates. It would be the first rate increase since June 2006. The Fed last cut rates on December 2008 when the central bank reduced its key short-term rate to a record low near zero in an effort to battle the worst economic downturn since the 1930s.

In addition to issuing its usual policy statement to close out its final meeting of the year, the Fed will update its economic forecast and Fed Chair Janet Yellen will hold a news conference. The meeting with reporters will give Yellen the chance to explain the Fed's policies in greater detail.

While many believe there will be a slight change in the Fed's guidance about the future course of interest rates, analysts say as long as inflation remain muted, the Fed may be content to leave rates at rock-bottom levels for as long as another year.

Low rates can encourage borrowing and spending, as well as fuel growth. But if left too low for too long, they can accelerate inflation.

"I think the odds are that the Fed will drop the 'considerable time' wording, but I think some people are making more out of that change than they should," said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial.

Even if that wording is removed, economists expect the Fed will stress that the timing of a rate hike will be driven by the economy's performance, not by any preset timetable.

If the job market and the economy keep improving, a rate increase could come sooner. Yet if the economy slows unexpectedly — or if sinking oil prices keep inflation persistently below the Fed's 2 percent target, the first rate hike might be delayed.

The debate inside the Fed is pivoting on which of those forces — an improved economy or excessively low inflation — should outweigh the other. Complicating the Fed's decision is that other major central banks — in Europe, Japan and China, for example — are moving in the reverse direction to keep rates down to support slowing economies. When central banks move in opposite directions, they risk causing disruptions in the global flow of capital.

The minutes of the Fed's last two meetings showed that officials discussed changing the "considerable time" language. But some worried that doing so might be misread to mean the first rate increase would come soon. In the end, the phrasing was retained.

To soften the market impact, some analysts say "considerable time" may be replaced by language that says the Fed will be "patient" in deciding when to raise rates. In recent weeks, several Fed officials have used that word to describe how the central bank will proceed.

The word "patient" has history behind it. The last time the Fed moved from a prolonged period of low rates in 2004, it shifted from saying it would keep rates low for a "considerable period" to pledging to be "patient" in raising them. Five months after dropping "considerable period" in January 2004, the Fed approved a rate hike.

Vincent Reinhart, who was the Fed's top staff economist then, said it would be a wrong to assume that the lag time between a change in the statement's language and a rate increase would necessarily be the same this time.

The consensus view that the Fed will begin raising rates in June 2015 has held steady for months despite slight ups and downs in the economy's performance.

Recently, the data has been almost all positive with 321,000 jobs created in November, the most in nearly three years.

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, foresees economic growth of 3.3 percent next year — which would be the best showing since 2005 — up from 2.2 percent expected this year.

Brian Bethune, an economics professor at Tufts University, noted that while job gains have been solid, wage growth remains weak and inflation is slowing, reflecting the plunge in gas prices and a stronger dollar.

"With inflation falling, it just doesn't make any sense to argue that the Fed should accelerate the timing of its first rate hike," Bethune said.

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Russian ruble recovers losses

MOSCOW — Russia's embattled ruble appeared to be regaining some of its catastrophic losses in early trading on Wednesday, boosted by the finance ministry's announcement that it is about to intervene to support the currency.

Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseyev was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying that it is going to sell foreign currency from its treasury accounts "as much as necessary and as long as necessary."

The ruble lost over 15 percent of its value this week despite Tuesday's massive interest rate hike by the Russian central bank and was at some point more than 20 percent down on Tuesday.

The world's worst-performing currency along with the Ukrainian hryvnia, the ruble has lost more than 50 percent of its value this year. After posting some fresh losses at the opening, the ruble reversed its fall an hour into the trading and was up 5 percent at 64 rubles at 11.15 a.m. Moscow time (0815 GMT).

The moderate rise in the ruble was further spurred by the finance ministry's announcement that it believes the ruble to be "undervalued" and is about to begin selling currency on the market.

The ruble has fallen sharply in recent weeks and is down more than 50 percent since January, due to sinking oil prices as well as the impact of Western sanctions imposed over Russia's involvement in Ukraine's crisis.

The fell dramatically on Tuesday despite the Central Bank's middle-of-the-night decision on Tuesday to raise the rate to 17 percent from 10.5 percent.

"This is a very dangerous situation, we are just a few away from a full-blown run on the banks," Russia's leading business daily Vedomosti said in an editorial on Wednesday. "If one does not calm down the currency market right now, the banking system will need robust emergency care."

The move is intended to make it more attractive for currency traders to hold onto their rubles. Doing so gives them a major return in comparison to many other currencies where interest rate returns are near zero percent.

Other options available to the Russian authorities to stem the selling tide could be imposing capital controls or actual intervention in the markets — buying rubles, for example.

Russia's Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev on Tuesday denied that the government was considering imposing capital controls but said that the rate hike came too late.

The collapse of the national currency triggered a spending spree by Russians desperate to buy cars and home appliances before prices shoot higher. Several car dealership were reported to have suspended sales, unsure how far down the ruble will go, while Apple halted all online sales in Russia.

The Russian economy is set to shrink next week by 0.8 percent if oil prices stay above $80 per barrel. With the oil prices the way they are, below $60, the Russian economy could contract by up to 5 percent.

The ruble is likely to come under more pressure this week as President Barack Obama is expected to sign legislation authorizing new economic sanctions on Russia.

Russian officials, however, sought to project a message of confidence on state television, dwelling on the advantages of ruble devaluation, such as a boost to domestic manufacturing.

The German government's coordinator for relations with Russia, Gernot Erler, said the economic crisis in Russia was largely the result of the drop in oil prices, not the sanctions imposed by the West.

"It's an illusion to think that if the sanctions were to fall away tomorrow, the Russian economy would suddenly be all right again," Erler told rbb-Inforadio on Wednesday.

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Frank Jordans contributed to this report from Berlin.

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Watchdog dredges up private-funding idea for Boston harbor project

Massport and members of the Massachusetts Congressional delegation say taxpayers will see a return on their $310 million investment in a Boston Harbor dredging project in the form of economic development, but one watchdog said the quasi­public agency should look to the private sector to come up with the additional $200 million it now says it needs to handle the expected increase in container shipment traffic.

"What's relevant is whether we want taxpayers to be on the hook for more money, particularly with all the uncertainties." said David Tuerck of the Beacon Hill Institute, a Suffolk University think tank.

Matt Brelis, a Massport spokesman, said the state's so-called Pacheco law could make privatization difficult. U.S. Rep. Stephen F. Lynch and state Rep. Nick Collins have called for Massport to back off privatization, while U.S. Sen. Edward Markey said he would be open to private, state or federal funding, or some combination of the three. Massport also is considering opening up a real estate zone for private developers to build on Massport property near the Conley Terminal, Brelis said.

At a lavish party yesterday to thank lawmakers for the $310 million they secured to dredge the harbor to attract mammoth vessels, Markey said when the Army Corps of Engineers completes the project in 2017, Boston will see a "dramatic" increase in cargo moving through the port. Massport CEO Thomas P. Glynn said the agency already has secured contracts with Mediterranean Shipping Company, Evergreen and Costco, as well as smaller companies, for their ships to use the harbor.

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Powdered alcohol? Not so fast, lawmakers say

DENVER — Powdered alcohol hasn't even arrived in stores yet, but states already are moving to ban the product touted by its inventor as an easy way to mix a drink on the go.

Colorado is the latest state considering prohibiting "Palcohol" amid concern it will increase underage drinking. The product is marketed as an ounce of rum or vodka in powdered form, which is then added to water.

Each serving is the equivalent of a shot of liquor, according to Lipsmark, the company that owns Palcohol.

"I think being proactive and jumping out in front of the problem is probably the right thing to do," said Chris Johnson, executive director of the County Sheriffs of Colorado. "It really doesn't have any place in our society, powered alcohol. We have enough problems with the liquid kind."

Johnson said he fears powdered alcohol will make it easier for children to "sprinkle it on top of their Wheaties for breakfast" and increase the potential for alcohol poisoning.

"It can be a very dangerous thing," he said.

The company's website notes various instances where they argue the product would be convenient, including on flights and as an antiseptic on remote locations. Palcohol's creator, Mark Phillips, said he thought of the idea because it would be easier to carry powder for a drink during a long hike or other outdoor activities.

Alaska, Delaware, Louisiana, South Carolina and Vermont already have banned powdered alcohol, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Minnesota, Ohio, and New York also are considering bans, the organization said.

In a video posted on the company's website, Phillips dismisses the concerns about underage drinking, noting the product would be sold only at liquor stores to people 21 and older. In the video, he also argues it would be impractical for people to snort the powder, as some critics fear, because it would be painful to do and the amount of powder in a package fills about half a glass tumbler.

The company doesn't expect Palcohol will be available in stores until spring 2015 at the earliest. They're still waiting for labeling approval from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. The Food and Drug Administration said it does not have a legal basis to block the product after examining the non-alcoholic ingredients in the powder.

Lynne Barbour, director of communications for Palcohol, said states should control the product instead of banning it.

"We believe it should be regulated and taxed," she said in an email.

In addition to making Palcohol available as powdered rum and vodka, the company plans four cocktail varieties — Cosmopolitan, Mojito, Lemon Drop, and Powderita.

Republican Rep. JoAnn Windholz is sponsoring a bill to ban powdered alcohol in Colorado during the legislative session that begins next month. She said it's prudent for states to ban the product until they know how it can affect people if it happens to be stronger than liquid alcohol — another concern Phillips contends is unfounded.

Windholz said states should make sure they have a regulatory system in place before allowing powdered alcohol to be sold.

"It can be taken into schools, it can be taken into sports (events), Broncos games, whatever," she said.

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Find Ivan Moreno on Twitter: http://twitter.com/IvanJourno

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China imprisons businesswoman in rail graft case

BEIJING — A Beijing court on Tuesday sentenced a businesswoman linked to China's fallen ex-railway minister to 20 years in prison for bribery and interfering with bids for rail projects.

Ding Yuxin, formerly known as Ding Shumiao, illegally helped 23 companies win bidding for 57 projects and personally received 2 billion yuan ($330 million) for her efforts, the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court said on its microblog.

Her actions severely disrupted the bidding system for railway contracts, the verdict said.

Ding, who only finished primary school, has been portrayed as a key intermediary for then-railways boss Liu Zhijun's corrupt dealings. Between 2004 and 2011, Ding offered some 49 million yuan in kickbacks to Liu, who helped her "illegally gain huge economic benefits," the court said.

Liu, known as the driving force behind China's bullet train network, was convicted last year of taking bribes and steering contracts to associates and received a suspended death sentence. A suspended death sentence in China is usually changed to life in prison after two years.

Ding was also fined 2.5 billion yuan ($410 million) and had assets worth 20 million yuan ($3 million) seized. She is at least the fourth person to be sentenced in relation to the Liu corruption scandal.

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Sales of macadamias soar in Korea after nut rage

SEOUL, South Korea — Nut rage imploded the career of a Korean Air Lines executive and embarrassed her family and country. Now South Korean retailers are experiencing the unexpected upside: a boom in sales of macadamias.

The flavorful macadamia nut was unfamiliar to many South Koreans until Cho Hyun-ah, the daughter of Korean Air's chairman, ordered a flight attendant off a Dec. 5 flight from New York City after she was served them in a bag, instead of on a plate.

She resigned from executive roles including head of cabin service last week amid a storm of criticism about the tantrum that forced the flight to return to the gate. But macadamias are now a household name in South Korea and with curiosity about their taste piqued, sales are booming.

Auction, a South Korean unit of eBay and South Korea's second-largest e-commerce website, said Monday that sales of macadamias surged nearly 12-fold during the previous five days without any promotions. It said macadamias previously made up 5 percent of its nut sales but were now accounting for almost half.

South Korea's largest online shopping retailer, Gmarket, also owned by eBay, said Macadamia nut sales jumped 20 times during the six days to Sunday compared with the previous week.

The website of e-commerce firm Coupang showed Mauna Loa macadamia nuts were out of stock, with about 100 users asking on the comments section for the product to be quickly restocked.

One Coupang user asked if Mauna Loa macadamia nuts are the same brand that delayed the Korean Air flight. Another person who identified themselves as a seller replied that they probably are because orders have shot up.

One user parodied Cho's behavior on the plane, leaving a comment that asked the seller to ship the macadamia nuts on plate, or get out.

Cho's over-mighty behavior hogged headlines around the world and spawned various parodies on the Internet.

Cho made a publicly apology last week. Her father also publicly apologized and said he should have raised her better.

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Union calls 3-day strike at German Amazon centers

BERLIN — A union has launched a three-day strike at five Amazon.com distribution centers in Germany, the latest in a string of walkouts in a long-running wage dispute with the American online retailer.

The ver.di union called workers at Bad Hersfeld, Leipzig, Graben, Rheinberg and Werne out on strike from early Monday until late Wednesday. It didn't say how many people would be involved. Amazon has more than 9,000 full-time employees in Germany.

The union has been pushing for higher pay, arguing Amazon workers receive lower wages than others in retail and mail-order jobs. Amazon says its distribution warehouses in Germany are logistics centers and employees earn relatively high wages for that industry.

Amazon said customers can expect punctual deliveries despite the walkouts in the pre-Christmas period, news agency dpa reported.

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Europe stocks higher; Asia falls amid Sydney siege

European stocks inched higher Monday while Asian markets fell as weak Japanese data, slumping oil prices and a hostage situation in Australia's largest city induced caution.

KEEPING SCORE: In early European trading, France's CAC 40 was up 0.3 percent at 4,120.44 and Germany's DAX gained 0.1 percent to 9,600.89. Britain's FTSE 100 added 0.1 percent to 6,307.59. Futures pointed to a rebound on Wall Street after Friday's decline, which produced the worst weekly loss in U.S. shares in more than two years. Dow futures were up 0.6 percent at 17,288 and S&P 500 futures gained 0.6 percent to 2,002.60.

OIL SLUMP: Oil inched higher after another rout on Friday that was sparked by the International Energy Agency saying that global demand will grow less than previously forecast next year. Oil has now fallen 47 percent since reaching a peak of $107 in June this year. On Monday, benchmark U.S. crude was up 41 cents at $58.22 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Lower oil prices should be positive for many countries but there are also worries the recent plunge is a sign of a sickly global economy.

JAPAN ELECTIONS: Japan's ruling coalition won a convincing victory in lower house elections Sunday, giving Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democrats up to four more years to pursue economic and political reforms. But the "tankan" business survey released Monday highlighted challenges facing Abe's government which is using lavish monetary and fiscal stimulus to end two decades of economic stagnation. More than two-thirds of the large and medium-sized companies surveyed said they viewed the outlook for the coming quarter as "not so favorable."

THE QUOTE: "While the (Japan election) result was largely expected, I still feel there is room for buying dips in USD/JPY and the Nikkei given Prime Minister Abe is only likely to ramp up his strategy," said market strategist Stan Shamu at IG in Melbourne, Australia. "The fact that many continue to doubt whether Mr Abe is capable of delivering a successful economic strategy goes a long way toward contributing to the subdued price action. This only means Abe has to be even more aggressive to prevent failure."

SYDNEY SIEGE: A hostage situation is unfolding inside a cafe in Sydney, Australia with the nation's prime minister saying it may be "politically motivated." Five people have been able to flee from the cafe in downtown Sydney where a gunman took an unknown number of hostages at the height of Monday morning rush hour. Two people inside the cafe were earlier seen holding up a flag containing an Islamic declaration of faith that has often been used by extremists, raising fears that a terrorist incident was playing out in the heart of Australia's biggest city.

ASIAN SCORECARD: Japan's Nikkei 225 closed down 1.6 percent at 17,099.40. Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 1 percent to 23,027.85 and Seoul's Kospi shed 0.1 percent to 1,920.36. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.6 percent to 5,186.10. China's Shanghai Composite reversed losses to close up 0.5 percent at 2,953.42. Markets in Taiwan, Singapore and Indonesia fell.

CURRENCIES: The dollar fell to 118.39 yen from 118.83 yen late Friday. The euro fell to $1.2443 from $1.2464.

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Charlie Baker’s goal to hike Mass. bond rating to AAA

Hiking the Bay State's bond rating to AAA — the highest possible — is a top goal of the next administration, Gov.-elect Charlie Baker told a group of investors yesterday.

"We're certainly going to focus on solving whatever short-term financial problems we may face, but we're also going to continue to pursue strategies for the long term to protect and preserve the commonwealth's financial credibility," Baker said at the state's annual investor conference. "That fundamental thing would be how we would go about pursuing and eventually earning AAA credit."

Standard & Poors has issued AAA ratings to 15 states, although only nine have received AAA ratings from S&P and Moody's, two of the top rating agencies, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

"There are a lot of things we can do," Baker said. "But, it won't be easy. Like every state, we have challenges."

Massachusetts has pulled its credit rating up dramatically in the past two decades, from a poor BBB rating to AA+ today. Baker credited a rainy day fund created in the early 1990s for the state's progress.

"When we've seen two significant downturns, the availability of that rainy day fund has served as a shock absorber," he said. "It still today is one of those things we need to continue, so whenever the next downturn is, and there certainly will be one at some point, we have the financial capacity to manage our way through."

Hitting an AAA mark won't be easy, though.

David Hitchcock, the rating analyst for Massachusetts for S&P, cited the state's relatively high levels of debt and unfunded pension liabilities as barriers to the AAA rating.

S&P has rated Massachusetts' outlook as stable, meaning the firm does not anticipate raising or lowering the credit rating in the next two years.

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