The iPhone Just Obliterated Sales Records

The iPhone 6 is Apple's biggest phone ever in terms of screen size -- and likely in terms of sales, too.

Apple sold 74.5 million iPhones during the last three months of 2014, the company reported on Tuesday, the most in any quarter. That's 9 million more than the 65 million iPhones analysts predicted, and an increase of 23.5 million from the same period last year -- a jump of 46 percent.

The surge in iPhone sales lifted Apple profits to $18 billion in the quarter, up 38 percent from a year earlier. That was one of the biggest, if not the biggest, quarterly corporate profits on record.

The last three months of the year is Apple's sweet spot. Since 2011, the company has reported record-breaking quarterly sales during that stretch. Apple sold 51 million iPhones at the end of 2013, 48 million at the end of 2012 and 37 million at the close of 2011.

Though Apple doesn't break out sales by device, the record quarter was largely due to the new iPhone 6. And the iPhone 6's runaway success is due partly to the appeal of its larger size -- its screen is 0.7 inches larger than the screen on the iPhone 5S. The iPhone 6 Plus screen is 1.5 inches bigger than the 5S screen.

The iPhone 6 is apparently so appealing that it lured customers away from rival smartphones, including Google's Android devices, according to Bloomberg.

It also helped that the sheer size of Apple's market increased at the end of the year. The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus were the first Apple phones released after Apple signed a deal with China Mobile, opening the door to 700 million subscribers.

That said, the release has not been without hiccups: Some critics have decried the 16GB model, saying it didn't provide nearly enough storage.

Of course, in Apple's eyes, those are potential customers for the inevitable iPhone 7.

Bottom In Sight For U.S. Gas Prices: Survey

By Luc Cohen

NEW YORK, Jan 25 (Reuters) - The average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States fell 13.3 cents in the past two weeks, falling to its lowest level since late April 2009, but the end of a months-long slide may be near, according to the Lundberg survey released Sunday.

Prices for regular grade gasoline fell to $2.07 a gallon in the survey dated Jan. 23 from the previous survey on Jan. 9.

The recent drop has taken prices down more than $1.24 a gallon from the same period a year ago, a decline driven by losses in the crude oil market from its June peak.

However, survey publisher Trilby Lundberg noted that the drop in pump prices was less steep than it had been in previous periods and that the price many wholesale customers paid for gasoline rose in the past 10 days, suggesting a bottoming-out or increase in retail gasoline prices could be looming.

"The street price crash is either coming to an end or is already at its bottom," Lundberg said, noting that it would take another substantial slide in the price of oil to reverse the gains in wholesale prices.

Both U.S. and Brent crude futures continued their decline in the past week, after finishing the week ended Jan. 16 up slightly. These shallower price losses were part of the reason why the gasoline price drop was less steep this week and contributed to the gains in wholesale prices.

On Friday, Brent crude closed up at $48.79 a barrel, while U.S. crude settled down 72 cents at $45.59.

The highest price within the survey area in the 48 contiguous U.S. states was recorded in San Francisco at $2.54 per gallon, with the lowest in Albuquerque, New Mexico at $1.73. (Editing by Eric Walsh)

Walmart Settles With Family Of Comedian Killed In Tracy Morgan Crash

NEW YORK (AP) — The family of a comedian killed in the New Jersey Turnpike crash that seriously injured Tracy Morgan last summer has settled a wrongful death claim with Wal-Mart.

The out-of-court settlement between Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and the estate of James McNair is the first stemming from the June 7 crash in which a Wal-Mart truck slammed into a limo van carrying Morgan and others home from a show in Delaware.

Morgan, the former "Saturday Night Live" and "30 Rock" star, suffered a traumatic brain injury in the accident, according to his lawyer. Criminal charges against truck driver Kevin Roper are pending in state court in New Jersey.

McNair, 62, of Peekskill, grew up with Morgan in Brooklyn and was a friend and mentor to him over the years.

The terms of the settlement are confidential, but McNair family attorney Daryl Zaslow told The Associated Press that they were pleased with the outcome.

Wal-Mart "caused extensive damage" to the family but accepted responsibility and "more than stepped up to the plate and took care of this family," Zaslow said.

"Ultimately they did the right thing by the McNairs," he said.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Brooke Buchanan said the company was working toward settlements with others injured in the accident.

"We know there is nothing we can do to change what happened to Mr. McNair," Buchanan said. "We're committed to doing what's right."

In an interview with the AP on Wednesday, McNair's children — Denita, 19, and Jamel, 26 — described their father as a humble, grounded man. They said he attained a level of fame but cared less about the trappings of celebrity than about helping others, whether through advice to young comedians or giving out free Thanksgiving turkeys to needy families in his hometown.

"You don't have to be a celebrity to make a difference in a lot of people's lives," Jamel McNair said. "My dad made a huge difference in a lot of people's lives."

Denita McNair was about to graduate from high school at the time of her father's death, and she said she hopes to go to college eventually after taking some time off. Jamel McNair is pursuing a singing career. Both said they haven't been contacted by Morgan or his representatives since the accident.

An attorney representing Morgan didn't immediately respond to a message seeking comment on the settlement Wednesday. The lawyer, Benedict Morelli, said last month that Morgan hadn't fully recovered from his brain injury and that it was uncertain if he would be "the Tracy Morgan he once was."

Passengers Ardley Fuqua, of Jersey City, New Jersey, and Jeffrey Millea, of Shelton, Connecticut, also suffered serious injuries in the June crash. A lawsuit filed against Wal-Mart by Morgan, Fuqua and Millea is proceeding in federal court.

Under terms of the settlement, Wal-Mart admitted no liability in the crash, Zaslow said, adding that the settlement was reached before the formal filing of a lawsuit.

Roper, the driver, has been charged with death by auto and four counts of assault by auto. According to the criminal complaint, Roper was operating the truck without having slept for more than 24 hours.

A preliminary investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board estimated that Roper was driving 65 mph in the 60 seconds before he slammed into the limo van. The speed limit on that stretch of the turnpike is 55 mph and was lowered to 45 mph that night because of construction.

European Central Bank Launches 1 Trillion Euro Stimulus

* ECB launches bond-buying program with new money

* Amounts to 60 bln euros a month together with existing schemes

* Program to run until end-September 2016

* National central banks to shoulder bulk of risk

* Euro tumbles in response

* Road to QE graphic: http://link.reuters.com/jum83w (Adds link to factbox, details Greek debt status)

FRANKFURT, Jan 22 (Reuters) - The European Central Bank took the ultimate policy leap on Thursday, launching a government bond-buying program which will pump hundreds of billions in new money into a sagging euro zone economy.

The ECB said it would purchase sovereign debt from this March until the end of September 2016, despite opposition from Germany's Bundesbank and concerns in Berlin that it could allow spendthrift countries to slacken economic reforms.

Together with existing schemes to buy private debt and funnel hundreds of billions of euros in cheap loans to banks, the new quantitative easing program will release 60 billion euros ($68 billion) a month into the economy, ECB President Mario Draghi said.

By September next year, more than 1 trillion euros will have been created under quantitative easing, the ECB's last remaining major policy option for reviving economic growth and warding off deflation. The flood of money impressed markets: the euro fell more than two U.S. cents to $1.14108 on the announcement, and European shares hit seven-year highs.

"All eyes were on Mario Draghi and he has delivered a bigger bazooka than investors were expecting," said Mauro Vittorangeli, a fixed income specialist at Allianz Global Investors, adding that the news marked "an historic crossroads for European markets."

The ECB and the central banks of euro zone countries will buy up bonds in proportion to its "capital key," meaning more debt will be scooped up from the biggest economies such as Germany than from small member states such as Ireland.

The prospect of dramatic ECB action had already prompted the Swiss central bank to abandon its cap on the franc against the euro. Denmark cut its main policy interest rate on Thursday for the second time this week after the ECB announcement, aiming to defend the Danish crown's peg to the euro.

Draghi has had to balance the need for action to lift the euro zone economy out of its torpor against German concerns about risk-sharing and that it might be left to foot the bill.

WILL IT WORK?

Economists noted that Draghi had said only 20 percent of purchases would be the responsibility of the ECB. This means the bulk of any potential losses, should a euro zone government default on its debt, would fall on national central banks.

Critics say this casts doubt over the unity of the euro zone and its principle of solidarity, and countries with already high debts could find themselves in yet deeper water.

"It is counterproductive to shift the risks of monetary policy to the national central banks," said former ECB policymaker Athanasios Orphanides. "It does not promote a single monetary policy. This path towards Balkanisation of monetary policy would signal that the ECB is preparing for a break-up of the euro."

A German lawyer who has been prominent in attempts to halt euro zone bailouts said he was already preparing a legal complaint against the bond-buying program.

Draghi said the ECB's Governing Council had been unanimous in agreeing that the step to print money was legally sound. There was a large majority on the need to trigger it now, "so large that we didn't need to take a vote."

"There was a consensus on risk-sharing set at 20 percent and 80 percent on a no-risk-sharing basis," he added.

One euro zone central banking source said five policymakers opposed the expanded asset-purchase plan: the central bank chiefs of Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Estonia, along with Executive Board member Sabine Lautenschlaeger, a German.

Guntram Wolff, head of the Bruegel think tank, said the plan's size was impressive. "But the ECB has given the signal ... that its monetary policy is not a single one. That's a bad signal to markets and a bad signal to everybody in the euro zone."

The ECB is trying to push euro zone annual inflation back up to its target of just below two percent; consumer prices fell last month, raising fears of a Japanese-style deflationary spiral. But there are doubts, and not only in Germany, over whether printing fresh money will work.

Most euro zone government bond yields are at ultra-low levels and the euro had already dropped sharply against the dollar. Lower borrowing costs and a weaker currency could both help to boost economic growth but there is a question about how much further either can fall.

The ECB could create the basis for growth, Draghi said, but he put the onus on governments to follow. "For growth to pick up ... you need structural reforms," he said. "It's now up to the governments to implement these structural reforms. The more they do, the more effective will be our monetary policy."

Draghi was echoing the view of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who said: "Regardless of what the ECB does, it should not obscure the fact that the real growth impulses must come from conditions set by the politicians."

The ECB has already cut interest rates to record lows and left its refinancing rate, which determines the cost of euro zone credit, at 0.05 percent.

Greece and Cyprus, which remain under EU/IMF bailout programs, will be eligible for the ECB program but subject to stricter conditions.

In practice, Greek debt does not currently qualify as another rule stipulates that a maximum 33 percent of the bonds issued by any country may be bought. The ECB and other euro zone central banks already own more than this, although they may start purchases once enough of their Greek bonds have matured to take the total below the 33 percent threshold.

Greece votes on Sunday in an election where anti-bailout opposition party Syriza is on track to emerge as the biggest party in parliament.

($1 = 0.8752 euros) (Writing by Mike Peacock and Paul Carrel. Additional reporting by Noah Barkin in Davos. Editing by Jeremy Gaunt and David Stamp)

Tootsie Roll CEO Melvin Gordon Dies At 95

(Adds analyst comment, details, updates shares)

By Sruthi Ramakrishnan and Nayan Das

Jan 21 (Reuters) - The chief executive of Tootsie Roll Industries Inc has died after more than half a century at the helm of the U.S. candy maker, sparking speculation that the company could soon be ripe for acquisition.

Tootsie Roll's shares rose as much as 8 percent to a 17-month high of $33.28 on Wednesday.

Melvin Gordon died, aged 95, after a brief illness, according to a statement from the company he had headed since 1962. His wife, Ellen Gordon, takes over as chief executive.

The Tootsie Roll is named after the daughter of an Austrian immigrant, Leo Hirshfield, who first produced the chewy chocolate candy in a small New York City store in 1896. Now based in Chicago, the company has a market capitalization of about $1.9 billion.

Ellen Gordon, who is in her 80s and was previously chief operating officer, is the company's largest shareholder, with a 26 percent stake as of March 14. Melvin Gordon had a 21.9 percent stake as of Dec. 12.

"There's been speculation for years that it's going to be sold," said Timothy Chen, analyst at Rhone Trading Partners.

Growing through acquisitions, Tootsie Roll became the world's largest maker of lollipops when it bought The Charms Co in 1988.

It later acquired Sugar Daddy and Junior Mints and, in 2004, Concord Confections, adding Dubble Bubble and Wack-o-Wax to the candies it produces.

After four straight years of growth, though, Tootsie Roll reported revenue of $543.4 million for 2013, a 1.2 percent drop.

One of the oldest CEOs of a U.S. company, Gordon rarely gave interviews.

The company was well-known, however, for its commercials: it claims to have received more than 20,000 letters from children trying to answer a question posed by an owl in a 1970s commercial: how many licks does it take to reach the center of a Tootsie Pop?

Elliott Schlang, managing director of the Great Lakes Review, said the popularity of Tootsie Roll's brands, as well as its real estate assets in Chicago and the fact that Gordon's children are not directly involved in the business, make the company an attractive target.

Schlang said the company could be a target for candy makers, including Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc through its See's Candies division. Berkshire Hathaway did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tootsie Roll's shares closed up 7.1 percent at $32.99 on the New York Stock Exchange. (Additional reporting by Siddharth Cavale; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Simon Jennings)

Obamacare Is Close To Achieving Goal Of 9.1 Million Signups

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is moving closer to its goal of 9.1 million people signed up for private coverage under the president's health care law.

The Health and Human Services Department says at least 400,000 people signed up last week. That brought total enrollment in the 37 states served by HealthCare.gov to more than 7.1 million.

National figures should be significantly higher because the federal count doesn't include major states such as California and New York that are running their own markets.

Florida leads the federal marketplace states, with more than 1.2 million people enrolled. Texas has nearly 920,000.

The administration is expecting a surge near the Feb. 15 sign-up deadline.

The law offers subsidized private coverage to people who don't have health insurance on the job.

Walmart Settles With Family Of Comedian Killed In Tracy Morgan Crash

NEW YORK (AP) — The family of a comedian killed in the New Jersey Turnpike crash that seriously injured Tracy Morgan last summer has settled a wrongful death claim with Wal-Mart.

The out-of-court settlement between Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and the estate of James McNair is the first stemming from the June 7 crash in which a Wal-Mart truck slammed into a limo van carrying Morgan and others home from a show in Delaware.

Morgan, the former "Saturday Night Live" and "30 Rock" star, suffered a traumatic brain injury in the accident, according to his lawyer. Criminal charges against truck driver Kevin Roper are pending in state court in New Jersey.

McNair, 62, of Peekskill, grew up with Morgan in Brooklyn and was a friend and mentor to him over the years.

The terms of the settlement are confidential, but McNair family attorney Daryl Zaslow told The Associated Press that they were pleased with the outcome.

Wal-Mart "caused extensive damage" to the family but accepted responsibility and "more than stepped up to the plate and took care of this family," Zaslow said.

"Ultimately they did the right thing by the McNairs," he said.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Brooke Buchanan said the company was working toward settlements with others injured in the accident.

"We know there is nothing we can do to change what happened to Mr. McNair," Buchanan said. "We're committed to doing what's right."

In an interview with the AP on Wednesday, McNair's children — Denita, 19, and Jamel, 26 — described their father as a humble, grounded man. They said he attained a level of fame but cared less about the trappings of celebrity than about helping others, whether through advice to young comedians or giving out free Thanksgiving turkeys to needy families in his hometown.

"You don't have to be a celebrity to make a difference in a lot of people's lives," Jamel McNair said. "My dad made a huge difference in a lot of people's lives."

Denita McNair was about to graduate from high school at the time of her father's death, and she said she hopes to go to college eventually after taking some time off. Jamel McNair is pursuing a singing career. Both said they haven't been contacted by Morgan or his representatives since the accident.

An attorney representing Morgan didn't immediately respond to a message seeking comment on the settlement Wednesday. The lawyer, Benedict Morelli, said last month that Morgan hadn't fully recovered from his brain injury and that it was uncertain if he would be "the Tracy Morgan he once was."

Passengers Ardley Fuqua, of Jersey City, New Jersey, and Jeffrey Millea, of Shelton, Connecticut, also suffered serious injuries in the June crash. A lawsuit filed against Wal-Mart by Morgan, Fuqua and Millea is proceeding in federal court.

Under terms of the settlement, Wal-Mart admitted no liability in the crash, Zaslow said, adding that the settlement was reached before the formal filing of a lawsuit.

Roper, the driver, has been charged with death by auto and four counts of assault by auto. According to the criminal complaint, Roper was operating the truck without having slept for more than 24 hours.

A preliminary investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board estimated that Roper was driving 65 mph in the 60 seconds before he slammed into the limo van. The speed limit on that stretch of the turnpike is 55 mph and was lowered to 45 mph that night because of construction.

Show This Chart To The Next Person Who Isn't Worried About Income Inequality

If you find it hard to grasp just how unequal the global economy is, here's one stat that should put it all in perspective: The richest 80 people on Earth are now as wealthy as the world's 3.5 billion poorest people. In other words, 80 people control as much wealth as half the population of the planet.

That's one of the most shocking findings from a report released Monday by Oxfam, an international charity dedicated to finding solutions to global poverty. The report's overall point is that global inequality is soaring to amazingly high levels as the world's richest just keep getting richer.

Here's the chart we think makes that point most clearly:

As you can see from the chart above, it hasn't always been this bad. In 2010, it took a slightly greater number of rich people -- 388 billionaires, to be exact -- to equal the collective wealth of the world's poorest 50 percent.

The report also found that by next year, the richest 1 percent of earners will control more than half of the world's total wealth.

These are the kinds of scary statistics that the economist Thomas Piketty warns against in Capital in the Twenty-First Century, his 700-page volume that was published in French in 2013 and in English last year. Piketty uses centuries of data to show how returns on capital tend to grow faster than the economy. This is a problem because capital is generally concentrated in the wealthiest of households, meaning the rich are getting richer much more rapidly than the rest of us.

As a solution, Piketty has called for a global wealth tax.

Oxfam describes a couple other possible ways to rein in wealth inequality, like promoting pay equality for women, paying workers a living wage and closing tax loopholes that benefit big corporations.

Richest 1 Percent To Own More Than Half Of The World's Wealth By 2016, Oxfam Finds

The rich keep getting richer, and by next year, just a handful of the upper-class will have accumulated more than half of the world's wealth.

A new report released on Monday by Oxfam warns that this deepening global inequality is unlike anything seen in recent years.

Using research from Credit Suisse and Forbes' annual billionaires list, the anti-poverty charity was able to determine that the richest 1 percent of the world's population currently controls 48 percent of the world's total wealth.

If trends continue, Oxfam predicts that the most-affluent will possess more wealth than the remaining 99 percent by 2016, The New York Times reported.

Drill down the numbers even more and you'll learn that the 80 wealthiest people in the world possess $1.9 trillion, which is almost the same amount shared by some 3.5 billion people at the bottom half of the world's income scale.

Thirty-five of the lucky 80 were Americans with a combined wealth of $941 billion. Germany and Russia shared second place, with seven uber-rich individuals apiece.

Not surprisingly, the richest were titans in the finance, health care, insurance, retail, tech and extractives (oil, gas) industries, and they paid fortunes to lobbyists to maintain or increase their riches. Seventy of the world's wealthiest were men. And 11 members of the elite 80 simply inherited their wealth.

"Do we really want to live in a world where the 1 percent own more than the rest of us combined?" Oxfam executive director Winnie Byanyima said in a letter. "The scale of global inequality is quite simply staggering and despite the issues shooting up the global agenda, the gap between the richest and the rest is widening fast."

This week, more than 2,500 of the world's rich and powerful will fly to Switzerland on hundreds of private jets to attend the World Economic Forum. There they will chat about the financial markets and economic trends while eating the finest food and staying in Davos' five-star hotels.

Oxfam will also be in Davos, urging the wealthy and powerful to tackle the rising inequality situation. The charity hopes to encourage world and business leaders to improve public services, introduce living wages, end the gender pay gap and crack down on tax-dodging corporations, Reuters reported.

In the meantime, more than 1 billion people on this planet continue to live on less than $1.25 a day.

Wet Seal Is Bankrupt

NEW YORK (AP) — The Wet Seal Inc. has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in an effort to keep its remaining teen clothing stores open.

The announcement Friday comes a little over a week after the chain said that it was closing 338 stores, or about two-thirds of its total.

Fellow teen clothing retailers Delia's Inc. and Deb Stores filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December, further evidence of trouble in a business being hurt by tough competition and changing tastes among teenagers.

Wet Seal had warned last month that it might need to file for bankruptcy protection if it did not resolve its cash issues after reporting another quarter of losses.

Wet Seal and other chains are being hurt by stores like H&M and Forever 21 that are wooing young people with fast-changing selections of low-priced fashion. Teens are also more interested in outfitting themselves with the latest tech gadgets than new jeans.

The retailer began in 1962 as a bikini shack in Newport Beach, California. It was acquired by Canadian retailer Suzy Shier in 1984. The company, which today sells clothing, shoes and accessories aimed at teenage girls, went public in 1990.

Wet Seal expanded with additions such as Contempo Casuals, Arden B. and Zutopia. Wet Seal acquired Contempo in 1995, adding 200 Contempo Casuals stores. All of those stores were converted to the Wet Seal name by 2001.

Wet Seal has dealt with a long-running series of problems. The company restructured in 2013, closing stores, cutting jobs and changing management.

The executive shuffle included hiring retail-industry veteran John Goodman in January 2013 to help refocus the company after it fired former CEO Susan McGalla in July 2012 amid falling sales. Goodman resigned in September 2014, and Wet Seal brought back Ed Thomas, a former president and CEO, to lead the company.

In addition, Wet Seal dealt with a proxy battle in 2012 with an investment group that wasn't happy with its financial performance. And in 2013 the retailer agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle a federal racial discrimination lawsuit filed by three former employees.

Last year, year Wet Seal decided to shut down its Arden B chain, closing some stores and converting some to the Wet Seal name.

"Wet Seal failed for two reasons: a company that failed to stay in tune with their customers and new rivals like H&M that were able to get cooler merchandise to the stores quicker and with slightly better quality than Wet Seal," Brian Sozzi, CEO and chief equities strategist at Belus Capital Advisors, said.

Bigger retailers like J.C. Penney Co. and Kohl's Corp. also "upped their games" in teen girls clothing, Sozzi said.

Wet Seal hopes to keep operating during bankruptcy. The Foothill Ranch, California-based company was running 173 stores in 42 states and Puerto Rico as of Thursday.

The retailer said that it has arranged a $20 million term loan facility through B. Riley Financial Inc. to help it keep paying its vendors and landlords. That funding still needs to be approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

The agreement would make B. Riley the majority stockholder of Wet Seal once the retailer exits bankruptcy.

Wet Seal estimates its assets to be between $10 million and $50 million, according to its bankruptcy filing. Liabilities are estimated between $100 million and $500 million. The company's largest creditor is Hudson Bay Master Fund Ltd. Other big creditors are primarily its shopping-mall landlords.

Shares of the company tumbled about 3 cents, or 40 percent, to 5 cents in Friday afternoon trading. Companies' common stock often becomes worthless in a bankruptcy reorganization.

Consumer Prices Just Fell The Most In 6 Years. Start Worrying

Good news, consumers: Everything's on sale! The bad news: Low, low prices aren't always such a great thing.

The U.S. consumer price index tumbled 0.4 percent in December from the month before, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday, led by a 9.4-percent crash in the cost of gasoline. It was the biggest one-month drop for consumer prices since December 2008, when the world was still gripped by the financial crisis.

Please note the context there: Sometimes prices fall not because of angel kisses and unicorn dreams, but because everything is going to hell.

Is everything going to hell right now? Maybe not. Probably not? But some scary things are happening. The price of crude oil has been cut in half in a matter of months. The Swiss National Bank on Thursday gave up trying to keep panicky investors from buying the safe-haven Swiss franc, causing turmoil and bloodshed in currency markets. Interest rates around the world keep plunging to record lows, in a year everybody expects interest rates to rise because of booming economic growth and demand for loans.

Meanwhile, U.S. consumer prices are up just 0.8 percent in the past year, the weakest 12-month stretch since 2009. The euro zone is in outright "deflation," which is the opposite of inflation -- prices fall instead of rise. Japan, the World Deflation Champion for two decades, is tottering on the edge of it again.

Everybody loves falling prices, but sometimes we love them too much. If prices fall and fall and keep falling, then we'll put off buying stuff because we expect that stuff to be cheaper tomorrow and even cheaper the day after that. When everybody's sitting around not buying stuff, you can have what is known as a depression. Depressions are not good.

To fight off the risk of a depression, central banks around the world have cut interest rates to zero and, in some cases, less than zero, to try to get people to pull money out of banks and spend it on clothes or Google Glass or meth or something, anything.

It's working OK for the U.S., at least. The Federal Reserve got out in front of the deflation thing early and has managed to keep the U.S. economy humping along. Job growth is steady and improving, and wages might some day start rising, which could encourage people to spend more. The Fed expects this recent bout of falling prices to be temporary.

The Fed is so darn confident that all of this stuff will pass, in fact, that it's planning to start raising interest rates, pulling support away from the U.S. economy, just at the moment the rest of the world is having a bit of a moment. Should be interesting.

Wet Seal Is Bankrupt

NEW YORK (AP) — The Wet Seal Inc. has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in an effort to keep its remaining teen clothing stores open.

The announcement Friday comes a little over a week after the chain said that it was closing 338 stores, or about two-thirds of its total.

Fellow teen clothing retailers Delia's Inc. and Deb Stores filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December, further evidence of trouble in a business being hurt by tough competition and changing tastes among teenagers.

Wet Seal had warned last month that it might need to file for bankruptcy protection if it did not resolve its cash issues after reporting another quarter of losses.

Wet Seal and other chains are being hurt by stores like H&M and Forever 21 that are wooing young people with fast-changing selections of low-priced fashion. Teens are also more interested in outfitting themselves with the latest tech gadgets than new jeans.

The retailer began in 1962 as a bikini shack in Newport Beach, California. It was acquired by Canadian retailer Suzy Shier in 1984. The company, which today sells clothing, shoes and accessories aimed at teenage girls, went public in 1990.

Wet Seal expanded with additions such as Contempo Casuals, Arden B. and Zutopia. Wet Seal acquired Contempo in 1995, adding 200 Contempo Casuals stores. All of those stores were converted to the Wet Seal name by 2001.

Wet Seal has dealt with a long-running series of problems. The company restructured in 2013, closing stores, cutting jobs and changing management.

The executive shuffle included hiring retail-industry veteran John Goodman in January 2013 to help refocus the company after it fired former CEO Susan McGalla in July 2012 amid falling sales. Goodman resigned in September 2014, and Wet Seal brought back Ed Thomas, a former president and CEO, to lead the company.

In addition, Wet Seal dealt with a proxy battle in 2012 with an investment group that wasn't happy with its financial performance. And in 2013 the retailer agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle a federal racial discrimination lawsuit filed by three former employees.

Last year, year Wet Seal decided to shut down its Arden B chain, closing some stores and converting some to the Wet Seal name.

"Wet Seal failed for two reasons: a company that failed to stay in tune with their customers and new rivals like H&M that were able to get cooler merchandise to the stores quicker and with slightly better quality than Wet Seal," Brian Sozzi, CEO and chief equities strategist at Belus Capital Advisors, said.

Bigger retailers like J.C. Penney Co. and Kohl's Corp. also "upped their games" in teen girls clothing, Sozzi said.

Wet Seal hopes to keep operating during bankruptcy. The Foothill Ranch, California-based company was running 173 stores in 42 states and Puerto Rico as of Thursday.

The retailer said that it has arranged a $20 million term loan facility through B. Riley Financial Inc. to help it keep paying its vendors and landlords. That funding still needs to be approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

The agreement would make B. Riley the majority stockholder of Wet Seal once the retailer exits bankruptcy.

Wet Seal estimates its assets to be between $10 million and $50 million, according to its bankruptcy filing. Liabilities are estimated between $100 million and $500 million. The company's largest creditor is Hudson Bay Master Fund Ltd. Other big creditors are primarily its shopping-mall landlords.

Shares of the company tumbled about 3 cents, or 40 percent, to 5 cents in Friday afternoon trading. Companies' common stock often becomes worthless in a bankruptcy reorganization.

Geopolitical Conflict Is World's Top Economic Risk, Report Says

LONDON (AP) — Following a year marked by the conflict in Ukraine and the rise of the Islamic State, geopolitical issues are considered to be the biggest threat to global stability over the coming decade, according to experts polled by the World Economic Forum.

In its 2015 Global Risks Report, published Thursday, the WEF found "interstate conflict with regional consequences" to be the top risk facing the world, ahead of extreme weather, the spread of infectious diseases, climate change and sky-high youth unemployment levels in some parts of the world.

"Twenty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the world again faces the risk of major conflict between states," said Margareta Drzeniek-Hanouz, WEF's lead economist.

She said the means to wage such conflict are broader than ever, whether through cyberattack, competition for resources or sanctions and other economic tools.

"Addressing all these possible triggers and seeking to return the world to a path of partnership, rather than competition, should be a priority for leaders as we enter 2015," she said.

The report, now in its 10th year, helps set the tone for discussions at the annual WEF gathering in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, which starts next week.

Its findings show a marked change from the recent past. Geopolitical concerns have been largely absent from the WEF's list of top risks for the past half-decade. A year ago, income inequality was considered to be the major concern. Now, that issue doesn't even make it into the top 5.

John Veihmeyer, global chairman of consulting firm KPMG International, was unsurprised by the findings of the WEF report. "If you look at the major change from a year ago, it is the rapid escalation of geopolitical risk on the agenda of CEOs," he said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Though economic matters didn't feature in the risk report as much as they have done in recent years, the WEF's Drzeniek-Hanouz said it would be complacent to think the economic risks have suddenly disappeared.

When asked to assess risks in terms of their potential impact, the nearly 900 experts surveyed by WEF found water crises as the greatest threat to the world. Another top risk identified was the spread of infectious diseases — unsurprising given the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.