Rejected French tax measures worth 300-500 million euros: finance minister

PARIS (Reuters) - The French Constitutional Council's rejection on Saturday of a 75 percent upper income tax rate and other minor measures in the 2013 budget will affect some 300-500 million euros worth of tax revenues, Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said.
"The rejected measures represent 300 to 500 million euros. Our deficit-cutting path will not be affected," Moscovici told BFM television.
He added that the Socialist government would resubmit a proposal to raise taxes on high incomes in 2013 and 2014.

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AP Sources: 'Fiscal cliff' deal emerging

WASHINGTON (AP) — Working with Congress against a midnight deadline, President Barack Obama said Monday that a deal to avert the "fiscal cliff" was in sight but not yet finalized. The emerging deal would raise tax rates on family income over $450,000 and individual income over $400,000 a year, increase the estate tax rate and extend unemployment benefits for one year.
"There are still issues left to resolve but we're hopeful Congress can get it done," Obama said at a campaign-style event at the White House. "But it's not done."
In the building New Year's Eve drama, the parties still were at an impasse over whether to put off the automatic, across-the-board spending cuts set to take effect at the beginning of the year and if so, how to pay for that.
One official said talks were focused on a two-month delay in the across-the-board cuts but negotiators had yet to agree on about $24 billion in savings from elsewhere in the budget. Democrats had asked for the cuts to be put off for one year and be offset by unspecified revenue.
The president said that whatever last-minute fixes are necessary, they must come from a blend of tax revenue and constrained spending, not just budget cuts.
And a little more than an hour after Obama spoke, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said it was time to decouple the two major issues.
"We'll continue to work on smarter ways to cut spending, but let's not let that hold up protecting Americans from a tax hike that will take place in about ten hours," he said.
Officials emphasized that negotiations were continuing and the emerging deal was not yet final. And a confident Obama, flanked by cheering middle class Americans in a White House auditorium, jabbed Congress, saying lawmakers were prone to last-minute delays.
"One thing we can count on with respect to this Congress is that if there's even one second left before you have to do what you're supposed to do, they will use that last second," he said.
Speaking shortly afterward on the Senate floor, Sen. John McCain said that "at a time of crisis, on New Year's Eve...you had the president of the United States go over and have a cheerleading, ridiculing-of-Republicans exercise." The Arizona Republican lost the 2008 presidential race to Obama.
Unless an agreement is reached and approved by Congress at the start of the New Year, more than $500 billion in 2013 tax increases will take effect immediately and $109 billion in cuts will be carved from defense and domestic programs
Though the tax hikes and budget cuts would be felt gradually, economists warn that if allowed to fully take hold, their combined impact — the so-called fiscal cliff — would rekindle a recession.
The current proposal in the works would raise the tax rates on family income over $450,000 and individual income over $400,000 from 35 percent to 39.6 percent, the same level as under former President Bill Clinton. Also, estates would be taxed at 40 percent after the first $5 million for an individual and $10 million for a couple, up from 35 percent to 40 percent.
Unemployment benefits would be extended for one year. Without the extension, 2 million people would lose benefits beginning in early January.
A Republican official familiar with the plans confirmed the details described to The Associated Press.
The officials requested anonymity in order to discuss the internal negotiations.
The president said his hopes for a larger, more sweeping deal have been dashed and said that such an accommodation was not possible "with this Congress at this time."
But even with this fight not finished, Obama warned Republicans, specifically, about the battles still ahead. He said he would not accept any debt-reduction deals in the new year that rely on slashing spending without raising taxes, too. Cuts alone won't happen anymore "at least as long as I'm president, and I'm going to be president for the next four years."
Urgent talks were continuing Monday afternoon between the White House and congressional Republicans, with longtime negotiating partners Vice President Joe Biden and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell at the helm. Underscoring the flurry of activity, another GOP aide said the two men had conversations at 12:45 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. Monday.
An agreement on the proposed deal would also shield Medicare doctors from a 27 percent cut in fees and extend tax credits for research and development, as well as renewable energy.
The deal would also extend for five years a series of tax credits meant to lessen the financial burden on poorer and middle-class families, including one credit that helps people pay for college.
The deal would achieve about $600 billion in new revenue, the officials said.
Despite the progress in negotiations, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid warned that time was running out to finalize the deal.
"Americans are still threatened with a tax hike in just a few hours," said Reid, D-Nev., as the Senate began an unusual New Year's Eve session.
Liberal Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, took to the Senate floor after Reid to warn Democratic bargainers against lowering levies on large inherited estates and raising the income threshold at which higher tax rates would kick in.
"No deal is better than a bad deal. And this look like a very bad deal the way this is shaping up," said Harkin.
Letting tax rates rise for couples with incomes of $450,000 a year is a concessions for Obama, who campaigned for re-election on a pledge to set the levels at $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples. It also marked a significant concession by Republican leaders who pledged to continue the George W. Bush-era tax cuts for all income earners. .
The hope of the White House and lawmakers was to seal an agreement, enact it and send it to Obama for his signature before taxpayers felt the impact of higher income taxes or federal agencies began issuing furloughs or taking other steps required by spending cuts.
Regardless of the fate of the negotiations, it appeared all workers would experience a cut in their take-home pay with the expiration of a two-year cut in payroll taxes.
In a move that was sure to irritate Republicans, Reid was planning — absent a deal — to force a Senate vote Monday on Obama's campaign-season proposal to continue expiring tax cuts for all but those with income exceeding $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples.
As the New Year's Eve deadline rapidly approached, Democrats and Republicans found themselves at odds over a host of issues, including taxing large inherited estates. Republicans wanted the tax left at its current 35 percent, with the first $5.1 million excluded, while Democrats wanted the rate increased to 45 percent with a smaller exclusion.
The two sides were also apart on how to keep the alternative minimum tax from raising the tax bills of nearly 30 million middle-income families and how to extend tax breaks for research by business and other activities.
Republicans were insisting that budget cuts be found to pay for some of the spending proposals Democrats were pushing.
These included proposals to erase scheduled defense and domestic cuts exceeding $200 billion over the next two years and to extend unemployment benefits. Republicans complained that in effect, Democrats would pay for that spending with the tax boosts on the wealthy.
"We can't use tax increases on anyone to pay for more spending," said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas.

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Despite deal, taxes to rise for most Americans

WASHINGTON (AP) -- While the tax package that Congress passed New Year's Day will protect 99 percent of Americans from an income tax increase, most of them will still end up paying more federal taxes in 2013.
That's because the legislation did nothing to prevent a temporary reduction in the Social Security payroll tax from expiring. In 2012, that 2-percentage-point cut in the payroll tax was worth about $1,000 to a worker making $50,000 a year.
The Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan Washington research group, estimates that 77 percent of American households will face higher federal taxes in 2013 under the agreement negotiated between President Barack Obama and Senate Republicans. High-income families will feel the biggest tax increases, but many middle- and low-income families will pay higher taxes too.
Households making between $40,000 and $50,000 will face an average tax increase of $579 in 2013, according to the Tax Policy Center's analysis. Households making between $50,000 and $75,000 will face an average tax increase of $822.
"For most people, it's just the payroll tax," said Roberton Williams, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center.
The tax increases could be a lot higher. A huge package of tax cuts first enacted under President George W. Bush was scheduled to expire Tuesday as part of the "fiscal cliff." The Bush-era tax cuts lowered taxes for families at every income level, reduced investment taxes and the estate tax, and enhanced a number of tax credits, including a $1,000-per-child credit.
The package passed Tuesday by the Senate and House extends most the Bush-era tax cuts for individuals making less than $400,000 and married couples making less than $450,000.
Obama said the deal "protects 98 percent of Americans and 97 percent of small business owners from a middle-class tax hike. While neither Democrats nor Republicans got everything they wanted, this agreement is the right thing to do for our country."
The income threshold covers more than 99 percent of all households, exceeding Obama's claim, according to the Tax Policy Center. However, the increase in payroll taxes will hit nearly every wage earner.
Social Security is financed by a 12.4 percent tax on wages up to $113,700, with employers paying half and workers paying the other half. Obama and Congress reduced the share paid by workers from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent for 2011 and 2012, saving a typical family about $1,000 a year.
Obama pushed hard to enact the payroll tax cut for 2011 and to extend it through 2012. But it was never fully embraced by either party, and this time around, there was general agreement to let it expire.
The new tax package would increase the income tax rate from 35 percent to 39.6 percent on income above $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for married couples. Investment taxes would increase for people who fall in the new top tax bracket.
High-income families will also pay higher taxes this year as part of Obama's 2010 health care law. As part of that law, a new 3.8 percent tax is being imposed on investment income for individuals making more than $200,000 a year and couples making more than $250,000.
Together, the new tax package and Obama's health care law will produce significant tax increases for many high-income families.
For 2013, households making between $500,000 and $1 million would get an average tax increase of $14,812, according to the Tax Policy Center analysis. Households making more than $1 million would get an average tax increase of $170,341.
"If you're rich, you're almost certain to get a big tax increase," Williams said.

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'Mini-trial' expected at hearing for suspect in Colorado movie theatre shootings

CENTENNIAL, Colo. - A suspect appears in court Monday, nearly six months after a bloody rampage in a Colorado movie theatre left 12 people dead, for a hearing that might be the closest thing to a trial the victims and their families will get to see.
James Holmes, a former neuroscience graduate student, is charged with killing 12 people and injuring 70 by opening fire in a darkened theatre showing the new Batman film "The Dark Knight Rises" in the Denver suburb of Aurora last July.
At a weeklong preliminary hearing starting Monday, prosecutors will outline their case against Holmes, the first official public disclosure of their evidence. The judge will then determine whether to send the case to trial.
Legal analysts say that the evidence appears to be so strong that Holmes may well accept a plea agreement before trial. In such cases, the preliminary hearing can set the stage for a deal by letting each side assess the other's strengths and weaknesses, said Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor and now a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
Preliminary hearings "are often the first step to resolving the case, a mini-trial so both sides can see the writing on the wall," Levenson said.
Judges rarely throw out a case at this stage because prosecutors must only meet a "probable cause" standard — much lower than the "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard for a guilty verdict at trial, said Mimi Wesson, a professor of law at the University of Colorado Law School.
Holmes, who faces more than 160 counts including first-degree murder and attempted murder, could have waived his right to a preliminary hearing, allowing lawyers on both sides to prepare for trial. But defence lawyers sometimes go through with the hearing because it gives them a clearer picture of the prosecution's evidence.
"In this case, I think it likely that the genuine purpose of the hearing would be information-gathering by the defence," Wesson said.
Court officials expect many survivors and family members of the dead to attend the preliminary hearing, along with scores of spectators and reporters. At least two overflow rooms are being prepared where the hearing can be observed by video and audio feeds.
District Judge William B. Sylvester has imposed a gag order on attorneys and investigators, and many court documents have been filed under seal, so little is known about Holmes' path from promising graduate student to suspect in a mass murder.
The few details that have been made public suggest a disturbing descent.
Holmes enrolled in the University of Colorado, Denver Ph.D. program in neuroscience in 2011. In the spring of 2012, authorities say, he began buying weapons, high-capacity magazines, ammunition, explosives and combat gear. At some point in the school year, he began seeing a university psychiatrist. He failed an oral exam on June 7 and withdrew from the university three days later.
He was arrested outside the theatre shortly after the July 20 shootings. Federal authorities have said he entered the theatre with a ticket and is believed to have propped open a door, slipped out to his car and returned with his weapons.
Hours later, investigators found his apartment booby-trapped with potentially deadly explosives, police said.
In previous hearings — many witnessed by victims and survivors — Holmes' appearance and behaviour ranged from bizarre to unremarkable. On his first day in court, his hair was a shocking orange-red, his face was covered with stubble and he seemed to be in a daze.
By last week, his hair was a natural-looking brown and he wore a full beard. He sat quietly and seemed to be aware of the proceedings.
Holmes could get the death penalty or life in prison without parole if he goes to trial and is convicted of murder. He could avoid the death penalty if his lawyers argue he is mentally ill or innocent by reason of insanity.
Holmes' mental health is expected to be a major factor whether his case ends in a plea agreement or goes to trial.
His lawyers have told the judge that Holmes was mentally ill, and court records indicate they may call witnesses in the preliminary hearing to testify about his mental health. The defence team has not said whether Holmes would enter an insanity plea.
An insanity plea is different from the competency argument used for Jared Loughner, who pleaded guilty to killing six people and wounding 13, including then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, in Arizona in 2011.
A judge ruled in May 2011 that Loughner was mentally incompetent to stand trial and ordered him to undergo psychiatric treatment. After Loughner spent more than a year in treatment, the judge ruled he had become competent, and Loughner accepted a plea agreement that carried a sentence of life in prison without parole instead of execution.
The decision on whether to seek the death penalty will be up to the new district attorney for Arapahoe County, George Brauchler, who was elected in November and takes office Tuesday, after the preliminary hearing begins. Brauchler has not indicated what he will do.
A spokeswoman for outgoing District Attorney Carol Chambers, who oversaw the filing of charges against Holmes, declined to comment.
If prosecutors do not seek the death penalty, and if Holmes is convicted of or pleads guilty to first-degree murder charges, he would face a mandatory sentence of life without parole.

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Lawmakers dig in heels on debt crisis, McConnell suggests crippling US default possible

WASHINGTON - Congressional leaders showed no signs of giving ground to resolve the next step in the financial crisis, with Democrats still talking about higher taxes on the wealthy and the Senate's top Republican suggesting that a crippling default on U.S. loans was possible unless there were significant cuts in government spending.
"It's a shame we have to use whatever leverage we have in Congress to get the president to deal with the biggest problem confronting our future, and that's our excessive spending," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Sunday.
Last week's deal to avert the combination of end-of-year tax increases and spending cuts known as the "fiscal cliff" held income tax rates steady for 99 per cent of Americans but left some other major pieces of business unresolved.
By late February or early March, the Treasury Department will run out of options to cover the nation's debts and could begin defaulting on government loans unless Congress raises the legal borrowing limit, or debt ceiling. Economists warn that a default could trigger a global recession.
Also looming are deep automatic spending cuts that are now scheduled to take effect at the beginning of March that could further erase fragile gains in the U.S. economy. Then on March 27, the temporary measure that funds government activities expires, and congressional approval will be needed to keep the government running. It's one more chance to fight over spending
Lawmakers said debt talks will consume Congress in the coming weeks, likely delaying any consideration of an expected White House proposal on gun restrictions in the wake of the Connecticut school shooting.
Republicans say they are willing to raise the debt ceiling but insist any increase must be paired with significant savings from Medicare, Medicaid and other government benefit programs. Democrats are reluctant to make deep cuts to Medicare, the government program that provides health care coverage for the elderly, and Medicaid, which covers the poor.
President Barack Obama has said he's willing to consider spending cuts separately but won't bargain over the government's borrowing authority.
"One thing I will not compromise over is whether or not Congress should pay the tab for a bill they've already racked up," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address.
Democrats said further tax increases for the wealthiest Americans were still possible as Congress looks to close the gap between revenues and expenditures. Democrats point out that Obama has already agreed to significant spending cuts, and that the latest deal only gets the nation to about half of the revenue it needs to resolve the red ink.
"Trust me, there are plenty of things within that tax code — these loopholes where people can park their money in some island offshore and not pay taxes. These are things that need to be closed. We can do that and use the money to reduce the deficit," said Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the second-ranking Senate Democrat.
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said she, too, wants to put "everything on the table from the standpoint of closing loopholes."
But McConnell bluntly declared that the "tax issue is over" after last week's agreement.
"We don't have this problem because we tax too little; we have it because we spend too much," McConnell said.
Making the rounds on the Sunday talk shows, McConnell was asked repeatedly whether Republicans were prepared to see the nation default on its spending obligations. McConnell said that wouldn't be necessary, so long as Obama agrees to the spending cuts.
But at one point, when asked by NBC's David Gregory whether the Republican strategy will be to hold the debt ceiling "ransom" in exchange for spending cuts, McConnell said it was a "shame we have to use whatever leverage we have" to get the president's attention.
"None of us like using situations like the sequester (automatic across-the-board spending cuts) or the debt ceiling or the operation of government to try to engage the president to deal with this," McConnell said.
Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina didn't dismiss the idea of allowing a partial shutdown of government until an agreement can be reached. Texas Sen. John Cornyn and other Republicans have floated the idea of a shutdown as a way of winning deeper spending cuts.
"I believe we need to raise the debt ceiling, but if we don't raise it without a plan to get out of debt, all of us should be fired," Graham said.
Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, said the Republican strategy amounted to: "Give us what we want ... or we're going to tank the United States economy."
Pelosi said she believes the president has enough authority under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to raise the debt ceiling without Congress' blessing. But the White House has said previously that it does not believe that the amendment — which says the "validity" of public debt shouldn't be questioned — gives the president that power.
McConnell spoke on NBC's "Meet the Press," ABC "This Week" and CBS "Face the Nation." Pelosi was on CBS. Durbin and Graham appeared on CNN's "State of the Union" and Van Hollen was interviewed on "Fox News Sunday.

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Asian shares slip, Basel ruling supports banks

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Asian stocks drifted down on Monday as investors booked profits from a New Year rally that had pushed markets to multi-month highs, although financial stocks gained after global regulators decided to relax draft plans for tough new bank liquidity rules.
Commodity prices mostly held steady, supported by data showing the U.S. economy continuing on a path of slow but steady recovery that propelled Wall Street stocks to a five-year high.
Financial bookmakers called Europe's main share indexes to open flat or slightly lower, while S&P 500 index futures traded in Asia eased 0.2 percent, pointing to a weaker start in New York.
"It just seems like markets are entering a consolidation phase after recent gains and with most markets trading at fresh 12-month highs," said Stan Shamu, market strategist at financial spreadbetting firm IG in Melbourne.
The dollar fell against the yen, coming off a two-and-a-half year peak it had logged against the Japanese currency as investors adjusted to the possibility of more monetary stimulus in 2013 from the Bank of Japan and less from the U.S. Federal Reserve.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus>, which had reached its highest level since August 2011 on Thursday, eased 0.1 percent, while Tokyo's Nikkei share average <.n225> retreated after touching a 23-month high in early trade to close down 0.8 percent. <.t>
CASH BUFFERS
The MSCI benchmark's financial sector sub-index <.miapjfn00pus> firmed after the Basel Committee of banking supervisors agreed on Sunday to give banks four more years and greater flexibility to build up cash buffers so they can use some of their reserves to help struggling economies.
HSBC Holdings Hong Kong shares rose 1 percent, while Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd gained 0.6 percent. <.hk><.ax>
Shares in Japanese exporters were supported by the trend of a weakening yen, which traded around 87.85 to the dollar, up 0.3 percent on the day, after the U.S. currency rose as far as 88.40 yen, its highest in nearly two-and-a-half years, on Friday.
The dollar posted a gain of around 2.7 percent against the yen last week, its biggest weekly rise in more than a year. Its gains had accelerated after minutes from the Federal Reserve's December meeting showed some policymakers had considered ending the Fed's bond-buying program as early as this year.
By contrast, many investors are now betting that Japan's new government, led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, will push to weaken the yen and drive through aggressive fiscal stimulus, and pressure the Bank of Japan to do the same on the monetary side.
Although the dollar may pull back against the yen given the speed of its rise over the past month, its uptrend seems likely to remain intact, said Hiroshi Maeba, head of FX trading Japan for UBS in Tokyo.
"My sense is that the market could still head much higher," Maeba said. "I think 90 yen might be reached pretty soon."
The dollar firmed against the euro, which traded around $1.3035.
The U.S. stock benchmark S&P 500 index <.spx> closed at its highest level since December 2007 on Friday after data showed a steady pace of jobs growth and brisk expansion of the services sector in the world's biggest economy.
That offered support to growth-sensitive commodities, with copper little changed just below $8,100 a tonne, while Brent crude oil eased a little to around $111.20.
Spot gold firmed 0.3 percent to around $1,660 an ounce.

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Valderrama course creator Ortiz-Patino dies aged 82

MADRID (Reuters) - Jaime Ortiz-Patino, a Spain-based golf promoter who created the famous Valderrama course and who was one of the driving forces behind the growth of the sport in the Iberian nation, has died at the age of 82.
"Jaime Ortiz-Patino...passed away this morning in the Costa del Sol hospital in Marbella," the Spanish golf federation (RFEG) said in a statement on their website (www.rfeg.es) on Thursday.
Born to Bolivian parents in Paris in June 1930, Ortiz-Patino created the Valderrama course, designed by Robert Trent Jones, in the mid 1980s and was able to lure the Ryder Cup there in 1997, the first time the competition has been held outside the British Isles.
The course was the home of the Volvo Masters between 1988 and 1996 and from 2002 to 2008 and has also hosted the Amex World Championships and the Andalucia Masters.
Known as "Jimmy" to his friends, Ortiz-Patino, whose grandfather was a fabulously wealthy Bolivian tin magnate, amassed a collection of golfing memorabilia that captured the history of the game over 500 years.
It included clubs, balls, prints, books and manuscripts, ceramics, photographs and paintings and was auctioned at Christie's in London last year.
"All the members of the Spanish golf federation would like to express their deepest condolences to family and friends," the RFEG said. "Rest in peace.

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Stricker headed for semi-retirement

At the end of another long year, and only a month away from the start of another season, Steve Stricker quietly posed a question that sounded out of place for a guy with more than $25 million in PGA Tour earnings over the last six years.
"What if I went to Kapalua to defend and didn't play again the rest of the year?"
When he arrived on the shores of Maui for the season-opening Tournament of Champions, he had reached a compromise. Stricker, who turns 46 next month, is going into semi-retirement. When he leaves Kapalua, he won't return again until the Match Play Championship at the end of February.
He'll play the majors and World Golf Championships that are held in America, maybe a few other tournaments to get ready for the majors, and the John Deere Classic, which has become his hometown event ever since the Greater Milwaukee Open went away.
"I've proved to myself I could come back," said Stricker, once mired in a slump so severe he was voted PGA Tour comeback player — two years in a row. "I had a great run the last six years. I think it's just the travel, the time away. When I get home, I'm not there. I'm focused on where I go next. When I do something, I'm in it. I've had enough of being totally focused on golf and my life. And I wanted to not have it be about me anymore."
Stricker is wired differently from most. He gets as much pleasure taking his kids to school in Wisconsin as winning golf tournaments. He would rather spend his fall in a deer stand with a bow than on the practice green with his putter.
He has been thinking about cutting back for the last few years, only the decision was never easy. Not when he was as high as No. 2 in the world, a regular on U.S. teams in the Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup.
Even with some winter stubble after nine holes of practice on the Plantation Course at Kapalua, he looked fresh and ready to go.
"I'm excited about the year because I finally made this decision to scale back," he said. "You know me. I've been this way since Day One. I've never played a lot. I enjoy my time at home, and I've tossed around this idea with my family the last couple of years. Finally making a decision to scale back has lifted a little bit of a burden from me. I'm just as excited to play this week as I've ever been."
Stricker won the Tournament of Champions a year ago for his 12th career win, although that turned out to be the highlight of his year. In one of the more peculiar trends, he became the third straight player to win the PGA Tour's opener and not win again the rest of the year.
He faces a 30-man field of PGA Tour winners that is missing some of the top stars, no longer unusual in this global landscape of golf with Europeans competing deep into November and some international players, such as Ernie Els, starting next week in South Africa. Among those absent from Kapalua are Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods, Luke Donald and Justin Rose, the top four players in the world ranking.
Stricker won't see many of them until he gets to Arizona for the Match Play Championship.
At least he's not walking away entirely. Over the last few weeks, he looked at the schedule and didn't feel he could miss the big events, particularly the majors. He hasn't set a number of events he wants to play, but it will be somewhere around 10.
What to do with all that free time? It won't be limited to a car pool or a deer stand. Stricker is forming a foundation with a new sponsor, American Family Insurance, with the goal of helping adolescents. The seed money comes from the charity donation he received for winning the Payne Stewart Award and playing on the Ryder Cup team.
His other sponsors — Titleist, Avis and the New York Stock Exchange — are behind his decision to cut back. Stricker has restructured his endorsement deals because he is playing less, and he plans to do more personal days with clients.
"I was prepared to lose all that, I really was," Stricker said. "For the most part, they're happy for me."
He still hasn't talked to PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem. Stricker is one of the most popular figures on tour because of the way he treats people. For now, this semi-retirement does not include The Players Championship or even the FedEx Cup playoffs, even if he has a reasonable shot at the $10 million bonus.
He would play the Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup if he qualifies. With his limited schedule, he would be playing some good golf.
And yes, he'll still practice. His 14-year-old daughter, Bobbi Maria, is a natural athlete who is getting into golf. There were a few times last year she wanted to go to the golf course with his dad, but Stricker feared he wouldn't get any work done on his game.
"Now I can put in some time with her," Stricker said. "She's talked about hitting more balls in the winter. I can spend more time with her doing that, and playing with her in the summer if she wants to."
The strongest part of her game? Stricker smiled.
"She putts good," he said.
Part of Stricker wishes he had done this sooner, but the time didn't seem right. He would emerge from his fall break to play in the World Challenge hosted by Tiger Woods, and then Greg Norman's Shootout in Florida, and he found himself not wanting to leave.
"The coolest part is I'm playing as good as I ever have," Stricker said. "I've accomplished a lot of things. I proved to myself I can come back from where I was and I played great for an extended period of time. The major thing is missing, but that's not hugely important to me. I don't have to win a major. Obviously, I'd love to. But it's not going to define who I am. It's all good. I feel like I'm doing this for the right reason.
"I felt like it would be a bold move a couple of years ago, and I think it's a bold move now," he said. "Some people might think it's not a good idea. But I think it is for me."

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PREVIEW-Golf-Players in paradise for PGA Tour season opener

 If winning breeds winning, then the picturesque Hawaiian island of Maui is a paradise in more ways than one for the select group of players competing at this week's $5.7 million Hyundai Tournament of Champions.
The only way to qualify for the elite field of 30 in the PGA Tour's season-opening event was through victory on the U.S. circuit last year and, with no cut and a guaranteed cheque after Monday's final round, the pickings are certainly favourable.
"It's always great to be here," American Hunter Mahan, a twice champion on the 2012 PGA Tour, told reporters at the Kapalua Resort while preparing for Friday's opening round.
"Obviously you won on the PGA Tour the year before so it's a great start and every player enjoys coming here and wants to start here.
"It's exciting but it's also crazy ... I feel like the year never really ended last year, it just kind of keeps on going. But it's certainly fun to be here."
Masters champion Bubba Watson agreed.
"Who would not want to come to Maui and play golf?" the American left-hander smiled.
"Ride in a golf cart in the pro-ams and practice rounds wearing shorts and then the tournament starts and you have to walk. But other than that it's great.
"A great time for the family, hanging out with friends and seeing the scenery. Playing the golf course is a challenge," Watson said of the par-73, 7,411-yard Plantation layout, "but it's a fun time to start off the year here in Maui."
DOWN TIME
Many of the players competing at Kapalua make the most of what time they have away from the golf course by surfing, swimming and taking the ever popular whale-watching cruises but Mahan said he was unlikely to follow suit.
"I don't particularly like the water that much," Mahan said. "I get seasick pretty easily, so I won't be out in the water too much.
"There's a hundred different things you can do here. At the same time, this is great weather and I'm trying to work on my game a little bit and make sure I get enough time for that."
While the Maui attractions are certainly plentiful for the competitors and their families, seven leading players who had qualified for the PGA Tour's season-opener have opted not to travel to Hawaii, mainly for tournament scheduling reasons.
Those notable absentees are world number one Rory McIlroy, second-ranked Luke Donald and Justin Rose (fourth), along with former Kapalua winners Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els and Sergio Garcia.

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What Happened to the 2012 Tech Bubble That Never Was

Turns out Facebook's fizzled IPO was a pretty good microcosm for 2012 in startup land: it was all one big fizzle. The final numbers for last year in venture-capital IPOs and acquisitions are in, and while there was no dot-com-era type of explosion, the much hyped new tech bubble appears to have just... petered out. There remains hope, as always, for the unpredictable year ahead. Here are some key stats from the Thompson Reuters and National Venture Capital Association survey released Wednesday:
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Venture-backed companies made less money for their investors than they did a year ago.
There is less investment money out there, overall, with investors doling out $6.9 billion last quarter, compared to $10.1 billion the year before and $8.4 billion a quarter before that — a trend that The Wall Street Journal noted back in September, which we speculated may have had something to do with Facebook's IPO fail.
Acquisitions of "venture-backed companies" were also down, totaling $3.52 billion last quarter down from $4.99 the year before, as were acquisitions in general, which totaled $21.5 billion, down 11 percent from $24.09 billion in 2011.
The number of companies that opted to IPO fell to eight from 11 the year before.
The most positive figure from the entire report is actually skewed: Those eight companies that did IPO companies raised more money on average, combing out with higher valuations — an average that is weighed down almost entirely by Facebook. But venture-backed companies did raise $21.5 billion (way up from $10.7 billion the year before), which was the strongest annual funding since 2000.
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These numbers match the trends we saw all year, with Facebook's initial stock drop scaring away investors from start-ups, venture capitalists having a hard time raising money for tech ventures, and companies like Kayak pushing off their IPOs as long as possible until market conditions suit edtheir needs. It's just a lot of hesitancy. Part of that might just be a Facebook effect, or maybe 2012 was the "peak of the hype cycle" as Scott Sandell, a venture capitalist at New Enterprise Associates, described the year to The Wall Street Journal's Pui Wing-Tam.
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And a descent generally follows a peak, right? Still, Sandell doesn't see 2013 as a year of doom or gloom for Silicon Valley. Things are sunny! "The end isn't anywhere near," he said, pointing to bright spots in companies that sell technologies to businesses. Of course, those aren't the big tech 2.0 companies we hear about all the time, the ones that made up the much discussed and much more specific social media bubble. What will become of the Twitters and Tumblrs, the Pinterests and Paths and SnapChats and all the clones they've already spawned? The path is less clear than ever, but, hey, it's only the first week fo January. And it probably won't be as bad as this.

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