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The Federal Reserve’s announcement that it is unlikely to raise its benchmark interest rate until late 2014 is simply its “best guess,” Ben Bernanke said Wednesday.

The Fed chairman made clear during a news conference Wednesday that the decision to leave interest rates unchanged for three more years was not ironclad.

The central bank’s ability to forecast that far out is limited, Bernanke says, and the Fed could adjust the time frame for when it will raise rates if economic conditions change.

Still, he said the U.S. economy remains weak and that all signs suggest the Fed won’t change its record-low rate for another three years.

“Unless there is a substantial strengthening of the economy in the near term, it’s a pretty good guess we will be keeping rates low for some time,” Bernanke said after the Fed concluded its two-day policy meeting.

The central bank has kept its key rate at a record low near zero for about three years.

Bernanke also said the Fed has not ruled out bolder steps to boost economic growth, such as a third round of bond purchases.

“If inflation is going to remain below target for an extended period and unemployment progress is very slow … there is a case for additional policy action,” he said.

“I would not say we are out of ammunition no teletrack payday loan. We still have tools.”

Prior to the news conference, the Fed downgraded its outlook for U.S. economic growth this year. It forecasts the economy to grow between 2.2 percent and 2.7 percent in 2012, according to its updated economic forecasts. That’s down from November’s forecast of between 2.5 percent and 2.9 percent.

Many economists expect Europe will suffer a recession this year, which will slow U.S. growth.

Still, the Fed said it expects unemployment to fall low as 8.2 percent. That’s an improvement from November’s bottom rate of 8.5 percent.

In December, the unemployment rate fell to 8.5 percent _ the lowest level in nearly three years _ after the sixth straight month of solid hiring.

Inflation has been relatively tame and the Fed doesn’t see that changing over the next three years.

Bernanke refused to answer a question asking whether he would resign if one of his Republican critics is elected president.

“As long as I have a job to do, I’m going to do everything to help the Federal Reserve. That’s my answer,” he said.

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Kia has announced the recall of nearly 146,000 vehicles with faulty airbag systems.

The models affected are the 2006-2008 Kia Optima and the 2007-2008 Kia Rondo. Due to a flawed spring system that may become damaged over time, the driver’s side airbag in these cars may not deploy properly in the event of a crash, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a recall alert.

Kia reported the problem last week, and the recall is expected to begin in March, NHTSA said. Customers affected can have the problem fixed at dealerships free of charge.

Kia said in a statement that it was not aware of any injuries or airbag non-deployments associated with the problem to date payday loans. The issue was discovered "as a result of the regular monitoring of field data to ensure product quality," the company said.

For more information, car owners can contact NHTSA’s vehicle safety hotline at 1-888-327-4236 or visit www.safecar.gov. They can also call Kia’s Consumer Assistance Center at 1-800-333-4542 

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PC sales didn’t have a happy holiday sales season, but you wouldn’t know it from the strong earnings posted by Microsoft and Intel.

The PC is struggling — last quarter, shipments fell 6% from the year-ago period, according to research firm Gartner — as tablets and smartphones grab market share.

But both computing giants reported earnings that beat Wall Street estimates. They chalked up softness in PC sales not to obsolescence, but to a worldwide hard drive shortage caused by massive floods in Thailand in November.

The good news on earnings boosted shares of both companies early Friday. Microsoft’s stock rose 2.6% in premarket trading, while shares of Intel edged up 0.7%.

Microsoft earned a record 78 cents per share on record sales of $20.89 billion for the second quarter of its fiscal year.

Despite the strong overall showing, Microsoft (, Fortune 500) felt the pain of the lackluster PC market in its Windows division. Its sales fell 6% over the year to $4.74 billion.

"It’s difficult to say with any sort of certainty" whether PC sales will pick back up when the hard drive supply recovers, said Lisa Nelson, Microsoft’s investor relations director. "But the market should benefit from it."

On a conference call after the earnings release, Microsoft executives said the hard drive shortage will affect sales at least through the current quarter.

The call also revealed that netbooks — essentially small, low-powered laptops — now represent just 2% of the PC market. A year ago, they comprised 8%.

Executives dodged most questions about the upcoming, tablet-optimized Windows 8. The company revealed at a trade show earlier this month that a beta version will be released in late February.

Strength in Microsoft’s other sectors made up for PC weakness.

The Microsoft unit with the strongest sales remains the business software division, which includes Microsoft Office and other software. The sector accounted for $6.28 billion of the company’s revenue, though it gained only 3% over the year.

Office 2010 has sold more than 200 million licenses in the 18 months since its launch easy payday loans.

Gaming systems were also a bright spot, as Microsoft’s "entertainment and devices" sales jumped 15% over the year to $4.24 billion. To date, Microsoft has sold about 66 million Xbox 360 consoles and 18 million sensors for its motion-controlled Kinect system.

Nelson said Xbox now commands 46% of market share for gaming consoles.

But Microsoft said on the conference call that the overall console market "is softer than previously expected."

The "server and tools" area also did well, posting a sales increase of 11% to $4.77 billion. That’s the seventh consecutive quarter of double-digit growth, Nelson said.

Intel beats the street: Intel beat Wall Street estimates with fourth-quarter earnings of 68 cents on sales of $13.9 billion — in line with its own downgraded forecast.

Intel (, Fortune 500) sharply cut its sales forecast last month because of the hard drive shortage. Left without that supply, PC makers scaled back their inventories — which meant they were buying fewer semiconductors from Intel.

But sales at Intel’s "PC client group" were strong, rising 17% over the year to $9 billion. Growth in emerging markets was the main driver.

CEO Paul Otellini cited ultrabooks as one of the company’s biggest opportunities for growth in a press release. Ultrabooks are extremely light-weight notebook PCs that have long battery life and almost as much power as a full-sized laptop.

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this month, Intel showcased several upcoming ultrabooks that will run on its "Ivy Bridge" 22-nanometer chips.

In other tech earnings news on Thursday, Google (, Fortune 500) announced profit and sales that rose from year-ago results but badly missed Wall Street’s forecasts. IBM (, Fortune 500) posted earnings that topped estimates. 

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European Central Bank President Mario Draghi

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The Greek government resumed stalled talks with its private creditors in Athens on Wednesday in the hope of sealing a euro100 billion ($128 billion) debt relief deal needed to avoid a disastrous default this spring.

Charles Dallara, a top official at the Institute of International Finance, a global banking association, returned to Greece after negotiations stalled last week, and held a nearly three-hour meeting with Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos.

“A very crucial meeting, that lasted several hours, has just finished at the prime minister’s office,” Venizelos told Parliament shortly afterward. “The meetings between the Greek government and the IIF have resumed and they will continue (Thursday).”

Earlier, he said the talks “are without a doubt at a very sensitive stage.”

The so-called private sector involvement, or PSI, deal is meant to write off half of the debt Greece owes private bondholders. Creditors would get most of the remaining debt in new bonds with extended repayment periods, as well as a cash payment.

“We want this (deal) to happen in a way that is safe for Greece _ with Greece in the eurozone _ and safe for the real economy and the financial system,” Venizelos said.

Since May 2010, Greece has kept solvent with rescue loans from its European partners and the International Monetary Fund. In the event of bankruptcy, Greece would likely have to abandon the euro and revert to a devalued currency. Since the country imports more than it exports, the costs of fuel and basic consumer goods would skyrocket, further frustrating a population angered by two years of harsh austerity.

The PSI talks have mainly been held up by a disagreement on interest rates for the new bonds.

“The interest rate on the new loans is a key issue here,” Dallara told CNN before Wednesday’s meeting. “Some seem to have a view that we should actually extend the loans at interest rates even lower than what the IMF and (the Europeans) extend their loans at, and there’s not much logic in that in our viewpoint.”

Dallara urged the EU to make clear that a similar deal would not apply to other troubled eurozone countries. “Greece really is a unique situation,” he said.

A Greek government official said Athens is still considering whether to impose so-called collective action clauses on its bonds. Such clauses could force private debt holders resisting a settlement to fall in line with the majority if an agreement is reached. The official asked not to be identified, citing the sensitive nature of the talks Payday advance.

A second government official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said Athens estimates there could be an agreement by the end of the week.

Greece needs to clinch the deal quickly to qualify for more bailout loans before it faces a euro14.5 billion ($18.6 billion) bond repayment on March 20. The bond swap is a key part a new euro130 billion ($166 billion) bailout package in loans and bank support from international rescue creditors.

Recession-bound Greece needs to write off some of its borrowings, if it is to have a fighting chance of emerging from its debt hole.

It has so far relied on austerity measures, which were a condition for it to receive the emergency loans. The Greek government has cut pensions and salaries, raised taxes and sold some state property.

Yanis Varoufakis, a professor of economics at the University of Athens, argued that even with a debt deal Greece could do little to eventually avoid default.

“Let the truth be revealed. Let’s have a default because Greece is insolvent and insolvent entities have to default. It’s a law of nature and of society and of reason, and we should simply succumb to that,” Varoufakis told AP Television.

“If European leaders are worried about the effect this will have on banks, they might as well recapitalize them, not continue to drip-feed the Greek state,” he said.

Dallara, the Institute of International Finance official, said that if Greece is forced to default, it will be messy. “I personally believe that there is no such thing as an orderly default for Greece,” he told CNN. “If there is a default, it is likely to be very disorderly.”

As austerity measures have cut deeply into incomes and unemployment has risen, unions have held frequent strikes and protests over the past two years.

Unions and employers were to start talks on Wednesday on reducing labors costs, but the negotiations were disrupted when protesters from a Communist-backed labor union occupied the central building where the meetings were to take place.

EU-IMF debt inspectors are back in Athens this week to monitor progress of those reforms aimed at slashing the country’s high budget deficits.

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Derek Gatopoulos and Theodora Tongas in Athens contributed to this report.

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A handful of large websites will go dark on Wednesday to protest an anti-piracy bill that critics say will wreck the Internet as we know it.

Wikipedia, user-submitted news site Reddit, the blog Boing Boing and the Cheezburger network of comedy sites all plan to participate in the blackout. The protest is their response to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) bill, a piece of proposed legislation that is working its way through Congress.

Introduced in the House of Representatives in late October, the bill aims to crack down on copyright infringement by restricting access to sites that fuel it. Its targets include "rogue" overseas sites like torrent hub The Pirate Bay, which essentially operates as a trading ground for illegal downloads of movies and other digital content.

A similar bill called the Protect IP Act was approved by a Senate committee in May and is now pending before the full Senate.

The controversial legislation has turned into an all-out war between Hollywood and Silicon Valley. Media companies have united in favor of it, while tech’s power players are throwing their might into opposing it.

If SOPA passes, copyright holders would be able to complain to law enforcement officials and get websites shut down. Search engines and other providers would have to block rogue sites when ordered to do so by a judge. Sites could be punished for hosting pirated content in the first place — and Internet companies are worried that they could be held liable for users’ actions.

As BoingBoing wrote: "Making one link would require checking millions (even tens of millions) of pages, just to be sure that we weren’t in some way impinging on the ability of five Hollywood studios, four multinational record labels, and six global publishers to maximize their profits."

White House jumps in: The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform was supposed to hold a hearing with industry experts on Wednesday, which is why sites targeted that day for a blackout.

But Rep. Darrell Issa, a Republican from California who opposes SOPA, postponed the hearing on Friday after House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said the bill won’t move in its current form.

Cantor’s comments sparked some news reports claiming that SOPA is dead, but an aide in Issa’s office said "that’s probably a little premature."

Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian was slated to testify in Washington, but he said he will now instead attend a protest rally in New York City organized by the group NY Tech Meetup. They plan to assemble outside the offices of New York senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand.

The White House released its first statement about the bill on Saturday. The Obama administration wrote that it would not support legislation that mandates "tamper[ing] with the technical architecture of the Internet through manipulation of the Domain Name System (DNS) bad credit payday advance."

As originally written, SOPA would have required Internet access providers and other companies to block access to targeted sites in ways that were rife with potential unintended consequences. The White House said its analysis of the original legislation’s technical provisions "suggests that they pose a real risk to cybersecurity."

The White House’s statement came shortly after one of SOPA’s lead sponsors, Texas Republican Lamar Smith, agreed to remove SOPA’s DNS blocking provisions.

Issa’s aide says that isn’t enough: "Merely taking out the DNS-blocking provisions doesn’t not rectify a bill that’s fundamentally flawed."

The controversial bill, once expected to sail quickly through committee approval in the House, is now being extensively reworked before it comes up for a commitee vote.

Rupert Murdoch, the CEO of News Corp. (), voiced his frustration with the White House’s stance in a series of tweets over the weekend.

"Obama has thrown in his lot with Silicon Valley paymasters who threaten all software creators with piracy, plain thievery," Murdoch wrote on Twitter.

In addition to Murdoch, SOPA has drawn support from groups including the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America, which say that online piracy leads to U.S. job losses by depriving content creators of income. Time Warner, the parent company of CNNMoney, is among the industry supporters of the legislation.

Proponents of the bill dismiss accusations of censorship, saying that the legislation is meant to revamp a broken system that doesn’t adequately prevent criminal behavior.

But SOPA’s critics say that say that the bill’s backers don’t understand the Internet, and therefore don’t appreciate the implications of the legislation they’re considering.

Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of House members has proposed an alternative bill, the Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act (OPEN).

This legislation would allow rights holders to ask the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) to enforce current laws by targeting the actual content pirates. OPEN’s backers have posted the draft legislation online and invited the Web community to comment on and revise the proposal.

SOPA supporters counter that the ITC doesn’t have the resources for such enforcement, and that giving it those resources would be too expensive. 

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British and Hong Kong leaders said Monday they will team up to develop London into an international trading center for China’s currency.

British Treasury chief George Osborne said in Hong Kong that his trip to Asia this week, which also includes stops in Beijing and Tokyo, furthers dialogue with Chinese authorities and Chinese and British banks “on establishing London as a new hub for the renminbi market as a complement to Hong Kong.”

Hong Kong’s leader, Chief Executive Donald Tsang said a new private sector-led group will be set up to look at strengthening ties between Hong Kong and London in terms of settlement systems, market liquidity and the development of renminbi financial products.

Beijing is promoting the international use of the renminbi, also known as the yuan. It’s also promoting Hong Kong, a semiautonomous Chinese territory with its own financial system and currency, as an offshore trading center for the yuan.

Last year, yuan-denominated bank deposits in Hong Kong doubled to 630 billion renminbi ($100 billion) as savers sought higher returns from the yuan, which has been strengthening 4-5 percent a year.

Beijing would like to see the currency become an alternative to the dollar, although tight capital controls limit its circulation overseas.

“It’s clear that there’s scope for substantial expansion of the renminbi market in coming years,” said Osborne, who was speaking at a financial conference.

He said that in June 2011, China’s share of world trade was 11 percent but the yuan’s share of global foreign exchange trading last year was only 0.9 percent.

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Funds that give everyone from retirees to money managers easier access to junk bonds are fueling the biggest price swings in more than two years after their buying power surged tenfold.

Exchange-traded funds that track high-yield bond indexes exceed $22 billion, up from about $2 billion three years ago.

While that’s just 2 percent of the $1 trillion in U.S. corporate speculative-grade debt outstanding, ETFs are among the biggest holders of benchmark securities, including those of casino owner Caesars Entertainment Corp. and HCA Inc.

ETFs, which drew scrutiny last year as riskier versions emerged, are adding to volatility because of rules that promote trading. A measure of price swings for junk bonds was seven times higher in November than May, making it harder for the neediest borrowers to raise capital guaranteed high risk personal loans.

Their influence in the market for high-yield, high-risk debt is becoming similar to what ETFs, which have grown to $1.5 trillion from $109 billion in 10 years, have done in other assets.

While cash has poured into ETFs, they haven’t outperformed. Speculative-grade bonds on average returned 40 percent since April 2007, compared with 36.3 percent for investment-grade debt and 37.3 percent for U.S. Treasuries, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch index data.

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Sales (RSTAMOM) at U.S. retailers rose less than projected in December, confirming forecasts for a slowdown in consumer spending at the start of 2012.

The 0.1 percent gain in purchases last month followed a 0.4 percent increase in November, according to figures from the Commerce Department released today in Washington. The median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey called for a 0.3 percent rise. Another report showed more Americans than projected filed claims for jobless benefits last week.

Merchants like Williams-Sonoma Inc. (WSM) cut prices during the most important shopping season of the year amid concern stagnant wages and lower property values would hold customers back. The slowdown in demand means households are looking to rebuild savings after spending jumped early in the fourth quarter, showing further job gains are needed to fuel purchases.

The free credit score industry has been booming since the recession as a lot of people hit hard times and want to keep an eye on how the recession has affected their credit standing.

Spain’s Parliament approved the new conservative government’s first austerity measures Wednesday, which aim to rein in the country’s swollen deficit with euro8.9 billion ($11.5 billion) in spending cuts.

The measures, which also include income and property tax hikes, were approved by 197 deputies in the 350-seat lower house, where the ruling Popular Party has an absolute majority of 185 seats after a landslide election win in November.

Finance Minister Cristobal Montoro said the measures were severe but necessary, owing to what he called the mismanagement of the economy by the former Socialist government.

“The economy is stopped, we’re on the verge of a recession and the accounts are unbalanced as a consequence, among other things, of the deplorable decisions taken by the former government, which only made the situation worse,” Montoro told lawmakers.

Spain is battling to avert being dragged further into a debt crisis that has already forced Greece, Ireland and Portugal to seek financial bailouts.

In 2010, Spain began to emerge from a near two-year recession triggered by the collapse of a property and construction bubble that had fueled growth for nearly a decade. The country now has a 21.5 percent unemployment rate _ the highest in the eurozone _ and Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said recently the economy would slide back into recession early this year with the last quarter of 2011 and the first of 2012 both registering negative growth.

Montoro accused the former Socialist government of deliberately hiding figures that showed that Spain’s deficit for 2011 would be 8 percent of national income, and not 6 percent as the Socialists had claimed easy to get unsecured personal loans. He said the deviation represented an estimated euro20 billion ($25.4 billion) “black hole.”

However, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has acknowledged that the deficit of regional governments, most of which are run by his own conservative party, was responsible for 75 percent of the deviation.

Other measures in the austerity package include a freeze on civil servants’ salaries and on practically all government hiring. Pensions, however, are to be increased by 1 percent, the only area of spending to rise. Taxes on income and property will also be raised but only for two years.

Treasury Minister Cristobal Montoro said the tax increases will be progressive, with the wealthiest paying more and that the impact on lower-income earners will be minimal.

The government projects that the tax increases will bring in euro6.2 billion ($7.9 billion) on top of the euro8.9 billion saved on the spending cuts.

The package was part of an extension of the 2011 budget because the last government did not pass one for 2012. More austerity measures are expected when the government presents its 2012 budget by the end of March.

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