Southwest reported a great fourth quarter, up 13% over last year at the same time. As the new year starts, the compnay is still optimistic as travel bookings seem to be strong.

As the airline continues to grow, they continue to add jets. Currently, there are about 550 of the Boeing 737′s. Once they acquire AirTran, by the second quarter, they will also have some Boeing 717′s. They are working on getting more jets from Boeing, but are in the works to see if Boeing wants to revamp the 737 or build a more economic jet. Southwest would like the more economical option, but continues to wait as they make a decision.

Southwest Airlines says they are comfortable operating three types of aircraft, even though it will be quite some time before a final decision is made.

Southwest is hoping that the rise in travel continues. They are the world’s leading low fare carrier. That is going to be hard to maintain as fuel prices continue to rise.

Crude oil is refined into jet fuel. The barrels are currently $110, making it tough for airlines, but if the price jumps to a predicted $120 per barrel, that will cause real problems.

At the current price per gallon, $.80-$2.85, it will cost Southwest Airlines about $650 million more this year over last year to operate. That is a 20% percent jump over prices last year during this same time period.

American Airlines announced it has signed a new agreement with Priceline.com in a move the airline hopes will begin to change the face of how airfares are sold within the United States. It’s a high stakes gamble, but one American is anticipating will gain traction.

Priceline.com, an online travel agency, will no longer get the carrier’s airfares and schedule of flights from a global distribution system. Instead, the website will get a feed directly from American itself.

Traditionally, the global distribution system or GDS has served as the middleman between airlines and travel agencies. GDSs, in exchange for data aggregation and delivery to travel agencies, typically charge the airline when a booking is made splitting the fee with the travel agent booking the flight on behalf of the customer. American is seeking to cut out the fees and additional overhead of GDSs by working directly with travel agencies.

The move has proven to be a difficult one to convince popular travel agencies to take on. American fares have already been removed by both Orbitz Worldwide Inc. and Expedia Inc. when each refused to connect directly with American Airlines’ booking platform and bypass the GDS system.

Agents and their agencies are concerned the new arrangement will translate into higher cost and reduced profit margins. Last year, about 16% of all airline bookings were made through travel web sites, while another 45% were booked through traditional brick and mortar locations. Overall, the industry was roughly $110 billion in 2010.

The outcome could make or break American Airlines and it’s ability to connect with customers.

Last year, there was a new record set for home foreclosures. Some 2.9 million homes went into foreclosure. The last quarter was a little slower since they had to stop foreclosures to make sure they were being processed correctly. Then, December was a slow month for foreclosures, although experts think that many December foreclosures were pushed off until the new year.

Even with the huge number of foreclosures last year, 2011 is expected to even outpace it. They are calling for another big wave of foreclosures in our country. At the rate houses are foreclosing right now, we will see 1 in every 45 receive a foreclosure filing. Five million borrowers are currently at least 2 months behind.

House prices are expected to dip another 5% nationally as the next wave of foreclosures starts to hit. Experts are hoping that they will finally hit bottom then.

Five states accounted for over half of all foreclosures in the country: Florida, Arizona, California, Illinois and Michigan. These 5 states together accounted for nearly 1.5 million foreclosures.

Although California is listed in the top 5 states in foreclosures, it also seems to be one of the first to slowly to begin turning things around. Prices hit an all time low in April 2009 and have slowly been working their way back up since.

This housing market is going to be tough to turn around. With unemployment still high, stricter standards with appraisals and rates slowly inching back up, it will be hard for people to jump back in.

During the recession, credit card companies had to have stricter rules in place for who they would approve for a credit card due to the mounting credit card debt. That has now ended and credit card offers are on the rise again. Mailings with offers are up to 2.7 billion, double from a year ago. That’s after they hit a 16 year low in 2009.

Those with strong credit can expect to get plenty of credit card offers, as many mailboxes start filling up with them.

There are new rates and regulations in place now too. Late fees are capped at $25, your interest will not be raised without some warning, and if you look carefully at your statements they lay out exactly what it will cost you to pay off your credit card debt over time.

Even though the credit card offers are ramping back up, not everybody will be eligible. Companies are focusing on big spenders with great credit.

Incentives to switch are becoming more common and the offers are generous as well. For balance transfers you can get a zero percent interest for a period of time.

Rewards are also becoming generous if you can keep up. With cash back rewards and point rewards you will need to choose a credit card that best fits your spending. Every bank offers more than one credit card option, once you choose, you need to see if your bank is offering the best rewards. Although time consuming, consumers can save some money.

One thing to keep in mind is that rewards are not free. Watch for higher annual fees as the banks pass the cost back on to you.

Rates for those that carry a balance will be higher. It used to be that after a certain period, credit card companies would drastically raise the rate without warning. Now with the new regulations in place they are not allowed to do that, so instead they are starting with high rates on credit card debt.

The average credit card rate a few weeks ago was 14.4 percent. The same time last year it was at 11.8 percent and two years ago it was down to 10.8 percent.

Using a credit card is getting easier and easier too. Companies have been testing a contactless credit card payment system in New York City for the past month. This involves having a chip in your smart phone. The customer then waves the phone over the scanner and the payment is made.

Citi is working on a credit card that allows you to pay for products using your rewards. The card will feature two buttons on the front. One allows for normal purchases and charges and the other pays the merchant using rewards or cash back.

If you think the national average of $3.07 is a tough pill to swallow, you may need to prepare yourself. It could go even higher.

November and December are months when oil prices are lower, not like the spring when it typically spikes. This year was different, we hit some highs during those months making it a financial strain on those wanting to travel.

Last year ended high causing the new year to start out high as well. As a matter of fact, 2011 started with a 26 month high. In the last seven days, prices have climbed 1.8 cents at the pump.

Experts are trying to decide if it will hold or if it will continue to rise. Some think it’s going to settle at $90 a barrel, which is a little higher than last year’s $75-$85 a barrel. Others are worried that it is going to go up as high as $100 barrel.

If this was a concern over the holidays for travelers you can be sure the concern is going to continue. With spring being the highest time for gas and travel, it’s surely to affect some.

Currently the prices for crude oil are $92.66 a barrel. October 2008 is the last time it went above $92 a barrel. At that point it closed at $93.88.

Investors need to take heed as Carl Larry, president of Oil and Outlooks & Opinions LLC says it’s a good thing to invest in this year.

The stock market had it’s strongest close in over two years Monday, as it seems to be setting a New Year’s resolution of its own to improve. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDU) closed up 0.8% on the day at 11,670.8. This represents a 93 point gain.

The last time the Dow enjoyed these levels was back in August 2008.

Other major indexes found some room to improve as well with the Nasdaq (COMP) up 39 points for the day at 2,691.52, and the S&P 500 (SPX) closing up 14 points on Monday at 1,271.89.

This surge in investor optimism was fueled by positive data coming from the manufacturing and construction sectors. Investors appear to be bullish on the economy overall and anticipate a positive January.

The big gainer in blue chips was Bank of America (BAC) as it surged over 6% upon release of news it had settled with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae on mortgages. The settlement came in at $3 billion.

It’s certain we have a long way to go in the journey to economic recovery, but today signaled a hopeful end to the roller coaster ride that the market led investors on last year.

Expectations are high that the government’s labor market report due out on Friday will be positive, showing strong gains from December.

A world leader in innovative workforce solutions, Manpower Inc., recently issued a warning that highly skilled talent and the education and training of workers needs to be dramatically improved. Currently the world is in an era of scarce talent and this could result in stalled economic growth because there needs to be an access to human capital in order to replace financial capital in the post-recession world.

Manpower Inc.’s President of Corporate and Government Affairs, David Arkless, is the chair for the Skills and Talent Mobility Council for the World Economic Forum’s Summit on the Global Agenda. The summit will take place in Dubai for three days and brings together more than 600 leaders from more than 60 countries. These are leaders in academia, business, government and security and are brought together in order to discuss the challenges facing the world. The Council will propose new solutions in order to tackle the demographic shifts and mismatched talent in developed and developing economies.

The Council strongly believes that more abundant homegrown talent would be best and is able to be developed through training and education. This would allow for workers to be more equipped with skills rather than just general education. Throughout the world, workers are unable to gain employment due to their lack of basic skills.

Manpower Inc. creates and delivers services to its clients that enable them to succeed in the changing world of work. Manpower, with more than 60 years of experience, offers a range of services and solutions for the entire business and employment cycle. These solutions and services include permanent, temporary and contract recruitment; employee assessment and selection; training’ placement; outsourcing and consulting. Manpower’s network of more than 4,000 offices in more than 80 countries allows the company to meet the needs of its clients.

A service oriented insurer with agents and employees who truly care about their customers, Farmers Insurance, is launching a blog titled Farmers-Cares.com. This blog will offer tips to help with prevention, insight on dealing with the world of insurance and many examples of Farmer’s outreach to people and communities.

The blog will be written and edited by Paul Quinn, the Assistant Vice President of Claims Communications. His blog is expected to put a voice and a face into the conversation about insurance. According to Bryan Murphy, Executive Vice President and Chief Claims Officer, there is a lot of misinformation regarding insurance companies and their employees so this blog should help inform consumers.

Quinn has a wide range of experience in the insurance sector. He has worked in the claims department, the actuarial department; he ran the state operations for Indiana and now he currently works in Catastrophe Response. Quinn stated that he has been working for Farmers for over thirty year and he has always been proud to represent the company. He continued by saying that the blog is designed to take the caring relationship of Farmers one step further.

The blog will feature tips from agents, employees and experts in the areas of property protection, claims prevention and repair along with a day in the life point of view from Quinn. Some of the recent posts include: “Social Medial Updates Could Lead to Burglary,” “How Duck Tape Can Prevent Further Fire Damage,” “How to Ensure You have a Positive Claims Experience,” and “How to Hire a Contractor.”

A division of Tree.com, RealEstate.com, recently announced the creation of their new Agent Advisory Council. This council will serve as an opportunity for agents to provide input and advice and will provide guidance to address the changing needs, implement strategies and help shape the growth of RealEstate.com.

RealEstate.com provides a wide-ranging suite of real estate services, tools and helpful advice to give consumers a better way to sell or buy a home. The site provides access to homes for sale, home values and a unique view into more than 20,000 cities.

The council will utilize the knowledge of top real estate agents nationwide. The committee will be comprised of one LendingTree Loans representative, three RealEstate.com executives, and six nationwide RealEstate.com agents. The agents will include: Kim Camaratta, Olivier Louis, Tammy Petrillo, Kymberli Saragalia, Pam Sproul, and Zach Zeek.

The Agent Advisory Council will hold meetings on a quarterly basis. These meetings will serve as a stage for agents to discuss challenges and opportunities in the industry. RealEstate.com will be able to address needs in a timely manner through the utilization of the agents and their first hand knowledge of issues they are facing in the field.

According to the CEO of RealEstate.com, Steve Ozonian, the council was created in an effort to better understand their agents’ needs which will allow for RealEstate.com to design products and services to help their agents better serve clients. He continued by saying, “This committee is an extension of our new company model, intended to provide agents and brokers with lower costs and greater flexibility.”

Recently announced, ProAssurance Corporation completed its acquisition of American Physicians Service Group, Inc. The American Physicians Service Group shareholders had a special meeting on November 29, 2010 where they unanimously approved the transaction.

The Chairman and Chief Executive Office of ProAssurance, W. Stancil Starnes, said that they are excited about the opportunities that the acquisition will create. With this acquisition, ProAssurance will become the second largest writer of medical professional liability insurance in Texas and will have a significant market presence. The ProAssuarnce Corporation expects to use the skill and dedication of the American Physicians Service Group’s employees to offer an unmatched level of service and an exceptional financial strength to policy holders.

With the terms of the merger, each share of the American Physicians Service Group stock will be redeemed for $32.50. Those shareholders who have stock that is held by a broker or in direct registration will automatically be paid. Those shareholders who have stock certificates will automatically receive instructions via mail on how to surrender their shares to receive payment. American Physicians Service Group’s stock will cease to trade on the Nasdaq Stock Market on December 1, 2010.

The nation’s largest independently traded specialty write of medical professional liability insurance, ProAssurance, is recognized as one of the top performing insurance companies in America. It has been included in the Ward’s 50 for the past four years and is rated “A” by Fitch Ratings and rated “A” by A.M. Best.