Europe bids farewell to national currencies

Well ahead of their official expiration, Europe’s national currencies have vanished into history  traded in for euros, lost in couches, taken home by foreigners or hoarded as mementos.

Thursday is the final day that old cash still will buy something, as the remaining nine of 12 countries using the euro phase out their national currencies. But it’s been days, in some cases weeks, since many cashiers have seen German marks, Italian lire or Austrian schillings clink into their tills.

The percentage of transactions occurring only in euros is “almost 100 percent,” said Regina Schueller, a spokeswoman for the European Central Bank.

eBay: Online auction powerhouse calling it quits in Japan

In a rare defeat for eBay Inc., the online trading leader said Tuesday it would pull out of Japan.

EBay entered the Japanese market in 2000, and never got close to Yahoo! Japan Corp. Although it doesn’t charge fees in Japan, eBay’s site there has just 25,000 items listed for sale, ranking it a distant fourth in the country’s online auction market. The site will close March 31, and 17 jobs will be cut.

San Jose, Calif.-based eBay, which has more than 42 million registered users worldwide, still is eagerly eyeing more Asian expansion, especially into Hong Kong and China.

Economy: Consumer confidence falls

Hurt in part by increased pessimism about jobs and the economy, consumer confidence declined in February, reversing two straight monthly gains.

The New York-based Conference Board said Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index fell to 94.1 this month from a revised 97.8 in January. Analysts were expecting a reading of 97.

Court: Former J.C. Nichols CFO gets probation after plea

A former J.C. Nichols Co. executive has been sentenced to five years probation for stealing from and defrauding the company.

Walter C. Janes, 67, of Prairie Village, pleaded guilty last October to one felony count of racketeering conspiracy. The remaining charges that the former CFO faced as part of a 12-count indictment were dismissed when U.S. District Judge Ortrie D. Smith sentenced him Monday.

Janes was one of three defendants accused of defrauding the Nichols Co. of more than $150 million. They were fired in May 1995. The others were Kansas University graduates: Lynn R. McCarthy, 69, of Overland Park, who was the company’s chairman and CEO, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and is to be sentenced Thursday; Charles P. Schleicher, 72, of Kansas City, Mo., is former attorney for the company and was acquitted of charges in the case last November.

Securities: Treasury auction rates rise

Interest rates on short-term Treasury securities rose in Monday’s auction.

The Treasury Department sold $15 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 1.735 percent, up from 1.73 percent last week. An additional $14 billion was sold in six-month bills at a rate of 1.85 percent, up from 1.83 percent.

Both the three-month and six-month rates were the highest since Nov. 26, when the bills sold for 1.92 percent and 1.99 percent, respectively.