Fixed Income

T. Rowe Price Associates Inc., looking to build on its global asset management business, said yesterday that it has hired a top executive from Morgan Grenfell/Deutsche Asset Management to head its international and global fixed-income portfolios. T. Rowe Price International, a unit of the Baltimore-based mutual fund company, said Ian Kelson has joined the firm as director of international fixed income. He will run Price's international and global fixed-income portfolios and expand its fixed-income investment services for investors worldwide.

Baltimore money manager T. Rowe Price Group said Monday that its global head of trading will take over for Mary J. Miller, director of the nearly $100 billion fixed-income division, who is stepping down Friday because she has been nominated for a Treasury Department job. Mike Gitlin, who has more than 16 years of experience with global capital markets, joined T. Rowe Price in 2007. Miller - nominated in October - needs U.S. Senate approval to become the Treasury Department's assistant secretary for financial markets.

Baltimore money manager T. Rowe Price Group said Monday that its global head of trading will take over for Mary J. Miller, director of the nearly $100 billion fixed-income division, who is stepping down Friday because she has been nominated for a Treasury Department job. Mike Gitlin, who has more than 16 years of experience with global capital markets, joined T. Rowe Price in 2007. Miller - nominated in October - needs U.S. Senate approval to become the Treasury Department's assistant secretary for financial markets.

Investors and economists worry about higher inflation, but the more immediate concern is inflation that's flat or even negative. Retirement contributions, Social Security and pension checks, as well as certain tax breaks, are tied to inflation. And when inflation is flat or negative - which it is for the first time since the 1950s - that could mean no increases in Social Security checks and even smaller pension checks for millions of retirees. And it could restrict the amount you can sock away in your 401(k)

T. Rowe Price Associates Inc. yesterday announced that William T. Reynolds, who has managed the investment company's municipal bond division since 1991, has beenelevated to director of the entire fixed-income division.Mr. Reynolds, 46, who joined T. Rowe Price in 1981, took over the municipal bond division in 1991 after his predecessor, Peter Gordon, left the firm. At the beginning of this year, he took on the added position of assistant director of the fixed-income division.Price President and Chief Executive Officer George Collins had been director of the fixed-income division until Mr. Reynolds' appointment.

T. Rowe Price Associates said yesterday that William T. Reynolds, director of its fixed-income division, would retire in April, the second high-profile retirement from the Baltimore investment firm announced in the past two months. Reynolds, 55, joined Price 22 years ago as a bond specialist and oversaw an 80 percent increase in fixed-income assets, which account for $55 billion of the $190 billion the company has under management. He is to be replaced by longtime protege Mary J. Miller, a former research assistant with the Urban Institute of Washington who joined Price in 1983.

As short-term interest rates have plunged, conservative investors have felt the pinch, watching yields drop steadily on their certificates of deposit and money market accounts. But fixed-income investors can still pursue strategies to maximize returns, depending upon the type of investment and the level of risk, even as the Federal Reserve slashes interest rates to stimulate a faltering economy. "Anytime there's global uncertainty and chaos in the markets like now, the difference between interest rates on government fixed-interest [securities]

Legg Mason Inc., which last summer hired Edward A. Taber III away from his job of running the fixed-income division of T. Rowe Price Associates Inc., has snagged two of Mr. Taber's colleagues from Price.Keith J. Gardner, who was a vice president, global bond trader and portfolio manager at Price, has been hired as vice president and senior global fixed-income portfolio manager at Legg Mason.And Elizabeth L. Daniels, who was an investment specialist with Price, has been named vice president and investment specialist at Legg.

T. Rowe Price Associates Inc., the Baltimore-based mutual funds company, is offering a new mutual fund that combines the potential appreciation of common stocks with the income and stability of bonds over the long term.The fund, called the Balanced Fund, received approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission last week.Common stocks are expected to represent about 60 percent of the fund's assets and fixed income securities, including cash reserves, will make up the rest, according to Price.

Advertising and Public Relations Thurston joins Yuhanick as head of creative unit John Yuhanick & Associates Inc. appointed Kevin Thurston to head its new creative wing. His responsibilities include creating print collateral, ad design and copy writing. A graduate of the State University of New York, Buffalo, the Charles Village resident is a published poet and has authored several short stories. Rosen names Halford PR coordinator The Rosen Group Inc. named Kristi Halford as a public relations coordinator for the Hampden-based arts marketing and publishing firm.

Betty Ashbrook and a helpful friend recently lugged a twin bed down from an upstairs guest room into Ashbrook's dining area, making that the 64-year-old woman's new bedroom. She did so not because she was having trouble navigating the stairs, but because she was struggling to pay her rapidly rising heating bills, the most recent of which was more than $200 - a quarter of her monthly income. "I can't afford these gas bills like this," said Ashbrook, a widow. "So I brought my bed down on the first floor, so that I can pretty much live on one floor.

Will my shares of Merrill Lynch & Co. have a revival? - C.M., via the Internet It has acknowledged that it handled risks badly in subprime mortgages and other structured debt products. In fact, its global head of fixed income and the co-head of fixed income for the Americas recently left the firm. But it is still Merrill Lynch: It remains the nation's largest brokerage and a global financial powerhouse. The investment firm is to report a loss in the third quarter as it takes $5.5 billion in write-downs from collateralized debt obligations, known as CDOs, subprime mortgages and other debt products.

When we first met Lottie Barnett, a lively 84-year-old, she was dredging pieces of liver in flour and frying them in canola oil for her supper. I was with Robin Spence, the registered dietitian from Union Memorial Hospital who helps with our monthly Make Over My Meal series. About five months ago, Barnett moved into one of the low-income senior apartments in the Stadium Place development on 33rd Street.

A retired reader in Painesville, Ohio, echoed what a lot of seniors are feeling when they read about historically low inflation but struggle nonetheless to keep up with the costs of real, daily living. "My guess is that inflation is running at between 4 and 6 percent a year on most things consumers have to buy," the reader complained, scoffing at "official" estimates around half that. This year's cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security income was 3.3 percent, which is based on the Consumer Price Index.

Harford County wants to join other jurisdictions in the metropolitan area that offer property tax breaks for some senior citizens and others on fixed incomes, as local governments seek to offer relief to residents who face rising tax bills in homes that have appreciated rapidly in recent years. Baltimore, Carroll and Howard counties are among the jurisdictions that have approved property tax relief initiatives, and Baltimore City is considering one. Jurisdictions in dozens of other states have implemented similar programs.

What Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke doesn't do can help you. The Fed's decision to at last lay off the interest rate increases that characterized Bernanke's early tenure opens the door to a new world of possibilities. Experts who hope Fed policymakers will be content to simply sit on their hands for a while are dishing out suggestions to everyday investors: Consider leaving short-term certificates of deposit behind and instead invest in three- to five-year CDs. Yields are about as good as they'll get for some time.

Accounting:Nathan G. Chernoff and Janet E. Barbiere announced the formation of Chernoff and Associates, Certified Public Accountants, located in downtown Baltimore.* Charles M. Solomon, P.A., a Baltimore accounting firm, named Michael Wiley as director of computer operations and promoted Cynthia Hayen to staff accountant.* Nicholas Witherspoon was named network administrator at Katz, Abosch, Windesheim, Gershman & Freedman P.A. In addition to providing computer expertise to the firm's employees, he also provides client services such as conversions of manual information systems to computerized systems.

Retirement money used to be the definition of long-term investing, with pension managers encouraged to think of their portfolios with time horizons even longer than a single lifetime in order to maximize investment results for the plan over time. Amid the current U.S. pension-law overhaul and a rush to shorter-term fixed income strategies in other workplace savings plans, those horizons are looking shorter. Many pension managers are alternatively turning to the safety of bonds at the same time they are expected to dabble more frequently in riskier investments to try to juice returns.

For Baltimoreans living on a fixed income, one question has overwhelmed most other concerns this week: Where will they find the money to pay a 72 percent increase in their electricity bills? "Concerned is not the word. People are sick," said Jesse Peaker, a West Baltimore retiree. "72 percent? They've got to be out of their minds. Somebody is, and I don't think it's me." As news about soaring electricity costs spread across the city this week, residents expressed a mixture of fury, frustration and bewilderment about the increases -- an expected $743 a year for the average Baltimore Gas and Electric residential customer.