Billion

As the clock ticks down on Tribune Co.'s self-imposed deadline on Saturday for auctioning the big media company, mystery still surrounds the apparent favored bid, from Chicago real estate magnate Sam Zell and its use of a newly created employee stock ownership plan. Zell, 65, has said little publicly except that he would invest $300 million in cash and become the minority partner of a stock ownership plan that would buy up the company's shares and take Tribune private. He declined an interview request yesterday.

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. trade deficit surged in November, setting an annual record with a month left to go in 1998, as exports fell and increased purchases of computers and cellular phones contributed to a rise in imports, the government reported yesterday.November's trade deficit rose to $15.5 billion after narrowing in October to a revised $13.6 billion, the Commerce Department said. That boosted the shortfall for the first 11 months of the year to $153.9 billion, topping the previous yearly record shortfall of $153.

FRANKFURT, Germany -- Deutsche Bank AG, Europe's second-biggest bank, said yesterday that it will sell 6 billion deutsche marks ($3.4 billion) of new shares to help finance its purchase of Bankers Trust Corp. and expansion in Europe.The Frankfurt-based bank, gearing up for its $10.1 billion acquisition of Bankers Trust, originally said it wanted to raise 4 billion marks.The additional cash will help equip it for "continuing consolidation" in European banking, it said."I'm sure it's mainly to do with Bankers Trust, but the Machiavellians will see this as Deutsche Bank raising money as a war chest," said Dino Fuschillo, London-based head of European equities at Societe Generale Asset Management, which manages 750 million pounds ($1.2 billion)

WASHINGTON -- On the day of a 22-car pileup on the tragically slick Dulles Airport access road, when the nation's capital and environs are iced in -- and when our emergency rooms are crowded with victims of falls -- I see that the rest of the nation and the world are also suffering the ravages of bad weather.Detroit is almost paralyzed under two feet of snow. Buffalo, N.Y., normally notorious for its lake-effect snows, has already had half its yearly quota of snow. Much of California's orange crop is frozen.

FAIRFIELD, Conn. -- General Electric Co. said yesterday that it earned $2.82 billion in the second quarter, the highest quarterly profit ever reported by the 107-year-old maker of light bulbs, jet engines and appliances.GE, the second-largest U.S. company by market value, said low costs and increased sales of service contracts helped net income rise 15 percent, from $2.45 billion a year earlier. Per-share profit was 85 cents, compared with 74 cents for the same period last year. Revenue rose 9.2 percent, to $27.4 billion from $25.1 billion.

SAN FRANCISCO -- By Oct. 12, this unique blue planet of ours is expected to reach an awesome and dangerous milestone: A population of 6 billion.Seeing as how it took us until 1804 to reach 1 billion, and how as recently as 40 years ago there were but 3 billion of us, we are talking about cataclysmic acceleration.This news is not as bad as population experts predicted five years ago. The global birthrate is increasing but not as quickly as was expected. Declining birthrates in 61 nations have contributed to the slowdown.

NEW YORK -- Increased competition and the rush to be global could make 1999 the fifth consecutive record year for mergers and acquisitions -- exceeding the $2.5 trillion of announced transactions in 1998.More agreements like Daimler Benz AG's $34.8 billion purchase of Chrysler Corp. and SBC Communications Inc.'s purchase of Ameritech Corp. for $83.6 billion are expected as companies forge links to cut costs and compete worldwide.The blurring of borders in Europe, where 11 countries are adopting a single currency, will also create the need for companies with the bulk to serve a market as big as the United States.

HOUSTON -- Compaq Computer Corp., the world's No. 1 personal computer maker, said yesterday that it had a second-quarter loss in line with analysts' forecasts and announced that it will cut as many as 8,000 more jobs, or 12 percent of its work force, to reduce costs.The loss was $184 million, or 10 cents a share. A year earlier, Compaq had profit from operations of $32 million, or 2 cents. Sales rose to $9.42 billion from $5.83 billion. Year-earlier results include the acquisition of Digital Equipment Corp.

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. trade shortfall in goods, services, and investments widened to a record in the third quarter, as imports grew faster than exports and overseas investors earned more on their U.S. holdings, government figures showed yesterday.The current account deficit, the broadest measure of international trade because it incorporates financial transactions, grew to $89.949 billion in the three months that ended Sept. 30 after widening to $80.909 billion in the second quarter, the Commerce Department said.

WASHINGTON - Saddam Hussein may have escaped a U.S. attack for the time being, but American taxpayers won't escape the bill for the military buildup in the Persian Gulf.Sending U.S. troops, ships and aircraft to confront Hussein is expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars, even if no bombs are dropped or missiles fired, according to congressional officials and defense experts. The cost might reach $1 billion.However, the Pentagon says it's too early to determine the cost of the buildup and the continuing U.S. military presence that President Clinton said yesterday was necessary.

T. Rowe Price Group's third-quarter profit dipped 13 percent as the Baltimore money manager's revenue from investment services fell. Still, the company reported Friday that clients continued to pour money into its mutual funds and other products, driving in $7.4 billion of new money during the quarter. Earnings beat Wall Street estimates of 46 cents per share based on a survey of 18 analysts by Bloomberg News. Shares rose $5.16 to close at $54.27 yesterday. Price Chief Executive and President James A.C. Kennedy said in an interview that the company is producing positive results for clients, noting that 87 percent of its funds outperformed their peers during a five-year period that ended Sept.

EPA declares health emergency in Montana towns WASHINGTON - The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday declared its first-ever "public health emergency," saying the federal government will funnel $6 million to provide medical care for people sickened by asbestos from a mine in a section of northwest Montana. The declaration applies to the towns of Libby and Troy, where for decades workers dug for vermiculite, a mineral used in insulation. They were unknowingly poisoning themselves: The vermiculite was contaminated with a toxic form of asbestos, which workers carried home on their clothes.

Maryland lawmakers have slashed $825 million from the state budget for this fiscal year and next, making for the leanest spending proposal in at least 50 years, according to the leader of the House of Delegates. "We've come up with a very fair and effective budget without raising taxes or fees during these tough economic times," said House Speaker Michael E. Busch, an Anne Arundel County Democrat. His chamber's budget committee signed off Friday night on an operating budget for next year of just under $14 billion - less than this year's and less than Gov. Martin O'Malley proposed in January.

Washington - Maryland is an island of relative prosperity in a sea of economic gloom. That, at least, is how economist Mark Zandi of Moody's Economy.com depicts it. In a recent map of the coast-to-coast recession, he ranked the state as one of the few not in recession, though still "at risk." In December, the state's unemployment rate was the 14th-lowest in the country, significantly below the national average. What has helped keep Maryland from sinking deeper has been spending by the federal government, which is about to pump a whole lot more money in. Billions in new spending from the stimulus package could cushion the pain over the next year or two, though perhaps not quickly enough to keep the state from falling into the national recession.

Amazon stock soars on profit, outlook NEW YORK : Amazon.com Inc. said yesterday that its fourth-quarter profit rose 9 percent and easily surpassed analysts' forecasts. Those results, plus an optimistic forecast, sent its shares soaring 13 percent in extended trading. Amazon had called the holiday season its "best ever," and the earnings report backed up the idea that the online retailer is not being seriously hurt by cutbacks in consumer spending. Amazon said its revenue in the current quarter should be $4.53 billion to $4.93 billion, while analysts are expecting $4.57 billion.

How do you get a sense of $2.4 trillion? That's how much the Congressional Budget Office says the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could cost over the next 10 years. It's an awful lot of money. But not, in principle, impossible to imagine. Consider some comparisons: Hurricane rainfall, gallons per day 2.4 trillion Passenger miles flown in 2006 2.4 trillion Gallons of water used in Florida every year 2.4 trillion Estimated barrels of oil in the world before drilling began 2.4 trillion Annual flow of Indus River, in cubic feet 2.4 trillion (That's three times as much, by the way, as that of the Tigris and Euphrates combined.

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Google Inc. continued minting buckets of money for its stockholders yesterday, finishing above $600 a share for the first time on optimism over its continued dominance of online advertising. The company ended the day at $609.62, up $15.57 or 2.62 percent, rebounding sharply from a month ago, when a tepid second-quarter earnings report sent its share price to around $500. Since then, the Internet search company's market value has grown by $29.7 billion. Google's shares are now worth $190 billion.

Once again, Congress is embracing a no-frills approach to keeping Amtrak viable and whole for another year despite the Bush administration's efforts to diminish intercity passenger rail service. Recently, the House and Senate appropriations committees agreed to a modest increase in Amtrak funding from $1.3 billion this year to $1.4 billion in the House version and $1.37 billion in the Senate. That may not fly with President Bush, who wanted only $800 million spent on Amtrak, a move that would have resulted in draconian cuts to service, particularly to parts of the country outside the Northeast.

As the clock ticks down on Tribune Co.'s self-imposed deadline on Saturday for auctioning the big media company, mystery still surrounds the apparent favored bid, from Chicago real estate magnate Sam Zell and its use of a newly created employee stock ownership plan. Zell, 65, has said little publicly except that he would invest $300 million in cash and become the minority partner of a stock ownership plan that would buy up the company's shares and take Tribune private. He declined an interview request yesterday.

In an editorial yesterday, a reference to $6.1 billion in next year's budget should have included all education spending, not only for the No Child Left Behind law.