Consumer Goods

New contracts that will bring additional automobiles, forest products and other niche cargo to the port of Baltimore will help the city's waterfront weather a world-wide recession that has slashed East Coast trade in recent months, business leaders said. However, most segments of the port's business will feel some pain in the months ahead as demand for consumer goods remains weak. Ships are still arriving in near-typical numbers, but state pilots and other sources say there is less cargo aboard when they reach Baltimore, resulting in less demand for dock workers.

Right up front, I must confess that I am part of the reason the Maryland Transportation Authority is considering a proposal to jack up tolls to dizzying heights. You see, I'm a parasite on the system. Have been for years. And if you, too, commute into downtown Baltimore from south of the city, you may be a freeloader, too. My daily commute from Howard County takes me up Interstate 95. I pay my way as far as Caton Avenue — in the form of gas taxes, vehicle registration fees, sales taxes and so on. But once I cross the city line, I enjoy a free ride all the way to the end of Interstate 395 at Conway Street.

WASHINGTON -- In March 2005, the Consumer Product Safety Commission called together the nation's top safety experts to confront an alarming statistic: 44,000 children riding all-terrain vehicles were injured the previous year, nearly 150 of them fatally. National associations of pediatricians, consumer advocates and emergency room doctors were urging the commission to ban sales of adult-size ATVs for use by children under 16. But John Gibson Mullan, the agency's director of compliance and a former lawyer for the ATV industry, said the current system of voluntary safety standards was working, according to a recording.

WASHINGTON -- In March 2005, the Consumer Product Safety Commission called together the nation's top safety experts to confront an alarming statistic: 44,000 children riding all-terrain vehicles were injured the previous year, nearly 150 of them fatally. National associations of pediatricians, consumer advocates and emergency room doctors were urging the commission to ban sales of adult-size ATVs for use by children under 16. But John Gibson Mullan, the agency's director of compliance and a former lawyer for the ATV industry, said the current system of voluntary safety standards was working, according to a recording.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. trade deficit fell in October to the narrowest in seven months as a labor dispute closed West Coast ports and companies imported capital goods at the slowest pace in four years, the government reported yesterday. The $35.1 billion trade gap in goods and services followed a $37.1 billion shortfall in September, the Commerce Department said. Exports fell for a third straight month, and imports declined 2.4 percent. Inbound shipments of computer accessories, telecommunications equipment and semiconductors dropped.

Right up front, I must confess that I am part of the reason the Maryland Transportation Authority is considering a proposal to jack up tolls to dizzying heights. You see, I'm a parasite on the system. Have been for years. And if you, too, commute into downtown Baltimore from south of the city, you may be a freeloader, too. My daily commute from Howard County takes me up Interstate 95. I pay my way as far as Caton Avenue — in the form of gas taxes, vehicle registration fees, sales taxes and so on. But once I cross the city line, I enjoy a free ride all the way to the end of Interstate 395 at Conway Street.

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is planning to call in U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers to help overwhelmed health inspectors protect Americans from tainted imports of foods, toys and other consumer goods, senior officials said yesterday. The still-evolving plan, scheduled to be delivered to President Bush in September, also is expected to call for wider deployment of sophisticated technology at the borders, including hand-held scanners that inspectors can use to detect the presence of lead, arsenic and other dangerous substances in a range of products.

HOW MUCH MONEY have Americans been raking in from home-sale profits, thanks to the boom in property values? Would you believe nearly $200 billion last year alone, and more than $700 billion since 1995? That's a staggering amount of capital gain - and virtually all of it has been tax-free. Roughly 70 percent of it last year was plowed back into the housing market directly, as sellers bought replacement homes. The remaining 30 percent was spent on a wide range of other things - consumer goods, investments, vacations, tuition - or deposited into savings.

HOW SMART ARE homeowners who pull hefty sums from their home equity using cash-out refinancing? Don't they risk ending up in a more precarious financial position because they are piling additional, heavy debt on their homes? The answers to both questions might surprise you. The first comprehensive national economic study of the past three years of refinancing mania has concluded that: Homeowners who extracted cash from their homes through refinancings during 2001-2003 generally were not only smart but used the funds prudently.

Last week, the Commerce Department reported that the 2005 current account deficit was $804.9 billion, up from $668.1 billion in 2004. The current account is the broadest measure of the U.S. trade balance. In the fourth quarter, the current account deficit was $224.9 billion, up from $185.4 billion in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, that deficit exceeded 7 percent of gross domestic product. The current account deficit could easily top $1 trillion a year by the second half of 2006, a prospect with ominous long-term implications for the U.S. economy.

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is planning to call in U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers to help overwhelmed health inspectors protect Americans from tainted imports of foods, toys and other consumer goods, senior officials said yesterday. The still-evolving plan, scheduled to be delivered to President Bush in September, also is expected to call for wider deployment of sophisticated technology at the borders, including hand-held scanners that inspectors can use to detect the presence of lead, arsenic and other dangerous substances in a range of products.

Last week, the Commerce Department reported that the 2005 current account deficit was $804.9 billion, up from $668.1 billion in 2004. The current account is the broadest measure of the U.S. trade balance. In the fourth quarter, the current account deficit was $224.9 billion, up from $185.4 billion in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, that deficit exceeded 7 percent of gross domestic product. The current account deficit could easily top $1 trillion a year by the second half of 2006, a prospect with ominous long-term implications for the U.S. economy.

HOW SMART ARE homeowners who pull hefty sums from their home equity using cash-out refinancing? Don't they risk ending up in a more precarious financial position because they are piling additional, heavy debt on their homes? The answers to both questions might surprise you. The first comprehensive national economic study of the past three years of refinancing mania has concluded that: Homeowners who extracted cash from their homes through refinancings during 2001-2003 generally were not only smart but used the funds prudently.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. trade deficit fell in October to the narrowest in seven months as a labor dispute closed West Coast ports and companies imported capital goods at the slowest pace in four years, the government reported yesterday. The $35.1 billion trade gap in goods and services followed a $37.1 billion shortfall in September, the Commerce Department said. Exports fell for a third straight month, and imports declined 2.4 percent. Inbound shipments of computer accessories, telecommunications equipment and semiconductors dropped.

New contracts that will bring additional automobiles, forest products and other niche cargo to the port of Baltimore will help the city's waterfront weather a world-wide recession that has slashed East Coast trade in recent months, business leaders said. However, most segments of the port's business will feel some pain in the months ahead as demand for consumer goods remains weak. Ships are still arriving in near-typical numbers, but state pilots and other sources say there is less cargo aboard when they reach Baltimore, resulting in less demand for dock workers.

HOW MUCH MONEY have Americans been raking in from home-sale profits, thanks to the boom in property values? Would you believe nearly $200 billion last year alone, and more than $700 billion since 1995? That's a staggering amount of capital gain - and virtually all of it has been tax-free. Roughly 70 percent of it last year was plowed back into the housing market directly, as sellers bought replacement homes. The remaining 30 percent was spent on a wide range of other things - consumer goods, investments, vacations, tuition - or deposited into savings.

It was, in many ways, a marriage of convenience. She had been around longer than most folks realized. He was on his way up, up, up -- literally. She hooked her star to his coattails but eventually went the way of so many trophy wives, starting over and re-inventing herself. We're talking, of course, about Tang and NASA. And on this, the 30th anniversary of Neil Armstrong's moon walk, it's as good a time as any to contemplate lunar product placement -- the real and imagined links between the U.S. space program and various consumer goods.

THIS IS THE THIRD article in an occasional series that examines vacant and under-utilized buildings or lots in Baltimore and suggests how they can be redeveloped. The hulking Montgomery Ward's building sits forlorn and neglected at the corner of Washington Boulevard and Monroe Street, across from Carroll Park in southwest Baltimore. When it was the catalog center for a department-store giant, goods were shipped from this warehouse to customers near and far. Today, silence permeates the empty parking lot and vacant warehouse.

WASHINGTON - After 50 years of often bitter confrontation, the United States formally eased commercial sanctions on North Korea yesterday, bringing the isolated, Stalinist nation a step closer to the international community. The Clinton administration lifted export and import restrictions on most consumer goods. U.S. commercial ships and aircraft will be able to carry approved goods to North Korea for the first time in a half-century. Individuals, such as Koreans living in the United States, will be allowed to directly transfer money to relatives in the reclusive nation.

In the latest blow to the world's best-known brand, Italian regulators yesterday fined the bottler for the Coca-Cola Co. in Italy more than $16 million after finding that it had engaged in unfair practices.The fine amounts to about 3 percent of Coke's sales in Italy this year but less than half the maximum penalty. It will be paid by Coca-Cola, which owns 51 percent of the bottler, Coca-Cola Beverages.The bottler also was ordered to eliminate some discounts in its exclusive contracts with Italian supermarkets, a move that could dampen its business.