Demand

Now people can begin telling pollsters honestly what they think of the guy.Talk radio is speechless, but they'll think of something.The number of hotels not being built here keeps increasing to meet the demand of conventions not coming here.Trustees of a small college in New Hampshire demand that students living in houses like boozy pigs do it coeducationally. The scholars are outraged.Pub Date: 2/17/99

THESE DAYS, a trip to the gas station can wreck your afternoon -- especially if you own a burly pickup truck, or one of those SUVs that licks its chops the second you pull up to the pumps.Gasoline prices, after hitting a multiyear low in February, have surged a numbing 39 percent, to an average retail price of $1.26 per gallon. That's a three-year high, says one government survey.Higher gasoline prices nearly always rankle U.S. consumers, partly because we view driving a gas-guzzler as an American birthright.

1948: Alfred Kinsey publishes first sex study1949: Disposable diapers introduced1950: Bomb-shelter plans in demand

A half-dozen seventh-grade girls at Pine Grove Middle School in Carney are sitting around talking and quickly discover they have something in common: A sudden burst of popularity among families with young children.Five have been recruited to baby-sit on what could be the biggest party night of their lives, New Year's Eve on the cusp of 2000.Most received their offers by mid-October -- and from more than one family.Three expect to earn at least $50 for a few hour's work.But the winner, the girls quickly conclude, is 12-year-old Nicole Benham of Perry Hall.

EACH LABOR DAY America celebrates its progress as a great provider. Average real family income has risen by almost one percent a year for the past generation. Since World War II, the unemployment rate has risen above 8 percent for two periods -- for a couple months in 1975 and late 1981 through December 1983. This country's record of economic prosperity is unparalleled in the world.Some Eastern Europeans jokingly refer to the United States as the "wild west" because of our commitment to freedom in hiring and firing.

BEIJING -- About 200 demonstrators blocked traffic in the central Chinese city of Chengsa this week protesting over not getting paid in the past six months by a local, formerly state-owned company. The police showed up to help unsnarl traffic, but not to intervene in the demonstration.Last week 200 angry investors who lost their savings in a government-linked futures trading scheme marched to Tiananmen Square and demanded their money back.Police formed a line between them and the square, but allowed them to pass peacefully.

Maryland gas prices have risen a penny a gallon since August and are up nearly 8 cents since July, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic.The trend breaks with a tradition of prices declining at the end of the summer travel season. The increases are due to a combination of strong demand in August and record low inventories, AAA said.Maryland motorists are paying an average of $1.268 per gallon for regular self-serve unleaded, up from $1.255 in August, according to an AAA survey of 30 stations in counties excluding Charles, Prince George's and Montgomery.

LAS VEGAS -- MCI Communications Corp. yesterday unveiled a telephone and computer system that NBC is testing in the first major trial by a television network of programming-on-demand using digital technology.The MCI HyperMedia system is designed for video-on-demand, image storage and retrieval, corporate training and telemedicine.General Electric Co.'s NBC network will use it to let several affiliates access news reports and video from satellites whenever they want to, rather than at specific times, as they currently do."

Saying it fears bias by Baltimore's Housing Authority, one of two bidders to redevelop the site of the demolished Lafayette Courts housing project is demanding that a federally picked panel evaluate the bids.The New York-based Edmonds Group is asking that its bid on the $45 million to $65 million project to build townhouses, a high-rise for the elderly and other buildings not be opened unless the demand is granted.In a Nov. 1 letter to the Housing Authority, the developer said it wants the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, rather than the city agency, to appoint the selection panel.

To keep up with the growing population on the Broadneck Peninsula, county officials are planning to double the capacity of the Arnold Water Treatment Plant from 3 million to 8 million gallons a day.The county has begun advertising for bids on the project, which includes building three new aerators and six gravity filters and digging a fifth well with a depth of 1,000 feet, said Vijay Kulkarni, chief of facility engineering for the Anne Arundel County Department...

Talk about fireworks. In a burst of post-Fourth of July sales, Southwest Airlines turned the clock back with 1990s fares, a major hotel group extended a free-nights deal and luxury cruise lines pitched high prices overboard. With many bargains good through autumn and into 2010, now is the time to take a break from the beach and book a trip ahead - far ahead. You might save hundreds. The latest price-slashing began just days after the U.S. government said unemployment edged up in June, adding to worries that the recession could extend into 2010 and beyond.

The Obama administration has been right to focus much of its energy on re-capitalizing the nation's banks. Renewed growth depends largely on an end to the credit crisis. But for all the focus on Wall Street, the way out of the current recession may depend more on Main Street. Analysis of the nation's economic history reveals that the housing market's resurgence has led a wider turnaround in five of the last seven recessions. So a renewed focus on pumping up home-buyer demand may be worth additional attention from Washington.

On stock market reaction to President Barack Obama's bank bailout plan: I agree with you that the markets are not the best indicator of whether or not a policy is wise. It worries me that many pundits cede ultimate authority to "the market" as if it were some impersonal deity acting without self interest. Some public policy decisions may be good for Main Street and not good for Wall Street - and vice versa. They need to be looked at in their entirety over time. Posted by: Teresa Kopec - March 23 On the tiny fraction of federal dollars spent on train security: What cost safety?

Increased demand for some General Motors trucks has helped General Motors' Powertrain Baltimore Transmission Plant avert a weeklong shutdown that was to have started Monday, a local spokesman for the plant said yesterday. The spokesman, John Raut, had said last month that the plant was planning to shut down and temporarily lay off all of its hourly workers for the week. The plant employs 238 people. But demand for some company vehicles has improved, including the Chevy Silverado and Sierra pickup trucks, for which the Baltimore plant makes six-speed automatic transmissions, Raut said yesterday.

A reader asks: Could you explain what is bad about deflation? I understand why inflation is bad, and I presume that deflation is the opposite of inflation. If so, why is it bad if my money is increasing in value rather than decreasing? The short answer is that deflation, like inflation, can kill demand and productive economic growth. Deflation is a persistent and broad decrease in prices. It arrives when there is too much supply, especially of capital goods, and too little demand. (The real estate market, with 11 months' supply of empty homes trying to get sold, is the primo example.

September ended this week warm and wet. BWI was 2 degrees above the long-term average, despite a cool second half. We had four days in the 90s, two in the 60s. Hanna and last weekend's Atlantic storm pushed BWI rain totals 3.24 inches above the norm, to 7.22 inches. The cooling season is almost over, with cooling degree days - a measure of energy demand - running 4.5 percent above the 30-year average.

Ridership has increased on the MARC train's Penn Line from Perryman to Washington by nearly 25 percent this year. To meet demand, three new trains have been added, and the service is looking to add to its fleet of bi-level passenger cars. But, while more people are taking the train from Aberdeen, fewer are finding nearby places to park. "Parking is a nightmare," said R.V. Scott, who commutes from Aberdeen to a job in Washington. "I sometimes park on the grass. I have gotten ticketed. I have missed the train several times while looking for a space, and then I am late for work.

The Harford County Center for the Arts is making plans to live up to its name. Organized three years ago to build a home for the arts, the nonprofit group now has the results of a recently completed feasibility study to bolster its cause. Members are searching for a location with about 22 acres, and are raising money. Preliminary estimates say it will cost about $52 million, excluding land and site development, to construct a facility that would house theaters, rehearsal halls, galleries, classrooms, a museum, a visitor's center and conference areas.

LAWTON, N.D. -- Whatever Dennis Miller decides to plant this year on his 2,760-acre farm, the world needs. Wheat prices have doubled in the past six months. Corn is on a tear. Barley, sunflower seeds, canola and soybeans are all up sharply. But the prices that have renewed Miller's faith in farming are causing pain far and wide. A tailor in Lagos, Nigeria, named Abel Ojuku said recently that he had been forced to cut back on the bread he and his family love. Everywhere, the cost of food is up sharply.

Whether or not the economy is in a recession right now, workers are starting to feel weary about job security and professional prospects. But there is a sliver of good news out there. Several industries are resistant to the ills of a slowing economy, according to John A. Challenger, chief executive of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a Chicago outplacement firm. The credit crunch and a slumping housing market have brought depressing job news from manufacturing, retail, construction and the real estate sectors.