Economic Slowdown

NEW YORK -- U.S. stocks declined yesterday amid concern that weaker-than-expected August job growth may signal an economic slowdown and diminished corporate earnings. A sagging dollar and bond market also converged to drive stocks lower.The Labor Department said the economy added 179,000 jobs last month, far below what most economists had expected."If the numbers are as they appear, it doesn't bode well for the economy and profits," said Anthony Dwyer, chief investment strategist at Sherwood Securities Inc.The Dow Jones industrial average declined 15.86, to 3,885.

During the depression of the 1930s, the Chesapeake Bay thrived largely because people let it alone. They quit punishing the bay with overharvesting, and industrial pollution and construction diminished. The result was a maritime environmental bonanza. After the end of World War II, watermen were reporting record strikes of oysters, crabs and rockfish. A roundtable of "experts," including this writer, mulled this scenario at a "Chesapeake Futures" conference held by the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels.

Caterpillar Inc. Shares in the maker of farm and construction equipment rose $6.69, or 8.5 percent, to close at $85.28 yesterday and are now within $2 of their all-time high despite the U.S. economic slowdown.

Ah, twice-a-week garbage collection. It was nice while it lasted - 55 years, apparently - but it's time to give up this municipal luxury. It's time to hold our noses and pry this one out of our cold, Hefty Cinch Sak'd fingers. As the city looks to slash spending - Mayor Sheila Dixon on Friday projected a $65 million gap in fiscal 2010 between what the city will take in and what it will spend to provide the current level of services - going from twice- to once-a-week garbage pickup is an idea whose time has come.

DETROIT (Reuters) -- Sales of U.S.-built autos revived with a 8.3 percent gain in late December, according to figures released yesterday, but the good news was not enough to rescue the industry from one of its most dismal years.Auto sales for the year fell 3.1 percent on a daily-rate basis, and industry analysts blamed the economic slowdown for worsening the auto industry's problems."Problems in the economy deepened a recession already going on in car sales," said David Healy of Barclays de Zoette Wedd.

Maryland closed the books on its 2001 fiscal year with a surplus of $538 million, $153 million more than state budget officials expected, according to figures released yesterday. The robust tax collections show that Maryland's economy has resisted the national economic slowdown better than most of the nation. The state's cash reserves on June 30 stood at about $950 million -- giving it some cushion against future revenue shocks. Gov. Parris N. Glendening said Maryland's cash reserves are at the highest level in history and more than double the 5 percent required by state law. He said the state is well-positioned to withstand what he called "the souring of the national economy."

THE BIG BUZZ SAW is coming closer. That Asian economic slowdown which began in Thailand and spread to Indonesia and then to Malaysia is now gripping Japan and South Korea, the world's No. 2 and No. 11 economic powers, respectively.This spreading slowdown will surely dominate the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, meeting now in Vancouver, British Columbia. This 18-nation group was designed to promote burgeoning trade, but instead must focus on rescue efforts so that wounded tigers are not crippled.

NEW YORK -- U.S. stocks soared to record highs yesterday for the second time this week as government reports pointed to an economic slowdown that will allow corporate earnings to grow while interest rates fall.Oil, electrical equipment, soft drink, computer and drug stocks led the latest rally, which focused on larger companies with significant overseas sales that benefit from the weak dollar. Stocks also may have gotten a boost from today's simultaneous expiration of stock options, index futures and index options, traders said.

Blaming the faltering economy, Black & Decker Corp. said yesterday that its third-quarter profit fell by nearly half and that the fourth quarter will also likely be tough going. The Towson-based power toolmaker was in line with analysts' expectations with a $46.4 million profit, or 57 cents a diluted share, for the three months that ended Sept. 30. That was down 46 percent from the $86.3 million - $1.03 a share - it made in last year's third quarter. Sales were down 6 percent from $1.133 billion to $1.063 billion.

During the depression of the 1930s, the Chesapeake Bay thrived largely because people let it alone. They quit punishing the bay with overharvesting, and industrial pollution and construction diminished. The result was a maritime environmental bonanza. After the end of World War II, watermen were reporting record strikes of oysters, crabs and rockfish. A roundtable of "experts," including this writer, mulled this scenario at a "Chesapeake Futures" conference held by the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels.

Harford Friends School planned to add first grade this academic year. School officials were looking for four to six students to make up the inaugural class but didn't meet their goal, said Jonathan Huxtable, head of the school. "Only two parents enrolled their children," said Huxtable, who started the school in 2005 in Darlington. "We kind of knew with the economy being so bad, it would be tough. We postponed the addition of first grade until next year." Despite the low turnout for first grade, the school's middle school program is bucking national trends with increased enrollment, Huxtable said.

More people than ever are calling the Salvation Army's Baltimore offices this year, asking for help paying their utility bills or for food to feed their families. And contributions from individuals, the charity says, are down $100,000 from a year earlier. Around the state, nonprofits are seeing donations fall and pleas for help increase. Their costs to supply food and other assistance are soaring. And they worry that fundraising will fall far short of goals this year, with even the most steadfast of donors, from individuals to foundations, tapped out in light of the economic slowdown.

Maryland colleges and universities are raising more money than ever despite a faltering economy, though some campuses are worried about declining alumni giving and say that the economic slump, if it persists, could hit the education sector in coming years. As of May 31, the 13-campus University System of Maryland had raised nearly $220 million in the fiscal year that ends this month, a 27 percent increase over last year's total during the same period. At the private Johns Hopkins University, donations are on track to hit $450 million this fiscal year, making it the strongest year ever for one of the nation's fundraising powerhouses.

Caterpillar Inc. Shares in the maker of farm and construction equipment rose $6.69, or 8.5 percent, to close at $85.28 yesterday and are now within $2 of their all-time high despite the U.S. economic slowdown.

The Annapolis and Anne Arundel County Chamber of Commerce has canceled the Maryland Seafood Festival this year, citing concerns that it would not break even in the unsettled economy. Chamber officials worried that people looking to cut back on expenses would pass on the festival, which funds itself primarily with ticket sales. They also predicted rising fuel costs would limit the event's regional draw. "Our concern is the direction the economy was going will have an impact," said chamber President Bob Burdon.

Recession is on the menu. Because of the housing slump, $3 gas, indebted consumers and higher interest rates, analysts increasingly suspect production and employment may shrink in coming months, possibly dealing the country its worst economic blow since 1990. "The U.S. economy is headed for a sharp recession by early 2007," Nouriel Roubini, chairman of Roubini Global Economics Monitor, says on his blog. "Intimations of recession" was the headline on economist Paul Krugman's column in The New York Times two weeks ago. "The economy is slowing, and I suspect that by the end of the year it could very well be in recession," investment strategist Gary Shilling told CRN magazine (formerly Computer Reseller News )

The remarkable U.S. economy kept chugging in February, adding the most jobs since May, leaving fewer people unemployed and adding to the suspense over future interest rates.The country had 339,000 more jobs last month than it did in January, after adjustments for seasonal rhythms, the Labor Department said yesterday.That's about 100,000 more than many analysts expected, and it suggests that the current economic expansion will blow past its sixth birthday this spring and aim toward a seventh.

IS MARYLAND'S budget glass half-full or half-empty? The governor says things are just fine, that fiscal pessimists will be proven wrong. He says that talk of a shortfall approaching $2 billion in the 2002 to 2004 state budgets are merely projections and that in the past such legislative extrapolations have been off the mark. A growing number of state legislators, though, take a far less sanguine view. They shudder at what the nation's economic slowdown could do to Maryland's fast-flowing revenue stream.

It's no secret that the economic slowdown is hurting the revenues of state governments. What's gone almost unnoticed is how states are trying to make up the shortfall. "The combined average [state and local sales] tax rate rose 26 percent last year," said Diana DiBello, of Vertex Inc., a Pennsylvania tax software company. "That is almost as much as in the previous nine years." The average sales tax rate imposed by states, counties and cities in the United States was 8.534 percent last year.

With the economy in a downturn, delinquent loans rising and the potential for interest rates to rise later this year, the banking industry faces some significant challenges this year. Even so, the nation's banking sector is significantly stronger than it was before the 1990-1991 recession, meaning many banks and thrifts could navigate their way to a decent 2002, experts say. "Maybe it won't be quite as good" as last year, said Robert R. Davis, an economist and managing director of governmental relations for America's Community Bankers, a Washington-based trade group.