Economist

Loretta Dumas-Turner, a retired U.S. Department of Labor economist and world traveler, died April 18 from complications of diabetes at Baltimore Washington Medical Center. The longtime Pasadena resident was 57. The daughter of a factory worker and homemaker, the former Loretta Marie Dumas was born and raised in Macon, Ga., where she graduated from public schools. Mrs. Dumas-Turner was a 1977 summa cum laude graduate of Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn., where she earned a bachelor's degree in political science and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

Loretta Dumas-Turner, a retired U.S. Department of Labor economist and world traveler, died April 18 from complications of diabetes at Baltimore Washington Medical Center. The longtime Pasadena resident was 57. The daughter of a factory worker and homemaker, the former Loretta Marie Dumas was born and raised in Macon, Ga., where she graduated from public schools. Mrs. Dumas-Turner was a 1977 summa cum laude graduate of Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn., where she earned a bachelor's degree in political science and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

Selden Alexander Robertson, a retired economist who served as a cryptographer during World War II, died Tuesday at his home in Linthicum. He was 89 and had suffered from Parkinson's disease. Mr. Robertson was born and raised in Petersburg, Va., and graduated from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. When World War II started, he enlisted in the Army Air Forces. He taught German to soldiers and intercepted and deciphered codes for the Army. He rose to the rank of lieutenant. In a journal that his friend and caretaker Catherine Bacot found at the end of his life, he had written about his time in the Army.

Kevin Kallaugher (aka KAL) is the man behind the insightful and often acerbic political cartoons that have appeared in more than 100 publications worldwide, among which is our own Baltimore Sun. His work epitomizes the age-old adage that the "pen is mightier than the sword. " In one fell swoop, KAL can tie the tongue of President Obama, plaster a peace sign on the balding head of then Russian President Gorbachev, part the Red Sea with a dragon wearing a Star of David, reconfigure the politically precious Iowa campaign grounds into a snowball battle, along with poking fun at himself with a caricature of all the bizarre images that roam around in his head before they make their way onto paper.

ATLANTA -- The sudden turnabout in oil prices following the outbreak of war in the Persian Gulf left some economists at the annual National Association of Home Builders convention upbeat about the recovery of the housing industry this year.Oil prices skyrocketed, then fell, leading economist Laurence Meyer of St. Louis to comment: "What we thought would take four to six weeks took only three to four hours."Mr. Meyer said he expects oil prices to fall some more. That scenario, combined with higher government spending because of the war, will result in a stronger-than-anticipated economic recovery, he predicted.

"The Pursuit of Reason: The Economist 1843-1993," by Ruth Dudley Edwards. 1,040 pages. Boston: Harvard Business School Press $49.50Is the best political weekly in America an economic journal published in London?A number of us Yanks who work in journalism have long admired the Economist. We've found its American Survey section to be hands-down superior to what we were reading - and producing - in our own stateside magazines.Civilian readers apparently agree. The Economist is 151 years old . . . and counting; its circulation now approaches 600,000 weekly, almost 200,000 of that in the U.S. At a time when American publications are dumbing down in a (ultimately)

R. Richard Geddes, senior staff economist of President Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, will present "The Application of Property Rights to Current Policy Issues" at 3:30 p.m. today in Room 312, Stephens Hall, at Towson University. Geddes, a Towson University alumnus who also serves as associate professor of policy analysis and management at Cornell University, will discuss Social Security reform, environmental economics and other policy issues. Admission to the talk is free. For more information, call Jim Dorn, professor of economics, 410-704-2956 or e-mail jdorn@ towson.

Robert Frank Mize, a retired federal economist, died Friday of kidney failure at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Va. The Mount Airy resident was 80. He previously lived in Silver Spring and had worked as an economist and program analyst for the departments of Labor and Defense, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. He retired from the federal government in 1975 after 28 years. He was born and raised in David City, Neb. He was a private in the Army from 1944 to 1946, when he was honorably discharged.

A key economic indicator shows the nation's economy should grow by 2 percent to 3 percent this year, according to a Loyola College economist, but a survey of area business leaders reveals less optimism about the growth of the mid-Atlantic region's economy.The strongest sign that the national economy will grow at a healthy pace this year is the 2.5 percentage-point spread between short- and long-term interest rates, according to Mark Meador, whose report appears in the January 1992 "Executive Business Outlook," a twice-a-year publication of Loyola's business school.

Maybe George Bush is a Republican, maybe he did run his own business, and maybe he does want to treat Wall Street to a cut in the capital gains tax. But among many of the economists who shape the strategies of the nation's banks and investment houses, patience with the president ended with his speech last week.The very highlight of his plan -- offsetting cuts in taxes and spending -- was widely denounced as poison for an economy in a joyless, jobless recovery."Almost every economist would agree that equal cuts in taxes and spending actually depress the economy," said Allen Sinai, chief economist of Boston Co. "It is not a growth program."

Sherwin M. Adelman, a retired U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs health economist and strategist, died Feb. 4 from complications of dementia and heart failure at Sunrise Senior and Assisted-Living of McLean, Va. The longtime Pigtown resident was 77. Born and raised in Chicago, Sherwin Mark Adelman was 17 when he enlisted in the Army. He later earned his General Educational Development diploma. Discharged in 1954 from the Army, where he had been a cook, Mr. Adelman earned a bachelor's degree in economics in 1959 and a master's degree in government in 1965, both from Southern Illinois University.

Voters are smart enough to see through the GOP smoke screen. Boo Hoo Bob, former Gov. Robert Ehrlich's weekly whine fest about how no one seems to love conservatives, hit a new low this week ("For Republicans, a not so happy New Year," Jan. 6). His advice? Take more Fox News and send a check to the Heritage Foundation. Conservatives lost not, as Mitt Romney said, because people want "free stuff," but because people are smart enough to see through the Republican smoke screen. On the GOP's signature issue, lower taxes, Americans have seen that what Republicans say simply isn't true.

Maryland's economy shed 3,100 jobs in November, the latest U-turn in a bumpy year overshadowed by the fast-approaching "fiscal cliff," according to federal data released Friday. The U.S. Department of Labor also sharply revised downward its estimate for October, saying that Maryland employers added 4,700 jobs rather than the 14,000 in its preliminary report. Maryland's unemployment rate in November fell slightly to 6.6 percent, possibly the result of more people commuting out of state or starting their own businesses.

Nathaniel M. Pigman Jr., a retired statistician and teacher, died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and congestive heart failure Oct. 15 at the Gilchrist Hospice Care in Columbia. He was 92 and had lived in Columbia and Edgewater. Born in Bremerton, Wash., he moved with his father, who served in the Navy, throughout the Pacific area as a child. He earned a bachelor of arts at the University of Virginia, where he also attended law school and was admitted to the Virginia Bar. Family members said he never practiced.

Services will be held at 6:30 p.m. Friday at the Grand Masonic Lodge, 304 International Circle, Cockeysville, for Stephen J. Hughes, 57, a former economist and founding partner of the Towson law firm of Treanor Pope and Hughes, who died June 4. Mr. Hughes, a longtime Ten Hills resident, was killed in an automobile accident near Oxford, England, that also claimed the lives of his two sons-in-law. Mr. Hughes had traveled to England with his daughter, Angela Hughes Brooks, 37, a technical editor and writer, and her husband, Gregory Brooks, 39, a Catonsville graphic designer.

Cynthia Earl Kerman, a retired Villa Julie College faculty member who wrote biographies of a Quaker economist and a Harlem Renaissance writer, died of pneumonia July 22 at the Glen Meadows retirement community. She was 89 and had lived in Lauraville. Born Cynthia Earl in Srinagar, Kashmir in India, where her father was teaching physical education for the YMCA, she attended the Kodaikanal School. Family members said living in India made a lasting impression on her, and she revisited the country and occasionally prepared Indian meals for her guests when entertaining.

NEW YORK -- Lester C. Thurow's message to the nation' retailers yesterday was akin to telling a group of cattlemen that people should eat less beef and more broccoli.The economist, whose writings are close to the top of President-elect Bill Clinton's reading list, told the National Retail Federation that the U.S. economy needs a shift toward investment and away from consumption -- that is, his audience's sales.In a keynote speech that sounded like an extension of last month's economic summit in Little Rock, Ark., the Massachusetts Institute of Technology scholar described a U.S. economy under siege by rivals that put their money into robots instead of recreational vehicles.

AMERICANS ARE an impatient lot, and the $11.7 trillion U.S. economy is already drowning in information. So who would have predicted success for a handful of wonky Weblogs geared more toward telling people how to think about money than what? But success there is. These Internet sites, some of which get 10,000 readers a day or more, won't directly make you a better stock picker or car buyer. Instead, they offer intelligent people supplying market-oriented commentary on Social Security, sex, Socrates and a thousand other interesting subjects.

Maryland shed 7,500 jobs in May, as the state posted one of the largest losses in the country for the second month in a row, the U.S. Department of Labor said Friday. Only North Carolina and Pennsylvania saw bigger cuts in May, according to the new estimates. Quirks of weather may have played a role in Maryland's poor showing, but experts warned that the state's economy appears to be weakening just as a potentially large pullback in federal spending threatens to bring more pain to a region flush with government contractors, agencies and research grants.

Maryland shed 6,000 jobs in April, the federal government said Friday — the largest monthly loss in the country during a month when most states gained, but one that might have been overstated. The figures, which are preliminary and adjusted for seasonal variations, paint a much less rosy picture of Maryland employment than in recent months. As it released the April numbers, the U.S. Department of Labor said Friday that it also revised downward its estimate for March, showing Maryland losing 600 jobs rather than adding 1,500.