Price Increases

Chrysler raising pricesChrysler Corp. followed Ford Motor Co. yesterday in boosting prices on 1993 car and truck models an average of $31, or 0.2 percent. The No. 3 automaker also said it was raising destination charges, which are added to sticker prices, an average of $25.Chrysler's action came a week after Ford raised its 1993 model prices an average of $84, or 0.4 percent. General Motors Corp. said its prices are constantly being reviewed, but it did not anticipate immediate price increases.

WASHINGTON -- In an act of shear politics, the House of Representatives trimmed its perquisites yesterday by sharply raising prices at its tax-subsidized barbershop.A House administration subcommittee doubled the tab for a basic haircut from $5 to $10 and bumped the bill for a shoeshine from 75 cents to $2 in the barbershop's first round of price increases since 1979.The action comes at a time when polls show voters are in a political lather over congressional benefits ranging from free drugs at a Capitol Hill pharmacy to free parking at National Airport.

NORFOLK, Va. -- Ford is increasing by 50 percent the number of car and truck models it will introduce over the next five years in a bid for new customers that could help it become the world's leading automaker.Though executives say market share gains are not a specific goal, the addition of 16 new or redesigned cars and trucks to the 32 Ford already was planning is intended to meet customer tastes with more and different products.Chairman Alex Trotman announced the revised product program last week at Ford's annual shareholder meeting in this Virginia city.

WASHINGTON -- In an act of shear politics, the House of Representatives trimmed its perquisites yesterday by sharply raising prices at its tax-subsidized barbershop.A House administration subcommittee doubled the tab for a basic haircut from $5 to $10 and bumped the bill for a shoeshine from 75 cents to $2 in the barbershop's first round of price increases since 1979.The action comes at a time when polls show voters are in a political lather over congressional benefits ranging from free drugs at a Capitol Hill pharmacy to free parking at National Airport.

Bethlehem Steel Corp. saw its profits all but evaporate during the first three months of the year, the company said yesterday, buffeted by low steel prices, harsh winter weather that left four feet of water in one Pennsylvania mill, and a strike at General Motors Corp.The Pennsylvania steel company said it earned $100,000 in the first quarter, down from $52.5 million in the same months of 1995. This year's first-quarter sales were $1.12 billion, down about $120 million.Charles Bradford, a steel industry analyst at New York-based UBS Securities, said he actually had expected the earnings to be worse, given all the bad news during the quarter.

The impact of the Persian Gulf crisis on heating oil supplies and prices this winter is impossible to predict, but experts say they have seen little evidence so far to suggest a repeat of last December when a record cold snap led to shortages and drastic price increases.After Iraq invaded Kuwait last month, prices for heating oil jumped to $1 a gallon. However, the supply has been steady. The Bush administration fears a shortage could develop late in the year, but experts say this will depend upon whether other oil-producing nations step up their output sufficiently to compensate for the loss of embargoed oil.In the back of everyone's mind: last year's disastrous December when prices shot up by an average of 45 cents a gallon, to $1.40 and higher, along the East Coast.

Penny-pinching consumers have switched from McCormick & Co.'s gourmet spices to company products that are more economically priced. They're also eating out less at the restaurants where McCormick supplies spices, flavorings and condiments. But by raising prices, McCormick managed to offset weaknesses in the economy as well as higher costs for commodities. And it allowed the local food company to report yesterday a 16 percent increase in fiscal first-quarter earnings. Net income for the three months that ended Feb. 29 was $51.4 million, or 39 cents per diluted share.

WASHINGTON -- General Motors Corp. said yesterday that it will increase the price of its 1995 cars by an average of 2.9 percent, or $539, above comparably equipped 1994 models.The price of trucks will increase an average of 2 percent, or $414, said J. Michael Losh, who earlier this week was promoted to executive vice president of GM.The amount of the increase will vary from model to model. For example, the suggested retail price of the Chevrolet Caprice sedan will rise only $182 to $19,728.

With three losing years behind it, Bethlehem Steel Corp. may eke out a small profit this year.Bethlehem, which owns the Sparrows Point steel mill in Baltimore County, racked up more than $1.2 billion in losses in 1990 and 1991. And for the first nine months of last year, the company lost $180 million, or $2.50 per share, on revenues of $3 billion.But Charles Bradford, vice president of UBS Securities Inc. in New York, predicts a small profit this year based on $200 million of expected cost cuts and an improvement in the economy.

BY RAISING interest rates for the second time in eight weeks, the Federal Reserve has made a clear statement that preventing any emergence of inflation is a paramount policy goal. Maintaining the nine-year economic expansion, while important, is a secondary consideration.Even though the government's own figures show benign levels of inflation, Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan and his colleagues seem preoccupied with rising prices.Some economists, however, believe we have entered a new era of noninflationary growth.