Show Everything Seems to Be Coming Up Roses for the US Economy By Chet Currier Associated Press Writer NEW YORK — Is it all right just for once to feel good about the state of the US economy? Conditions aren’t uniformly terrific to be sure But overall they can be rated good to excellent with growth continuing employment rising no recession in sight and inflation still subdued And in the three most troubled sectors of the economy — energy agriculture and manufacturing — there are signs of varying degrees of revival By tradition in economics long known as ’’the dismal science” it is dangerous to think this way Optimism or even worse complacency often serves as a harbinger of trouble ahead Whenever things start looking rosy veterans of the profession hark back to all the happy pronouncements of the savants in the late 1920s uttered just before the Great Crash on Wall Street and the depression of the 1930s Every period of prosperity it is said carries with it the seeds of its own destruction Still bearing those cautionary points in mind it would seem unnec essarily solemn not to savor for a moment all the positives in the current situation As Barry Rogstad chief economist at the accounting firm of Coopers & Lybrand put it recently "There are many pluses in the economy ‘The current economic recovery closing in on its fifth anniversary has been remarkable in its ability to create jobs Over 2 million annually from 1983 to the present Compared with the postwar standards this has been "Even the recent spike in interest rates appears to be more a temporary phenomenon rather than reflec- record-breakin- g increase in inflative of a long-tertionary expectations ‘The depreciation of the US dollar against European currencies and the Japanese yen is slowly reversing the major trade deficit the economy is now facing " It's hard to fault the recent performance of the government's index of leading economic indicators which is supposed to provide advance warnings of any approaching storms It has now risen for five consecutive months That amounts to "a strong indication that the economy is on a sustainable expansionary path” said Allen By Robert E Dallos And Eileen V Quigley Los Angeles Times Writers NEW YORK — Since a series of (Hearings Open Today For News Free Press mistakes and began for Delta Air Lines last month Sally Jackson of Alternative Travel in Washington says air travelers are indeed asking for an alternative “A lot of people have been asking not to fly Delta” she said “They have definitely been affected by it” For example a group of 10 people near-acciden- ts By William S Bergstrom Associated Press Writer DETROIT — Federal hearings open Monday on a plan by the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press to merge business operations but run separate news and editorial departments an arrangement proposed more than a year ago William Keating chief executive of Section C from a large New York brokerage house switched to United Airlines at the last minute on a trip last week to Florida Delta announced Thursday that it would refund the price of tickets to passengers concerned about flying the airline How much Delta’s business has been hurt by the problems if at all is difficult to tell Delta spokesman William Berry concedes that passengers have switched to other carriers but not to any great degree Delta's competitors Eastern Airlines United Airlines and American Airlines say they have not seen any great increase in business For Delta the large number of incidents — including lyong runways and a wrong airports dangerous engine shutdown — comes at the busy summer season when traffic is surging Thus if it is losing passengers for reasons of fear it does not show up because so many other near-collisio- by Bruce Hammond Duffy the Detroit Newspaper Agency formed to manage combined func- tioris if the joint operating agreement I is approved said the hearings could I finish this month Challenging the proposal are Mayor Coleman Young who has voiced fears of diminished editorial diversity and newspaper employee unions fearing job losses Morton Needelman a retired administrative law judge appointed by the US Justice Department is to convene the hearings at 10 am Monday at Detroit's federal courthouse He will recommend to Attorney General Edwin Meese whether to approve the agreement “We're glad to arrive at the point where hearings will take place We’ve been a long time getting here” Keating said Inc owner of the Knight-Ridde- r Free Press and Gannett Co Inc owner of the News proposed the agreement and announced formation of the Detroit Newspaper Agency in April 1986 The companies said a merger of circulation advertising and production departments was necessary if the two newspapers both among the nation’s 10 largest were to survive The News had a circulation of 678399 daily and 839319 on Sundays while the Free Press circulation was 639720 daily and 724342 on Sundays according to publishers’ statements for the six months ending March 21 exThey seek a limited anti-truemption under the Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970 The Justice Department can approve a joint operating agreement if necessary to save a failing newspaper in a market that can be expected to sustain only one paper The companies said the city could not Support two profitable newspapers and the Free Press was in danger of failing They said that in the preceding five years the Free Press had lost $39 million and the News nearly $24 million The News estimated its net losses at $4 4 million in 1985 and $13 million in 1986 Free Press officials said that paper lost $17 million in 1986 and would lose a similar amount this cost-cutti- st A! public comment period on the proposal ended in October In February Meese ordered the public hear- people are flying on their vacat ns Delta's traffic in the first three weeks in July is up 18 percent over the same period last year Delta’s planes are flying with 62 percent of their seats occupied compared to 60 percent last year according to Paul Karos airline analyst with LF Rothschild Unterberg Towbin a New York brokerage house “They are adding capacity seats and if load factors continue to go up then traffic is still pretty strong” But Karos said Delta is not getting by unscathed “My guess is that they have lost a fair amount of traffic” he said “but overall business is so strong it is getting swallowed up by product It took nearly 34 years for the company to regain its original po-- ? ition After a second tampering incident in 1986 its position again dropped but recovered quickly When SmithKline Beckman had to take Contac off the shelves because of some tampering there was a $16 mil- lion dent in pretax earnings When a man killed 21 people and wounded 19 in a McDonald's restau- - j rant in San Ysidro Calif three years ago people chose to eat at Burger Kings for a week or so But in the long run Delta and all of j these products and establishments have reputations that allow them to make quick comebacks j “Manipulated images have a very short-tereffect” said Dr Barry Stein president of Goodmeasure Inc” a Cambridge Mass consulting company “It's the enduring image that sells products In the case of Delta they are likely to bounce back because of their reputation of service and safety over many years They should say ‘We’ve always been a good company and we’re still a good company We have some problems and we are going to fix them’ ” Airline analysts contend that Del-- ’ ta’s problems are being overblown because it is now being closely watched “Delta is under a microscope” said Timothy Pettee airline analyst with the New York brokerage house of Bear Stearns & Co “Frequent flyers know that minor incidents occur frequently at any airline — engines are shut down approaches are missed’ This has been a rather extraordinary random series of events The statisticians are astounded that each one of these incidents involved a Delta jet” j ! Karos believes that if Delta's problems subside and there are "no more significant errors this will go by the wayside pretty quickly" But if the mistakes persist or become more serious continuing bad publicity could scare customers away In 1982 Tylenol’s share of the analgesic market for example dropped from 35 percent to 7 percent after seven people died in a spate of tampering with the Johnson & Johnson ! ' Ford May Outsell Chevrolet First Time in 17 Years By Tom Incantalupo Newsday Writer For the first time in 17 years the Chevrolet division of General Motors Corp so big its Heartbeat of America claim is valid seems likely to be outsold this year by Ford Motor Co’s Ford division In the first six months Ford sold 91829 more cars and trucks than Chevrolet GM’s largest division Chevrolet sold more cars when those it imports from Japan are included but Ford overpowered its rival with truck sales which at 736263 exceeded Chevrolet’s by 150315 If the pattern continues it will be the first time since 1959 that Ford has outsold Chevrolet for a full year with the exception of 1970 when GM was hit by a strike Industry experts say the sales figures reflect the weakness of GM's product lineup criticized for styling sameness among other things vs the strength of Ford's and the surprisingly buoyant truck market Said Joseph Phillippi analyst for EF Hutton & Co Inc in New York “Obviously Chevy is suffering from car problem the same cookie-cutte- r the rest of GM is suffering from a Chevy looks like an Olds a Buick or a Pontiac They Chevrolets have lost some of their magic — America’s auto-indust- car The numbers also help support the contention of some experts that lt Sprint and Isuzu Spectrum the Nova built in a joint venture with Toyota and one that is entirely American made the Cavalier ings to resolve “weighty and extremely difficult factual questions involving the future of the Detroit newspaper market” UTAH POWER & LIGHT 5501B? BUY? SILL? For latest up to date research and information call Charles Reynolds or Scott White 00 HFHutton EF Hutton 1987 Page 7 that" Chevrolet has created confusion among buyers with the array of small cars in its dealerships They include two imported from Japan the Suzuki-bui- yead 575-53- 3 Delta Appears in Good Shape Despite Bad Publicity perations? o Even in agriculture which has suffered its own private recession in recent years there are signs of "modest improvement” say analysts at the Federal Reserve Bank of Ean Fran cisco Bui Some Fears Crop Up Detroit Papers To Share o o est reinflation and economic growth is increasingly stimulated by strengthening exports which is reversing the trade deficit and reviving the manufacturing sector” The rebound in oil prices while troublesome in several ways can only be welcomed in parts of the country that are heavily dependent on the energy industries Monday Morning— August jlalt £akf tribune - od Disinflation is giving way to mod- Sinai economist at the investment firm of Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc From the stock market which many regard as a sort of point man for the economy as a whole the message is the same “The stock market has been potting new highs with little enthusiasm and fanfare” observed Martin Sass who heads the New York money management firm M D Sass Investors Services "The subdued mood of most investors suggests that the long-terbull market is not over “The economy and financial markets have entered a watershed peri Sales of Ford’s subcompact Escort outpaced the combined sales of GM’s Sprint Spectrum Nova and the Chevette in the first half of this year “I think they GM have too much product at the low end” said analyst Jack Kirnan of Kidder Peabody & Co Inc in New York “It’s one thing to have a lot of product if you’ve got a clearly identifiable customer for each But it’s become really a very confusing situation for a Chevy customer to try to figure out the difference between a Spectrum and a Nova” A Chevrolet spokesman notes that plans to market those cars were made several years ago when it appeared that gasoline would be much more expensive than it is today He said the division is attempting to remodels duce the number of small-ca- r it sells eliminating six of the current 13 Cavalier variations for example in the 1988 model year The figures also indicate what experts said has been the inability so far of Chevrolet’s new Corsica-Berett- a line of compact cars introduced in March to attract as many new buyers to the bowtie logo as Chevrolet had hoped y Said David Healy analyst at Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc “If the Chevrolet division hasn’t gained any market share yet with the Corsica and Beretta then I think it’s unlikely to” But a company spokesman said it was too soon to reach that conclusion about what the industry calls “con- auto-industr- SALES OPPORTUNITY GARFF CHEVROLET THE NEWEST MEMBER OF THE GARFF FAMILY OF FINE CARS IS NOW OFFERING AN quest sales” and that such sales typically increase as the model gains greater recognition among potential buyers Ford meanwhile is scoring its current sales with no new models except for two imports the Scorpio and Festiva its newest do low-volu- mestic model the Taurus was introduced in December 1985 The sales figures also reflect a condition that is temporary and that raises the question of how long Ford will enjoy its leadership Chevrolet executives say there has been a shortd age of certain models of its pickup trucks in recent months full-size- nr For less than 4000 you can own a com- 286-base- d puter featuring 10MHz clock speed 60MB of hard drive storage AND a letter quality laser printer H Fora limited time only jgjgjgjai t&UM IC3I Sears Business Systems Center is offering a multiple business solution package at a savings of 35 IMMEDIATE UNIQUE GROUND FLOOR OPPORTUNITY FOR SALES REPRESENTATIVES TO SELL AND LEASE NEW CHEVROLETS SUCCESSFUL CANDIDATES WILL BE REWARDED WITH AN EXCELLENT INCOME OPPORTUNITY LIFE AND HEALTH INSURANCE PUN UNLIMITED ADVANCEMENT 0PP0RTUNITES ALONG WITH MANAGEMENT AND ADVERTISING SUPPORT WE SEEK MEN AND WOMEN WITH AUTO SALES OR A MINIMUM OF TWO YEARS RECENT SALES EXPERIENCE THAT PRESENT A PROFESSIONAL APPEARANCE AND ARE GOAL ORIENTED PLEASE CONTACT MR JIM RODERICK OR MONTY BULLOCK AT For the price of only 3944°° you receive: Epson Equity III CPU Okldata Laserllne 6 Printer 640KB RAM memory 6 pages per minute output Powerful 80286 micro- Quiet laser technology provides true letter quality 300 x 300 dots per inch resolution processor Seven expansion slots available Detachable keyboard and DOS included A value like And more: Seagate 60MB hard disk Seagate Host Adapter Printer Personality Module Monochrome Monitor and Adapter cord replacement cartridges Snap-i- n P-- Gsrff Chevrolet MAIN AT service and support for all products we sell Based on regular separate prices of $0057 00 5TH SOUTH 328-129- 9 Salt Lake City: 118 East 200 South 538-042- 9 Hours: Mon-Fr- Printer cable Sears also provides prompt and professional this won’t last forever so contact your Sears Business Systems Center today & Company Inc Triad Office 5 Triad Center 4 SLC Utah 84180 iulsdt&d fefe&i i: 10-- 6 Sat-Su- Closed |