Business Briefs

Fear of flying finances

The airline ATA filed for bankruptcy protection Tuesday, and Delta came closer to a cost-cutting agreement with its pilots, possibly avoiding bankruptcy. Meanwhile, USAir and United struggle under bankruptcy, while their frequent flyers are raising the passenger count at Columbia Airport and Charlotte's Douglas. The airlines say otherwise, but working through bankruptcy worries frequent flyers. The shareholders almost always get stiffed when a company comes out of bankruptcy. Why should an airline carry the cost of past commitments when it climbs out of bankruptcy essentially as a new company? Burn your frequent flyer points while they're still tender.

Insurance industry under fire (and lawsuits)

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer recently sued insurance giant Marsh & McLennan Cos. for bid-rigging, and their CEO resigned Monday. Implications allow for an overhaul of how the insurance industry does business. Expect changes here soon enough, starting in local offices of major insurance companies. Marsh & McLennan is no longer in the Columbia telephone book. It had an office in the AT&T/Affinity/SouthTrust/Wachovia Building, where their conference room was adorned with three paintings by Marsha Ligon Dargan of the notable SC design family.

Speaking of insurance

Here at The Columbia Star, we are pursuing a story on the local office of a major national insurance company. We non-insurance types are reading the classic book on the insurance industry: Invisible Bankers: Everything the Insurance Industry Never Wanted You to Know by Andrew Tobias, and we recommend our readers do the same. In a few weeks watch for the story of unfair business practices in hustling SC insurance customers.

Senator Hollings sings like a swan

Senator Ernest F. Hollings (D-SC) appeared before the Columbia Rotary Club for lunch Monday at Seawell's. He avoided any observations on the race for his slot in the US Senate, probably because silly shenanigans and discombobulated definitions fell beneath the dignity of an elder statesmen like Hollings. He enjoyed remembering attending the groundbreaking of 16 Tech campuses, the respected technical school system he started. Even now, 40 years after its start, Midlands Tech is the sole studied model for a replica in Ireland. Hollings told Kirk Finlay if Columbia got rid of the "penitentiary lights" on Main Street, he would find the federal funds to locate the Vista train tracks below traffic. NBC's Russert said the US Senate will never see another Fritz Hollings, while a Charleston Republican was quoted, "We hope that Hollings will enjoy his retirement because we sho' as hell will."

Wars do cost

The Washington Post reported this week the Bush administration intends to ask Congress for another $70 billion for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, making the total about $225 billion since the invasion of Iraq last year. In inflation-adjusted terms, WWI cost the US $200 billion, and Vietnam ran about $500 billion - again, all in today's dollars. After last year's war funding request for $87 billion, Kerry's on-again-off-again expenditure, the administration heard Republican requests to hold down the expensive surprises, at least until after November 2. Tell that to Islam.