Law school’s new home

On a city block bounded by Senate, Bull, Gervais, and Pickens, USC’s new building for its law school has been designed by Columbia’s Boudreaux Group and DC’s Smith Group. At 220,000 square feet, the new building is budgeted to run $65 million or almost $300 per square foot.

Is Boeing next?

Airbus SAS, the European aircraft manufacturer, is mulling over the idea of an assembly plant in China. The Chinese recently ordered 150 Airbus A320 jets. The A320 jet is a single–aisle regional model. If the Airbus plant locates in China, it is planned to make four A320 jets per month. Chicago–based Boeing holds a 67% share of the Chinese aircraft market, and Airbus, 29%.

Atlanta loses, but can SC gain?

Ford Motor Co. plans to close its Atlanta automobile assembly plant by the end of this year. Altogether, Ford will close 14 plants and lay off 30,000 workers in North America by 2012. Profitability is expected to return to Ford in 2008. A new low–cost plant in North America is planned, but Ford has yet to announce where. Maybe BMW’s success in SC can attract some Ford attention.

Capital investment and job creation

For 2004, Richland County pulled in $230,200,000 in capital investment and created 127 new jobs. Greenville County scored $146,382,000 in new capital and 975 new jobs. Charleston County was tops in SC with $592,950,000 in capital investment and 1,790 in new jobs.

Unemployment

In November 2005, Richland County had an unemployment rate of 6.1%. Marion County’s unemployment rate was 15%, the state’s highest. Lexington County had the state’s lowest unemployment rate at 5%, the same as the national rate. The US had gains of 305,000 jobs in November and 108,000 jobs in December, and the total 2005 national payroll growth of 2.15 million was the best in five years.

Fast food equals good stock

McDonald’s fourth–quarter income was up 53% over the same time period the year before. McDonald’s stock price hit $35.85 last week, the highest in over five years.

Female commander

The largest Marine Corps base on the East Coast is Camp Lejeune, NC, and for the first time in its 60 years the base commander is female, Colonel Adele Hodges.

Greenville vs. Columbia

The Peace Center, Greenville’s performing arts complex, was built with a majority of private funds. Columbia’s Koger Center was built with a majority of public funds. Columbia couldn’t decide on a downtown art studio and gallery complex, so Columbia asked well–meaning citizens to hold meetings and to avoid professional guidance. Greenville is putting together an art studio and gallery complex, and Greenville is paying Artspace Projects Inc. of Minneapolis to help determine feasibility.

China vs. US

For all of 2005, the gross domestic product of China grew 9.9% over a year earlier. In 2004, it was 10.1%; in 2003, 10%. For the fourth quarter of 2005, the US GDP grew at an annual rate of 1.1%, while the average growth of the previous 10 quarters was 4.1%.

Get USC a Google

For fiscal year 2005, Harvard had the highest university endowment with $25.47 billion, a 15% increase over 2004. Yale held the second–highest endowment with $15.22 billion, a 19% increase. Stanford ended 2005 with $12.21 billion, third highest and a 23% increase over the previous year. Stanford sold its Google stock to finance research and education initiatives, and those funds were kept separate and out of the endowment total. The $336 million Stanford made from the sale of the Google stock is roughly equivalent to the total endowment at USC.

Greenspan’s last call

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan’s last Federal Open Market Committee meeting was set for Tuesday of this week, and a rise in the federal funds interest rate from 4.25% to 4.50% was expected. The Federal Reserve had already targeted core (excluding food and energy) inflation above 2% as too high. Last week, the US core inflation rate hit 2.2%.

Exxon Mobil’s pre–emptive strike

On the op–ed page of the New York Times this Monday, Exxon Mobil posted an ad citing bottom–line profit margins for various industries. All industries averaged a 6.8% profit margin, and the oil and natural gas industry averaged 8.2%, much less than the average profit margin for banks (18%) or for pharmaceuticals and biotechnology (18.5%). Exxon Mobil wanted to look humble and even tight in its profits. The next day, Tuesday, in the Wall Street Journal , Exxon Mobile disclosed record fourth–quarter net income of $10.7 billion, which meant Exxon Mobile profited about $80,842 per minute for the quarter.