Berlin, finally, gets an adequate airport

The Nazis had Templehoff Airport, named for the surrounding neighborhood where the Knights Templar reigned in the Dark Ages. Post-war West Berlin built Tegel, a decent in-town airport, but never anywhere big enough. Berlin got the go-ahead last week to begin construction on its Berlin-Brandenburg International.

A six-year high

As of the market's close Friday, March 17, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was just 59 points short of a six-year high.

Speaking of a new high

Last week the US Senate voted in a $2.8 trillion budget, raising the debt ceiling to almost $9 trillion. Part of the increase in federal spending is the military spending in Iraq and Afghanistan. Both wars for this fiscal year ending September 30 should cost $117.6 billion.

GM drops the ball

Last year General Motors lost $10.6 billion, $2 billion more than previously reported due to sloppy accounting. GM disclosed the error Thursday afternoon, March 16, and its stock price fell 5% Friday.

Coming to the CMA

Art museums in Los Angeles and Berkeley, CA; Tacoma, WA; Minneapolis, MN; and Greenwich, CN; offer cell-phone tours, mostly for free. The art museums tap into computer servers and phone systems, and their visitors can listen to the narrated tours over their cell phones instead of the formerly rented head sets.

June without Ward

According to the National Center for Human Statistics, between 1999 and 2003, the number of babies born in the US to unmarried women between ages 15 and 24 decreased by 6%. The number born to unmarried women between 30 and 44 jumped by 17%. The support group Single Mothers by Choice has 4,000 members and gained twice the number of new members in 2005 as it did in 1995. The largest sperm bank in the US shipped 9,600 vials of sperm last year, one-third of them to single women.

NYC Bar comfortable with

its feminine side, as is Miami

For the second time since its founding in 1870, the New York City Bar Association has a woman president. Nearly half of all law students are women, but only 17% of major law firm partners in the US, on average, are women. In Charlotte, only 11.5% of the partners are women, while almost 24% of the partners in major Miami firms are women.

Female median earnings worldwide

New Zealand's women collect annual earnings 94.1% of what the men make, the best for women in the world. Spanish women earn almost 83% of what their men earn. In the US, women get 78.4% of what the men get. German women do worse: 75.9%.

Christie's did all right; Sotheby's, almost all right

Christie's, the huge art auction house in NYC, staged an auction of Plaza Hotel collectables last week and raised $1.8 million, about $1 million more than Christie's estimated. For all of 2005, London-based Christie's boosted turnover by 30% and took in a total $3.2 billion in sales. Major competitor Sotheby's sold $2.8 billion.

Take your wallet and hold on to it

Oslo is rated the world's most expensive city, 40% higher than New York. Second to Oslo is Tokyo. Also more expensive than NYC are (descending order) Reykjavik, Osaka Kobe, Paris, London, Frankfort, and Hong Kong. NYC is a bit more expensive than Beijing.

Friends with The Columbia Star and others

Total US advertising expenditures for 2005 came to $143.3 billion. Local newspapers got $25.1 billion of that, the most of any media outlets, and network TV got seconds, $22.5 billion.

Canada, US, and Eurozone inflate

For January, annualized inflation in Canada hit 2.2%, while in the US it was 3.6% in February. In the Eurozone for February, it was 2.3%.

Development news does not

necessarily reflect profits

Greenville-based South Financial Group, parent company of Carolina First Bank, lost $15.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2005. The company announced plans for its new headquarters in Greenville last week.

Economics at The Economist

The Economist , the 163-year-old London-based magazine, doubled its sales to one million copies over the past 13 years. Business editors worldwide, arguably, report 100% readership.

SC's elderly

In 1990, SC had 16,000 people 65 and older in nursing homes, and by 2000, there was a gain of 19.2% for a total of 19,000. It was the highest percentage increase in the US. Nationally for the same time period, there was a drop of 2.1%.