In God we trust. All others, cash. The State of Alabama over the past 18 months has lost about half the value of its state- run trust fund for parents, who prefer to pay off state college tuition long before their children enroll. The similar program in South Carolina has stopped accepting new families while there are fewer assets than liabilities, which is also the case in Tennessee, West Virginia, and Washington.

Manufacturing in the U.S.A. The operating rate among the country's factories fell to 67.4 percent of capacity in February, the lowest level on record for the past 50 years.

There are losses, and there are losses According to the Asian Development Bank, drops in the value of worldwide financial assets in the past year have recently totaled $50 trillion. About a fifth of the losses in dollar terms are due to currency depreciations against the dollar. The Federal Reserve reports losses in the net worth of American households amounting to about $13 trillion, dropping from an all- time high of $64.36 trillion in the second quarter of 2007 to $51.48 trillion at the end of 2008.

Lexington County the lowest The statewide unemployment rate for January in South Carolina was 10.4 percent, the nation's fourth highest. Lexington County's January unemployment rate was the state's lowest at 7.5 percent. The highest was in Allendale County, 23.4 percent, closely followed by Marion County at 22.4 percent.

South Carolina in good company Between January 2008 and January 2009, our state suffered a net loss of 76,100 jobs. South Carolina's double- digit January unemployment rate is grouped among another six states with double- digits: Michigan (12.5 percent), Rhode Island (11.4 percent), Oregon (10.9 percent), California (10.6 percent), North Carolina (10.3 percent), and Nevada (10.2 percent).

BofA the biggest Charlotte- based Bank of America Corp. and its $2.5 trillion in assets make for the nation's biggest bank. New York's JPMorgan Chase & Co. is second with $2.17 trillion, and Citigroup Inc., also based in New York, is third with $1.9 trillion. Fourth is San Francisco- based Wells Fargo & Co. at $1.3 trillion. The four largest banks together recently received more than $144 billion in bailout funds from the federal government in the form of the U.S. Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. BofA CEO Ken Lewis said on Wednesday, March 11, BofA would generate about $50 billion in pre- tax profit for 2009 before setting aside money for bad loans.

Public transit jumps nationally Public transportation use in the U.S.A. is up 38 percent since 1995, while the Columbia bus system has somewhat held to the same annual ridership since 1995. According to the American Public Transportation Association, Americans took 10.7 billion trips on public transportation in 2008, a 4 percent jump compared to 2007. That divided by 306 million Americans means about 35 trips per capita. Taking the Central Midlands RTA bus service area population of 250,000 people, the number the federal government uses for capital improvement subsidies, the total trips for 2008 should be about 8.8 million. In fact, the Central Midlands Regional Transit Authority bus system last year reported a total of 2.3 million trips or about 9.2 trips per capita for the service area. In other words, the service area population - people where the buses actually go - of the CMRTA bus route system could easily explode its annual number of trips by a factor of four and still just about meet the national average for public transportation.

Raleigh in similar straits The News & Observer Publishing Co. of Raleigh cut 78 positions last week, 27 of them full- time. The company is owned by The McClatchy Co., which also owns Columbia's The State.

Again, state budget gets cut The state Board of Economic Advisors cut the estimate for the state's general fund on Wednesday, March 11, by about 1 percent, leaving the latest estimate for this year's budget just over $6.1 billion, more than $1 billion less than the original estimate of $7.2 billion.

Money SCANA Corp. will conduct an Analyst Day for the financial community on April 2 at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station site near Jenkinsville. The company's financials will be discussed, as will recent regulatory activity concerning the company's latest nuclear plans. The presentation begins at 9 am. Presenters include SCANA chairman and CEO Bill Timmerman and the company's CFO Jimmy Addison. For more information, go to www.scana.com/en/investor-relations/