EoW March 2012

Transatlantic cable An exhibit at the huge show showed the 11 di erent materials, including magnesium and acoustic foam, that go into the body of the Cadillac ATS, a compact luxury sedan from General Motors. “We’re tinkering more and more with all kinds of metals and plastics for every part,” Dieter Eulenbach, director of sales and engineering at the German auto-parts giant ZF Friedrichshafen AG, told the WSJ . “Always trying to nd the right balance between cost, weight, durability, and plasticity.” Decades ago, steel was dominant in the production of automobiles in the United States. As of January, it was, still. Elsewhere in steel . . . † Mirko Cvetkovic, the Serbian prime minister, on 28 th Jan- uary told journalists in Sarajevo that his country would repurchase, for $1, the troubled steel maker that US Steel acquired in 2003 for $33 million and on which it has spent at least $150 million. As reported by Len Boselovic in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette , the sale would end an eight-year e ort by US Steel to convert a government-owned mill ravaged by wars in the 1990s into a viable free market enterprise. But the Pittsburgh-based steel giant did not immediately respond to the assertion by Mr Cvetkovic. US Steel’s European operations, which include a larger plant in the Slovak Republic, generated $50 million of operating losses during the third quarter and $73 million in losses over the rst nine months of last year. Mr Boselovic wrote: “The company said in October it was not satis ed with [US Steel Serbia’s] results and was considering what to do about them. The plant operated at a little more than half of its 2.4 million ton annual capacity in 2010. One blast furnace has been idle since the second quarter of last year.” † A Canadian bank has led a $15 million federal suit alleging that DCM Erectors, the Manhattan-based company assembling the steel skeleton for One World Trade Center, has defaulted on money it borrowed. As reported in the New York Daily News (24 th January), Maple Trade Finance (Halifax, Nova Scotia) is claiming breach of contract on the part of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The PA is owner of the iconic site and also directs the huge reconstruction project there. The skyscraper was originally called the Freedom Tower, but the name yielded to public sentiment in favour of the World Trade Centre a liation. The building will be the centrepiece of the rebuilt site of the terrorist attacks on New York in 2001. Maple Trade says it hopes to resolve the matter before it goes to trial. The PA declined to comment on the suit, but its executive director Patrick Foye said that construction on the building will not be a ected. Mr Foye told the News (24 th January): “They continue to fabricate steel and deliver it, and we continue to install it.”

trend is one of the factors that has dramatically increased the incentives for Americans to work on into the later years. Latest BLS gures indicate that the number of people past 55 who are working has actually risen by 3.1 million, or 12%, since the beginning of the recession in December 2007. This includes people aged 75 and older, more of whom are working today. By contrast, the number of people between the ages of 25 and 54 who are working has shrunk by 6.5 million, for a drop of 6.5% over the same period. (“Amid Downturn, More Older Americans Employed than Ever Before,” 12 th January). BLS statistics also show that older people – more all the time – are serious about work. The percentage of people 55 and above who are working or seeking work climbed from 38.9% to 40.3% since the start of the recession, while the percentage of workers between the ages of 25 and 54 who are working or seeking work dropped from 83.1% to 81.5 percent. “The notion of retirement is relatively new in American history,” wrote Mr Whoriskey. “And the boom in older workers reveals that it continues to evolve.” He noted that, according to historians, until the end of the 19 th Century people generally worked as long as they could. While the reasons for the current surge of older American workers may be complex, it would appear that a very contemporary mix of necessity and preference may be prompting a return to the ways of an earlier time. Of related interest . . . † Another Washington Post sta writer, Michael A Fletcher, reported that the US unemployment rate dipped to its lowest level in nearly three years in December – news that rippled through rival presidential campaigns whose prospects could hinge on the pace of the economic recovery. Unemployment had declined in four consecutive months, to 8.5%, its lowest level since February 2009 – President Barack Obama’s second month in o ce. Mr Fletcher wrote (6 th January). “However fragile, it is the kind of trend that Mr Obama is counting on to convince voters that he deserves a second term in the White House.” According to government data, at that writing there were 1.7 million fewer jobs in the nation than when Mr Obama took o ce, a fact often cited by Republican critics of this Democratic president’s economic stewardship. Yet employers added 200,000 jobs in December, a pace that, if maintained through the November election, would enable Mr Obama to claim that he is a net job creator. In brief . . . † Under European regulations that took e ect with the New Year, airlines ying into and out of Europe must purchase certi cates tied to the carbon dioxide emissions produced by their planes. Immediately, Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines – the world’s second-largest carrier in passenger tra c behind Chicago-based United – began adding $6 per round trip to the price of tickets sold in the US for travel to Europe. The German airline Lufthansa also announced that it will pass on to customers its estimated cost for the required certi cates ($168 million this year) by way of higher fuel surcharges, but did not give a per-passenger gure. Lufthansa board member Carsten Spohr said that the inclusion of airlines in the European Union emissions-trading system would make ying within or via Europe more expensive, and that international opposition raises the possibility that the system will upset competitive balance in the airline industry. Together with airlines in China, India, and some other nations outside Europe, carriers in the

Employment

Millions of older Americans are rejoining the labour force or staying in it longer

While the recession has thinned the ranks of other generations in the US workforce, more people over 55 are employed than ever before, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The phenomenon is closely linked to a broad shift that began in the ’80s in the United States away from reliance on company pensions and toward the adoption of personal savings plans. Peter Whoriskey of the Washington Post observed that the

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EuroWire – March 2012