The Michigan Daily - Friday, December 3, 1993 -10
U.S. income rises,
boosts spending
for holiday gifts
OH, THE HORROR
WASHINGTON (AP) - Just in
time for holiday shopping, Ameri-
cans' incomes are increasing in re-
sponse to a gradually improving job
market.
Consumers spent liberally in Oc-
tober, especially for big-ticket items
such as automobiles and appliances.
New homes also sold briskly, although
more slowly than the month before
when sales soared to a four-year high.
"People are certainly willing to
spend whatever increase in pay they
get and more," said economist Sandra
Shaber of The WEFA Group of Bala
Cynwyd, Pa. "It's starting to feel like
a real recovery."
Personal income rose 0.6 percent,
the third increase in a row, to a sea-
sonally adjusted annual rate of $5.47
trillion, the Commerce Department
said yesterday.
Consumer spending, meanwhile,
advanced for the seventh consecutive
month, rising 0.8 percent to a $4.47
trillion annual rate.
In a separate report, the depart-
ment said new home sales fell 6.5
percent to a seasonally adjusted an-
nual rate of 679,000. But sales re-
mained well above last year's pace
and the decline followed a 14.9 per-
cent surge in September.
The Labor Department said the
number of Americans applying for
unemployment benefits unexpectedly
dove by 17,000 last week, to 321,000,
the lowest level in two months.
Consumer spending - which de-
pends on job and income growth -
accounts for roughly two-thirds of
the economy. The big October ad-
vance supports analysts' predictions
of a fourth-quarter economic growth
rate of more than 4 percent. That
would more than double the average
growth of 1.8 percent during the first
nine months of the year.
However, economists warned that
consumers are borrowing and dip-
ping into savings for a portion of their
spending power and probably will
need to retrench somewhat after he
holidays.
"Consumers are in better spirits
and that will keep the spending good
through the important holiday sea-
son. But afterward I think there will
be a bit of a breather," said economist
Stuart Hoffman of PNC Bank Corp.
in Pittsburgh. "The economy won't
go into neutral but it will throttle back
a bit."
Nevertheless, yesterday's positive
economic news flustered financial
markets. It supported the growing
belief that the Federal Reserve will
nudge short-term interest rates higher
early next year to quell any chance of
inflation reigniting.
"I think there is a greater than 50
percent chance they will move in the
first quarter," said economist Lynn
Reaser of First Interstate Bancorp in
Los Angeles. "The Federal Reserve
wants to be pre-emptive. They don't
want to wait until inflationary pres-
sures are building. At that point it
would be too late."
Octoberincome gains were driven
partly by an increase in farm subsidy
payments but also by a healthy 0.5
percent gain in wages and salaries.
Spending for durable goods, in-
cluding items from washing machines
to pickup trucks expected to last three
or more years, was strongest, up 3.1
percent. Spending rose 0.8 percent
for non-durable goods and 0.4 per-
cent for services.
Scientists
uncover gene.
linkedto
colon cancer
BOSTON (AP) -Scientists have
tracked down a flawed gene that
causes about 10 percent of all colon
cancer, one of the most common in-
herited disorders, and say it should
quickly lead to the first broadly usedf
genetic screening test.
The vast majority of those wh6
have the flaw and are tested should be
spared death, one of the scientisfs'
says.
Unlike many basic scientific dis-
coveries, doctors believe this one will
have almost immediate practical uses.
They predict that within a few
months, or two years at most, there
will be a simple blood test to spot
people with the defective gene so'
they can be carefully watched for
signs of cancer. Colon cancer is easily
stopped if found soon enough in pa-
tients.
One of the discoverers, Dr. Bert
Vogelstein of Johns Hopkins Univer.?'1
sity, said the test should probably be
taken by anyone with a close relative
who has ever suffered colon or uter-
ine cancer.
"That's millions and millions of
people," he said.
An estimated 152,000 Americans'
will be diagnosed with colon and rec
tal cancer this year, and 57,000 will
After CRISP computers closed on North Campus, many students were forced1
SUSANISAAKIst
to form long lines at other locations.
Research shows mental depression
dents productivity, U.S. pocketbook
WASHINGTON (AP) - Mental
depression costs $43.7 billion a year in
treatment and lost productivity, a toll
slightly larger than heart disease and
one borne mostly by corporate America,
researchers said yesterday.
The study proves mental health in-
surance is not "a luxury, a frill, an
unnecessary expense,"Tipper Gore told
the National Mental Health Associa-
tion, which reviewed the study yester-
day.
"It makes good business sense to
invest in an employee's mental health,"
said Gore, who advises President
Clinton on the subject.
The study, by the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology andThe Analy-
sis Group, a consulting firm, found
clinical depression generates $12.4 bil-
lion in medical bills a year. Depres-
sion-induced suicides cost $7.5 billion
in lost earnings.
But the biggest bill---$23.8 billion
- came from absenteeism and lost
productivity, the study said. Workers
lost 88 million working days in 1990
because of depression, mostly among
employees ages 30 to 44.
The toll is more than heart disease,
which costs $43 billion a year.
But the study underestimates the
cost because it didn't count depression
that aggravates alcohol or drug abuse
or other illnesses, said Dr. Frederick
Goodwin, director of the National In-
stitute on Mental Health.
"A fourth of all people who have a
heart attack follow it with depression,
and those who do are three times as
likely to be dead in six months,"
Goodwin said.
About 15 million Americans suffer
clinical depression at some point in
their lives. The potentially disablingj
illness causes fatigue, loss of memory
and concentration, weight loss and, in
severe cases, suicide.
Medication and psychotherapy can
cure 80 percentofdepression, yet fewer
than a third of depressed people seek
aid. Clinton's health reform package
includes mental health benefits, em-
phasizing outpatient treatment.
die.
..
Study claims Michigan is no longer attractive to investors
LANSING (AP) - Michigan's
reputation as a high-cost state for busi-
ness often knocks it out of the running
for new factories and jobs, according
to a study presented yesterday to the
Michigan Jobs Commission.
"Many times Michigan doesn't
even get into the picture," said James
Lothian, of PHH Fantus Consulting.
The New Jersey-based company did
the study.
Fantus specializes in business lo-
cation and economic development.
Lothian said it has helped 8,000 cli-
ents locate new plants or expand their
businesses.
In looking at that database, he said
the study found that before 1977, when
Michigan was considered as a poten-
tial plant site, it made the list of top
five choices 57 percent of the time.
Since 1977, that's dropped to 14
percent, he said.
"It's not just what is happening in
Michigan," Lothian said. "It's also
what's happening in other states, other
countries."
r I
The study said to keep the jobs it
has and to attract new jobs, Michigan
should move quickly to step up its
economic development efforts, im-
prove the predictability and speed of
its regulatory agencies, improve the
overall business climate and upgrade
the skills and education of its work-
ers.
Once that's done, Michigan will
be able to reshape its image nation-
ally and internationally through mar-
keting, Lothian said.
"You don't sell the house, then go
out and fix it up," he said, adding
other states had run into problems
when they tried to do that.
On the plus side, the report said:
Michigan already has consoli-
PRINTING
HIGH QUALITY
Low PRICES
dated its $400 million in job training
programs into a structure that allows
businesses to seek help in only one
place.
It has also set aside $40 million
for economic development workforce
training, one of the biggest such bud-
gets in the country.
The state has cut taxes five
times over the past three years.
The school finance and quality
debate in the Legislature gives Michi-
gan a chance to make a bigjump in the
educational level of its workers.
The Michigan Jobs Commis-
sion has started an aggressive job
retention program that centers on call-
ing on businesses and finding out
what their needs and problems with
state government are. The goal is to,
visit 1,0000ofMichigan's75,000busi-
nesses within a year.
Gov. John Engler chaired the com-
mission meeting where the report was
outlined in a two-hour presentation.
He described it as "a very good
report and it does lay out some paths
for those of us on this commission
and in state government."
Michigan already is working hard
to improve its business climate and
while more improvements can be
made, it's already got a good story to
tell, Engler said.
"You've got to sell what you've
got," he added. "What we have to do
is continue to improve the product
line, but sell what we have and sell it
as well as we can."
Experts say this is the first genetic
screening test that will be used on'
large scale.
Other DNA tests now available or"
in development, such as those for
Huntington's disease and cystic f='
brosis, would be used by relatively
small numbers of people.
Dr. Francis Collins, director of the
National Center for Human Genome'
Research, predicted the test eventu-
ally will be offered to anyone worried
about cancer, even those with no fani=_p
ily history.
The advance also has important
implications for understanding how
cancer develops. The gene fixes er-
rors that can creep into genetic mate
rial every time a cell divides.
When the gene is broken, genetic
defects quickly pile up, leading to
cancer.
The researchers speculate that the
gene may play an underlying role in a:
variety of tumors besides colon can-
cer and may trigger cancer that is not
inherited.
The gene, dubbed MSH2, cause
half or more of all cases of hereditary,
non-polyposis colorectal cancef,
which accounts for roughly one in six
of all colon cancer cases. Experts call g
it the most common known example,
of an inherited susceptibility to dig-;
ease.
The gene runs in families. About
one in 200 people in the Western
world inherits it.
They are at greatly increased risXk
of colon cancer and other tumors
such as uterine, stomach and ovarian
cancer.
Vogelstein said the first candii'
dates for the screening test will b6
people whose families are thought to
carry the gene because of their higlh
colon cancer rates.
"Right now, people in these fami-
lies don't know which ones have this"
time bomb," Vogelstein said.
"In a few months, we should haven
a blood test that will tell which people'.
don't have to worry," he continued.,,W
"For the ones who do have it, we can
catch tumors early."
" i r i i jP"
Tau Beta Pi, the National Engineering Honor Society, was founded to mark in a fitting
manner those who have conferred honor upon their Alma Mater by distinguished
scholarship and exemplary character as students in engineering, or by their attainments as
alumni in the field of engineering, and to foster a spirit of liberal culture in engineering
colleges.
We, the officers and faculty advisors of the Michigan Gamma Chapter of Tau Beta Pi,
wish to congratulate the following people who have achieved our high standards and have
successfully completed the initiation rituals, thereby becoming active members of Tau
Beta Pi:
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Gautum Agrawal
Mark Ardayfio
Bobbi Beckers
Kenneth Re'niimin
Bradley Fitzgerald
Frank Fontana
Bredham Givens
David Gnoman
Elizabeth Marsh
Angela Martens
Bethany Meder
nTwavdMillr
Aaron Schwass
Richard Sleczick
Brad Soderwall
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