Unfriendly Skies
If you were actually planning to fly on American Airlines last week, there's a better-than-good chance you didn't get to your destination. Parent company AMR grounded the carrier's MD-80 fleet, forcing the cancellation of more than 3,000 flights and stranding hundreds of thousands of travelers. Can the carrier make a comeback in public confidence?

Dreamliner Delayed Again
Boeing Co. last week postponed the first delivery of its 787 Dreamliner by another six months — to the third quarter next year — citing issues in the manufacturing supply chain and extensive reworking of some of the plane's design. To date, this is the fourth delay in the promising plane's problematic roll-out schedule.

Terminal 5 Troubles
the newest terminal at London's Heathrow Airport experienced another growing pain last week. British Airways said it will delay the move of its long-haul operations to its new home at Terminal 5 until June. Yup, that likely means even more costs associated with the facility's launch. So far, the U.K.'s largest airline estimated that the problems associated with the terminal's late-March opening have cost it about £16 million, spent on compensation for cancellations, lost luggage and hotel fees.

Imported Supply Prices Rise
The largest contributor to the March increase in nonpetroleum prices was a 3.6 percent advance in the price index for nonpetroleum industrial supplies and materials, says the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). That rise was mostly driven by a jump in unfinished metals prices, although higher prices for natural gas, finished metals, and chemicals also factored into the advance. Nonpetroleum industrial supplies and materials prices rose 14.7 percent over the past 12 months. These figures are not seasonally adjusted.

High Prices for Metals Leads to More Theft
Scrap metal thefts began to soar 12 to 18 months ago. "There's a direct correlation between the price of commodities and the number of metal thefts," a spokesman for the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries told The New York Times. Thieves are stealing piping, gutters, downspouts, urns, bleachers, catalytic converters and more in troubled neighborhoods.

Year-over-Year Imported Oil Prices Rose 60 Percent
From March 2007 to March 2008, the price of petroleum jumped 60 percent, says the BLS. From February to March in 2008, the price rose 9.1 percent. These figures are not seasonally adjusted.

Consumer Confidence Dives
The Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers said its preliminary index of confidence fell to 63.2 in April from 69.5 in March, well below economists' median expectation of a slight fall to 69.0. This is the lowest index number since 1982's 62.0.

Pipeline Would Cost $25 Billion
"ConocoPhillips and BP PLC said they plan to work together to pursue the construction of a natural gas pipeline widely expected to cost more than $25 billion to bring the flush energy deposits of northern Alaska to markets in the lower 48 states," says The Wall Street Journal. "The two oil giants said they will spend $600 million over the next three years on a design for a project that industry experts say could cost more than $30 billion, potentially making it the largest private construction project ever in North America."

Big 3 Look to Export More
"'Combined with the weak dollar, we've got a contract that puts ourselves in a great position to ship products to other countries and do it making a profit,' Mike Herron, a UAW official at GM's assembly plant in Spring Hill, Tenn., who is involved in negotiations with the company," told the WSJ. Though American-brand vehicle exports have been rising, it remains to be seen if non-Americans will think of these autos as a better value than less-expensive foreign-made cars and trucks.

NSF Funds Research for Alternative Energy
Top undergrads in chemical engineering from across the U.S. will pursue cutting-edge research on alternative energy at the University of Delaware this summer through an internship program. The National Science Foundation (NSF) is sponsoring the program in the continuing goal to find and develop a diverse, internationally competitive and globally engaged science and engineering workforce.

Scientists and Engineers Fare Better
The number of individuals working in science and engineering occupations grew by 4.3 percent, and their unemployment rate dropped to 2.5 percent in 2006, the lowest unemployment rate since the early 1990s, according to three newly published reports from the NSF. The survey data of scientists and engineers is collectively called the Scientists and Engineers Statistical Data System (SESTAT).

Dollar Falls Again
As predicted "the dollar lost value against other major currencies, after a weekend meeting of the Group of 7 finance ministers and central bankers ended with no announcement of significant action," according to the NYT. "Many [Vietnamese] banks had started betting on dollar depreciation and refusing to accept large sums in dollars, to the point that multinationals and exporters had trouble wiring money into the country to pay their employees' salaries," the NYT said last week.

Bernanke Frames Financial Fixes
In a recent speech, Federal Reserve System Chairman Ben Bernanke outlined some recommendations to prevent a second subprime-fueled financial debacle. Some of his comments:

• Greater supervisory scrutiny of the processes originators follow and the incentives they face;
• Action at both the federal and state level;
• Stronger nationwide licensing standards for mortgage brokers and more consistent government oversight for all originators;
• Restriction of the use of prepayment penalties;
• Restriction of low-documentation lending;
• Requiring the use of escrow accounts for property taxes and homeowner's insurance;
• Ensuring lenders give sufficient considerations to borrowers' ability to repay;
• Proposing rules regarding broker compensation methods;
• Promulgating rules about the ability of appraisers to provide judgments free of undue influence; and
• Initiating rules regarding the accuracy of advertisements.

Cash on Hand?
Corporations outside of financial services (including Cisco Systems Inc. and Coca-Cola Co.) have collectively socked away more than half a trillion dollars in cash, former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan told Bloomberg News last week. "They have also reduced short-term debt and cut inventories to record-low levels in relation to sales, leaving them better prepared than in the past to weather a contraction," added Greenspan.

Volcker Speaks Out on Economy
Another former Federal Reserve chairman, Paul Volcker, who is largely credited with breaking the back of stubborn stagflation in his time leading the Fed before Greenspan, last week weighed in on the current financial system, which he suggested was out of control, vulnerable to crisis and deeply unfair.

"Simply stated, the bright new financial system — for all its talented participants, for all its rich rewards — has failed the test of the market place," Volcker told the Economic Club of New York (via NYT). "What has plainly been at risk is a disorderly unraveling of the mutual trust among respected market participants upon which any strong and efficient financial system must rest."

In his post-Fed life, Volcker has not written or commented regularly on monetary policy or related issues, which makes his views made public last week all the more intriguing.

How the American Middle Class is Doing
A majority of survey respondents say that in the past five years, they either haven't moved forward in life (25 percent) or have fallen backwards (31 percent)," according to a recent survey of 2,413 respondents. This is the most downbeat short-term assessment of personal progress in nearly half a century of polling by the Pew Research Center and the Gallup organization. Also, 78 percent of those who identified themselves as middle class say it is more difficult to maintain their standard of living compared with five years ago.