A new government report confirms what the average person on the street has been experiencing for some time now. Rising inflation has led to the highest price rises in United States since 1981. This in turn has brought down spending by consumers who are being compelled to restrict their household budget.

A report brought out by the US Commerce Department revealed that in June 2008, inflation inched northward by 0.8 percent which was the highest increase since the 1.0 percent rise recorded in February 1981. Soaring prices of food, gasoline and other necessities brought down inflation-adjusted spending by 0.2 percent in June 2008. This Tuesday the Federal Reserve is scheduled to decide on prevailing interest rates which many experts feel will remain unchanged. However, high inflationary conditions will render all options difficult.

Even as the US economy continues to battle the twin demons of economic slow down and rising inflation, some manufacturing sectors reported increase in orders. A separate economic report states that factory orders in June rose by 1.7 percent which surpassed industry expectations. The rise in orders was mainly driven by heavy demand for military equipment, steel and higher cash value of orders for refined petroleum goods.

-Kalyani Mookherji

On Monday, the US government granted a two-year extension to a test program which will allow long haul trucks from Mexico full access to American highways. The move from the Bush administration comes despite objections raised in the Congress and pending legislation to shut down the program.

The truck program has been initiated under the North American Free Trade Agreement which seeks to relax border restrictions for free movement of goods across countries. Traditionally trucks from Mexico have been unloading their goods at the US border from where they are transported to the markets by American trucking companies.

The pilot program which was kicked off last year gave limited numbers of Mexican trucks permission to ply US highways for one year. Conversely American trucks were also allowed in Mexico. According to U.S and Mexican government officials, till July 2008 around 27 Mexican carriers with 107 trucks as well as 10 American carriers with 55 trucks have taken part in the program without any untoward incident.

The truck program has been vehemently opposed by some unions as well as by certain highway safety and consumer groups. The continuation of the program has also not gone down well with some members of the Congress who intend to pass a bill closing down the program as soon as the Congress recess gets over.

-Kalyani Mookherji

Psychiatric patients in the United States are increasingly being put on medications instead of receiving in-depth psychotherapy. A report which studied the shift was published in the Archives of General Psychiatry. The main factors which are responsible for a wider dependence on drugs rather than talk therapy are said to be reimbursement policies of health insurance plans as well as a new generation of psychotropic drugs which have relatively lesser side-effects.

The study revealed that in 1996-’97, around 44.4% of patients in the US underwent psychotherapy but this number fell to 28.4% in 2004-’05. again the percentage of psychiatrists who claimed to provide psychotherapy to all their patients fell from19.6% in 1996-‘97 to just 10.8% in 2004-’05. Keeping in with the results of earlier studies, researchers discovered that the patients from the wealthier group, who personally paid for their own therapy, were likely to receive this line of treatment.

The study which covered 14,108 psychiatric office visits over a ten year period drew its data from the National Ambulatory Medical Survey. The results pointed out that medical insurance reimbursement polices clearly favored repeated medication appointments of short durations over longer psychotherapy sessions. Another reason for the growing dependence on drugs was the aggressive marketing of anti-depressants or prescription drugs both to psychiatrists and patients.

-Kalyani Mookherji

One of the largest apparel chains in the US, Steve & Barry’s LLC is reported to have finalized its purchase by a unit of the investment firm, Bay Harbor Management. The latter plans to buy the retail chain for $163 million, most of which would go repaying around 100,000 creditors. Steve & Barry’s has assets worth $500 million to $1 billion but has accumulated debts of similar proportions.

The Bay Harbor Management unit plans to keep the apparel chain as a going concern and intends to buy leases of certain Steve & Barry’s stores from its 276 retail outlets. The new owner would acquire all intellectual property rights of the chain including celebrity and brand licenses besides acquiring all the merchandize from the stores it plans to purchase.

Steve & Barry’s is famous for its mid-range apparel and has lines designed by several celebrities like actress Sarah Jessica-Parker, tennis player Venus Williams as well as basketball player Stephon Marbury. On July 9, this year, the privately-owned chain with 63 of its affiliates sought the protection of Bankruptcy court at Manhattan. The company cited high costs, restricted consumer spending as well as unfavorable credit markets as reasons for its failure to repay debts.

-Kalyani Mookherji

Evacuation orders were passed on some oil and gas rigs in the Gulf of Mexico as the tropical storm, Edouard headed for Texas. However latest updates suggest that the storm has already weakened and was not expected to cause a huge damage to the offshore facilities at Galveston, which is the largest petroleum port in the United States.

Speculation that most of the Texas oil facilities would be spared significant damage brought down crude prices for September delivery to $121.41 a barrel. This fall of 3 percent or $3.69 at the New York Stock Exchange was the largest since May 6, this year.

A spokesperson at the US Interior Department notified that six rigs and twenty-three production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico had been asked to evacuate. Some of the companies which have started removing its non-essential workers are Marathon Oil Corp, Anadarko Petroleum Corp and McMoran Exploration Co. the oil import terminal at Louisiana as well as the Houston Ship Channel have been shut down as precautionary measures against the approaching storm.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami issued an advisory saying that on August 4, 7 p.m Houston time, sustained wind speed of Edouard had come down to 45 mph from the earlier speed of 50mph. as yet, the system was 205 miles east to southeast of Galveston and was moving in a westerly direction at about 7 mph.

-Kalyani Mookherji.

Fast Food restaurants in the US are once again under scrutiny for offering kids’ meals which have higher-than-required level of calories. Public health agencies and parents’ groups have long blamed the fast food industry for exposing children and young adults to unhealthy food choices in a country where a dangerously-high percentage of kids are reported to be overweight.

On Monday, the Center for Science in the Public Interest released a report which studied the menus of kids’ meals at thirteen popular restaurants like KFC, Sonic, Taco Bell, Chick a fill and Jack in the Box. More than 90 % of the meals examined were found to contain twice the recommended levels of fats and calories. While a four to eight-year old needs around 430 calories per meal, 93% of the 1474 menus studied exceeded the 430-calorie mark.

Among all the fast food restaurants studied, the Center rated Subway the best for offering nutritious choices. It found that only a third of its Fresh Fit for Kids meals contained more than 430 calories. However the findings by CSPI was not accepted by many popular fast food companies like KFC, McDonald’s and Burger King Corp who claimed that they do offer kids’ meals which contain less than 430 calories.

-Kalyani Mookherji

With the increasing democratization of the workplace, dress codes may not seem to matter a great deal, especially in case of jobs which do not have a formal uniform. However, it makes good career sense not to stick out in the office environment on the very first day of work. Here are some tips on deciding what to wear as you start on a new job.

It is a good idea to arrive early for the interview so that you can have a feel of the office environment – how are the employees dressed and whether the interaction is formal or casual. Once you get the job, ask your mentor or someone who has been around for a while about the general do’s and don’ts of the place. It is always safe to inquire about informal rules governing behavior instead of assuming something and then being sorry.

On the first day it is prudent to dress in a simple but elegant manner. One can always elaborate on makeup, shoes or dress in future or on special occasions at the office. Again, wear something can be modified according to the work ethos. For instance, women might dress the first day in a skirt and jacket with a simple top so that if the jacket seems too dressy, it can be taken off later. Likewise men can dress in a two-piece suit and the jacket discarded if the environment is more casual.

The idea is to respect an established work ethos in the first few days and express one’s individuality only when one has been fully integrated into the workplace.

-Kalyani Mookherji

E-mails published on Sunday revealed that the Connecticut Social Services Commissioner had advised the Governor’s chief of staff against rushing ahead with the Charter Oak medical plan as early as June 4. The low cost medical plan which covers uninsured adults has come under some criticism of failing to garner an adequate network of providers.

The Charter Oak health insurance program has been designed by the state of Connecticut and seeks to provide affordable medical insurance to uninsured from low income families. The program started to accept applications from July 1, but records show that till now only one hospital from Connecticut has signed up. In the meantime, three private insurance companies which plan to provide coverage under Charter Oak plan have taken active measures to sign up more doctors and hospitals in an attempt to fill out the network of providers.

Even though state officials declared that over time around 19,000 medical providers are expected to sign up for the Charter Oak plan, reservations have been expressed in certain quarters. Some hospitals are hesitant to sign up as they fear the low reimbursement rates will lead to losses if they treat patients covered under the Charter Oak plan.

-Kalyani Mookherji

New legislation will give sweeping powers to border patrols in the US to seize laptops, i-Pods in case of suspicion of illegally obtained media. The Department of Homeland Security claims that such regulations will make it easier to prevent terrorist activities. However civil rights groups have expressed reservations, saying that the laws will lead to violation of privacy and undue harassment.

The new legislation will form part of the Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement and is expected to be in place by the end of 2008. The laws under this international agreement will allow random search and seizures of electronics like laptops which are suspected to engage in illegal file-sharing or other forms of copyright infringement. The enforcement agencies will also be authorized to destroy such illegal material at their discretion or share them with other agencies for reasons like data decryption and language translation.

On July 16, two agencies of the DHS, the US Customs and Border Protection as well as US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, had been allowed to exercise many of these provisions. However, the ACTA agreement will give a more formal framework to the new laws. Here it may be mentioned that while the policy makes has to safeguard confidential information relating business interests and client-attorney material, they do not provide any protection of personal data like medical records or financial information.

-Kalyani Mookherji

For the third straight weekend, the latest Batman film, The Dark Knight continued to top the box office numbers, earning Warner Brother another $43.8 million. In the three weeks of its release, the movie has already raked in $394.9 million and the over the next few days, the studio hopes the film will reach the $400 million mark.

The weekend earnings of The Dark Knight got some competition from the opening weekend sales of The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor which earned around $42.5 million. If it reaches the $400 million milestone, The Dark Knight will be poised to take on the original Star Wars which at present holds the second position in overall box office earnings with $461 million. However The Dark Knight will still remain one place behind Titanic which continues to be the top grosser of all times in US and Canada with revenues of $601 million.

The Dark Knight is the latest movie in the Batman series which stars Christian Bale in the role of the troubled, caped crusader. However it is not so much the heroics of Batman which have propelled the movie to the first place but the antics of Batman’s manic adversary, the Joker, played by Heath Ledger in his last and most popular role before a sudden death. The film has already broken records for the fastest movie to cross the $200 million and $300 million milestones and for earning the highest revenues in its opening and second weekends.

-Kalyani Mookherji