SITE MAP EDUCATION PAGE ECON & BUS GEOG RESOURCES A-Z INDEX


Current Events

(http://faculty.washington.edu/krumme/whatisnew/current.html)


Local, National & International Media

Nov 29 - Dec 3, 1999: World Trade Organization -- Third Ministerial Conference, Seattle

December 16, 1999

Y2K Preparedness: Ranking of Countries

November 5, 1999: Microsoft ruled a Monopoly (PI, Nov.6, 1999)

WASHINGTON -- The Microsoft Corp. has monopoly power and has harmed consumers by its conduct. A federal judge's "207-page findings of fact represent just the first phase of a several-step process... against Microsoft ... by the government and multiple states. But the findings were ... condemning the company's behavior in harsh language." (See full text.)

Seattle Times' "Microsoft Trial Page"

Nov 2, 1999: Initiative 695,

takes effect Jan. 1. It "cuts license tab fees to $30 and makes Washington the only state in the nation to give voters the power to approve all new taxes and fees -- everything from library fines to fishing licenses to property tax rates. Voters overwhelmingly approved the measure in the Nov. 2, 1999, general election."

End of September: Boeing rival Airbus won't rest on laurels

Seattle Post Intelligencer (PI), Wednesday, September 29, 1999 By ANDREA ROTHMAN BLOOMBERG NEWS -- TOULOUSE, France,
Airbus says it has won orders for 288 planes in the first eight months of 1999, compared with 134 at The Boeing Co., the world's biggest aircraft maker and Airbus' only rival in the $50 billion market for large passenger jets. The European company, born 30 years ago with one model, has captured 47 percent of the world's orders in each of the past two years.

June 10, 1999

Olympic Pipeline Explosion in Bellingham
  • Olympic Pipeline
  • Accident Page
    Thousands of people watched as huge smoke clouds rose over Bellingham, Washington on June 10, 1999. They soon learned that fuel from a gasoline pipeline leak had ignited along a stretch of Whatcom Creek.
  • Route Maps

Clinton proposes $1.77 trillion budget; plan projects surplus; Seattle Times, Monday, February 1, 1999 by Martin Crutsinger [The Associated Press]

"President Clinton today sent Congress a $1.77 trillion spending plan for 2000, beginning a new century with record budget surpluses that he would use to shore up Social Security and shower billions in new spending on a range of initiatives from child care to the Pentagon."

U.S. trade deficit hits record high in 1998; Seattle Times, Thursday, January 21, 1999 by The Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The trade deficit shot up to $15.5 billion in November as U.S. exports of aircraft, computer equipment and farm products fell sharply while imports climbed to an all-time high.

December 2nd, 1998

[Updates] Boeing announces that the company may slash 48,000 jobs over the next 2 years

2000 census data to be placed on Internet, Seattle Times, Monday, November 16, 1998 by Sam Fulwood III [Los Angeles Times]

"WASHINGTON - The Census Bureau is laying ambitious plans to post the bulk of its 2000 census data on the Internet, turning paper-bound copies of the nation's statistical profile into relics of 20th-century record-keeping. The plan, likely to provoke a new profusion of private-sector packaging of government information, caps a 10-year effort by the Census Bureau to wean the public and media from relying on government demographers to crunch the numbers and divine the bottom line from a mass of raw data."

The QFC-Fred Meyer-Kroger Merger (Octomer 19, 1998)

1998 Nobel Prize in Economics

  • Welfare economist wins Nobel prize; Seattle Times, Wednesday, October 14, 1998 by Jim Heintz The Associated Press STOCKHOLM - Amartya Sen, a scholar from India whose work produced a new understanding of the catastrophes that plague society's poorest people, won the Nobel Economics Prize today."
  • Amartya Sen at Harvard "While Amartya left us last spring to become Master of Trinity College, all of us here at Harvard feel the warm glow that his Nobel Prize gives out from Cambridge east to Cambridge west. Congratulations from all of your colleagues here at Harvard, Amartya. It is so well deserved!"
  • Inequality Reexamined/Amartya Sen. Reprint. 1997, ix, 207 p., $17.50. Contents: 1. Equality of what?. 2. Freedom, achievement and resources. 3. Functionings and capability. 4. Freedom, agency and well-being. 5. Justice and capability. 6. Welfare economics and inequality. 7. Poverty and affluence. 8. Class, gender and other groups. 9. The demands of equality. "The claims of equality in social arrangements constitute the subject matter in this original and incisive monograph."
  • Amartya Sen Delivers Rosenthal Foundation Lecture Series (Audio, Northwestern U.)
  • Nobel Laureates, 1969 - 1998

The 1998 "Asian Economic Crisis":

  • U.S. pledges $5 billion to help Asian economies ; Seattle Times, Monday, November 16, 1998 by Martin Crutsinger (AP) KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - The United States and Japan announced proposals today to pump an additional $10 billion into troubled Asian economies to help lift the region out of its worst economic crisis in decades. The package of new proposals would include $5 billion in new support offered by the United States, and the creation of a $5 billion joint initiative supported by the United States, Japan, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.
  • Further cuts in 747 production likely Seattle Times, Wednesday, October 21, 1998; by Jeff Cole and Stephen Dunphy Boeing is preparing to chop its rate of 747 production by at least 30 percent beyond cutbacks already announced, as delays in jetliner deliveries to Asia continue to increase, company officials say.
  • Trade deficit at all-time high Seattle Times, Tuesday, October 20, 1998, by Martin Crutsinger The Associated Press WASHINGTON - The U.S. trade deficit surged to a record $16.8 billion in August as the Asian economic crisis pushed exports down for a fifth straight month. Overseas sales of American farm products hit their lowest point in more than four years.
  • U.S. families starting to feel economic slide; Seattle Times, Sunday, October 11, 1998; by Craig Gordon, Drew Fetherston and Susan Harrigan, [Newsday] "When the most serious threat to the world economy since World War II really got its start on July 2, 1997, most Americans barely even noticed.... Thailand [...] decided it could no longer afford to protect the value of its money. Within six months the devalued currency had lost half its purchasing power. [...] The crisis that once seemed so distant - even as it tore through Thailand's neighbors, then Japan and then Russia - has landed on U.S. shores with a roar, jerking Wall Street back to earth and threatening to end one of the longest economic expansions in U.S. history.... the United States has no better than a 50-50 chance of avoiding a recession in the next two years."
  • Apple growers taking huge financial hit ; Seatlle Times, Sunday, October 11, 1998, by Lynda V. Mapes "Even as Washington's apple production booms, the market for those apples is shrinking. The economic crisis in Asia and trade woes with Mexico have put exports at a five-year low. An estimated 14 million boxes of Washington apples will lack buyers this year."
  • Conference on the Asian Crisis (December 1998 in Seattle)

May 7/8, 1998: Corporate Turbulence [in Seattle & elsewhere]

  • States expected to file antitrust suits against Microsoft "WASHINGTON (May 8, 1998 9:20 p.m. EDT http://www.nando.net) -- About a dozen states are considering filing an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft separate from the Justice Department, state officials said Friday..."

  • U.S. drafts case vs. Microsoft Seattle Times, Thursday, May 7, 1998; by James V. Grimaldi "WASHINGTON - The U.S. Justice Department is putting the finishing touches on a broad antitrust lawsuit, to be filed as early as next week, aimed at Microsoft's business practices surrounding Windows 98 and its handling of a competitor's software programming language."

  • Daimler-Benz will acquire Chrysler Seattle Times, Thursday, May 7, 1998; by John Hughes and Eric R. Quinones DETROIT - German industrial giant Daimler-Benz, the maker of Mercedes-Benz luxury cars, has agreed to acquire Chrysler for more than $38 billion in stock in a deal that weds two companies whose image and corporate cultures are vastly different.

  • Shake-up begins at Boeing; head of Renton factory reassigned ; Seattle Times, Thursday, May 7, 1998. by Stanley Holmes and Jake Batsell "In the end, the decision to reassign the head of Boeing's beleaguered Renton factory was an obvious one. He was in charge of fixing a problem, and it hasn't been fixed. Boeing's new 737 program, known as the Next Generation, is still not on firm footing..."

December 1997: Agreement on global warming reached in Kyoto ; Seattle Times, Thursday, Dec. 11, 1997 by H. Josef Hebert

KYOTO, Japan - The United States and other industrialized countries ended 11 days of contentious haggling at a global-warming conference today by agreeing on a historic pact to control the Earth's "greenhouse" gas emissions. But the pact, approved by delegates from more than 150 nations, immediately was denounced by Republican critics in Congress, who predicted it would never be ratified by the U.S. Senate.

September / October 1997: El Niņo

August 19, 1997: Layoffs may follow UPS settlement by Eun-Kyung Kim

WASHINGTON - Fleets of familiar brown delivery trucks may be chugging in a few days after UPS and the Teamsters union announced agreement today to end a 15-day strike that crippled the nation's largest package carrier. (Other UPS strike stories)

July 25, 1997: BOEING-McDonnell Douglas Merger - continued

July 1997: Canadian - U.S. Salmon Wars - continued

  • B.C. premier predicts fish talks will fail, Seattle Times, Friday, July 25, 1997, by Ross Anderson "British Columbia Premier Glen Clark, frequently at odds with Canadian federal authorities, called the naming of federal envoys to end the salmon war "laudable, but insufficient," and predicted it will fail to resolve the issues....
    ...The U.S. and Canada agreed to appoint the special envoys on Wednesday after a fleet of renegade fishermen prevented the Alaskan ferry Malaspina from leaving Prince Rupert for three days..."
  • What's behind the battle over a salmon treaty? Seattle Times, Thursday, May 29, 1997, by Eric Pryne and Jim Simon "Some facts about the U.S.-Canadian salmon-treaty dispute: ..."
  • The Pacific Salmon Treaty [(Canadian) Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade]

Pathfinder Touchdown on Mars July 4, 1997: Seattle Times, Saturday, July 5, 1997 "Touchdown! Pathfinder reaches Mars,"

Stadium measure is passing (June 17, 1997)

IRIN Emergency Update No.175 on the Great Lakes

"Ousted Zairean president Mobutu Sese Seko fled his jungle palace at Gbadolite on Sunday and flew to the Togolese capital Lome. But Togolese television announced that Mobutu left just hours afterwards "for a new destination, probably Morocco." (May 19, 1997)

Committee controlled by China rolls back Hong Kong civil rights Seattle Times, Feb. 2, 1997 by Keith B. Richburg.

HONG KONG -- A caucus of top Chinese officials and their handpicked Hong Kong advisers, meeting behind closed doors in Beijing, gave final approval yesterday to plans for scaling back some civil-liberty laws and protections in Hong Kong after China takes charge in five months.

Follow the 1996 Belgrad Protests online and visit http://eurasianews.com/erc/serbopp1.htm

Mariners put up for sale Owners blame County Council members for discussing ballpark delay. (Dec. 15, 1996, Seattle Times)

Hutu Refugee Crisis at the Eastern Border of Zaire and Rwanda Border ("Great Lakes Crisis", November 1996, Continuous Updates)

James Mirrlees and William Vickrey, Nobel Prize Winners for Economics 1996 (October 8, 1996)

Hurricane Fran (September 5, 1996) || Yahoo on Fran || National Hurricane Center

CNN for Sept.3, 1996 (Iraq: "Full Story");
Some Related Sites:

Seattle Times, August 26, 1996, p.A1 || Paul Allen's Football and Stadium Pages;

Seahawk sale to Paul Allen fraught with tough choices The cover page of Paul Allen's Seahawks Web site features a photograph of the Carolina Panthers' posh outdoor stadium, which is not only the crown jewel of the National Football League but the polar opposite of the utilitarian Kingdome.

BOEING TO ACQUIRE ROCKWELL AEROSPACE AND DEFENSE UNITS ("Boeing Significantly Enhances Position as Global Competitor in Key Defense and Aerospace Markets"; August 1, 1996)

Olympic Games, Atlanta [ATT Site] (July/Aug. 1996)

Condolences to Victims of Flight 800 (July '96)

Free Speech Court Decision (June '96)

Krumme (Home) Econ & Bus Geography Geography Dept

1999 [ econgeog@u.washington.edu]