Marketplace: News Archives

Monday November 27, 2000
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It's Monday, November 27, 2000. I'm David Brancaccio.

Despite ongoing legal challenges to the final vote count in Florida, Texas Governor George Bush has begun to assume the mantel of President-elect and is considering applicants for the top-level federal jobs. Today, he tapped his running mate Dick Cheney to run the transition effort, to be funded-for now-through private sources. Citing the uncertain outcome, the General Services Administration has yet to give the Bush team the five million dollars and office space provided for the official presidential transition team. President Clinton is naming a transition council to ease the process. Marketplace's John Dimsdale reports from a Capitol on hold.

Dimsdale: The delay in the presidential transition leaves an estimated 150 to 200 thousand potential federal job applicants still clutching their resumes. More than a thousand of the president's 7-thousand appointees must be confirmed by the Senate after FBI background checks. They include cabinet secretaries and their associates and deputies, 150 ambassadors, 130 regulatory officials and 187 U.S. attorneys and marshalls. Then, there are another six thousand or so lower level appointed bureaucrats throughout the executive branch ... from legal counsels to policy administrators to the director of the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution. Also in suspense are an untold number of inaugural caterers, dress makers, limo drivers, invitation printers and parade marching bands. For them, the January 20th swearing in of the President will come all too soon. You'd think local real estate agents would also be more than ready to begin buying and selling properties for all the incoming and outgoing staffers. But long-time agent Ruth Dickey at Long & Foster real estate says agents hardly notice election time.

Dickey: The business community has been growing and the political community has not. There's been at least lip service to the downsizing of government and several offices moved out of Washington. The business community has picked up the slack and has been growing.

Dimsdale: Besides, Dickey says, government staffers who come in with elected officials figure they're only here temporarily ... so they're predominantly renters. In Washington, I'm John Dimsdale for Marketplace.

We now can report who will replace the man who is arguably the world's most influential chief executive. In a resolution to the leadership battle that has kept the world transfixed, the new man at the top will be named…Jeffrey Immelt. You didn't think we were talking about Bush-Gore, did you? Marketplace's Michelle Brier reports on the 44 year old Dartmouth business school grad tapped to eventually replace Jack Welch at the helm of General Electric.

Brier: Wall Street is applauding the selection of Jeff Immelt, the young, personable president of GE's medical systems unit as the successor to Jack Welch. Analyst Michael Regan at Credit Suisse First Boston says Immelt's made a name for himself as a strong leader and visionary...

Regan: Jeff runs a biz within GE that is most ahead in terms of its use of technology, and I think GE needs to do the kinds of things within all of GE that he's done at medical systems. Drive technology to get the company closer to the customer, they've move from a producer of goods to a services company and now they need to be a knowledge based company.

Brier: Welch took GE from a 13 billion dollar company best known for its light bulbs to a 500 billion dollar diversified corporation. GE is also regarded to be one of the best run companies in the world, with much of the credit going to Welch. That means Immelt will find himself under a blinding spotlight, says Robert Slater , author of "Jack Welch and the GE way"

Slater: Starting in 13 months when he takes over he's gonna have all of the business world looking at him, standing on his shoulders day by day and that GE stock is going to be a barometer of how Wall Street thinks he is doing.

Brier: Immelt's first major challenge will be the integration of Honeywell, acquired by GE back in October. In New York I'm Michelle Brier for Marketplace.

Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian has sued DaimlerChrysler for nine billion dollars, accusing Daimler's chairman, Juergen Schrempp of lying to shareholders about the merger that brought Mercedes and Chrysler together two years ago. Kerkorian is Chrysler's third-largest shareholder. The suit contends that contrary to public reassurances to the contrary, Daimler always planned to fire Chrysler's management and turn the American company into a mere division. DaimlerChrysler shares closed two and a half percent today at 41 and a quarter dollars. Earlier this year, Daimler was trading at 78 dollars.

Many of us worked off our Thanksgiving dinner with a little exercise….called shopping. Nearly 70 million Americans hit the malls this past Friday, more than the retail forecasters expected. J.C. Penney said sales were better than expected, while Federated Department stores called sales for the month lagged. Electronic retailers were crowing this morning about a big spike in visits to online shopping sites as well. But as Marketplace's Sarah Gardner reports, shopping and buying aren't the same thing.

Gardner: Retailers lured turkey-weary consumers into stores this past weekend with a 4-letter word. Sale. At Kmart-artificial Christmas trees--35 dollars off. At Circuit City a free DVD player if you bought a projection television. And at Target scooters for 79.99. That is, if your kid would accept a Schwinn instead than a Razor. But the discounts may not be enough this year. A new survey by the Consumer Federation of America and a credit union trade group says the vast majority of Americans plan to either spend the same amount or less than last year. John Konarksi talked to shoppers all weekend long. He's with the International Council of Shopping Centers

Konarski: Credit card debt is at one of the highest points it's ever been so you do have some concern there. Also what might be going on is the issue of gasoline prices and home heating oil."

Gardner: Higher energy prices, stock market volatility, and maxed out credit cards are all making consumers stingier this year. About a third of the shoppers who plan to "charge it" this Christmas told the Consumer Federation they're worried about paying off their monthly balance. What this all means, the analysts say, is that instead of a blockbuster this December, retailers will probably get a solid, but more sober holiday season. Sober, but maybe not serious. The fast-food chain Jack in the Box announced with great fanfare this morning that it will start selling underwear on its website. Royal blue "Jack-in-the-Boxers" are going for 14.99 a pair. I'm Sarah Gardner for Marketplace.

And that's the top of our news for Monday, November 27, 2000.