mun
Career Fair Host a company
sign ups begin
Sunday, Feb. 2 from l2-4pm
Inwebnerllfi
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Summer School 2003
On-Campus Housing
Residence Malls
* Prices per summer session.
Rate*
Mclnnis
Schulimachcr
(coed)
(coed)
Balcony
Balcony
Double Occupancy
Single Occupancy
Apartment
$ 450.00*
$ 675.00*
$ 721.00*
Davis-Gary
(women)Corridor
Private
$631.00*
Apartment
$691.00*
Moore
(men)
Corridor
Private
$631.00*
Legett
(coed)
Corridor
Double Occupancy
$ 420.00*
Applications available
February 3, 2003
Online at: http://reslife.tamu.edu/
OR:
Housing Assignments Office
Legett Hall Rm 003
College Station, TX 77843-1258
(979) 845-4744 or
toll free: (888) 451-3896
All assignments will be made according to application dates, on a first come,
first served basis.
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# * ^ ^ # 36 * * * * * ^ * * * * ^ ^ 3* * # * 3* *
Friday, January 31, 2003 I HE BATTALIAS
GDP posts slight rise to end 2002
By Jeannine Aversa
THE BATTALION
The economy faltered in the
final quarter of last year as con
sumers — nervous about a war
with Iraq and their own job
prospects and stock portfolios
— turned cautious and
increased their spending by the
smallest amount in nearly a
decade.
Gross domestic product rose
at an annual rate of just 0.7 per
cent in the fourth quarter, a dra
matic slowdown from the previ
ous quarter’s solid 4 percent
growth rate and ending 2002 on
a sour note, the Commerce
Department reported Thursday.
GDP measures the total
value of goods and services pro
duced within the United States
and is considered the broadest
barometer of the economy’s
health.
“One quarter we’re soaring,
the next we’re flat on our back.
That was the story of 2002,”
said Joel Naroff, president of
Naroff Economic Advisors.
The performance — weaker
than analysts were predicting —
gave the fourth quarter the dis
tinction of being the worst quar
ter for GDP in 2002. It also
marked the weakest showing
since the economy actually
shrank at a 0.3 percent rate in
the third quarter of 2001 as the
country was mired in its first
recession in a decade.
While the report highlighted
the economy’s struggles to get
back on sure footing, econo
mists didn’t view the tepid
fourth quarter performance as a
sign that economy was going to
backslide into recession.
In fact, analysts believe the
economy is picking up momen
tum in the current quarter,
expanding at a rate of 2.5 per
cent to 3 percent.
“If the Iraq situation is
resolved quickly and favorably,
there’s a good chance of unlock
ing the economy’s potential and
removing the uncertainty hang
ing over consumers and busi
nesses,” said Lynn Reaser, chief
economist at Banc of America
Capital Management.
For all of 2002, the economy
grew by a decent 2.4 percent, a
big improvement over the tiny
0.3 percent rise registered in
2001, but still considered weak-
er-than-normal growth for the
U.S. economy.
President Bush, who doesn’t
want economic woes to linger as
he prepares for his 2004 re-elec
tion bid, has proposed a 10-year,
$674 billion economic stimulus
plan — all but $4 billion involv
ing tax cuts. Democrats have
their own, smaller-scale plans.
Commerce Secretary Don
Evans said the GDP report
underscores the need for
Congress to enact the presi
dent’s plan and shows “that our
nation’s economy is not yet
growing at its fullest potential.”
GDP
Here is a look at the gross
domestic product, which measures
all goods and services produced
by workers and capital located in
the United States, regardless of
ownership.
Annualized quarterly change
+0.7%
2000
2002
SOURCE: Department of Commerce AP
But Democrats argued that
the president’s plan would do
little to help the economy in the
short term but would put the
plunge the federal budget into
even more red ink.
“This is a collision course
with fiscal calamity and the
administration seems to be dig
ging the hole deeper at every
turn, adding tax cut on top of tax
cut, not offset by spending
reductions,” said Sen. Kent
Conrad, D-N.D.
The Federal Reserve decided
Wednesday to hold a key initi-
est rate at a 41-year lowofUi
percent, hoping that will spi
consumers and businesses t
spend and invest more, b
ing economic growth.
At the Fed’s meeting ii
December, policy-makers sail
fiscal stimulus might be hel|
to help the fragile economy,
“Added fiscal stimulusini®t
prove to be a useful complenw
to an accommodative monetar.
policy in the period immefo
ly ahead when economic
ty was likely to remain
the economy’s potential,
according to minutes oftheDet
10 meeting released Thursday
The Fed opted to hold rate
steady at that meeting, whit
took place weeks before Bib
unveiled his stimulus package
Consumers — the mainta
keeping the economy going-
got tired in the fourth quarts
They increased their spendir:
during the period at only a
percent rate, the worst showir;
since the first quarter of
and down from a brisk 4.2 per
cent growth rate in 2002’s tliii
quarter.
The weakness reflected
sharp 7.3 percent cut in spend
ing on durable goods, such
cars and appliances. That was
big turnaround from to
astounding 22.8 percent rate
increase in the third quarterait
marked the largest reduction
spending on durable goods sine
the first quarter of 1991.
Mueller says new FBI computer systems would
not have missed Sept. 11 key terrorist clues
By Curt Anderson
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI Director
Robert Mueller defended a new agency
computer system that congressional critics
claim is costly and “gold-plated,” saying
Thursday it might have provided important
clues to the Sept. 11 attacks if it had been in
place.
Lost amid all the intelligence data before
the attacks was a memo from an FBI field
agent in Phoenix raising questions about
suspected terrorists taking flight training in
the United States. The new computer system
would see that such a memo got to the prop
er people, FBI officials said.
“To be successful, we have to share
information in new ways,” Mueller told
reporters in a two-hour briefing about the
system. “I believe we have made substantial
strides in a number of key areas.”
Mueller also said the FBI is preparing a
comprehensive, classified
“national threat assessment”
for Congress about the
nation’s vulnerability to
another attack and that the
FBI supports President
Bush’s proposal to create a
new intelligence analysis
center.
The briefing, held in the
FBI’s Strategic Information
Operations Center, was the
latest step in a public rela
tions campaign by Mueller
to keep counterterrorism and domestic
intelligence authority with the FBI. Some in
Congress, pointing to past FBI missteps,
want to create a new domestic intelligence
agency independent of the FBI.
Mueller has made counterterrorism the
FBI’s top priority. Crucial to that effort,ti
said, is a multibillion-dollar overhaul oflk
agency’s computer systei
known as “Trilogy” I
ensure that all agents am
analysts with the propersecu-
rity clearances havfcmt.sK’
critical information wefy
wide.
The FBI’s goal is to to
much of that system onlit
by March 31 with a “virtu
case file” terrorism databa
containing tens of millions'
documents — and offerii
modern search and cross-it
erencing capabilities — to be finished!
December, said Wilson Lowery, the Fi
executive assistant director for adminislt
tion.
The computer system in place belt
Sept. 11, 2001, was complete!
To be successful,
we have to share
information in new
ways.
— Robert Mueller
FBI Director
Show this Saturday, Feb. 1 st , 9:00 p.m.
at Rudder Auditorium for
FREUDIAN
improv comedy
Tickets now on sale at Rudder Box Office for $ 5
Come fully dressed in a ninja, toga, fairy
or pirate costume and get in for $ 3!!
NEWS IN BRIEF
Democrats slow
Snow's approval
WASHINGTON (AP)
Democratic senators fighting
proposed government changes
in pension rules forced a delay
Thursday in the confirmation of
railroad executive John Snow as
treasury secretary.
Snow's nomination won unan
imous approval from the Senate
Finance Committee on Thursday
morning, but quick confirmation
by the full Senate was delayed
while he met with lawmakers on
the pension dispute.
Snow, the chairman of CSX
Corp., was nominated fort
job last month after Preside
Bush fired his first treasury s«
retary, Paul O'Neill, in a shafe
up of his economic team.
The pension issue involves
dispute over "cash baland
pensions, which large conf
nies are adopting to sal
money. While the plans tl
penalize older workers.
Democratic senators said#
wanted to discuss the n#
with Snow before a Serf
vote. They are seeking a ctf
mitment from Snow that»
final Treasury rule would prrrf
the rights of older workers.
LEATHER
COAT SALE
$3900 _ $9^00
Open Friday - Saturday
10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
2713 S.Texas Ave.
(2 blocks north ofVilla Maria)
219-0365
©■ n
UMPIRES NEEDED
Brazos Valley Softball
Umpires Association
is recruiting new umpird
for 2003.
No experience needed,
$ 10*20 per hour, your schedule
Contact Mike Littlejohn
776-5062
bvsua.org for more info
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