BUSINESS BRIEFS
Flight attendant union seeks help
Advertiser Staff and News Services
Mesa Air Group Inc. flight attendants asked a federal mediator to join negotiations with the carrier, saying six months of talks with Mesa haven't been productive.
The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA represents about 1,000 workers at Phoenix-based Mesa, a regional airline that makes flights for US Airways Group Inc., Delta Air Lines Inc. and UAL Corp.'s United Airlines. The union contract also covers attendants at Mesa's Freedom and go! units.
WEAKER GLOBAL GROWTH FORECAST
The University of Hawai'i's Economic Research Organization issued a report saying global economic growth will weaken next year because of slowing in the United States.
UHERO is projecting real gross world product growth will slip to 3.3 percent from the expected 3.8 percent this year.
It said the U.S. economy is slowing because of its weakening housing sector, with real gross domestic product growth expected at 2.5 percent next year. That's a decline from the 3.3 percent projected for 2006 as a whole.
ACADIA HEALTH PLANS GROWTH
Acadia Healthcare, the operator of a 35-bed adolescent residential treatment center in Hilo and other facilities in the U.S., said it plans to double the company's size within the next year.
The Atlanta-based company acquired the Pu'ukamalu facility in Hilo in September with plans to renovate and expand it.
U.S. DELEGATION PRESSURES CHINA
BEIJING — U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke yesterday called on China to liberalize its currency, protect intellectual property, save less and spend more at the close of a two-day trip meant to address economic irritants between the Asian giant and the United States.
The seniority and size of the U.S. team, which included six other Cabinet secretaries and the U.S. Trade Representative, was impressive, but apparently not enough to exact many concessions from the Chinese. The trip comes at a time of growing concern in Congress and among Americans over record trade deficits and widespread patent and copyright infringement.
LEHMAN PREDICTS A STRONGER YEN
NEW YORK — The yen is undervalued by at least 10 percent on average and will rally next year because the Bank of Japan will lift interest rates, according to a forecast by Leh-man Brothers Holdings Inc.
The yen has fallen against 14 of the 16 most active currencies this year as Japanese investors sought higher returns overseas. At 0.25 percent, Japan's benchmark lending rate is 5 percentage points lower than the Federal Reserve's target and 3.25 percentage points below that of the 12-nation euro-area.
