A surplus of coins attributed to the softening economy has prompted the U.S. Mint to begin layoffs. Instead of 23 billion new pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters next year, mint officials now believe they’ll need only 15 billion. The mint had already made too many coins during the past year. The mint has begun laying off 357 workers nationwide, including major coin-production plants in Philadelphia and Denver, U.S. Mint spokesman Michael White said Wednesday.
Microsoft Corp. has taken the first step toward building a new corporate campus in Issaquah that eventually could rival the size of its Redmond headquarters a few miles northwest. The software giant has exercised part of its option to buy land at Issaquah Highlands, a 2,200-acre planned community being built on the Sammamish Plateau north of I-90. Microsoft, which purchased an option to buy a total of 150 acres in January 1998, recently paid an undisclosed sum for 37.5 acres, spokeswoman Stacy Drake said Tuesday. Microsoft will “very likely” begin grading next spring for office buildings for as many as 3,000 employees, Drake said.
Shares of beleaguered Enron Corp. plummeted another 28 percent Wednesday even though it reached a critical agreement to extend a $690 million debt payment. Analysts continued to question, however, whether Dynegy Inc.’s planned $8.9 billion acquisition of its larger rival Enron will survive, particularly as some traders are limiting business with Enron because they don’t know if more negative revelations are coming. Enron shares have plunged more than 90 percent over the past several months following the departure of the company’s chief executive and an accounting controversy that eventually caused it to restate its earnings since 1997, eliminating more than $580 million of reported income.
The government is preparing anti-money-laundering rules for the securities industry under the sweeping new law to fight terrorism. And hedge funds for investments by wealthy individuals are coming under new scrutiny as possible vehicles for money laundering by terrorist groups. For those looking to launder illicit money, the speculative hedge funds “are probably one of those places where you can do that most efficiently and anonymously,” Sen. Jon Corzine, D-N.J., the former chairman of Wall Street powerhouse Goldman Sachs &Co., said Wednesday. Corzine wrote a provision in the anti-terror legislation, which President Bush signed into law last month, requiring a government study of hedge funds and their potential use for laundering money.
From Herald news services
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