FEDERAL CASH BUDGET was in the black for the first time since the Korean war as the books closed this week for fiscal 1954. The cash budget consists of daily expenditures and the money actually taken in (including social-security payments). The administrative budget, which is the Government's planned income and outgo, is still $3.2 billion in the red. This deficit is expected to drop to $2.9 billion next year and the cash budget is again expected to balance.

TV PRICE JUMP of 10% to 20% will come before the end of the year because of rising costs, predicts Emerson Radio & Phonograph President Benjamin Abrams. Emerson will raise 1955 model prices within 60 days.

WORLD RECOVERY, as gauged by foreign gold and dollar reserves, is pushing ahead steadily, says the U.S. Commerce Department. In 1954's first quarter, foreign nations boosted their gold and dollar holdings to a record postwar high of $23.5 billion, $2.2 billion higher than 1953 and a whopping $8 billion better than 1949.

TIDELANDS SULPHUR has been found off Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico. Humble Oil has struck a deposit 2,500 ft. down, six miles off Grand Isle. It will drill 20 test holes in the next two years, then possibly team up with a sulphur company to mine the deposit.

MIDGET Crosley cars, which went out of production in 1952, will soon be produced in Israel for the European market. General Tire & Rubber Co., which bought control of Crosley, has made a deal to give Crosley's equipment to Israel's Abena Investment & Development Co. in exchange for a half-interest in the Israeli company. Machinery will be moved from Marion, Ind. to Tel Aviv. Abena will use cheap (about $3 a day) labor to turn out a $1,000 car.

AIRLINE PILOTS' STRIKE is being threatened over the Civil Aeronautics Board rule increasing maximum flight time in a given day from eight to ten hours so that airlines can make nonstop transcontinental runs in all weather. The Air Line Pilots Association (A.F.L.) has sent out strike ballots to 3,500 pilots (one-third of the airline total) flying for American, United and Trans World Airlines, says that its members are flying the long runs only "under threat of discharge." THREE-WAY MERGER of American Woolen Co., Textron Inc. and Bachmann Uxbridge Worsted Corp.

has fallen through. Textron, which recently bought 45% (445,000 shares) of American Woolen's stock, blocked the merger because it felt the price of buying Bachmann Uxbridge was too high.

SPAIN'S IBERIA AIRLINES will start the first Madrid-to-New York service by a Spanish airline in August. Iberia, Spain's only overseas line, which has just taken delivery on the first of three Lockheed Super Constellations--to be called the Pinta, Nina and Santa Maria--will begin thrice-weekly service on Aug. 3, the same date Columbus set out for the new world 462 years ago.

RFC's BIGGEST HOLDING of railroad bonds, a $65 million block of Baltimore & Ohio, has been unloaded. Investment bankers Glore, Forgan & Co. took $60 million worth and the remaining $5,000,000 went to the B. & O. itself. On the RFC's complete deal with B. & O., which has cost the agency $210 million in various loans and carrying charges, the agency has now got back $179 million, for a technical loss of $31 million. However, RFC has also collected $69 million in interest on its loans to B. & O. over the years, thus actually winds up with a net profit on the deal of $38 million.

FIRST SKYRAY off Douglas Aircraft Co.'s production line has been handed over to the Navy. The bat-winged jet interceptor (F4D), whose experimental prototype flew 753 m.p.h., is the Navy's first truly supersonic combat plane.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.