AIRLINE SAFETY in the U.S. is nudging perfection. Civil Aeronautics Board Safety Investigations Director W. K. Andrews reported that the scheduled airlines flew some 21 billion passenger miles last year with only 16 deaths, thus set a record low fatality rate of only .08 deaths per 100 million passenger miles.

RAPID RISE IN CREDIT will bring no tightening in the Federal Reserve rediscount rate until late April or May. Reason: U.S. Treasury within the next fortnight must borrow up to $3,500,000,000 on short-term notes. To boost the rediscount rate now would cost the Treasury millions in added interest.

PRIEST RAPIDS power project, first test of Eisenhower's "partnership" policy, cleared its last big hurdle when the Washington state legislature approved long-term sale of its surplus power to private utilities. The dam will be built by the Grant County Public Utility Districts and financed by a bond issue. The $361 million, 1,000,000 kw. Columbia River project will be one of the largest in the U.S. Scheduled completion date: summer of 1961.

PORK PRICES this summer are expected to be almost one-third under last year's because of a big drop in wholesale hog prices. Reasons: housewives balked at high prices in 1954, got out of the pork-buying habit; meanwhile 1955 hog production will run about 10% higher than in 1954.

GENERAL MOTORS raised nearly $325 million when stockholders bought 98.5% of the 4,380,683 new shares the company offered them at $75 a share (recent market price: 96 7/8). Stockholders could buy one new share for every 20 held or sell their rights to another purchaser. Morgan Stanley & Co., which headed the underwriting syndicate, bought the 66,427 unwanted shares.

CIVILIAN-AIRPLANE ORDERS, usually obscured by the aircraft industry's defense orders, are breaking all records. One measure of the volume of business from commercial aviation: Douglas Aircraft Co. is selling DC-6s and DC-7s at the rate of $90 million monthly, highest in its history. A customer placing his order now for a DC-7 would not get delivery before June 1957.

NEW FIAT will soon be put on the European market to compete with Volkswagen and Renault. To replace the famed Topolino as its smallest and cheapest car (TIME, Oct. 18), Fiat is rolling out the "Popolare." The boxy, four-passenger, 21.5-h.p. lightweight (1,234 lbs.) car is tagged at $944 before taxes in Rome, v. $1,090 for the Topolino. Current production of the Popolare: 400 a day.

BALLPOINT PENS will be tested by the Post Office Department to replace the scratchy, ink-spilling nib pens. The department has shipped out 20,000 Scriptos, will chain them to desks in 17 cities, e.g., Chicago, Atlanta, St. Louis, use no chains in Boston, Pittsburgh, Detroit. Whether post offices adopt ballpoints depends on 1) how the pens stand up, 2) how many are stolen.

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