News stories from Sunday May 14, 1978
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Interest rates will rise higher in the near future, many money market economists are warning. With the economy strong, money supply mushrooming and credit demand exploding, some market analysts have concluded that the credit markets are moving toward tough times, "Pressures in the financial markets building to frightening proportions," one of the analysts said. [New York Times]
- The brunt of recent electric rate increases is being borne by large industrial and commercial customers, while residential users are dealt with more lightly, according to a survey of the nation's 24 largest electric utilities. "This pattern of weighting rate increases heavily against industrial and large commercial users has been evident for the past several years and indicates the degree to which state public service commissions have appeased consumer lobby groups," said Sarkis Soultanian, executive vice president of the National Utility Service, a consulting concern based in New York and San Francisco. From December 1976 to last March, industrial and commercial electric rates were increased 19.1 percent, while in the same period residential rates went up 12.8 percent, the study said. [New York Times]
- Doctors lead the professions in money earned, but office expenses and malpractice insurance absorb a substantial portion of their income. The median net income of physicians in 1976 was $62,800, or about twice the median income of lawyers and dentists, the Council on Wage and Price Stability said recently. And income of $100,000 or more is not unusual among doctors. "I used to think that someone who made $100,000 a year would be on easy street, with a dream house on top of the hill," said a 33-year-old ophthalmologist who made nearly $100,000 last year in his first full year in practice. "Now we have a house and a new Chevy, but $100,000 doesn't seem like so much anymore." His bills for professional expenses, including office and malpractice insurance, totaled almost $62,000. [New York Times]
- William Lear, inventor and developer of the Lear jet, the private plane of many corporations, died of leukemia in Reno. He was 75 years old. Among his inventions were the auto radio, the automatic aircraft pilot and the eight-track stereo cartridge. [New York Times]
- Relations are strained between some of New York City's most influential blacks and the Koch administration, with Dr. Blanche Bernstein, the Human Resources Administrator, getting most of the criticism. The blacks charge Dr. Bernstein with "cultural myopia" -- of being so much a captive to her middle-class background that she cannot understand the problems of the city's poor, most of whom are black and Puerto Rican. Dr. Bernstein denies the charges of insensitivity or that there is growing tension between blacks and Jews in her agency. Nevertheless, her critics are getting more militant. She has been accused of "firing all the major black administrators while keeping the white administrators." [New York Times]
- Rhodesia's governing coalition remains intact after Bishop Abel Muzorewa's party decided not to withdraw over the controversial dismissal of a minister belonging to their group. The decision followed what was said to have been a stormy meeting that ended three weeks of debate. Bishop Muzorewa appeared troubled and close to tears as he led the 70 members of his party's national executive council from their headquarters in Salisbury. However, David Mukome, spokesman for the party, the United African National Council, sharply criticized the other partners in the coalition. [New York Times]
- Zaire's southern province of Shaba, formerly Katanga, was being attacked, the Zaire government said, by Communist-backed Katangan rebels from Angola who entered the country through Zambia. President Mobutu Sese Seko said, according to the official news agency AZAP, that 4,000 former Katangan soldiers started their attack Thursday night in the copper town of Kolwezi and that they were backed by the Soviet Union, Cuba, Algeria and Libya. The agency said the President was preparing to order a general mobilization and had appealed for help from several countries, including the United States. [New York Times]
- France's growing involvement in Chad's civil war has highlighted its role as a potential gendarme in its former African colonies and once again raised the thorny issue of foreign intervention in Africa. France has about 10,000 troops on the continent and Reunion island in the Indian Ocean. This force is second in size among non-Africans only to that of Cuba, which has about 35,000 troops in Angola and Ethiopia. [New York Times]
- A national referendum In Egypt was called for next week by President Anwar Sadat, who is disturbed by criticism of his domestic policies and is seeking a vote of confidence. A vote in his favor would have the effect of purging his most troublesome critics from politics. Mr. Sadat's most vocal critics are the leftists and members of the New Wafd Party. The referendum will ask Egyptians whether Communists, certain pre-revolutionary politicians and pro-Soviet leaders should be allowed to keep positions of influence in and out of the government. Mr. Sadat did not appear to be trying to suppress the opposing parties. [New York Times]