News stories from Sunday December 5, 1976

Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:

Pessimism about whether the Carter administration could cut the unemployment rate to 6.5 percent by the end of 1977, which is one of President-elect Carter's goals, was expressed in a television interview by Bert Lance, director-designate of the Office of Management and Budget. He said that it was "almost a certainty" that Mr. Carter would recommend a tax cut in an effort to spur the economy. [New York Times] Whether the blanket pardon President-elect Carter has promised Vietnam War draft evaders will be broadened has not been decided, Mr. Carter told reporters after leaving church in Plains, Ga. "We're trying to decide how to word the pardon," Mr. Carter said, adding that action on the pardons would be taken during his first week as president. [New York Times] With unanimity, which has been rare, not one of the 12 members of the Conference Board's Economic Forum predicted a renewal of the recession next year, despite an apparent uncertainty among the public and businessmen. The coming year will bring a modest but steady expansion in the nation's economy, with slightly lower rates of both inflation and unemployment, the Conference Board's economists, who have a national standing, said. [New York Times] The search for the Loch Ness monster begun by an American-led expedition last summer has ended. The legendary inhabitant of the Scottish lake failed to show up on any of the 108,000 pictures taken underwater. The searchers were said to be disappointed, but not discouraged. [New York Times] Euphoria reigned for a while in the credit markets last Friday, but, as in most euphoric situations, there was a letdown as the Federal Reserve drained some reserves from the banking system. Another strong advance in fixed-income prices pushed short-term interest rates to their lowest levels in more than four years before the setback. [New York Times] Japan's toughest election in recent years took away the majority the governing Liberal-Democratic Party had had in the lower house of Parliament since the party -- a coalition of conservative factions -- was established 21 years ago. Definite results from today's election show that the Liberal-Democrats won only 248 of the 508 decided seats in the expanded 511-seat house. Independents and a new group held the balance of power. It would have needed 271 for full control of the house and its committees. [New York Times] The appliance industry, which got off to a fast start early this year, has been shutting down operations in a number of states to allow swelling inventories to shrink. In such situations workers feel the impact, and this is one of the factors in the increase to 8.1 percent in the jobless rate in November. [New York Times] France's conservative Gaullist bloc was transformed into a new mass anti-leftist movement by Jacques Chirac, the former Prime Minister, who was elected leader of the new group, whose name is Assembly for the Republic. The transformation took place at a rally at the Port de Versailles fairgrounds near Paris, which was attended by 50,000 people from all over France. [New York Times] Italy's Prime Minister, Giulio Andreotti, has started a trip to the United States to ask for financial aid and to assure the incoming Carter administration of his ability to deal with his country's economic crisis and the growing power of the Communist Party. [New York Times] The Spanish Socialist Workers Party held its first congress in Spain since the Franco forces broke it up. The meeting in Madrid was attended by prominent European socialists, including Willy Brandt of West Germany and Olof Palme of Sweden. [New York Times] The British government must, before Christmas at the latest, decide how and where to cut at least $1.65 billion from public spending to get a new $3.9 billion line of credit from the International Monetary Fund. The loan is needed to satisfy the government's previous debts and to pay for its chronic balance of payments deficits. Thus, cuts in public spending will be made, perhaps at the risk of losing the goodwill of the labor movement. [New York Times]