United States Industry

The machine-tool industry--the business that makes machines which make other machines--might call it "Fadal Attraction." Fadal Engineering Co., a 33-year-old family-owned business, has bolted out of the blue to almost single-handedly overtake the Japanese in a portion of the market that they dominated for most of the 1980s.

The nearly yearlong deterioration in industrial production slowed in July, raising hopes that the worst may be over for the battered manufacturing sector. Output at the nation's factories, mines and utilities fell 0.1% last month, after a 0.9% drop in June, the Federal Reserve reported Wednesday. July's reduction was the 10th consecutive monthly decline in industrial production. Still, economists were heartened that the latest decline was smaller than the 0.3% drop they were forecasting.

Ten years after Congress declared war on toxic waste, the Environmental Protection Agency is allowing the same companies that created the most dangerous problems to determine the scope of contamination and propose how to clean it up.

The nation's factories slowed last month to their most sluggish pace in nearly 18 years, reflecting a broad manufacturing downturn and raising deeper concerns about the health of the U.S. economy. Figures from the Federal Reserve on Friday showed that the portion of the nation's industrial capacity being put to use fell to 77.4% in May. That's the lowest mark since it stood at 77% in August 1983, during the Reagan administration. In a related report, the Fed said production at U.S.

His touch is lost, the one that built parts for Galileo's flight to Jupiter, the one that knows instantly when a spacecraft rod is off by a thousandth of an inch--one-third the thickness of a piece of paper. Until recently, machinist Antonio M. Fonseca worked in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's "back shop" by feel, with what he calls a craftsman's touch. But today he picks up a spacecraft beam and his instinct escapes him. He can't think in inches anymore.

American manufacturers--written off by many commentators in the 1970s and '80s as dinosaurs doomed to succumb to Japanese and other foreign rivals--have staged a remarkable comeback, reviving American competitiveness in many industries. Xerox Corp. has halved the cost of producing a copier, and has steadily increased its share of the U.S. market since the mid-1980s. General Electric Co.'s exports have grown more than 20%, to $6 billion, in the past two years. Cummins Engine Co.

Phlebitis keeps him in a wheelchair. The prostate cancer he suffered for years has metastasized to his lungs, tethering him at all times to an oxygen tank. He wears hearing aids in both ears. And his alertness? Well, it often slips these days, as might be expected of any 93-year-old. He is a shriveled version of his once towering, 6-foot, barrel-chested presence. Yet W.

Despite the dire warnings of the Bush Administration and business lobbying groups, many of America's biggest private employers say that passage of the civil rights legislation pending in Congress would not force them to adopt hiring quotas for minorities.

After a four-year study on new technologies, the government has concluded that the next two decades will be a time of massive change in which virtually every U.S. product, service and job will be reshaped. The study by the congressional Office of Technology Assessment, released Saturday, said Americans in the 21st Century should enjoy longer, more productive lives than any preceding generation.

The government's main forecasting gauge for the economy stalled and building activity barely edged higher in August, the Commerce Department said Tuesday, raising fears that the sputtering recovery could run out of gas. A separate private report on manufacturing, which accounts for about one-fifth of all economic activity, showed that the industrial sector again expanded in September, but that the pace of improvement may be losing steam.

A trade battle is shaping up over a law that lets U.S. companies pocket tens of millions of dollars in fines that the government collects from foreign competitors. Foreign governments say the law violates trade agreements and they have started proceedings against the United States in the World Trade Organization. If they win, they could cripple U.S. companies' ability to compete abroad by imposing duties of their own on U.S. goods.

The expected defection of Sen. James M. Jeffords of Vermont from the Republican Party could markedly affect the drug, HMO, defense, credit card and tobacco industries, money managers and investment analysts said Wednesday. "I don't see any upside for the [stock] market.

U.S. manufacturing declined in March for the eighth straight month. But the rate of decline has slowed, and the overall economy appears to be growing modestly, the National Assn. of Purchasing Management said Monday. The association's index of business activity rose last month to 43.1 from 41.9 in February. A reading above 50 signifies growth in manufacturing, whereas a figure below 50 shows contraction.

The symptoms are ominous. The pulse of business is slow, orders are feeble. The stock market suffers from fits and fevers. And yet "it doesn't feel like a recession," says longtime investment banker Eric Lomas after visits to companies across the U.S. For the vast majority of businesses, finances are healthy, unsold inventories are moderate and companies are responding quickly to the slowdown.

Winter has always meant fat paychecks for Juan Carlos Gonzales. That's the height of masa season at his local food processing job, where line workers can expect plenty of overtime preparing the rich, corn-based dough used in holiday tamales. No longer. Saddled with rising costs and slowing sales, Gonzales' employer, Industry-based El Burrito Mexican Food Products Inc., hired temporary employees to work the extra hours this season.

Early this year, local manufacturers such as furniture maker Larry Parnell were focused on tight labor supplies and rising wages--byproducts of a bustling economy. Then came higher interest rates, a flood of cheap imports and an energy shock that has fouled production and sent power bills soaring. Add Wall Street turmoil that has shaken consumer confidence to the core. Suddenly, it's as though someone hit the off switch on the nation's growth machine.

The Council on Economic Priorities, a nonprofit group that publishes the popular consumer guide "Shopping for a Better World," has named some of America's best-known companies to a list of the nation's eight worst corporate environmental offenders. Rockwell International, General Electric, General Motors, Maxxam Group, Du Pont, Georgia-Pacific, USX and Cargill make up the council's list of environmental culprits.

A "revolutionary" right-to-know law that requires manufacturing firms throughout the country to disclose each year the hazardous chemicals they released into the environment went into effect Friday, launching a new era of environmental regulation inspired by the 1984 Bhopal disaster.

When George W. Bush moves into the White House, thousands of rules that govern everything from the energy your dishwasher uses to the labels on your clothes are likely to be overhauled in ways that favor powerful industries and anger consumer groups. When it comes to setting policy for the 54 federal agencies that regulate health, the environment, labor standards, energy use and safety on the roads, rails, waters and in the air, Bush has made no secret of his pro-business leanings.

The Clinton administration will issue a new rule today to make it harder for companies that have violated labor, tax or other federal laws to win government contracts, the Office of Management and Budget said Tuesday. The regulation, dubbed the "blacklisting" rule by industry critics, will take effect Jan. 19, one day before President Clinton's administration turns over the White House to Republican President-elect George W. Bush.