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The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday it is investigating a possible link between Merck’s best-selling Singulair and suicide.

FDA said it is reviewing a handful of reports involving mood changes, suicidal behavior and suicide in patients who have taken the popular allergy and asthma drug.

Merck (MRK, Fortune 500) has updated the drug’s labeling four times in the past year to include information on a range of reported side effects: tremors, anxiousness, depression and suicidal behavior.

FDA said it asked the Whitehouse, N.J.-based company to dig deeper into its data on Singulair for evidence of possible links to suicide. The agency said it has not established a "causal relationship" between Merck’s drug and suicidal behavior. An agency spokeswoman said the review was prompted by three to four suicide reports it received since last October.

It could take up to nine months before agency scientists can draw any conclusions, FDA said in a posting to its Web site.

The agency recently began notifying the public earlier about possible safety issues. The policy change came after the FDA was criticized for acting too slowly on information about the risks of Merck’s painkiller Vioxx and, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) plc’s diabetes pill Avandia.

Merck officials stressed that the FDA’s inquiry is based on reports, not clinical studies — which are the standard tool for evaluating drug safety. The company said none of the 11,000 patients enrolled in 40 Singulair trials has committed suicide.

"We have no indication that anything about the mechanism of Singulair is consistent with these events," said George Philip, director of research and product development 500 fast cash. "But because suicide is a life-threatening event we thought it was important to provide this information in the product label."

Merck said it recently added reports of suicide to Singulair’s label, which already listed suicidal thinking and behavior as reported side effects.

In clinical trials of asthma patients, the most common side effects were headache, flu, abdominal pain and cough.

With sales of $4.3 billion last year, Singulair is used by millions of patients in the United States, according to Merck. First approved in 1998, it’s part of a class of asthma and allergy drugs that includes AstraZeneca’s Accolate and Critical Therapeutics’s Zyflo.

FDA said it is also reviewing reports of side effects with those drugs. Their labeling does not contain language about suicide.

"Patients should not stop taking Singulair before talking to their doctor," FDA said in its statement, adding that doctors should monitor patients for suicidal behavior and mood changes.

Shares of Merck & Co. Inc. fell 16 cents to $44.54 in afternoon trading. 

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Thanks to the weakened dollar, the United States has leapfrogged France, Britain and other European countries as a cheaper place to do business.

A new study released Thursday by the auditing and consulting firm KPMG shows that the United States moved up on the list of most cost-efficient places around the world. Researchers compared 136 cities in 10 countries in North America, Europe and Asia, but did not include fast-growing China.

Mark MacDonald, the global director of KPMG Competitive Alternatives, said the survey authors found the United States to be more cost competitive than they’d ever seen because of the plunging dollar.

The weak dollar means overseas companies, like automakers, get more bang for their buck.

The United States was ranked No. 1 for affordability among automakers, up from sixth just two years ago, MacDonald said.

The euro and the yen are stretching further now than they did two years ago, driving down the cost of everything from labor and transportation to the cost of energy used to power factories.

In 2006, the United States ranked seventh, and lagged behind several other G7 countries. This year, with the dollar at record lows against the euro, only Mexico and Canada were cheaper. The United States is now cheaper than Britain, the Netherlands, Italy and France.

"It makes the U.S. a relatively more attractive place to do business," MacDonald said.

The dollar has also hit 12-year lows against the yen this month.

"Currency change was a central theme in this year’s study," study co-author Glenn Mair said on a conference call.

Mair, director of MMK Consulting Inc., said the double-digit gains in the value of the Canadian dollar, Australian dollar, British pound and other currencies when compared to the dollar had shifted the competitiveness equation.

Mexico still a bargain. Mexico, which is new to the study, was cheapest overall $500 payday loan. It was added to incorporate a major trading country that is a party to the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The study is done every two years, and the 2008 survey was the seventh KPMG has done.

Among the larger cities, the cheapest cities in which to operate were Puebla, Guadalajara and Monterrey, all in Mexico. In the United States, the cheapest places were Atlanta, Tampa, Fla., and the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

The San Francisco Bay Area - which includes Silicon Valley and San Jose - was the most expensive in the nation, edging out New York for that dubious distinction. London, Frankfurt and Manchester, England, were all more expensive than San Francisco.

Paris was slightly less expensive than New York.

The study measured competitiveness using labor costs, taxes, real estate and utilities, as well as non-monetary factors. It studied 17 industries in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Britain and all 50 states in the United States. Those were all compared against a benchmark developed by taking the average cost of doing business in U.S. locations. 

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One of Chrysler LLC’s top engineers left the company Tuesday because of a dispute with senior managers, a person with knowledge of the situation said Tuesday.

Mike Donoughe was leading the company’s effort to develop a new generation of global midsize cars. The person said Donoughe clashed with Peter Arnell, a marketing consultant hired by Chrysler Chairman and Chief Executive Bob Nardelli. The person asked not to be named because Chrysler wasn’t publicizing the reason for Donoughe’s departure.

Chrysler spokesman David Barnas confirmed Donoughe left the company but wouldn’t say whether he resigned or was fired.

"Chrysler denies that the departure had anything to do with a clash with management or with Peter Arnell," the company said in a statement.

Donoughe, 49, joined Chrysler in 1983 as a product development engineer for final drive and transmission systems. Before heading the midsize car team, Donoughe was vice president of body-on-frame products, including sport/utility vehicles and pickups.

Nardelli announced in January that Chrysler was starting the new midsize car development team fast payday loans. The team is critical to the company, which needs strong products in the highly competitive segment that includes the Toyota Camry, Chevrolet Malibu and Honda Accord.

Two of Chrysler’s most recent midsize entries, the Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Avenger, have been flops, and a midsize sedan that can appeal to global consumers is important to Chrysler’s goal of doubling its sales outside North America by 2012.

Barnas said Mark Chernoby will replace Donoughe as vice president and chief engineer for Chrysler’s midsize product team. James Issner will replace Chernoby as vice president of core components, process and international engineering. Issner will also oversee Chrysler’s expanded engineering centers in China, India, Eastern Europe and Mexico 

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The U.S. Justice Department has begun a criminal investigation into whether aluminum maker Alcoa Inc. participated in bribery in the Persian Gulf state of Bahrain.

In documents filed Thursday in U.S. District Court, federal prosecutors asked a judge to halt a federal civil lawsuit that accused Pittsburgh-based Alcoa (AA, Fortune 500) of bribing officials through overseas shell companies to secure hundreds of millions of dollars in overpayments.

"The United States has a direct and substantial interest in this case, as the subject matter giving rise to this case is also the subject of an ongoing federal criminal investigation," prosecutors in the Justice Department’s fraud section said in court filings.

Aluminum Bahrain B.S.C., also known as Alba, in which the Bahrain government holds a 77 percent stake, is seeking more than $1 billion in damages from Alcoa and other affiliated defendants, according to a federal lawsuit filed last month.

"The Alba complaint alleges numerous facts which, if true, could be relevant to the government’s criminal investigation and a potential criminal trial," prosecutors said in court filings.

"As the criminal investigation arises out of the same facts and circumstances on which the claims in this civil action are based, the determination of potential liability against possible subjects of the investigation, particularly if they are charged with crimes as a result of the investigation, will turn on the same essential factual questions at issue in this civil action," the government said.

Alba, a 30-year Alcoa customer, and Alcoa do not object to the government’s request to temporarily halt the civil proceedings, according to court documents.

"We were approached and asked and we agreed to the stay," Alcoa spokesman Kevin Lowery told The Associated Press early Friday. "We obviously are going to cooperate fully cashadvance.com. We see this as an opportunity to see a speedy resolution to the entire matter."

A Justice Department spokesman did not immediately reply to an e-mail seeking comment early Friday.

Alba, which operates one of the world’s largest aluminum smelters, also sued Alcoa World Alumina LLC, a global joint venture 60 percent owned by Alcoa and 40 percent owned by Australia’s Alumina Ltd. The lawsuit also named William Rice, an Alcoa World Alumina executive, and Victor Dahdaleh, a Canadian citizen who has acted as an agent for Alcoa and Alcoa World Alumina.

After being contacted by Alba about the allegations, Alcoa offered to conduct a full review of its dealings with Alba over the past 20 years, but Alba chose to sue, Lowery said in February.

A "very fast review" done by Alcoa found nothing that deviated from standard practices, which prohibit improper activity by the company’s employees, partners and contractors, Lowery said.

The company wasn’t aware of any wrongdoing and would "vigorously defend" the lawsuit, he said.

Alba, which buys most of its alumina - a material used to make aluminum - from Alcoa and its affiliated companies, alleged the defendants bribed one or more former senior officials of Alba and the Bahrain government to persuade the company to cede a controlling interest in the company to Alcoa and to pay inflated prices for alumina.

The scheme began in 1993 and is ongoing, but was not found out until last year, the lawsuit claimed. The lawsuit also alleged the bribes were sent through a series of shell companies the defendants ultimately controlled.

Alcoa, the world’s third-largest aluminum producer, reported 2007 revenue of $30.75 billion, an all-time record. 

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29

Percentage of U.S. workers who say they have become very sleepy or fallen asleep at work in the last month, according to a survey conducted by the National Sleep Foundation, online at www.sleepfoundation.org/

12

Percentage of workers who say they have arrived late at work in the last month because of sleepiness

43

Percentage of workers with more than one job who say they get a good night’s sleep only a "few times" a month or less

50 million

Number of Americans who suffer from chronic sleep problems and disorders

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Hungarian policy makers voted 8-4 last month to keep the key interest rate unchanged, opting to fight inflation by letting the forint strengthen, minutes from the meeting show.

Policy makers, led by central bank President Andras Simor, have kept the benchmark two-week deposit rate at 7.5 percent since September. Rate setters on Feb. 25 also discussed raising the rate to 7.75 percent. A decision to remove currency trading limits was backed by 11 rate setters, with one dissention.

The central bank then allowed the forint to trade freely for the first time ever, betting that it will strengthen against the dollar and the euro, helping to keep inflation in check. Food and oil price `shocks' spreading in the economy may trigger a rate increase, the bank said.

“The Monetary Council is ready to tighten monetary policy to prevent second-round inflation shocks which would be unfavorable to the medium-term inflation outlook,'' the bank said.

The forint strengthened to 257.35 per euro by 3:11 p.m creditreports. in Budapest from 258.14 late yesterday. The yield on the benchmark five-year bond fell to 8.62 percent from 8.73 percent.

Inflation risks rose “greatly'' in recent months, driven by food and oil price increases, the bank said today. There was no evidence that these rising prices led to second-round inflation effects, council members said.

Budget Cuts

Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany raised taxes and cut subsidies to rein in the widest budget deficit in the European Union. The measures slowed economic growth to an annual 0.8 percent in the fourth quarter, the lowest rate in 11 years.

Slowing economic and wage growth, both effects of the austerity measures, could tame inflation, the bank said. The growth outlook, however, has “significantly'' worsened as a result, monetary council members noted.

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Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are expected to get further financial leeway from the government, enabling the mortgage-finance companies to expand their roles in the stricken housing market.

The federal regulator that oversees Fannie (FNM) and Freddie (FRE, Fortune 500) has been discussing with them an arrangement in which the cash cushion they are required to maintain - now nearly $20 billion for the two - could be reduced, several people familiar with the matter said Monday. Under a deal that could be announced as soon as this week, the freed-up money would be put into buying mortgages of struggling borrowers so they could refinance into more affordable loans, these people said.

The people spoke on condition of anonymity because the move by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight has not yet been finalized. The momentum toward an agreement was reported online Monday by The Wall Street Journal. Influential Democrats in Congress have been pushing such a plan.

The brewing arrangement would be the third step the government has taken in recent weeks to allow Fannie and Freddie to shoulder larger burdens in the mortgage market despite multibillion-dollar fourth-quarter losses and expectations of further red ink in 2008.

The $168 billion economic stimulus package enacted last month included a temporary increase in the cap on mortgages that the companies can purchase or guarantee, from $417,000 to $729,750 in high-cost markets free credit report .com. And, as a reward for filing timely financial statements following multibillion-dollar accounting scandals, Fannie and Freddie were freed on March 1 of a combined $1.5 trillion cap on their mortgage-investment holdings.

Walter Schmidt, senior vice president at FTN Financial Capital Markets in Chicago, said that if the capital constraints were lifted, it would solidify investors’ sense that the government is taking concrete steps to fix the mortgage market’s woes.

But even if the capital constraints on Fannie and Freddie are eased, the companies still would face the difficult task of raising additional funds. Fannie and Freddie, which together hold or guarantee around $4.9 trillion in home-loan debt, have had difficulty lining up buyers for their mortgage-linked securities amid plunging home prices and rising foreclosures.

Fannie’s CEO Daniel Mudd on Monday held a previously scheduled meeting with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

In after-hours trading, shares of Fannie rose 54 cents to $22.75, while Freddie stock gained 38 cents to $21 after both closed lower in regular trading Monday. The shares have touched fresh 52-week lows recently as the companies have been buffeted by losses from the mortgage crisis. 

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The Bush administration will "do what its takes" to stabilize chaotic markets and minimize the economic damage, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Sunday after a tumultuous week capped by the government rescue of a teetering investment bank.

All eyes now are on Wall Street as leading financial advisers prepared for a Monday meeting with President Bush and the Federal Reserve weighs another deep interest rate cut Tuesday to stem even more deterioration.

Paulson, in a series of news show appearances, defended the Federal Reserve’s extraordinary step Friday to provide emergency financing to one of Wall Street’s most venerable firms, Bear Stearns Cos. The central bank’s intervention was "the right decision," he said.

The treasury chief sidestepped questions about what would have happened if the Fed had not ridden to the rescue, whether other firms are on shaky ground and the possibility of additional bailouts similar to Bear Stearns’.

At the same time, however, Paulson sought to send a calming message that the administration is on top of the turbulent situation. "The government is prepared to do what it takes to maintain the stability of our financial system," he said. "That’s our priority."

Bear Stearns talks continue

Bush planned to meet on Monday with his advisory panel on financial markets, whose members include Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke. The panel on Thursday recommended stricter regulation of mortgage lenders as part of a broad effort to prevent a repeat of a credit crisis threatening to drive the country into the first recession since 2001.

Consultations about the Bear Stearns situation continued through the weekend and involved the Treasury Department, the Fed, financial institutions and others. "I’ve been very involved, you know, been on the phone for a couple days right now helping to work through this," Paulson said. He offered no details.

Economists increasingly believe the spreading fallout from a severe credit crisis has pushed the country into recession. The situation has led to record-high home foreclosures, forced financial companies to take multibillion losses from bad mortgage-linked investments and rocked Wall Street.

"No one is debating the fact that this economy has slowed way down," Paulson said. "We feel it, we know it, the American people know it."

To help shore things up, the Fed is poised to make a big cut to its key interest rate, now at 3 percent. Some economists are predicting a reduction of one-half a percentage point, while others are calling for a more hefty cut of three-quarters to a full percentage point.

The Fed used a Depression-era procedure to come to Bear Stearns’ aid along with JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM, Fortune 500) Bear Stearns had made a fortune in mortgage-backed securities but faced a possible collapse after those investments soured. Wall Street nose-dived as fears spread about whether other big firms were in jeopardy.

"I really support the Fed’s work here," Paulson said during one of his three broadcast appearances. "To me, this was not difficult because the priority in a time like this has got to be the stability of our financial system and minimizing the likelihood that this disruption spills over into the real economy.

‘Aware of moral hazard’

Some critics contend the Fed’s move was akin to a government bailout - something the administration has repeatedly said it is against.

"We’re very aware of moral hazard," Paulson said cash advance. "But our primary concern right now - my primary concern - is the stability of our financial system, the orderliness of the markets. And that’s where our focus is," he said.

The financial system, he said, is "more fragile than we would like right now."

Asked whether other financial companies may be in a situation similar to Bear Stearns’, Paulson did not directly answer. He did seek to strike a confident tone. "Well, our financial institutions, our banks and investments banks are very strong," he said. "And I’m convinced that they’re going to come out of this situation very strong."

The government will tackle any other problems that may arise, he said.

"From the beginning I have said, as we work through this period, if this was like other times in the past, there are going to be bumps in the road. There are going to be unpleasant surprises. You are going to find that an institution or so has problems. And when they do have problems, you work to deal with it," Paulson said.

Bear Stearns (BSC, Fortune 500) is one of four big players on Wall Street set to report first-quarter earnings this week: Bear on Monday; Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS, Fortune 500) and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (LEH, Fortune 500) on Tuesday; and Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500) on Wednesday.

Next steps for the economy

On other matters, Paulson was cool to the need for additional economic stimulus, which congressional Democrats are promoting. A recently enacted aid plan includes tax rebates for people and tax breaks for businesses. Paulson said it should help bolster the economy and produce 500,000 to 600,000 jobs this year.

To Democrats, though, Bush is not doing enough to help.

"We’re in the most serious economic problem we’ve been in in a very long time, much worse than 2001. The president’s hands-off attitude is reminiscent of Herbert Hoover in 1929, in 1930," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. "There are lots of things that can be done, particularly on housing. Housing has been the bull’s eye of this crisis."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said, "Much of what the administration has done has been too late."

On the plunging value of the U.S. dollar, Paulson stuck to the position of past treasury chiefs when he said a strong dollar is in the national interest. The dollar has dropped to a new low against the euro and a fallen sharply against the Japanese yen. That helps sales of U.S. exports to foreign buyers because it makes U.S. goods less expensive. But the drooping dollar increases inflationary pressures.

Paulson appeared on ABC’s "This Week," "Fox News Sunday" and "Late Edition" on CNN. Schumer was on Fox and Pelosi on ABC. 

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Faced with a raging credit crisis and an economy that may be mired in recession, the U.S. Federal Reserve looks set to cut interest rates sharply on Tuesday in a bid to avert a possibly severe downturn.

The scenario confronting the central bank is a thankless one: the threat of a deep recession comes even as inflation licks at the economy’s heels. And no-one seems especially happy.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is undergoing a “trashing … by people who think the Bernanke Fed has eased too much, and those who think it has eased too little,” said Ethan Harris, an economist at Lehman Brothers.

Bernanke and his colleagues have already lowered benchmark overnight rates by a cumulative 2-1/4 percentage points to 3 percent since mid-September. Tuesday’s meeting comes exactly six months to the day from when they began chopping rates.

Forecasters, however, have turned increasingly gloomy on the economy in the past few weeks after a second monthly drop in employment, further signs of a consumer retrenchment and a financial crisis that led the Fed to throw a lifeline to Bear Stearns, the fifth-largest investment bank, on Friday.

In February, San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President Janet Yellen warned a “negative feedback loop” could ensnare the economy 24 hour payday advances. That fear may have been realized.

“Conditions have the potential to supercharge the increasingly visible self-feeding downturn in the real economy,” Citigroup economist Robert DiClemente said.

Now, the only question seems to be the degree to which lingering inflation worries temper the central bank’s move. 

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Southwest Airlines grounded 41 planes overnight - about 8% of its fleet - in the wake of its recent admission that it had missed required inspections of some planes for structural cracks.

The move announced Wednesday comes as Southwest faces a $10.2 million civil penalty for continuing to fly nearly 50 planes after the airline told regulators that it had missed required inspections of the planes.

The Federal Aviation Administration, which announced the penalty last week, has also come under fire for failing to immediately ground the Southwest jets when it learned they had not been inspected for cracks in the fuselage.

Southwest spokeswoman Christi Day said Wednesday that the move to ground 41 planes resulted in some flights being canceled, although she didn’t have a precise figure.

The company said it had 520 Boeing 737 jets at the end of last year. Nearly 200 of them are older models, the Boeing 737-300, that were supposed to undergo extra inspections for cracks in the fuselage.

Southwest Chief Executive Gary Kelly had said Tuesday he was concerned by findings from an internal investigation into the missed inspections first cash advance. He announced that the Dallas-based company had placed three employees on paid leave while it investigated the situation.

Acting FAA Administrator Robert A. Sturgell called the events "a twofold breakdown in the aviation system" - first, Southwest’s failure to properly inspect its planes; and the FAA’s failure to ground the jets as "at least one FAA inspector looked the other way."

The $10.2 million penalty is the largest the FAA has ever imposed on a carrier. Southwest (LUV, Fortune 500) has said it will appeal.

Its shares fell 51 cents, or 4.1%, to $11.89 in afternoon trading on Wednesday. That is near the lower end of their 52-week range of $11.02 to $16.96. 

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