Facts & Figures

Counted Out. General Electric, two of its subsidiaries and three officials were fined a total of $56,000 by a U.S. district court for conspiring to control world markets in hard-metal alloys during the '30s (TIME, Oct. 18). The court turned down a recommendation of six-month jail terms for two officials "because of their distinguished services to the Government during the war."

Barnbuster. In its next-to-final count, the Department of Agriculture estimated that this year's corn crop would reach 3,649,510,000 bushels--82 million more than was estimated a month ago, 320 million more than the first forecast this year. 12% more than the record crop of 1946. Improvements in other crops in dicated that this year's total farm production would also exceed the 1946 high by a barnbusting 11%.

Stocked Up. Business inventories rose $800 million in September--more than a seasonal gain--to a record high of $53.3 billion, the Department of Commerce reported. But the Department still did not think inventories dangerously high.

Trade Taper. Despite mounting EGA shipments, U.S. exports dropped in September for the third straight month to $926,500,000, the lowest point in nearly two years, and $496,400,000 below their postwar peak. Imports were down also, to $558,200,000.

On the Surface. Penman Milton Reynolds came up from the murky underwater world of ball-point pens with an eyecatching new gadget. It was a transparent plastic cigarette lighter with an oversize load of fluid--enough, he said, for 8,304 lights v. 842 for an ordinary lighter. Reynolds said that he has advance orders for 250,000 (including 50,000 for Gimbels), and that subcontractors, already producing 18,000 a day, would soon step up production to 70,000. The price, with the plastic stand and case: $5. So that customers will not associate the lighter with his much-panned pen, Reynolds will distribute the lighter through a new company, Video Lighter Corp.

Molasses in January. In the largest deal of its kind in history, Publicker Industries, Inc. contracted to buy the remaining 1948 crop of Cuban molasses--between 80 million and 100 million gallons. The supply, valued at more than $15 million at current prices, will help Publicker keep its position as the No. 1 producer of industrial alcohol. Said one company official: it will also eliminate "any possibility of an anti-freeze shortage this year."

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