Business & Technology

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

NPR's business news starts with Microsoft's moves in the news business.

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Imagine going into bankruptcy with billions of dollars in cash still in your bank account. That's what American Airlines did last November. The thinking was that management would gut the company's pensions and union contracts and emerge from bankruptcy ready to compete.

But then US Airways said it could take over American and be profitable, and it wouldn't have to hurt American's employees nearly as bad in the process. American's pilots, mechanics and flight attendants loved that idea.

The state is preparing to spend millions of dollars repaving Interstate 10 in Kenner and the Airport Access Road.

The Times-Picayune reports Barriere Construction Co. this week entered the only bid to overlay the highway between the St. Charles Parish line and Williams Boulevard.

Barriere's bid — almost $4.8 million — came in about $500,000 above the state's Department of Transportation and Development estimate of almost $4.2 million.

Construction usually begins two to four months after bids are opened.

No country has enjoyed more spectacular growth in recent decades than China. But the economy that will one day replace America's as the world's largest also faces a lot of challenges. Guest host David Greene talks to NPR's Frank Langfitt, who was a reporter in China in the '90s and returned to Shanghai for NPR last year.