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World Business Quick Take

■ EDUCATION

Stanford helps undergrads

Attending Stanford University next year will be a lot more affordable for some undergraduate students. The university said on Wednesday it would eliminate tuition for students with annual family incomes totaling less than US$100,000. It will also pay most room and board for students with families making less than US$60,000. Financial aid director Karen Cooper says the move came as middle-income parents expressed concern about paying for a Stanford education. Stanford tuition is expected to rise to US$36,000 in the fall. Room and board will cost about US$11,000. About a third of the university's 6,700 undergraduates are expected to qualify for the tuition break.



■ ECONOMY

Real earnings drop

Inflation-adjusted earnings for average workers have fallen 1.2 percent over the last year, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Wednesday, as higher food and fuel costs have eroded purchasing power. Earnings adjusted for inflation -- also known as real earnings -- have fallen for eight of the last 13 months and were down 0.5 percent last month compared with December, the agency said. "A lot of people have lost a huge amount in their homes, jobs aren't being created at a rapid rate and wages are falling behind inflation," said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a Washington-based research group.



■ OIL

Europe turns to diesel

More than half of all new cars sold in Europe last year had a fuel-saving diesel engine, the European car manufacturers group ACEA said on Wednesday. Higher gas pump prices and diesel engine improvements helped boost sales of diesel-equipped cars to 53 percent of the nearly 15 million cars sold in the EU, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland last year, it said, pointing to greater consumer demand for fuel efficiency. Diesel engines are about 30 percent more efficient than their gasoline counterparts, but emit more small particles responsible for smog.



■ FINANCING

GMAC to cut jobs

GMAC LLC will combine 20 US and Canadian offices into five regional centers and cut about 930 jobs in its auto finance business to cut expenses in the wake of tightening credit markets and heavy losses last year. The job cuts will occur by the end of this year and represent about 15 percent of the workforce in the auto loan business unit. The company, which was once the finance arm of General Motors Corp, said the five regional business centers will be in the Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Pittsburgh and Toronto areas.



■ BANKING

No help for Whistlejacket

Standard Chartered PLC, a UK-based bank that does most of its business in Asia, said on Wednesday it had ditched plans to bail out Whistlejacket, a structured investment vehicle (SIV) it manages but does not actually own. "Standard Chartered is disappointed that it has been unable to find a viable solution to ensure flexibility for Whistlejacket," the company said in a statement. SIVs, which are funded by debt, are struggling because fewer investors want to buy debt securities after the US subprime credit crunch. Standard Chartered shares dipped 2.1 percent to ?15.55 (US$30.33) in London.
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