Boeing's Delayed Liftoff, Madonna’s Greener Pastures

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Boeing delays Dreamliner liftoff

Boeing is pushing back the delivery of its 787 Dreamliner by six months, to at least late November 2008, in an embarrassing setback for the aerospace giant. Boeing blamed the delay on its various worldwide suppliers. The hot-selling fuel-efficient 787 has garnered 710 orders. (The Wall Street Journal) The news sent Boeing stock down 2.7 percent yesterday; shares of rival EADS/Airbus were up 1.1 percent this morning. (MarketWatch) Outside observers were always skeptical of the rollout date, said Bank of America analyst Robert Stallard. “Boeing has now bitten the bullet and accepted that the schedule is beyond them,” he said. (Reuters)

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Madonna heads for greener pastures

Pop icon Madonna is close to leaving her longtime label, Warner Brother Records, for a 10-year, $120 million deal with concert promoter Live Nation, The Wall Street Journal reports. (AP in Forbes.com) Under the proposed deal, Live Nation would release three Madonna albums and get exclusive rights to promote her concerts and market her merchandise. The landmark deal is another sign of blurring lines in the rapidly evolving music industry. “Everything is going to get fuzzy,” said entertainment lawyer Don Passman. “And the reason is the labels are weaker. The barriers to entry in the business are almost gone.” (Los Angeles Times, free registration required)

Chrysler, union reach a deal

Chrysler and the United Auto Workers reached a tentative labor deal, ending a six-hour-old strike by Chrysler's 45,000 UAW employees. (AP in Yahoo! Finance) Chrysler reportedly agreed to spend $11 billion to set up a union-managed health care trust, and the UAW agreed to let Chrysler hire new “non-core” workers at a lower pay level. (Bloomberg) General Motors’ UAW workers ratified a similar labor pact yesterday, with 66 percent approval. The Chrysler strike’s short duration surprised analysts. “Maybe all they needed was to have a lunch break and it just got misconstrued as a strike,” said Edmunds CEO Jeremy Anwyl. (Los Angeles Times, free registration required)

The secret wealth of dentists

It’s a boom time for dentists, but critics contend that the country’s dentally impaired are getting a rotten deal. Most dentists don’t accept Medicaid, and fewer Americans are getting treated than at any time since the late 1980s. Meanwhile, with a steady number of dentists working fewer hours to serve an expanding population, dental rates have risen an inflation-adjusted 25 percent since 1996. An average dentist made $185,000 in 2004, but worked far fewer hours than other medical doctors. “If I had a kid going into the sciences, I’d tell them to become a dentist,” said University of Minnesota economist Morris Kleiner. (The New York Times, free registration required)