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Pepsi Bottling Group Inc. announced plans to cut nearly 1,000 jobs amid a $150 million cost-cutting effort that comes at the same time the soda bottler cut its fiscal-year earnings forecast because of dollar's recent gains and higher interest costs.

The world's biggest bottler of PepsiCo products also announced a planned $412 million write-down of its Mexican operations, primarily the Electropura water business, because of weaker-than-expected results.

Corning Inc. lowered its forecasts for the fourth quarter and withdrew its guidance for 2009 amid declining demand for glass used in flat-panel televisions and computer screens.

Demand for Corning's liquid-crystal-display glass has dropped "more precipitously than we expected just a few weeks ago," said Financial Officer James Flaws. Panel makers, especially in Taiwan, have continued to cut capacity in response to weaker sales of flat-screen TVs and desktop monitors, he said.

Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. and Alpha Natural Resources Inc., citing the economic environment and other concerns, terminated their $10 billion merger pact under which Cliffs would have acquired Alpha to create one of the largest U.S. mining companies.

The decision comes as metals prices have plunged.

TOKYO -- Highlighting its urgent need for operating cash, General Motors Corp. said Monday it sold its remaining 3% stake in Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp. on the open Tokyo stock market for about $230 million.

GM said the move was "based on a mutual agreement," while the Japanese compact-car maker said it was mindful of GM's need to secure funds as it reels from a slump in auto sales in its major markets and high operating costs.

WASHINGTON -- Auto-parts makers are requesting access to the government's $700 billion financial-industry rescue fund, and Democratic lawmakers are planning tough conditions -- including a government oversight board -- on a proposed aid package for Detroit's troubled auto companies.

Democratic lawmakers Monday plan to unveil a bill that would give the Big Three auto makers access to the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program set up in October to help ailing banks and other financial firms. As written, the legislation wouldn't include auto-parts makers.

Retail Hiring Weakens With Economy

By Ylan Q. Mui and V. Dion Haynes
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, November 17, 2008; A01

This is the time of year when retail jobs are supposed to be as plentiful as holiday cheer, when stores gear up for the Christmas rush by filling their sales floors with college students, moonlighters and anyone else looking to shore up their income.

But no one is feeling very jolly this year.

As if the market weren't doing enough damage to your 401(k) retirement plan, your employer might be hurting it, too.

Last month, General Motors announced that it would suspend its company matches to employee contributions to 401(k) plans. Frontier Airlines and Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group have followed suit in recent weeks.

By Charles Morris
Sunday, November 16, 2008; B04

Virtually all of America's financial and political artillery has been dragooned into the great task of heading off a recession. This is exactly the wrong way to go. As painful as it will be in the short run, a recession is just what we need.

Our economic model is broken, and trying to restart it will just dig us deeper into a hole. The massive changes that are required can be made only through the violent rejiggering that takes place during recessions. That may sound coldhearted, but there's a precedent.

SEC, Federal Reserve, CFTC Pledge to Work Together on Regulating Derivatives

By Heather Landy
Special to The Washington Post
Saturday, November 15, 2008; D03

Market regulators agreed yesterday to collaborate on the oversight of credit default swaps, the insurance-like derivative contracts that got American International Group into trouble, and said that at least one clearinghouse for the swaps would be in place by year's end.

Government officials had been pressing Wall Street to develop a central clearinghouse that would become a party to every trade and take on the risk of each contract, helping to absorb any losses stemming from a failure of a major dealer of credit default swaps.

WASHINGTON -- South Korea sees no need to tap the International Monetary Fund for funding, a senior official from the country's finance ministry said Saturday.

Speaking to foreign press following the conclusion of the Group of 20's first summit in Washington, Shin Je-Yoon, deputy minister for international affairs, said that asking IMF for aid was still a stigma in the Asian nation, which was given an IMF bailout during a financial crisis in the late 1990s.