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The financial aptitude of most young people across the U.S. appears to be on the decline.

The Federal Reserve says high school seniors, on average, answered correctly only 48 percent of questions about personal finance and economics. That’s based on a nationwide survey released by the Fed and lower than the 52 percent in the 2006 survey in 2006 http://us-fast-cash-now.com. It also is the worst score out of the six surveys conducted so far.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said young people must increase their financial know-how so they make good decisions about money throughout their lives.

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The Oregon Public Utility Commission on Tuesday reduced electric rates by roughly 6 percent for Portland General Electric's residential and small-farm customers.

The adjustment, which will take effect April 15, will drop the bill of the average residential customer roughly $5.80 per month, according to a news release from the commission.

The rate relief comes on the behalf of regional power wholesaler Bonneville Power Administration.

BPA in February unveiled a plan to reduce the rates it charges regional utilities such as PGE (NYSE: POR) http://us-no-fax-payday-loans.com. The proposal was a response to a U.S. Court of Appeals decision last May that said BPA had erred in its distribution of cheap power from the region's 31 federal hydroelectric dams.

"We will continue to make a case for Oregon to equitably share the benefits of the low-cost federal hydro system," Commission Chairman Lee Beyer said in a news release. "In the meantime, we are pleased to be able to reduce rates at this time."

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US Airways Group Inc. said Monday it will reduce main-line capacity 3 to 4 percent in the second half of the year.

The airline, the dominant carrier at Pittsburgh International Airport, cites high fuel prices.

"While demand has remained strong, given high fuel prices, we are taking proactive steps by reducing main-line capacity when compared to 2007," says Scott Kirby, president.

The carrier didn't disclose which flights would be effected payday loans in 1 hour.

In March, US Airways' main-line capacity fell 2.7 percent to 6.38 billion available seat miles from 6.56 billion in March 2007.

Arizona-based US Airways (NYSE:LCC) operates 3,800 flights per day in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America.

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European Central Bank governing council member Axel Weber said the impact of the global credit squeeze on the euro-area economy has been limited.

Even though “we don't see an end to the U.S. housing crisis, the impact on German and European growth has been limited,'' Weber said in Ljubljana, Slovenia, today.

Weber, who also heads Germany's Bundesbank, said he doesn't share the International Monetary Fund's “pessimistic'' outlook for the German economy. The IMF cut its forecast for 2008 expansion there to 1.4 percent from 1.5 percent cash advances.

“These would be very much at the lower end of our own projections,'' Weber said. He said first-quarter growth in Europe's largest economy was “strong,'' fuelled by strong orders and a rebound in construction.

He said he sees “no reason'' to revise the Bundesbank's prediction for a 1.9 percent economic expansion.

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Shareholders of BEA Systems Inc. approved its acquisition by Oracle Corp. during a special meeting Friday.

The deal must still be cleared by the European Commission and is subject to other closing conditions.

On Thursday Redwood City-based Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) priced a $5 billion sale of notes to help fund the purchase easy payday loans.

San Jose-based software maker BEA (NASDAQ:BEAS) said about 99.9 percent of the shares entitled to vote and present at the special meeting were voted to adopt the merger, accounting for about 68.6 percent of outstanding shares.

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European Central Bank Governing Council member Klaus Liebscher said he still expects euro-region inflation to slow toward the end of the year, even after it reached an “alarmingly high'' rate last month.

“We will certainly see this elevated level for some time,'' Liebscher told reporters today at an event in Dornbirn, Austria. “But I still expect that we'll see a slowing in inflation toward year-end.''

The ECB has held interest rates at a six-year high to fight inflation, which accelerated to 3.5 percent in March, the fastest pace in almost 16 years. While some council members including Germany's Axel Weber have said rates may need to rise if wages are adjusted for faster inflation, others have noted that slowing economic growth may damp price pressures.

The International Monetary Fund, in a background paper obtained by Bloomberg News yesterday, said the ECB has room to cut interest rates as economic growth slows “sharply.'' The Washington-based fund expects the 15-nation euro-region economy to expand 1.3 percent this year, the weakest pace since 2003, as the U.S. housing slump pushes up borrowing costs globally.

European business and consumer confidence declined in March and growth in manufacturing and service industries slowed creditreport.

Slight Deterioration

“The economic outlook has deteriorated slightly,'' said Liebscher, who also heads Austria's central bank. Still, “there is no reason for pessimism.''

The Frankfurt-based central bank last month reduced its forecasts for euro-region economic growth this year to about 1.7 percent from 2 percent. It also raised its 2008 inflation forecast to about 2.9 percent, which would be the highest annual rate since 1993, according to IMF figures. The ECB aims to keep annual gains in consumer prices just below 2 percent.

Crude oil prices have increased 60 percent in the past year, reaching an all-time high of $111.80 a barrel on March 17.

Liebscher said the ECB needs to “do everything to keep inflation expectations from building up.'' Still, inflation has “temporarily climbed to unpleasantly high levels'' and policy makers “don't have a pre-committed opinion'' on interest rates, he said.

The ECB will next decide on rates on April 10.

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Pacific Business News was named Hawaii’s best nondaily newspaper for the fifth year in a row by the Hawaii Publishers Association.

The award was announced Tuesday at the annual Pai awards luncheon, where more than 100 awards were presented to newspapers, magazines and visitor publications. The awards were given for work published in 2007.

In naming PBN the best nondaily newspaper, the judges described PBN as "clearly a must-have publication if you’re doing business in Honolulu."

"PBN covers it all - from the decline in the number of Japanese weddings to the transfer of wealth to smaller, rural Hawaiian towns," the judges continued free credit report.com. "Tremendous breadth of coverage of business news, and plenty of depth and enterprise as well. I also liked the range of commentary. Design is crisp, with appropriate font choices and sizes throughout the publication, and nice use of graphics. An excellent publication."

PBN’s Book of Lists received a second place award in the directory category.

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