The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • E1

CYANMAGYELBLK TennesseanBroadsheet Master TennesseanBroadsheet Master 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 5 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 5 TennesseanBroadsheet Master TennesseanBroadsheet Master 5 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 5 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 1E BUSINESS SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2005 Assistant Managing Editor Business: Deborah W. Fisher, 664-2156; Assistant Business Editor: Randy McClain, 259-8882; To report business news: Phone: 259-8096 Fax: 259-8093 www.tennessean.com HEAL TH CARE TELEVISION ECONOMY HURRICANE KA TRINA ERIC PARSONS STAFF Federal Reserve Governor Mark Olson was mum about oil prices, Hurricane Katrina and the economy ahead of Fed meeting during a speech at Middle Tennessee State annual economic outlook conference. Two economists at the event said they expect the Fed to raise interest rates. By TERRY BOX Knight Ridder News Service DALLAS Consumers on the battered Gulf Coast will need to buy at least 250,000 used cars and trucks as the area begins to recover and the demand will probably push up prices. The number of cars needed could go even higher.

In a worst-case scenario, the National Automobile Dealers Association estimates that of all registered vehicles in Louisiana and Mississippi were destroyed in the hurricane or flooding about 466,000 vehicles. Either way, the need to replace private cars and trucks as well as demand for work and fleet vehicles is expected to boost used-vehicle sales to a new national record of 44.1 million cars and trucks this year. But used-car prices could start to go up by the end of September and stay high through November, industry officials say. The average supply of vehicles in the United States has been tightening since the first of the year as the economy improves and was at 46.19 days in July. to where the dealers will find cars to sell to people on the Gulf Coast, the $64,000 said Jack Durham, executive director of the Texas Independent Automobile Dealers Association.

going to be pressure to pull vehicles out of Texas, and with 200,000 refugees here, going to have some demand in Texas. The market will kind of go crazy for a Car dealers rely heavily on auctions for their supply of used cars and trucks. at auction already seem a little said Sonny Morgan, chairman of the New Car Dealers Association of Metropolitan Dallas and managing partner of John Eagle Lincoln Mercury in Dallas and Aston Martin of Dallas. had a heck of a good used-car month in July and August. You put that with the demand for cars from Katrina, Demand for used cars may boost prices Residents soon will begin shopping for an estimated 250,000 cars to replace those damaged by Katrina.

By GETAHN WARD StaffWriter A from Hurricane Katrina should lower U.S. economic growth and raise prices, but economists at an annual economic outlook conference here yesterday said the impact should be only temporary. going to have high energy prices, a little bit more Atlanta economist Donald Ratajczak said at the Middle Tennessee State University conference. inflation is going to be a little bit higher, but not seriously higher and I still feel good about the overall David Penn, director of Business and Economic Research Center, expect a large effect from Katrina except for a spike in consumer prices through next month related to higher energy costs. Locally, higher energy prices, more cautious consumers and a slowdown in mortgage refinancing have contributed to slower growth in employment, taxable sales and housing construction, he said.

Monthly job growth in the Nashville area, for instance, has averaged less than this year and Penn is forecasting growth of roughly 1.4% through next year, a slowdown from an annual average of 1.75% since 2002. Economists upbeat, despite hurricane At a conference in Murfreesboro, experts predicted short-term inflation related to energy costs. Earnings are expected to decline. Charity Hospital doctor says he was frustrated by HCA evacuation. By TODD PACK StaffWriter The floodwaters are receding, but Hurricane Katrina through with HCA Inc.

Analysts say that the deadly financial impact will contribute to lower earnings in coming quarters as the Nashville-based company deals with cleanup and a loss of business at its hospitals along the Gulf Coast. Also yesterday, a doctor with Charity Hospital in New Orleans said he was frustrated with HCA because it do more to evacuate seriously ill patients from Charity, the state-run hospital. HCA, the largest for-profit hospital system, drew national attention in the days after the storm for hiring 20 helicopters to rescue patients and carry supplies to Tulane University Hospital Clinic, which is near the Superdome in downtown New Orleans. HCA owns of the Tulane hospital. The company said it evacuated nearly 200 patients and more than 1,200 employees and family members from the facility.

It also evacuated about 50 patients from nearby Charity Hospital and University Medical Center, both state-run facilities in New Orleans. But while the as best they could to share some resources with us they never thought of the patients I had as their responsibility in any said Dr. Ben deBoisblanc, who ran medical intensive-care unit. DeBoisblanc said yesterday in a phone interview that two Charity patients died while waiting on the Tulane hospital parking garage roof while, in some instances, Tulane hospital employees and their families were evacuated first. were told by HCA to get all these patients on the of the parking garage, which was being used as a helipad, he said.

were there at 8 in the morning. By 8 that night, not a single patient had DeBoisblanc said, was very frustrating to see helicopter after helicopter after helicopter land on that rooftop and not carry my critically ill HCA did the best it could to help, spokesman Jeff Prescott said yesterday. were times that the helicopters that were either sitting on the roof or next in line to land configured to take critically ill who sit upright in the seats, Prescott said. Neither employees nor family members took seats that could have accommo- impact on HCA still unfolding Bass leaving Nashville for Oregon public TV job By RYAN UNDERWOOD StaffWriter Steve Bass, president and CEO of Nashville Public Television, announced yesterday that he will be leaving the station by the end of the year to take over as president of Oregon Public Broadcasting, a statewide network of five public television stations and six public radio stations. current chief operating officer, Beth Curley, who followed Bass to Nashville after working with him in Massachusetts since 1991, will take over role on an interim basis.

currently running much of the day-to-day operation Curley said. terms of the transition, Steve and I will work together over the next couple of weeks for him to hand off projects to me that I may not be up to speed on Bob Shell, a retired Bank of America executive and chairman of board of directors, said the board is scheduled to meet Sept. 28 to discuss whether to launch a national search for a new president or to keep Curley in the position permanently. did an outstanding job leading NPT into a new Shell said. I think Beth Curley has the potential to move the station forward in the direction Steve was already taking Bass came to Nashville in November 1998 from WGBH in Boston and oversaw five-year transition of ownership from Metro Public Schools (as 8) to an independent non-profit organization.

Bass said that while the overall budget for the station has declined slightly from about $6 million per year to about $5.5 million today, its composition has changed dramatically. have gone from having about Markham to manage Union Station Hotel Richard Markham has been appointed general manager of Union Station Hotel, which was recently acquired by Adventura, Turnberry Associates and local partners, the owners of the downtown Hilton. Markham will guide Union Station through a multimillion-dollar renovation. He has experience refurbishing hotels. Markham arrives from Little Rock, where he was general manager of the 418-room downtown Hilton, which was rehabilitated by Memphis- based Peabody Hotel Group in the past five years.

He also was a general manager of The Hermitage Hotel years ago during previous renovations of the historic hotel. RICHARD LAWSON The Morning Memo MARKHAM Dow Jones Industrials 10,641.94 NASDAQ 2160.35 500 1237.91 Bloomberg Tennessee Index 335.12 2004 10,000 9,500 10,500 11,000 ND 2005 FMAMJJAS MOVERS SHAKERS Business Calendar At www.tennessean.com/business MARKETS TOP OF THE NEWS Nintendo shows off simpler controller CHIBA, Japan Nintendo thinks it has the answer for people scared off by all the complex switches and buttons on home video-game controllers a simpler device that looks like a TV remote control and can be waved like a wand or a baseball bat. Nintendo showed off the controller at the Tokyo Game Show, which opened yesterday. thought about how everyone in the family uses the TV remote, but some people want to even touch the game Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said. want to set a new interface standard for Iwata said games must appeal to a wider audience, including novices, if game creators hope to survive, but many people are intimidated by the many buttons now required to play.

The Kyoto-based company has been introducing simpler-to-play games like the Nintendogs virtual-pet game for its Nintendo DS a portable game machine with two screens, including a touch panel. Equipped with a sensor at the end, the new Revolution wireless controller can be used as a virtual bat, sword, fishing rod or racket. In a demonstration video, an elderly couple were pretending to conduct an orchestra, while a younger person appeared to play a musical instrument or fire a gun. ASSOCIATED PRESS PAST 12 MONTHS Russell 2000 Index 671.98 STAT OF THE DAY MOTIVATING WORKERS A TOP PRIORITY Only one of three companies has been successful in motivating employees to understand, be committed to and carry out their business strategy in their daily jobs, according to a survey of 472 organizations worldwide by Right Management Consultants and the International Association of Business Communicators Research Foundation. A total of companies said that aligning their employees to core business strategy is the top goal, but just said been able to do it well.

RANDY MCCLAIN RATAJCZAK BASS CURLEY Please see NPT, 2E LEIGH SINGLETON STAFF Addi ng ewer Employment growth in the Nashville area has averaged less than this year, reflecting softness especially in the manufacturing and construction sectors. One economist forecasts growth of 1.4% in the next year vs. a 1.7% average annual rate since the last U.S. economic recession. SOURCE: Bureau of Labor Business and Economic Research Center 2000 JMMJSNJMMJSNJMMJSNJMMJSNJMMJSNJMMJ 20012002200320042005 0 March 3.2% Aug.

1.5% Jan. Monthly job growth (For the 13-county Nashville Metropolitan Statistical Area) Please see CARS, 2E Please see HCA, 2E Please see ECONOMY, 2E.