SMALL-CAR MARKET is growing so fast (TIME, July 15) that American Motors Corp. will bring back economy-sized (six-cylinder engine, 100-in. wheel base) Rambler in 1958 after four-year lapse. New car will be stablemate for company's more luxurious (108-in. wheel base) Rambler, whose sales so far in 1957 are 35% ahead of last year.

BREWERY BATTLE for industry leadership between Milwaukee's Schlitz (1956 sales: 5,940,000 bbl.) and St. Louis' Anheuser-Busch (5,860,000 bbl.) will soon get hotter. To win back No. 1 spot, Anheuser-Busch will make its first big move into beer-thirsty Southeast by building a major Budweiser brewery (capacity: about 1,000,000 bbl.) on 400-acre site near Tampa.

NEW JETLINER will be built by Boeing Airplane Co. to compete with Convair 880 and French Caravelle in short-to-medium-range market. New Boeing 717 is designed to carry 88 to 130 passengers economically at ranges from 200 to 1,700 miles, will have same 600 m.p.h. cruising speed as bigger transcontinental 707 series. Price: about $3,500,000 v. $5,500,000 for 707. Projected delivery date: mid-1960.

ALUMINUM PRICES will probably jump 4% (to 26-c- a Ib. for pig aluminum) despite decreased demand. Industry blames spiraling costs, including an automatic 7% wage boost on Aug. 1.

OIL FIND is expected to make Washington 30th oil-producing state in U.S. Sunshine Mining Co. has brought in state's first substantial well on Pacific Coast shore, near Hoquiam, reports high-grade oil pumping at rate of 400 bbl. a day.

SpCIAL-SECURITY payments will outstrip collections this year for first time since program was started in 1935. Heavy claims from newly eligible groups (self-employed farmers, disabled persons past 50, women past 62, etc.) will force Government to pay benefits totaling $300 million more than contributions this year, $600 million more than contributions in 1958, $1 billion more in 1959. But bulk of imbalance will be made up by fund's $600 million yearly return on investments.

TREASURY TAX LOSS on fast write-offs for new defense industry will total between $4.3 billion and $4.9 billion by year's end. Though taxes on write-offs for $37.8 billion worth of defense expansion since 1950 will be paid in later years, Treasury will wind up with net loss of $530 million to $601 million if maximum corporate tax rate drops from 52% to 47% next June 30.

SHIPPING TROUBLES are fast knocking U.S. out of its postwar role as world's No. 1 oil tanker operator. To avoid high costs at home, American shipowners register so many new vessels under foreign flags that U.S.-flag fleet now totals only 19% of free world tanker tonnage v. 60% in 1945. U.S. will fall to fourth spot (behind Britain, Norway, Liberia) by 1961 unless trend is reversed.

AUTO INSURANCE RATES are going up to keep abreast of mounting repair costs. Ohio will increase its rates by 12% to 25%, following similar raises this year in 21 states from Massachusetts to California.

EXPORTS TO RED CHINA from Japan are expected to double by 1959. Following lead of Britain, West Germany and other West European nations, Japan lifted strategic embargo on 272 items, including trucks, cars, electric motors, lathes and railroad equipment.

AERIAL TRAFFIC JAM is causing CAB increasing concern. Airmen report 331 near misses in first three months of 1957 alone, an average of more than three a day, involving 5,200 passengers. Most serious worry: 95% of all near collisions came in controlled airspace, often over heavily populated areas.

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