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An estimated 36.3 million people watched this year's Academy Awards, an increase of more than 4 million from last year's least-watched Oscars ceremony ever.

While ABC was heartened by the larger audience, especially among younger viewers, there are still only two Oscar telecasts on record with fewer viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Last year, when "No Country For Old Men" won best picture, the telecast was seen by 32 million people. The 2003 telecast, with "Chicago" as the best picture winner, was seen by 33 million people.

Hugh Jackman was the host of Sunday's show, where "Slumdog Millionaire" was the big winner. Among the earlier awards on the telecast was the late Heath Ledger's best supporting actor prize for "The Dark Knight."

At a time that the TV audience is fragmenting, Sunday's audience was the biggest for any prime-time entertainment program in two years, ABC said. The Golden Globes was seen last month by just under 15 million people.
The largest Oscars audience on record was in 1998, when 55.2 million watched "Titanic" win best picture.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - President Barack Obama has decided to launch a government task force for restructuring the struggling U.S. auto industry instead of naming a "car czar" with sweeping powers, a senior administration official said Sunday.

Obama is appointing Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner as his "designee" for overseeing auto bailout loans and as co-head of the new high-level panel together with White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers, the official said.

But Obama, who took office on Jan. 20 and last week won congressional approval of a $787 billion economic stimulus program, has dropped the idea of having a single appointee empowered to handle the politically sensitive task of revamping America's once-mighty auto sector.

"There is no 'car czar,"' the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

There was no immediate word on when or how Obama, due to return to Washington on Monday after spending the long Presidents Day holiday weekend back home in Chicago, planned to unveil his strategy for dealing with the auto crisis.

But General Motors Corp (nyse: GM - news - people ) and Chrysler LLC, are required to submit new turnaround plans by Tuesday showing how they can be made viable after receiving $13.4 billion in emergency aid in the final weeks of the Bush administration.

Wall Street rose modestly in light post-holiday trading Friday, but was still cautious about embarking on a year-end rally following dreary preliminary readings on holiday spending.

Not surprisingly, Americans spent much less on gifts this season than they did last year, according to SpendingPulse, a division of MasterCard Advisors. Retail sales dropped between 5.5 percent and 8 percent compared with last year, the data showed, or between 2 percent and 4 percent after stripping out auto and gas sales.

Personal consumption is a huge part of U.S. economic activity - comprising more than two-thirds of gross domestic product - so Wall Street is nervous that a more frugal consumer could keep the economy weak in 2009.

Investors did get a some good news on Christmas Eve, when the Federal Reserve allowed GMAC Financial Services - the finance arm of struggling Detroit automaker General Motors Corp. - to become a bank holding company and thus qualify for the government's $700 billion rescue fund. Analysts had said that without financial help, GMAC might have had to file for bankruptcy protection or shut down

But so far, with just four trading days left in the year, no news has been upbeat enough to spark a year-end rally on Wall Street. December is usually a strong month for the stock market, with a flurry of trading known as a "Santa Claus rally" often seen in the month's final week.

In early trading, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 40.54, or 0.48 percent, to 8,509.02.

Broader stock indicators also advanced. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 4.18, or 0.48 percent, to 872.33, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 3.98, or 0.26 percent, to 1,528.88.

Trading volumes are expected to be extremely low on Friday as they were earlier this week. When trading is light, stock movements are often not indicative of broader market sentiment. Friday is also likely to be a quiet day of trading because there are no major economic or corporate reports scheduled.

It's been a whirlwind year for Pantech Wireless. The Atlanta-based subsidiary of South Korean cellphone maker Pantech Group has released six phones in the last 12 months, including four in the last quarter. AT&T is promoting two of the handsets in TV spots as ideal holiday gifts. Patrick Beattie, Pantech Wireless' vice president of marketing and sales, says the company has never been busier.

While wireless giants like Nokia (nyse: NOK - news - people ) and Samsung slash their forecasts, Pantech Wireless, also known as PWI, is counting on its portfolio of slim, reasonably priced cellphones and its close ties with AT&T (nyse: T - news - people ) to help it grow in 2009.

Beattie says PWI's focus on stylish phones that mostly sell for $80 or less should boost its prospects in the current downturn. "We think our value is really resonating with customers in the U.S.," he adds.

Parent Pantech has a long and storied history in wireless. Following its founding in 1991, it says it created the world's first CDMA phone in 1994 and the first fingerprint-recognition phone in 2004. In its home market of South Korea, Pantech is the No. 3 cellphone maker, after Samsung and LG. In 2007, Pantech Group had revenues of $1.7 billion and sold 7.5 million Pantech-branded phones. It operates eight regional subsidiaries worldwide, in Beijing; Mumbai, India; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; St. Petersburg, Russia; and Sao Paulo, Brazil, among other cities.

PWI has sold products in the U.S. since the 1990s, but didn't target the market seriously until 2006, Beattie says.

Industry observers say PWI is taking the right steps, but remains a small player. Ramon Llamas, a senior research analyst at IDC, says Pantech ranks around No. 25 globally in handset sales, on par with Japan's Casio Hitachi. (IDC's figures, however, don't include the contract manufacturing work Pantech does for other brands.)

At the end of third-quarter 2008, PWI had just under 1% of the U.S. cellphone market, according to IDC. Beattie declined to give market share numbers, but said both PWI's and Pantech's sales figures had improved over the past two years.

To break out in the U.S., PWI must work closely with operators, says IDC's Llamas. "Distribution is the name of the game. It's great to be part of AT&T, but they should try to get in with more national carriers," he says. He is enthusiastic about PWI's Matrix and Slate phones, which have full Qwerty keyboards, noting that Americans are quickly snapping up messaging phones.

Whether it's milking venomous spiders or picking up roadkill, the secret to career fulfillment is not to follow your passions, but to chase your opportunities.

Mike Rowe

I've been thinking about the first time I castrated a lamb with my teeth. (It's a real job, I swear.) I was anxious, and judging by the sounds coming from the lamb, I wasn't the only one. He was propped up on the fence rail, pinned in place by a cheerful rancher named Albert, who was holding the animal's legs apart for my convenience. The blood in Albert's mustache was still wet from his demonstration moments before, and he spoke in a way that reminded me of the directions on a bottle of shampoo. "Grab scrotum. Cut tip. Expose testicles. Bend over. Bite down. Snap your head back. Spit testicles into bucket. Rinse and Repeat."

It wasn't the first time I found myself cocking my head like an Irish Setter, wondering if I'd somehow misheard the instruction. (Spit testicles in bucket? Really?) I had assumed the same expression a few months earlier, when a jovial bridge worker explained that I would be walking up a skinny suspension cable 600 feet in the air to change a light bulb over The Straits of Mackinac, which connect Lake Michigan to Lake Huron. Likewise, when the happy-go-lucky Shark Suit Tester casually informed me that I would be leaping into the middle of a feeding frenzy to "field-test" the efficacy of his "bite-proof shark suit."

I didn't create my show on the Discovery Channel, Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe, to get myself killed or scare myself half to death. I created it to show that there are hundreds of ways to make a living that no one was talking about. After four years and 200 dirty jobs, I'm no longer surprised by the variety of opportunities out there. What does surprise me is the fact that everybody I've met on this gig--with the possible exception of the lamb--seems to be having a ball.

It's true. People with dirty jobs are in on some sort of a joke. Maggot farmers are ecstatic. Leech wranglers are exultant. I've personally witnessed lumberjacks and roadkill picker-uppers whistling while they work. And don't even get me started on the crab-fishermen, spider-venom collectors and chicken-sexers--they're having such a blast they've sworn off vacation. So why are people with dirty jobs having more fun than the rest of us?

The answer, (aside from the fact that they're still employed) is because they are blissfully sheltered from the worst advice in the world. I refer, of course, to those preposterous platitudes lining the hallways of corporate America, extolling virtues like "Teamwork," "Determination" and "Efficiency." You've seen them--saccharine-sweet pieces of schmaltzy sentiment, oozing down from snow capped mountains, crashing waterfalls and impossible rainbows. In particular, I'm thinking of a specific piece of nonsense that implores in earnest italics, to always, always ... Follow Your Passion!

In the long history of inspirational pabulum, "follow your passion" has got to be the worst. Even if this drivel were confined to the borders of the cheap plastic frames that typically surround it, I'd condemn the whole sentiment as dangerous, not because it's cliché, but because so many people believe it. Over and over, people love to talk about the passion that guided them to happiness. When I left high school--confused and unsure of everything--my guidance counselor assured me that it would all work out, if I could just muster the courage to follow my dreams. My Scoutmaster said to trust my gut. And my pastor advised me to listen to my heart. What a crock.

Why do we do this? Why do we tell our kids--and ourselves--that following some form of desire is the key to job satisfaction? If I've learned anything from this show, it's the folly of looking for a job that completely satisfies a "true purpose." In fact, the happiest people I've met over the last few years have not followed their passion at all--they have instead brought it with them.

General Motors, an icon of American manufacturing and the world's largest automaker, yesterday threw itself at the mercy of Congress, saying it needed $4 billion to avert a cash crisis by the end of the month and as much as $18 billion in federal loans over the next year.

GM and its U.S. rivals Chrysler and Ford all pleaded for government loans, promising in return to use the opportunity to slash costs, jettison brands, restructure their finances and speed the introduction of fuel-efficient vehicles widely considered crucial to their future.

Together the three auto giants sought at least $28 billion and as much as $38 billion in government assistance, more than the $25 billion they requested just two weeks ago. Battered by the lowest car sales in a quarter century and tight credit conditions, the companies said they needed the money just to survive the next year.

"There is no plan B," said Fritz Henderson, GM's president and chief operating officer.

It was a humble moment for the three auto behemoths, which once were synonymous with American ingenuity and industrial might. Over the past three decades, they have lost ground to more agile foreign rivals that favored smaller cars built by non-unionized labor at lower wages.

This year the combination of high fuel prices and the paralysis in the credit markets has brought the U.S. companies to the brink. Chrysler yesterday sought $7 billion by the end of the month. Ford, which is in stronger financial condition, asked Congress to set aside as much as $13 billion to help the company if the economic downturn deepens.

The companies presented their plans yesterday, a deadline set by Congress, but there was no guarantee that wary lawmakers would agree to pump taxpayer money into firms that might not be financially viable.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said yesterday that Congress would not adopt a loan package for the automakers unless the ailing giants presented "a new business model, a new business plan" that was "worthy of the support that the taxpayers will invest in it."

But she also said that "bankruptcy is not an option" and predicted that either Congress or the Bush administration would intervene to prevent a collapse of the industry. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters he expects to call the Senate back into session early next week with the aim of passing a bill by next Friday.

The chief executives of the three companies all seemed mindful of the drubbing they took two weeks ago when they sought taxpayer assistance. Excoriated for traveling by corporate jets to testify in Washington, all said they would make the 500-mile return trip by car this week for the new round of hearings. Ford and GM even said they would part with the aircraft permanently.

Ford chief executive Alan R. Mulally and GM chief executive G. Richard Wagoner Jr. also offered to cut their salaries to $1 a year if the government provides aid. Chrysler already pays chief executive Robert L. Nardelli that sum in salary. GM said it would also roll back other executives' pay.

The magnitude of the crisis, as portrayed by the companies, is daunting. Though the three companies described a dire situation two weeks ago, the situation seems even more grave now. GM said will need $12 billion by late March to keep operating. If the recession drags on, it might ultimately need up to $18 billion.

Unemployment in the 15 nations that share the euro shot up to 7.7 percent in October - the highest level in two years - as growth dropped sharply, the EU statistics agency Eurostat said Friday.

Prices also plunged with the annual inflation rate sinking to 2.1 percent in November from 3.2 percent in October, Eurostat said. Lower inflation gives the European Central Bank more room to reduce interest rates, which would help stoke growth.

The euro area officially went into a recession in spring and summer this year when growth shrank in the second and third quarters, as a financial crisis curbed global demand.

In real terms, this means job losses - lots of them and more to come.

Eurostat said some 225,000 more people were seeking work in October from the previous month. That means some 12 million people in the euro area were out of work last month. It also said unemployment in September was worse than it had first estimated, revising the rate upward to 7.6 percent from the 7.5 percent it reported last month.

Across all the EU's 27 states, some 17 million people were job-hunting in October, 290,000 more than a month earlier. The EU jobless rate was 7.1 percent in October, up from 7 percent in September.

The EU's executive Commission forecasts that the labor market will get even worse next year, with the euro-zone rate climbing to 8.4 percent in 2009 from a decade-low of 7 percent at the end of 2007. This will see an extra 2 million people out of work.

Shares of several ethanol players climbed Wednesday on talk of pending consolidation in the industry.

Privately held Poet LLC, the nation's top ethanol producer, said this week that it was talking with other companies about possible buyouts. The Sioux Falls, S.D., firm did not identify the companies it is looking at.

And VeraSun Energy Corp., the nation's No. 2 producer, said it had received an unsolicited takeover bid one month after seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

VeraSun shares gained a penny to 8 cents in over-the-counter trading.

Aventine Renewable Energy Holdings Inc. gained 16 cents, or 23.2 percent, to 85 cents in afternoon trading. Verenium Corp. was up 6 cents, or 10.5 percent, to 69 cents, and Pacific Ethanol Inc. rose 5 cents, or 8.6 percent, to 63 cents. BioFuel Energy Corp. gained a penny to 40 cents.

Meanwhile, shares of The Andersons Inc. fell 21 percent Wednesday after the ethanol, railroad and fertilizer company lowered its 2008 earnings estimate. Piper Jaffray analyst Michael E. Cox cut his rating on The Andersons to "Neutral" from "Buy," but the company's revision was based on fertilizer price volatility not its ethanol operations.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly says there's a slight increase in bank robberies around New York City this year. But he says it's not because of the economy -- it's because banks are lax on security.

Kelly says he plans to meet with the New York Bankers Association next week and will set up meetings with major banks around the city to discuss how to better secure the institutions.

Kelly says the majority of the robberies occur when an unarmed suspect hands a note to a teller, who then hands over cash.

He says robberies can be curbed with common sense practices -- like ensuring security cameras are focused and setting up more secure barriers between the tellers and the public.