Americans don’t want common currency

While the euro, the currency shared by 12 European countries, is now in everyday use on the continent, support for a similar North American currency is falling, a new poll finds.

Bellevue, Wash.-based Coinstar Inc., in a poll of 1,000 Americans, said the number of people who support a common currency shared by the United States, Canada and Mexico has fallen by 11 percentage points since the last such survey in 2000.

In the new survey, one in three Americans 32 percent still supports the adoption of the common currency, compared to 43 percent two years ago.

Among those favoring it, convenience was the No. 1 factor, with 51 percent saying it would be easier to use in all three nations instead of having to convert U.S. dollars into pesos or Canadian dollars.

The chief reasons for nixing any combined currency were tied to the renewed patriotism in the United States since Sept. 11.

Survey: Workers losing trust in senior management

Worker trust and confidence in senior management have fallen during the past two years, and unless that trend is reversed, it might present a major threat to future corporate competitiveness, according to a soon-to-be released survey of nearly 13,000 workers conducted by Watson Wyatt Worldwide.

Watson Wyatt’s WorkUSA 2002 survey conducted earlier this year found that fewer than two out of five workers, or 39 percent, trust senior leaders at U.S. companies. Moreover, there was a 5 point drop from 2000 to 2002 in both the percentage of workers (45 percent) who say they have confidence in the job being done by senior management and the percentage of workers (63 percent) who believe their companies conduct business with honesty and integrity.

Motley Fool: Name that company

I’m the world’s largest chewing gum company, with such brands on my shelves as Juicy Fruit, Doublemint, Big Red, Extra, Freedent, Orbit and Winterfresh. I was launched in Chicago in 1891 and my founder’s descendants still run me. My founder initially sold soap, and began offering free gum as a bonus to soap buyers. I sell about half the gum in America and also sell in 140 other nations. My market share in Europe tops 80 percent. I’m now developing gums that deliver medicine, such as Surpass, for heartburn. I rake in more than $2 billion per year. Who am I?