If you just look at what Alaska Air Group's top executives drew in salary last year, their compensation was relatively modest by corporate standards.

Alaska CEO Bill Ayer was paid $360,000 in salary. Horizon Air President Jeff Pinneo earned $237,000. Alaska Air Group owns both Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air, for instance.

But when you look at total compensation including stock awards, incentive plan compensation, the value of perks such as travel, club dues and automobiles, their totals increase significantly.

Ayer's total compensation was $1.921 million. Pinneo was paid $798,493. Chief financial officer Brad Tilden got $894,410. Kevin Finan, executive vice president for operations received $997,063, and executive vice president for marketing and planning Gregg Saretsky was paid a total of $1 million.

The Alaska executive team, has kept the airlines out of bankruptcy, a feat only a couple of other airlines have achieved in recent years, and they've seen the company's stock rise from the mid-teens to over $40 a share.

ShareBuilder (an online brokerage) this week released results of a poll taken by Harris Interactive on how women go about investing.
Among the results:

• Only 40% of women say they have a financial game plan.
• Women are more than twice as likely as men to say “they don’t understand the language” involved with stock investing (23% vs. 10%).
• 23% of women choose not to contribute anything toward retirement – vs. 10% of men.
• While only 39% of women under 30 describe themselves as knowledgeable about investing, the figure jumps to 54% for women 51-60.
• Dining out is the biggest spending category for both men and women, and it’s also where they are least likely to cut back when saving more for retirement.
• 40% of both women and men say they carry no credit card debt.
• Most couples talk about their finances in the kitchen, followed by on the computer, then in the bedroom and finally outside of the home.
• For women who watch Grey’s Anatomy, 44% see their financial persona in Addison – trying but not always succeeding.

Perhaps we need to look harder inside the carnival for a new metaphor to describe the economy. In his latest (and always perspicacious) Pacific Northwest Economic Update, Union Bank of California Senior Economist Keitaro Matsuda writes of the "economic rollercoaster" our economy has lately taken.

Bumper cars or the Octopus might work, if the housing market takes a tumble, but it looks like we're in for a continued soft recovery. The Fun House may be too optimistic. But with what goes up about to go down, and vice versa, and everything a circle after all, maybe it's a ride on the Ferris Wheel.

At any rate....Matsuda said unemployment growth will slow from 2.1% in 2007 to 1.6% in 2008. Personal income growth will likewise decline, from 6.5% this year to 5.6% next year. The leisure and hospitality service sector saw the fastest job growth in Oregon between February last year and this year, while the Evergreen State marked a best-performing 8.1% growth in the information and communication sector – with software publishing leading the way.

“With the housing market slowdown, employment growth in the Pacific Northwest will be a little slower in 2007 than last year,” Matsuda said, “though we expect the region to beat the national average again.”

The coming deceleration will be modest, he continued, “compared with the economic rollercoaster rides” the region experienced in the past.

Alaska Air Group, the SeaTac-based parent company of Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air, today said it expects to show a first quarter loss when it reports financial results later this month.

The company didn't quantify what it expects to lose in filings with the federal Security and Exchange Commission.

The airline holding company's first quarter typically is a losing quarter because its traffic to its tourist destinations in Alaska and throughout the West are lowest in the winter.

Wall Street analysts polled by Zacks Investment Services predicted that the company will lose from 8 to 47 cents a share in the first quarter. The average of those analyst ratings was a 25 cent per share loss.

While the company saw its traffic increase during the first quarter, its capacity grew faster than the increase in the number of passengers.

Americans spent more than $110 billion at self-checkout lanes in 2005, up nearly 35 percent from 2004, according to the IHL Consulting Group, the Kansas City Star reported.

Experts estimate that anywhere from 20 percent to 50 percent of the daily transaction volume of some retail stores goes through self-checkout machines. In its 2006 survey, the retail consulting company found that 94 percent of respondents will use self-checkout, even if they don’t necessarily like it.

But a growing number of consumers like the lanes, the Kansas City Star reported. They say self-checkout moves faster and gives them control on how their items are handled. They also can check the prices at their own pace and have more privacy for purchases of pregnancy tests and personal care items.

Where to find self-checkout? Try Home Depot, Costco or Fred Meyer.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. this week announced results of its latest ratings of Venture Bank concerning adherence to the Community Reinvestment Act. The bank was rated satisfactory in its small-business and residential lending practices and outstanding for its performance in community development.

“The bank displayed a reasonable record of distributing its loans in both low- and moderate-income geographics,” the FDIC said. “High levels of community development loans, community development services, and community development investments were noted.”

Bank practices are regularly reviewed by the FDIC in relation to compliance with the principles of the CRA.

When Danny Edwards, 26, enlisted in the Army in April 2001, he expected to stay for a career. He changed his mind while serving in Iraq in 2003. Black youth across the country appear to be heeding advice from parents, teachers, ministers, coaches and other black veterans.

Retired Brig. Gen. Robert A. Cocroft, executive director of National Association for Black Veterans, Inc. says a downshift in enlistments “is a telling indication that something is amiss about the military experience” for African Americans.”

That difference appears to be the war in Iraq.

Read more in tomorrow’s Tom Philpott Military Update column.