As previously announced, Russell Investments said today in a release that company chairman Mike Phillips will retire. After nearly 30 years with Russell, Phillips will leave his post in December.

Phillips will continue serving as chairman of Russell 20-20, a non-profit association of 20 large retirement plan sponsors and 20 major money managers who gather to explore worldwide economic and investment environments in emerging markets, according to the company’s release.

He also plans to continue working with Russell by establishing an investment advisory firm in Geneva, Switzerland, which will offer clients Russell investment products.

“I feel fortunate to have had the chance to play a variety of roles in helping Russell become the global financial leader it is today,” Phillips said. “I have planned this transition since I became chairman in 2003, and I will leave feeling both proud of what we have accomplished and confident that Russell stands strong and is poised for continued success.”

“Mike has been a driving force behind Russell's dramatic growth and success over the past three decades, and he truly embodies what it means to be part of the Russell team,” said John Schlifske, Russell's President and CEO. “Mike's legacy will be long-felt among Russell's associates and clients, and we are excited that he intends to continue to be involved with the company in a meaningful way going forward.”

Before being elevated to chairman, Phillips served as Russell’s president and CEO from 1993 to 2003.

Did you ever wonder how the Port of Tacoma operates, where it spends your tax dollars or what's in the future for one of Pierce County's biggest job generators?

Here's your chance for a briefing on just those kinds of questions.

Beginning Thursday, the port will host the first of four evening workshops designed to educate the public about the port, its history, scope of operations, future development plans and its upcoming 2009 budget process.

"As the business of our Port continues to grow, we are finding it increasingly important to reach out to our community and listen to the questions people may have about our Port," said Port of Tacoma Commission President Dick Marzano. "It is important that our citizens understand the deep historic roots of the maritime industry in our community, what role this activity plays today and how it will grow and affect them in the future."

Here are the times and locations of these public port workshops:

Tacoma
Thursday, Oct. 9, 5:30 to 7 p.m.
The Fabulich Center, Room 104
3600 Port of Tacoma Road

Puyallup
Thursday, Oct. 16, 5:30 to 7 p.m.
City of Puyallup - City Council Chambers
333 South Meridian

Gig Harbor
Thursday, Oct. 23, 5:30 to 7 p.m.
Gig Harbor City Hall
3510 Grandview Street

Lakewood
Wednesday, Oct. 29, 5:30 to 7 p.m.
Gary and Carol Milgard Family HOPE Center
10402 Kline Street SW

Alaska Air Group says it will record a $220 million paper third quarter loss because the price of oil has gone down.

What?

You thought airlines were suffering because the price of fuel had gone up didn't you? Well, it works the other way too if you're like Alaska and bet that the price of crude would remain high.

Alaska hedged its fuel supply, that is it bought the right to buy fuel in the future at certain fixed costs hoping that those costs would be less than the price they'd then have to pay on the open market.

The strategy had worked for the airline before as oil prices rose through the roof until earlier this summer, but then the price of oil took a nose dive. It traded at about $147 a barrel at its peak this summer. Now it's somewhere in the upper 80s.

The problem is that Alaska bought some hedges at prices over the current price.

Half of its fuel supply for the first quarter of next year is hedged at $108 a barrel. Twenty-four percent of its first quarter 2010 fuel supply is hedged at $114 a barrel. And 12 percent of its third quarter 2010 fuel supply is hedged at $120 a barrel.

Accounting rules require that the airline report the value of its whole portfolio of hedges quarterly even though they won't be exercised for years to come. That's where the paper loss is originating. Alaska argues that the price of the hedge matters only on the execution date.

"Management believe it is useful to compare results between periods on an 'economic basis,'" the airline said in a report to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

"Economic fuel expense is defined as the raw or 'into-plane' fuel cost less the cash we receive from hedge counterparties for hedges that settle during the period, offset by the premium expense that we recognize, the airline holding company said.

"Economic fuel expense moe closely approximates the net cash outflow associated with purchasing fuel for our operation," said Alaska.

Without various one-time charges and adjustments including the fuel hedge paper loss, the airline said it expects to report a profit during the third quarter.

I have been reluctant to agree with most pundits and all of the Business TV Chicken-Littles who have been saying for several months that the American economy is in a recession. I still don’t believe it was – but I’m ready to say it is.

This late-blooming insight comes after hearing from a pair of Ph.D.s whom I believe actually know what they’re doing: Ernie Ankrim, chief investment strategist at Russell Investments, and Ken Mayland, principal at ClearView Economics LLC. I met Mayland a while back after he spoke to investors in Tacoma, and I always enjoy a chance to speak with both economists.

This week, Ankrim wrote, “Things will probably get worse before they get better. ... I believe we'll be in a recession in the fourth quarter of 2008 and through the second quarter of 2009. I didn't think things would be so bad a year ago, but the scale of our financial mess was larger than most analysts, myself included, imagined. That being said, I don't expect a recession as bad as those in 2001-02 or 1973-77.”

I spoke with Mayland this morning. For some time now he has played the contrarian, going against the Recessionistas and taking the view that the numbers just didn’t reach the threshold.

Well, today he joined the pack. “I think we’ve slipped into a recession,” he said. “We’re going down the slippery slope. We came so close to avoiding one, but I think the handwriting’s on the wall now.”

He said he expects it to last through “late spring or the beginning of summer.”

Alas.

More of you are buying your groceries and gas at Costco to save money.

The company said today that it is dealing with higher food and fuel prices, which are squeezing profitability as it draws consumers hunting bargains, Bloomberg News reports.

Costco and discounter Wal-Mart Stores Inc. are bellwethers for how retailers will fare in the economic slowdown.

Here are the numbers: Costco said fourth-quarter profit rose 6.8 percent.

Net income for the quarter through August increased to $397.8 million, or 90 cents a share, from $372.4 million, or 83 cents, a year earlier, the company said today in a statement.

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