WEEK IN REVIEW

They sure count fast in Canada, eh?

Thousand-year bonds ain’t what they used to be. Canadian Pacific Ltd. is calling some fixed-income investments 885 years early because paying 4% interest on $1.8 million — and sending annual reports to investors scattered all over the English speaking-world — pains pencil-pushers.

The debt certificates, each worth 100 British pounds (currently $164), were issued by the Toronto Grey & Bruce Railway Co. in 1883 to buy up 999-year leases for its right-of-way. In those days, investors could be confident about the future. And why not? When the bonds were issued, the pound was worth just about as much as it had been 100 years earlier and the world, even inland, was Queen Victoria’s oyster.

Now, though, the successor railroad finds the bonds “have cost a small fortune to keep alive,” says John Robson, assistant treasurer. The bonds, mostly held by heirs of the original owners, don’t trade, but collectors pay $175 or so for the handsomely engraved certificates. They bear a raised red seal and pictures of a paddleboat, and a steam loco pulling into a station.

Walt Disney Co. and Coca-Cola Co., which issue 100-year bonds, might make a note. And so should investors in Safra Republic Holdings SA’s 1000-year bonds. They have almost 999 years till maturity.

D.C. ouija board

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan says the economy’s growth is slowing. Then again, he says, he could be wrong.

Was it the weather? As Washington sweltered though the haziest, hottest and most humid week of the year, he told the Senate Banking Committee that he sees a soft landing for the economy. All in favor of stability relaxed, thinking interest rates won’t change.

The next day, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average retreated from its all-time high, he told a House Banking Committee subcommittee, “If we are wrong, the probability is greater that we will end up with an acceleration of inflation as distinct from a weakening of the economy.” That means rates go up.

Still, he warned, “There are lots of ‘ifs,”ands’ and ‘buts’ in those types of evaluation.”

Pound power

Looking across the pond for money management profits for the first time are First Union Corp. and Mellon Bank Corp. The North Carolina bank with nationwide offices is buying Analytic-TSA International Inc., a London bond house managing $100 million. The company will be renamed First International Advisors Ltd. and nobody’s talking about price.

The Pittsburgh deal is bigger. Newton Investment Management runs $20.5 billion and Mellon is paying $210 million for three-quarters of it. Managers keep the rest.

No sale. Period

Charles Schwab the man says Charles Schwab the company isn’t for sale. His flat statement sent the biggest discount broker’s stock down a little after it had risen 22% on rumors of a deal with CS First Boston that it denied, too.

In Baltimore, T. Rowe Price Associates Inc.’s net income rose $11.1 million to $44.9 million, or 34 cents a share. That wasn’t enough to satisfy analysts, who expected 35 cents a share.

Army sidelined

Chinese President Jiang Zemin ordered the army out of its $2 billion-a-year businesses, including the scandal-plagued J&A Securities Co. . .Travelers Group shareholders thumbs-upped the merger with Citicorp. Fed action is next. . . Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. Pac-Manned its way to London, leading a group buying insurance broker Willis Corroon Group Ltd. for $1.4 billion. . .Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. and Nomura Securities agreed to pay $117 million to settle claims from the bankruptcy of Orange County, Calif.

Bloomberg News contributed to this report