Grim news in Dow country

We take no delight in reporting the following: Dow Chemical Co.'s earnings per share will decline in the next 5 years, says Merrill Lynch.

"Dow earnings hit a peak of $4.37 a share last year and will steadily tumble until hitting a low of $1.50 a share in 2010, with sales and margins coming under pressure for its key plastics and chemicals products."

This is most certainly not good news for the Greater Brazosport Area, where Dow employs about 5,000, along with several more thousand contract workers, many of whom were laid off by Dow and then hired by contractors to do pretty much the same job they did for Dow, except now they don't get Dow benefits.

Can fear of a new round of Dow layoffs be far off? We predict no.

It's just part of The Human Element.