Economy
Yeah, I’m aware that a politically noisy segment of our society views immigration more as a social work process than a set of policies intended for the benefit of the country, but Dori Segal and Brian Lee Crowley have a worthy (if politically infeasible) idea: … America should immediately offer fast-track immigration to foreigners willing…
Andrew Redleaf and Richard Vigilante’s argument for letting the automakers (and the union that feeds off them) face bankruptcy should definitely be on your reading list for today: Over the past couple of decades, the suppliers – actually systems makers – have taken over most manufacturing of American cars. The “hollowed out” Big Three now…
In his most recent column, Ed Achorn cites information from Investors Business Daily, which states that “U.S. automakers pay their average worker just over $70 an hour in total compensation, compared with about $45 an hour for Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai and other transplants.” However, the way the information is presented has led to some confusion.…
One of President-elect Obama’s solutions to fighting poverty is to “raise the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour by 2011.” In their forthcoming book Minimum Wages, M.I.T. professor David Neumark and William L. Wascher of the Federal Reserve Board make the following conclusions (PDF): First, minimum wages reduce employment opportunities for less-skilled workers, especially those…
Dan Yorke had an economic back-and-forth with Richard from Tiverton, just before 5:00, that points to a consideration of which we ought all be in awe: The economic big picture is just too complicated to predict or guide (hence the genius of the free market). Dan argued that ancillary industries to the Big Three would…
As the master of malaprops, Yogi Berra, once said: This is like deja vu all over again. I guess it isn’t enough to pull out all the old books which tackled the realities around the Great Depression and FDR’s New Deal versus the commonly held myths. It now looks like the time to also pull…
I suspect that this idea from Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-TX) would have broad support among the Republican Assembly members and sympathizers with whom I’m spending time this evening: Where the Pelosi-Paulson plan takes the taxpayers’ money and puts it under the government’s thumb so that predatory politicians and micromanaging bureaucrats have more and more control…
Jim Manzi does good work for all of us in GM’s Magical Thinking: I’ve been working my way through GM’s much-heralded restructuring plan that is being submitted to Congress tomorrow. It’s a lot less work than I thought it might be (though I’m blogging late at night as I’m reading it, so all of my…
As a long-time turnaround professional, I deal all the time with companies which only have enough cash left to maintain operations for a limited number of months. It is a setting which requires intense focus, an unrelenting sense of urgency, and the ability to take decisive actions on many, many fronts – usually all at…
