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Does America Have Enough Skilled Workers?
Tweet Share on Facebook July 10, 2007 Comment (1)While much of the immigration debate has revolved around the economic impact of low-skilled workers heading north into the United States, the effect of high-skilled workers has been given less attention. But consider this:
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Clinton, Buffett, and Taxes
Tweet Share on Facebook July 9, 2007 Comment"Business Loves Hillary!" was the gushing declarative that appeared on a recent cover of Fortune. The magazine's political conclusion seemed validated by a June 26 Manhattan fundraiser for Senator Clinton hosted by multibillionaire business legend Warren Buffett. Clinton praised Buffett as "patriotic" for understanding it was the national duty of wealthier Americans to pay higher taxes.
And guess what, if Clinton or any of the other Democratic presidential candidates gets elected, it's a fair bet that corporate America will get a chance to do its duty. In a May 29 speech, Clinton said, "It's simply not fair that as corporate profits have skyrocketed, the percentage of taxes paid by corporations [has] fallen...It's as though we've gone back to the era of the robber barons." During the recent Democratic presidential debate at Howard University, the major candidates agreed with John Edwards on the need to "eliminate all tax breaks for companies who are taking their jobs overseas and getting a tax break for doing it."
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Economy Booming, So What Might Start the Next Recession?
Tweet Share on Facebook July 6, 2007 Comment (2)"If you want a job and you're a college grad, you can get one," is the smart—only somewhat overstated—observation that Roy Krause, head of staffing company Spherion, just imparted to me over the phone. Indeed, college grads had just a 2 percent unemployment rate in June, according to new Labor Department data, vs. 3.5 percent for those with "some college," 4.1 percent for high school grads, and 6.7 percent for those who did not finish high school.
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Time for Another New Deal
Tweet Share on Facebook July 5, 2007 CommentIs America ready for a "new" New Deal? When you put together all the various strands coming out of Democratic politics and liberal think tanks these days, it's pretty clear that plenty of people on the left-of-center side of things sure think so. Consider this new effort from the New America Foundation. The D.C.-based policy shop calls it the Next Social Contract Initiative. Here is the group's thesis:
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Globalization: Bin Laden's vs. the West's
Tweet Share on Facebook July 3, 2007 Comment (1)The global economy has three great hubs: New York, Tokyo, and London. Two of the three have already suffered terrorist attacks this century, and London is under fire again. Don't forget that the 9/11 attacks were, to a great extent, the start of a war on globalization, as symbolized by the World Trade Center. "The towers are economic power," Osama bin Laden said in an October 2001 interview. It's globalization—the worldwide spread of people, capital, products, brands, and ideas—that's the real threat to the terrorists. Geopolitical strategist and consultant Tom Barnett, a former professor at the U.S. Naval War College, says the jihadist menace is, in reality...
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What Happened to the Great Corn Crisis of 2007?
Tweet Share on Facebook July 2, 2007 Comment (11)Here's what didn't happen during the past year as corn prices surged, fueled by the rising production of corn-based ethanol. There were no calls for a multibillion-dollar "strategic corn fund" to develop alternatives to corn, financed by a windfall profits tax on the agriculture industry. Ag industry execs were not called up before a high-profile Senate committee to defend themselves against charges that they were colluding to gouge corn-dog lovers. And no one called for a tax on maize to cut down on usage.
Nope, none of that stuff happened. Yet corn prices slid last Friday after the Agriculture Department reported that farmers planted an estimated 92.9 million acres of corn this spring. That's 19 percent more than in 2006 and above an earlier government estimate that predicted corn growers would plant 90.5 million acres. Surprise, surprise—high prices pushed producers to, well, produce more. Yet when oil prices head higher, little thought seems to be given to the possibility that higher prices and profits might lead to more exploration and development.
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