Saturday, November 29, 2008
David Brooks - Stimulus for Skeptics
great NYT OpEd from David Brooks including thoughts from Michael Porter of HBS on smarter, more impactful stimulus.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Sunday, November 23, 2008
First Bankruptcy, and Then a Possible Bailout (NYT)
Edward Glaeser, an economist at Harvard, has a good look in the NY Times at the options facing the auto industry and possible ways forward.
Highlights below, full article here.
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Should we be using tax dollars to keep workers from heading to more productive companies? It would have been madness a century ago to tax Henry Ford and Ransom Olds to prop up the declining horse-and-buggy industry.
...
How can we take a hard line against the car industry that employs hundreds of thousands of middle-income Americans while we spend billions to keep Wall Street working? Detroit’s boosters argue that simple fairness and the long-run strength of the country imply that blue-collar assembly-line workers deserve as much help as Hermès-wearing financiers.
The difference between TARP and aid to General Motors is that TARP is not an attempt to prop up an industry that has been declining for decades.
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Highlights below, full article here.
---------------
Should we be using tax dollars to keep workers from heading to more productive companies? It would have been madness a century ago to tax Henry Ford and Ransom Olds to prop up the declining horse-and-buggy industry.
...
How can we take a hard line against the car industry that employs hundreds of thousands of middle-income Americans while we spend billions to keep Wall Street working? Detroit’s boosters argue that simple fairness and the long-run strength of the country imply that blue-collar assembly-line workers deserve as much help as Hermès-wearing financiers.
The difference between TARP and aid to General Motors is that TARP is not an attempt to prop up an industry that has been declining for decades.
----------------
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Silver Lining in Wall Street Problems
Freakonomics blog has a great look at the upside from all of the talented people on Wall Street (0r aspiring to WS), and how that talent, now having to find new career options, may be poised to make a huge impact in many other areas of society. One other interesting side-note is the link Stephen Dubner draws between the brain-drain of women from education into other fields, and the resulting decline in quality of our overall education system.
Full article here.
Full article here.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Sell Government Land to Raise Cash?
Interesting data on how much land the federal government owns, and how some could possibly be sold to raise money for government programs without raising taxes. (Much of this land is not even national parks).
More info & full post at Marginal Revolution.
More info & full post at Marginal Revolution.
Kristof on Obama & Education
Nicholas Kristof editorial in last Wednesday's NY Times on the need for an increased focus on education to turn around our economy.
Excerpts include:
"President-elect Barack Obama and his aides are sending signals that education may be on the back burner at the beginning of the new administration. He ranked it fifth among his priorities, and if it is being downplayed, that’s a mistake.
"We can’t meaningfully address poverty or grow the economy as long as urban schools are failing. Mr. Obama talks boldly about starting new high-tech green industries, but where will the workers come from unless students reliably learn science and math?"
--------
"The most effective anti-poverty program we could devise for the long run would have less to do with income redistribution than with ensuring that poor kids get a first-rate education, from preschool on. One recent study found that if American students did as well as those in several Asian countries in math and science, our economy would grow 20 percent faster."
Excerpts include:
"President-elect Barack Obama and his aides are sending signals that education may be on the back burner at the beginning of the new administration. He ranked it fifth among his priorities, and if it is being downplayed, that’s a mistake.
"We can’t meaningfully address poverty or grow the economy as long as urban schools are failing. Mr. Obama talks boldly about starting new high-tech green industries, but where will the workers come from unless students reliably learn science and math?"
--------
"The most effective anti-poverty program we could devise for the long run would have less to do with income redistribution than with ensuring that poor kids get a first-rate education, from preschool on. One recent study found that if American students did as well as those in several Asian countries in math and science, our economy would grow 20 percent faster."
Auto Bailout thoughts from Megan McArdle
Interesting post from Megan McArdle at The Atlantic on the proposed bailout (again) of the auto industry.
A couple of exerpts from Right to Work:
"What bothers me is twofold. First, after the unions have put companies into an untenable position, they come to the rest of us looking for a handout to continue the unsustainable levels of pay and benefits. Almost everyone I know makes less than an autoworker, and has a whole lot less job security. Why should they pay autoworkers for the privilege of making cars no one wants?
I also really loathe and despise the way the unions use work rules and featherbedding to make their companies and industries less productive than they otherwise would be. Salary and benefit negotiations seem to me to be neutral; there's a zone of possible agreement, and I don't care if the unions claim all or most of the value in that zone. But the way economic growth happens--the way we become a richer, more productive society--is to produce more stuff with the same amount of people. The union goal is to keep the number of people at least even, and if possible increase it, regardless of the level of production. Hence the fight between the west coast port operators and their unions, who wanted to keep exactly as many jobs loading ships as they'd ever had, even when there were vastly more productive ways to do things. "
-------
"I'd be happy to take some of the money we aren't using bailing out auto companies, and offer relocation assistance to people who are trapped in factory towns.
I understand that this is not what the auto workers want; they want their jobs. But while I am happy to help the auto workers, I am not happy to help them manufacture undesireable cars at massive social cost. I too, would have liked to keep my job as a management consultant. But I didn't have a right to have the job I wanted merely because I liked it. And it wouldn't have been good for America if I had."
more at: http://meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/11/right_to_work.php
A couple of exerpts from Right to Work:
"What bothers me is twofold. First, after the unions have put companies into an untenable position, they come to the rest of us looking for a handout to continue the unsustainable levels of pay and benefits. Almost everyone I know makes less than an autoworker, and has a whole lot less job security. Why should they pay autoworkers for the privilege of making cars no one wants?
I also really loathe and despise the way the unions use work rules and featherbedding to make their companies and industries less productive than they otherwise would be. Salary and benefit negotiations seem to me to be neutral; there's a zone of possible agreement, and I don't care if the unions claim all or most of the value in that zone. But the way economic growth happens--the way we become a richer, more productive society--is to produce more stuff with the same amount of people. The union goal is to keep the number of people at least even, and if possible increase it, regardless of the level of production. Hence the fight between the west coast port operators and their unions, who wanted to keep exactly as many jobs loading ships as they'd ever had, even when there were vastly more productive ways to do things. "
-------
"I'd be happy to take some of the money we aren't using bailing out auto companies, and offer relocation assistance to people who are trapped in factory towns.
I understand that this is not what the auto workers want; they want their jobs. But while I am happy to help the auto workers, I am not happy to help them manufacture undesireable cars at massive social cost. I too, would have liked to keep my job as a management consultant. But I didn't have a right to have the job I wanted merely because I liked it. And it wouldn't have been good for America if I had."
more at: http://meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/11/right_to_work.php
Why This Blog?
I read a lot - books, magazines, blogs, whatever. I'm always trying to learn, to find new ideas, to be challenged by the thinking of others (whether I agree or not). As such, many of my friends are often asking what I'm reading. My family often points me to other interesting points of view. My goal is to share some of what I've been reading and allow others to suggest more things to check out. This blog is my attempt to do so.
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