Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Is that a good economic development deal? A checklist

In my last post, I discussed one of the most important sets of questions regarding any proposed economic development subsidy: How much does it cost? Is that too much? The answer, assuming that we are not going to overhaul our broken subsidy system overnight, was that we see if we’re paying too much by looking […]

Job Piracy Marches on in Alabama

Unmentioned in the recent Good Jobs First report on job piracy, it turns out that both relocation subsidies and retention subsidies are commonplace in Alabama. Greg Varner (@varnergreg) directs me to this report on how a Birmingham auto dealership, Serra Automotive, is demanding a multimillion incentive deal to keep it from relocating to another municipality […]

CGI2011: Women’s Rights: What’s In It for Men?

As regular—well, obsessive–readers know, I’m stealing a title from the sainthood-destined Michèle Tertilt.  But it seems appropriate—and a better title than “Engaging Boys and Men as Allies for Long-term Change”—for today’s Plenary hosted by Former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet. We got a taste of this yesterday, on the panel hosted by Robin Roberts (now a […]

CGI 2011: Haiti Development Workshop

[updates and edits, especially in the 4th-6th grafs] “The winner” in Haitian development created 12,000 jobs in the garment industry in the past eight years in Haiti.  Seems as if all of the participants today will be garment manufacturers, though WJC notes that companies such as Coca-Cola and Newmont Mining are also considering investment. When […]

Clinton Global Initiative 2011

As with last year and the year before, I will be (as much as possible) at the Clinton Global Initiative, now with even more Social Media and Networking Goodness. If you’re here, say hello. If you’re not, look for posts and peruse the offerings for the conference. If there’s something you’re especially interested in, email […]

Why Don’t Tax Havens Become Industrial Powerhouses

by Mike Kimel Why Don’t Tax Havens Become Industrial Powerhouses Cross-posted at the Presimetrics blog. The other day I read somewhere (yet again) that low tax rates encourage development. Which got me to thinking about tax havens. I’ve noticed that places like the Cayman Islands, for instance, seem to be magnets for hedge funds, but […]

The Rich Stay Healthy, the Sick Stay Poor

Health and Economic Development Primer in one easy lesson (via SocProf’s Twitter feed): This is not surprising to see the contrast between the prosperous (at least until now) areas, in green where chronic illnesses prevail but are diseases tied to aging, as opposed to the semi-periphery and periphery where infectious / parasitic diseases are prevalent […]

Economic Development Made Real

Via David Roodman‘s Twitter feed, the Economic Development video to watch if you’re watching only one: Pull Quote: “We have several unintended consequences that show that while we were growing Pakistan economically, we retarded our community, we retarded our ability to innovate, we retarded our ability to think. Those things are coming back to haunt […]