Have you heard about 16.896? “…with or without solicitation of bids, for any amount that the department determines to be in the best interest of the state.” Who knew behind the scenes it was also power plants? From rortybomb at the link above: The fight in Wisconsin is over Governor Walker’s 144-page Budget Repair Bill. […]
By Daniel Becker Just thought, being the new year, we might want to start it off with some actual new thinking about how to make our economic system better. I have been meaning to purchase the book: Were you born on the wrong Continent. I’m just a very slow reader though and have to finish […]
Higher Wages, Profit Sharing and Greater Flexibility Benefit All Employees — And the Company Bottom Line Too(link repaired) Costco is so certain that its policy is sound that it has kept paying better wages than rivals, even as Wall Street has pressured the company to conform to industry standards. As the economy slowly recovers, it’s […]
Mark Thoma goes to something called the Business Ethics Blog for an economics thought-experiment: A Montreal accessories company has taken its policy of using no animal products beyond the rack and has forbidden its staff from eating meat and fish at work. A former employee says the policy violated her rights as a non-vegetarian…. It’s […]
By Daniel Becker I just want to lay out the debate going on in our economy right now. There are 4 debaters. President Obama/Geithner et al, President Obama 2008, the rich (or capitalist, those who make their money from money) and the rest of us. From President Obama’s 60 Minute interview: PRESIDENT OBAMA:…And it turns […]
I present an update on aggregate demand using the highest frequency of economic data available, US Treasury tax receipts. Tax receipts serve as a proxy for nominal aggregate demand via a nominal indicator of private payroll growth. US daily Treasury tax receipts are improving. (This chart has been modified since its original posting to enable […]
The kids in the next town over don’t. Indeed, the place where my Eldest Daughter’s swim team practices is closed because it’s a holiday, and their schools are. But not here: the banks are closed, the government offices are closed, the local libraries are closed. (Heck, the New York Public Library is closed.) But the […]
Labor cost as a share of business output is now at a post WW – II low. and has fallen about eight percentage points since 2000. This would suggest that the weak demand for labor does not stem from high labor cost. Actually since the third quarter of 2000 while labor cost as a share […]
by Dan Crawford (Rdan) Business Insider offers one sort of opinion by Mike Shedlock… what I can gather from the short article are the implications that outsourcing over the globe is a consequence of unions, that we should be more like Louisiana, and there is no economic literature on labor to offer some alternative explanations. […]
by Rebecca Wilder GIIPS labour costs not moving in the “competitive” directionThe GIIPS (Greece, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain) hope: exports. Fiscal austerity crimps the saving of the private sector. And provided the governments make good their plans to put on the fiscal straight-jacket, there’s no other impetus for growth except foreign demand. Financial crises […]