sez Washington Post.
"If you want to be in the latest trends, you have to be in India," said Dutt Kalluri, who heads data warehousing and business intelligence at the information-technology division of Larsen & Toubro Ltd., India's largest construction and engineering company. "Technology development happens in India. Technology consumption happens in the U.S.
Now I know, in the '80s we were all worried about Japan taking over, Rising Sun style, and that didn't exactly happen. Is it really different now with India and China, two superpowers, each much bigger in size than the US?
It feels different, but I don't know.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
All 50 States Face Fiscal Crises by 2013...
and will not be able to support spending increases, causing state appropriations for higher education to suffer.
This according to a new report by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. Among the factors: Medicaid costs, less federal help, and a loss of state sales tax receipts to Internet commerce.
"For most states, it is difficult to see a future for higher education that recreates the prosperity of the late 1990s," the analysis concludes. "Colleges and universities -- and the students who enroll in them -- are more likely to face continued financial strain."
The late 1990s? When tuition rose by 25% (as opposed to 57% in the early '00s)? That was prosperity? Oh.
This according to a new report by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. Among the factors: Medicaid costs, less federal help, and a loss of state sales tax receipts to Internet commerce.
"For most states, it is difficult to see a future for higher education that recreates the prosperity of the late 1990s," the analysis concludes. "Colleges and universities -- and the students who enroll in them -- are more likely to face continued financial strain."
The late 1990s? When tuition rose by 25% (as opposed to 57% in the early '00s)? That was prosperity? Oh.
Monday, February 27, 2006
Another Factoid from the 2006 Economic Report of the Prez
(see below for link)
"Immigrants make up an increasing share of the scientific workforce."
43% of PHD science and engineering professionals were foreign-born in 2002.
Lots of info on the US losing ground in education, especially math and science.
"Immigrants make up an increasing share of the scientific workforce."
43% of PHD science and engineering professionals were foreign-born in 2002.
Lots of info on the US losing ground in education, especially math and science.
Wal-Mart , Under Pressure, Sweetens Health Care Offerings
....including opening more clinics in stores and shortening the period that part-time employees have to wait before they can buy coverage.
The world's largest retailer also said it would expand its cheapest health insurance option, an $11-a-month plan that has been offered in selected areas. The "value plan," which costs about $20 for families and allows three doctor visits and three prescriptions before a $1,000 deductible kicks in, will be offered to half of the company's employees, Wal-Mart said....
The company said the number of employees covered by its health plans increased slightly last year to 46% — below the national average of 60%. It said almost one-third of its workers get health insurance elsewhere, which critics say is evidence that the retailer relies on state programs and other companies to cover its workers.
The world's largest retailer also said it would expand its cheapest health insurance option, an $11-a-month plan that has been offered in selected areas. The "value plan," which costs about $20 for families and allows three doctor visits and three prescriptions before a $1,000 deductible kicks in, will be offered to half of the company's employees, Wal-Mart said....
The company said the number of employees covered by its health plans increased slightly last year to 46% — below the national average of 60%. It said almost one-third of its workers get health insurance elsewhere, which critics say is evidence that the retailer relies on state programs and other companies to cover its workers.
My Nondenominational Jewish Prayer Group Made Time Magazine
Props to Zach and the rest of "Voice of the Village!"
Are you from Atlanta?
A TV journalist just might want to talk to you for a GenDebt segment. Drop me a line on the blog or at akamenetz (a) villagevoice.com.
Sunday, February 26, 2006
America's Young Workers Behind in Income
A new survey shows that median incomes fell for households under 45, even as they rose for older ones, between 2001 and 2004. Income fell 8 percent, adjusted for inflation, for those under 35 and 9 percent for those aged 35 to 44. The numbers add new weight to longstanding concerns about whether younger generations of Americans will achieve living standards that are better - or at least equal to - those of their parents.
UPDATE: Krugman sez: What we're seeing isn't the rise of a fairly broad class of knowledge workers. Instead, we're seeing the rise of a narrow oligarchy: income and wealth are becoming increasingly concentrated in the hands of a small, privileged elite.
UPDATE: Krugman sez: What we're seeing isn't the rise of a fairly broad class of knowledge workers. Instead, we're seeing the rise of a narrow oligarchy: income and wealth are becoming increasingly concentrated in the hands of a small, privileged elite.
...Highly educated workers have done better than those with less education, but a college degree has hardly been a ticket to big income gains. The 2006 Economic Report of the President tells us that the real earnings of college graduates actually fell more than 5 percent between 2000 and 2004. Over the longer stretch from 1975 to 2004 the average earnings of college graduates rose, but by less than 1 percent per year.
So who are the winners from rising inequality? It's not the top 20 percent, or even the top 10 percent. The big gains have gone to a much smaller, much richer group than that.
A new research paper by Ian Dew-Becker and Robert Gordon of Northwestern University, "Where Did the Productivity Growth Go?," (PDF) gives the details.
How About, The Nature of Life is Suffering?
Washington Post weighs in: Phew, talk about a book you probably won't see on any critic's summer beach reading list. Apparently "Life's a Drag and There's Nothing You Can Do About It" was already taken.
Friday, February 24, 2006
A tiny window into my mind...
In its smallest, most nervous recesses...
What Amazon Sales Ranks Mean:
Books with sales ranks between 1 and 10,000 are re-ranked every hour. The rank depends both on how many books sold the previous hour relative to all the other books on Amazon, plus the recent sales trajectory. A book that holds steady in this range is usually considered commercially viable by trade publishers, [whew!] and means substantial income if you're self-publishing books. Since ranks are relative and overall book sales vary with the time of year, there is no exact formula for describing a sales rate. Books with a steady sales rank near 10,000 are averaging sales of more than one copy a day. Around sales rank of 1,000, the sales rate approaches ten copies a day. Keep in mind that some of these ranks are occupied by books that sold many thousands of copies on Amazon during their day in the sun, and hold onto a good sales rank for years because that initial surge of sales keeps their "average" above that of most other books. Books with steady sales ranks below 1,000 are selling very well, topping several dozen copies a day as you approach 100. I don't have any hard data on the top 100 books, but I'm sure it puts a smile on the face of any trade publisher to have a book selling that well, independent of the season and the competition.
My top rank so far is 2,577. Averaging around 8,000...
What Amazon Sales Ranks Mean:
Books with sales ranks between 1 and 10,000 are re-ranked every hour. The rank depends both on how many books sold the previous hour relative to all the other books on Amazon, plus the recent sales trajectory. A book that holds steady in this range is usually considered commercially viable by trade publishers, [whew!] and means substantial income if you're self-publishing books. Since ranks are relative and overall book sales vary with the time of year, there is no exact formula for describing a sales rate. Books with a steady sales rank near 10,000 are averaging sales of more than one copy a day. Around sales rank of 1,000, the sales rate approaches ten copies a day. Keep in mind that some of these ranks are occupied by books that sold many thousands of copies on Amazon during their day in the sun, and hold onto a good sales rank for years because that initial surge of sales keeps their "average" above that of most other books. Books with steady sales ranks below 1,000 are selling very well, topping several dozen copies a day as you approach 100. I don't have any hard data on the top 100 books, but I'm sure it puts a smile on the face of any trade publisher to have a book selling that well, independent of the season and the competition.
My top rank so far is 2,577. Averaging around 8,000...
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Fiercely Critical of Debt Moralizing
Talk of overconsumption cruelly obscures the real issue, say Elizabeth Warren & her daughter in this excellent Boston Review article.
I Love This Man
Tonight on the Daily Show, Jon Stewart introduced the concept of generational equity to his loyal viewers.
(approximate transcript, by me)
The cost of the Iraq war so far ? $2,083 per taxpayer. I know what you're thinking--I could have adopted several Third World children with that money. Or spent it on an eight-ball and a night with a fancy hooker.
But hey, that's not money out of your pocket. We have deficit spending! Borrowing! Don't think of it as $2000 you don't have. Think of it as TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS your GRANDCHILDREN don't have [cut to pic of adorable grandkids]. And seriously! F*ck them! They think you smell like ass!!!!!
(approximate transcript, by me)
The cost of the Iraq war so far ? $2,083 per taxpayer. I know what you're thinking--I could have adopted several Third World children with that money. Or spent it on an eight-ball and a night with a fancy hooker.
But hey, that's not money out of your pocket. We have deficit spending! Borrowing! Don't think of it as $2000 you don't have. Think of it as TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS your GRANDCHILDREN don't have [cut to pic of adorable grandkids]. And seriously! F*ck them! They think you smell like ass!!!!!
A little well-founded alarmism...
On the nature of job market change.
As the friend who emailed this to me says:
This article was written by an editor of the Wall
Street Journal and a member of the Reagan
administration. Not exactly a liberal zapatista ...
Unemployment benefits were intended to help people over the down time in the cycle when workers were laid off. Today the unemployment is permanent, as entire occupations and industries are wiped out by labor arbitrage as corporations replace their American employees with foreign ones.
As the friend who emailed this to me says:
This article was written by an editor of the Wall
Street Journal and a member of the Reagan
administration. Not exactly a liberal zapatista ...
Unemployment benefits were intended to help people over the down time in the cycle when workers were laid off. Today the unemployment is permanent, as entire occupations and industries are wiped out by labor arbitrage as corporations replace their American employees with foreign ones.
Economists who look beyond political press releases estimate the US unemployment rate to be between 7% and 8.5%. There are now hundreds of thousands of Americans who will never recover their investment in their university education.
He calls it " a jobs depression."
UPDATE: Here is another take on the same subject: a huge report just came out on offshoring.
USA Today: You're Suffocating!
"It's a real crisis," Cantor says. "You're strapped before you get started."
The average debt for a college graduate has soared 50% in the past decade, after inflation, according to the Project on Student Debt, a non-profit advocacy group. Just as record-low mortgage rates have eased the impact of soaring home prices, low student-loan rates have let borrowers cut their payments, softening the impact of rising debt.
"Low interest rates have served as a sort of amnesty for graduates with debt," says Robert Shireman, founder of the Project on Student Debt. "We haven't seen what the real impact is of much higher levels of borrowing."
Now, with interest rates rising, that amnesty is about to end. The 6.8% fixed rate for Stafford loans, the most popular student loan, will replace a variable rate that used to be adjusted every July 1, based on Treasury bills. Under the old system, borrowers could consolidate their loans when rates were low. And they could lock in that low rate for the life of their loans.
I swear, we have to be coming close to a tipping point on the national issue of debt and accountability--for the lenders and the government. Credit cards, student loans, bankruptcy laws--the model we have isn't working.
PS. If you like really long comment threads, here's one on Daily Kos on this story.
Happy Youth Vote Month!
Young Voter Strategies, a project of George Washington University, is celebrating the 35th anniversary of the voting age being lowered from 21 to 18, in March 2006, by funding several new projects designed to engage young people in the 2006 & 2008 elections. More news soon.
They write:
As I'm sure you know, in 2004 young voter turnout jumped 11 percentage points over 2000, nearly three times the
increase among the overall electorate. More than 20 million 18-29 year olds voted in 2004-an increase of 4.3 million.
They write:
As I'm sure you know, in 2004 young voter turnout jumped 11 percentage points over 2000, nearly three times the
increase among the overall electorate. More than 20 million 18-29 year olds voted in 2004-an increase of 4.3 million.
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Get-Out-of-Debt Books
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062734350/104-1201422-3868703?v=glance&n=283155
http://blogs.savingadvice.com/dmontngrey/2006/02/26/debt-concerns_5818/
http://blogs.savingadvice.com/dmontngrey/2006/02/26/debt-concerns_5818/
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Offshoring: Yea or Nay?
The globalization of increasingly high-skilled jobs is one of the main big-picture job issues affecting Generation Debt. Here's an interesting exchange between an Indian entrepreneur and a high-tech union organizer, Marcus Courtney of Washtech, who I quote in my book.
Soota: Globalization and technology enable every nation to sell globally and source globally. This is not without transitional pain. The pain is equal for a small retailer in India edged out by a global giant and an American whose programming job may go to Bangalore.
But no nation is as well-equipped to take advantage of the emergent phenomena as the United States, because it is a champion of free markets and has a large immigrant workforce with global connections. And Americans are by nature more adaptive, a strength that provides timeless resilience.
Courtney: But there are consequences for that shift. The drivers of the global economy are focused on lowering wages and benefits of U.S. employees. Our high-tech industry has seen little job growth in the more than four years since the recession. If outsourcing is so great, why aren't more jobs being created?
Gen Debt Column
Latest column focuses on a new New Jersey policy aimed at getting young people insured.
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