From Joel Kotkin writing at the Daily Beast online:
The $300 million payout from tech giants like Google and Apple to settle a lawsuit brought by employees makes it clear that Silicon Valley is out for profit, not to change the world....
But the collusion case amply proves what has been clear to those watching the industry: greed and the desire to control drives tech entrepreneurs as much as any other business group.
The Valley is great at talking progressive but not so much in practice.
In the very place where private opposition to gay marriage is enough to get a tech executive fired, the big firms have shown a very weak record of hiring minorities and women.
And not surprisingly, firms also are notoriously skittish about revealing their diversity data.
A San Jose Mercury report found that the numbers of Hispanics and African Americans employees in Silicon Valley tech companies, already far below their percentage in the population, has actually been declining in recent years.
Hispanics, roughly one quarter of the local labor force, account for barely five percent of those working at the Valley’s ten largest companies.
The share of women working at the big tech companies - despite the rise of high profile figures in management—has also showed declines...
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Link: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/25/silicon-valley-s-giants-are-just-gilded-age-tycoons-in-techno-utopian-clothes.html
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Monday, April 28, 2014
Obama’s low-wage jobs recovery
From James Pethokoukis at the American Enterprise Institute:
The current job market recovery has been an historically slow one...
But the problem isn’t just the quantity of jobs created,
but the quality, too.
...during the recovery (measured from February 2010 to February 2014), employment gains have been concentrated in lower-wage industries.
Specifically:
– Lower-wage industries constituted 22 percent of recession losses, but 44 percent of recovery growth.
– Mid-wage industries constituted 37 percent of recession losses, but only 26 percent of recovery growth.
– Higher-wage industries constituted 41 percent of recession losses, and 30 percent of recovery growth...
----
Link: http://www.aei-ideas.org/2014/04/obamas-low-wage-jobs-recovery/
The current job market recovery has been an historically slow one...
But the problem isn’t just the quantity of jobs created,
but the quality, too.
...during the recovery (measured from February 2010 to February 2014), employment gains have been concentrated in lower-wage industries.
Specifically:
– Lower-wage industries constituted 22 percent of recession losses, but 44 percent of recovery growth.
– Mid-wage industries constituted 37 percent of recession losses, but only 26 percent of recovery growth.
– Higher-wage industries constituted 41 percent of recession losses, and 30 percent of recovery growth...
----
Link: http://www.aei-ideas.org/2014/04/obamas-low-wage-jobs-recovery/
Sunday, April 27, 2014
The World's Resources Aren't Running Out
From Matt Ridley writing in the Wall Street Journal:
How many times have you heard that we humans are "using up" the world's resources, "running out" of oil, "reaching the limits" of the atmosphere's capacity to cope with pollution or "approaching the carrying capacity" of the land's ability to support a greater population?
The assumption behind all such statements is that there is a fixed amount of stuff—metals, oil, clean air, land—and that we risk exhausting it through our consumption.
"We are using 50% more resources than the Earth can sustainably produce, and unless we change course, that number will grow fast—by 2030, even two planets will not be enough," says Jim Leape, director general of the World Wide Fund for Nature International (formerly the World Wildlife Fund).
But here's a peculiar feature of human history: We burst through such limits again and again.
After all, as a Saudi oil minister once said, the Stone Age didn't end for lack of stone.
... people (and indeed some other animals) can create new opportunities for themselves by making their habitats more productive in some way. Agriculture is the classic example of niche construction: We stopped relying on nature's bounty and substituted an artificial and much larger bounty.
Economists call the same phenomenon innovation. What frustrates them about ecologists is the latter's tendency to think in terms of static limits.
Ecologists can't seem to see that when whale oil starts to run out, petroleum is discovered, or that when farm yields flatten, fertilizer comes along, or that when glass fiber is invented, demand for copper falls....
----
Link: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304279904579517862612287156?
How many times have you heard that we humans are "using up" the world's resources, "running out" of oil, "reaching the limits" of the atmosphere's capacity to cope with pollution or "approaching the carrying capacity" of the land's ability to support a greater population?
The assumption behind all such statements is that there is a fixed amount of stuff—metals, oil, clean air, land—and that we risk exhausting it through our consumption.
"We are using 50% more resources than the Earth can sustainably produce, and unless we change course, that number will grow fast—by 2030, even two planets will not be enough," says Jim Leape, director general of the World Wide Fund for Nature International (formerly the World Wildlife Fund).
But here's a peculiar feature of human history: We burst through such limits again and again.
After all, as a Saudi oil minister once said, the Stone Age didn't end for lack of stone.
... people (and indeed some other animals) can create new opportunities for themselves by making their habitats more productive in some way. Agriculture is the classic example of niche construction: We stopped relying on nature's bounty and substituted an artificial and much larger bounty.
Economists call the same phenomenon innovation. What frustrates them about ecologists is the latter's tendency to think in terms of static limits.
Ecologists can't seem to see that when whale oil starts to run out, petroleum is discovered, or that when farm yields flatten, fertilizer comes along, or that when glass fiber is invented, demand for copper falls....
----
Link: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304279904579517862612287156?
Saturday, April 19, 2014
Can’t say this to voters about the economy: "recovery"
From Yahoo Finance:
You can point out how rich the 1% are, or pound home how hard it is to keep up these days. But whatever you do, don’t act like there’s a “recovery.”
That’s the advice from a prominent public-policy firm to Democratic politicians running for reelection this year...
By some measures, the economy is getting back to normal....
But the various pieces of the economy don’t fit together now the same way they did before the recession hit at the end of 2007, with fewer people taking part in economic gains.
Total employment is still about 400,000 jobs short of the 2008 peak, and that’s with a larger population now.
The stock market has regained all its losses and hit record highs, which benefits people with big investments, but homes are still below the peak values of 2006, leaving many middle-class homeowners underwater.
And it seems clear top earners are now capturing a greater portion of all income, while the middle class is shrinking.
That makes aggregate wealth and income numbers look better than they really are.
A lot of ordinary people know this intuitively, which is why politicians risk alienating voters by touting a recovery many people don’t feel....
----
Link: http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/the-exchange/one-thing-you-can-t-say-to-voters-about-the-economy-183830377
You can point out how rich the 1% are, or pound home how hard it is to keep up these days. But whatever you do, don’t act like there’s a “recovery.”
That’s the advice from a prominent public-policy firm to Democratic politicians running for reelection this year...
By some measures, the economy is getting back to normal....
But the various pieces of the economy don’t fit together now the same way they did before the recession hit at the end of 2007, with fewer people taking part in economic gains.
Total employment is still about 400,000 jobs short of the 2008 peak, and that’s with a larger population now.
The stock market has regained all its losses and hit record highs, which benefits people with big investments, but homes are still below the peak values of 2006, leaving many middle-class homeowners underwater.
And it seems clear top earners are now capturing a greater portion of all income, while the middle class is shrinking.
That makes aggregate wealth and income numbers look better than they really are.
A lot of ordinary people know this intuitively, which is why politicians risk alienating voters by touting a recovery many people don’t feel....
----
Link: http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/the-exchange/one-thing-you-can-t-say-to-voters-about-the-economy-183830377
Friday, April 18, 2014
Gallup Poll: Record low for Obama, Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress
From Gallup.com:
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Less than half of Americans (42%) have confidence in President Barack Obama on doing or recommending the right thing for the economy -- the lowest figure Gallup has on record for him.
New lows in confidence were also found for Democratic leaders (35%), while Republican leaders in Congress received the lowest mark on record for either party (24%).
Americans have more confidence in business leaders and state governors than federal political leaders.
----
Link: http://www.gallup.com/poll/168560/economy-americans-less-confident-federal-leaders.aspx
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Less than half of Americans (42%) have confidence in President Barack Obama on doing or recommending the right thing for the economy -- the lowest figure Gallup has on record for him.
New lows in confidence were also found for Democratic leaders (35%), while Republican leaders in Congress received the lowest mark on record for either party (24%).
Americans have more confidence in business leaders and state governors than federal political leaders.
Link: http://www.gallup.com/poll/168560/economy-americans-less-confident-federal-leaders.aspx
Sunday, April 13, 2014
Outrageous Pay Gaps Need Fixing Now!
From Kyle Smith writing at Forbes.com:
...yet, the more laws we pass to remedy these various disparities, the more obvious it becomes that we haven’t gotten to the cruelest and most sordid pay anomalies.
... front line, entry-level fast-food workers are paid only 51 cents on the dollar compared to their managers. Are these two jobs really that different?
Did you know that
the median wage for aerospace engineers is $1,645 a week?
For lawyers $1,909 a week?
For architectural and engineering managers $2,122 a week?
Compared to these workers, food preparation and serving workers are getting paid only 23 cents on the dollar, 20 cents on the dollar and an unseemly and brutally unfair 18 cents on the dollar.
Are any of these Americans more or less deserving than any others?
...President Obama, you’re thinking far too small.
Forget all of the above legislation. Don’t bother with meaningless executive orders that solve the nonexistent problem of workers being forbidden to discuss their pay with one another.
The Equal Pay for Everyone Act would mandate that employers stop discriminating on the basis of economic value, and pay all working Americans exactly the same wage every week, forever.
----
Link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kylesmith/2014/04/10/the-gender-pay-gap-is-just-the-beginning-of-americas-pay-inequity-problem/
...yet, the more laws we pass to remedy these various disparities, the more obvious it becomes that we haven’t gotten to the cruelest and most sordid pay anomalies.
... front line, entry-level fast-food workers are paid only 51 cents on the dollar compared to their managers. Are these two jobs really that different?
Did you know that
the median wage for aerospace engineers is $1,645 a week?
For lawyers $1,909 a week?
For architectural and engineering managers $2,122 a week?
Compared to these workers, food preparation and serving workers are getting paid only 23 cents on the dollar, 20 cents on the dollar and an unseemly and brutally unfair 18 cents on the dollar.
Are any of these Americans more or less deserving than any others?
...President Obama, you’re thinking far too small.
Forget all of the above legislation. Don’t bother with meaningless executive orders that solve the nonexistent problem of workers being forbidden to discuss their pay with one another.
The Equal Pay for Everyone Act would mandate that employers stop discriminating on the basis of economic value, and pay all working Americans exactly the same wage every week, forever.
----
Link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kylesmith/2014/04/10/the-gender-pay-gap-is-just-the-beginning-of-americas-pay-inequity-problem/
Sunday, April 6, 2014
WSJ: Where Have All the Workers Gone?
Glenn Hubbard writing in the Wall Street Journal online:
A big puzzle looms over the U.S. economy: Friday's jobs report tells us that the unemployment rate has fallen to 6.7% from a peak of 10% at the height of the Great Recession.
But at the same time, only 63.2% of Americans 16 or older are participating in the labor force, which, while up a bit in March, is down substantially since 2000.
As recently as the late 1990s, the U.S. was a nation in which employment, job creation and labor force participation went hand in hand.
That is no longer the case....
...the policy response to our disturbing doldrums in the labor market has indeed struck the wrong balance.
Whatever can be said for shorter-term measures to jump-start job creation and business activity, it seems clear by this late date that our problems are in no small part structural...
The fierce debate now going on in Washington about extending unemployment insurance and raising the minimum wage largely ignores these issues.
Such policies may affect the incomes of some Americans, but they won't do much to expand opportunity and bring more people back into the labor force. Sparking a broad-based return to the labor force demands a more ambitious agenda....
----
Link: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304441304579477341062142388?
A big puzzle looms over the U.S. economy: Friday's jobs report tells us that the unemployment rate has fallen to 6.7% from a peak of 10% at the height of the Great Recession.
But at the same time, only 63.2% of Americans 16 or older are participating in the labor force, which, while up a bit in March, is down substantially since 2000.
As recently as the late 1990s, the U.S. was a nation in which employment, job creation and labor force participation went hand in hand.
That is no longer the case....
...the policy response to our disturbing doldrums in the labor market has indeed struck the wrong balance.
Whatever can be said for shorter-term measures to jump-start job creation and business activity, it seems clear by this late date that our problems are in no small part structural...
The fierce debate now going on in Washington about extending unemployment insurance and raising the minimum wage largely ignores these issues.
Such policies may affect the incomes of some Americans, but they won't do much to expand opportunity and bring more people back into the labor force. Sparking a broad-based return to the labor force demands a more ambitious agenda....
----
Link: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304441304579477341062142388?
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