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Hard Times for Nonprod Workers in Manufacturing
Here's a bit of a good news-bad news chart. The rate of job cuts for production workers in manufacturing has slowed dramatically in the past few months, as companies start to rebuild inventories....
View ArticleGDP and Engineering Layoffs
Posting for Michael, who’s traveling: If you care about R&D, product design, worker training, or any of that other good stuff, you might want to look at my new cover story. I’ll be adding to this...
View ArticleOn Trade and Living Standards
One of my favorite commenters, Ajay, writes: Wow, when the chief economist at Businessweek is capable of writing a sentence like "if U.S.-based companies are doing their research and product...
View ArticleFord's Earning Report and Intangibles
Ford's 3rd quarter earnings report, released this morning, showed a surprisingly large net income of almost $1 billion. The company reported that it: ...reduced its Automotive structural costs by $1...
View ArticleBuffett's Gloomy View of Our Economic Future?
This morning Warren Buffet's company Berkshire Hathaway announced that it was buying Burlington Northern Santa Fe in a deal valued at $44 billion. In the announcement, Buffett called the purchase an...
View ArticleGlobalization and Measurement Conference
I'm about to go down to DC to attend this conference (I'm giving the after-dinner remarks as well) Measurement Issues Arising from the Growth of Globalization This is a very important conference as we...
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Financial Crisis Creates Productivity Bonanza? No.
This morning's productivity numbers showed a huge gain in output per hour in the third quarter--up at an annual rate of 9.5% in the nonfarm business sector. But here's something else. If we are to...
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The Big Shift
In recent months, I've repeatedly made the point that the financial crisis was a symptom, not a cause. Innovation was weaker than expected, private sector job growth outside of healthcare was virtually...
View ArticleReview of "Profit Power Economics"
Over the next week, as I clean up my desk, I'm going to be doing short reviews of books that I have been meaning to write about. Let's start with Profit Power Economics, a fascinating new book which...
View ArticleMy investment choices....
...if anyone is interested. Following my usual practice, I regret to inform you that I've reduced my investments in domestic equities. I think this play still has another unhappy act to run before the...
View ArticleAdvanced Technology Deficit Widens in 3rd Quarter
Here's more bad news for jobs. According to this morning's trade report, the advanced technology trade deficit widened to $18.2 billion in the third quarter, up from $12.9 billion in the second quarter...
View ArticleInnovation, Jobs, and Corporate Performance
Next week I'm looking forward to speaking at two important innovation-related conferences. On Thursday I will be in Chicago at "Innovating Our Way to Prosperity" put on by The Institute for Work and...
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Service Sector Inflation Ticks Up
The headline number for this morning's PPI report was an 0.6% decline in the price of finished goods less food and energy ("core PPI"). In fact, core finished goods PPI has fallen for 4 out of the past...
View ArticleMy whereabouts
To confirm the rumors: I was not offered a position by Bloomberg. To my friends at BusinessWeek, both old and new: We had a fantastic run, and I loved working with you all. Sometimes we were good,...
View ArticleMy Next Blog
You can find my next blog at www.southmountaineconomics.com I'm taking a hiatus from blogging for about a month. But I will be focusing on innovation and growth. (If there's any problem with getting to...
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