Archive for Economy
Responding To The Pearl Clutchers
Posted by: | CommentsAll the fuss over Newark, NJ Mayor Corey Booker’s comments about Obama’s “nauseating” campaign ad slamming Mitt Romney’s experience with Bain Capital has Booker backtracking, the White House scolding and Republicans clutching their pearls. How dare he slam the private equity firms for maximizing profits at the expense of workers? No business-friendly politician would do that, would they?
Think Progress reminds us of pearl-clutching, anti-capitalist Republicans who did:
Here are the top 10 comments about Bain from Romney’s Republican rivals:
1) “The idea that you’ve got private equity companies that come in and take companies apart so they can make profits and have people lose their jobs, that’s not what the Republican Party’s about.” — Rick Perry [New York Times, 1/12/12]2) “The Bain model is to go in at a very low price, borrow an immense amount of money, pay Bain an immense amount of money and leave. I’ll let you decide if that’s really good capitalism. I think that’s exploitation.” — Newt Gingrich [New York Times, 1/17/12]
3) “Instead of trying to work with them to try to find a way to keep the jobs and to get them back on their feet, it’s all about how much money can we make, how quick can we make it, and then get out of town and find the next carcass to feed upon” — Rick Perry [National Journal, 1/10/12]
4) “We find it pretty hard to justify rich people figuring out clever legal ways to loot a company, leaving behind 1,700 families without a job.” — Newt Gingrich [Globe and Mail, 1/9/12]
Six more at Think Progress. How rude, Digby observes.
‘But I Stand By What I Said Whatever It Was’
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The TED Talk You Weren’t Supposed To See
Posted by: | CommentsSo says Adam Mordecai:
Nick Hanauer, self-described “super-rich” entrepreneur, gave a pretty compelling TED Talk about how the middle class—not the super-rich—are the real job creators. But TED, which has released over 100 different political videos in the past, thought this one was too partisan and chose not to release it.
Under pressure, they eventually did. Here it is anyway. Enjoy.
How’s That Austerity Plan Working For Ya?
Posted by: | CommentsJust in from Paris:
PARIS — Francois Hollande was elected France’s first Socialist president in nearly two decades on Sunday, dealing a humiliating defeat to incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy and shaking up European politics.[...]
The Socialist has vowed to renegotiate the hard-fought fiscal austerity pact signed by EU leaders in March and to make it focus more on growth, but is facing resistance from [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel. The French vote coincides with an election in Greece, where voters were also expected to punish the incumbent parties for landing the country in its bleak economic state. Anger over sputtering economies has brought down leaders from Ireland to Portugal since the debt crisis washed over the European continent.
So Get With The Economy-Killing Program, Already
Posted by: | CommentsFor a Kenyan, Marxist, radical socialist, atheist/Muslim, commie sleeper agent, illegitimate president intent on destroying America, Barack Obama really sucks at his job. Seriously. The S&P 500 closed at 1,405.82 yesterday, and has more than doubled in the last three years. What’s up with that?
The ISM [Institute for Supply Management] reading of 54.8 was a surprise improvement from the month before and the best reading since June 2011, offering the latest signal economic conditions in the U.S. continue to improve.
Soaring stock market boosts retirement accounts
A soaring stock market over the past three months has paid off handsomely for America’s retirement accounts, according to new data from Fidelity Investments, the nation’s largest 401(k) administrator.
Doubting the Austerians
Posted by: | CommentsIn March 1999, Harvey Cox of Harvard Divinity School wrote of the emergence of a new “Supreme Deity, the only true God, whose reign must now be universally accepted and who allows for no rivals.” — The Market.
Omnipotent: In a kind of reverse transubstantiation The Market transmutes all things once holy into items for sale. Like land. “It has been Mother Earth, ancestral resting place, holy mountain, enchanted forest, tribal homeland, aesthetic inspiration, sacred turf, and much more. But when The Market’s Sanctus bell rings and the elements are elevated, all these complex meanings of land melt into one: real estate.”
High Five, Asheville Open Thread
Posted by: | CommentsRiver Arts District sees big benefits from New Belgium
As the politicians and business development associations line up for their photo-ops and back-slapping, I wanted to give props to the real progenitors of Asheville’s newest industry. In all the New Belgium and Sierra Nevada coverage, enough credit has not been given to the role that Asheville’s oft-maligned, scruffy, bicycle-riding, living-wage, sustainability, “know nothing about business” hippie types played in making Asheville Beer City, USA. Without the spade work done by the local brewers, beer enthusiasts, bloggers, and hand-to-mouth civic boosters, there’s no photo-op for the politicians and business development associations.
Here is a grossly incomplete, off-the-cuff list of the under-sung who helped make Asheville Beer City, USA, the kind of place where New Belgium and Sierra Nevada feel right at home:
- Mountain Ale and Lager Tasters (MALT) — Blue Ridge Brew Off
- Barley’s Taproom & Pizzeria, Jimmy Rentz/Doug Beatty — Brewgrass Festival
- Tony Kiss — The Beer Guy
- Asheville bloggers
- Mountain Xpress
- Just Economics — “Just Brew It”
- Asheville’s online and social networking community who delivered the “Beer City, USA” votes and caught the attention of home brew guru, Charlie Papazian.
Please. Add to the list below. You know who the heroes are.
It’s their vibe, their civic pride, and their pride in each other that make Asheville a fun place to live, not just to drop in for a presidential weekend at the Grove Park Inn. It’s a testimony to the good taste of Asheville’s beer drinkers.
Now, get out there and Keep Asheville Weird.
UPDATE FROM GORDON: I’m not asking Tom if I can do this. Just rolling in strong and adding a picture of the tag that New Belgium put on bottles of Fat Tire at the announcement event. After the jump:
Business Development Open Thread
Posted by: | Comments“Victory has a thousand fathers”, said John F. Kennedy, and this week has made it plain that, in Asheville’s economic development, this couldn’t be more true.
Linamar, based in Canada but with 39 factories based in 11 countries, opened their plant yesterday in south Asheville. By the end of the year they’ll be employing 140 local workers in family-wage, career track manufacturing jobs. It took an enormous network of partners to make this happen from the NC Department of Commerce to the Asheville City Council. The Economic Development Coalition of Buncombe County wooed them, and the Buncombe County Commissioners, along with the state and city, came on board with a competitive incentive package. Volvo and Caterpillar signed contracts with Linamar for products, and suppliers made sure they got what they needed. Linamar is going to invest a minimum of $125 million in the plant over the next five years and employ 400 people. At yesterday’s Grand Opening, executives were already discussing expansion of the plant in the near future.
Today there’s going to be a big announcement, too. Come down to the Chamber of Commerce at 4pm if you’d like a front row seat. Ride your bike if you can, because the matter at hand will have permanent effects on our multimodal transportation network in addition to our employment universe. As with Linamar, it’s taken an enormous amount of team play to coax the group to Asheville. Private and public entities have focused like an effervescent laser beam. More details later, but suffice to say there will be jobs and an historic investment. Any economic incentives offered will have to be disclosed and voted upon in open meetings of public bodies.
Lots of folks have differing opinions about tax incentives, which these days most often take the form of tax abatements, but everyone’s got the same opinion about good jobs. We like ‘em.
This is your thread. Opine wildly.
Party Green
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(Click the pic to embiggen)
If you want to rub elbows with the people in this community who are working their green hind-ends off to create a more sustainable future, then you’ll want to bring your green self down to Pack Place on Wednesday night for this event.
Trans-actional probe
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The Republican War on Women demonstrates their oh-so-conservative decision to govern by the precautionary principle. Small-government conservatives have decided it is government’s job to ensure that women view ultrasound videos and have transvaginal probes before having a legal abortion. Clearly, they want to ensure — in a consumer-protectiony kind of way — that women, people, are fully and thoroughly informed of the potential consequences before making such deeply personal decisions. Since Republicans clearly have decided it is government’s job to ensure that they are, shouldn’t we apply the same governing principle to other important personal decisions with potentially life-changing consequences? How about a trans-actional probe?
