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Post-Intelligencer yes, Times no (Sunday, 12/31/00)
Striking workers at one of Seattle's major dailies voted Thursday to end their strike, but their counterparts at the paper across town voted yesterday to reject the latest contract offer. In Israel, a strike of public sector workers could begin within 15 days. Here's more from Haim Bior of Ha'aretz.

The President-elect will lead an economic forum next week (Sunday, 12/31/00)
Mr. Bush will gather his own economic team together with economic experts from outside government next week to talk about the American economy and its prospects.

Japan looks back on the 20th century (Sunday, 12/31/00)
During some of the 20th century's decades, Japan was an imperial power that extended its sway over much of Asia. Then, for several years, it was at war with the United States, and was devastated by the way that war ended. Then, beginning shortly after World War II, with the help of its conqueror, Japan built the second-largest economy in the world, and there was much talk of "miracles." Finally, during the last decade of the century, Japan fumbled and remained largely stagnant, in the process losing some of its international clout and making many people, both at home and abroad, doubtful about its future as a major world economic power. Yoichi Funabashi of Tokyo's Asahi Shimbun offers some perspective on Japan's "lost decade," and why some people believe it could be a blessing in disguise. For further perspective on Japan's likely circumstances during the 21st century, Ralph Cassell reviews Globalization and Social Change in Japan.

Incidentally, many Asians have a long memory, and aren't convinced that a growing insecurity in Japan might not lead to a new Japanese militarism at some point in the future, remembering also that an effort to isolate Japan economically probably helped precipitate the attack on Pearl Harbor. Many Americans seem to assume that the continuing U.S. military presence in Asia is because of a possible threat from the world's largest totalitarian state. Many Asians, on the other hand, are happy to see U.S. troops in Asia because of their nervousness about Japan.

America's special OCD (Sunday, 12/31/00)
It won't qualify technically as a genuine "obsessive-compulsive disorder," but America's preoccupation with consumption, fueled by an historically strong economy during recent years, shares a "family resemblance" with the OCDs commonly treated by mental health professionals in the United States.

Why do Americans even WANT all that "stuff," which can clutter up and trivialize precious life as easily as it can make life satisfying? Is it all a frantic effort to fill personal "empty spaces" arising from the meaninglessness of modern life?

Julianne Malveaux writes in USA Today about "sport shopping" and how it makes Americans more vulnerable to an economic slowdown, even if there isn't a recession, and how it contributes to long-term economic vulnerability. Meanwhile, George Will has been giving more thought to the economy and its declining rate of growth. Among other things, he discusses "known unknowns" and "unknown unknowns."

Incidentally, we've been thinking about "meaninglessness" and how it may relate to a disintegration of traditional structure in American society. For instance, many commentators have interpreted the tie in the recent presidential election, as well as the virtual tie in Congress, as representing some degree of polarization of Americans with respect to clearly-defined cultural or ideological issues. Maybe not.

Approximately 100 million votes were cast in the presidential election, and the result was about the same as if one were to flip a coin 100 million times. In the latter case, the outcome would be a product of "random processes?" But what does "random" really mean? It means that the outcome would be a product of the operation of a very large number of INDEPENDENT factors, and, if these factors are independent, it means less organization or structure.

The overall result of things not being connected to one another will be essentially the same as if everything IS connected to everything else. Cultural structure, including the rituals and traditions that make lives meaningful, requires something in between the two extremes, which is how societies are organized under ordinary conditions. Less so, though, during periods of chaotic revolutionary change.

How one man can make a difference (Sunday, 12/31/00)
It helps to be the richest man in the world, of course, but Bill Gates could be doing something altogether different with his money. Instead, as John Donnelly reports, he's becoming the most influential force for improving the health of the world's poor.

Expected retirement prospects (Sunday, 12/31/00)
The great majority of Americans expect to be fairly secure during their retirement years, according to a new survey from the Scripps Howard News Service and Ohio University.

The abusive American workplace (Sunday, 12/31/00)
Americans are being hard on each other at work, and, according to Glen Fest, this helps explain the epidemic of "workplace rage." Incidentally, while some people are dying a violent death at work, it appears that others are dying on business trips. Jonathan Watts of the Manchester Guardian discusses the health hazards implicit in modern air travel, given its cramped passenger compartments, and why Japanese physicians are concerned.

The Y2K biz year (Sunday, 12/31/00)
Today's Houston Chronicle looks back on a strange year in business. Here's what it considers to be the years top business news stories.

More people are following Shackleton now than in 1914 (Sunday, 12/31/00)
Stephanie Capparell of the Wall Street Journal writes about what business professionals and others can learn about leadership from Sir Ernest Shackleton who tried to walk across Antarctica.

January 1 will be a bad day for nearly a million elderly and disabled people (Sunday, 12/31/00)
As of the first of the year, a large number of Americans will be ejected from their HMOs which are getting out of the Medicare program. Here's more from Jo Thomas of the New York Times. Again, in order to access the New York Times web site, you will have to register, but it's free (and more than worth the cost). Many Russians would prefer to have America's health problems rather than their own. Russians are dying at a higher rate and being born at a lower rate. However, this doesn't apply to all Russians. Michael Wines tells what the huge country to could learn from "Fit City."

Okay, let's talk money (Sunday, 12/31/00)
Nationally-syndicated Chicago Tribune columnist Carol Kleiman the touchy subject of negotiating a salary with a prospective employer.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: JobStar California salary surveys (Sunday, 12/31/00)
JobStar California points to a large number of salary surveys, including many that are occupation-specific.

Unemployment claims dropped last week (Thursday, 12/28/00)
However, it may be an artifact of the methods this time, and should be interpreted accordingly. Overall, it still appears that the labor market is getting a bit less tight.

Striking newspaper workers voting (Thursday, 12/28/00)
Workers at two major Seattle newspapers who have been on strike for more than a month are voting on a contract proposal recommended by their union leaders.

Who will explain American attitudes toward a soft landing? Dr. Will will (Thursday, 12/28/00)
Noted columnist, commentator, and leading baseball fanatic George Will says that the American economy is doing fine, and the stock market is doing what it's supposed to be doing. It's the atittudes of some Americans that are out of whack.

A sometimes overlooked reason why Russia is having difficulties (Thursday, 12/28/00)
Russia is becoming a smaller country. Not geographically, but it's population is shrinking because of higher mortality, reduced life-expectancy, and a greatly reduced birth rate. Michael Wines writes about why this is making economic development more difficult and is likely to continue doing so.

Some employers unenthusiastic about telecommuting (Thursday, 12/28/00)
Recent surveys have found many employers to be fairly cool to telecommuting, even though millions of people appear to be doing it, and the head of the International Telework Association says it does provide benefits. Here's more from the Los Angeles Times.

More holiday job cuts (Thursday, 12/28/00)
American Standard, which has three main product lines, including air conditioning systems and electronic braking and control system for heavy trucks and busses, will cut 1,200 jobs and Union Pacific is cutting 2,000 jobs.

Why Lewis and Clark made a good team (Thursday, 12/28/00)
It's because they went on an adventure together, maybe. American employers have tried nearly everything to build work teams, and sharing adventures seems to be the latest. In the new economy, many of the people working on the front lines are technical or professional types not needing the traditional narrow span-of-control and close supervision, which will probably prove to be counterproductive for the boss anyway. It doesn't pay to hire expensive highly-skilled people and, then, have somebody who knows less about what they're doing tell them precisely what to do and how to do it. So, what holds these new flatter, less-centralized organizations together so that everybody will be singing off the same page? Shared values and purposes, mostly, and various novel activities and programs have been intended to promote these, including what appear to be secular "revival meetings." Columnist Diane Stafford talks about change this time too, and how resistance to it can send your career careening off the track toward a dead-end.

Transsexuals in the workplace (Thursday, 12/28/00)
Some employers are becoming more accepting, and employee attitudes are beginning to change a bit too. What may help is understanding what transsexualism is and what it isn't. Here's more from today's Washington Post.

Bill Bennett gets into the education business (Thursday, 12/28/00)
Former Education Secretary and drug czar William Bennett is starting an online K-12 educational service in which a company owned by Michael Milken, Larry Ellison, and others is investing $10 million. Incidentally, speaking of "czars," President-elect Bush seems to be considering appointing one for technology, at the same time he might elevate the Environmental Protection Agency to cabinet status, two signs that the new administration may recognize which century we're in.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Understanding the Global Economy (Thursday, 12/28/00)
Professor Howard Richards believes that the problems of the global economy cannot be solved if we continue to think only in conventional economic terms. Here's his book, Understanding the Global Economy.

Is the American workplace trying to get somebody's attention? (Wednesday, 12/27/00)
Even people who have had a high-quality course in general psychology may have a very limited view of causation and human behavior. The simplest--as well as most simple-headed--view of causality is "single cause producing single effect," and that's about as far as many students get when a professor is trying to tell them what a control group in an experiment is for. If they continue through adult life believing that this is the only possibility, it's easy to despair, thinking that it's nuts to assume that there is a single cause of crime, a single cause of drug dependency, and so on. It's easy to revert to the traditional notion that mankind somehow stands outside nature and is not subject to natural processes.

However, nothing could be further from the truth. Humanity surely is part of nature and surely is subject to natural processes, but nature is much more subtle than we used to think--ask any modern physicist, as opposed to any classical physicist. At the very least, a complex multicausal approach is needed in order to have any hope of understanding human behavior. Better yet, try to think of human brains, as well as human social systems, as non-linear complex dynamic systems mathematically similar to meteorological systems, and you'll get closer to the truth.

"Chaos theory," which originated in meteorology, tells why there is an inherent limit to the precision with which we will ever be able to forecast the weather, and it's not because of limited information. It's inherent in the nature of those kinds of systems. It's not because the weather hasn't "decided" what it's going to do yet either. Similarly with human nature.

So, can yesterday's workplace massacre in Massachusetts be attributed to increased workplace stress? Certainly not by itself. It won't work to look for a single cause, remember? Nonetheless, if you "turn up the heat," those people who are already heavily predisposed to blow up for other reasons become more likely to do so. As a system gets more extreme, on the average, we should expect an increase in the number of its most extreme cases, and there is good reason to believe that workplace stress has been on the increase. Here are some details of yesterday's shootings in Massachusetts, and here are what somebody regards as some signs to look for. Also, the Washington Post lists the major workplace shootings that have occurred in the United States during the past five years.

November unemployment in Japan nears record (Wednesday, 12/27/00)
The 4.9 percent rate last February was a postwar record. Unemployment reached 4.8 percent in November. Daewoo Motors has been having particular problems. According to Bloomberg News. the company was declared insolvent in November and has been trying to cut back on its production capacity. Those efforts have been frustrated because fewer workers than expected have chosen to accept opportunities for early retirement.

South Korean riot police end sit-in of bank employees (Wednesday, 12/27/00)
Union leaders say that the protest will go on, however. Striking bank workers are angry about plans for a major merger that they expect will cost jobs.

Leading Indicators down (Wednesday, 12/27/00)
The Conference Board's Index of Leading Economic Indicators declined in November. Lower rates of growth can be expected during the first part of next year, according to the Index. Given that annualized rates fell from the 5 and 6 percent range not long ago to 2.2 percent during the third quarter, a similar drop would put the economy in a negative growth situation, and two quarters of that would mean a recession. Stay tuned.

The big dot-com-down continues (Wednesday, 12/27/00)
Internet company job cuts for the month of December reached 10,459, which is a monthly record. Here's more from today's Washington Post.

Why the WTO might like Bush better (Wednesday, 12/27/00)
Naomi Koppel writes from Geneva about why the World Trade Organization might find President-elect Bush's attitudes toward labor and environmental issues more appealing.

Bias suit becomes a class-action suit (Wednesday, 12/27/00)
A suit against Western Auto alleging racial discrimination has been granted class-action status by a federal judge.

How to end homelessness in American by 2010 (Wednesday, 12/27/00)
Alexandra Marks of the Christian Science Monitor writes that social service agencies have been using the 40,000 homeless shelters in the U.S. as "dumping grounds."

Americans don't hate their government after all (Wednesday, 12/27/00)
A new survey indicates that, by and large, Americans are fairly satisfied with the job its government does on a routine basis.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Aging Studies Program (Wednesday, 12/27/00)
Many industrialized nations, including the United States, have aging populations. The demographic shifts are likely to influence nearly everything, including the nations' respective economies. Here is the Aging Studies Program in Syracuse University's Center for Policy Research.

Workplace slaughter (Tuesday, 12/26/00)
Seven persons have died in a workplace shooting in Massachusetts.

Don't blame us either (Tuesday, 12/26/00)
The President-elect and Vice President-elect have made a conspicuous effort during the past week or so to point out that the American economy is slowing and also remind the American public which administration is still in power. However, Clinton's Treasury Secretary, Lawrence Summers, hastened to point out on television Sunday that the current administration shouldn't be blamed either. It's nobody's fault, he says. A slower rate of growth than we've been used to recently is inevitable. Interestingly, writer, very Republican conservative commentator, and former political science professor George Will seemed to agree on the same program, saying that what is happening with the American economy now is what is supposed to be happening.

Who will be running the American economy after January 20? (Tuesday, 12/26/00)
Four men who have known each other for years will have a lot to do with determining American economy policy. One is already in office.

Even if there's a recession, here's one type of worker who may be in short supply (Tuesday, 12/26/00)
Labor shortages in many sectors may disappear if there is a recession next year, but bankruptcy lawyers may have plenty to do, and there may not be quite enough of them. Incidentally, the Los Angeles Times' James Flanigan writes that a sputtering U.S. economy is making a major fiscal response seem less goofy, even to people who don't have an ideological agenda lurking behind their policy proposals and assessments of the economy's condition. However, what does seem a bit odd is that it's the Republicans this time who seem to want to stimulate the economy through fiscal means, as opposed to monetary policy. Isn't that what Republicans used to accuse Democrats of wanting to do too often? Who was it who remarked that "we're all Keynsians now"?

To say that human nature hasn't changed is easy; to say what human nature really is is harder (Tuesday, 12/26/00)
Economics columnist Paul Samuelson says he knew it all the time, or something to that effect. The new economy isn't new anymore, and we've all learned some lessons about the eternal verities of conventional economic theory. We're not convinced that economic theory has been all that effective at capturing the essence of complex social realities all along, and, even if human nature hasn't changed, the conditions of human life seem to be undergoing radical transformation. Also, for a very long time, the psychological assumptions underlying much economic thinking have appeared to be hopelessly naive and essentially "theological," as opposed to resting on empirical research.

On being rich and privileged in South Africa (Tuesday, 12/26/00)
South Africa's Financial Mail tells what life is like for the people in its country who have nearly everything.

Russia looks back on a pretty good year (Tuesday, 12/26/00)
The Russian economy no longer seems to be the world's most depressing basket case. Well, it hasn't been, of course, but it's the one we've heard the most about, in part, because so many people in the United States thought they knew how ancient Russia could become a viable democratic capitalist society overnight. Growth has been strong during 2000, but a top Russian government official says that structural reforms are still needed and needed quickly if a recession is to be avoided. Meanwhile, the Russian president promises an increased standard of living, which is good news for people who have been trying to live on less than many in the U.S. and other rich countries spill without bothering to pick up. Russians have learned to be somewhat cynical, of course, or, at least, highly realistic, so President Putin will lose credibility quickly if Russia's economy doesn't continue on its present growth path.

Gates a bigger benefactor than Uncle Sam (Tuesday, 12/26/00)
The maybe-still-richest-man-in-the-world and his wife donated more money through their foundation during the year than the U.S. government. Among other things, the Gates foundation has been taking a leading role in addressing global health issues. Poor nations got some additional help from rich nations for Christmas, though. Thirty-two billion dollars in loans have been forgiven. Incidentally, here's how the billions of dollars in aid that the U.S. provides Egypt is being used.

Will Microsoft's problems go away in a new administration? (Tuesday, 12/26/00)
President-elect Bush has hinted a bit about how he feels about the order to break up Microsoft, and, although the new administration's possibly most conservative cabinet member hasn't clarified his position on the Microsoft case yet, his opinion is likely to count for quite a lot, considering that he will be the new Attorney General.

Japan not cheered by recent numbers (Tuesday, 12/26/00)
Japan's once "miraculous" economy has been in a frump for ten years, and some of the latest key government data aren't encouraging about the strength of its hoped-for recovery. An aging population and huge pension obligations aren't helping. Incidentally, there has been much talk in the U.S. about privatizing part of the American Social Security system, and, as John Tagliabue reports from Paris, Europeans have been giving some fresh thought to their pensions too. The proportional increases in the number of older people is causing a lot of re-thinking in many regions, as fewer workers have to support an increasing number of retirees.

Bank workers defy government order to return to work (Tuesday, 12/26/00)
They're still protesting a planned bank merger in South Korea, and they're vowing to increase the level of their protests.

How to go about buying your home? (Tuesday, 12/26/00)
Public housing residents who want to become home owners are confused about the regulations and procedures, according to Ziv Maor of Israel's Ha'aretz.

Many non-traditional students are entering the Japanese higher educational system (Tuesday, 12/26/00)
Many need special support too, according to psychologists and university officials. Here's more from Makoto Kashiwagi of Tokyo's Asahi Shimbun.

Attitudes toward reparations may be shifting (Tuesday, 12/26/00)
More than a half-century after the end of World War II, it appears that many persons forced by the Germans and the Japanese to work as slaves will receive reparations. The ancestors of many Americans were victims of the most heinous crime ever perpetrated in the Americas, and it went on for centuries. The Washington Post reports that, while support for paying reparations has not been strong in the United States, attitudes may be shifting a bit, given the growing number of Americans who believe that people should be paid for their work, even if the checks are late. Ancient economies depended on slavery, and the old South's economy certainly did. Moreover, some of the American economy's long-term success can be attributed to the fact that a lot of the people who have done the work either have been underpaid or not paid at all. It's fairly easy for some activities to appear profitable if you don't count all the costs.

Castro may be threatened by the Internet (Tuesday, 12/26/00)
Totalitarian government is allergic to free and open communication of any kind and does its best to suppress it. However, the Internet, decentralized by its nature, is harder to control, even in Cuba. Here's more from today's Washington Post. Also in the Post today, here's a story about how another totalitarian society--this one the world's largest--may be undergoing some degree of disequilibrium because of women who insist on being modern women. That's what China gets for trying to develop a modern market economy. Is freedom indivisible? The Chinese government has been hoping that it can have economic freedom without setting off an irresistible appetite for political freedom. Lotsa luck, guys.

Brookings' top 50 list (Tuesday, 12/26/00)
The Brookings Institution, the renowned "think tank," has an answer for those left-over Newtonians who seemed to want to repeal the Articles of Confederation a few years ago. The federal government isn't all bad, as Bob Dole and other major non-Democrats have pointed out. In fact, here are 50 good things it's done. "Newtonian" in this case doesn't refer to followers of Isaac, but, instead, to the followers of the former Speaker of the House of Representatives. Of course, there is argument about the extent to which the President-elect is a) moderate, b) conservative, c) confused about his ideology, or d) all of the above.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Paycheck Calculators (Tuesday, 12/26/00)
Want to be sure you're receiving the right amount from your boss after deductions? These Paycheck Calculators can help you check on that and more.

It's STILL the economy, er, smarty (Sunday, 12/24/00)
David Sanger writes about one thing that is almost sure to make a new president lose a little sleep, and John Berry says that many, including various people at the Fed, have been surprised at the sharpness of the downturn. A recession may not be on the way for 2001, but the slowing of the American economy may feel like it anyway, according to this Seattle Times story. In fact, many American adults are unfamiliar with recessions, and may think that anything less than a raging boom is hard times. Twenty-year-olds were ten-year-olds when the last one ended, for instance.

For the benefit of people who may be unfamiliar with the term, or who may have forgotten what it means, a "recession" refers to two consecutive quarters of negative growth. This year's third quarter had the lowest rate of growth in four years--2.2 percent--but it's still growth.

Incidentally, most of the time, the incumbent party in a presidential election will be victorious if the economy is strong. Even though the economy was in the process of slowing during the late days of the campaign, the definitive numbers weren't available at that time, so the November election shouldn't even have been close.

So, what happened with candidate Gore? Was it slopover from Clinton's personal troubles? Maybe, but polls were suggesting that, despite everything, if he could have run again, Clinton might very well have defeated Bush. Political scientists, amateur and professional, are likely to argue for generations about this as well as about who got the most votes in Florida. Will Gore get a second chance, or will Democrats try to forget him as they have managed, quite successfully, to do in relation to Dukakis and Mondale.

Bank workers still protesting planned merger (Sunday, 12/24/00)
They expect that the merger of two major banks will result in a loss of jobs, and thousands of them have barricaded themselves inside a bank building in Seoul, South Korea to call attention to their concerns. So far, though, they haven't been able to force a cancellation of the merger.

Post-mortem on the new economy (Sunday, 12/24/00)
The Washington Post says that the new economy went bad "bit by bit.", while the Post's David Ignatius writes that people who chose to stay with traditional companies, rather than racing to Internet startups a few months ago, are looking quite a lot smarter now. Despite all the blood on the floor at the moment, our view is that hi-tech, including the Internet, is indeed transforming the world. We've been saying for several years that it's probably a mistake to think of the Internet as just another business opportunity, just as nobody made any money directly from the Interstate highway system. Fundamental changes in a society's infrastructure sooner or later change everything, and, in business, will change the ways some make money and the ways others lose it and go out of business. But, the Internet, and particularly what it is likely to evolve into, is likely to have such fundamental effects that the term "infrastructure" won't capture them. We'll need a new word for it.

Hi-tech's new hot spot (Sunday, 12/24/00)
While the 20th century was largely the century of physics and technologies arising from a new understanding of the physical universe, we might expect this to be the century of biology and technologies based on biological breakthroughs. In fact, as Ransdell Pierson and Ben Hirschler report, we're about to see an explosion of biotechnological R&D during the new year.

Foreign migrant workers try to get out to Libya fast (Sunday, 12/24/00)
Ghanans who have been working in Libya are trying to flee because of violence.

He's still Billionaire Bill, though (Sunday, 12/24/00)
Most people who have lost two-thirds of their net worth within a few months could be forgiven for cutting back a bit on their charitable giving for a while. Bill Gates seems different, and it may have to do with the size of the numbers. For a brief period nearly two years ago, Bill's net worth was in the comfortable neighborhood of $100 billion. Now, because of major slippage in the value of Microsoft stock, first because of the government order to break up the company and, more recently, because of the slumping tech sector overall, Bill's worth seems to be hovering at about $30 billion, give or take a few. Nonetheless, while he may or may not still be the richest man in the world, Bill Gates is pushing ahead with his plans to make the world a healthier place, but he would like some help.

Is "affluenza" contagious? (Sunday, 12/24/00)
Michelle Singletary of the Washington Post reports that a survey from U.S. Trust finds that a lot of very well-off Americans are concerned about the effect of their affluence on their children. Poverty is a well-known risk factor for all sorts of human maladies and misfortunes, but we've suspected for a long time that wealth is also a risk factor which makes it harder for some people to lead productive lives, maintain psychological well-being, and have a beneficial effect on the lives of others. Bill Gates has said many times that he intends to give away nearly all of his fortune within his lifetime and that he doesn't believe in allowing great wealth to be dumped on children, so he's not going to do that. U.S. Senator-elect Mark Dayton from Minnesota comes from a fabulously wealthy family, and remembers his father saying, as he reminded young Mark about his chores and other responsibilities, that "there's nothing worse than a rich bum."

On being a Republican farmer who is dependent on the government (Sunday, 12/24/00)
Social psychologists call it "cognitive dissonance." It's the deep feeling of conflict that can arise from feelings of inconsistency or self-betrayal. For instance, Timothy Egan writes from Montana about farmers who have become dependent on government payments in order to stay on their farms, and who don't like it. Incidentally, President-elect Bush is scheduled to meet with farm leaders on Friday to explain his plans for American agriculture, which has been in a depression during the longest economic expansion in U.S. since the framers of the Constitution met in Philadelphia.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: GRADSCHOOLS.COM: Agricultural Economics (Sunday, 12/24/00)
If you think it's time to learn a lot about agricultural economics, this site can direct you to post-graduate programs in the field throughout the United States. For instance, why are there so many hungry and malnourished people in the world at the same time there is a glut of food? Also, why, over the last half of the 20th century or so, has American agriculture gotten so much better at producing food in abundance at about the same time it has gotten so ineffective at producing profits? Feel free to list several hundred additional questions of your own.

Profit alarm bells sounding in many sectors (Saturday, 12/23/00)
Many companies are having profit problems, another sign of a weakening American economy. However, argument will continue about whether the great American boom is simply getting near the end of its natural life-cycle, or whether it has been brought on, either by Clinton administration policies or by Fed-ordered interest rate increases. George W. seemed to back off slightly from his expressed concerns about the economy yesterday, following critics' claims that he could aggravate whatever problem there is. Many consider it obvious that, if there is a recession next year, the new Bush administration won't want its fingerprints on it, so they're trying to do a little PR inoculation in advance, hoping to be able to blame it on policies over which they have had no influence prior to January 20. Incidentally, the recent bloodletting on Wall Street, particularly with respect to the Nasdaq, is having a major impact on Christmas bonuses, as well as on employment itself.

Settlement may be near in Seattle newspaper strike (Saturday, 12/23/00)
Mediators seem optimistic that the strike affecting both large Seattle daily newspapers may soon be over.

German government disagrees with many German citizens on immigration issue (Saturday, 12/23/00)
Germans have been traditionally unenthusiastic about foreign workers, and polls show that a majority of Germans still would like others to stay home, rather than come to Germany to work. During those times when workers have been brought in from outside the country, it's usually been to take unattractive jobs that Germans haven't wanted, and, then, there has been the tendency to hold the foreign workers' lowly status against them and even blame them for taking jobs from Germans. However, the German Chancellor and other leaders feel that these kinds of attitudes are not only irrational, but greatly behind the times. Germany needs more workers from other countries if it is to make a full transition to the new global economy and continue to be competitive as it has been during much of the time since its rebuilding after World War II. Chancellor Schroeder seems ready to take on the issue next year.

Alan probably won't have to arm-wrestle others at the Fed if he wants a rate cut (Saturday, 12/23/00)
Barbara Hagenbaugh reports from Washington that the Chairman probably won't face much internal resistance to the idea of an early-2001 interest rate decrease. Nonetheless, new members of the Federal Open Market Committee may still be cautious.

Aerospace welcomes dot-com-motion (Saturday, 12/23/00)
A lot of tech experts who have been working for Internet companies are now jumping overboard and swimming in the direction of less-leaky vessels. The Aerospace industry couldn't be happier, because they it's in desperate need of techies, according to industry officials.

Complaint process now defined (Saturday, 12/23/00)
The 1979 United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women has been ratified by 166 countries, but, until now, there has been no complaint procedure in place, so the treaty has had very small teeth. That has changed. Women can now submit harassment and discrimination complaints to the U.N.

'Tis the season for some thieven (Saturday, 12/23/00)
Steve Myers of Raleigh's News & Observer reports on the problem of employee theft during the holiday stealing season.

Options for everybody (Saturday, 12/23/00)
One of the features of the new economy is the broader distribution of risk--e.g., workers are no longer insulated quite so much from the vagaries of the market--and also to spread responsibility for success around more. There have been various "participative management" attempts over many years, all intending to build greater organizational cohesion so that workers throughout the organization are singing off the same page. Now, as Jim Fuquay reports, an increasing number of companies are offering stock options to everybody in the organization, not just top management, in order to give everybody a stake in their company's success. Inspire Insurance Solutions is one of the latest examples.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: WashTech (Saturday, 12/23/00)
No, WashTech doesn't have to do with computerized washing machines. Instead, it is a publication from the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers. Washington state, that is, which, as you may recall, is where the world's largest software company and the world's most influential corporation are located. Hmmmm....come to think of it, they're the same company.

Clinton signs budget on the dotted line (Friday, 12/22/00)
It's the last budget of the Clinton administration, and the President urges restraint, saying that the best days may still lie ahead. However, key figures in the current administration continue to argue with key figures in the next one over the immediate future of the American economy, particularly about the possible self-fulfilling effects of George W.'s remarks about warning signs. Here's more on that debate from today's Washington Post.

Pay cuts at Charles Schwab (Friday, 12/22/00)
The big online broker is cutting the pay of senior executives up to 50 percent in order to cut costs. Hewlett-Packard, on the other hand, will hold back awhile on intended raises.

Talks resume in Seattle newspaper strike (Friday, 12/22/00)
Representatives of the two sides are getting together with a mediator again with the hope that the month-long strike at the big Seattle dailies can be brought to a satisfactory conclusion.

Third quarter growth at four-year low (Friday, 12/22/00)
Martin Crutsinger puts the slowing of the American economy into perspective. The third-quarter growth rate was 2.2 percent, the lowest in four years. In Japan, forecasters disagree about what to expect for the Japanese economy, in large part because of uncertainty about consumer spending, according to Manabu Hara of Asahi Shimbun.

Brazilians flood into cities from the countryside (Friday, 12/22/00)
Growth of the Brazilian population is slowing a bit overall, but people are still moving to the already overcrowded cities in search of economic security and opportunity.

Surrogate mothers in Israel (Friday, 12/22/00)
An Israeli attorney has been charged with bringing women into the country to act as surrogate mothers who sell their babies to Israelis.

Workplace rage (Friday, 12/22/00)
For whatever reasons, many stressed Americans seem to have developed short fuses. Some blow up on the highway, others at the office. Here's more on workplace rage from Chuck Haga.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Planet Alumni (Friday, 12/22/00)
Planet Alumni may be able to help you locate those old long-lost school friends.

Why is he saying those things about the American economy? (Thursday, 12/21/00)
The President-elect is concerned about the U.S. economy, or, at least, he says he is. However, it's difficult for presidents to report on events without influencing them, and one of President Clinton's top economic advisors is accusing George W. of encouraging fears in order to position his new administration to get the tax cut he talked about so much in his campaign. However, Barbara Hagenbaugh says he may have a couple of political purposes when expressing concerns about where the economy is headed. For one thing, by talking about it before he is in power, if a recession occurs early in his administration, he can say, "Don't blame me." Still, new government data released today confirms that the economy has hit the brakes, but not necessarily the skids.

Greenspan likes O'Neill (Thursday, 12/21/00)
The Chairman of the Federal Reserve says he thinks the President-elect has made a fine choice for the next Secretary of the Treasury, and Greenspan has worked with Paul O'Neill before. O'Neill appears to be fairly popular with a lot of Democrats and union leaders too, according to today's Washington Post. Here's a quick profile of the new Treasury Secretary from the New York Times. In the small world department, in addition to being Chairman at Alcoa, Paul O'Neill has been Chairman of the Board of Trustees at RAND, a leading non-profit policy research organization since the days immediately after World War II. RAND was founded by Herman Kahn, who, in the early 1960s, shortly before his death, also founded The Hudson Institute, another top private "think tank." Richard Judy, probably the leading workforce expert in the world, and Jane Lommel are Hudson consultants, and are among our regular contributors. Dr. Lommel's NetWorking column begins this month on BNWW.

Bush wants OPEC's help in lowering energy prices (Thursday, 12/21/00)
It appears that most of the ambiguity about the reality of global warming that existed even a couple of years ago has been dispelled by recent research. It does appear that the earth is becoming a different planet from what modern humans have found familiar over the past 40,000 years or so. The only real remaining questions appear to be how fast the changes will occur from now on--e.g., do the mathematics of "chaos theory" apply, with all that implies?--gulp!--and what can be done to preserve earth as a place we will want our descendants to live.

Increasing the consumption of fossil fuels in resource-hungry societies such as the United States probably won't be a solution. In democracies, politicians tend to follow as much as lead, and many Americans still don't believe in global warming, whatever the facts. Of course, lots of Americans believe that Elvis still lives too, but we have to hope that, when the stakes are high, our leaders will be sufficiently smart and courageous so as not to allow popular misconceptions to guide public policy.

This is not to imply that centralized totalitarian states have a better record, of course. 20th century Communist governments allowed or even promoted the savage ravaging of their nations' environments and natural resources.

21st century realities present a complex dilemma, but, so far, most major politicians appear to be willing to work to solve only PART of the problem. President-elect Bush wants OPEC to increase oil production in order to help bring energy prices down, which is likely to increase consumption. When will he drop the other shoe?

One of the last opportunities to please labor and make business mad (Thursday, 12/21/00)
New regulations governing the awarding of federal contracts have business a bit upset, while American organized labor seems pleased. Within a month, we might expect more examples of the opposite--policies which will please business but make labor mad.

Management shortage in Russia (Thursday, 12/21/00)
Russia has huge natural and wonderful human resources, but it doesn't have enough people who really know how to develop and exploit these resources or how to run things. John Varoli reports from St. Petersburg on Russia's management crisis. One of the major reason for America's tremendous success is that it has a vast reservoir of talent from which to draw, and, in fact, even the people applying to American business schools already have more experience than they used to. It's one reason that Americans can afford to relax a little about the outcome of presidential elections. Whether it's a President William Jefferson Clinton (gifted, brilliantly talented, deeply flawed) or a President George Walker Bush (maybe greatly limited, maybe not), you can be sure that many key positions in government will be filled by some of the most competent people in the United States, which is to say on the planet.

Eighty-six democracies? (Thursday, 12/21/00)
While some democracies are more democratic than others, a new Freedom House report says that 40 percent of the world's population is "free." The world's first modern democracy continues to be a model for many other countries, and also continues to be an important influence in the encouragement of democratization around the world. For instance, the Christian Science Monitor's John Dillin reports that a new survey of hundreds of American professors finds that many believe that the Marshall Plan was one of the best things America has done in a long time, and, without it, Europe would be a very different place today.

Global connections (Thursday, 12/21/00)
According to Phred Dvorak of the Wall Street Journal, Japan's exports are growing more slowly, frustrating that country's attempts to bring about a full recovery from the worst recession since World War II. However, one thing that does appear to be on the rise in Japan is taxes. Anyway, if a recession occurs in the U.S., a major portion of the market for Japanese products will dry up even more. In a world where nearly everything is connected to nearly everything else, by definition, there is little isolation anymore, and, given the economic dominance of the U.S. right now, if American gets the sniffles, much of the rest of the world can catch pneumonia. Meanwhile, editorial writers at the Minneapolis Star Tribune tell why the new national security advisor is wrong if she believes that world poverty isn't a legitimate concern of the United States and that trying to do something about it is not in America's national interest. Incidentally, Americans have a record of generosity, and, as Eileen Alt Powell reports, charitable giving is expected to hit a record.

Why employers should care about elder care (Thursday, 12/21/00)
If companies want their workers to work so many hours, knowing that this can make family responsibilities harder to meet, employers probably have a stake in trying to help ease those burdens. Diane Stafford writes that it isn't just child-care that is putting the pressure on a lot of American workers. Many have responsibilities for the older generation as well as the younger one.

University tuition to be cut in half (Thursday, 12/21/00)
No, no, no, not in the United States. We're talking about tuition in Israel. Here's more from Relly Sa'ar of Ha'aretz. Incidentally, in other news from Israel, pilots are leaving their country to find work elsewhere because of the tourism slump.

A lot of Chinese filmmakers may soon be looking for work (Thursday, 12/21/00)
Membership in the World Trade Organization would require that more foreign films be allowed to be distributed in China, and that would mean trouble for its state-owned domestic film industry.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: RAND (Thursday, 12/21/00)
The Treasury Secretary-designate and Chairman of Alcoa is also Chairman of the Board of Trustees of RAND, one of the premier private "think tanks" in the world.

Change of attitude and possibly a change of direction at the Federal Reserve (Wednesday, 12/20/00)
No interest rate cuts yet, but they're likely shortly after the beginning of the new year. The Fed appears to believe that slowed growth is more of a threat now than inflation, and, in fact, the economy may be slowing too much, too fast in response to earlier interest rate increases which haven't entirely worked their way through the system yet.

Bush builds his cabinet (Wednesday, 12/20/00)
Apparently, it will be Evans at Commerce, Martinez at Housing, Veneman at Agriculture, O'Neill at Treasury, and Coats at Defense, and the latter is not pleasing a lot of gays and women.

Protesters in Argentine streets (Wednesday, 12/20/00)
Thousands of Argentine labor federation members marched yesterday in Buenos Aires to protest the government's austerity program, most notably deregulation of the country's social security system.

Seattle Times says it will hire replacements (Wednesday, 12/20/00)
As the newspaper strikes continue in Seattle, one of the big dailies says it will begin to hire replacement workers, while striking workers say it may be an illegal action on the part of the company and is intended to break the union.

More layoffs (Wednesday, 12/20/00)
Cummins manufacturers engines, but fewer have been needed recently because of the sluggish market for big trucks. As a consequence, Cummins will lay off another 500 workers to add to the 1,000 cuts that have already been planned. Chrysler's new CEO isn't ruling out job cuts as part of his planned restructuring of the company, and hundreds of temps at Ameritrade are finding that they are even more temporary than they thought.

Has "Japan, Inc." been reincarnated in the U.S.? (Wednesday, 12/20/00)
Not so many years ago, American executives were visiting Tokyo in large numbers in an effort to learn Japan's secret of economic success. All that has changed. The U.S. economy has been the envy of the world during the past several years, and Japan has been struggling, so far with unspectacular results, to recover from its worst recession since the devastation of World War II. Still, corporate housing as a perk in the U.S. brings to mind that earlier time when "Japan, Inc." meant that the government took care of the corporations and the corporations took care of its workers in a manner more paternalistic than most Americans would have felt tolerable.

One-fifth of Israelis in poverty (Wednesday, 12/20/00)
Israel's National Insurance Institute and its Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs have released a report on the country's poor. Ha'aretz reporter Ruth Sinai also has more specific information on how poverty is defined in Israel.

There was no free farmland in the Dominican Republic (Wednesday, 12/20/00)
Hundreds of Japanese people who were encouraged to emigrate to the Dominican Republic during the 1950s with false promises of free farmland are suing. Here's more from Tokyo's Asahi Shimbun.

Some limits on employer liability (Wednesday, 12/20/00)
A correspondent asks if an employer can be held liable for damages if a worker is required to travel to work under hazardous conditions. Here's an answer from today's Washington Post.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (Wednesday, 12/20/00)
During the most of the tens of thousands of years that modern humans have been using that remarkable piece of engineering, the human hand, to do work, people have not been required to make the same repetitive motions hundreds of thousands of times during a brief period, and the hand isn't well-designed for this purpose. Large numbers of people are doing just that in the new economy, of course, and repetitive stress injuries have become a common feature of the new work world. Here's what WebMD has to say about Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

IMF plays fire fighting role in Latin America (Tuesday, 12/19/00)
The International Monetary Fund is rushing to help Argentina head off a crisis that many fear could spread across Latin America and end the region's robust recovery from the troubles of the late '90s.

Newspaper talks break down in Seattle (Tuesday, 12/19/00)
No settlement is in sight. The strikes continue at both big Seattle dailies after nearly a month, and no new talks are scheduled.

Industrial production slipping in Britain (Tuesday, 12/19/00)
Business Week examines the reasons for the recent slowdown in the UK's manufacturing sector.

More on the cooling trend (Tuesday, 12/19/00)
The signs are unmistakable, according to Business Week. The American economy is cooling, but slowly. The Federal Reserve is still thought to be a bit concerned about the tightness of the labor markets, even though, as USA Today reports, many experts think that the Fed could declare victory over inflation, at least for the time being, and cut interest rates in order to give the economy a boost and avoid a recession. The current President expects 2001 to be a "pretty good year" for the American economy, but the next President is worried about a possible energy crunch and its effects. Even though the labor market continues to be relatively tight, a lot of layoffs are occurring, and, as Adam Geller writes, this is worrying some experts, and not just because of the pall that layoffs cast over the holiday period for a lot of American families. Among the companies cutting jobs are the newish Hispanic Television Network, Red Herring magazine, which has been reporting on hi-tech layoffs elsewhere, and...Wham! Bam!...Stan Lee Media.

Will the real President Putin please stand up? (Tuesday, 12/19/00)
Is Russia's President Putin a free-market democrat or someone whose nostalgia for the "good old Soviet days" would have him return his country to Communism if that were possible? He seems to be showing conflicting tendencies, and his personal contradictions might have a major effect on Russia's future.

Same-sex benefits offered to BellSouth employees (Tuesday, 12/19/00)
Same-sex domestic partners of employees at BellSouth will join those working for the other Baby Bells now that the company has changed its policy in order to broaden eligibility for benefits.

Microsoft to cut costs, but not necessarily workers (Tuesday, 12/19/00)
In fact, the largest software company in the world has been scrambling during recent months to hold on to its top people and will continue to provide the incentives necessary to do that, according to company officials. Following the big stock price drop after a judge ordered the breakup of the company, previous stock options became worthless, and the company moved quickly to offer new ones. Nonetheless, some key people have defected, although with a Republican administration on its way, there is the possibility that a change of attitude on the part of the Justice Department could make some of Microsoft's legal problems go away, and this could make recruiting and holding on to creative people easier again. In addition to its own special problems, Microsoft is also affected by the overall downturn that the tech sector is experiencing right now, which nearly everybody expects to be only temporary.

Rules to live by in the new economy (Tuesday, 12/19/00)
Here are "Ten Commandments" for making it in the new economy, not from God, but from an industry executive and a consultant.

Re-thinking the Phillips curve (Tuesday, 12/19/00)
Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley and the Brookings Institution think they now understand better why the Fed has been so successful in helping to bring about the great American boom.

The impact of entrepreneurial immigrants (Tuesday, 12/19/00)
Researchers from the University of California and Northwestern University say that immigrants, who tend to be more likely to start their own businesses than native-born Americans, have had a significant effect on the self-employment prospects of many Americans, but not in all demographic categories.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: 100 Best Companies to Work For (Tuesday, 12/19/00)
Everybody's heard of the Fortune 500. Now, here's the Fortune 100. It's Fortune magazine's list of the 100 best companies to work for.

Bush and Greenspan meet today (Monday, 12/18/00)
The President-elect is concerned about the direction in which the American economy may be going, knowing that a recession on his watch won't help his chances of having a successful presidency. He knows who he should talk to, though, and they're getting together in Washington today.

Richard Stevenson of the New York Times discusses the reasons for Bush's concern, and in another story, the Times examines the "fraying edges" of an economy still in the longest expansion in all of American history as well as what several experts think about the likelihood of a "soft landing."

Incidentally, what will the Bush presidency be like? Ideological considerations aside, while George W. certainly doesn't appear to be an "empty suit," many, including some leaders in the Republican Party, have been concerned that he may not be the most impressive or sharpest tool in the shed either, but they will be satisfied to have a Republican administration, so long as some of the party's top people are part of it.

So far, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, and Condoleezza Rice are on board, and all are EXTREMELY strong personalities, each a personification of competence. A potential problem is that these and other heavyweights to be added later may go off in their own directions and be surrogate presidents in their own areas of responsibility. George W. will need the strength to remind them all who is president and he will be the only one who can guarantee that the center holds.

Still, one can never know for sure in advance who will grow to fill the office. Democrats all over the U.S. fainted dead away when Harry Truman ascended to the presidency, and large numbers of people, not just in the South, which seceded, but many in the North as well, considered Lincoln's election to the presidency a national catastrophe. So, stay tuned.

Finally...full settlement in Detroit (Monday, 12/18/00)
After 5 1/2 years, the conflict between Detroit's two major newspapers and its unions has reached an end with approval of a new contract.

Nearly 50,000 telephone workers go on strike (Monday, 12/18/00)
Korea Telecom is managing to maintain ordinary service, for the time being, at least, despite a strike of 47,000 of its workers.

The year 2000 may really turn out to be the first year of Russia's new national history (Monday, 12/18/00)
Historians may look back on 2000, not only as the year in which control of the Russian government passed from one elected president to another elected president, something for which there is no precedent over a thousand years of Russian history, but also as the beginning of what may turn out to be a genuinely successful free-market economy, after all. Most of this rosy scenario still lies in an uncertain future, of course. Still, as Sabrina Tavernse reports, high oil prices may have given the Russian economy the jump start it has needed.

If Argentina stumbles... (Monday, 12/18/00)
Larry Rohter reports from Rio de Janeiro for today's New York Times that all of Latin America is watching Argentina closely to see if troubles there will derail a Latin American economic comeback. Argentina has South America's second-largest economy.

It's as if Scrooge laid off Bob Cratchit (Monday, 12/18/00)
Here are some of the Christmas cuts: Aetna intends to cut 5,000 jobs, while Gillette cuts 2,700. HomeGrocer.com, an Internet retailer, will slice another 100 jobs. Meanwhile, the Denver Post's Aldo Svaldi reports that a lot of Colorado's tech companies have been fumbling a bit lately.

Using the right accent for career success (Monday, 12/18/00)
Will somebody who can influence your career hold your accent against you? Probably, if it's not "TV announcer standard," making you sound as though you're from no place in particular. It's kind of like those generic Christmas letters so many families send out that don't appear to have been written by anybody in particular and don't seem to be intended for anybody in particular either.

Are Americans learning LESS about money? (Monday, 12/18/00)
A new poll finds financial awareness declining, and Bill Barnhart of the Chicago Tribune says young people require incentives to learn about finance.

The difference a few words can make (Monday, 12/18/00)
Ronald Lipman answers a correspondent who wonders if she's entitled to part of her ex-husband's pension.

The causes of workplace stress in Japan (Monday, 12/18/00)
A new survey from the Tokyo Gas Urban Life Research Institute that people, rather than the work itself, quite often are among the principal causes of stress on the job. Here's more from Asahi Shimbun.

Is honesty the best policy if you intend to take a day off? (Monday, 12/18/00)
Wall Street Journal husband-wife team Tara Parker-Pope and Kyle Pope discuss options about what to tell the boss when you decide to take what used to be called a "mental health day."

What America has to look forward to (Monday, 12/18/00)
According to the Washington Post, a new report from the National Intelligence Council indicates that the U.S. can expect to continue dominating the world in a number of ways, including economically, but also faces growing threats. If you think America is safer from nuclear attack now that the Cold War is over, take a couple of aspirin and read their report.

Looking back on a quarter century of business change (Monday, 12/18/00)
Six people who helped bring about the restructuring of corporate America look back without total satisfaction, according to Robert Hersey.

Ask anybody from the past 1,000 years or so if bringing Europe together is likely to be easy (Monday, 12/18/00)
Napoleon tried to unify Europe, and so did Hitler, both in their own special ways. However, peacefully bringing all those long conflicted, cranky states and cultures into a harmonious whole may be something that most non-masochists wouldn't want to be a part of. Here's the latest on the stresses and strains of the European Union.

Resolving to formulate a career plan and follow through on your own (Monday, 12/18/00)
Lisa Belkin shares some of her own experiences about being a SOHO, as well as experiences from others who have struck out on their own, in case this is what you have planned for the new year.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: HomeBiz CA (Monday, 12/18/00)
HomeBiz CA is intended for Canadian entrepreneurs and contains "how to" advice, access to resources, information about government programs, and more.

Powell thinks about post-Cold War economics (Sunday, 12/17/00)
The man who almost certainly will be Secretary of State in a few weeks, because confirmation seems assured, spoke yesterday about America's opportunities in the new economy because of the information revolution. For the moment, though, the American economy seems to be losing some momentum, and John Cunniff writes about what this is likely to mean to the new administration. Kathy Kristop and Liz Pulliam of the Los Angeles Times say that President Bush is likely to have a new set or priorities.

Brazil calling (Sunday, 12/17/00)
Brazil and Mercosur have been sending rather direct messages to the new American President-elect. They want the proposed Free Trade Area of Americas in place by 2005.

Europe and the new global economy (Sunday, 12/17/00)
William Drozdiak of the Washington Post examines Europe's uneasy efforts to cope with the new economy, despite its wealth and leadership in some tech areas.

Clinton pleased with welfare reform (Sunday, 12/17/00)
President Clinton, who will soon be one of America's numerous former presidents, is thinking about his legacy. For instance, he points out that the welfare rolls are at their lowest point in 30 years, with a 60 percent decrease during the eight years of his presidency.

Famous colleges change in ways that Justice didn't intend (Sunday, 12/17/00)
A decade ago, the Department of Justice felt that some well-known colleges may have had relationships that were a bit too close and could work to the disadvantage of many students. Changes have occurred, but many students may be disadvantaged for different reasons. Incidentally, there is a college billionaires club now, and it doesn't refer to students who have started companies in the dorm rooms. U.S. News reports on the very popular money managers and BMOC--"big money on campus."

Where the workers will be (Sunday, 12/17/00)
The nation's working-age population is defined as being between ages 16 and 64, and it's expected that there will be more of these folks in some states than in others. Here are some future projections, state by state. For the moment, as Genaro Armas reports, some of the principal worker shortages can be found in Midwestern and Atlantic states.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: The United States Office of Personnel Management (Sunday, 12/17/00)
The United States Office of Personnel Management is the federal government's human resource agency, and will play a key role in the transition from the Clinton to the Bush administrations. Their site includes news and tons of resources of interest to human resource administrators.

Bush concerned about the American economy (Saturday, 12/16/00)
Given the unusual circumstances by which George W. Bush has captured the presidency, plus the almost even division of the Congress and the country, he may enter office next month with special handicaps and may have difficulty achieving those objectives which he credits with his electoral support. If the long-strong American economy really begins to deteriorate, he will have additional problems, and he indicates that the economy concerns him. However, he apparently admires Alan Greenspan and the job he has been doing at the Federal Reserve, and some would argue that Alan has had more influence on the economy than the President.

The Koreas will talk economics (Saturday, 12/16/00)
Paul Shin reports from Seoul that North and South Korea have agreed to high-level talks that might eventually result in a narrowing of the enormous gap between South Korea's economy and that of North Korea. An immediate objective will be to begin a rebuilding of the North's catastrophic economy, and this is something that South Korea certainly has the resources to help with, given that it is one of the rich industrial powers of the earth. Now that the two countries are in contact with one another, following decades of stormy isolation, the Korean peninsula may no longer be the most dangerous place on earth, although that can be exaggerated.

How hard is it for Russian doctors to do their jobs? (Saturday, 12/16/00)
Many in the West naively assumed that things could only get better for the Russian people if the old Soviet Union could be brought down, but it's possible they were confusing their own interests with those of Russians. With the possible exception of Russia's current president, it doesn't appear that many Russians would like to trade their greater political freedom for the regimentation of their former totalitarian state.

However, there has been a tremendous deterioration of the Russian economy that could turn out to be as dangerous for the rest of the world as the former Soviet government, which, at the very least, usually had things under control. We've heard many stories in recent years of military personnel who hadn't been paid at all for a year or more. In addition, people who would be highly privileged in the U.S. are trying to live under extreme poverty conditions while also trying to serve their communities under the most extreme circumstances. Carey Goldberg and Sophia Akishkovsky report from Ostroma, Russia on the grimness of life and work for Russian doctors.

Some of Santa's elves to be laid off (Saturday, 12/16/00)
Actually, it's eToys that will make job cuts next month as it tries to find a way to stay in business. It's one more Internet retailer with deep troubles.

Non-compete agreement kicks in and prevents executive from taking a new job (Saturday, 12/16/00)
L. M. Sixel writes that Linda Knight Quick has been invited to become a J. C. Penney executive, and she wants to do so, but an agreement she signed three years ago prevents her for working for any other retailer in the U.S. with more than $25 million in yearly revenues. Her former employer has obtained a restraining order from a federal judge.

Top Israel officials get a raise (Saturday, 12/16/00)
Top government officials in Israel, including the prime minister, will get a 7 percent cost-of-living increase. Here's more from Zvi Zrahiya or Ha'aretz.

Careful, you may not get what you pay for (Saturday, 12/16/00)
Japanese students who want to study overseas are being advised to be careful, because price is not a reliable measure of value in higher education. It's advice that American students may want to listen to as well.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Oxford University Press: Economics (Saturday, 12/16/00)
Here are the latest economics offerings from Oxford University Press.

FTC okays AOL/Time-Warner merger (Friday, 12/15/00)
It appears that Steve Case will be Larry King and Bugs Bunny's boss soon. The Federal Trade Commission has voted to let AOL's acquisition of Time-Warner go forward, but, as the New York Times reports, with certain key stipulations.

Wheels of industry getting a little sand in their gears (Friday, 12/15/00)
Steve James reports that the slowing of the American economy is showing up in the operations of American corporations, and some experts are less confident that the Fed can bring about the "soft landing" that it has been seeking. Almost no one sees a recession on the immediate horizon, though. John Berry of the Washington Post doesn't expect the Fed to cut interest rates right away, but says a cut may come early in 2001. Part of the problem is that the full effects of past interest rate increases, given the Federal Reserve's fear of inflation, probably haven't worked their way through the system yet, and the effects of any interest rate cuts will be delayed too. It's a little like driving a car and trying to keep it from going into the ditch on your left as well as the ditch on your right. You turn the wheel, but the car doesn't respond until sometime later. All the while, though, you're racing down the highway.

What do Americans think? (Friday, 12/15/00)
Today's Wall Street Journal contains one of its periodic "American Opinion" sections. Several articles. The Journal is available on the web, but for a subscription fee following an initial trial period.

More turbulence in the airline industry (Friday, 12/15/00)
For quite some time, the news has been half-filled with stories about conflicts between various airlines and their labor unions. Dan Reed reports from Fort Worth that some employees at Southwest Airlines have turned down a new contract proposal.

Company to close its clinic (Friday, 12/15/00)
Gates Rubber Company will offer its employees a new health plan, and that means the closing of Exempla Community Health Center, which has been serving 40,000 Gates employees.

Which will be the first unionized Internet company? (Friday, 12/15/00)
It could be etown.com. A January 12 election may tell the story, and if customer service workers at etown organize, they could be the first of many in the dot-com universe. Also, in other news having to do with possibly important precedents, columnist L. M. Sixel examines the implications of the recent settlement of the "contractor or employee" class-action lawsuit at Microsoft.

China may not be the safest place to start a union (Friday, 12/15/00)
An independent labor union has formed in China, which has been enough to get its leader an unrequested psychiatric examination. The Chinese government, like the old Soviet Union, must feel that anyone who does not share its ideological views must be crazy. Others outside the Chinese government might wonder about anyone who engages in highly provocative actions that invite a crushing blow from the world's largest totalitarian state.

Clinton wants rich countries to share (Friday, 12/15/00)
Speaking in Coventry, England, President Clinton has urged the world's rich countries to not to forget the world's poor. Here's more from today's New York Times. Incidentally, speaking of forgetting, the American President forgot to pay his tab after eating lunch in a pub. Within a little more than a month, he will have to get used to doing things for himself again.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (Friday, 12/15/00)
The United States Senate has a Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, and the committee has its own web site. Among the Senate's many committees, this one appears to be one where Senators are expected to pay their dues, but there are a few famous names.

How will the second President Bush affect the American economy? (Thursday, 12/14/00)
George Hager of USA Today shares what a number of experts expect, and says that the new president's effects on the economy will not be immediate. President-elect Bush may or may not be entering the White House under a cloud, given the unusual nature of the circumstances leading to his claiming the presidency. Many people around the world will be watching, and Matthew Tostevin reports from London that Europeans seem to believe that he has his legitimacy to prove. Many other presidents have entered office with the electoral support of a fairly small percentage of eligible American voters, and some with less than half of the votes cast. Still, a president has the resources of the presidency at his disposal, and this can make it possible to build an effective presidency, including public support.

No one will ever know who really received the most votes in Florida, in part, because there was no consistent definition of what constituted a "vote." Still, the contest was resolved through due process within a government under law. The world will notice that there were no tanks in the streets and no guys with machine guns taking over radio stations. An historic mess was sorted out without violence and by the courts, which have no armies to call on in order to enforce their orders. Overall, as during the equally or far more dangerous Watergate period, a difficult transition was accomplished with the American Constitution intact and no blood spilled, all of which, given the long, painful experience of the species, is remarkable.

Bank president freed (Thursday, 12/14/00)
Workers concerned about an apparently planned merger of their bank with another have released their company president, whom they had detained. Workers are concerned about layoffs if the merger goes through. Here's more from Seoul, South Korea.

Not enough women or minorities in key film factory jobs (Thursday, 12/14/00)
Hollywood is a big factory town where hundreds of feature films and tons and tons of television programs and commercials are produced each year. One of the plumb roles in film factories is that of director, and Hollywood hasn't been living up to its commitments, so far as women and minorities are concerned, according to a new report from the Directors Guild of America.

EEOC ruling on contraceptives (Thursday, 12/14/00)
If employer-sponsored health coverage includes the cost of preventatives, it must include contraceptives as well, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The Grinch is hard at work (Thursday, 12/14/00)
Here are some of the layoffs just in time for Christmas: Chas Manhattan and J. P. Morgan, which are merging, Valeo, and PacifiCare, as well as a lot of Internet companies, which, according to Brian Bergstein, don't have the money for elaborate holiday parties like last year. On the good news side of the ledger, Corning decides to add 1,500 jobs at their Benton Township plant in Pennsylvania, but it will be fall 2002 before it all happens.

Some parents who might have particular need for on-site day-care (Thursday, 12/14/00)
Glen Fest of the Fort Worth Star Telegram writes about the tremendous increase in the number of single mothers entering the workforce.

New contract approved at Goodyear (Thursday, 12/14/00)
A strike at a Goodyear plant in Houston has ended as workers approve a new contract.

University of Michigan's affirmative action plan is okay (Thursday, 12/14/00)
A federal judge has ruled that the University of Michigan's earlier affirmative action program was unconstitutional, but its current approach is legal.

Who isn't satisfied with the current boom? (Thursday, 12/14/00)
Genaro Armas reports that a survey of U.S. mayors finds that hunger and homelessness have been on the increase in American cities. Also, columnist Diane Stafford writes about people who have been making plenty of money during the current record economic expansion, but have reason to want it to end anyway. Money ABSOLUTELY isn't everything, they would say.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: The International Institute for Sustainable Development (Thursday, 12/14/00)
Recently, another organization estimated that, in order for the entire world to have a standard of living, or standard of consumption, equivalent to that of the United States, it would require two or three additional planet earths. The planet earth that we have already is gasping, and, with approximately five percent of the world's population, the U.S. uses far more than five percent of the resources consumed each year and produces far more than its share of pollution. Still, people's throughout the world yearn for a better life. But, what are the alternative interpretations of "better life" and what will each option require? It seems clear that the world's poor countries cannot realistically aspire to adopting the U.S. model of affluence. In fact, what can the U.S. and other rich countries do to redefine "quality of living" for themselves that will not put so much pressure on the global environmental system? The International Institute for Sustainable Development explores creative possibilities and makes policy recommendations.

Recesssion risk high in Israel (Wednesday, 12/13/00)
Ora Coren of Ha'aretz reports that the Purchasing managers Index indicates that Israel's economy may soon be in recession.

Oldsmobile's scheduled departure will affect workers in multiple countries (Wednesday, 12/13/00)
One of the old industrial economy's oldest and most familiar brand names is about to join Studebaker, Hudson, Nash, and others in old-auto heaven. General Motors has given up on trying to revitalize Olds sales, thinking that the brand is at the end of its life-cycle. The division will go over the next few years, and so will a lot of jobs in the U.S., as well as in Canada, as the Toronto Star's Rob Ferguson reports. Here's more from today's New York Times. Incidentally, Chrysler is also in the process of phasing out the Plymouth brand name.

Bank chairman held hostage in South Korea (Wednesday, 12/13/00)
Hundreds of Kookmin Bank employees are upset over indications that their bank is about to merge with another, so they've been holding Chairman Kim Sang-hoon hostage. The workers fear that a merger would result in layoffs.

Major cuts coming at Whirlpool (Wednesday, 12/13/00)
For many decades, Whirlpool has been very big in the appliance world, and remains the largest appliance manufacturer. However, things have been a bit rocky for the company lately, and, in order to cut costs, about 10 percent of Whirlpool's jobs will swoosh down the drain.

Settlement of suit against Microsoft could set major precedents (Wednesday, 12/13/00)
Employers like to be able to call people temporary or contract workers rather than employees, because temps are cheaper. Employers don't have to provide costly benefits for them. However, many temps give every appearance of being employees, and a class-action suit was brought against Microsoft eight years ago by people who didn't believe that a change of name changes underlying realities. Microsoft has agreed to pay $96.9 million to settle that suit, and the rest of the hi-tech world has been watching closely all along, thinking that a resolution could have implications across much of the new economy.

Post editorial writers afraid that minimum wage bill will die (Wednesday, 12/13/00)
The Washington Post feels that Congress should allow the federal minimum wage to increase.

What will happen to estate taxes? (Wednesday, 12/13/00)
President Clinton vetoed a bill that would have repealed estate taxes, but the Wall Street Journal's Tom Herman tells a correspondent that changes are likely to happen anyway once a new president is installed.

Help in downsizing one's career (Wednesday, 12/13/00)
Some people aren't trying to climb the corporate ladder. Instead, they're trying to work their way down without slipping, and some are benefiting from the advice and help of a new kind of career counselor. Here's more from the New York Times via today's Houston Chronicle.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Academic360.com (Wednesday, 12/13/00)
Academic360.com used to called Jobs in Higher Education and evolved out of that site as well as one called Academic Advising Resources on the Internet. Consolidated, updated, and with a new URL, Academic360.com remains one of the most useful resources for those seeking employment of all kinds in higher education. It's services aren't confined to those wishing to find faculty positions.

Russian president wants closer ties with Cuba (Tuesday, 12/12/00)
An ex-KBG officer who has wanted to reinstate the old Soviet national anthem now wants to strengthen economic ties with Cuba again. President Putin is afraid that his country will lose out in international competition. Cuba's already weak economy was weakened further by the collapse of the Soviet Union upon which Cuba was mostly dependent economically for many years. The Russian economy itself needs all the help it can get, and some may be forthcoming. The World Bank's president is indicating that an $800 million loan to Russia is likely to be approved.

Delta pilots can still refuse to work overtime (Tuesday, 12/12/00)
An injunction requested by Delta Airlines has been denied by a federal judge. In other labor news, striking Seattle newspaper workers have decided to resume their campaign to encourage a boycott of the city's two big dailies.

ILO says Europe also short of tech workers (Tuesday, 12/12/00)
Europe's high-technology industries could quickly experience limits to their growth because of a shortage of technically-trained personnel. We've reported on similiar shorages across much of Latin America, and, of course, industry leaders in the U.S. have been saying for sometime that it will be at least ten years before the gap between the supply of tech workers and demand begins to narrow, if then.

EU summit ends (Tuesday, 12/12/00)
Delegates to the European Union summit certainly haven't been of a single mind, but compromises have been reached on modernizing the organization and bringing up to a dozen new member states.

Another economist expects a slowdown in America (Tuesday, 12/12/00)
Comerica Bank's chief economist has told the Economic Club of Detroit that the expected slump of 2001 can be attributed to the Fed's raising interest rates several times, but he expects things to pick up again in 2002. Here's more from Jim Suhr from today's Detroit Free Press.

Women philanthropists often support different causes (Tuesday, 12/12/00)
Traditional philonthropic organizations have neglected issues important to girls and women. A new generation of philanthropists is working to correct that, according to Jilian Mincer of the Kansas City Star.

Home business trends (Tuesday, 12/12/00)
The world of home businesses is a different world now. The Arizona Republic's Jane Larson offers a report that includes a top-ten list of current trends.

If your health coverage is employer-sponsored, get ready to pay more (Tuesday, 12/12/00)
The Washington Post reports that health care benefits are likely to get about 11 percent more costly next year, and employers are poised to pass more of the additional costs on to their employees, according to a survey of company heads.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Economics LTSN (Tuesday, 12/12/00)
The Learning and Teaching Support Network (LTSN) is a network of two dozen centers in the United Kingdom intended to support quality teaching and learning in UK higher education. Here is Economics LTSN..

So many bursting bubbles, but is that all there is to the story? (Monday, 12/11/00)
Today's Wall Street Journal contains one of its famous special sections, this time on e-commerce. Many articles, and as is almost always the case, all are worth reading. Coincidentally, or maybe not, considering that media people tend to congregate in some of the same New York City bars, CBS-TV's "60 Minutes" did a segment last night on the vast number of e-commerce companies that are collapsing at the moment, only months after so many people seemed to believe that tremendous stock prices based mostly on hope could inflate indefinitely.

It turned out to be a special game of "chicken," of course, and a great many people who thought they were billionaires are now out looking for real jobs. Traditional ideas about what gives stock value aren't obsolete after all, as it turns out. Sooner or later, and sooner usually is better than later, a business must produce profit or it really isn't a business. Even if you're an Internet company, there may be very good reasons for having some real assets.

When AOL's stock was flying somewhere up in the stratosphere, it quickly made the deal to acquire Time-Warner, a company whose value also depends on brand recognition and "good will," but which also owns a lot of real stuff and generates real profits. That merger seems ready to go through, incidentally, because the Federal Trade Commission appears to be ready to approve it. Another example is eBay, which acquired a very old, very well-established conventional auction house some months ago.

This may or may not mean that traditional companies will end up having the upper hand on the Internet, even though David Sharp points out, Internet-exclusive retailers may be in a weaker position than many have assumed. Even Amazon.com, which everybody has been watching closely, given that, if it crashes, it will probably make the biggest noise, is set to begin printing and distributing conventional catalogs. Wal-Mart made use of hi-tech to increase the efficiency of its conventional discount stores so as to nearly flatten its retail competition, but as this Business Week article asserts, its web site doesn't seem to compare all that well with Amazon.com's site. Stay tuned.

How could so many entrepreneurs and investors only a few months ago believe that profit is not nearly so important for Internet companies as building market share? Amazon's Jeff Bezos has likened it to the Oklahoma land rush. It was expected that it would be quite a while before any of those people made money from the land, but it was expected that whoever controlled the land would make the money eventually. The difference is that land is a finite thing, but cyberspace is essentially infinite.

Also, the barrier to entry is relatively low on the Internet, particularly if you have a lot of "irrationally exuberant" investors willing to drive your stock price into the upper atmosphere so that you will have money to burn...for a while.

Will BraveNewWorkWorld & NewWork News be one of the sites to go dark before long? Not likely. For one thing, you may have noticed that we obviously haven't spent a million dollars on design (tee-hee). In fact, one reviewer, in an effort to point out how un-pretty our site is, said, "Only content counts," which is our sentiment exactly, and we are flattered, not offended, by the assertion.

Americans and many others have been inundated with slick media product. Moreover, even though it isn't unusual for Hollywood to budget a million dollars per minute of screen time on a feature film, most films lose money anyway. We can't compete on that basis, and we don't think our readers particularly care. While sites that have burned tens of millions of dollars are disappearing daily, we're still here and expect to be on into the future.

You might not believe how little it costs us to be here for you each day, but we have regular readers over much of the world anyway, and BNWW is in its seventh year. Without heavy investments, we're under no pressure to produce huge revenues. No subscription fees, no paid advertising, and we don't try to sell you merchandise. We have different purposes and a different plan. We'll see you right here tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that.

But, is the Internet changing the world anyway? (Monday, 12/11/00)
Absolutely. John Markoff of the New York Times tracks developments since his newspaper took a close look back in the Internet's dark ages about seven years ago. Mr. Markoff also shares some information about astrophysicist Larry Smarr's extreme but not-so-loony ideas about what the Internet may be evolving into, even though the world is only at the very beginning. We've been saying for sometime that the Internet should not be seen primarily as a business opportunity. More likely, it will result in a reorganization, and possibly a redefinition, of human life on this planet.

Frugal tech (Monday, 12/11/00)
It's been mostly the Internet companies that have been burning money without regard to profit. Companies in other regions of the technology sector haven't been forgetting about profits at all, and, now, are having to deal with a slump. The tech sector is expected to continue growing, but, like the larger economy that it's been driving, the good stuff will be happening at a slower rate. On the labor front, there's still an apparently severe shortage of technically-skilled people to fuel the appetites of America's high-technology companies, but, across the economy, new jobs are being created at a lower rate too, and that means a slight increase in unemployment. Today's Wall Street Journal has a good deal more on this story today. Among the other things that have slowed down are corporate charitable contributions.

Latin America's shortage of tech experts (Monday, 12/11/00)
Latin American countries are having difficulty bringing their economies into line with the new global information economy because of a severe shortage of technically-trained personnel. A major reason has to do with traditional ideas about prestige. Bright students are still strongly drawn to law or business administration. Too few are choosing technical fields. Also, of course, the tech-driven economies, notably the United States, are also experiencing a shortage of technical personnel and are encouraging appropriately skilled people to pursue careers outside their home countries.

Flight attendant allowed to sue Northwest Airlines (Monday, 12/11/00)
Julie Duncan says she developed health problems because of second-hand smoke on the job, and the Supreme Court says she has a right to sue.

Who does the work at home? (Monday, 12/11/00)
H.J. Cummins writes about the "chore wars" that are so familiar to most American families.

New economy, new rules (Monday, 12/11/00)
Newsday's Patricia Kitchen lists some of the new rules and expectations for those seeking that next job. The new economy really is different, she says. Incidentally, Ms. Kitchen's story is brought to you today via the Seattle Times, which also reports that negotiations with its striking workers have broken down again. The other major Seattle daily is similarly affected.

What proportion of your life lies ahead, and how are you going to finance it? (Monday, 12/11/00)
Quite a number of people are living longer than they expected, and this can result in an unpleasant financial surprise at a fairly inconvenient time. Age 90 or so is not a fun time to discover that you didn't plan carefully enough for your retirement 30 to 50 years earlier.

A little anthropological guidance (Monday, 12/11/00)
Columnist Daneen Skube responds to a correspondent who knows the ways of corporate life in the Philippines but wants to be able to make it in America. How do the corporate cultures of the two countries differ, and what differences can it make?

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: FlipDog.com (Monday, 12/11/00)
FlipDog.com may or may not be one of the most interesting job sites, but it has our vote for having one of the more interesting names.

Cinton says slow go expected, and he's not talking about Florida (Sunday, 12/10/00)
The President disagrees with some prominent Republicans who believe, or feel they must say that they believe, that a recession is on its way. Nonetheless, President Clinton does expect growth to continue at a slower rate, and he's not the only one. Barbara Hagenbaugh explains why a slowdown challenges the Federal Reserve in their deciding how to respond, and today's Washington Post tries to decide whether a soft landing or a hard landing from the American economy's lofty heights of recent years is most likely. Part of the uncertainty comes from the fact that it takes time for interest rate changes to work their way through the economy. It may be that we haven't yet felt the full effects of interest rate increases from the Fed during past months.

Can President Fox keep his promises? (Sunday, 12/10/00)
Mexico's new president is offering hope to his country's vast masses, and the widespread response so far is uncharacteristically un-cynical, because President Fox appears to be genuine and is something that Mexico hasn't had in three-quarters of a century--a president who is not from the long-dominating party known as much for its corruption as anything else. Still, with expectations so high, can he do anything but disappoint, given the time that will be necessary for fundamental change to occur? Jenalia Moreno writes from Rio Bravo, Mexico about some of the people who are hoping that substantive reform comes and comes quickly enough to make a difference.

Big Christmas bonus (Sunday, 12/10/00)
Universal Instruments is paying out $11.6 million in bonuses to 1,550 employees. Merry Christmas.

Staying afloat in the turbulent tech waters (Sunday, 12/10/00)
The Internet shakeout continues, and, as a lot of dot-com startups shut down, many workers are being thrown overboard. Brian Bergstein says that many are trying to find employment in other regions of the hi-tech sector.

Triage in the workplace (Sunday, 12/10/00)
Dave Murphy of the San Francisco Chronicle tells how to cut your career losses.

A penny save is, well, a penny saved (Sunday, 12/10/00)
At least one economist would like us to save them all. That is, Penn State University's Raymond Lombra is opposed to the elimination of the penny, even though its value has decreased so much that many Americans won't bother picking one up if they see it on the floor. A lot of American poor people would be hurt by our no longer having pennies, he says, and this Houston Chronicle article explains why he thinks so. Incidentally, in 1940, the penny was worth more than 2000's dime, to put things into perspective.

Why many boomers may be surprised (Sunday, 12/10/00)
The huge baby boomer generation hasn't been saving a great deal for its retirement, and it may be because many boomers are expecting to settle into a comfortable old age financed on their inheritance from somewhat more frugal Mom and Pop. They shouldn't count on that, according to some experts. Here's more from today's Washington Post.

New economy needs "ambidextrous" workers (Sunday, 12/10/00)
In the old economy, it has been thought, some occupations required mostly "left-brain" abilities, while others required mostly "right-brain" abilities. Glen Fest writes that many employers in the new information economy are looking for people who have both. Incidentally, while basic facts about brain localization have been known for a long time--e.g., visual information is projected on the cerebral cortex's occipital lobe--the notion that the left and right hemispheres have a clear division of labor in how they manage higher-level cognitive functions is more a "pop psych" assumption than one arising from systematic research. However, this doesn't represent the first time that corporate (or political) policies have been based on mythologies.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Eh.Net (Sunday, 12/10/00)
Eh.Net may be the place to start if you are interested in finding information and resources having to do with economic history.

Never is heard a discouraging word, with the p