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G7 leaders not alarmed (Monday, 4/30/01)
The top finance officers of the world's richest industrial economies seem to agree that the global economy remains fundamentally strong, despite the slowdown, and Secretary O'Neill of the U.S. says that growth is expected from now on. The emphasis at the G7 meeting seemed to be on finding ways to prevent problems in the future. The global economy will be much influenced by what happens to the American economy, and Vice President Cheney is still promoting the Bush tax cut as the best way to avoid recession in the U.S.

However, that may not be necessary, according to Ron Scherer, who says that there seems to be a growing consensus that the U.S. economy already has bottomed out and may be on its way back. The Bush administration still wants the tax cut, though, if for no other reason than Republicans tend to like to minimize taxes in order to give the private sector as much fuel as possible. At risk of oversimplification, it can be said that Republicans are more likely to prefer that society's needs, including the needs of the underprivileged, be provided through private investment and private action, while Democrats are more likely to prefer that more of society's needs to met collectively and supported by taxes.

IMF and Argentina getting together (Monday, 4/30/01)
Argentina's struggling economy needs help from the International Monetary Fund, and it appears that they are about to get it.

European drug company to lay off thousands (Monday, 4/30/01)
Swiss-based Roche is preparing to cut from 5,000 to 8,000 jobs, according to an Agence France-Presse report.

Mexican workers seek reparations (Monday, 4/30/01)
Mexican laborers brought to the U.S. during World War II have never received all of the pay owed to them, they say. Pam Belluck tells about the class action suits brought against both the American and Mexican governments.

Farmers from across the globe to meet in Australia (Monday, 4/30/01)
An international farming conference is scheduled for Canberra next month. Delegates from at least 70 countries are expected.

Protests expected tomorrow (Monday, 4/30/01)
Tomorrow will be May 1, and widespread protests inspired by globalization are expected in regions as widely separated as Australia, including Sydney , and Britain , including several locations in London.

Nurses' strike possible in the Twin Cities (Monday, 4/30/01)
Maura Lerner reports that 9,000 unionized registered nurses at 13 hospitals in the Twin Cities could end up on strike, although quite a lot lies ahead before that would happen. Still, negotiations haven't been going particularly well, and the present contract expires in a few weeks.

Incomes up (Monday, 4/30/01)
Personal incomes in the United States increased by 0.5 percent in March, according to new Commerce Department data.

Top business schools (Monday, 4/30/01)
Today's Wall Street Journal contains one of their special reports, this time on leading business schools. Several articles.

Building a company for credit (Monday, 4/30/01)
An innovative program at the University of Tennessee not only teaches students how to be entrepreneurs, but helps get them started with their own companies, although many tech dreamers are finding that their dreams are too expensive now, and that some innovations may have to wait for a more favorable venture capital climate. Glen Fest reports that the tech sector slowdown has resulted in something genuinely different. New computer science and engineering grads are learning that job offers made earlier and accepted are being rescinded. Meanwhile, many people who have already been working for Internet companies are seeking jobs in more conventional settings, which is providing additional competition for new grads in a tighter market. John Schwartz reports that a new documentary is about to hit the screen that will tell you about the bursting dot-com business bubble, in case you're unaware of it.

Reno thought the question of the wisdom of tariffs was settled long ago (Monday, 4/30/01)
But, he's on both sides of the current free-trade issue, he says. Here's Robert Reno's opinion piece. Reno writes for the highly-regarded Long Island publication, Newsday.

Growing unionization movement among graduate assistants (Monday, 4/30/01)
Being considered the next thing to slave labor at universities may have been part of the initiation ritual for each new generation of academics for years, but it is a tradition that may be on its way out. Leigh Strope tells about organization efforts on a growing number of American campuses.

Resistance to Ford's job evaluation procedures (Monday, 4/30/01)
Some employees at Ford Motor Company feel that criticism of their company's ranking system isn't quite enough, so they're filing suit. Meanwhile, in some companies, workers are blowing off steam in the direction of their employers on Internet message boards. Here's more from Reed Abelson of the New York Times.

Some jobs and their prospects (Monday, 4/30/01)
The Detroit Free Press offers a list of jobs that seem to be fairly hot at the moment, and tells about their educational requirements as well as likely pay levels, at least in Michigan.

Check out health coverage options before the pink slip arrives (Monday, 4/30/01)
Sheryle Kennedy says it's a good idea to do a little research in advance so that you'll know what your options are for continued health coverage in case you're laid off. And, if it happens that you are laid off, you certainly won't be alone. It may be a time to do a little reading, in fact. Here are some books that may offer valuable help.

Not a one-industry town (Monday, 4/30/01)
Today's Washington Post contains a special report on the D.C.-area's economy. Government isn't the only thing that's done there. In fact, as the Post's editorial writers point out in their introduction, the region's economy has gone through its greatest-ever transformation during the past five years, with the possible exception of the post-war building of the military-industrial complex.

Resume craftsmanship (Monday, 4/30/01)
Jennifer Bott passes along some advice from a marketing expert on how to create a resume that won't sink to the bottom of the pile and out of sight.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: O-Net Online (Monday, 4/30/01)
Examine occupations, their requirements, their prospects. Find the occupations that match your skills. Find related occupations you may not have considered. Do it all at O-Net Online.

G7 officials talking today (Saturday, 4/28/01)
Top finance officers from the seven richest industrial nations are talking today about possible ways of coping with the slowdown of the global economy.

Very large, but also pretty weak at the moment (Saturday, 4/28/01)
Edmund Andrews writes from Frankfurt for today's New York Times on how much the Europeans depend on the German economy and how much they're being held back by it.

The impact of globalization on Jordan (Saturday, 4/28/01)
Riad al Khouri writes in the Daily Star about Jordan's economy and why it may be more affected by globalization than any other economy in the Middle East.

Homes sweet homes (Saturday, 4/28/01)
Rena Singer reports from Ivory Park on how poor South African women have been helping themselves and each other by building homes.

Nobody's starting new projects in Hollywood these days (Saturday, 4/28/01)
The prospect of strikes that could largely shut down the factories that produce much of the world's entertainment led to furious efforts to stockpile shows for a while, but, as Gary Gentile reports from Los Angeles, sound stages are mostly empty now, as L.A. holds its breath. Strikes could cost the Los Angeles-area economy billions of dollars and also have a significant effect on the national economy, given that entertainment is one of America's larger exports.

A different kind of South American "general" (Saturday, 4/28/01)
He's a little like General Patton, and quite a lot like General Greenspan. He's SUPER-MINISTER! Moreover, Argentina is hoping that he will be able to awaken one of the largest economies in the Americas from its slumber. Here's a special report from today's Washington Post. Meanwhile, James Flanigan explains why $60 billion in foreign investment is flowing into Latin America this year, and what the new Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement will mean for the region's "fast track" development.

Layoffs at Comair (Saturday, 4/28/01)
In this case, the layoffs aren't because of a slowed overall economy, but because the airline has been hampered by a strike of its 1,350 pilots that has gone on more than a month.

Worker productivity likely to keep getting better, Greenspan says (Saturday, 4/28/01)
Recent productivity growth has taken a breather, but the Chairman of the Federal Reserve believes that it's only temporary. He might agree that the "new hi-tech economy" really isn't about dot-com companies, but, instead, mostly about how technology is influencing how work is accomplished throughout the economy. Increased efficiencies mean increased productivity, and that means an increased standard of living. The recent speculative bubble that resulted in a tremendous increase in wealth on paper followed by its sudden evaporation doesn't change the fundamentals. The American economy seems to be handing the reality testing and readjustment quite well, despite pain felt by many individuals. The speculative real estate bubble in Japan a few years ago left Japanese banks with a tremendous number of bad loans and contributed to a decade-long slump of the once mighty Japanese economy, and that country has been having more difficulty achieving a new equilibrium that will permit further growth.

Don't say that dirty 9-letter "R" word (Saturday, 4/28/01)
Columnist Susan Tompor suggests that slump means never having to say you're in a recession. The latest data are encouraging and suggest that a recession may be avoided. Will the "normal" business cycle be ones with slowdowns but without recessions from now on? Has the formerly bipolar economy been put on "lithium?" John Berry of the Washington Post says American consumer have themselves to thank for the unexpectedly strong growth during the first quarter of this year.

More same-sex domestic partners get health coverage (Saturday, 4/28/01)
Craig Bonnell reports for the Savannah Morning News on a trend that is gathering momentum across more and more corporations.

Economic therapist (Saturday, 4/28/01)
The American Economics Association is unaccustomed to giving a lot of attention to economic thinkers who like to incorporate psychological concepts into their models, but they're doing so now. Professor Matthew Rabin of the University of California at Berkeley is about to receive the Association's John Bates Clark medal.

Conventional economic theory assumes that, in their economic lives, human beings are both rational and selfish. Psychologists, on the other hand, know that people aren't always selfish, and that they're often not very rational at all. In fact, when they are rational, it may be mostly accidental. Computers are logical by their nature, but human beings aren't. Instead, it requires quite a lot of effort and usually some training to be logical about most things. Instead, people are fundamentally PSYCHO-logical, SOCIO-logical, and ANTHROPO-logical by their nature. They're probably economic by their nature too.

So, why have economic theorists insisted on assuming attributes that seem to represent an oversimplification, if not an outright distortion of human nature? It's certainly not because economists are stupid. In fact, the brightest economists are among the brightest people on the planet.

The question is not whether a model's assumptions are correct in every instance, but which assumptions will give the model's its greatest overall explanatory and predictive power. Certainly, if you have to choose, your model will be more accurate more of the time by assuming selfishness than by assuming altruism.

Economic theory attempts to make sense out of enormously complex systems in which millions of events have an influence, at least in principle. However, many factors tend to randomize out, and so, can be ignored. It's only when psychological information has become sufficiently precise as to contribute more precision to economic models that it should be included. In the judgment of some persons, after more than two centuries since Adam Smith, we're finally approaching that point.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Ananish Chaudhuri's Behavioral Economics Page (Saturday, 4/28/01)
Ananish Chaudhuri's Behavioral Economics Page is intended for a Washington State University professor's students, as well as members of the general pubic who are interested in accessing resources about behavioral economics.

No recession yet (Friday, 4/27/01)
The technical definition of a recession in the United States is two consecutive quarters of negative growth, so any recession that might come still has to be some distance in the future, because there hasn't been a first quarter of negative growth yet. The economy continued to expand during the first quarter of 2001, according the Commerce Department. Among other things, this means that the longest expansion in all of American history has passed the 10-year mark and appears to be continuing. In fact, the GDP numbers were stronger than expected. Moreover, wages and benefits increased during the first quarter more than they have a for a year. Still, Ken Moritsug reports from Washington that some experts believe the growth of the Gross Domestic Product during the first quarter may overstate the economy's actual performance, and Delta Airlines' chief expects the slowdown to continue into next year. Moreover, the number of first-time filers for unemployment benefits hit a high last week. Incidentally, speaking of Delta, Hannah Wolfson reports that flight attendants at the big airline have been encouraged by the pilots' new contact and are seeking union protection for themselves.

Making things worse in order to make them better (Friday, 4/27/01)
Stephanie Strom reports from Tokyo that the new Japanese government has a tough job, because nearly anything it can do to improve Japan's economic situation is likely to cause additional pain in the short-run and could plunge the Japanese economy into another genuine recession.

A win for Australia's "causal workers" (Friday, 4/27/01)
"Causals," which make up 27 percent of the Australian workforce, appear to have won the right to as much as 12 months' unpaid parental leave if they have worked for the same employer at least twelve months. Also in Australia, 200 vehicles will blockade Sydney next week to protest what are regarded by unions as loopholes in workers comp legislation.

More bubble bursting (Friday, 4/27/01)
The number of monthly dot-com layoffs nearly doubled from March to April, according Challenger Gray & Christmas of Chicago. Across the U.S., more than 17,000 people were laid off from Internet companies during the month of April alone, bringing the total since last November to 93,000. Layoffs continue in other sectors as well, and not just in the U.S. Unilever is merging with Bestfoods and has decided to make the cutting of 8,000 jobs part of the process. They already plan to cut 25,000 jobs over the next five years because of disappointing profits.

Nationally, workplace fatalities are down (Friday, 4/27/01)
Yesterday, we reported that workplace fatalities have increased recently in Arizona, but nationally, the trend has been in the opposite direction if you take the long view.

Working for energy companies too inconsistent and uncertain for many (Friday, 4/27/01)
L. M. Sixel reports that high energy prices right now aren't attracting as many people to the energy companies as one might expect.

At work yesterday, back in school today (Friday, 4/27/01)
Jilian Mincer reports on some girls who were among the daughters taken to work yesterday, and says that there is widespread agreement that girls need preparation for their years in the workforce. Still, some school officials wish that "Take Your Daughters to Work Day" wouldn't have to be on a school day.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: By the Sweat and Toil of Children (Friday, 4/27/01)
By the Sweat and Toil of Children is a major report on the problem of child labor and efforts to eliminate it from the United States Department of Labor.

Holding steady (Thursday, 4/26/01)
The European Central Bank has decided not to follow the American Fed. Instead, it has left a key interest rate unchanged, despite urging to the contrary from many directions.

Bush urged to support Putin's reforms (Thursday, 4/26/01)
Americans doing business in Russia hope that the American president will support the Russian president's efforts to reform the Russian economy. Foreign policy and security issues should be kept separate, they say.

Condition critical, diagnoses the IMF (Thursday, 4/26/01)
International Monetary Fund officials believe that the global economy is in a critical phase requiring a high degree of policy coordination among nations.

What to do about all those bad loans in Japan? (Thursday, 4/26/01)
Banks need help from the government in getting rid of them so that the Japanese economy can move on, according to at least one U.S. economist. Here are details from Takeshi Yamawaki reporting from Tokyo.

Americans get less spendy (Thursday, 4/26/01)
So far, interest rate cuts haven't convinced a lot of Americans to spend more money. The Bush administration is hoping that a tax cut, perhaps retroactive to the beginning of the year, will do the trick. It reminds of the "fallacy of composition;" i.e., the assumption that what is good for the part is good for the whole. Holding back on spending may be a good idea for a family during a period of uncertainty, but when millions of families to it, it tends to produce the very conditions they are fearful of. The overall economy depends in large part on what consumers do.

Which economies are most competitive? (Thursday, 4/26/01)
According to a new study conducted by the International Institute for Management Development, the world's most competitive economies are those of Singapore and the United States.

Zimbabwe's economy in danger of collapse, according to business leaders (Thursday, 4/26/01)
Business people in Zimbabwe are saying that the country's economy has been worsening for quite awhile, and current political violence could finish it off. Here's more from Angus Shaw who reports from Harare.

Harassment scandal in the Marines (Thursday, 4/26/01)
At least 19 Marine Corps NCO's are accused of sexual harassment, and an investigation is underway.

Temps vulnerable to being cut (Thursday, 4/26/01)
When staff reductions occur, temporary workers are often the first to go, according to Karen Schill Rives of Raleigh's The News & Observer. Also, it appears that you're more vulnerable to layoff if you a member of a minority group as well. James Miller and Kelly Yamanouchi write about the surge in black unemployment last month, according to the latest Labor Department numbers. Finally, if anybody can put a good spin on joblessness, it should be PR professionals. However, as Greg Hassell reports, many in the Houston area have been losing their own jobs.

Gender shift in organized labor (Thursday, 4/26/01)
Women are joining labor unions in larger numbers than men, and union priorities are beginning to shift as a consequence.

Cuts at Morgan Stanley (Thursday, 4/26/01)
Morgan Stanley Dean Witter will eliminate 1,500 jobs, most but not all in the United States.

U.S. incomes rose faster than inflation (Thursday, 4/26/01)
Despite the dramatic downturn during the second half of 2000, incomes rose faster than inflation in each of the 50 states during the year.

Don't expect to hear much if you're not among the chosen (Thursday, 4/26/01)
According to Joyce Cohen, job-hunting expert Richard Bolles says that if you're wondering why you were not chosen for that job you applied for, you're likely to have to keep wondering. Commonly, everybody but the winning candidate is ignored. So, time to push ahead. What can you do to improve your chances on the next job you'd like to have? Columnist Diane Stafford has some tips.

Blaming the poor for being poor? (Thursday, 4/26/01)
Duke Schempp isn't happy with "welfare reform" and believes that the time limits have been placed on the wrong things. He's responding to a March 29 editorial published in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Unsung heroes at the top (Thursday, 4/26/01)
We've heard a lot of about corporate chiefs whose incomes reach stratospheric levels even when their companies aren't doing well. Do any of these people actually turn some of that money back? Absolutely, writes columnist Jerry Heaster. Here are some examples.

Work is getting more dangerous in Arizona (Thursday, 4/26/01)
Not that it isn't in other states as well, but, according to Arizona's Division of Occupational Safety and Health, workplace fatalities have been increasing. Here's more from Hal Mattern of the Arizona Republic.

Grocery workers ratify new contract (Thursday, 4/26/01)
Thirty-thousand grocery clerks and meat-cutters in the Seattle area will be affected by a new three-year contract that they have approved overwhelmingly.

Campus protests on behalf of campus workers (Thursday, 4/26/01)
Students at a growing number of famous U.S. universities believe that market forces shouldn't be allowed to determine what workers on the campuses are paid. Alan Krueger of the New York Times reports on organized protests on several campuses this spring.

American business schools go global (Thursday, 4/26/01)
Today's Washington Post reports on how a growing number of American business schools are expanding their operations overseas, while trying not to spread themselves too thin.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Centre for International Economics (Thursday, 4/26/01)
The Centre for International Economics is a private Australian company that performs economic analyses for clients around the world.

Koizumi has heard from voters; now he must hear from consumers (Wednesday, 4/25/01)
Japan's new prime minister's plans for revitalizing the Japanese economy will depend in large part on whether consumers have sufficient confidence to buy, buy, buy, or, for him, it may be bye-bye, just as for so many PMs during recent years. Mark Simkin, Paul Murphy, and Jun Saito write from Tokyo in today's Asahi Shimbun that only a day after the enthusiasm of a landslide victory, skepticism may already be setting in, suggesting one of the shortest honeymoon's in recent Japanese political history.

Some conditions under which lower interest rates probably won't make a difference (Wednesday, 4/25/01)
Sometimes businesses don't buy when they're being cautious about the future or don't like the high cost of "renting" somebody else's money, and lower interest rates can make them less cautious. However, another reason a business won't make purchases is if it already has all it needs. Robert Samuelson says there is a glut of tech equipment in the economy right now, particularly given the "fire sale" prices on some of the almost-new gear previously owned by bankrupt Internet companies, some of which weren't in business quite long enough for their circuits to warm up. The downturn in telecommunications and other parts of the tech sector could bring recession to the entire economy, he fears. Meanwhile Neela Manjeree of the New York Times says that high gasoline prices could also threaten the larger economic picture.

Friedman is right, to a point, writer says (Wednesday, 4/25/01)
Minnesota native Thomas Friedman has become, not only one of the New York Times' star columnists and a visible figure on all of the major TV talk shows, but also, in part because of his influential book, a spokesman for globalization. He believes that many of the protesters essentially don't know what they're talking about, but Michael Kelly of the Washington Post says that Friedman's right in some of his assertions as far as he goes, but he doesn't go far enough.

Canadian official feels that Europe could do more (Wednesday, 4/25/01)
Finance Minister Paul Martin isn't satisfied that Europe has been doing all it could do to help the global economy regain its momentum.

Still firing, but now also hiring (Wednesday, 4/25/01)
Lucent Technologies is one of the major companies that has been laying off a lot of people, but this report from Bangalore indicates that they intend to hire 500 engineers in India, suggesting a further shift of their operations across different areas of the globe. Also in India, Maria Abraham reports from Bombay that protesters have waged a one-day strike in order to express displeasure with their government's planned reforms.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: 21 Ideas for the 21st Century (Wednesday, 4/25/01)
Here are 21 Ideas for the 21st Century, a look at the future from Business Week.

Populist revolt produces "maverick" PM in Japan (Tuesday, 4/24/01)
Bold action is expected from Junichiro Koizumi, a popular Japanese politician, who will be the country next prime minister. Here's more on Koizumi's landslide win from the New York Times and Tokyo's Asahi Shimbun. Political leaders willing to take major risks are always working a tight wire without a net, but there are times when caution can be even more risky. Japan has been drifting lately, and little progress appears to have been made in getting its once-mighty economic engine throttled up. In the U.S., Abraham Lincoln was advised by his closest associates not to include the "house divided" reference in that famous speech, Hubert Humphrey was urged by Democratic Party elders not to make his famous 1948 civil rights speech at the party's convention, and Ronald Reagan was urged by his advisers not to include "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall" in his speech. In all cases, these bold leaders acted against advice and changed history.

Teachers to return to classrooms in Hawaii (Tuesday, 4/24/01)
An agreement was reached just hours before a federal judge could have intervened. The 19-day strike of Hawaii's public school teachers appears to be over.

All of Europe is nervous about Germany's economy (Tuesday, 4/24/01)
The numbers for March aren't good, indicating that Germany's huge economy is struggling, and that could mean more vulnerability across the continent to the global slowdown.

The Delta deal may still not be a done deal (Tuesday, 4/24/01)
Dan Reed reports that the agreement between Delta Airlines and the union representing its thousands of pilots may or may not be ratified if put to a vote. There are still widespread concerns about pay levels.

Compaq makes itself even more compact (Tuesday, 4/24/01)
Recently dethroned by Dell as the number one personal computer manufacturer, Compaq has decided to cut more jobs than announced previously. A total of 9,400 jobs will be cut worldwide.

The trouble with being Al (Tuesday, 4/24/01)
A lot of Americans have been experiencing ambivalent feelings toward the Federal Reserve chairman lately. Chris Lester explains why feelings about Greenspan have been running hot and cold lately.

Recruting is getting easier (Tuesday, 4/24/01)
The labor shortages of the hot 1990s have eased considerably in many sectors and regions. Mark Sappenfield of the Christian Science Monitor reports that it's no longer unusual for an opening to attract a very large number of applicants.

Controversy over school-to-work program (Tuesday, 4/24/01)
The benefits aren't clear from the outcome research, and there is argument about whether the program that puts high school students into practical work settings is paying off. Here's more from today's Washington Post.

It pays to listen to what girls are saying (Tuesday, 4/24/01)
Columnist Jilian Mincer has been paying attention to preteen conversation and developing some insights. For instance, what about girls who have no career ambitions but will almost certainly spend decades in the workforce?

Workers on the border appear to be benefiting from the U.S. economic slump...so far (Tuesday, 4/24/01)
Arthur Rotstein writes from Nogales, Mexico and explains. Meanwhile, Leslie Kaufman and David Gonzalez report from San Salvador on what may be inherent limits to how good things can get for workers in the third world who produce products bought by consumers in wealthy countries. Finally, Dawn House of the Salt Lake Tribune tells about the moral and emotional complications that can develop when very un-privileged people from the "third world" work as domestic staff for affluent Americans with whom they often develop close, personal relationships.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: OneWorld.net (Tuesday, 4/24/01)
OneWorld.net offers information and a point of view on issues relating to global justice, human rights, and sustainable development.

Agreement at Delta (Monday, 4/23/01)
Delta Air Lines has reached a tentative agreement with the Air Line Pilots Association, which represents 10,000 Delta pilots.

Agreement in Quebec (Monday, 4/23/01)
Elected representatives of democracies from across the Americas have agreed to create the world's largest free-trade zone within a few years, and if you're not a democracy, you need not apply for membership. David Sanger of the New York Times reports on concerns with sovereignty, which we discussed in our lead story yesterday.

Instead of pink slips, maybe pink Post-It notes? (Monday, 4/23/01)
3M has been on several lists of the best companies to work for, but that's only if you can keep your job there. The company, which, despite common assumptions, even in the news media, is no longer named Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing, but officially "3M Corporation," has joined the chorus of major companies intending to lay off workers. Here's more on 3M's 5,000 job cuts from USA Today. If you've been losing track, here's a summary of major-company layoffs from MSNBC.

Is substantive change coming to Japan? (Monday, 4/23/01)
Joseph Coleman reports from Tokyo that a man widely regarded as a reformer seems poised to become Japan's new prime minister. Will this be the start of Japan's long road back economically? We don't know either, but there does seem to be a need for trying something new.

Digging in at Harvard (Monday, 4/23/01)
Baby-boomers visiting Harvard's campus may momentarily believe that they've been transported back to the 1960s. This time, however, the sit-ins and live-ins have to do with the great university's not-so-great pay policies, in the view of the protesters, who are advocating that anyone who works for the university should receive a "living wage." They calculate this to be no less than $10.25 per hour.

Helping you relax about e-commerce (Monday, 4/23/01)
Well, if you're a prospective customer, that is. People who are trying to make a go of an e-commerce company will probably have to look elsewhere for relaxation, although if you're relaxed enough to place a lot of orders online, it will help some of them relax. Anyway, the Better Business Bureau and some of their European counterparts are trying to work up a new conduct code that is relevant to Internet business. Incidentally, the Wall Street Journal has a special report on e-commerce today. Many articles, all of the expected Journal quality.

All the migrant workers aren't in the fields (Monday, 4/23/01)
Some toil in the pastures of California, and they're wanting better pay and better working conditions. Here's more from Brian Melley reporting from the agricultural region of Mendota. Many immigrants would like to have better banking service too, as Dexter Filkins reports. The loan sharks of today may not be the folks you think, he says.

Helping thy neighbor (Monday, 4/23/01)
Dakota farmers who are in danger of drowning in a sea of debt are thrown a lifeline by people who can best understand their situations. Sharon Cohen reports from Enderlin, N. D. on how farmers are attempting to help each other.

It's time to cash in your czarist bonds (Monday, 4/23/01)
The Russian government apparently believes that there is no statute of limitations on debts incurred the by government that preceded communism, but fortunes have dwindled over the years.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: jobinga.com (Monday, 4/23/01)
jobinga.com may be a finalist in the "most specialized jobs site" sweepstakes. It's a jobs site for the gaming industry, and we think that means video games, Internet games, and so on, not gambling. Our calling attention to the site in this way implies that we don't expect more than a very small percentage of you to care, but it is an example of how, like NewWork News itself, the Internet can be used to serve specialized interests distributed over the entire globe. Incidentally, jobinga.com comes to you from the United Kingdom, but, in the new economy, it doesn't make much difference where it comes from or where we are, for that matter, because we and they are always right here on your screen.

Bush makes the case for a huge free-trade zone in the Americas (Sunday, 4/22/01)
There are many reasons to be nervous about any fundamentally new and relatively untried thing, including globalization. For instance, some of the same people who were vehemently opposed to international communism or ideas about "world government" during previous years are concerned about the loss of national sovereignty inherent in any international agreements in which a country may become involved. Just as personal freedom is reduced whenever an individual enters into a contract, a nation's freedom to do as it pleases is reduced by membership in treaties or alliances.

Others are concerned about the possibility that globalization benefits the rich countries (and individuals) much more than the poor, and, in fact, results in further exploitation of the poor. Still others are most concerned about the impact of higher levels of free trade on an already coughing and wheezing physical environment.

One can see why efforts to encourage greater globalization are opposed by a complex coalition of traditional "liberals" and "conservatives," as well as various kinds of political "conscientious objectors" or "agnostics." Still, given modern circumstances and the spectacular failure of various collectivist Marxist systems during the late 20th century, there may be few real alternatives to the spreading of economic freedom and more permeable international boundaries. President Bush seems to take this view, and he also appears to believe that free trade offers hope for the poor and politically oppressed who might otherwise have no hope.

Several years ago, in discussing the use of hi-tech in the American economy, we suggested that there was no real alternative, and that the technological revolution could not be turned back, just as a return to a pre-industrial, agrarian America was not an option. However, it is essential to bring everybody along into the new economy in order to avoid devastating have vs. have-not contrasts on a scale that might dwarf those that occurred during the early days of the Industrial Revolution and which helped give rise to political movements that destroyed the lives of enormous numbers of people during the bloody and oppressive 20th century.

Our view is that many of the supporters of globalization and free trade as well as many of their critics are both right. To argue that one must choose between more open boundaries, on the one hand, and the well-being of labor and the environment, on the other, assumes a false dichotomy. We must pursue both.

Fed won't be reluctant to cut again if necessary (Sunday, 4/22/01)
The head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia says that further interest rate cuts will come if the American economy slows more. Some economists expect as many as two more cuts before the end of the year. John Berry of the Washington Post says that the head of the Fed has been suffering unaccustomed criticism lately from people who are annoyed at the Federal Reserve's role in slowing the American economy too much because of inflation fears that may not have been justified. Richard Stevenson of the New York Times says that Dick Cheney had his ear to the ground and picked up early indications that the economy was slowing, but, of course, as you know, some critics have said that the Bush team helped slow it by "talking it down" for political purposes.

For whatever reasons, the reality is that the American economy certainly has slowed down, and the IMF is forecasting slower growth for the year than it was expecting only a few weeks ago. The slump should be fairly short-lived, though, they're saying. American consumers are making their own predictions about how they're likely to be affected, and, as Linda Stern reports, a new frugality has set in, which can make expected slowness self-fulfilling. Columnist George Will also offers some perspective on these issues in his remarks about the rapid coming and going of $4 trillion in wealth.

French farmers want more governmental help (Sunday, 4/22/01)
They're demanding compensation for losses from lifestock diseases, but the protests this time are more peaceful than some in the past. Also in France, in Calais, sometimes referred to as the capital of resistance to globalization, 15,000 people protested job cuts yesterday.

Has the new economy gotten old again? (Sunday, 4/22/01)
It depends upon what you mean by "new economy." In the most proper use of that term, the economy is still very new indeed, and is likely to get newer and newer. David Leonhardt of the New York Times offers his views.

You may see a report about it on "60 Minutes" (Sunday, 4/22/01)
Robert Franklin writes from St. Cloud, Minnesota about the attention being drawn to alleged discrimination at the community's state-supported university. Speaking of discrimination, columnist Carol Klieman says job hopping can be beneficial to your career now, if you're white and male.

Privacy on the job (Sunday, 4/22/01)
You're probably being monitored at work, according to a new survey from the American Management Association.

Danger on the job (Sunday, 4/22/01)
Some jobs are far more dangerous than most people expect, as Lawrence Van Gelder reports.

And the new champion is... (Sunday, 4/22/01)
Now that Bill Gates is number 2, will he try harder? According to a newspaper report, Sam Robson Walton is now the richest man in the world.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Panel Study of Income Dynamics (Sunday, 4/22/01)
The famed Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan has been following the same national representative sample of families and individuals since 1968. Here's detailed information about the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Incidentally, this is a "longitudinal" sample, rather than a "cross-sectional" one, and, if attrition rates are low, as they have been in this case, longitudinal samples provide better control of extraneous variables than cross-sectional samples, but cross-sectional samples are far less expensive or difficult to obtain. Here's the difference: Suppose you want to study the relationship of chronological age to heart disease. A cross-sectional sample would involve going out and obtaining samples of 20-year-olds, say, as well as 30-year-olds, 40-year olds, and so on, then comparing people in these various age categories on some relevant measures of heart disease. A longitudinal sample would involve getting a sample of 20-year-olds and following the same people through the life-span, coming back to them at periodic intervals to check for heart disease.

Planned as well as relatively spontaneous unpleasantness in Quebec (Saturday, 4/21/01)
Quite a number of people in the streets of Quebec City disagree with the American president on free-trade issues, and their protests have disrupted meetings, according to this report from Deborah Charles. Bush intends to continue pushing for the creation of the world's largest free-trade zone at the summit, though, says David Sanger, but, as Ron Fournier argues, the President lacks authority to make some of the things he wants to happen happen. The Toronto Star's economics editor, David Crane, says that all the obstacles to a trade agreement across the Americas aren't in Quebec City's streets.

Hard times at yet another major corporation (Saturday, 4/21/01)
Profits almost disappeared at Honeywell last quarter, which is a bit dispiriting, not only for company executives, but also for the 6,500 people who will lose their jobs. Also, get ready to be placed on hold longer if you call NCR's customer service for assistance. Actually, this big Ohio-based company has 14,000 customer service workers, and most of them don't work on phones. Correction: NCR is cutting about 5 percent of those jobs, which amounts to between 600 and 700 customer service workers who will be looking for other employment.

Fear of recession vs. fear of inflation (Saturday, 4/21/01)
Robert McTeer, Dallas' Federal Reserve Bank chairman, says that the most recent interest rate cut indicates that the Fed considers recession a greater risk than inflation at the moment, but inflation isn't a dead deal.

Among the things that happen when you lock up a larger proportion of your citizens than any other modern industrial democracy (Saturday, 4/21/01)
It is in the nature of a democracy for politicians, even big-time politicians, to follow as much as they are able to lead. In modern America, they tend to pay attention to public opinion, however uninformed, and sometimes pander to it.

A few years ago, even though American crime rates had been declining for sometime, the polls were showing that many Americans seemed to believe, perhaps with encouragement from the "if it bleeds it leads" orientation of TV news, that crime really was on the increase, and dramatically so. As a consequence, many politicians decided it would be a good career move to call for getting "tougher on crime," even though some people thought it was time to get smarter, not tougher, and if tougher was to come, it should have come many years before. After all, if you're in need of surgery, you probably want a doctor who is very cool, very smart, very well-informed, not one who simply gets mad.

So, among other things, a "three strikes and you're out" policy came into being, which would eventually mean that many prison cells would become nonrenewable resources occupied by a lot of old guys with Alzheimer's and bad kidneys, rather than genuinely dangerous youths. It would also mean an exploding prison population that might place more financial strain on taxpayers than many had anticipated. It would also produce a serious staffing problem.

Now, Pam Belluck reports that a growing shortage of prison guards is leading to the fairly dangerous situation of having people barely out of high school put in charge in settings where a great number of older, more experienced people don't want to work. Stay tuned.

One-hundred-eighty thousand students can safely plan for a few more days at home (Saturday, 4/21/01)
Talks are resuming, but there is little optimism that a settlement of the statewide teachers' strike in Hawaii will occur anytime soon. Striking University of Hawaii faculty have already returned to their classrooms.

Who's in charge here? (Saturday, 4/21/01)
During the Clinton administration, there were questions about whether the President had more power than Fed Head Greenspan, and, given Dick Cheney's health scares, which aren't funny, there have been jokes going around about how George W. Bush is a "heartbeat from the presidency." There's a similar question about power concentrations in Argentina where a "super minister" has been given special authority to try to deal with the crisis in South America's largest economy, among other things, in order to keep it from spreading and depressing the entire region.

Childless workers seek parity (Saturday, 4/21/01)
If your company has been trying to make special arrangements to accommodate the needs of employees with children in order to make the place more family-friendly, expect workers without children to wonder if they're being placed at an unfair disadvantage. The Washington Post reports that many are demanding flextime and other benefits for themselves too.

What is the legitimate economic role of the state? (Saturday, 4/21/01)
Riad al Khouri writes in the Daily Star that this question is being debated in Jordan, which needs a much higher economic growth rate.

Sitting down on the job (Saturday, 4/21/01)
Jason Strait writes about workers who recline for a living at La-Z-Boy Inc.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Interactive Units Converter (Saturday, 4/21/01)
This site doesn't handle religious conversations, but you can get help here with most other kinds. Here's your handy Interactive Units Converter.

Tight security in Quebec City (Friday, 4/20/01)
The three-day summit opens in Quebec City where leaders from 34 countries in the Americas are getting together to confer about the development of a very large free-trade region. Many people don't like the idea, and quite a number of these are expected to protest the meeting in person. Don Evans isn't one of them. He writes in today's Washington Post that he favors free trade across the Americas, but editorial writers at the Minneapolis Star Tribune feel that the American president should push for the inclusion of social clauses which address the labor and environmental concerns of protesters and a lot of other people.

Your job is secure if you work for Cisco in China (Friday, 4/20/01)
Well, at least for the moment. Cisco Systems has announced the amputation of 8,500 jobs, but, it doesn't appear that any of these will be from the company's operations in China. As the overinflated tech sector loses air, more companies are laying off workers, and, among the big ones are Ericsson, which plans to cut another 12,000 jobs, Nortel, which will cut 5,000 jobs in addition to the thousands cut earlier, and Silicon Graphics, which will cut 15 percent of its workforce. Smaller companies are also cutting, and these include Tellabs, which is cutting 550 jobs and Sega, which will cut about a quarter of its workforce.

Does it all mean that hi-tech is losing its key place in the new global economy? Not hardly. It simply means that the economy is sobering up after a tremendous level of speculation that will go down in history with other euphoric spasms, such as Holland's tulip mania of the 17th century and Japan's real estate speculation during the late 1980s.

Incidentally, columnist L. M. Sixel writes today that many companies are expecting the overall economy to begin picking up again soon, so, instead of laying off workers, they're asking them to take an unpaid break so that they'll still have them around a bit later when they need them.

Why the European Central Bank hasn't rushed to follow the American Fed (Friday, 4/20/01)
Edmund Andrews reports from Frankfurt that European leaders are worried about inflation. The downturn is less of a concern for them at the moment. Similarly, in Asia, leaders are expecting...hoping...that the economic slump will be mild and short, as Mark Landler reports from Hong Kong. He also comments on why many experts expect that China is poised to take over Japan's role as the economic engine of Asia.

Depression and success (Friday, 4/20/01)
Rising toward the top in their organizations doesn't provide immunity to depression for Japanese business women. Here's more from Tokyo's Asahi Shimbun.

Extending welfare benefits okay with many Minnesotans (Friday, 4/20/01)
Because of provisions in welfare reform legislation passed in 1996, time is running out for many welfare recipients, including many who have been having particular difficulties finding employment that would make them self-supporting. A new poll in Minnesota finds that there is widespread support for extensions.

What happens if a "company town" has to stop manufacturing dreams? (Friday, 4/20/01)
Los Angeles isn't a company town in the traditional sense, but it is a factory town, and its economy is quite dependent on its film industry. If a lot of its key workers leave the sound stages for the picket lines, it will cost the city $6.9 billion and precipitate a general slowdown of the region's economy, according to estimates from a study commissioned by L.A.'s mayor.

The American economy was slowed by interest rate increases, but won't be stimulated by the cuts, writer says (Friday, 4/20/01)
Kenneth Zapp doesn't expect the Fed's latest reduction in rates to awaken a drowsy American economy.

Disabilities don't necessarily end farming careers (Friday, 4/20/01)
A program at the University of Missouri is helping farmers with physical disabilities continue doing the work they love.

First-time jobless claims down a bit (Friday, 4/20/01)
Applications for unemployment benefits declined slightly last week, according to the latest data from the U.S. Department of Labor.

Labor conclave in Detroit (Friday, 4/20/01)
Labor activists are gathering at Detroit's Cobo Hall to plan union organizing and revitalization efforts.

Getting away is getting harder and harder for many people (Friday, 4/20/01)
When nearly everything is connected to nearly everything else and it's all connected to you, your boss may assume that you have a 24-hour work day. Nationally syndicated Chicago Tribune columnist Carol Kleiman discusses part of the downside of technologies that can keep you in touch wherever you are. Problem is, if you're in touch with them, they're in touch with you.

Lebanon isn't alone (Friday, 4/20/01)
While the "brain drain" continues to be a problem for Lebanon, according to The Daily Star, it's a common problem over much of the world. Highly qualified people go to where the good jobs are if their own regions aren't ready to offer them competitive opportunities.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: The Association of Reverse Brain Drain (Friday, 4/20/01)
Rich countries exploiting the resources of poor countries isn't anything new. In the new knowledge economy, though, the key resource is knowledgeable people, and rich economies have been soaking them up from around the world, which, of course, tends to deprive the less developed countries of the very resource they will need in order to become more developed. Thailand has been losing a lot of its most educated, talented people, and The Association of Reverse Brain Drain hopes to bring some of them home again.

Surprise! (Thursday, 4/19/01)
The Federal Reserve pleased a lot of investors in American as well as Asian markets yesterday by cutting interest rates by an aggressive half of a percent, bringing them to their lowest level in 6 1/2 years, so it may be time to think about refinancing your mortgage. On the other hand, you may want to wait a while, because many economists think an additional cut is coming to help capital-starved companies and keep the longest expansion in nearly 2 1/4 centuries going. So far, so good. New numbers confirm that the American economy is weak, but not technically in recession.

HP will cut more jobs than originally thought (Thursday, 4/19/01)
The American technology sector has been deflating about as rapidly as any in memory, despite what are regarded as good long-term prospects. Tech startups have been failing at a rapid rate, and even strong, well-established companies are having to backpedal quickly in order to cut or prevent losses. An example of an essentially strong, well-regarded, and important company that has played an historic role in the technology revolution is Hewlett-Packard. H-P's CEO says that nearly three times as many job cuts will occur as originally expected.

More on the income gap (Thursday, 4/19/01)
If you're among the economically privileged, you probably have good reason to be concerned about the wide gap between "haves" and "have nots," not only in the U.S., but across the world, even if you don't really care about people. History tells us that huge gaps between the rich and poor eventually lead to social and political upheaval, and, of course, in a hi-tech, increasingly connected world, it doesn't take a superpower to deliver high explosives, including atomic weapons, nearly anywhere, or to engage in "techno-terrorism" via the Internet or other means. However, if you DO care about people, the finding that about one child in six in the richest society ever to appear on the earth lives in poverty might get your attention.

Help for small businesses and their employees (Thursday, 4/19/01)
The Missouri Chamber of Commerce is setting up Missouri Chamber Care to assist small businesses in offering health coverage to their workers.

A new law against age discrimination...sort of (Thursday, 4/19/01)
Atsushi Kodera writes in Tokyo's Asahi Shimbun about a new law in Japan that will ban age discrimination in hiring, but it's almost entirely toothless.

More on the need for better, more relevant measures (Thursday, 4/19/01)
Federal Reserve Chairman Greenspan is dissatisfied with the measures available for telling us what is happening in the new economy, and this seems to be a principal reason why economic life has gotten so mysterious lately. Virginia Postrel of the New York Times discusses these issues as well as related ones having to do with conceptions of "the good life," "economic well-being," "standard of living," and so on.

Scientific researchers distinguish between "theoretical definitions" and "operational definitions" of their concepts. A "theoretical definition" is an abstraction representing some phenomenon of interest, while an "operational definition" describes the specific operations that are being used to measure the phenomenon. Given the concept of "intelligence," for example, it's the difference between "general ability to learn," on the one hand, and "scores on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale," on the other.

Before we can develop relevant operational measures, we have to clarify our concepts. We've suggested a number of times that our traditional ideas about "standard of living" could use some re-thinking at this historic transition point. In part because of the emphases of the old economy, Americans tend to assume that the single-minded pursuit of wealth and the accumulation of material possessions don't require explanation. These are what everybody wants, and everybody wants to be able to brag about them.

However, during a period of fundamental and rapid change when nearly everything seems to be up for grabs, we would suggest that if you have managed to accumulate great wealth, you might want to keep quiet about it, not only because others may assume that your consumption habits may amount to your putting much more than your share of pressure on a fragile physical environment, but also because, if you've been concentrating so much on making money, you've probably missed an awfully lot and may lack perspective on important things that are going on in the world.

Along these lines, in addition to whatever ideological issues might be relevant, you might worry a bit about the current Administration, which seems filled with people whose net worth is in the tens of millions. While they've been chasing those millions, what have other people been doing, and what might some of these other people know that they don't? In a greatly changed world, will commitment to conventional and possibly obsolete success criteria result in limited perspective, naivete, and gullibility about a lot of things, even among very smart people?

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Economy.com (Thursday, 4/19/01)
Economy.com has become a prominent source of domestic and international economic data, analysis, and forecasts. Its experts have also been appearing on American TV news and talk shows, and Mark Zandi, the site's chief economist is often quoted in major American newspapers.

Bush to attend hemispheric summit (Wednesday, 4/18/01)
The President says he will push for a hemispheric free trade deal, but, as Deborah Charles reports, he's going to be limited by not having "fast track" authority.

A recession? Who says? (Wednesday, 4/18/01)
The National Bureau of Economic Research says, usually. Chris Lester tells about why economists are often the last to know when a recession really has arrived. It's about being cautious, not necessarily about being wrong. Now, about being wrong, some of the major forecasting organizations, such as Forrrester Research and International Data Corporation are enduring considerable criticism as well as difficulty finding new clients at the moment, according to the Wall Street Journal, because of what is seen by many as their role in inflating the dot-com bubble beyond all reason. Incidentally, as Dina Temple-Raston and George Hager report from USA Today, some of the latest economic reports suggest that the slumping U. S. economy may have bottomed out. If that's the case, technically, we will be able to say that the longest expansion in American history will continue without interruption by a recession, technically.

Profs return to their classrooms (Wednesday, 4/18/01)
K-12 teachers remain on strike in Hawaii, but professors at the state university are returning to work.

University calls in the EEOC (Wednesday, 4/18/01)
A foul aroma has been rising over Minnesota's St. Cloud State University with widespread complaints about systematic discrimination against women and minority faculty members, and the whole mess is in the courts. The University is asking the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to investigate, which may be seen as a fairly unusual twist.

On agreeing with the boss, even when you don't (Wednesday, 4/18/01)
Not so long ago, Christine Whitman and George Bush were fellow governors. Now, Whitman works for Bush, and some people think that the wrong governor became president.

But, is this a great country or what? Your right to say even stupid and uninformed things is guaranteed by the Constitution, and, when outgoing Minnesota Governor Arne Carlson was asked if he thought that former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura (not his real name, incidentally, which may further blur the boundary between politics and show biz) was qualified to be governor, Mr. Carlson was exactly right when he replied that Mr. Ventura was qualified by definition, because the voters said they wanted him, and, in a democracy, there isn't anybody else to ask.

At any rate, Christie Whitman how heads the Environmental Protection Agency in the Bush II administration, and people who serve at the pleasure of a president have an obligation to be loyal or resign. So, Governor Whitman is insisting that things aren't as they may seem. She really DOES agree with President Bush on environmental issues, she says. Honest. And, incidentally, yes, it IS a great country, and, in part, for the reasons described above, despite superficial appearances to the countrary.

Might California...once again...start another national trend? (Wednesday, 4/18/01)
What if gluttonous Californians actually begin to believe that it's cool to conserve energy--will the rest of the country follow? Many national trends have started in California. Maybe this will be another, and, if that happens, it will make it easier for politicians, even Republican politicians, to fall in line, thus making it more likely that we can redefine "the good life" a bit and keep the earth from becoming an entirely alien planet. As Ghandi said, "There go my people. I must hurry to get out in front of them, because I AM their leader." Actually, that's probably a rough paraphrase, rather than a quote, but it reflects his highly sophisticated view of how societies and social change work.

Black unemployment is rising faster than overall unemployment (Wednesday, 4/18/01)
African Americans benefited significantly from the big boom period of the 1990s, but those gains are in the process of being erased, according to this Chicago Tribune story.

Employees at IBM will attempt to go over their CEO's head (Wednesday, 4/18/01)
IBM workers dissatisfied with changes in the company pension plan are alleging that the company's CEO cut retirement pay in order to inflate earnings because his $73.6 million compensation package was linked to earnings. Here's more from the Washington Post.

HP has had 3,000 managers? (Wednesday, 4/18/01)
Well, presumably more than that, because reports from Palo Alto say that Hewlett-Packard is cutting 3,000 management jobs.

A big step toward MD unionization in Texas (Wednesday, 4/18/01)
Some doctors in Austin have voted to become affiliated with Physicians for Responsible Negotiation, a union formed by the AMA.

Welfare deadline approaching for many (Wednesday, 4/18/01)
Many welfare recipients had five more years of benefits following passage of the welfare reform act, and it's been almost five years. Here's more on people who are facing the deadline with very limited job prospects.

Columnist thinks organized labor is hurting its members (Wednesday, 4/18/01)
A much smaller proportion of America's private-sector workforce is unionized now than at mid-20th century. Jerry Heaster says he can understand why. Take union leadership's attitudes toward President Bush's tax-cut proposal, for instance.

Go ahead, take some quality time off, if you can afford it (Wednesday, 4/18/01)
Jodi Wilgoren of the New York Times tells about students who take a fancy and possibly educational sabbatical between high school and college, and why they're usually from well-off families.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Help in Writing Business Reports (Wednesday, 4/18/01)
Actually, Bartleby.com can be helpful for many types of writing and offers access to a variety of useful resources, as well as literary classics for your off hours.

What's going on with that "slave ship?" (Tuesday, 4/17/01)
Jean-Luc Apologan reports that the MV Etireno has been located and that few children are aboard. Here's more from Glenn McKenzie, also in Cotonou, Benin, and he says that none of the children who are on the ship are unaccompanied. What's going on? Is it the wrong ship? Is it possible that the captain, who has a criminal history, ordered the children to be thrown overboard before reaching port? Is it all a mistake? There's much uncertainty and confusion today about this story, but no doubt or confusion about the ongoing child slave trade in the region.

Tech sectors continue to shrink (Tuesday, 4/17/01)
It might not be surprising that Internet startups with no real business plan and no profits would be shooing their workers out the door just before locking up permanently, but well-established tech companies with much real value are also cutting back workers. For instance, Texas Instruments plans to lay off at least 2,000 people, maybe more, and Cisco will cut 8,500 jobs. Motorola, which has cut 26,000 jobs since the end of last year will also reduce workers' hours by up to 10 percent, and Kodak, a tech company that has been around a long time, will cut 3,000 jobs in response to a 48 percent decline in profits. It isn't just the American-based companies either. Philip Blenkinsop reports from Amsterdam that Philips Electronics will respond to a second-quarter loss by cutting 7,000 people from its workforce. In the public sector, 70 members of the Smithsonian's Senate of Scientists have taken the rare step of signing a memorandum protesting planned cuts.

Whoops--should have done a better job of vetting (Tuesday, 4/17/01)
Years ago, Richard Nixon ran on a "law and order" platform and won the presidency. That was before Vice President Agnew resigned in order to avoid going to jail and before the President himself resigned in disgrace, avoiding indictment only by a presidential pardon after leaving office, and also before dozens of other people in the Nixon administration went to jail. In early 1993, the Clinton administration started with much talk about how it would be the cleanest, least corrupt, most honorable administration in memory, guided, of course, by the very highest ethical standards. Not every administration is as spectacular along these lines--and it's hard when the boss is the major problem rather than part of the solution--but nearly every administration seems to end up with people whom they may later have reason to regret, in some cases because even candidates for top governmental positions may not fully disclose relevant facts about their past. Here's the latest: Jeremy Pelofsky reports from Washington that Bush's Labor Secretary failed to disclose a corporate affiliation when questioned by Administration officials. It must have slipped her mind, although most people might remember having served on a corporate board.

Minnesota school districts to cut teaching positions (Tuesday, 4/17/01)
Budgetary problems are leading to reduction in the teaching staffs of many Minnesota school districts. Here's more from Norman Draper and Allie Shah of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Meanwhile, the teacher strikes continue in Hawaii at both K-12 and university levels, and the academic year is in jeopardy, according to Jaymes Song in Honolulu. In northern California, hospital workers are on strike. Things are happier for some Detroit nurses who are able to earn their college degrees while on staff.

Teamsters won't be part of Hollywood strike (Tuesday, 4/17/01)
If writers go on strike in Hollywood, Teamsters members will cross the picket lines, says the head of the Teamsters Local 399 in North Hollywood.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: The Encyclopaedia of Philosophy of Education (Tuesday, 4/17/01)
The Encyclopaedia of Philosophy of Education is edited by Michael Peters of New Zealand and Paulo Ghiradelli of Brazil, and is available in both English and Portuguese. However, contributions are made from scholars from over much of the world.


What's the most out-of-place thing you can think of for the 21st century? (Monday, 4/16/01)
How about a slave ship filled with children? If you believe that humanity has left its depraved history behind during this advanced and sophisticated era, this CNN report from Contonou, Benin might change your mind. To help put things into perspective, we should remember that during the very short history of the United States, several American presidents have been slave holders and several others have opposed the abolition of slavery in the U.S. Many people still living read the first volume of Carl Sandburg's still-definitive biography of Abraham Lincoln in 1926 when it was first published. That was the year in which Mary and Abraham's oldest son Robert Lincoln died, and there were still plenty of people around who remembered when slavery not only was legal in parts of the United States, but enforced by the law. In parts of the old South at the time, you could be hanged for publicly advocating anything else.

Inflation up in Israel (Monday, 4/16/01)
Israel's inflation rate increased by 0.2 percent during the month of March, according to Moti Bassok of Ha'aretz.

Evidence in support of a shorter work week (Monday, 4/16/01)
Many people in the United States were skeptical of France's decision to shorten the work week to 35 hours, and many still are. However, some have become convinced that the consequences they expected aren't inevitable. Should it be tried in the U.S. where the workweek has been getting longer rather than shorter during recent years?

Tech world becoming less dominated by white males, at least a little (Monday, 4/16/01)
Edward Iwata of USA Today says that an increasing number of companies are making steady progress in their effort to make their workforces more diverse.

Of course it's done. I have a graduate degree in engineering, so when I say it's done, it's DONE! (Monday, 4/16/01)
Robin Davis of the San Francisco Chronicle tells about former Internet employees who used to work ON servers who are now working AS servers. Meanwhile, at the other end of Silicon Valley, Margaret Steen of the San Jose Mercury News says that some tech companies are both laying off and hiring at the same time. Finally, Shira Boss of the Christian Science Monitor describes the conditions under which your being laid off might be illegal.

Another major e-commerce firm cuts jobs (Monday, 4/16/01)
Outpost.com is slicing a third of its workforce, which amounts to 110 jobs.

An economic perspective on global warming (Monday, 4/16/01)
The Bush II administration seems to persist in believing that economic and environmental priorities are mutually exclusive, but, as we've said repeatedly, the economy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the environment. John Biemer describes a new economic study of the costs associated with global warming published in the new edition of Nature.

The limits of law? (Monday, 4/16/01)
Even if something is considered by many to be undesirable or destructive, it may not be realistic to try to remedy it by law if it's sufficiently fundamental to a society's culture. This is what some are saying about proposed anti-sexual harassment legislation in Brazil.

If your boss lies, can you sue? (Monday, 4/16/01)
Maybe; maybe not. Here's some perspective on that issue from today's Washington Post.

If you're a linguist, the government may be looking for you (Monday, 4/16/01)
Not to worry--they don't want to arrest you; they may want to hire you. Diana Jean Schemo tells about the shortage and how it's hampering governmental operations. Speaking of language, Suzanne Daley reports that many people in Europe fear that English is coming to dominate a bit too much, and that many national languages may be on a path to destruction. Latin's often referred to as a "dead language," but there were many versions of Latin during ancient times, and there still are. They're called "French," "Italian," "Spanish," and "Portuguese," among some others. This time, though, dead may really mean dead.

An argument against one "living wage" idea (Monday, 4/16/01)
Don Facciano of the Los Angeles Times thinks that "living wage" plans being considered by two California communities constitute the wrong approach to solving what he acknowledges is a legitimate problem.

Grants available for technical training for laid-off workers (Monday, 4/16/01)
The Labor Secretary is inviting workforce investment boards to compete for grants. The boards were created as part of the Workforce Development Act signed into law by President Clinton in an effort to bring order out of the previous chaos of federally-supported training programs.

Of course it's done. I have a graduate degree in engineering, so when I say it's done, it's DONE! (Monday, 4/16/01)
Robin Davis of the San Francisco Chronicle tells about former Internet employees who used to work ON servers who are now working AS servers. Meanwhile, at the other end of Silicon Valley, Margaret Steen of the San Jose Mercury News says that some tech companies are both laying off and hiring at the same time. Finally, Shira Boss of the Christian Science Monitor describes the conditions under which your being laid off may be illegal.

Good news: interest rates are down. Gottcha! (Monday, 4/16/01)
Lower mortgage rates may make it possible for you to qualify for more debt that you can handle. Here's more from today's Kansas City Star. With a little more financial education, the next generation may not follow in its elders' footsteps toward the pit that many older people have fallen into.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Bankrate.com (Monday, 4/16/01)
Interest rates have gone down, so you can save money on a mortgage. Is it a good idea to refinance? This special report can help you sort through your options and decide.

Boeing still has a tech worker shortage (Sunday, 4/15/01)
The shortage of technically-skilled workers has become less general, and some people with hi-tech skills are not necessarily finding immediate new employment when they're laid off. However, Boeing, the aerospace giant, is still struggling to find all the technical help it needs. Not every techie necessarily has the right skills for the job, though, but those laid-off Internet folks whom companies like Boeing don't need might find interesting opportunities with the Peace Corps. Abby Ellin has more.

Strong new anti-profiling policy at the Energy Department (Sunday, 4/15/01)
The new Secretary of Energy has made it be known in the clearest terms possible that racial profiling will not be tolerated at the Department of Energy.

What's more valuable than human life? (Sunday, 4/15/01)
To some people, apparently almost anything. Humanity's history, among many other things, has been a history of depravity, and, so far, at least, the 21st century, with its new economy, has not left all that behind. Barry Bearak reports from Arsingi, Bangladesh about the cheapness of life in the sweatshops.

One foot out the door (Sunday, 4/15/01)
Mary Williams Walsh tells about how some workers are being encouraged by their employers to retire one step at a time.

What it takes for government agencies to work well (Sunday, 4/15/01)
The Bush II administration does not represent that body of Republican opinion from a few years ago that seemed to want to shut the federal government down or repeal the Articles of Confederation. In fact, President Bush seems to share with many traditional Democrats some ideas about the appropriateness of an activist governmental role in domestic life, although his goals may be different. Still, as this Washington Post writer suggests, the Administration has been fairly slow to recognize growing workforce problems in the federal agencies. The difficulty that the Internal Revenue Service is having in carrying out its mission with reduced staff is an example.

Official numbers a gross underestimate, writer says (Sunday, 4/15/01)
John Crudele of the New York Post thinks that the Labor Department's estimate of the number of jobs lost in March is far off the mark.

Shoppers scale back (Sunday, 4/15/01)
It may be nit-picking to focus on whether the U.S. economy will meet the technical definition of a recession--two consecutive quarters of negative growth. Whether that happens or not, one thing seems clear--the economy is in a downturn, and, as Peter Kilborn reports, one can see evidence all around, including the increasing number of people who are doing without "extras."\

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Avoiding Workaholism (Sunday, 4/15/01)
When does working hard become an example of obsessive-compulsive disorder? Here's some advice from one therapist on how to identify and avoid "workaholism".

You have fewer work days for yourself (Saturday, 4/14/01)
The non-profit Tax Foundation keeps track of how much of the year you work in order to pay your taxes. Presently, May 3 is the day you start working for yourself, they say. Of course, if you could work all the year's days for yourself, you would also have to pay to build your own highways and also provide many other services you take for granted now, including your own protection which is now provided by police, the courts, and the military. Liberals and conservatives can argue about the proper role of government and also about whether Americans are taxed too much, but the fact seems to remain that it is far more cost-effective to pay for some things collectively than individually.

More self-employed African-American women (Saturday, 4/14/01)
It appears that the number of African-American women who are self-employed has doubled in only four years.

Advertising slump hitting conventional media (Saturday, 4/14/01)
As we've reported, Yahoo is cutting back because of the decline in online advertising, but the slowed American economy has reduced advertising in the traditional media as well, and this is resulting in staff cuts at two of the best-known print media organizations, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

School district says find a non-school day during which to take your kids to work with you (Saturday, 4/14/01)
Zaz Hollander of the Anchorage Daily News reports that Anchorage school district officials aren't opposed to the idea of your children having an opportunity to see what you do during all those mysterious hours each week when you disappear from home, but why does it have to be on a school day?

Another way to save jobs? (Saturday, 4/14/01)
Many companies are cutting jobs, while some are temporarily cutting pay across the board in order to avoid having to lay people off. Here's a company in which workers are accepting stock in exchange for part of their ordinary pay and hoping that this will mean that their company won't go out of business.

Many welfare applicants turned away in Utah (Saturday, 4/14/01)
More than half of the people who applied for welfare benefits in Utah last year were denied them for a variety of reasons. Here's more from Ogden.

Baumol's disease epidemic on American campuses (Saturday, 4/14/01)
Baumol's disease helps explain why the cost of higher education has increased faster than the overall rate of inflation for forty years. Despite general productivity increases because of high-tech, the cost of providing service in labor-intensive industries tends to increase. The solution? Some think it will be to make higher ed less labor-intensive, which means making much heavier use of the new technologies. Here's quite a lot more from Kenney Shaw and Dan Black of the New York Times.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Nordic Forecasts (Saturday, 4/14/01)
Nordic Forecasts offers longer-term expectations of what might happen in the economic, political, and business life of Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden.

Strikes interfere with deliveries, on the streets and in the hospitals (Friday, 4/13/01)
France is attempting to cope with transit strikes across the country, as well as striking midwives, many of whom marched to the PM's residence yesterday. Across the channel, drinkers of stout are beginning to get alarmed as well. The strike at Guinness could mean that a lot of people will have to switch to water or some other toxic substance soon. Finally, in the U.S. many people with another kind of addiction may have to cope with withdrawal in the fall. A strike of Hollywood writers and actors is expected to cause a major dip in TV viewership in the fall as people desperately search for something else to do.

You've come to the U.S. to work on a special visa, and you've been laid off. Now what? (Friday, 4/13/01)
Many holders of H1B visas suddenly have seen their status change from legal to illegal, and through no fault of their own.

Six months severance for laid-off Cisco workers (Friday, 4/13/01)
Cisco Systems manufactures much of the network "plumbing" that makes the Internet possible, but, like so many hi-tech firms generally, and particularly those intimately involved wth the Internet, they've been influenced by the economic slowdown. Their severance offer is part of a plan to cut 5,000 jobs.

Unemployment likely to increase over the months ahead (Friday, 4/13/01)
A national organization of small business operators expects the U.S. unemployment rate to reach 5 percent by fall, which would be its highest level in four years.

Short straw wins (Friday, 4/13/01)
One might wonder about people who really seem to want to be the next Japanese prime minister, because it's a job that isn't likely to be all that much fun, given the weakening Japanese economy. Actually, it tells more about sense of duty than pursuit of pleasure.

Former football pro settles with the Teamsters (Friday, 4/13/01)
A man who worked at UPS during the Teamsters strike was stabbed by union members, so he sued. Now, he's settled. Here's more from Janelle Weber reporting from Miami.

Learning from what you do (Friday, 4/13/01)
A new survey from the American Savings Education Council and the Employee Benefit Research Institute shows how your children are learning financial management or mismanagement from you.

An engraved invitation to tax cheats? (Friday, 4/13/01)
The New York Times' David Cay Johnston writes about how reduced staff has influenced the Internal Revenue Service's ability to do its job. It appears that the big tax collection agency has largely given up on some efforts to collect and enforce, and it means lost billions, and that's with a "b."

Portrait of the American family (Friday, 4/13/01)
Reports of the demise of the traditional nuclear American family may have been premature. New Census data show an increase in the number of mom-pop-kids-dog-cat families, but also an increase in complexity, because there are a number of different kinds of families as well.

How selective is YOUR college? (Friday, 4/13/01)
Which U.S. colleges turn away the greatest proportion of their applicants? By this criterion, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy is more selective than Julliard and Harvard. But what does this really mean? It's hard to say without knowing a good deal about the population of people who are applying in the first place. As they say, you can prove anything with statistics...but only to people who don't know anything about statistics. At any rate, here's the list of most selective higher ed institutions.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: H-Net Job Guide (Friday, 4/13/01)
H-Net Job Guide is a jobs site specializing in the humanities and social sciences, and comes to you from Michigan State University.

Large-scale protests in Ankara (Thursday, 4/12/01)
As many as 50,000 people tried to march to Turkey's Parliament to insist on the resignation of Prime Minister Ecevit, and things turned violent. Turkey has been experiencing an economic crisis for two months.

Changes at two of the best-known Internet companies (Thursday, 4/12/01)
With so many dot-com failures--Kozmo is one of the most recent examples--there is far less Internet advertising than there used to be, which affects Yahoo a great deal. The well-known most-visited site is scaling back its operations and cutting 420 jobs, which amounts to 12 percent of its workforce. Unlike Yahoo, which has been profitable during most of its existence, Amazon.com has yet to show a solid operational profit. Anne D'Innocenzio reports that Amazon is taking over Borders' unprofitable online book business, which at least eliminates one online competitor. Incidentally, what are the people who are being laid off from Internet companies doing? John Markoff reports from California's Silicon Valley that many of them are trying to start, well, Internet companies. They're trying hard not to repeat the mistakes that have led to the resounding crash of so many first-round dot-coms, though.

More job cuts at Motorola (Thursday, 4/12/01)
Motorola reported a quarterly loss yesterday, the company's first in 16 years. They've already cut 22,000 jobs, and plan to cut more, as well as possibly sell off some of their operations. Here's more from Andrew Buchanan in Chicago. Columnist Diane Stafford reports that, while lots of large companies are laying off workers and many startups have been failing, very different kinds of things are happening in the American economy too. In fact, it's filled with ironies, she says.

Agreement reached in New York City (Thursday, 4/12/01)
The Big City's municipal workers have reached agreement with the city on a new contract, according to Steven Greenhouse and Susan Saulny of the New York Times.

New governmental agency in New Zealand (Thursday, 4/12/01)
The widely read and highly regarded The Jobs Letter from Vivian Hutchinson reports that the New Zealand government is creating the Ministry of Social Development out of the combination of the Department of Work and Income and the Ministry of Social Policy.

Jordan's king would like to see "Marshall Plan" for the Middle East (Thursday, 4/12/01)
King Abdullah says that the Middle East as at an historic fork in the road when the choice for the future can be either continued turmoil and violence or stability and economic development. A Marshall Plan-type program from the United States could make the difference by changing the younger generations' orientation.

What's good about the South African economy (Thursday, 4/12/01)
Ethel Hazelhurst reports that, despite common attitudes, good things are happening in South Africa's economy. Problem is, feeling bad can be contagious and self-fulfilling.

Biz education for the new economy (Thursday, 4/12/01)
Just as it is easy to find freshly printed career books that seem to have been written by people who think it's still about 1978 or so, it's also possible to study business in a school that hasn't noticed the transition that has taken place from the old heavy industrial economy to the new global information economy. Here's one publication's list of the top business schools for persons interested in working under present and future conditions, rather than in the past.

In somewhat related news, Australia's currency has lost ground in relation to other major currencies recently, and this has put that country's tech sector at a disadvantage in attracting the number of technically-skilled workers that it needs. Here's more from Garry Barker of Melbourne's The Age. And, speaking of Australia, Craig McGregor reports on the extent to which his country has been "Americanized."

At the moment, the U.S. stands astride the world as a political, military, and economic colossus. Even if friendly, one can expect this sort of influence to be resented in many places. If you think that the recent fuss over the downed U.S. spy plane and the recovery of its crew was about semantics and Confucian sensitivities, you're only a little bit right. The holding of the U.S. crew for a while might be seen as something similar to the firing on Fort Sumter in April 1861--the first volley in what is likely to be a long war, although, in this case, it may be bloodless. Expect the competition between China and the United States for domination of the Pacific region to be one of the principal contests of the 21st century. Mostly, it is likely to be an economic contest, even after the Chinese political system has changed considerably, as it almost surely will do.

Federal workers may be about to lose contraceptive coverage (Thursday, 4/12/01)
If President Bush's budget is implemented without modification, federal employees would no longer have the cost of contraceptives covered by their health insurance plans. Speaking of health care, Lori Sturdevant writes in the Minneapolis Star Tribune that it's time to get used to the idea of older health care workers, at least in Minnesota. But, then, why not?

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Virtual Library on Knowledge Management (Thursday, 4/12/01)
The new economy contains a tremendous number of knowledge workers who need to be managed, but to a lesser extent overall than workers in the old industrial economy. However, in a knowledge-based economy, knowledge itself must be managed. For those who have this responsibility, the Virtual Library on Knowledge Management is a good place to start. It's been recommended by many major business magazines.

Global slowdown expected to continue (Wednesday, 4/11/01)
World Bank economists stop short of predicting a global recession, but they expect growth to continue at a fairly slow rate, and a UN report examines the influence of a slowing American economy on global economic activity overall. Here's a quick overview of business activity around the world.

Business group urges Turkish government to resign (Wednesday, 4/11/01)
Turkey's political crisis has produced an economic crisis, and confidence in the current government seems to be plummeting. Ben Holland reports from Istanbul on demonstrations as well as pressure from the country's largest business organization.

Agreement at American Airlines (Wednesday, 4/11/01)
American Airlines is acquiring TWA and its staff, including pilots. Unions representing various categories of workers at American have been negotiating about how TWA's personnel will be integrated into the parent company while still protecting jobs. Much lies ahead, according to this report from David Koenig, but a tentative deal has been made with the pilots' union. Labor problems have been typical across much of the American airline industry recently, and this has complicated things, not only for the travel industry, but also business travelers. Here's more about that from Joe Sharkey of the New York Times.

Genetic testing suit settled (Wednesday, 4/11/01)
Burlington Northern used to conduct genetic testing of workers. They don't do that anymore after the EEOC sued them. Among other things, the settlement requires the company to destroy existing blood samples taken from workers while the practice was underway.

Things are getting less expensive in Japan (Wednesday, 4/11/01)
Things in general, that is, and this is called "deflation." "Inflation" is what economists and government officials have worried most about during recent decades, but deflation can cause havoc in a society too. Today's Washington Post reports on the arguments going on in Japan about consequences of the deflating Japanese economy. Thomas Fuller of the International Herald Tribune finds some cultural changes in Japan as the country attempts to cope with a new stage of its postwar economic history. There is a growing generation gap, for instance, when it comes to attitudes toward work. In other news, America is exporting higher ed services to Japan. Specifically, Stanford University in California will be offering Internet-based courses to Japanese workers, according to Tokyo's Asahi Shimbun.

The need for better data (Wednesday, 4/11/01)
Quality decision making depends on quality information. We've reported numerous times on the methodological problems associated with measuring voter preferences in the United States, as well as the difficulties inherent in obtaining an accurate picture of American society through the Census that is conducted every ten years. Also, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has expressed dissatisfaction with the economic measures available and how difficult it is to tell what really is going on with the new economy. Ethel Hazelhurst reports in the Financial Mail that South Africa has similar problems and public policy decision making is made more difficult and risky as a consequence. Again, WHAT we know depends entirely on HOW we know it, and, in a huge society, it's not good enough just to ask your friends what they think.

How layoffs are carried out makes a difference (Wednesday, 4/11/01)
Nationally syndicated columnist Carol Kleiman writes about layoff anxiety and how the pain can be minimized.

Are stocks still overpriced? (Wednesday, 4/11/01)
The Christian Science Monitor's David Francis says that some economists are still expecting "grizzly" news from Wall Street. That is, if you buy now, you may not really be buying at market lows. More losses are still fairly likely, say some experts, even for people who enter the market now. How long will it be before people who bought when stocks were at their highest get their money back if they hold? That could be a VERY long time, if ever, according to some experts, because the high stock prices of a while back represented unrealistic inflation in relation to genuine underlying values. Remember "irrational exuberance?" Meanwhile, all the bearish news is making consumers reluctant to spend freely, according to Anne D'Innocenzio, which is suppressing the retail sector, which is contributing to the slowing economy, which is...well, you know.

Americans have limited faith in faith-based social services if public moneys are used (Wednesday, 4/11/01)
The devil's in the details, you might say. Jane Lampman reports on what polls are telling us about the response of Americans to the President's faith-based initiatives. In an increasingly diverse society, there will be increased difficulty finding consensus on what "faith" means and which organizations are "faith-based." It would be easier in a religiously homogeneous community, such as some in Ireland, for example. In the U.S., though, there are dozens if not hundreds of different kinds of Christian organizations which don't seem to agree on too much, plus Jews, and an increasing number of Moslems, Buddhists, and Hindus, among others. Do concepts such as "God" and "religion" have consistent meanings across highly diverse traditions?

Let's hear the case for debt (Wednesday, 4/11/01)
Columnist Jerry Heaster tells how attitudes toward moneylenders during the pre-industrial era have carried over, inappropriately, he believes, to the current time, and have given debt a bad name. In actuality, though, America owes its historically high standard of living to debt, he says. For instance, how many Americans would be able to buy a house if they had to pay cash on the barrel-head? Along similar lines, Mr. Heaster recently argued against paying off the federal debt. A curious thing is that it used to be "liberals