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Gone! Japan's financial minister is out (Monday, 9/30/02)
It's looking to many international observers like the Japanese government is getting ready to bail out its banks. Huge bad loans have been hobbling the Japanese economy for years.

Indefinte lockout (Monday, 9/30/02)
In actions that could affect the entire U.S. economy, an organization that represents shipping lines at West Coast ports has locked out workers indefinitely. They want to extend an expired contract while continuing to negotiate a new one, something which union leaders have refused to do.

Consumers lose momentum in the stores (Monday, 9/30/02)
Consumer spending was down in August, even though incomes rose a bit. Here's more from Martin Crutsinger on the day data from the Commerce Department.

Gore winds up for another pitch (Monday, 9/30/02)
Former Senator, former Vice President, and former Presidential candidate Al Gore has the clout to redirect the national conversation. If he felt that some members of Congress--both Democrats and Republicans--may have been a bit too timid about the Administration's war plans and may have been getting ready to vote the opposite of what their consciences have been telling them, his speech a week or so ago certainly stirred things up.

On the other hand, some polls have been suggesting that the Democrats may have an advantage in key Congressional races and that they may be able to maintain it if they can prevent voters from being too distracted from economic issues. Will Lester says that Gore is set to make another speech in which he will emphasize the growing economic mess that Republicans would like you to forget for a particular day in early November.

During these final weeks before the election which will determine which major party will control Congress for the next two years, both parties will be scrambling to influence voters in key states where contests are very close, such as the Senatorial races in Colorado and Minnesota. This is a very important election which, during ordinary times, almost surely would push political considerations to the top of most politicians' "to do" lists. However, members of Congress may also be facing the most important vote they will ever cast during their public careers, because the Iraq situation provides a genuine dilemma. The risks on both sides of the issue are potentially catastrophic.

Coincidentally, this is the last election in which the old rules regarding "soft money" will be in effect. Richard Oppel says you can expect at least twice as much money to be shoved into this years Congressional races as during the last midterm campaign in 1998.

Careful if you're a manager (Monday, 9/30/02)
The climate has turned a little sour for the people in charge. Not only has the behavior of a few big-time corporate crooks cast public doubt on what most top corporate executives are all about and what they're doing, supervisors are finding themselves saddled with increasing legal exposure. A number of suits have targeted managers as personally liable in several workplace cases.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: FedStats (Monday, 9/30/02)
There are almost as many statistician jokes as lawyer jokes. For instance, if all the statisticians in the world were laid end-to-end...it would be a good thing. But, it's all about facts, and, if you aren't interested in facts, what are the alternatives? Professional statisticians make a serious effort to do what needs to be done in order to collect reliable and trustworthy facts in order to increase the quality of our connection to the realities with which we must deal. Thus, facts are particularly important to government, and the U.S. federal government has more than 70 agencies that produce statistics of interest to the public. FedStats can help you find them.

O'Neill isn't impressed with Japan's latest efforts (Sunday, 9/29/02)
A gag attributed to funnyman Steven Wright has been circulating lately: "If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried." It is said that a troublesome cultural trait is that the Japanese have difficulty acknowledging mistakes, which makes it harder to fix them. In the view of many observers, including the American Secretary of the Treasury, after a decade of economic trouble, Japan still doesn't appear ready to take the bold action that would be required to fix things and restore the days of old when there was so much talk about the "Japanese miracle."

The British economy gains a little speed (Sunday, 9/29/02)
The UK's economy hasn't been shrinking, but it hasn't been growing much either. However, the second quarter was slightly better than the first. The Office for National Statistics reports an annualized growth rate of 0.6 percent during the April-June period, up 0.5 percent from the beginning of the year.

The debate over poverty reduction (Sunday, 9/29/02)
Some statistics suggest that major progress has been made lately in reducing the plight of the world's poorest people, but others reflect a more modest situation, and that's part of what the argument over "globalization" is about. Here's more from Davd Francis of the Christian Science Monitor. Incidentally, the IMF and World Bank meetings are wrapping up in Washington, D. C. today, and things have been quieter in the streets outside since police arrested more than 600 demonstrators the first day.

Assuring continuity (Sunday, 9/29/02)
Spanish philosopher George Santayana remarked that if we don't remember history, we're condemned to repeat it. Women in organized labor are doing their best to be sure that doesn't happen. Jane Von Bergen tells what labor union women are doing to prepare their successors so that hard-fought gains will not be lost .

Be careful about "help" getting your debts under control (Sunday, 9/29/02)
So many Americans are so deeply in debt that it makes scam artists salivate. If you need outside help, be careful whom you choose, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Karen Alexander offers some advice.

Dreams vs. reality (Sunday, 9/29/02)
What should you do when your dream job doesn't turn out to be much of a dream after all? Here's some advice from a major Washington Post post columnist.

When retirement isn't the final stage (Sunday, 9/29/02)
A variety of circumstances, not the least of which is the stock market decline, are forcing many Americans to un-retire and go back to work. Here's more from Adam Geller. Incidentally, Mike Meyers of the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports on the results of a national survey that finds Minnsotans to be the "hardest working", and that includes some people who don't retire even when they could.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Apprenticeship Links (Sunday, 9/29/02)
Here are links to apprenticeship sites in many countries around the world from the XPDNC labor organization.

Bad Friday (Saturday, 9/28/02)
The bear market growled again yesterday, and the Dow lost nearly 300 points. Discouraging economic reports, including disappointing corporate earnings, seemed to be among the precipitators, but Barbara Hagenbaugh says some numbers were reassuring, and that investors may be more pessimistic right now than is justified by the facts. Nonetheless, and for whatever reasons, we're now in the longest bear market in 60 years. Here's more about that from Nick Olivari in New York.

The latest from the front (Saturday, 9/28/02)
Top financial officials are meeting in Washington, D. C. this weekend. The G7, meaning the seven richest industrial countries, agree that the global economy has slowed down and that the future is risky, even without a major war in the Middle East and the much higher oil prices that would likely mean. As part of an effort toward the restoration of confidence that may be required to boost growth in the U.S. and other major economies, as well as cope with the financial crisis in Latin America, financial leaders say they'll work together in order to require higher levels of disclosure.

During the past several years, meetings of the IMF and World Bank have been accompanied by large numbers of demonstrators in the streets, and the current talks in Washington, D. C. haven't been an exception. Thousands of protesters tangled with District police yesterday, but the police apparently can claim victory, given that they cleared the streets, arrested hundreds of demonstrators, and got organizers to pledge more peaceful demonstrations during the remaining days.

To say that the demonstrations have been highly organized might be too much of an overstatement. Instead, there appears to be a high degree of fragmentation with various groups represented for a variety of reasons. Such events typically attract at least some persons who are rebels without clear causes, who may be a little hazy on what the IMF and World Bank really are all about as well as specifically what it is that they dislike about them. This can help account for the "absurd theater" component which can distract from the serious people who have a clear understanding of the substantive issues who are also demonstrating.

If you've been a little uncertain over what the arguments are about, Paul Blustein of the Washington Post offers a primer and overview of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the major issues on which there is genuine and intelligent disagreement relating to "globalization," what it is, and what it means for the peoples of the world. Some of these appear to be the same basic issues that people have argued about in relation to capitalism for at least two centuries, but in a world in which nearly everything is connected to nearly everything else, processes can be greatly accelerated and effects greatly magnified.

Things are a little snarly in Italy and on America's West Coast (Saturday, 9/28/02)
Air traffic controllers in Italy staged an eight-hour strike which was enough to make travel unpleasant, or, for that matter, nonexistent for a lot of people. Alitalia canceled 243 flights, and other carriers which ordinarily have flights in and out of the country were affected as well.

In other labor news, West Coast longshoremen have been locked out for a day, which is likely to be enough to knock some of the remaining wind out of the U.S. economy. Finally, Mexico's President is trying to head off an oil strike across his country.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Prosperity and Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy, 1921-1929 (Saturday, 9/28/02)
For those interested in modern economic history, the Library of Congress has put together a tremendous collection of resources and a special presentation on the America of the 1920s before things began falling apart in 1929. Here's Prosperity and Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy, 1921-1929. Speculations about whether the 1920s/1930s period was somehow precursor to the period including the last decade of the 20th century and the first of the 21st aren't necessarily encouraged, but probably are inevitable.

So far, so good--no "double dip" yet (Friday, 9/27/02)
Technically, unless you get into using the complicated formulas relied on by some analysts, it takes two consecutive quarters of "negative growth" (translation: shrinkage) to have a recession. The good news is that the U.S. economy got larger during the second quarter, not smaller, and the 1.3 percent annualized growth rate was better than expected. Whether or not the economy will hold up in the face of an increasingly likely stepped-up war with Iraq--hostilities have been going on for years in the no-fly zones--is something you can guess about if you like. Martin Crutsinger reports from Washington where experts are trying to calculate likely economic effects.

G7 finance ministers are meeting in Washington this weekend to discuss ways of keeping the global economy from slumping too much as a consequence of rising oil prices and war. James Cox reports that they have been met with a large number of anti-globalization protesters, who are not really speaking with one voice. Many objections have to do with the effect of "globalization" on workers overseas, but Kirstin Downey Grimsley reports that some U.S. workers are being affected, as well.

SBC to cut even more jobs this time around (Friday, 9/27/02)
SBC Communications, a telephone company that operates in 13 states, cut 10,000 jobs earlier this year, but that's not enough, they say. Another 11,000 jobs will be eliminated by early next year. Meanwhile, things seem to be working out a bit better than expected at BellSouth, where 5,000 workers have decided to accept a severance package and leave by the end of the month, meaning that fewer than 30 people will have to be fired.

A vast number of Americans who used to work in the troubled telecommunications sector are trying to make ends meet, but they're not the only ones. Jon Swartz of USA Today tells what's happening as unemployment persists longer than many people had expected and benefits run out.

Across the Atlantic, an increase in unemployment was expected, but, instead, France's jobless rate held steady in August.

Many people are thankful for the new low (Friday, 9/27/02)
Thirty-year fixed mortgage rates hit their lowest level in 30 years last week. One of the more visible consequences of the cheap money is that sales of new single-family homes rose rapidly in August.

Target and others make a deal (Friday, 9/27/02)
Seven retailers, including Minnesota-based Target, have settled a class-action suit over alleged sweatshop conditions at garment factories in Saipan, which is a U.S. territory. No wrongdoing is admitted, but the companies will contribute to a $20 million settlement fund. Meanwhile, a panel agrees that Coca-Cola has been doing a good job complying with a diversity settlement reached earlier.

Loophole favoring the rich is closed by the IRS (Friday, 9/27/02)
Thousands of wealthy Americans have managed to avoid paying taxes on salaries and investment earnings by claiming losses from foreign currency transactions. The Internal Revenue Service has closed the loophole, according to David Cay Johnston of the New York Times.

Forbes author looks for the silver lining in new poverty statistics (Friday, 9/27/02)
Dan Ackman writes in Forhes that the poverty rate has increased in the U.S. for the first time in years, but the averages conceal some of the realities. It's not as bad as it may appear, he says.

Health benefits to cost workers more (Friday, 9/27/02)
The cost of health care has been skyrocketing, and it's traumatizing employers and employees alike. Business Week writers Arlene Weintraub and Andrew Park say that an increasing number of employers plan to pass the greater costs on to their workers next year.

Look in the mirror to see a boss who cares about you (Friday, 9/27/02)
Columnist L. M. Sixel discusses some of the reasons for self-employment, bringing to mind the old thing about how a self-employed person might remark, "The boss nearly kills me, but, at least s/he has my best interests in mind."

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Higher Education Research Institute (Friday, 9/27/02)
The Higher Education Research Institute is located at UCLA where you will also find the Cooperative Institutional Research Program, a national longitudinal study of American higher education involving the collection of data from some 1,700 colleges and universities and more than 10 million students. The program was begun in 1966.

UAL unions offer to help out, and it's already helpful (Thursday, 9/26/02)
Union leaders representing workers at United Airlines have agreed to allow the company to cut labor costs by $5 billion over five years, which seems to be exactly what investors have been waiting to hear.

Meeting of world finance leaders begins Friday in Washington (Thursday, 9/26/02)
World Bank and IMF officials will convene for three days in Washington, D.C. starting tomorrow, and protesters already are organizing. So are 1,700 police in case there is trouble. Latin America's financial crisis is on the agenda, as well as the slowing of the global economy. Here's more on that from James Toedtman of Long Island's Newsday.

Sir Allan (Thursday, 9/26/02)
Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan has received an honorary knighthood from Britain's Elizabeth II. It has to be honorary, because Greenspan isn't a British subject. For the most part, major public figures can collect honorary college degrees if they're willing to show up and make speeches, but knighthoods aren't handed out quite so freely, although it's not necessarily all that solemn an honor either. Many British pop culture figures have been knighted. We don't know if Greenspan is the first dance band saxophone player to receive the honor.

Incidentally, while in Britain, the Chairman spoke to British financial officials and told them that, despite everything, the American economy is strong, and its diversification is a major reason. The news is still mixed in the U.S., though. Factory orders were down in August, and it is improvement in the manufacturing sector that the economy really needs in order to get going. On the other hand, new first-time jobless claims were down again last week for the second week in a row. Many of the 450 people that Goodyear in Tennessee will be laying are likely to be standing in the unemployment lines soon, as well as the additional workers that Hewlett-Packard intends to cut.

China's turn to try to get trapped miners out (Thursday, 9/26/02)
Chinese rescue workers are trying to free 13 miners trapped in a flooded mine. China has had multiple mine disasters during recent months. In the U.S., the workplace fatality rate increased by a third last year because of the September 11 terrorist attack.

Workplace violence in Florida (Thursday, 9/26/02)
A shooting in the Department of Health offices in Jacksonville has resulted in two persons injured and one dead. The gunman died at the scene from a self-inflicted wound.

Worries about Social Security's security and more (Thursday, 9/26/02)
The "personal investment accounts" favored by President Bush have lost ground recently because of the stock market dive. Here's more from Susan Page of USA Today.

Polls show that economic worries are very much on the minds of many Americans, but charges and counter-charges yesterday about "politicizing" war issues may essentially keep economics out of the campaign during the remaining six weeks before the election that will determine which major party will control Congress for the next two years. Basically, Republicans have wanted to keep attention focused on concerns about terrorism and Iraq, while Democrats have been trying to change the subject, given what they consider to be potential Republican vulnerability on domestic economic issues. However, President Bush may have pushed it a bit too hard, even in the judgment of some of his advisors, and this has caused some leading Democrats, including Senator Daschle, to smell blood, hoping that they can help Administration war talk backfire in time to influence voters.

German "Nasdaq" shut down (Thursday, 9/26/02)
Germany's Neuer Markt has lost nearly all of its value during the past 2 1/2 years, so the stock exchange has been shut down. One of the more interesting aspects of the new economy--and it really is in many ways quite new--is that technology, which continues to transform the world, tends to be such a bust right now for people who want to make money from it. In fact, it's one among many novel economic implications of tech. Incidentally, properly speaking, the term "new economy" never has referred exclusively to business done on the Internet, even though the Internet continues to change the way nearly every company conducts its business.

Here's the latest on the labor-management tussle in the new Homeland Security Department (Thursday, 9/26/02)
The President says he needs to be able to fire workers in the new department in order to insure national security. Congressional Democrats, on the other hand, see the formation of the new mega-department as amounting to an end-run around the Civil Service and union protections enjoyed by most federal workers. David Firestone reports that a moderate Republican has helped Senate Democrats win one for the moment.

Help with the split (Thursday, 9/26/02)
For a long time, there have been personal counselors as well as investment counselors. Now, there are divorce counselors as well. Russ Wiles of the Arizona Republic tells why the right one can be helpful when you're "splitting your differences," as he says.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: World Development Report 2003 (Thursday, 9/26/02)
The full-text version in PDF format of the latest edition of the World Bank's World Development Report examines what they regard as the likely course of such issues such as poverty, maintaining growth, the environmental protection over the next 50 years. A 30-page summary is available.

Some effects of recession (Wednesday, 9/25/02)
New Census Bureau data show that last year's recession increased the number of people living in poverty again following improvement during the booming '90s. Also, household income has diminished a bit overall. Incidentally, about 20 percent of the U.S. population earns more than half the total income. People who are desperate to earn more income are being targeted by scam artists, according to Stephanie Armour. Most of the "employment opportunities" announced on posters attached to telephone polls or through unsolicited email messages are bogus, experts say. Respond to them, and you're likely to end up with less money rather than more.

Preemptive action in D.C.? (Wednesday, 9/25/02)
While argument continues over whether the United States will take preemptive action against Iraq, a similar question seems to be arising in relation to planned protests this weekend during the World Bank and IMF meetings in Washington, D.C. Here's more from Manny Fernandez and David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post about a potential Constitutional issue in the streets of D.C.

The cost of health care blasts into the stratosphere (Wednesday, 9/25/02)
Overall, inflation is under control in the American economy, but that doesn't mean things are cool in every sector. For instance, as Julie Appleby reports, the cost of health care in the United States increased by 10 percent last year, seven times more than average price rises across the entire economy.

Why China's government is concerned about the nation's farmers (Wednesday, 9/25/02)
For one thing, there are about 500 million of them. However, Peter Goodman of the Washington Post says that there are other reasons.

If you can, stay where you are today (Wednesday, 9/25/02)
Getting from point A to point B in London is a hassle today for a lot of people because of a 24-hour subway strike.

So many cheaters, so little resource (Wednesday, 9/25/02)
The Internal Revenue Service says that it doesn't have to resources to track down and compel anywhere near all the tax cheaters to pay up.

AFL-CIO asks its members to drink something else (Wednesday, 9/25/02)
Workers at a Coors supplier in Kalamazoo, Michigan have been locked out since the end of July. The big labor confederation wants to exert pressure by asking its 13 million members to boycott Coors products. In labor news of a different kind, Marilyn Adams reports in USA Today that there seems to be agreement between United Airlines and its union leaders on how to cut costs in order to keep the big airline out of bankruptcy. For weeks, there has been speculation that United could follow US Airways into Ch 11 protection.

American work load decreases a little (Wednesday, 9/25/02)
For decades, Americans have been spending an increasing proportion of their time doing work of one sort or another. A new Harris Poll finds the first decrease in the average American work load in a long time.

No longer forever young (Wednesday, 9/25/02)
Many baby boomers got used to thinking of themselves as the younger generation leading American society in new directions, often being resented by older people because of their youth. Now, the boomers ARE the older people, which is taking some getting used to. Among other things, many are concerned about age discrimination of an unfamiliar kind. Here's more from Melanie Payne of the Sacramento Bee.

Bored to death (Wednesday, 9/25/02)
University of Texas researchers say that boring jobs aren't simply unpleasant. Quite literally, they can kill you.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Financial Facts Took Kit (Wednesday, 9/25/02)
The Security and Exchange Commission offers much of what you are likely to need for building a secure financial future in its Financial Facts Tool Kit.

Fed holds, but Dow certainly doesn't (Tuesday, 9/24/02)
The Federal Reserve has decided not to change interest rates, but the Dow hits its lowest point in four years. Most economists seem to expect the Federal Reserve to leave interests rates at their very low levels for at least several more months. Short-term interest rates are as low as they've been at any time since John Kennedy was president. The economy still seems to need all the help it can get, and, as Adam Geller reports from New York, another dip in consumer confidence isn't renewing optimism. Neither is the fact that the Conference Board's Index of Leading Economic Indicators is down again for the third consecutive month.

West Coast states may be leading the nation into new territory (Tuesday, 9/24/02)
Within less than two years, California workers will be able to take time off to deal with a family health crisis or a new child in the family without sacrificing all their pay during the time they're on leave. The new law is the first of its kind in the country. Here's more from Paul Chavez in the Salt Lake City Tribune. Meanwhile, just to the north, Oregon is taking the lead among thirteen states to explore the possibility of making healthcare universal. Oregon voters will vote on it in November.

Why the Administration might be happy that Al Gore is attacking its policy toward Iraq (Tuesday, 9/24/02)
Former Vice President and former presidential candidate Al Gore has blasted the Bush administration's apparent plans to wage war against Iraq's current regime, no matter what, assuming that Saddam doesn't choose on his own to go into exile. When a Senator, Gore was one of a relatively few Democrats who voted more than a decade ago in favor of the Bush I administration's plan to drive Iraq's military from Kuwait. For public consumption, Administration spokespersons are saying that Mr. Gore's current remarks are irrelevant, and nobody really cares what he thinks, least of all them.

However, that may not be quite true, although, off the record, Administration officials might be a bit gleeful rather than indifferent. It may be seen as the second time that Al Gore has provided a political gift to the Bush folks by eliminating their need to campaign on economic issues.

Because of the front-loading of primaries this time, Al Gore may already be leading in the contest for becoming the next Democratic presidential nominee, despite muted enthusiasm among many top Democratic strategists. Gore is seen as blowing the 2000 presidential election which should have been at least a small landslide, given the overall condition of the American economy during the Clinton-Gore years and the tendency of voters to be swayed by economic issues. By allowing himself to be perceived as excessively calculating and manipulative, Gore allowed Bush largely to ignore the economic issues and simply be seen as an amiable "regular guy" who slapped people on the back and liked baseball quite a lot, which was enough to turn likely defeat into a tie. Then, September 11, 2001 came along and turned a lightweight into a genuine president in the eyes of most Americans, including a lot of people who usually vote Democratic.

Now, Gore seems to be at it again, even though he can also be seen as performing a valuable public service by discouraging a rush to judgment in the Congress, particularly among Democrats who seem willing to give Bush what he wants on the Iraq question in order to have a chance of taking war out of what remains of the 2002 campaign in order to focus public attention on a greatly deteriorated economy.

Of course, Gore isn't the only Democrat who is voicing reservations about the possibility that the U.S. may break with long American tradition and become an invader nation. Still, he's the one who can almost certainly become the lead on many TV newscasts and appear above the fold on the front pages of major American newspapers.

From the point of view of many Democrats, Gore's effect may be to keep war talk on the front pages during the weeks remaining before the November election, which means keeping economics mostly out of the campaign. That may cause the election of a sufficient number of Republican candidates to put both houses of Congress in the hands of the Republicans. It's why Mr. Gore's speech has been causing many Democrats to use a lot of bad language today, and why the attitude at the White House toward Al Gore may not be as indifferent as some people have been letting on.

Chris Matthews, long-time Carter and Tip O'Neill aid who now hosts CNBC's "Hardball," hasn't been pleased with his old party's silence on the question of a preemptive invasion of Iraq, although he understands the political expediencies. He says that one way of looking at it is that Congressional Democrats want to pave the way for American kids to die in Iraq so that they can pander to older voters over prescription medications before Election Day.

It depends on your political priorities, if you're a Democrat, given a recognition that politics, by its nature, sometimes makes apparent cynics out of sincere people because of the excruciating choices that officials often are faced with. Some are reminded of how Winston Churchill allowed the Germans to bomb the Coventry Cathedral without warning people in that community who were sure to die, because to warn them would have told the Germans that their codes had been broken, and that could have led to a British defeat in the war. Politics sometimes seems silly, and sometimes seems like a game, but it's really deadly serious and often isn't pretty. Moreover, it's probably not fair to criticize people in political roles subject to conflicting political pressures when they behave like, well, politicians.

Agreement at Volkswagen (Tuesday, 9/24/02)
With a minimum of rancor, Volkswagen and its workers have made a deal on a new two-year contract. Here's more from David McHugh in Frankfurt.

A movement to unionize some Texas auto mechanics (Tuesday, 9/24/02)
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers is encouraging mechanics at nine Houston-area auto dealerships to organize. The union represents about five percent of auto mechanics nationwide, but that amounts to 40,000 technicians.

No rebound yet for IT workers (Tuesday, 9/24/02)
Computer World reports that the tech job market continues on its sluggish course, even though some new jobs have been created. A sluggish overall economy with an afflicted tech sector, in which many technology companies are having to make even more job cuts, plus H-1B visas, and the practice of "outsourcing" some technical work, including programming, to people who remain in other countries are blamed, depending on whom you ask.

The "civilian ROTC" (Tuesday, 9/24/02)
It's a program whereby tech students can study at government expense at eleven U.S. colleges in universities in exchange for a commitment to do cybersecurity work for two years in a federal agency.

Ayn Rand finds a new audience (Tuesday, 9/24/02)
Harassed executives are looking for the morality in self-interest and are finding reassurance in Any Rand's Atlas Shrugged.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: The 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers List 2002 (Tuesday, 9/24/02)
In the judgment of editors at Working Mothers magazine, here's the 2002 list of 100 best companies for working mothers to work.

Both good and bad news for Germany's Schroeder (Monday, 9/23/02)
Gerhard Schroeder will get another term as Germany's Chancellor, but there will be stronger opposition as he attempts to pump up the German economy and increase employment. During this second four years, he will have to work with a slimmer majority in Parliament than during his first four. Leaders across the continent are concerned that Germany has been weakened--not good news for other European countries that depend on Germany to drive the EU economy. Also, Germany needs a strong relationship with the United States. The Chancellor will need to strengthen ties with the U.S. again after blasting the American Administration's plans for Iraq in order to aid his re-election. O'Brien Brown of the Scotsman writes about some of the reasons for Germany's economic difficulties. A debilitating employment bureaucracy is among them, he says.

Ratification at GM in Canada (Monday, 9/23/02)
The Toronto Globe and Mail reports that workers at General Motors of Canada have voted to accept their new three-year contract.

Don't look to the Fed for magic solutions, or, for that matter, maybe any solutions (Monday, 9/23/02)
Most economists expect to the Federal Reserve to leave interest rates where they are when officials meet tomorrow. Amanda Lang tells why the Fed doesn't have any magical tools to get the economy going, and she feels that interest rates haven't been handled properly by Alan Greenspan and his colleagues.

Taiwan's military to employ more civilians (Monday, 9/23/02)
Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense wants a service containing both military and civilian personnel, so they've decided to hire a couple of hundred civilians during the next three years. Here's more from Brian Hsu of the Taipei Times.

The obvious becomes visible in Japan (Monday, 9/23/02)
At least, it's been obvious to a lot of people that huge bad loans have been playing a major role in holding back Japan's once-mighty economy. Now, as Paul Wiseman of USA Today reports, officials at the Bank of Japan seem to be wiping the fog off their glasses. Maybe this will mean more take actions that seem to be necessary to fix the problem.

Get ready to phone it in in D.C. (Monday, 9/23/02)
Large-scale protests are likely to snarl things pretty good in the nation's capital, and some employers are telling their workers to telecomute Friday.

Economics and the rapidly-approaching election (Monday, 9/23/02)
A number of economic statistics have turned fairly sour since the last presidential inauguration day. This, combined with the tendency for the opposition to pick up seats in Congress during mid-term elections, should be good news for the Democrats, because voters tend to be strongly influenced by the degree to which they're feeling economically comfortable or distressed. However, this time, it may be "It's the war(s), stupid." During the remaining weeks before the election, it may be hard to compete with war, or, at least, war talk, on America's front pages, so it remains to be seen whether the Democrats will be able to change the subject sufficiently to benefit from what ordinarily would be beneficial in an election. Control of both houses of Congress could go either way. David Francis of the Christian Science Monitor reports on one element of the Democratic effort--a call for an extension of unemployment benefits--to get the attention of voters who have lost their jobs, as well as voters who are afraid their jobs are vulnerable, as well as all the other voters who are sympathetic.

GAO will look at the H1-B visa program (Monday, 9/23/02)
The so-called "tech visas" have been a focus of considerable controversy for several years. The U.S. General Accounting Office is beginning a year-long examination of the program.

Some tax cuts in Hungary next year (Monday, 9/23/02)
Tax changes are coming to Hungary, according to this report from Budapest. However, personal income tax rates will remain where they are for another couple of years.

Dust off your business uniform (Monday, 9/23/02)
A boss in the Dilbert comic strip says that he's going to keep changing the dress code until he finds one that restores profitability. Bear Stearns is among the companies that are retreating from the casual dress that seemed to be fueled by the dot-coms of the 1990s which were heavily populated with nontraditional young people working in settings that emphasize individual creativity. By shamelessly scrambling metaphors, we can say that many companies are feeling under siege now, are circling the wagons, and, when your job is to "take that hill" or defend against an invading army, you may not want a bunch of creative individualists racing in all their own unique directions. Thus, the resurgence of paramilitary organization and its symbols in American business. Time to suck it in and salute.

Cleanup down under (Monday, 9/23/02)
Australia's government has decided that the United States is not the exclusive world headquarters of corporate corruption. It's been working up a reform package as part of an effort to cleanse Australia's corporate culture as well.

Higher ed's minority report (Monday, 9/23/02)
A new study from the U.S. Department of Education finds that the number of minority students on American campuses increased by nearly 50 percent during the decade of the 1990s.

Helpers in demand (Monday, 9/23/02)
Max Jarman of the Arizona Republic finds strong demand for people who provide non-medical assistance to the elderly. With the huge baby-boomer generation approaching old age, this demand is likely to only increase. At the moment, there is little regulation, but that may change. At the same time, the number of people who will still working once they pass age 65 may be on the increase, according to survey results from AARP.

Advice and help in achieving freedom (Monday, 9/23/02)
Mary Sit-DuVall says that competent credit counseling can be a life-saver for people whose lives have been taken over by crushing debt and are working mostly just to pay interest.

It's easier to swim with the current (Monday, 9/23/02)
In a rapidly changing economy, some occupational categories are expanding, while others are contracting, and it can make quite a difference to you which you're in if you're charting a career. Sherwood Ross reports on what the new edition of the Occupational Outlook Quarterly has to say.

Incidentally, how can it be that so much job growth is expected in technical fields during the years ahead, even though tech seems to be on life-support now? There are a variety of reasons, but one has to do with the great efficiencies of hi-tech itself. Once research and development is complete and the bugs have been worked out of manufacturing processes, markets can be flooded with hi-tech products pretty quickly, which, among other things, can quickly mess up supply-demand relationships that determine pricing, influence the relationship between costs and revenues, and, thus, profitability. Sometimes, it appears that nearly anything can be done with technology except make money on it.

For instance, not many years ago, the early home videotape recorders cost thousands of dollars; now some can be had for dozens of dollars instead. Similarly with microwave ovens or DVD players. Moreover, it doesn't happen only in the consumer markets. A principal reason the telecommunications sector is nearly comatose at the moment is because of over-capacity. Nobody wants to pay to install additional telecommunications capability when so little of what already exists is being fully utilized in many regions.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Occupational Outlook Quarterly (Monday, 9/23/02)
Here's the latest edition of the Occupational Outlook Quarterly from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, United States Department of Labor. Bureau forecasters expect the American economy to create 22 million new jobs during the decade. The total American workforce should be 168 million strong by 2010.

Helicopter strike ends in Pennsylvania (Sunday, 9/22/02)
Agreement has been reached at a Boeing helicopter plant, ending a week-long strike. Meanwhile, a new strike may be about to begin in Nigeria, according to Agence France-Presse. Talks have broken down between oil workers and the government.

Economy okay, but still faces risks, says Administration official (Sunday, 9/22/02)
A top White House economic advisor generally likes what he sees, particularly the strong consumer spending, but still worries a little. Meanwhile, Alan Clendenning says that charitable giving has been suffering as the economy has suffered. A related problem may be that the white collar job market continues to struggle, according to Challenger, Gray and Christmas. Almost half of Americans who have been out of work for six months or more are professionals.

Who can help keep your roof over your head? (Sunday, 9/22/02)
Sandra Block of USA Today says that you may be able to find help in avoiding foreclosure in what may be an unexpected place. Check to see what your lender can do to help, because odds are that s/he wants to avoid the long miseries of foreclosing on you as well.

Planning your escape route (Sunday, 9/22/02)
Columnist Amy Joyce says sometimes the best way to deal with a genuinely toxic work environment is to simply wave good-bye and head on out. Maybe you don't have to wave.

Guess what your employees are wasting time on (Sunday, 9/22/02)
Andrea Orr says a new survey finds that workers are spending more time on Internet news sites at work now than on pornography, gambling, or shopping sites. Hello, if you're reading this at work. Maybe your boss is reading this right now too.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Worldwide Cost of Living Survey (Sunday, 9/22/02)
Finfacts Worldwide Cost of Living Survey compares prices of hundreds of items in hundreds of cities around the world.

How a new war might influence America's bottom-line (Saturday, 9/21/02)
There are many issues of importance in the debate about whether the United States should mobilize a large military force to begin the process of switching the government of Iraq to one that might be a less dangerous world citizen. Political leaders around the world are debating the likely cost/gain/risk relationships. There may be general agreement that lives are most important, but a big war costs big money too. The Washington Post's John Berry examines the economic implications for the United States of a new war with Iraq.

Speaking of global citizenship, Doug Struck reports from Pyongyang that there are growing hints that even North Korea, long a finalist in the "worst place on earth" sweepstakes, may be starting the process of becoming a different kind of place. Honest.

One place where Social Security already is a campaign issue (Saturday, 9/21/02)
The Republicans will try to keep voters thinking about national security and war between now and election day in what is likely to be a razor-thin race to control both house of Congress, while Democrats will try to change the subject. In fact, a likely reason that the President will probably get overwhelming support on his plans for Iraq, even from Democrats who are wary about the need for military intervention at this particular time, is that the Democrats would like to take war issues out of the campaign so they can try to shift public attention to domestic issues on which they believe Republican Congressional candidates will be most vulnerable. One very close Senatorial fight is underway in Minnesota where Senator Paul Wellstone is seeking re-election in a very tight contest with former St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman. Both are saying that they're against "privatizing" Social Security, but Wellstone is claiming that Coleman has changed his position for public campaign consumption.

Agreement at Midwest Express (Saturday, 9/21/02)
After two years since the start of talks, Midwest Express Airlines has reached tentative agreement on a new contract with unionized flight attendants. Meanwhile, union leaders at tottering United Airlines are still working on a plan for helping their airline avert bankruptcy.

They say IMF spells "mess" (Saturday, 9/21/02)
Here's an analysis of the International Monetary Fund's current situation from Pete Engardio and Rich Miller.

The movement to subsidize family leave (Saturday, 9/21/02)
Since 1993, American workers have had the right to leave their jobs in order to take care of a newborn or a sick family member, but they have to be able to afford the interrupted income, because the only thing that the law really insures is that they can come back to their jobs. Not surprisingly, relatively few people have taken advantage of the Family and Medical Leave Act since its enactment. Now, there are movements underway in a couple of dozen states to provide financial subsidy. As often seems to happen, California is leading the charge.

Meanwhile, researchers at Columbia University say they've found a link between whether or not mother works outside the home and her children's intellectual development, and it may not be pretty. Toddi Gutner writes in Business Week about the reasons for not feeling guilty if you're one of the moms who work.

Endowments hurt by bear market (Saturday, 9/21/02)
Many college and universities have been having difficulty with their operating budgets for a variety of reasons, including declining returns on endowments, according to the National Association of College and University Business Officers. Incidentally, one individual who has been paying special attention to the market, corporate scandals, and how the mix has been influencing people's retirement savings is Ted Benna. Who's Ted Benna? He invented the 401(k) account.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Child Care Bureau (Saturday, 9/21/02)
The Child Care Bureau is part of the Administration for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and administers federal funds to help lower-income families access quality child care when parents are working or in school.

Alcatel cuts waaaaaay back (Friday, 9/20/02)
It isn't the just the U.S. telecommunications sector that's been nearly unconscious. France's Alcatel had decided to cut 30,000 jobs, but now decides that won't be nearly enough. Another 20,000 jobs are set to go.

Dockworkers on the job (Friday, 9/20/02)
It appears that plans for a lockout at California ports have not materialized. Ross Cameron reports from Los Angeles on the continuing labor conflict that could result in a major hit to the American economy.

Don't look for rate changes Tuesday (Friday, 9/20/02)
A Fed meeting is scheduled for next Tuesday. Most experts expect that interest rates will be left where they are. The apparent condition of the U.S. economy may be part of what leads the head of the International Monetary Fund to expect no global recession, despite some discouraging numbers during recent months.

If you're in D.C., look both to the right and to the left so you don't get trampled (Friday, 9/20/02)
Politicians from both major parties are scrambling to get in line so that you will know how much they favor drought relief during an election year when control of Congress may be decided in several key Midwestern agricultural states. Here's more from Emily Gersema about the Administration's $752 million drought aid package for which everybody would like to take credit.

Not getting what you pay for? (Friday, 9/20/02)
While you may think money has too much influence on politics, many economists are wondering why the contributions aren't even larger, according to Alan Krueger. It appears that many people don't think we have the best politicians money can buy and wouldn't have, even at twice the price. Incidentally, if you think money and politics is a new problem, consider that the wealthiest man in America at the time became the first U.S. president.

Whatever happened to that desperate shortage of IT professionals? (Friday, 9/20/02)
To the long list of embarrassingly goofy predictions will have to be added the one a few years ago about how the huge gap between demand for tech experts and available supply wouldn't even begin to narrow for at least ten years. Houston Chronicle columnist L. M. Sixel tells what some laid-off information technology people are doing now that they can't find jobs in their fields. By the way, Houston's economy mirrors the nation's, in a way. Some of the statistics are looking okay, but jobs are still fairly hard to find.

Why union organizers may send "thank-you" cards to Enron (Friday, 9/20/02)
Union membership is more on the minds of many white-collar workers now, and the Enron debacle seems to be a major reason. Kris Axtman writes that the whole mess may end up fueling union growth.

Unfair competitor (Friday, 9/20/02)
If you get into the ring with the federal government, expect to be KO'd, and we're not talking just about countries that are foolish enough to go to war with the United States or individuals who are silly enough to commit federal crimes. When the huge lumbering monster that is part rogue elephant, part jackass wades into the economy and competes with you for capital, you're not likely to be the winner either. David Francis tells about growing nervousness that the return to huge federal deficits will eventually drive up interest rates and strangle the economy overall.

Richard Nixon, "liberal" (Friday, 9/20/02)
Richard Nixon's image probably has been calcified in history for all time because of Watergate. Ideologically, though, he was an interesting mixture. He was highly "conservative" in the sense of being a bona fide Republican anti-Communist "cold warrior" who built up sufficient political capital with his party's right wing to be able to open the door to Mao's China and get away with it to an extent that might have been impossible for most Democrats at the time. Domestically, he might be considered a bit "too liberal" for key members of both major parties today, given that he established major federal agencies and, for a brief period, instituted wage and price controls, possibly in order to demonstrate to both parties how dumb an idea that was and what a hell of a mess it's possible for a president to create. It's hard to think of any way an "economic conservative" could be more heretical than that.

Also, President Nixon is remembered for declaring during the 1970s, "We are all Keynsians now." In fact, he was a little late, because, by the time he said it, many former Keynes enthusiasts were beginning to change their minds about the advisability of a major governmental role in the economy. Over the years since, many people also have changed their minds about Keynes going down in history as the most important economist of the 20th century. Some people believe that distinction will go to Milton Friedman, but, in fact, the jury's still out. At any rate, William Baldwin of Forbes tells why a lot of people aren't Keynesians in 2002.

Incidentally, it appears that nominations for "manager of the 20th century" have opened up again too. Brian Hindo tells about why Jack Welch's image has slipped a bit, and, even if too much given the facts, why Welch continues to influence other CEOs, even now.

Mental health may be influencing military readiness (Friday, 9/20/02)
A few decades ago, you could have been arrested in the United States for possession of booze. More recently, the same government has been one of the major pushers, if you take into consideration the ready availability of alcohol and the bargain prices on U.S. military installations. During the Vietnam War, it may have been that the government was tacitly encouraging the use of alcohol for dealing with the boredom and stresses of living and working in a war zone.

At any rate, military researchers are finding that psychiatric disorders are among the most frequent health problems among U.S. military personnel, particularly depression and substance abuse, which sometimes go together, incidentally.

However, this should not be taken to mean that military personnel contrast greatly with the American population as a whole on these matters. At any particular time, approximately 20 percent of the U.S. population would meet formal diagnostic criteria for one or more psychological disorders, ranging from life-threatening or totally disabling, at the one extreme, to fairly mild or short-term, but still diagnosable, at the other. Depression and substance abuse are biggies in the civilian population too.

Speaking of health, the skyrocketing cost of health care may have you wondering what to do. Stacey Bradford offers some help in making the best choices.

The economics of education and housing (Friday, 9/20/02)
The New York Times' Richard Perez-Pena reports that it's costing more to attend a state college in New York, despite the tuition freeze. Similarly, Leah Beth Ward tells how extra fees can wipe out savings you might expect from low interest rates when you decide to refinance your mortgage. In both cases, read the fine print.

It may be best not to recruit grad students at the local lock-up (Friday, 9/20/02)
Lynnley Browning reports that, in the wake of the big corporate scandals, business schools are making an effort to avoid letting sociopaths into M.B.A. programs. Generally, it's thought that people who are more principled going in will tend to be more principled coming out. What happens in between?

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Core Documents of U.S. Democracy (Friday, 9/20/02)
Lincoln's question about whether government by the people will perish from the earth hasn't been answered conclusively for all time, and probably never will be. Democracy has become more popular throughout much of the world during recent years, but continues to be under attack and probably would not survive without continual vigilance. For the civic-minded, or people who should be, the U.S. Government Printing Office presents the Core Documents of U.S. Democracy, not just on paper, but online where anyone in the world with access to the Internet can read them. Now is a good time for Americans, in particular, to explore, read, and think about the significance of America in world history, as well as what is worth preserving or even dying for if necessary. We've decided that it's probably not the gold bathroom fixtures in a Las Vegas casino.

OPEC decides to hold steady (Thursday, 9/19/02)
More, more, more, Western nations have been saying, fearing the economic consequences of high oil prices, but OPEC has decided not to open the valve to increase oil flow into the market. Nonetheless, a U.S. Federal Reserve official speaking in Cape Town says that global recession isn't likely.

A little good news, a little bad news (Thursday, 9/19/02)
First-time jobless claims were down last week, which is good, but housing construction is down too, which is not so good. At the same time, people are refinancing existing homes,well, ah, like a house a-fire, to use an unfortunate expression. Sandra Fleishman says lenders can't keep up with it all.

How deflation will affect your taxes (Thursday, 9/19/02)
The Consumer Price Index is the standard measure of inflation in the U.S. economy, but it provides a snapshot of the economy as a whole from the perspective of consumers. In actual fact, some prices are increasing, while others are decreasing. Recently, there's been enough of the latter to cause some economists to wonder if overall deflation could be in our future. The Internal Revenue Service believes that the cost of using a vehicle for business purposes has gone down a little, so they'll be allowing a half-cent less per mile during 2003. In other tax news, Curt Anderson writes from Washington about approaching unintended consequences of the alternative minimum tax for people in less stratospheric income brackets. David Cay Johnson says that many of these people will lose the benefit of the President's tax cut.

It's going to be OK to work longer in France (Thursday, 9/19/02)
After much debate and considerable criticism from people in other countries, France reduced its work week to 35 hours a while back under a previous government. Now, the current government is loosening the rules and allowing people to work more overtime.

HMOs have been doing a bit better, according to a new study (Thursday, 9/19/02)
However, the National Committee for Quality Assurance outlines ways in which they could do better still. Here's more from Kim Norris in the Detroit Free Press.

Shouldn't they call themselves "Bull Stearns?" (Thursday, 9/19/02)
In a rough climate, here's at least one big investment bank that is doing well. Bear Stearns had third-quarter profits that increased by 22 percent.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Metropolitan Area Rankings (Thursday, 9/19/02)
Here are the Metropolitan Area Rankings from the U.S. Census Bureau. Several hundred metropolitan areas in the United States are ranked, not only by population, but on many other criteria which provide an opportunity for insightful analyses.

Asia expects a good year (Wednesday, 9/18/02)
The Asian Development Bank expects the Asian economy to grow by 5 percent this year, more than original forecasts. Strong exports are likely to be the principal reason.

US Airways completes union deals (Wednesday, 9/18/02)
Bankrupt US Airways has needed concessions from all of its unions in order to obtain a big federal loan guarantee and leave bankruptcy protection behind early. Two unions had been holding out, but deals were reached last night.

Pension fund suffered because of fraud, according to allegations (Wednesday, 9/18/02)
Minnesota's public employee pension fund lost nearly $250 million of its value when AOL Time Warner's stock went into a free fall, according to the board that oversees the fund. According to an intended lawsuit, it happened because the big media company made false statements about its ad revenues.

Experts try not to over-interpret industrial sector's bad month (Wednesday, 9/18/02)
American industry suffered most during the recession last year, and, after giving the appearance of some recovery, slumped again in August. However, economists are saying that it isn't likely to mean a "double dip."

Charles Schwab gets more specific (Wednesday, 9/18/02)
The discount brokerage had indicated last month that cuts were coming. Now, they're saying that 10 percent of the company's workforce will have to go, which amounts to almost 1,900 jobs.

Workers claim Secretary Chao went back on her word (Wednesday, 9/18/02)
Garment workers in the San Francisco area are saying that the Secretary of Labor hasn't followed through on her pledge to help them collect more than a million dollars in unpaid wages.

Survival economics (Wednesday, 9/18/02)
Many Native Americans regard the fairly recent arrival of the Europeans as catastrophic for the peoples who have lived in the Americas for thousands of years. It's as if native cultures were hit with a sledge hammer destroying the economic base and shattering patterns of life that worked for centuries. After a particularly rough 19th century and 20th century, the 21st century isn't looking a whole lot better. Overall, Native Americans continue to be the nation's most economically deprived minority with dismal health and other statistics also reflecting widespread devastation. Speakers at the National Summit on Emerging Tribal Economies in Arizona emphasized that economic development is necessary for survival, and education will be key to that development.

Whistle-blowing pilot gets support (Wednesday, 9/18/02)
An American Airlines pilot says that the company retaliated after he complained about safety concerns. An official of the Labor Department appears to agree.

Where are the entrepreneurs when we need them? (Wednesday, 9/18/02)
In the past, entrepreneurs have led the U.S. economy out of recession, according to government researchers, but not this time. For the first time in a half-century, self-employment fell during the recession that began in the first quarter of 2001. Here's more from Jim Hopkins of USA Today.

More people are recognizing the good value that is community college education (Wednesday, 9/18/02)
Here's how to save tens of thousands of dollars on college without sacrificing anything. Spend your first two years at a high-quality community college where faculty are likely to be experienced and really want to teach, rather than being preoccupied with their own graduate studies or "publish or perish" pressures. True, big universities often have famous scholars on their faculties, but beginning students typically don't get a glimpse of them at less than 300 yards. More likely, introductory courses are taught by inexperienced teaching assistants, and, in some cases, English may be their second language.

Community college courses don't necessarily cost less, but they'll usually cost YOU less. Taxpayers typically pick up a larger proportion of the tab at community colleges because a major purpose is to broaden access to higher education. You might even be able to finish your first two years without accumulating any student debt, rather than being in hock by thousands and thousands of dollars by the time you complete your sophomore year.

If you're concerned about having a bachelor's degree from a famous university, just transfer in for your final two years and graduate along with all those persons who have been there all along, going ever more deeply into debt throughout. If you do well at one of America's excellent community colleges, your future will not be limited in the least.

The educational value of the community college experience is still a fairly well-kept secret, but a rough economy is causing more and more people to understand the economic value, according to Steve Giegrich in New Jersey.

Why employers might start caring about your drinking on your own time (Wednesday, 9/18/02)
Drinking on the job has never been seen as particularly cool by anybody, but now a research study has found a correlation between off-the-job drinking and the probability of claiming workers' compensation.

Americans overseas (Wednesday, 9/18/02)
Sara Terry of the Christian Science Monitor reports on Americans who work in other parts of the world, either for brief or long periods. Clayton Collins says that "expatriate" probably isn't a good name for them.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: EcoEmploy (SM) (Wednesday, 9/18/02)
EcoEmploy (SM) specializes in environmental jobs and careers.

Accelerating debt worries experts (Tuesday, 9/17/02)
Consumers and businesses have been increasing their debt loads at a rate that alarms many professional observers. A new report from the Federal Reserve shows that borrowing has been increasing at its fastest rate in a decade. Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary O'Neill expects the American economy to be growing at an annualized rate of 3 percent by the end of the year. James Cooper and Kathleen Madigan of Business Week say that growth doesn't necessarily mean more jobs, at least for quite a while.

Italy's President worries about inflation (Tuesday, 9/17/02)
President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi responds to a report from Italy's statistics bureau of the highest inflation rate in five months. Elsewhere in Europe, Denmark's central bank says there is no evidence that increasing wages have been driving inflation higher in that country.

The world has been worrying about the destructive effects of inflation for a long time, and there has been much effort to understand it. However, Christopher Farrel says that it may be time to attempt a better understanding of deflation again, because it can be just as destructive, and recent events suggest it's no longer just a matter of academic interest.

In France, President Chirac wants more tax cuts and greater spending in 2003 to give his country's recovery a boost.

At the very least, it's bad PR at a bad time (Tuesday, 9/17/02)
Retired General Electric chief Jack Welch may have been confused with the old radio hero "Jack Armstrong" at various times during the booming '90s. He's been widely regarded as the single best corporate executive in the world, and he does have a track record that other top executives can only dream of. But, America builds up its heroes, then delights in tearing them down. When you're "in," many people may be ready to believe that you're better than you really are, and when you're "out," watch out. Suddenly, Welch has been linked in the public mind with CEOs that appear to deserve all the bad press they can get. On the PBS program, "Wall Street Week with Fortune," Welch claimed that his widely criticized "retirement package" wasn't that at all, but simply part of his employment agreement in which he accepted access to various perks which he hasn't used much, in lieu of millions of dollars offered by the company. Nonetheless, perception is reality to many people, he says, so he's decided to turn back to GE a number of the benefits he had agreed to accept earlier. The Securities and Exchange Commission has decided to begin an investigation anyway.

Meanwhile, Jeff Brown of the Philadelphia Inquirer looks at the larger issue of how big perks for top executives affect the overall American economy. Finally, Joe Queenan tells how he thinks everybody benefits from other people's good fortune and how the psychic hurt is widespread when things turn bad for conspicuous winners. It appears that he means entrepreneurs, though, not CEOs.

Is United, well, united? (Tuesday, 9/17/02)
United Airlines is trying to avoid going into Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and that is likely to require some significant degree of cooperation between the company and its unions. Here's more from Marilyn Adams of USA Today. Many people are hoping that Glenn Tilton can live up to his reputation as an executive with great people skills. Meanwhile, a big fight is brewing at Northwest Airlines over health care costs and who will pay them.

No strike, but troubled times continue at Boeing anyway (Tuesday, 9/17/02)
Helen Jung writes from Seattle about the recent narrow rejection of a strike by members of the Machinists union at Boeing, and why this does not mean all is well.

Strength in numbers (Tuesday, 9/17/02)
Jenalia Moreno reports from Mexico on people who participate in "tandas" in order to help themselves financially.

Some want to make your shelter less a financial shelter (Tuesday, 9/17/02)
As things stand now, if you can put zillions of millions into your home and, then, go bankrupt, your creditors can't touch the roof that's over your head. Some would like to see a significant modification of the homestead exemption.

Many aren't ready to cash it in at age 70 (Tuesday, 9/17/02)
Being 70 isn't what it used to be for many people. America has been redefining the boundaries of "old age" in recent years. Sandra Block tells about 70-year-olds who are still employed and still living a middle-aged lifestyle, but who will have to start taking IRA distributions anyway. Many don't like it.

When should you begin collecting Social Security benefits? (Tuesday, 9/17/02)
It depends on how long you expect to live. Scott Burns examines the upside and downside of taking Social Security checks at age 62 as opposed to waiting until you're older.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Statistical Agencies (Tuesday, 9/17/02)
The U.S. Census Bureau offers a list of web sites of statistical agencies maintained by the governments of dozens of countries throughout the world.

Hot times in old Salzburg tonight (Monday, 9/16/02)
European leaders are gathering in Salzburg, Austria for an EU economic summit. Some people want to join in, while others, many of whom already are in the streets, would like to see the entire thing disrupted. Here's more from David McHugh. Speaking of Austria and economics, Steve Hanke says that economics Nobel Laureate Friedrich von Hayek long ago described what it's like to recover from a stock market boom. It may be time to examine the "Hayek hangover" in order to explain why so many people are holding their throbbing heads and looking so sad right now.

WorldCom becomes less "worldy" (Monday, 9/16/02)
Bankrupt WorldCom, Inc. is trying to recover sufficiently to stay in business, and that means cutting costs. Two-thousand jobs in Europe and other regions are on the chopping block.

Millions may die of starvation in southern Africa (Monday, 9/16/02)
Drought is part of the problem, but politics is another. Darren Schuettler reports from Johannesburg that the United Nations is estimating that as many as 14 million persons could starve to death in the region.

Don't think "RV," think "health insurance" (Monday, 9/16/02)
Businesses are quickly abandoning health benefits for retirees as costs continue to skyrocket. Here's more from Leigh Strope in the Washington Post.

Don't think "home of our own," think "student loan payments" (Monday, 9/16/02)
A new survey finds that a majority of people with unpaid student debt say that it's enough to influence their overall lifestyles, and is keeping many out of the housing market. Lobbyists for the higher ed industry emphasize the cost of college in relation to increased lifetime earnings, which tend to be higher, on average, for graduates.

What would that correlation be if employers had not been taught by universities to use the college degree as a front-door "cutting device" when people apply for jobs? In other words, how much of it is real, and how much of it is artifactual? We don't know either, but it's possible that businesses could save some money in the long-run by taking more responsibility for employee selection themselves and using their own criteria, rather than assuming that universities can do it for them. Meanwhile, those who have been worrying that there may not be enough grads may be able to relax or worry about something else, according to Michael Mandel who has looked at the latest data from the Education Department.

Parents who have been saving for the college education for their children that is likely to cost more than a majority of the world's people earn in a lifetime before long also have been finding that things have been tightening up lately, in part, because of the stock market slump. Steve Rosen has some advice for how you can do the best you can.

An important cultural change may be underway (Monday, 9/16/02)
Leaders of various 20th century social movements, including Ghandi, Martin Luther King, and various Vietnam War protest organizers, have attempted to make full use of the power of great numbers. Government is able to regulate society only if a great majority of people are predisposed to follow the rules in the first place. If only a relatively small percentage of people resist, they can be arrested, or in totalitarian dictatorships, shot. However, if literally millions of people take to the streets in protest, and those on the "front lines," like the first Allied troops to land at Normandy, are willing to sacrifice themselves for their cause, government can easily be swamped and rendered ineffective.

The American taxation system has depended on the willingness of most Americans to compute their taxes and send in the money voluntarily. Without talking about it much, IRS officials always have feared what might happen if most people quit doing that. The government cannot prosecute tens of millions of tax evaders each year, particularly if government revenues were to shrink drastically. According to Julie Tripp, authorities are beginning to worry, because tax cheating may be getting less taboo and more generally accepted in American society.

Everybody's going broke on the Internet, right? (Monday, 9/16/02)
Wrong. Fortunes are being made, and, according to Jennifer LeClaire, some of the people who are making them may surprise you. The highly-publicized "dot-comedy" of recent years can be misleading, because cyberspace is a very big space, and, even though more than 90 percent of purchases are NOT made on the Internet, the consumer economy is huge as well. Even less than one percent of something is enough for many people if the "something" is big enough.

Recent studies have shown that American college students have become very dependent on the Internet, and are likely to enter their post-college work lives with higher expectations as well as the skill necessary to take tech to a new level.

Are you among those who routinely check the cost of caviar? (Monday, 9/16/02)
Forbes maintains many indexes. One of the lesser-known is the Cost of Living Extremely Well Index. They report that some adjustments have been necessary recently. If you would like to track the CLEWI against the Consumer Price Index, there's a link on this page which will take you to an interesting graph.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: The New Economics Foundation (Monday, 9/16/02)
The New Economics Foundation claims to be a new kind of "think tank" where a lot of fresh thinking goes on.

Gore assails the Administration on econ policy (Sunday, 9/15/02)
Al Gore appears to be tuning up for his own campaign again in 2004, and, like many other Democrats, seems to feel that the Bush administration is most vulnerable on domestic economic issues. In a recent speech, the former Vice President said that the Administration's economic policies have been a failure and should be discarded in favorite of something else.

There's no business like defense business (Sunday, 9/15/02)
One sector of the economy that's hot right now is defense. Military contractors are pleased with the orders they've been getting, and their companies' stockholders are pleased as well. Taxpayers might be fairly pleased if military contractors aren't given a blank check. Daniel Altman tells about efforts to be sure that there is competition for those juicy contracts so that they don't just go to the highest bidder or somebody's brother-in-law.

Have they accepted "dirty money?" (Sunday, 9/15/02)
Many charitable and educational organizations are wondering where some of their contributions have come from. Actually, they already know WHO they've come from, and that's the problem. Here's more from Ariana Eunjung Cha of the Washington Post.

On the road again, in the furrow again (Sunday, 9/15/02)
To many Americans, despite having that elderly geezer-looking aging hippie look, Willie Nelson is some sort of national monument. He's gotten lots of publicity over the years because of his tax problems, his eclectic "outlaw" approach to music--he's not stereotypically "country"--and his reported occasional use of a fairly well-known herb.

It's not as widely known that he is an almost compulsive golfer (who plays almost as much chess) who has been athletic all his life, runs every day, and might have been good enough to play major league baseball when he was young, if he hadn't injured his back. He also grew up on a Texas farm--not ranch, farm--and spent a couple of years at Baylor University as an agriculture major. And, oh yes, AFTER he had written classic hits for other people and had largely given up on his own performance career, he was a pig farmer for a while. Honest.

At any rate, the total Nelson picture may make it seem less mysterious that he has had such a long commitment to family farmers, even though he's gotten essentially nowhere in persuading politicians to adopt his policy suggestions during an era of globalization, free trade, popular suspicion about big government programs, and cozy relationships of the big and powerful with the big and powerful. Elizabeth Becker of the New York Times has more about Willie's latest efforts to raise money for struggling U.S. farmers.

Saving may be getting cool again (Sunday, 9/15/02)
By world standards, Americans have been more spenders than savers, but Dana Hedgpeth reports that, at least, once-familiar passbooks are beginning to reappear around the country.

Survival politics (Sunday, 9/15/02)
Amy Joyce says that you may be able to save your job by learning how to form workplace alliances.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: United Nations Statistics Division (Sunday, 9/15/02)
If you like numbers or facts about the world, you'll probably enjoy spending several hours at the UN Statistics Division online.

Machinists accept Boeing's offer (Saturday, 9/14/02)
Members of the Machinists union have failed to approve a strike, despite their leadership's urging.

What Mexican independence means today (Saturday, 9/14/02)
Mexico became independent of Spain 192 years ago, but, as Jenalia Morena reports from Mexico City, there has been a new kind of conquest now that the former Fascist dictatorship has become a vibrant, modern European capitalist democracy.

Business still likes the President's Social Security plan (Saturday, 9/14/02)
Given the recent scandals and stock losses affecting many people's retirement plans, you might expect that this would not be a very good time politically to continue pushing the idea of allowing younger workers to put some of their Social Security money into the market. Nonetheless, a new coalition of business people has been formed to build public support for the idea. Do the things that have dominated the news in recent months mean that it's an idea that should never come? As in the case of most complex issues, it might be useful to ask a key question: "What information do I need in order to make an informed judgment?"

Corporate boards may be taking charge (Saturday, 9/14/02)
It may be that some top executives have been able to loot their companies because many board members have been dozing off. The owners of these companies--the stockholders--have been losing patience with their boards as well as their executives. Alan Clendenning reports that we may be seeing the beginnings of a nationwide corporate crackdown on executive perks.

Faculty concerned about distance education workload (Saturday, 9/14/02)
Negotiations are underway between a faculty union and the University of Massachusetts arising from concerns that professors working in distance education may end up with excessive workloads, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

America's richest have become a bit less rich (Saturday, 9/14/02)
The latest Forbes list of America's 400 wealthiest individuals is out. Collectively, this very exclusive club has lost billions in net worth, and, even though Bill Gates is still the richest, he's also lost more than most wealthy people can ever dream of having in the first place. Bill's worth is only about $43 billion now. For a brief shining moment a few years ago before the bursting of the tech bubble, before the overall stock market decline, and before Microsoft's stock slipped in response to the company's legal problems at the time, Bill Gates' net worth was about $100 billion. He's lost more than he has now, and he's still the richest businessman in the world.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Opening Doors: Students' Perspectives on Juggling Work, Family, and College (Saturday, 9/14/02)
Opening Doors reports on focus group research from populations affiliated with six community colleges in an attempt to learn more about why many lower-income persons do not take full advantage of the educational opportunities available to them.

Producer Price Index holds steady (Friday, 9/13/02)
The U.S. Department of Labor's measure of inflation at the wholesale level remained unchanged in August.

More cuts coming at Lucent (Friday, 9/13/02)
Telecommunications is one of the sectors that's been flat on its back recently, so it's not only hard for companies to make money, it's hard to stay in business. Lucent Technologies has been one of the big ones, but it's not as big as it used to be. In fact, with the additional cuts that are coming, it will soon employ about a third as many people as it did as recently as January 2001.

The federal government steps in for former Polaroid employees (Friday, 9/13/02)
The federal government's Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation has taken over control of the Polaroid pension fund.

Workers drown in Maine (Friday, 9/13/02)
A van has slipped off a bridge in Maine and 14 migrant workers are dead.

Bankruptcy bill derailed in the House (Friday, 9/13/02)
Juliet Eilperin explains why the abortion issue seems to have prevented passage of a bankruptcy overhaul bill in the House of Representatives.

The IRS shifts its focus (Friday, 9/13/02)
Rather than concentrating on finding cheaters among lower-income and middle-income taxpayers, the Internal Revenue Service has decided to focus attention on the wealthy for a while. Here's more from today's New York Times.

He's getting WHAT? (Friday, 9/13/02)
Jack Welch, the former head of General Electric, was widely regarded as the best executive in American business, so it may be no surprise that his company chose to reward him handsomely while he was working, as well as in retirement. However, his estranged wife seems surprised at what she's been hearing, particularly now that a divorce is in process, and she wants to know more. There's been a lot in the press about the astronomical pay levels of many top executives, and columnist Andrew Cassel of the Philadelphia Inquirer says that the prez of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has joined in the criticism.

While efforts to link executive pay to company performance through the use of stock options in the U.S. have backfired in some spectacular cases, similar efforts are underway in Japan where a nonprofit organization is starting a benchmarking service. In the U.S., many union officials are paid fairly well too, as Kirstin Downey Grimsley reports, but, compared to corporate officials, the difference often is between hundreds of thousands and tens of millions. So long as the game isn't rigged somehow, as in the case of executives who have been looting their companies, it should be up to union members and stockholders, respectively, how much of their own money they're will to spend on their leaders.

Furor over "reverse reparations" radio ad (Friday, 9/13/02)
An ad claiming that Social Security benefits are like slavery reparations paid by African Americans to whites has been taken off the air. Republicans say it was a mistake, according to Leigh Strope. The ad claims that Social Security is discriminatory because whites live longer than blacks. As it happens, new government statistics show that, while there is a gap, it's been narrowing, and Americans are living longer on the average than ever before.

Here's a job for you if you have high tolerance for rejection (Friday, 9/13/02)
Persons who can handle continual rejection may have what it takes to make it as actors, telemarketers, or, as L. M. Sixel reports, employees at Edward Jones, the financial advisory firm, which is hiring, by the way. Fortune magazine has decided that it's the best company to work for in the United States. That's the good news...

You may be able to keep a roof over your head by turning your mortgage around (Friday, 9/13/02)
Neal Gendler tells how some elderly people who are having trouble keeping up with mortgage payments can benefit from a reverse mortgage.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Eco-Portal (Friday, 9/13/02)
The people behind Eco-Portal describe it as the "environmental sustainability information source." The site offers access to a wide variety of environmentally-oriented resources, as well as news and opinion.

Budgetary dangers ahead (Thursday, 9/12/02)
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has told the House Budget Committee that the federal government is spending too much money and putting the rest of the economy at risk. Some observers point out that the American economy has been a moving target lately, which complicates the Fed's management task, making it more like an arcade game.

Big increase in layoffs (Thursday, 9/12/02)
The Labor Department reports that applications for first-time unemployment benefits were at their highest level last week in four months. Here's more from Rex Nutting at CBS Marketwatch.

More German companies have been going broke (Thursday, 9/12/02)
Business bankruptcies were on the rise in Germany during the first half of this year. Here are some of the details from the Federal Statistical Office.

Democrats call on the Vice President to help people who lost pension money (Thursday, 9/12/02)
In this case, it's not simply a matter of encouraging Vice President Cheney to support particular kinds of legislation on general principles. This is more specific and has to do with what happened to people who used to work for a company Mr. Cheney once headed.

Small steel companies oppose "federal bailout" (Thursday, 9/12/02)
Small companies will be placed at an unfair competitive disadvantage if the federal government picks up the tab for medical expenses for retired workers of bankrupt steel companies, according to a representative of small manufacturers.

Churches work together in an effort to put things more in balance (Thursday, 9/12/02)
Marilyn Gardner of the Christian Science Monitor writes about Labor in the Pulpit 2002, an interfaith effort to assist America's low-wage workers who work all the time, but still can't really earn a living.

COLIs by another name (Thursday, 9/12/02)
As a measure of fairly common attitudes in American executive suites, "corporate-owned life insurance" policies often are referred to as "dead peasant" policies. It's when the company takes out a life-insurance policy on an employee and makes itself the beneficiary, so that, in effect, the corporation will benefit, not only from the individual's labors while alive, but maybe even more from that person's death. Wal-Mart has earned some lousy PR recently because of these things, and now, as columnist L. M. Sixel reports, they're suing the companies that sold them the policies. You may be forgiven if you feel it's hard to believe that the people who run the world's largest corporation are somehow naive and not smart enough.

Survey sez it's best not to keep secrets when times are tough (Thursday, 9/12/02)
A new survey of 13,000 workers conducted by Watson Wyatt indicates that companies may be undermining their own efforts to cope with difficult economic conditions by not telling their employees what they're doing and why.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: The Fiscal Impact of 9/11 on New York City (Thursday, 9/12/02)
From the Comptroller of New York City and his staff, here is a 65-page report on last year's terrorist attack's economic impact on one of the world's most important cultural and financial capitals, downloadable in PDF form.

How last September 11's attack affected the economy (Wednesday, 9/11/02)
Adam Geller has a few "snapshots" to may contribute to a larger composite picture.

Strike vote in Pennsylvania (Wednesday, 9/11/02)
Workers at Boeing's big plant in the Philadelphia area have voted to strike by Saturday unless the company offers a better deal very soon.

Slight banking thaw in Argentina (Wednesday, 9/11/02)
There has been a partial banking freeze in Argentina since the end of last year. Now, Argentines are will have an opportunity to get at some of their money, but the rules are tough.

A little more growth than first thought in Japan (Wednesday, 9/11/02)
Revised figures show that Japan's economy grew a bit more during the second quarter than originally calculated.

New boss wants new deadline (Wednesday, 9/11/02)
The new head of United Airlines wants to push his predecessor's labor agreement deadline to the end of the month. Across the Atlantic, the French government says it will continue efforts to privatize Air France, despite union resistance. The airline industry has had a rough year since the terrorist attack one year ago today, and improvement isn't appearing on the horizon. Meanwhile, Michael Conlon reports that business travelers have become increasingly vigilant, and are taking more information with them.

New office established for African American farmers (Wednesday, 9/11/02)
The USDA is setting up a new office that Secretary Veneman says will help black farmers with their loans, but many farmers, who claim they have been victims of Department of Agriculture discrimination for years, aren't impressed, according to Emily Getersema in Washington. They say it will be just one more level of bureaucracy to wade through.

Frozen chocolate (Wednesday, 9/11/02)
A judge has put a temporary freeze on any sale of Hershey Foods, saying that it would be happening for the wrong reasons and could cost a lot of jobs.

Health care costs gain altitude (Wednesday, 9/11/02)
Northwest Airlines is one of the companies that will shift more of the cost of health care to its employees, as health insurance premiums increase another 12 percent during the past twelve months. If inflation is taken into account, it's the largest increase ever.

Overcoming a "risk stereotype" (Wednesday, 9/11/02)
Working single parents, particularly women, are still seen as "productivity risks," whether or not that's really true, according to Jennifer LeClaire of the Christian Science Monitor.

The young learn from their elders (Wednesday, 9/11/02)
Americans in general borrowed money at an impressive rate during the month of July, and it's becoming a problem for some, particularly those who are paying very high rates of interest, as we have reported previously. That's true of college students and credit cards too, according to Noel Paul of the Christian Science Monitor.

Is the U.S. real estate market getting set to blow up awhile later? (Wednesday, 9/11/02)
Not necessarily, says Jonathan Fuerbringer of the New York Times. A look at the facts suggests it isn't the sort of "bubble" that Japan experienced a decade or more ago, and not the sort of thing that happened in the tech sector a few years ago in the United States. Things are better than they may appear, and housing prices haven't been increasing as fast as many people seem to think.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Hudson's Welfare Policy Center (Wednesday, 9/11/02)
The late Herman Kahn may be best known for his work at RAND as a futurist and Cold War strategist, as well as one of the inventors of the modern private "think tank." However, he was also the founder of The Hudson Institute, another major private institution that engages in a wide range of policy research. For example, here's Hudson's Welfare Policy Center.

Hundreds of New York City firefighters suffer lingering lung ailments (Tuesday, 9/10/02)
Breathing air-born residue from what once was the World Trade Center after it had been subjected to tremendous heat and pressure has resulted in persistent respiratory problems for 500 firefighters in New York. The disability is sufficient that it may end their careers.

Both major parties expect to help themselves by helping the drought-stricken (Tuesday, 9/10/02)
It appears that farmers and ranchers in several drought-stricken states are about to receive $6 billion in assistance. Several of the states happen to be ones with closely-contested seats in Congress. Given that there is an election in a few weeks and that control of both houses of Congress is at stake, it might not be too cynical to assume that election-year politics is playing a role in determining the aid in this case. Neither party wants to be seen as insensitive during a bad time. Here's more from Alan Fram in Washington.

Another survey shows American nervousness about the economy (Tuesday, 9/10/02)
David Francis of the Christian Science Monitor reports on the results of a poll co-sponsored by his newspaper.

Privatization loses momentum in India (Tuesday, 9/10/02)
The Indian government has put off selling a stake in two oil companies, which, for the moment, has derailed privatization efforts overall throughout the country.

Foreclosures soar (Tuesday, 9/10/02)
The real estate sector has been strong as people look for investment alternatives given waning enthusiasm for common stocks recently. Also, interest rates have been the lowest in a generation, which has been encouraging new mortgages as well as refinancing. However, the USA Today Thomas Fogarty reports that housing foreclosures are also the highest they've been during about the same period. Meanwhile, American consumers have been incurring debt at a furious rate overall, according to data from the Federal Reserve.

Justice looks at health insurers (Tuesday, 9/10/02)
Anti-trust investigators at the U.S. Department of Justice are concerned that mergers in the health insurance sector are limiting competition.

More severance sought (Tuesday, 9/10/02)
Former employees of bankrupt WorldCom Corporation have gone to court in an effort to gain approval for an additional $36 million in severance pay. According to the plaintiffs, payments already approved fall far short of what they are owed.

Quantum cuts (Tuesday, 9/10/02)
Quantum Corporation, long a major data storage company, will lay off 1,100 workers as part of its effort to return to profitability. That amounts to a third of its total workforce.

A second vote is scheduled at Boeing (Tuesday, 9/10/02)
Machinists at Boeing are being urged by their union leaders to reject the company's offer a second time and authorize a strike.

A way of closing a persistent gap (Tuesday, 9/10/02)
On average, American women who work outside the home have not been able to achieve pay parity when working for others. As a consequence, an increasing number of women choosing to take their fate into their own hands and start their own businesses. Kansas City Star columnist Diane Stafford passes on some advice and, in some cases, hard-won lessons for persons who are thinking about self-employment.

It can help to be both rich and secretive (Tuesday, 9/10/02)
David Cay Johnston reports that it is perfectly legal for some wealthy Americans to delay paying taxes on stock sales, or possibly never pay them at all. There are special conditions, and here is an explanation.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: PMI (Tuesday, 9/10/02)
Since 1948, the Institute for Supply Management has been using its seasonally-adjusted PMI diffusion index as a measure of the extent to which the manufacturing sector of the American economy is expanding or contracting.

EC cuts forecast fourth time this year (Monday, 9/9/02)
The European economy has growth problems, according to European Commission forecasters, who have downgraded their expectations again.

Meanwhile, Clare Nullis writes about the problems of Arab economies, which are of a more fundamental nature. Many Arab countries have been suffering declining growth for 20 years, according to a new World Economic Forum report. It seems to be part of a more general stagnation that is leaving many affected societies behind, causing many young people to despair, and fueling resentment, not only of the U.S., not only of the West, but of modernism generally.

Why President Truman wished he had a "one-armed economist" on his advisory team (Monday, 9/9/02)
Andrew Cassel of the Philadelphia Inquirer has several good news/bad news, on-the-other-hand things for you relating to the economy and employment. He's hoping that there won't be a prolonged "jobless recovery." A bad sign is the great increase in the number of long-term unemployed. Here's more about people who have spent a long time searching from David Leonhardt in the Pacific Northwest.

Many business have not yet locked their back doors (Monday, 9/9/02)
The increased likelihood of cyber-attack is on the minds of many executives, but Nicholas Johnston reports that a survey conducted by the Internet Security Alliance finds that many haven't done anything about it yet.

Why more and more people are financing their homes at very HIGH interest rates (Monday, 9/9/02)
For persons who meet the criteria usually used for determining who are good credit risks, home mortgage rates are lower than they've been in a generation. However, for others, interest rates may be higher than you have imagined. Jim Buchta reports on the growing number of people who are losing their homes because they can't meet the payments. Credit card debt is a root cause in many cases. Many people are trading one kind of debt with sky-high interest for another, meaning that, even if things don't come crashing down, they will be using a major part of the income they can produce just to pay "rent" on somebody else's money. Minimum payments usually cover little more than the interest each month, so the debt can go unpaid for many years, meaning that it can determine the path of a person's entire life. It's why Steve Rosen says that college students should be given some education about credit cards.

Finally, speaking of credit cards, Ellen Kelleher reports that the Internal Revenue Service believes that as many as a couple of million Americans may be using them to draw on hidden off-shore accounts in order to evade taxes.

Among the missing (Monday, 9/9/02)
Many foreign students who have expected to begin classes on American campuses right about now haven't been able to get into the United States. Mary Beth Marklein of USA Today tells what the hang-up is with their visas.

In search of a demon (Monday, 9/9/02)
If anything isn't perfect, it must be somebody's fault, so let's get 'em, okay? As we've reported previously, many people are worried about what will happen AG--after Greenspan. However, others would like to see an unceremonious exit for the Federal Reserve Chairman, according to Martin Crutsinger in Washington. Brendan Intindola is in New York and says that many ears on Wall Street will be turned in the direction of D.C. this week when Chairman Greenspan talks to the Congress about the American economy.

A new entry in the dictionary of antique economic terms (Monday, 9/9/02)
Are you old enough to remember when there were things called "raises?" Stephanie Armour reports on the variety of ways that employers are finding for cutting salary costs.

Some retirees are returning to work after decades of retirement (Monday, 9/9/02)
Melinda Ligios tells about the effect of shrinking portfolios on the lives of older Americans. Many plans are changing.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Help Wanted Index (Monday, 9/9/02)
The Conference Board is best-known for its Index of Leading Economic Indicators, but it maintains other indexes as well. For instance, its Help Wanted Index reflects the volume of help-wanted ads in dozens of newspapers across the United States.

The American economy a year after (Sunday, 9/8/02)
Glenn Somerville says that the U.S. economy continues to feel the effects of last year's September 11 terrorist attack, and is likely to for years to come. Columnist L. M. Sixel tells about some of the ways in which doing business is different now.

Quickening pace (Sunday, 9/8/02)
When fewer people are handling the same or greater amount of work, productivity goes up. Jane Larson and Catherine Burrough of the Arizona Republic tell about how people are working harder, quicker, more efficiently. There are short-term benefits for employers and society as a whole, because standard of living is determined by productivity levels, but are there also long-term costs that will show up later?

Employment, then retirement, then employment again (Sunday, 9/8/02)
The Washington Post's Amy Joyce reports on the growing number of people over fifty who are returning to the workforce for various reasons. Financial necessity is a reason for many, but not all there is to it for everybody.

Grandfather's good timing (Sunday, 9/8/02)
"Chainsaw Al" Dunlap didn't invent hubris, and he probably didn't invent funny-money accounting procedures either, but the New York Times says he's benefited from being a little early. If his problems at Sunbeam had come to light a bit later, the general public would know about him, because he would have been on television a lot by now. The latest news is that the Securities and Exchange Commission is beginning to suspect that things weren't quite as they were made to appear at Scott Paper either while Al was there "saving" the company.

EEOC sues UPS on behalf of diabetic employee (Sunday, 9/8/02)
When a driver for United Parcel Service was diagnosed as diabetic and lost his driver's license, he should have been reassigned, according to the EEOC's interpretation of the Americans With Disabilities Act, not forced to take extended leave.

Old Soviet habits are hard to break (Sunday, 9/8/02)
It has been said that in the old Soviet Union, workers pretended to work, and the government pretended to pay them. The Soviet Union is long gone, but its effects persist. Julie Tolkacheva writes from Moscow about how hard it's been to convince many employees that they're living in a different country with different needs, a principal one of which is for workers to actually do their jobs. Meanwhile, Dara Doyle reports from Stockholm that Swedish employers are having difficulty getting work done while covering the high costs of possibly-too-generous sick leave policies. Is it really possible that Sweden isn't as healthy a society as many of us have long believed, or is it something else?

Despite the fact that the Soviet Union was a dehumanizing, brutal, single-party, totalitarian dictatorship and Sweden has been a stunningly successful European democracy, some critics would say that, in both cases, there has been too little effort to link rewards to individual responsibility and performance.

There has been a similar problem in the top echelons of American corporations. The recent scandals that have received so much public attention arose, in part, because of an effort to tie executive remuneration to company performance. Executives were given major stock options, and stock values were taken as a measure of corporate success. This provided unscrupulous executives with a strong incentive to manipulate stock values by displaying phony profits in order to enrich themselves. How can companies pursue the original objective by alternative, more effective means? Daniel Altman shares some of the suggestions that he's been hearing.

Looking for a REALLY bad deal on a loan? (Sunday, 9/8/02)
How about annual interest of more than 440 percent? Laurence Kesterson of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports on the fight going on in Pennsylvania about extending payday lending.

The fine art of managing people who are smarter than you are (Sunday, 9/8/02)
It takes a special knack to manage "geniuses" and keep them from going someplace else. Here's more from today's Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Because he can't still be Fed Head at age 125 (Sunday, 9/8/02)
Alan Greenspan may not be the indispensable man, or, at least, many people are hoping that he isn't, because they know that he can't go on forever. For many years, he's been one of the most powerful and influential individuals in the world. What happens when he finally retires or goes back to playing the saxophone full-time? Who's next in line? Richard Stevenson looks at some of the possible candidates for his job, and why being Greenspan's successor might not be quite enough fun.

But, wait a minute--isn't Mr. Greenspan only 76 years old? At 90, is it really true that Art Linkletter is still a downhill skier?

The need for a new predictor? (Sunday, 9/8/02)
People who are dependent on their universities for their financial support or identities find it easy to believe that degree possession correlates almost perfectly with genuine knowledge, competence, and real-world performance. Everybody should have a degree, or several, because it's good for them and good for society, of course. Never mind that universities are major employment centers and that many of their own people would suffer greatly if society were to decide that some of what they've been selling may not be as valuable as the hype would have people believe.

Of course, given the lingering emphasis on shadows at the expense of substance in American society and the extent to which people without the "proper" titles or symbols still face discrimination, it's also easy for many persons off the campus to believe that all one needs to function effectively in the modern world, including the new economy, are "common sense" and "experience." That's not what the key issues are about either. When it comes right down to it, there is little agreement on what "common sense" is or how one can identify it, and "ten years experience," say, often means simply one year experience, ten times over.

Society greatly needs high levels of competence, however it has been acquired, and the only alternative to genuine knowledge is ignorance, which has had a perfectly wretched record over many centuries. The destination is far more important than the route taken in this case.

However, anyone who hasn't been chained to the water pipes in the basement for years is likely to have noticed that, overall, there is only a fairly loose relationship between academic credentials, on the one hand, and nearly anything else of genuine importance, on the other. If you use a person's college or grad school transcript to predict that individual's level of life-long contribution to the world off campus, you'll be wrong a good share of the time. While it is certainly true that many of the real world's "superstars" have had strong academic training, there are many false positives as well.

There aren't quite as many false negatives as there used to be, now that nearly everybody has been run through the conventional academic mill and a rock tossed in nearly any direction may hit somebody with multiple graduate degrees. Nonetheless, an impressive number of history's most creative and effective figures, even in scholarly fields, have been people who had little or no formal education, even during previous times when people had far more limited access to information than now. Shouldn't this tell us something?

In business, somebody has discovered that even an MBA degree from Harvard may not guarantee competence, or, for that matter, judging from recent scandals, other important attributes as well. What if there were a test that could be given to MBA students that could tell whether they really, really, really know anything or really, really, really can do anything?

Well, there is a test. It's called the Certified M.B.A. Exam. We said that there IS a test, but we haven't said that it's really, really, really capable of doing what some people would like for it to do. That's an empirical question, and certainly remains to be seen.

We think it's highly unlikely that a standardized test such as this will have sufficiently high statistical reliability and validity to produce predictions that are more accurate than the use of the degree itself. If it can't do that, why bother with it? On the other hand, if it really can, it certainly shouldn't be administered only to MBA students or degree holders. If it's really so great, we can safely give it to anybody who wants to take it and base predictions, selection, or hiring on its results alone, while forgetting about the degrees entirely.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Invention at Play (Sunday, 9/8/02)
Invention at Play explores the relationship between play and invention. The site is sponsored by the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Science Museum of Minnesota.

Brazil gets a big loan (Saturday, 9/7/02)
The International Monetary Fund has agreed to lend Brazil $30 billion.

Unemployment at five-month low, but celebration may be premature (Saturday, 9/7/02)
Last month's unemployment rate slipped a bit to 5.7 percent, down 0.2 percent from the previous month. The U.S. economy added 39,000 new jobs last month, but the sputtering $10 trillion economy really needs hundreds of thousands or millions of new jobs, not tens of thousands. It's an A influences B and B influences A kind of situation. Consumer spending has been keeping the economy afloat, but it will depend on job growth which depends on economic growth which depends on consumer spending, and, well, you know. Overall, as Angela Moore reports from New York, retail sales were fairly sad during the month of August. However, the latest unemployment report seemed to be enough to reduce the consumption of aspirin a bit on Wall Street yesterday. The Dow gained 144 points, which doesn't erase the losses from previous days, but it is better than mayhem, pandemonium, or bedlam, to say nothing of a sharp stick in the eye.

More aggressive stimulation called for in Japan (Saturday, 9/7/02)
The big decline in stock values reflects growing investor pessimism over the future of the Japanese economy, and this has galvanized some politicians to call for stepped-up efforts to stimulate growth. Meanwhile, with jobs scarce for Japanese citizens, the Justice Ministry would like to see stronger measures for enforcing work permit controls for foreigners in the country. Also, because the Japanese economy is heavily dependent on exports, there is growing alarm over recessionary or near-recessionary conditions in the United States as well as Germany, which is Europe's largest economy as well as the third-largest in the world. European Union leaders also are concerned, and will be concentrating on issues relating to global growth when they get together. Here's more from Paul Ames in Copenhagen.

If you've been waiting for a raise, you may have to wait a bit longer (Saturday, 9/7/02)
A recent survey of hundreds of companies conducted by Mercer Human Resource Consulting finds that fewer employers are expecting to freeze wages next year than this year. Don't expect compensation to lurch upward soon, though.

Talks break down at Boeing (Saturday, 9/7/02)
The machinists' union at Boeing has decided to end talks with federal mediators, call for another vote, and encourage members to strike. In other and better labor news, US Airways has reached tentative agreement with its passenger service agents on how to cut costs in order to keep the bankrupt carrier in the air. It's still pursuing a deal with its mechanics.

A key benefit shrinks (Saturday, 9/7/02)
The Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust has conducted a survey showing that American workers are paying an increasing amount for their own employer-sponsored health coverage and that the scope of coverage is diminishing.

Harassment suit against Texas Medical Center settled (Saturday, 9/7/02)
A suit brought by the EEOC on behalf of three women employees has been settled with the Texas Medical Center agreeing to pay the women $200,000.

Why nurses leave the profession (Saturday, 9/7/02)
A national growing shortage of nurses is beginning to impact on patient care in some regions, and is exacerbated by the tendency for nurses to change careers at a higher rate than a decade ago. University of Pennsylvania Professor Julie Sochalski is author of a report from the National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses and explains the high dropout rate.

What it takes to know what you're doing in IT (Saturday, 9/7/02)
If you want to be part of the information technology workforce, you'll not only have to scramble to keep up, but it's a good idea to expect that you'll need a combination of formal education and on-the-job experience. Also, IT work in one industry can be very different from another industry, according to Paul Swinwood, head of the Software Human Resource Council, one of the sponsors of a major new survey. Here's more from IT World.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Economic Growth Resources (Saturday, 9/7/02)
The Economic Growth Resources was created by Jonathan Temple when he was a Research Fellow at the Institute of Economics and Statistics, Oxford University, and is hosted by the University of Bristol. The site makes a large collection of resources available to researchers and also helps them find each.

Mixed picture develops from latest reports (Friday, 9/6/02)
According to various economic reports, some from the government, some from private organizations, the U.S. economy continues to grow, although not impressively, but there is reason to wonder about its ability to continue on its present course, let alone pick up the steam needed for really serious job creation. Because of low interest rates, auto and home sales are strong, but the rest of the retailing sector is beginning to falter, which causes considerable concern, because consumer spending makes up about two-thirds of the American economy. These data, plus a report showing softness in the service sector, as well as continuing uncertainty about the political situation in the Mideast and whether the U.S. will soon go to war against Iraq, has many investors wondering if they should start stuffing their money under the mattress. The market was down again yesterday.

Germany's economy also inspiring no one (Friday, 9/6/02)
Federal elections are coming up this month in Germany, giving the current government a special reason to wish that the nation's economy were doing better. All three of the world's largest economies are making much of the rest of the world nervous, because the overall global economy can't do all that well so long as the top three--the U.S., Japan, and Germany, respectively--continue to struggle.

Tax protesters investigated (Friday, 9/6/02)
A number of businessman around the country have indicated that they regard the federal tax system either as a hoax or that it doesn't have jurisdiction over them, so they have dropped out of the system, among other things, not withholding taxes from employees wages. The Internal Revenue Service has announced the initiation of criminal investigations, according to David Cay Johnston of the New York Times.

Americans favor home ownership as a good investment (Friday, 9/6/02)
The American real estate market has been doing well as many people look for someplace other than stocks in which to invest their money, plus historically low interest rates, which makes housing purchases easier for many people. There are still obstacles for minorities, though. Here's more on the results of a new survey conducted by Fannie Mae.

Texas joins 529 movement (Friday, 9/6/02)
States are allowed to sponsor tax-sheltered college 529 funds, which have become increasingly popular across the country. Texas is joining in, according to an announcement from Comptroller Carole Keeton Rylander. Meanwhile, the House of Representatives voted against making the tax breaks permanent for those investing in education savings account. Presently, they're set to expire in 2010.

More people to work longer (Friday, 9/6/02)
The reasons for delaying retirement have been adding up, and many of them are highly practical. Here's more from David Cook of the Christian Science Monitor.

Growing fight over ownership (Friday, 9/6/02)
Inventions produced by a design engineer while in the employ of a technology firm are likely to be claimed as company property. However, traditionally, the creative work of professors, including their books, have been regarded as belonging to them, not to their universities. That could be changing. Beth Gardiner of the Philadelphia Inquirer offers an example from Cambridge University.

Survey often aren't representative, columnist says (Friday, 9/6/02)
Kansas City Star columnist Diane Stafford says that most workplace surveys offer results that may not be meaningful for a variety of reasons, not the least of which that people who work in small business tend to be greatly under-represented. Speaking of surveys, one says that the average worker with access to a computer in the workplace spends the equivalent of an entire workday on it browsing web sites that aren't work related.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Company Reports (Friday, 9/6/02)
Companies with publicly traded stock must file reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as has become apparent from news reports over the past several months. Here are company reports from the SEC, and the site is searchable.

Negotiations continue, negotiations resume (Thursday, 9/5/02)
Talks are continuing at Boeing in an effort to avert a strike by machinists. Talks started up again yesterday between dockworkers and shipping lines as west coast ports remain open. However, Air France expects a four-day walkout of its pilots, which will mean major flight cancellations. Meanwhile, Northwest Airlines will cut 1,000 jobs as it reduces its flight schedule in response to the slower fall season. Overall, the airline industry continues to struggle, and expects to lose billions of dollars.

Productivity figures revised upward, but still sluggish (Thursday, 9/5/02)
The United States Department of Labor said that productivity increased during the second quarter at an annualized rate of 1.5 percent, which is a bit higher than preliminary estimates.

Joblessness this time (Thursday, 9/5/02)
Compared to previous recessions, workers are less likely to lose their jobs, but, when they do become unemployed, it's taking longer to find new positions. Here's more on the comparative data from Laurent Belsie of the Christian Science Monitor. Incidentally, first-time jobless claims were down last week, according to the Labor Department, but the economy still isn't creating jobs at a vigorous rate.

Update on "Chainsaw Al" (Thursday, 9/5/02)
At one time, Al Dunlap had an almost mythic reputation in the U.S. corporate community as somebody capable of rescuing dying companies by slicing costs...and jobs...to the bone, or through the bone, as his critics at the time were suggesting. Times have changed. He not only didn't manage to save Sunbeam from bankruptcy, he's also been in a heap of trouble since. Sometime ago, he agreed to pay $15 million to get beyond a shareholder suit. Now, he's agreed to pay a $500,000 fine and never to help run a public company again.

New report shows impact of last year's terrorist attack (Thursday, 9/5/02)
The attack on the World Trade Center last September 11 may cost the economy as much as $95 billion and cost the city of New York 83,000 jobs, in addition to the more than 2,800 lives.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Economic Sociology Editorial Series (Thursday, 9/5/02)
Here are a number of articles on economic sociology written by academics from the United States and Europe.

Powell is met with unfriendly reception in Johannesburg (Wednesday, 9/4/02)
The American Secretary of State tried to defend his country's environmental record, as well as its efforts to help the world's poor, but some in the audience seemed to disagree with what he was saying.

Even though disputes that had been holding back agreement on sustainable development were resolved in time to result in a broad-based deal, some environmentalist groups are dissatisfied with outcomes at the Summit, and are blaming the United States.

Negotiators at the Summit also agreed that health care should be considered a basic human right. Opponents to that idea might say that, since it is not freely available like air, someone will have to pay for it, and if drug companies in the developed countries are unable to make a profit to support research and development, new drugs will not become available for anybody. Moreover, if health care is a basic right, shouldn't food be also, and does that mean that it should be free to everybody?

The economics of extreme versions of these points of view seem untenable. However, the fact remains that there are massive numbers of people in the world who lack potable water, sanitation, basic health care, and adequate nutrition. To argue against the most extreme assertions on behalf of the world's neediest people can provide a convenient opportunity for privileged countries and individuals to ignore global realities and make little effort to do anything about them. Moreover, even those who don't care about people might wonder if anyone can be secure in the long-term in a world with such massive and glaring disparities.

There were fewer than 1 billion persons in the world until about 160 years ago. Now, there are approximately 6 billion. Of these, about 1 billion are rich by global standards and about 5 billion are poor, although some are far poorer than many others. Of the 1 billion "rich," about a quarter live in the United States.

As the economy slowed, the gap widened (Wednesday, 9/4/02)
During the boom of the 1990s, the rich seemed to get richer, the near-rich got rich, and the poor got less poor. The rising tide seemed to raise all ships. But, as David Francis reports for the Christian Science Monitor, the tide has gone out, and the many people have been left high and dry.

Lockout at Peterbilt (Wednesday, 9/4/02)
Negotiators representing Peterbilt Motor Company, a major manufacturer of heavy-duty trucks, and those representing United Auto Workers Local 1832 failed to reach agreement on a new contract as the old one expires, and workers have been prevented from entering the plant.

Islamic woman accepts settlement with American Airlines (Wednesday, 9/4/02)
American Airlines has agreed to a $60,000 payment to settle a bias suit arising from an Islamic woman's application for a customer service position in 1998. She was denied he position because she insisted on wearing the Islamic hijab with her uniform. The Airline has since changed its policy governing religious attire. In a somewhat related story, a U.S. Circuit Court has ruled against the blanket exclusion of insulin-dependent persons from employment in certain jobs in Texas.

Descendants of slaves file suits for reparations (Wednesday, 9/4/02)
Following up on a lawsuit filed in New York City in March, several additional suits are being filed around the country against companies alleged to have profited from slave labor. Here's more from Brett Martel in New Orleans.

The Administration prepares to push ahead without Congressional approval (Wednesday, 9/4/02)
We're not talking about launching a war against Iraq in this case. This is about distributing federal social service money to religiously-supported organizations. Here are some details from Laura Mecker in Washington.

The most dangerous jobs in America (Wednesday, 9/4/02)
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the on-the-job fatality rate is highest for timber cutters, second-highest for fisherman. Here's more about the jobs on which you will most risk your life from Forbes, a leading American business magazine.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Cultural Anthropology and Management (Wednesday, 9/4/02)
The new economy is global, so those who want to conduct business in it have a special need to understand those from cultures other than their own. Professor J.N. Hooker Carnegie Mellon University teaches a course in cultural factors in business, and here is what he calls his "incomplete" bibliography on cultural anthropology and management.

Consolidated Freightways goes broke (Tuesday, 9/3/02)
The big trucking company has been in business nearly three-quarters of a century. It is filing for Chapter 11 protection and is laying off more than 15,000 workers. Meanwhile, approximately 4,000 workers are likely to become unemployed as a result of IBM's acquisition of PricewaterhouseCoopers' consulting group.

Get set to hear a lot more about West Coast port activity, or the lack of it (Tuesday, 9/3/02)
Jesse Jackson is throwing his support behind dock workers who may end up striking soon, and President Bush seems to be considering federal intervention if it happens. Here's more about labor unrest on the very edge of America's west coast.

The President attempts to head off Democrats in time for the November election (Tuesday, 9/3/02)
The President has been reading the polls, and sees trouble for Republicans in November, unless he can help head it off. In his Labor Day speech at a big union picnic, President Bush vowed to fight both recession and terrorism, and, of course, to do it on behalf of American workers. In the general pandering department, he also told the union members that productivity is high because America has the best workers in the world. While that may or may not be true, increased worker productivity means that more is being done by fewer people, and that can be influenced by laying off workers while maintaining the same overall work load.

Incidentally, the top strategists, resource people, and policy makers in both major political parties tend to be far more sophisticated than much of their own parties' campaign rhetoric. The people who have to say these things with a straight face often are too. As Churchill pointed out, democracy is the worst possible political system...except for all the others.

Earth Summit negotiators struggle over women's rights questions (Tuesday, 9/3/02)
David Clarke reports from Johannesburg on the dispute over women's rights standing in the way of agreement.

The key sign of hard times for Mexico's middle-class (Tuesday, 9/3/02)
Jenalia Moreno reports from Tizpan, Mexico that not being able to afford private schools for their children is what really hurts when the financial situations of formerly affluent Mexican families decline. Moreover, it's not just a matter of pride. In Mexico, the implications can be very practical and long-term.

Better duck if you're going to blow the whistle (Tuesday, 9/3/02)
Most whistle blowers experience retaliation, according to a survey conducted by the Washington-based National Whistleblower Center, and most lack legal protections.

Don't underestimate the importance of your Social Security benefits (Tuesday, 9/3/02)
Scott Burns says that you might be surprised at how much you're likely to collect in Social Security benefits before you leave this earth. Moreover, holding off on retirement can make a major practical difference. Also, if stock values in your retirement account have slipped or disappeared recently, a lot of lawyers may be trying to get a hold of you right now. Here's more from Mike Schneider in Orlando.

The need for investment expertise commensurate with rising income (Tuesday, 9/3/02)
African Americans aren't alone in their need to know more about investments, but a new report finds that their rising incomes makes the issue more critical, and several organizations are trying to do something about it.

News flash! It's a good thing for top executives to know what they're doing (Tuesday, 9/3/02)
Particularly when they're conducting their business under increased public scrutiny. Andrew Ross Sorkin reports that an increasing number of senior corporate executives are going back to school in order to learn how to operate with a spotlight shining on them.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Welfare Information Network (Tuesday, 9/3/02)
The Welfare Information Network is a clearinghouse relating to welfare and workforce development. It comes from The Finance Project, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.

Labor Day discontent (Monday, 9/2/02)
The New York Times' Steven Greenhouse sees widespread anger and fear across the U.S. today. Jobless benefits are running out for many people, and new jobs aren't easy to find. However, Dru Sefton reports that a lot of people who have jobs aren't necessarily happy about them, despite poll results suggesting the opposite. Griping is widespread and, well, pretty American on a big American holiday or anytime.

Bush hits Pennsylvania again on this Labor Day (Monday, 9/2/02)
President Bush is attending a big Labor Day picnic in a state he lost to Al Gore in the 2000 election. But, with more electoral votes than most, it's one that he would like to gain in 2004. As a means toward that end and others, he would like to attract as much union support in the state as possible. His Pennsylavania Labor Day appearance offers a useful opportunity to emphasize the priority his administration intends to give economic issues, which are likely to be pivotal in the midterm election in just over two months. Strategists in both major parties recognize that the Enron, et al. mess has given organized labor a new lease on life as well as new clout in the voting booth. Big labor, big government, and big business seem to take turns being the target of people who think they've discovered the cause of everything they think is wrong in American society. It's the "demon theory" of social life on a collective scale.

Pop quiz--what is the government's most expensive income-support program? (Monday, 9/2/02)
It's federal disability pay, by a wide margin. Here's more from Louis Uchitelle in today's New York Times.

Ready for the big guys (Monday, 9/2/02)
The heads of state will make their appearance soon at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa. Negotiators have been working overtime to get ready for them, and some deals have been made. Business is trying to make a good appearance at the Summit as well. Here's more on that from Paul Geitner.

Talks collapse in Oakland (Monday, 9/2/02)
Work at West Coast ports could be disrupted later this week because of a breakdown in contract negotiations. Here's more from Justin Pritchard.

The "glass ceiling" may dissolve within the foreseeable future (Monday, 9/2/02)
According to new research, women will still comprise less than half of the U.S. workforce by 2030, but they will occupy a numerical majority of top management and professional roles.

The room-to-room commute (Monday, 9/2/02)
An increasing number of people's morning commute simply means stopping by the coffee maker en route. Janny Scott writes about people in one of the highest concentrations of home workers who are not students.

Freshman grayhairs (Monday, 9/2/02)
Jonathan Finer tells why an increasing number of middle-aged folks are enrolling in MBA programs.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Labor Day Message (Monday, 9/2/02)
Here's this year's Labor Day message from the United States Secretary of Labor, Elaine Chao.

Schroeder braces for economic reports (Sunday, 9/1/02)
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is running for re-election and seems to be pulling ahead of his opponent in the polls. However, economic data to be released next week could mean trouble for him, according to Clifford Coonan in Berlin.

On being poor in rich nations (Sunday, 9/1/02)
It's become common knowledge that the wealthiest nation in human history, the United States, has some of the greatest income and wealth inequality in the industrial world, while the global have vs. have-not divide may be increasing overall. The world's poorest people, of course, can only aspire to being as well off as many of the poor in rich countries.

Still, there are poor where you might not expect to find them. Elizabeth Olson writes about being a have-not in a nation of haves, in this case Switzerland. Also, Argentina, which had a higher overall standard of living than the United States less than a hundred years ago, is basically a resource-rich country that shouldn't be having major economic problems, but it is. Susan Gotthelf interviews Argentines who are barely surviving in what should be a fundamentally wealthy country. A deal with the IMF could help, but Argentina's President says that could take many more months to work out.

Careful, there is risk of whiplash when watching the Administration on free trade (Sunday, 9/1/02)
The Bush administration has talked up free trade, supported the WTO, but, then supported large domestic agricultural subsidies and imposed protective steel tariffs. But wait--in an effort to please everybody, or make everybody mad, the Administration also has been exempting a great many imports from tariff restrictions. There seems to be a high degree of ambivalence, at the very least. Edmund Andrews writes about that as well as the huge trade penalty that's been authorized against the United States.

Happy Labor Day (Sunday, 9/1/02)
Flight attendants at Midwest Express are threatening to strike. But, if they do, they will be locked out, say company executives. Elsewhere in the travel industry, though, the news is a bit cheerier. Southwest Airlines and its mechanics have reached agreement on a new three-year contract.

The need for heroes (Sunday, 9/1/02)
Sometimes, people need villains on whom to dump their frustrations and animosities. If they can't find them, they may create them. On the other hand, there are times when the need for heroes is even stronger. Periods of genuine emergency, when people feel strongly threatened, are often among them. The "captains of industry" haven't seemed too heroic recently, while many of the people we often take for granted, those who rolled up their sleeves, jeopardized their own safety, and helped their fellow human beings during and after last year's September 11 terrorist attack were there when we needed them, not only to help, but also to be our heroes.

However, George Packer finds some disingenuousness in America's post-9/11 attitude toward blue collar workers. He says that Labor Day itself was born of hypocrisy and blood. It was made an official holiday by President Cleveland less than a week after federal troops crushed the big rail strike in Pullman, Illinois in 1894.

Many will celebrate their jobs on Labor Day (Sunday, 9/1/02)
Having a job is a good thing, particularly when this year's Labor Day finds many Americans without them. Leigh Strope says that those who still have jobs are grateful for them with Labor Day only a few hours away.

Do you hate him too? (Sunday, 9/1/02)
Michael Lewis writes about a top Administration official who is unpopular among many people simply because he's a Republican, but is also unpopular among many Republicans. In large part, it may be because of Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill's candor and tendency to be right about a lot of things. Also, unlike his boss, he certainly wasn't born on third base. Instead, he rose from abject poverty to great self-made wealth as well as corporate leadership success that has greatly exceeded that of MBA G. W. Bush. In other words, Secretary O'Neill isn't easily awed, and is greatly independent. He doesn't need the Bush administration very much. Do they need him, and how long will he last in his present position?

Wal-Mart employees' suit achieves class-action status (Sunday, 9/1/02)
A federal judge has agreed to let a discrimination suit brought by women employees against Wal-Mart go ahead with class-action status. The plaintiffs allege that the company's denial of health insurance coverage for the cost of contraceptives is discriminatory.

Insurers have trouble with online services (Sunday, 9/1/02)
Seven large health insurers would like to use the web to keep in touch with patients and doctors and control the system, but it's been a struggle. Milt Freudenheim has more about the financial problems of a consortium that would like to reduce the dominance of WebMD.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Peanuts and Crackerjacks (Sunday, 9/1/02)
If you would like to learn about the economics of professionals sports, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston can help with Peanuts and Crackerjacks.

Here are NewWork News stories from previous months

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