Archive for the ‘General’ Category
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
The 8.8 magnitude Chilean earthquake was so strong that it literally knocked the earth off its axis - permanently. Richard Gross, a research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, calculated that the earth’s rotation changed so that the length of our day is now roughly 1.26 microseconds shorter. A microsecond is equivalent to one millionth of a second. The Chilean quake also shifted earth’s figure axis (the axis on which our planet’s mass is balanced) by three inches.
By contrast, the 9.1 magnitude 2004 Sumatran earthquake shifted the earth’s axis by 2.76 inches and made the day shorter by 6.8 microseconds. The larger shift in the earth’s axis as the result of a slightly smaller earthquake is because the Chilean trembler occurred in the earth’s mid-latitudes. The fault responsible for Chile’s quake also cuts more deeply into the earth and at a steeper angle than in Sumatra. Haiti’s 7.0 January earthquake, which occurred close to the surface, had no impact on the earth’s rotation.
Tags: Chile, earth, earthquake, Sumatran earthquake, tectonic plates
Posted in General, Green | No Comments »
Monday, March 8th, 2010
Economic indicators show that the recession is over. This is the opinion of Rick Mattoon, a senior economist and advisor in the economic research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and a lecturer at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Rick’s primary research focuses on issues facing the Midwest regional economy.
In a recent interview for the Alter NOW Podcasts, Mattoon warned that most people probably don’t feel like the nation is coming out of a recession because there are few signs of job creation or easier access to credit. One of the major concerns economists have is that this will be a double-dip “W-shaped” recession because once the bump from the $787 billion stimulus ends, there will be scant pent-up consumer demand for products and services to take the place of government spending.
One positive sign is an uptick in hiring by temporary employment agencies, which usually is considered to be a good harbinger of what future demand will be. Another interesting theory about this particular recession in terms of jobs is the idea that companies adjusted their employee levels much more aggressively at the beginning of this cycle. As a result, they are operating at extremely lean levels and so may hire earlier rather than later.
One problem is that there is a skills mismatch in the economy. Many people who have lost their jobs don’t possess the right skills to find employment in growth industries such as clean energy or healthcare. The challenge is training these individuals to bring their skills up to par.
Rick Mattoon: Is the Recession Over? :
Play Now |
Play in Popup |
Download
Tags: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Chicago, deficit, Federal Reserve Bank, GDP, Great Recession, inflation, Rick Mattoon, stimulus bill, treasury bills, wage growth
Posted in Economics, Financing, General, Green, Healthcare, Office, Residential | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010
Politics may make strange bedfellows, but it also reveals some interesting family trees.
President Barack Obama not only has a supporter in the form of Berkshire Hathaway chairman and investment expert Warren Buffett - the two are also distant cousins. Genealogists at ancestry.com found a family connection dating back to a 17th-century Frenchman named Mareen Duvall who emigrated to Maryland in the 1650s.
The accidental discovery places Duvall as Obama’s 9th great-grandfather through his mother and Buffett’s 6th great-grandfather through his father. According to Anastasia Tyler, the project’s lead researcher, “We recognized the name Duvall and it made us wonder if this was a connection. We’re always looking for a way to show how interesting family history is. Like this, when you start finding similarities in family trees. The tree leads you in directions you don’t expect.”
Duvall arrived in America as an indentured servant, but by 1659 had purchased property in Maryland, became a planter and merchant and was perceived as a “country gentleman”. Tyler noted that “It’s quite an achievement. You can see similarities to him in both (Obama’s and Buffett’s) lives.”
Buffett isn’t the president’s only high-profile relative. During the 2008 presidential campaign, researchers found that Obama is a distant cousin of former Vice President Dick Cheney.
Tags: Berkshire Hathaway, Dick Cheney, genealogy, Mareen Duvall, Oracle of Omaha, President Obama, Stanley Ann Dunham, Warren Buffett
Posted in General | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 5th, 2010
Tiger Woods’ extramarital escapades are costing shareholders in the companies he sponsors, according to a study by an economics professor at the University of California at Davis. Victor Stango found that the market value lost to firms that had Woods as a sponsor is already $12 billion. Woods is believed to earn approximately $100 million annually from corporate endorsements.
Stango and his team studied stock market returns for the 13 trading days between November 27 - the date of Woods’ late-night car crash - and December 17, a week after the golfer announced he was leaving the sport for an indefinite time. They compared the stocks to the total market and competing stocks. Next, they compared the stocks to the market as a whole and to competing stocks. They also studied the stocks over four years to determine how they have performed historically when compared to the market and to competitors. The bottom line? The scandal reduced shareholder value in the sponsor firms by 2.3 percent - or $12 billion.
“Total shareholder losses may exceed several decades’ worth of Tiger Woods’ personal endorsement income,” Stango noted. The sponsor firms include Accenture; American Express; AT&T; Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf; Gillette; Nike; Gatorade; TLC Laser Eye Centers; and Golf Digest. “This pattern of losses is unlikely to stem from ordinary day-to-day variations in their stock prices.” The three sports-related companies (Tiger Woods PGA Golf Tour, Gatorade and Nike) performed the worst, experiencing a 4.3 percent scandal-related decline in their stock value - equaling approximately $6 billion.
According to the researchers, “Our findings speak to a larger question of general interest in the business and academic communities. Does celebrity sponsorship have any impact on a firm’s bottom line? Our analysis makes clear that while having a celebrity of Tiger Woods’ stature as an endorser has undeniable upside, the downside risk is substantial too.”
Tags: Accenture, American Express, AT&T, Gatorade, Gillette, Golf Digest, Nike, Tiger Woods, TLC Laser Eye Centers
Posted in General | No Comments »
Monday, January 4th, 2010
I was recently asked to comment on CB Richard Ellis‘ recent “EIG State Incentives Ranking Report“ as an Certified Economic Developer who has been practicing in Illinois for nearly 30 years.
Click on the link and take a look at the map and state rankings list that’s generated. Illinois, Indiana and Iowa are marked “competitive.” What’s interesting is that CBRE ranks Wisconsin as “noncompetitive” because many of the border commercial parks near Illinois (e.g., Kenosha, Pleasant Prairie) have almost always been able to out-incentive northern Illinois. And my broker colleagues at CB Richard Ellis, when trying to close a transaction, are quick to point out Wisconsin’s advantages.
Next, look at the “Aggressive” dark green states, which now include Michigan. Most are in the south, but Ohio and the Central Plains states have also moved into the aggressive category. These state economic development programs are traditionally market-focused and easy to do business with. The older rust belt states, with high unemployment, have had little choice but to increase their competitiveness to just retain jobs.
Chris Manheim is a guest blogger for Alter NOW. He is the President of Manheim Solutions, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in community, workforce and small business economic development programs.
Posted in Development, General, Industrial, Office | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 30th, 2009
Gold fever seems to be on the decline as the precious metal fell $90 an ounce in just two days after the commodity reached a high of $1,226 an ounce in early December. The lion’s share of the blame for the decline was placed on newbie investors, who got skittish in their belief that gold is an investment safety net. Gold isn’t down and out yet. According to Goldman Sachs’ precious metals group, if the Federal Reserve keeps interest rates at current low levels, the price of an ounce could climb as high as $1,350 next year.
Dennis Gartman, a trader and publisher of the Gartman Letter investment newsletter, said “Too many naïve investors got involved in gold. They must be taken out and given a good caning.” Professional investors are likely to stay away from gold for a while, a move that will “inflict pain on the people who came late to the market” in coming months.
A somewhat different viewpoint is offered by Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist with Wells Capital Management, who believes that the tumult makes it unclear why gold prices are acting erratically. “Gold has been the answer to inflation; gold has been the answer to disinflation; gold has been the answer to too much debt and to the China bubble. But I have never known an asset that was the answer to everything,” Paulsen said. He believes that gold is currently overpriced and vulnerable to fluctuations.
Ibbotson Associates notes that someone who invested in gold in 1980 would have seen an average annual yield of 2.6 percent. As attractive as gold looks now, compare that with stocks which averaged an 11.2 percent return despite last year’s slump.
Tags: AARP Financial, CRB Commodity Index, Federal Reserve, Gail Marks Jarvis, gold, Goldman Sachs, Ibbotson Associates, Jim Edgar, Midas, scrooge, Wells Capital Management
Posted in General | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 29th, 2009
Lou Dobbs’ resignation from CNN after 27 years has led to speculation about his future plans – whether in politics or a possible move to Fox News. Dobbs, known for his controversial opinions on immigration, went so far as to question the validity of Barack Obama’s Hawaiian birth certificate and suggested that the president was actually born in Kenya.
Countering Dobbs’ divisive opinions, recent research has found that thousands of immigrants who come to America looking for work end up starting entrepreneurial businesses, some of which employ thousands. Consider these statistics from a study by the U.S. Small Business Administration:
- Approximately 1.5 million immigrants own their own business, generating $67 billion in annual revenue.
- In Illinois, 14.5 percent of all businesses are immigrant-owned; approximately 28 percent of the state’s engineering and technology companies were started by immigrants, according to a Latino Technology Alliance study.
- Immigrants are 30 percent more likely to start business than native-born Americans, according to the SBA study cited above.
- Businesses owned by immigrants are more likely to have paid employees.
One example is Jai Shekhawat, who left India to pursue a corporate career in America. After stints at Burroughs Corp., Syntel, Inc., and McKinsey & Co., Shekhawat started Quinnox, Inc., a Naperville-based IT outsourcing company. Later, he started Fieldglass, Inc., a Chicago business that has yearly revenues of $30 million and employs 150, primarily in the metropolitan area. In addition to India, entrepreneurs who have started successful Chicago-area businesses include immigrants from Ukraine, Greece, Ireland, Poland, Nigeria and Ethiopia.
S. Jafer Hasnain is a Managing Partner of Lifeline Assets, a Chicago-based real-estate private equity firm which he co-founded in 2008. Mr. Hasnain was previously a portfolio manager and analyst at Alliance Bernstein for 14 years with stints at Merrill Lynch, Citibank and Goldman Sachs prior to that.
Tags: birth certificate, immigration, Lou Dobbs, politics, President Obama, retirement
Posted in General | No Comments »
Monday, December 14th, 2009
With the national unemployment rate at 10.2 percent, President Barack Obama is focusing on job creation - the American public’s number one concern. The administration’s “White House to Main Street” summit and tour is gathering advice from a variety of stakeholders, including business executives, small-business owners, economists, union officials and Ed Pawlowski, the mayor of hard-hit Allentown, PA.
The stakes are high because the Obama administration finds itself in the difficult position of wanting to create millions of new jobs without adding to the national debt. “There’s one group that says we need to do more about the economy, more to create jobs,” according to political analyst Charlie Cook. “And then there’s the other side that’s saying we’re blowing the heck out of the budget deficits. And so they’re getting squeezed.”
“If we keep on adding to the debt, even in the midst of this recovery, at some point people could lose confidence in the U.S. economy in a way that could actually lead to a double-dip recession,” the President said in an interview with Fox News.
In the meantime, Congress is considering job stimulus legislation that could combine extensions of COBRA, unemployment compensation and food stamps. Because the Democrats have very little money to spend right now, they know that a successful second stimulus will have to pack a powerful punch. Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) wants to use $50 billion in leftover TARP funds to provide loans to small businesses. Yet another proposal from Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) would use $600 million to subsidize employees who volunteer to have their hours cut to help companies avoid layoffs. This approach has worked spectacularly well in Germany, which has not seen an uptick in unemployment this recession.
Tags: Charlie Cook, Clinton administration, COBRA, Concord Coalition, congress, democrats, Economic Policy Institute, Ed Pawlowski, food stamps, Great Depression, Great Recession, job stimulus, President Obama, Senator Jack Reed, Senator Mark Warner, TARP, unemployment, unemployment compensation
Posted in Economics, General | No Comments »
The long-time bible of the shrinking newspaper industry, 
Text “HAITI” to 90999 on your cell phone and $10 will be donated to the American Red Cross for earthquake relief in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation. That $10 donation will appear on your next cell phone bill - a quick and painless way to speed relief to a country reeling in the face of 7.0-magnitude quake that leveled much of the capital city of Port-au-Prince.