Economy

Manufacturing

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You often hear from politicians that expanding manufacturing jobs is key to growing the economy. It sounds good, making physical stuff.👷 You can see and touch things that are manufactured. But few Americans actually manufacture things, even though we are outputing  more American-made products then ever before.🏭 American manufacturing is highly automated, it relies less and less on humans.

Americans typically make the most advanced devices and technologies in our country. We outsource lower-skilled manufacturing to other countries.🌏 Low-skilled manufacturing produces lower wages, and those low wages are not enough to pay for a decent living in the United States. Americans expect a good job, one with healthcare and a pension or retirement plan, something that can not be produced with a low-value product.🏥

The future of jobs in America is not in manufacturing. It’s in healthcare, education and creative professions like design, engineering and arts.🎭 The jobs of the future about designing products and providing services that Americans want. Traditionally, many of these jobs have offered less stability and benefits compared to old-line manufacturing.🕴

The solution is not to try to bring back obsolete industries, but instead ensure modern industries in America provide adequate benefits to workers. 🖥This can be done by government mandates or the government providing the service — e.g. opt-in to government retirement or healthcare plans.🙊 The economy is changing, and government shouldn’t stop low-wage jobs from off-shoring, but instead ensure workers are taken care of in the industries of tomorrow.

Why the middle class can’t afford life in America anymore

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Why the middle class can’t afford life in America anymore

In her book, author Alissa Quart lays out how America’s middle class is being wiped out by the cost of living far outpacing salaries while a slew of traditionally secure professions — like teaching — can no longer guarantee a stable enough income to clothe and feed a family.

“Middle-class life is now 30 percent more expensive than it was 20 years ago,” Quart writes, citing the costs of housing, education, health care and child care in particular. “In some cases the cost of daily life over the last 20 years has doubled.”

NPR

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A Decade After A Fearful Market Hit Bottom, Stock Bulls Continue Historic Run : NPR

In March 2009, Wall Street was a fearful and anxious place, where fortunes had been decimated and retirement funds deflated.

What few people could foresee in the depths of the Great Recession was that the stock market was also on the verge of a historic recovery, one that persists today. The decadelong run is also raising caution flags for some analysts who worry that investors are accepting too much risk.

Stocks are finishing 2019 on a remarkable upswing, with all of the major indexes hitting record highs and the S&P 500 up nearly 30% for the year.

Pathological Consumption Has Become So Normalised That We Scarcely Notice It

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Pathological Consumption Has Become So Normalised That We Scarcely Notice It

There’s nothing they need, nothing they don’t own already, nothing they even want. So you buy them a solar-powered waving queen; a belly button brush; a silver-plated ice cream tub holder; a “hilarious” inflatable zimmer frame; a confection of plastic and electronics called Terry the Swearing Turtle; or – and somehow I find this significant – a Scratch Off World wall map.

They seem amusing on the first day of Christmas, daft on the second, embarrassing on the third. By the twelfth they’re in landfill. For thirty seconds of dubious entertainment, or a hedonic stimulus that lasts no longer than a nicotine hit, we commission the use of materials whose impacts will ramify for generations.

Cheap cigars, politics and the Volcker Rule – Reuters

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Cheap cigars, politics and the Volcker Rule – Reuters

The son of a town manager who grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey, Volcker has a no-nonsense style. He was famous during his tenure at the Fed for the shiny suits he wore and inexpensive cigars he relished.

James Wolfensohn, the former World Bank president and a longtime friend who took on Volcker as a business partner after he left the Fed, said Volcker never sought out the trappings of power.

“In today’s world it sounds rare to see on a Friday night the chairman of the Federal Reserve carrying his bag himself in economy class, smoking the most foul cigars because they were cheap and he enjoyed them,” Wolfensohn said.

New York’s super-rich migrating south for better value

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New York’s super-rich migrating south for better value

Analysts say a growing number of New York’s financial elite believe that fleeing the city for other states with lower taxes and costs in order to protect their wealth is a total no-brainer — particularly since the 2019 UBS/PwC Billionaires Report found that the collective net worth of their peers globally has plunged heavily for the first time in years.

That may be true, but when you leave New York, you loose out on your financial connections and the people that make your wealth. New York is expensive, but it's a popular choice for the elite, because you can't find the people in Manhattan Kansas that you can in Manhattan New York. Kansas might be a great place if you want to raise hogs and cattle, but probably not a great place to be in if your involved in financial business.