The economy is indeed getting stronger – and is probably setting itself up for the best holiday season since the big downturn in six years. That’s a strong statement to make five years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008 which set off the worst recession and second slowest recovery since the Great Depression. But there is every reason to believe that 2013 is indeed going to be the year that everything turned around – and by mid 2014 we will have recovered all the jobs lost since the downturn started.
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Economics and commerce, all built from scratch.
Containerized Cargo
Stop for a moment and look around you. In front of your nose might be the aroma of coffee from Sumatra steaming inside a mug made in China. The table you are sitting at may be from South America or Canada. Your clothes could be made of Egyptian cotton. What do all of these things have in common, other than your life? Nearly all of them spent some time in a metal box, 20 feet by 8 feet by 9 and a half feet tall – a Twenty foot Equivalent Unit (TEU).
Containerized cargo has changed the world more than any other technology over the last 30 years, maybe or maybe not excluding the internet. Yet few people stop to consider this phenom and what it means
ADP Employment Report
The stock market has been up so far in September, a somewhat unusual event for the weakest month in stocks. The optimism is propelled largely by decent news on jobs, with weekly initial unemployment claims dropping to their lowest level since 2008 at 323k. But the big news was the ADP Employment Report, which came in at 176k jobs gained in August. Investors are still watching for the official Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report on Friday – but they don’t need to.
What is this ADP Employment Report, and what does it mean? It’s actually the best barometer of where we are, if not the official one, and it comes with a lot of useful information that can’t be found anywhere else. Since we’ve dissected the official BLS report it’s time to take a good look at the ADP numbers – and why they are in many ways much more interesting.
Part Time Work
Part-time work is a part of the economy. A first job might be just a few hours after school, and parents often find themselves only able to work while the kids are in school. Some people want only part-time work while they get their “real career” together, such as an artist who waits tables to pay the bills. But in an economic downturn, people get stuck with fewer hours than they want and the ranks swell.
When we discussed the employment figures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) here in Barataria, the “Part Time for Economic Reasons” really stuck in the craw of many readers, and for good reasons. That number has to come down from 5.3% of all employed persons before we can be excited about the jobs reports. The San Francisco Federal Reserve had the same feeling, and has released a new report with some fascinating details on part-time work in the US and what it is today.
Government 101
What does it take for a developing nation to move ahead and join the ranks of the developed world? For all the tremendous advances for at least some developing nations in the last decade or more, there is still a gap. Brazil is not quite developed nation yet on the eve of their 2 year long coming out party due to start with the World Cup next year. It’s not that the people aren’t trying, it’s not that the nation doesn’t want to be there. It’s that it’s hard, dedicated work. It’s that … the problem is almost too simple to understand.
The fundamentals of running a government always seem to slip between the cracks of the politics that define any nation. The US is no different from any other in that regard – look no further than the calls to first push us over a “fiscal cliff” and now perhaps shut down the government for the lack of a budget (or continuing resolution). But that’s what it’s all about, regardless. And in developing nations we can see what the global leadership crisis really looks like – a lack of Government 101.
Barataria - The work of Erik Hare 