Good morning. Friday in Whitewater will see scattered of showers of rain or snow with a high of 39. Sunrise is 6:44 AM and sunset 4:33 PM for 9h 49m 20s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 60.3% of its visible disk illuminated. On this day, in 1970, the Oregon Highway Commission decides…
Employment
Business, Daily Bread, Employment, Free Markets, Immigration, Labor
Daily Bread for 10.20.21: Ending ICE Raids at Workplaces
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Good morning. Wednesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 70. Sunrise is 7:15 AM and sunset 6:03 PM for 10h 47m 42s of daytime. The moon is full with 100% of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1803, the United States Senate ratifies (24-7) the Louisiana Purchase. Free markets include markets…
Daily Bread, Employment, Public Health, Vaccines
Daily Bread for 10.19.21: Employers Have Rights — and Obligations to Workplace Safety
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
Daily Bread, Employment, Free Markets, Populists, Trumpism, Vaccines
Daily Bread for 8.15.21: The ‘Personal Responsibility’ Crowd Wants a Handout
by JOHN ADAMS • • 3 Comments
Good morning. Sunday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 81. Sunrise is 6:02 AM and sunset 7:55 PM, for 13h 53m 13s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 48.4% of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1944, Allied forces land in southern France in Operation Dragoon. Molly Beck reports…
Business, Coronavirus, Employment, Free Markets, Labor, Private Property, Vaccines
No Shirt, No Shoes? No Service
by JOHN ADAMS • • 4 Comments
The conservative populists talk endlessly about the dangers of socialism (however poorly they grasp the term), but truthfully they’re happy with government mandates or prohibitions that advance their own preferences. Some private employers want to require masks, and others want to require vaccinations, but these right-wing interventionists now screech that private businesses should not be…
City, Disinformation, Economy, Employment, Poverty
Unemployment Imagined and Real
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
National unemployment figures have been undercounting the true number of those unemployed. Rachel Siegel reports Fed chair: Unemployment rate was closer to 10 percent, not 6.3 percent, in January: Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell said Wednesday that the unemployment rate in January was “close to 10 percent,” significantly higher than the 6.3 percent rate…
America, Economy, Employment, Failure, Trump
Trump’s Employment Failure
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Catherine Rampell writes December’s jobs report confirms Trump is set to be the worst jobs president on record: When the pandemic first hit the United States, we lost 22 million jobs almost immediately. Then after seven months of gains — albeit decelerating ones — the economy tipped back into job losses in December, the Bureau…
Economy, Employment, Poverty, Recession
That’s Not a Recovery: Millions Slip into Poverty & Unemployment Claims Rise
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
That a rush to re-open would lead to an economic rebound was always doubtful (no economic fix without a pandemic fix), but the data are clear that America is experiencing no national ‘recovery.’ Jason DeParle reports 8 Million Have Slipped Into Poverty Since May as Federal Aid Has Dried Up: After an ambitious expansion of…
Economy, Employment, Failure, Recession, Trump
Historic
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
City, Culture, Employment, Local Government, School District, University
Mentoring
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
When a small community like Whitewater comes to rely on hundreds of non-resident commuters to provide services (for city, schools, or university), those commuters will have a different work relationship than resident workers. (About these workers see The Commuter Class.) Many will be less attached to the community (as they’ve freely chosen to live elsewhere…
Coronavirus, Economics, Economy, Employment, Federal Reserve, Public Health
Federal Reserve Chair Powell’s Interview on Economic Recovery
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Last night, 60 Minutes broadcast an interview with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell in which Powell discussed current economic conditions and prospects for recovery. (Powell sat for the interview on Wednesday, 5.13.20 with Scott Pelley of CBS News.) The interview is available online, as is a transcript. Below are excerpts from the transcript (although Powell’s…
Coronavirus, Economy, Employment, Public Health
Again – Consumer Sentiment
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
A story from the Wall Street Journal reminds that ‘re-opening’ is futile without broad-based consumer demand. Austen Hufford and Bob Tita report Factories Close for Good as Coronavirus Cuts Demand (‘Some manufacturers that furloughed employees during lockdowns say plants won’t reopen’): Factory furloughs across the U.S. are becoming permanent closings, a sign of the heavy damage…
Aside
Low unemployment isn’t worth much if the jobs barely pay: Martha Ross and Nicole Bateman highlight one of the failures of public subsidies for businesses in places like Whitewater — Low unemployment isn’t worth much if the jobs barely pay (article linked in today’s Daily Bread post). Subsidized job-creation in those circumstances is more political point than practical achievement.
Babbittry, Bad Ideas, CDA, City, Corporate Welfare, Development, Economy, Employment, Government Spending, Local Government, Poverty, Scott Walker, State Capitalism, State Government, That Which Paved the Way, WEDC
Three Fundamental Failures: Employment, Income, and Poverty
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
An earlier post addressed Walker’s Fundamental Failure to meet his jobs pledge even after eight years. The record is much worse: years of corporate subsidies and meddling in the marketplace for preferred businesses & political cronies have produced failures of employment, income, and poverty. (Small town officials who copied this approach on the local level, as…