Misleading Average Unemployment Numbers

                       

Average unemployment numbers are what we get, covering all age groups. That average can consist of different classes, each of which is affected differently. Classifications contain teens up to age 25. Or all adults 25 and older. Or high school graduates, or college graduates; all skilled and unskilled.

                       

The adjusted unemployment rate now is closer to 12%, not the little over 6% reported by the media and the government. The youngest job- seekers are suffering the most from the current economy, at over 20%. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole tweets.)

Faulty Unemployment Figures

                   

Raw government unemployment numbers are misleading. They must be carefully interpreted, but never fully are in the media, often for politically-slanted purposes.

                   

Examples: Unemployment numbers don’t tell you how long the unemployed have been out of work. Or how many are not working full days or have permanent jobs. Nor how many have given up looking for work. Those out of work a long time may not even be looking for employment, and are not being counted as unemployed. All that results in  better than reported unemployment figures.                       

Moreover, the time of year reported is a factor. And weather conditions may have much to do with short-term implications of job statistics. Furthermore, tricky estimates make up many statistics.(See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole tweets.)

Company Management’s Ability

 

                   

It is true that an executive must operate with the hand being dealt. If the business environment or the economy is poor, an excellent manager may do extremely well by just minimizing losses. But there are no real standards to go by.

                   

Look at management techniques used; they are all the same. The same acronyms to describe managerial approaches. But those that worked in the past may not be working now. The ones that did not work in the past may be working today.

A lot of luck is involved and lots of persistence.

You do need an earnest game plan Also an eye on protective management technique that actively avoids serious problems. For example, keep away from damaging lawsuits, especially employee harassment and EEOC complaints. Management has to consciously stick to the employee manuals set up. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole tweets.)

Role of the CEO

                       

Studies show that top management changes account for only about 10% of added profitability.

                       

Often it's other circumstances that result in a company’s doing better or worse. The economy, business or general industrial conditions may have much to do with any company’s near-term fortune.

                       

There are business cycles. Moreover, the bigger the company, the harder it is for a CEO to turn operations around on his or her own, The CEO is certainly important, but never to the extent the public, or the media, may believe.(See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole tweets.)

       

Speaking With a Teleprompter

   

President Obama’s many appearances with a teleprompter appear to be vying with ancient Roman senators who stood about in togas making their speeches. However, they did so without the use of teleprompters.

                       

                       

I would think that schools today ought to include courses on debating, in addition to their regular curricula. The ability to think on your feet without having something to read from in front of you, other than note outlines, would be a benefit to all.

                       

And not just for those who are president.(See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole tweets.)

Useless MBAs for Global Warming

                       

There is enough evidence to show that the entire scientific evidence behind global warming is suspect.

                       

Environmental studies programs depend to a great extent on the premise of global warming. Cap and Trade legislation is actually a ruse to create taxation, based on dubious global warming science.

                       

So why start off on a career with a new MBA degree in this specialty? It is either a marketing ruse to get a job that defies science or your own credibility when an MBA has become tainted by scientific doubt.

                       

Just another marketing scam our vaunted institutions of higher learning have developed.(See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole tweets.)

Politician-Inspired Financial Bubbles

                       

Politicians are having a fine time orating how they intend to stop future financial bubbles. They thus enacted Dodd-Frank.

                       

Bubbles are man-made, enforced by government policy and regulation. They breed on human psychological extremes. And they feed on panic.

                       

The onus and guilt may be thrust on private parties for political purposes, but bubbles exist only if government agencies permit them to do so.

                       

Actually, it’s far better that the powers-that-be in government sit on their hands than “do something” in the way of remedies. The long-term hands-off policy  often takes care of problems better than short-term panaceas.

                       

Apart from those called in to do the short-term, patchwork remedies, If there has to be basic blame for recent bubbles in the U. S. it can be placed on the heads of the governors of the Federal Reserve. They are the guilty, who have made money too cheap. That is always the fuel for a bubble.

                       

Bubbles can be dampened when the availability of currency is tightened. However, the opposite monetary policy has been the story in U. S. bubble experience.(See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole tweets.)

Recognizing a Corporate State

           

American politicians will strongly deny accusations of any fascistic offense. Yet they are often  guilty of corporate state politics.

                               

Their argument is that super financial regulation, such as Dodd- Frank, is the answer to stopping bubbles and financial risk. More regulation, they say, will reduce financial meltdowns. That same financial risk that past regulation failed to catch.

                       

And if large companies “too big to fail” look ready to do so, the U. S. ought to be the employer of last resort, to bail them out. While government, in effect, operates them. In the past, the bankruptcy laws remedied the problem without political input.

                       

Well, that action is corporate statism, pure and simple. That was the road taken by the administration with autos, banks and insurance in 2009, and it is now a permanent fixture.

                       

There were alternatives. Actions that would have been better solutions and less destructive to our long-term economy.(See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole tweets.)

That Costly, Often Useless College Diploma

           

More kids go to college. More get into debt. More of their parents are going broke financing their education.

           

According to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, the percentage of college graduates’ ability in literacy had declined from 40% to 31% in the past decade. About 20% of college seniors did not have the ability to estimate whether their car had enough fuel to get to a gas station.

           

But more kids and parents can show those fancy diplomas to friends and relatives. So I guess all is not lost after all? (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole tweets.)

Labor Unions Affect FairWages

  

                       

In an ideal productive society, a worker gets what he or she produces. Labor has to be productive. If it is not, there is an eventual disconnect somewhere.

                       

The perfect example is the downfall of the American automobile industry which priced itself out of business primarily because of its labor costs. You can talk style and product non-competitiveness, but the bottom line is this: Management was bulldozed into giving eventually catastrophic labor contracts, in order to avoid immediate catastrophic union walkouts.

                       

The breakdown in schools can be attributed to the same cause. Here it is the avoidance of competition in the form of breaking the public-school-only

monopoly.(See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole at Twitter.)