Posts by mark price

Morning Must Reads: Got Manufacturing Skill Shortage?

Posted by Mark Price on October 16, 2012 8:29 am
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The for-profit economic consultants Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has released a new study that combines analysis of wage trends by metropolitan area with surveys of the CEOs of manufacturing companies on the topic of manufacturing skill shortages.

Morning Must Reads: The Self-Destruction of the 1 Percent

Posted by Mark Price on October 15, 2012 9:47 am
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Over the weekend, Chrystia Freeland told a story about the city of Venice to warn of the pitfalls for all of society when extreme inequality undermines social mobility.

Morning Must Reads: How 'bout No, You Crazy Dutch....

Posted by Mark Price on October 10, 2012 11:47 am
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The Only Proper Villian We Could Find From the NetherlandsOn Monday night, the Lower Allen Township commissioners in Cumberland County considered a proposal from Ahold USA, the corporate parent of Giant Food Stores, for a $400,000 property tax abatement on a meat repackaging plant on which the company has already broken ground. (Ahold USA is itself the subsidiary of the Netherlands-based Ahold.)

The company has neglected a basic principle of the economic development game through which companies extract subsidies and tax breaks from states and localities where they were going to build anyway: until you have the subsidy in hand, don't give away that it will not impact your location decision.

Morning Must Reads: Never Before Has So Much Stupid Led to So Much Learning!

At 7.8% in September, the U.S. unemployment rate was below 8% for the first time since January 2009. Five minutes after the new numbers were released, former General Electric CEO Jack Welch suggested the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) had juked the stats.

Changing the Subject Doesn’t Make Payday Lending a Better Idea

Posted by Mark Price on October 3, 2012 2:17 pm
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In legislative hearings last month, proponents of a bill to legalize high-interest payday loans tried to change the subject and questioned the motives of some of their constituents. But these attempts don’t alter the fact that allowing payday lending is a bad idea. 

Late-Morning Must Reads: Well We're Living Here in Allentown So Call Me Maybe

Posted by Mark Price on October 3, 2012 10:49 am
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Since I attended the 82nd annual Gridiron show last night, I'm both in a good mood and have the Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents Association's version of Carly Rae Jepsen's Call Me Maybe (<--not them) in my head this morning. 

Morning Must Reads: We Are Better Than This?

Posted by Mark Price on October 2, 2012 9:13 am
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Public policy in Pennsylvania in the aftermath of the Great Recession does not reflect well on the commonwealth.

Over the weekend, the Harrisburg Patriot-News detailed a new Department of Public Welfare policy to shift more of the cost of caring for intellectually disabled children onto their parents. 

Pennsylvania Faces a Shortage of Skilled Parrots

The economist J.R. McCulloch once quipped that to pass for an economist, a parrot need only learn the phrase: “supply and demand, supply and demand.” In many cases, explaining trends in the economy often comes down to understanding supply and demand. 

Morning Must Reads: Thank You for Smoking!

Posted by Mark Price on September 28, 2012 10:02 am
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Right there, looking into Joey's eyes, it all came back in a rush. Why I do what I do. Defending the defenseless, protecting the disenfranchised corporations that have been abandoned by their very own consumers: the logger, the sweatshop foreman, the oil driller, the land mine developer, the baby seal poacher...

Morning Must Reads: Morning Call on "Bombing Public Education Into the Stone Age"

Posted by Mark Price on September 27, 2012 8:27 am
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This morning, Bill White of the Allentown Morning Call renders his mid-term report card on the education policies of the current gubernatorial administration.