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Nickel and Dimed and Quartered

A friend of mine asked me the other day about Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich’s experience as a low wage worker trying to make ends meet. She has a tough time. It’s not easy living on the minimum wage. It’s particularly hard to support a family of four on $10,000…

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Archaeological Economics

California has recently decided to make sure farmworkers are treated more humanely. Here’s the headline and the opening from the AP story: California Bans Hand-Pulling of Weeds SACRAMENTO, Calif. – California became the first state Thursday to ban weeding by hand on most farms, saying the work is too backbreaking…

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Deficits Don’t Mean Disaster

(Full Article in USA Today) When it comes to money, even a lot of money. Let’s say it is $422 billion. Would you say it was a lot? It is all a matter of perspective. If this money is in your bank account, it is such a large amount that you…

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Presidential Economics: What Leaders Can and Cannot Do about the State of the Economy

The Presidential campaign season is about to go into full swing. The conventions are coming, to be followed by a barrage of advertising and then almost certainly, we will have debates. Much of the focus will be on Iraq and American foreign policy, but inevitably, the economy and its performance…

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Outsourcing and Job Security

Note: Newsweek Japan asked me and others to comment on ten questions related to the global economy. Here’s the question they asked on outsourcing and job security, along with my answer. I have a second answer to another question here. Q8: Why are firms in many countries still restructuring and…

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The Great Outsourcing Scare of 2004

From the Hoover Digest, Spring 2004 People are worried that Indians are going to take away all of America’s good jobs. The “outsourcing” of call-center and software coding jobs to India has been a tough pill to swallow for an educated workforce. The alarmists, from presidential candidates to think tank…

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The Locomotive in the Rain Forest

(From Newsweek Japan) Note: Newsweek Japan asked me (and others) to answer a series of questions on economics. Here is one on general economic policy. My essay on outsourcing is here. Q10: In this age of uncertainty, what is the most credible and appropriate economic theory for governments to follow…

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Jobs Abroad, Benefits at Home

From Business Week Online Outsourcing is all over the news. U.S. businesses are hiring foreigners, often in India, to do things that Americans once did. The tasks range from manning call centers to writing software code. We often hear that this economic phenomenon is bad for America, that the benefits…

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The Bagel and the Index Fund

(From Business Week Online) After a good year for the stock market, a lot of investors are feeling it’s safe to get back in the water. And despite the recent scandals, a lot of money will be going into mutual funds as the economy and market continue to recover. But…

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More than an Invention

(From Tech Central Station) Time Magazine has chosen the iTunes Music Store as the Invention of the Year. Invention of the Year? When you think of an invention, you think of the light bulb, the cotton gin, the airplane, the television, the transistor, the cell phone. But an online Music…

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Why Linux Is Wealthier Than Microsoft

(From Business Week) Sometimes I suspect Bill Gates doesn’t sleep so well at night. Not out of any guilt over his billions or the alleged mediocrity of his product. No, I wonder whether he might actually worry about the competition. Not Apple (though that iPod MP3 player is a killer…

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Remaking Iraq

Audio (click to listen/download)

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Why Are We Losing Manufacturing Jobs?

Audio Politicians like to blame the loss of manufacturing jobs on the nefarious schemes of foreigners to steal American jobs and lower our standard of living. The real answer lies closer to home. And surprisingly, the shrinking of the manufacturing sector is actually a sign of America’s economic health. Consider…

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In Praise of Mercenaries

If all the economists in the world were laid end to end, they still wouldn’t reach a conclusion. So goes the joke. Most of that reputation for wishy-washiness comes from economists trying to predict things like next year’s interest rate. You might as well toss a coin. Yet it was…

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Only a Game

[Thanks go to Lenny Alford for making the opening paragraph possible.] The Redbirds are in Beantown. The year is 1967, I’m thirteen. A friend of the family, Lenny Alford, in a kindness that should never be forgotten, has given me his ticket in the bleachers for the sixth game of…

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