Archive for December, 2008
December 18th, 2008
When I lived in Rhode Island, I was a fan of the Providence Journal’s Opinion columnist Mark Patinkin. I was glad to see that he is still with the paper and I came across one of his latest stories. I thought you’d be interested in this one. Here is an excerpt…follow the rest with the link below.
Patinkin:
“I’m a loyalist when it comes to cars. I only buy American. I loved my VW Rabbit in the late 1970s, but have stuck with Detroit iron ever since.
I don’t fault those who buy foreign, because I’m also for competition. And that, too, is because I’m a loyalist. Nothing, I figure, is better in the long run for U.S. carmakers than being challenged by Japan. It’s the one thing that can make Detroit up its game.
But it hasn’t happened.
Which is why I’m not sure a bailout is the answer, and if it is, it should have major conditions. If a 35-year Japanese invasion hasn’t been enough, then the Big Three need to be shocked into changing their corporate culture.
Some say Detroit has come a long way. Perhaps. But on some levels, they’re still in the same state of denial they were in back in 1975.
I know a little about that because I got a glimpse into it in the late 1980s when I co-authored a book with Ira Magaziner, a Brown grad and Bristol resident who worked in Bill Clinton’s White House and now chairs the Clinton Foundation’s AIDS initiative.
At the time we did the book, called The Silent War, he was a business consultant who traveled abroad often and was alarmed at how foreigners were out-performing us in many industries. At home, American business refused to see it.
His experience with Detroit is worth retelling because it reveals a stunning blindness that clearly is still in the culture there today.
In 1975, he was working for the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), when Volkswagen hired them to do a study. VW was panicking because Japan, with its own small cars, had started eating into VW’s U.S. sales. Japan was also nipping at the Big Three, but they shrugged it off. It’s telling that a German automaker cared more about defending U.S. turf than the Americans did.
VW had two questions for BCG. How boldly was Japan going to invade America with cars? And was Detroit about to fight back with a domestic small-car strategy? Magaziner was assigned the case.”
Here’s the rest…
http://www.projo.com/lifebeat/markpatinkin/Mark22_11-22-08_FDCBAFQ_v15.1e76123.html#
When Magaziner and Patinkin co-authored “The Silent War” I bought and read the autographed book. It is filled with true life stories about American Industry. I’ll have to re-read it.
December 18th, 2008
I saw this in the People section today. Jim Tsioles, an Oregon resident, spent 2 years and 200 hours making a movie about communities on the Rock River. Here’s the link, I already ordered mine.
http://www.rockrivervalleyonline.com/
Hey, from screws to movies, the Rock River Valley makes a lot of stuff!
December 17th, 2008
School District 100 and Rock Valley College have joined forces to announce plans for a new partnership program, Running Start.
Running Start is a program for qualified students from Belvidere High School and Belvidere North High School to attend Rock Valley College (RVC) for their junior and senior years of high school. Courses taken will be for Dual Credit, meeting the requirements for both a high school diploma and an Associate Degree simultaneously.
The Running Start program will be administered out of the High School Connections office at RVC, in conjunction with both Belvidere high schools, and is slated to begin August, 2009.
Students who are on track for high school graduation by the end of their sophomore year, who have at least 12 high school credits, have taken Consumer Ed, have a 3.0 GPA, and test at college-level on ACCUPLACER are eligible for the program. Students will not pay for tuition, fees, or transportation.
To learn more about Running Start, please click here or contact Todd Martens at Belvidere High School (815) 547-6345.
Information provided by Belvidere School District 100.
December 17th, 2008
I’ll bet you thought ALL men’s and women’s shoes were made in China! Well guess what, there are some made in San Antonio, TX by the SAS Shoe company! AND…you can buy them right here in Rockford at the Edgebrook Mall. The independent shoe store, Akerman’s, carries a full line of these shoes and Saturday, I bought a nice pair. Leather tops, hand sewn, the way shoes used to be made. Sure they’re a bit more expensive than the imported ones, but at least I’m supporting American made products.
Check their web site and watch how they make them here….http://www.sasshoes.com/
December 17th, 2008
In case you missed this positive post, well, frankly, I’m getting tired of the other negative things I’m seeing….
As President-Elect Obama readies his new economic team to stimulate the economy, Goodwill Industries of Northern Illinois and Wisconsin Stateline Area, Inc. remains committed to a broad-based effort to support the economy through job creation, workforce development and training for discouraged and dislocated workers. One of North America’s leading providers of employment and training services, Goodwill knows that it will take comprehensive workforce strategies to revive the U.S. economy.
“Goodwill Industries is in a unique position to quickly implement new strategies to provide training opportunities and create transitional employment until job losses and the unemployment rate show a sustained trend in a positive direction,” says Sam Schmitz, President of Goodwill Industries. “We can provide career assessments, training and support necessary to move their careers toward permanent work that will help stabilize their families’ financial situations.”
“When people are having a hard time finding work, Goodwill is there to help,” says Schmitz. “We do that by selling donations in Goodwill stores and using the revenues to fund job training programs and other support services so that all workers can become productive, taxpaying citizens.”
Goodwill is also supporting the reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA). Although the WIA expired in 2003, Congress has continued to appropriate funding for most of its programs, albeit at steadily declining levels. As the nation works to stimulate the economy, it is more important than ever to invest in the American worker and reauthorize the WIA to ensure the public workforce system is responsive to the diverse needs of workers and employers.
Goodwill Industries stands ready to support the nation’s economy and continue its more than 106-year tradition of helping people who are having a hard time to find meaningful work.
Goodwill Industries of Northern Illinois and Wisconsin Stateline Area is a community-based not-for-profit organization that provides education, training and job placement for persons in need. Goodwill stores in northern Illinois (Rockford, Machesney Park, Freeport, Sterling) and Beloit, Wisconsin employ more than 170 people.
For more information, please contact Sam Schmitz at (815) 965-3795
December 17th, 2008
China increased its holdings of US treasury securities by $65.9 billion in October, consolidating its place as the No 1 holder of American debt, according to the Treasury’s latest report on international capital flows.
It was China’s largest monthly increase this year, pushing the country’s total holdings to $652.9 billion, compared with $587 billion at the end of September, when it replaced Japan to become the top holder of US debt.
The continual increases in US debt holdings in recent months have triggered fierce domestic debate, as the country has channeled almost a third of its $2 trillion of foreign exchange reserves into US treasury securities.
Wei Weixian, economist with the University of International Business and Economics, believes it “is a fairly acceptable option”.
With US treasuries recently gaining investor favor, their yields have been on the decline; but in the long term, they are still a relatively safe investment for China, Wei said.
“Despite the financial crisis, the US economy remains the strongest, providing back-up for the treasury securities,” he added.
He also pointed out that China does not have many options to deploy its massive amounts of foreign exchange reserves.
For example, China pulled $200 billion out of its foreign exchange reserves to set up China Investment Corporation (CIC) to diversify investment, but CIC has incurred heavy losses in its investment in the US private equity firm Blackstone due to the tumbling international financial markets. CIC has since said it would be more cautious in investment abroad.
Guo Tianyong, economist with the Central University of Finance and Economics, also believes the US treasury debt has relatively low risks and good liquidity.
Moreover, it is not out of the realm of belief that Beijing and Washington may have reached a tacit consensus that China helps stabilize the American markets by increasing the purchases of US securities, Guo said.
Opponents of the rising purchases of US securities cite the possibility that Washington may be financially unable to pay back the money in the future, as it has to issue a lot more debt to finance its ailing financial markets.
As China piles up more US debt, it would also be a problem to sell it later as sales would affect returns on its existing dollar assets, analysts said.
Japan remained the second largest holder with a total of $585.5 billion, up by $12.3 billion in October. The UK is third with $360 billion.
US Treasury data show that net foreign purchases of long-term US securities in October decreased by $34.8 billion while foreign holdings of dollar-denominated US securities, including treasury bills and other custody liabilities, increased $92.4 billion.
International investors have opted to cut holdings of long-term debt while increasing short-term holdings, the data shows, which analysts ascribe to long-term economic uncertainties in the US.
Source: China Daily
December 15th, 2008
Things employers can do to cut costs in lieu of layoffs:
- Freeze hiring
- Reduce hours
- Delay raises or cut salaries
- Eliminate bonuses
- Redeploy workers in busy business segments
- Offer early-retirement packages
- Cut temporary staff
- Trim spending on training, travel and marketing
Source: WSJ research
December 15th, 2008
As President-Elect Obama readies his new economic team to stimulate the economy, Goodwill Industries of Northern Illinois and Wisconsin Stateline Area, Inc. remains committed to a broad-based effort to support the economy through job creation, workforce development and training for discouraged and dislocated workers. One of North America’s leading providers of employment and training services, Goodwill knows that it will take comprehensive workforce strategies to revive the U.S. economy.
“Goodwill Industries is in a unique position to quickly implement new strategies to provide training opportunities and create transitional employment until job losses and the unemployment rate show a sustained trend in a positive direction,” says Sam Schmitz, President of Goodwill Industries. “We can provide career assessments, training and support necessary to move their careers toward permanent work that will help stabilize their families’ financial situations.”
“When people are having a hard time finding work, Goodwill is there to help,” says Schmitz. “We do that by selling donations in Goodwill stores and using the revenues to fund job training programs and other support services so that all workers can become productive, taxpaying citizens.”
Goodwill is also supporting the reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA). Although the WIA expired in 2003, Congress has continued to appropriate funding for most of its programs, albeit at steadily declining levels. As the nation works to stimulate the economy, it is more important than ever to invest in the American worker and reauthorize the WIA to ensure the public workforce system is responsive to the diverse needs of workers and employers.
Goodwill Industries stands ready to support the nation’s economy and continue its more than 106-year tradition of helping people who are having a hard time to find meaningful work.
Goodwill Industries of Northern Illinois and Wisconsin Stateline Area is a community-based not-for-profit organization that provides education, training and job placement for persons in need. Goodwill stores in northern Illinois (Rockford, Machesney Park, Freeport, Sterling) and Beloit, Wisconsin employ more than 170 people.
For more information, please contact Sam Schmitz at (815) 965-3795
December 12th, 2008
Do you think the U.S. is alone in the auto crisis? Since I lived and worked in the UK a few years ago, I regularly track their news and here is what they are doing with their auro industry…this from the Times UK:
“A financial rescue package for Britain’s motor industry was being put together last night, mirroring efforts in Washington to save America’s three big carmakers from collapse.”
Follow the rest of the story here..
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/engineering/article5333444.ece
December 12th, 2008
Growth Dimensions has awarded a Biomass Commercialization Award to Packer Engineering of Naperville, IL, a diversified, multi-discipline, full service engineering firm.
Growth Dimensions encourages economic development through investment in research and commercialization projects. The organization has the authority from the US Department of Energy to award funds for projects that lead to marketable biomass products or processes. The Commercialization Awards program focuses both on strategic technology development and on commercialization.
“Our goal is to create the dual benefit of energy driven biomass product platforms through generating a critical mass of projects that flow through our region that can be commercialized and manufactured here,” says Mark Williams, Growth Dimensions Executive Director. Growth Dimensions was recently recognized by the International Economic Development Council for the organization’s sustainable and green initiatives.
Packer Engineering is developing a gasifier which uses biomass waste to generate electricity and produce heat. Packer will use the $80,000 Biomass Commercialization Award to build a prototype of the gasifier and test out the design.
The project has two components: efficiently converting crop waste into gaseous fuel and then producing electricity and using that electricity to produce fertilizer. Packer is working with N-Ovations of Savannah, IL and Northern Illinois University on the project. The three are the co-recipients of a $1 million US Department of Agriculture grant for research efforts that relate to this project.
“The origin of this project came from research we were doing on space-based manufacturing,” says Packer Engineering Senior Director Peter Schubert, Ph.D. “Our founder challenged us to see what we could do to advance that research to help farmers. We started applying our methods of vaporizing materials on the moon to vaporizing materials on the farm to extract gases to make electricity and heat.”
There are about 2 million farms across the US. Packer is designing a system that will be safe, reliable, and that a farm hand can run. The input is crop waste; the output is electricity plus heat which can be used on the farm, sold back into the power grid through net metering, or used to produce fertilizer.
“We’ve been very aggressive in pursuing the total solution with the farmer,” Schubert says. “We are visiting equipment manufacturers and farmers to find out how can the farmer do the best job of gathering the biomass from field, storing it, and chopping it up properly. Our design intent is to make a device that the farmer can start up in about an hour and a half in the morning and it will run for 22 hours unattended.”
Packer expects to have the gasifier prototype up and running in March and anticipates that by summer they will have enough information from the prototype to construct a business plan and model to take the next steps toward commercialization. “Our goal is to increase jobs and revenue in the Belvidere-Rockford area by eventually doing manufacturing there,” Schubert says.
“At Packer Engineering we are passionate about alternative energy research,” Schubert says. “The gasifier is one of several initiatives we are working on. We have five patents and are working with Argonne National Labs on storing hydrogen on a vehicle. We are researching electrical generation using space solar power-putting solar panels in orbit and beaming energy with low density radio waves back to the earth.”
Growth Dimensions provides the Biomass Commercialization Awards through a competitive, merit based open solicitation process on a first-come, first-served basis. The award value is based on proposal detailed costs, scope, tasks, and deliverables of each project. To be eligible, projects will have non-federal government matching funds equal to $1.60 for every $1 of award granted.
Next Posts
Previous Posts
