April 14th, 2009
I think many of my local colleagues are feeling the same way….remember, we’re the ones who make stuff and create wealth…and this region has 80% of small manufacturers with less than 100 employees!
From the Hannibal Courier Post:
As he travels around Missouri, U.S. Sen. Kit Bond is hearing a similar message from small business owners in regard to President Barack Obama’s proposed budget.
“Most of them are scared to death,” said Bond, during a visit to Hannibal Monday afternoon where he met with local community and business leaders to gather feedback. “Small businesses flourish, grow and create jobs when they believe there is a good economic forecast for them. They’re saying, ‘We’re the ones who created 8 million jobs between 2003 and 2008. We did that because they had a favorable economic climate.’ Many people have told me that the small businesses are wondering whether it’s going to make sense to continue to risk their money and put their time and effort in creating jobs if the outlook is very gloomy for our businesses.”
There is little to like about the proposed budget, according to Bond.
“I’m very much concerned about the budget that President Obama has presented. It spends too much, it taxes too much and it borrows too much,” he said. “The budget predicts doubling our national debt in five years and tripling it in 10 which means not only an impact on our economy now, but our children and grandchildren will have a heavy load of debt on their backs that I don’t think the country can afford.”
Of particular concern to Missouri’s senior senator is a proposed cap-and-trade bill, which he called a “cap-and-tax bill.”
“I think everybody ought to be concerned about the cap-and-tax bill,” said Bond. “We defeated one last year that would have cost $6.7 trillion dollars. That’s going to be a tax on everybody’s electric bill. It’s going to be a tax on gasoline. It’s going to be a tax on everything that we buy that is produced by fossil fuel. Missouri depends on coal for 80 percent of its electric generation. If that goes through families, senior citizens like me are going to be paying much higher utility bills and jobs are going to be leaving the state. Small businesses, if they are not able to create jobs are going to leave a big hole in lots of communities and in their economy.”
Bond acknowledged he will be seeking assistance from across the aisle.
“I was very successful on one amendment saying that the very expensive cap and trade, or cap and tax, should not pass the Senate without 60 votes. I got 14 Democrats to vote with me on that one,” he said. “I hope we can get more Democrats who will come over and vote for this and bring some sense to this budget plan.”
The senator, who is in his final term, agreed that there are subtle signs that the economy may be turning around.
“The stock market, which is usually a forecaster, thinks that now they’ve gotten on to what I think is a real problem in the economy and that is dealing with the toxic assets … the bad debt,” he said. “If they’ll take that out of the system then they can start flowing credit again.”
By DANNY HENLEY
Hannibal Courier-Post
Posted Apr 13, 2009 @ 06:17 PM
April 14th, 2009
The Office of Management and Budget has issued interim final guidance on the controversial Buy America provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The OMB’s April 3 document come on the heels of interim rules implementing Buy America provisions in the economic stimulus plan that were published by the Department of Defense, General Services Administration, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration March 31. The interim rules are contained in the guidance, which also includes a new “Appendix 9” setting forth interim final guidance for grants as opposed to contracts.
OMB said that the focus of its guidance is to implement Recovery Act provisions that may require greater clarification for consistent application across the federal government. Section 1605 of the Recovery Act bars use of recovery funds for a project for the construction, alteration, maintenance, or repair of a public building or public work unless all of the iron, steel, and manufactured goods used in the project are produced in the United States. This prohibition must be applied in a manner consistent with U.S. obligations under international agreements.
Waiver Conditions
The law provides for a waiver under three circumstances:
• iron, steel, or relevant manufactured goods are not produced in the United States in sufficient and reasonably available quantities and of a satisfactory quality;
• inclusion of iron, steel or manufactured goods produced in the United States will increase the cost of the overall project by more than 25 percent; or,
• applying the domestic preference would be inconsistent with the public interest.
The OMB document sets forth guidance for the timely determination regarding the inapplicability of Section 1605.
Among other matters, the document also contains definitions of terms used in the Recovery Act. For example, “manufactured good” means a good brought to the construction site for incorporation into the building or work that has been processed into a specific form or shape, or combined with other raw material that has different properties than the properties of the individual raw materials.
Public building or public works may include bridges, dams, plants, highways, parkways, streets, subways, tunnels, sewers, mains, power lines, pumping stations, heavy generators, railways, airports, terminals, docks, piers, wharves, ways, lighthouses, buoys, jetties, breakwaters, levees, and canals and the construction, alteration, maintenance, or repair of such buildings and works, OMB said.
Steel means an alloy that includes at least 50 percent iron, between .02 and 2 percent carbon, and may include other elements, according to the document. The guidance also sets forth requirements for requesting a determination of inapplicability of Section 1605 of the Recovery Act.
By Rossella Brevetti
The guidance and information on sending comments is available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/assets/memoranda_fy2009/m09-15.pdf
(see starting on page 135)
April 14th, 2009
2009 is the Year of the Ox and so the question posed is “Will Economic Recovery be Stubborn as Well?
Dr. Chris Kuehl will analyze the current economic situation and what is being done to shift and change the direction. What are the plans in place? What is on the drawing board and what will the next year look like? The year is going to be one of transition- that much is certain. The questions are what will it transition to and how quickly?
Dr. Chris Kuehl serves as Managing Director for Armada Corporate Intelligence, a company that provides strategy foundation, competitive intelligence, business analysis and economic forecasting for corporate clients. He is also Chief Economist for the Fabricators and Manufacturers Association where he writes the twice monthly publication, Fabrinomics, and serves as economic commentator for many of their national and international meetings. He holds a PhD in Political Economics and Master’s Degrees in Soviet Studies and East Asian Studies.
When: Wednesday, April 22, 7 p.m.
Where: Rock Valley College | Student Center Atrium
Please reserve your seat at this free lecture by calling (815) 921-2071 or E-mail: s.charles@rockvalleycollege.edu
April 14th, 2009
Recently, the boards of Rockford Area Ventures and Goodwill/Abilities Center unanimously approved an agreement to transfer the TECHWORKS training program to a new home at the EIGERlab.
This collaboration will significantly strengthen their partnership and “Gold Collar” training in the Rock River Valley.
See the press release here…. RAV/Techworks
