IBM has been shedding employees at a rapid rate in the last few years as its mainframe computer and consulting businesses struggle to compete. In a novel twist, it’s new Project Match program will move some adventurous Americans overseas to be closer to new, lower-paid information technology workers. “IBM has established Project Match to help…
Category: Business
Ayn Rand’s "Atlas Shrugged": Novel or Prophecy?
Stephen Moore writes that the central themes of Ayn Rand’s massive book are playing out even now in Washington D.C. as an incompetent government hurries to create massive new legislative programs to dole out ever greater amounts of money to mis-run businesses, all under the guise of keeping the American economy healthy. The current economic…
Competition No Longer an American Ideal?
Michael Lind says that southern states have waged an economic civil war on the rest of America, the real America, in Lind’s mind, by creating an economic environment in which companies want to do business and bringing jobs from the heavily unionized north of the country and from overseas. This, Lind Says, creates wage competition…
The Wisdom of Markets
Crowd-sourcing, capturing the “wisdom” of the mob, was what the cool kids were doing not so long ago. Witness the rise of the Daily Kos and other such web sites. One thing they failed to espouse in their almost universal progressive liberal dogma is that the idea of mining – and manipulating – the minds…
U.S. Automaker Bailout Happening
The Houston Chronicle says that U.S. automakers will be getting $15B in "emergency loans" and a new boss in Washington D.C. in the form of a "car czar" who would have to power to force GM, et al, into bankruptcy if the companies fail to reduce labor and financial costs in a timely manner. Stephen…
GM, the Company No One Wants
GM has a physical plant and inventory assets that exceed its current market capitalization of around $3B. The company would be ripe for a takeover if anyone wanted it. Instead, GM executives want Congress to loan it $18B to stay afloat while they try to whittle away at the mountains of debts and obligations they’ve…
Opposing Bailouts on Principle
Oliver Hart, professor of economics at Harvard, and Luigi Zingales, professor of finance at the Chicago Booth School of Business, say that Bush administration economists have abandoned principle in their rush to bail out financial giants AIG, among others. The government, Hart and Zingales say, should intervene in the fates of companies only when there’s…
Detroit’s Problems and the Left
Perhaps the fundamental problem of our time is that no one wants to tell – or hear – the truth anymore. This has certainly been true in Detroit, et al, where the United Auto Workers has fought off wage and benefit cuts for decades. Now GM is poised at the brink of bankruptcy as a…
Sued, eHarmony Must Couple Gays
In 2005, eHarmony, a leading on-line matchmaking service, began to fight a discrimination lawsuit filed by a gay man in New Jersey. In 2007, the state’s attorney general found probable cause that eHarmony had violated N.J.’s Law Against Discrimination. Today the company gave in to legal pressure and agreed to pair homosexual couples. By strong-arming…
Forgotten Purposes
A 61-year-old man faces an early death. Fortunately, a drug exists that *might* help. Doctors, recognizing the case is imminently terminal, recommend trying it. The FDA grants special approval for the treatment. And money is not an issue. What could go wrong? Frederick Baron may be about to find out. Seems that Biogen is refusing…