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May 31, 2007
Mexican Immigration to the U.S. Has Slowed
While the Mexican-born population in the U.S. continues to increase, its rate of growth appears to have slowed starting in mid-2006, according to a study (pdf) by the Pew Hispanic Center.
Pew researchers examined several different data sources to come to this conclusion, including the size of the Mexican-born population living in the U.S., the number of Hispanic immigrants employed in the U.S., particularly in the construction industry, remittance receipts reported by the Bank of Mexico; and apprehensions along the U.S.-Mexico border.
You can read more by following this link (pdf).
Posted by John at 4:35 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackQuote of the Day for Thursday, May 31, 2007
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May 30, 2007
The Faces of Those Living with Cancer
The money we raise at Golfers Against Cancer is for cancer research, but its ultimate beneficiaries, of course, are people. Some of these people, both survivors and those this disease has claimed, are family members or friends.
Many more, of course, are people we will never meet. New York magazine has a feature with the faces and stories of a wide cross-section of individuals dealing with cancer of all types, those that have suffered from the disease and are now cancer-free, those who have stopped treatment, those who are in the middle of chemotherapy. As I look at these faces, I've never met any of them, yet I know them and so do you.
They gathered in Central Park recently and were captured in this video:
Even if we don't know the specific individuals, we've dealt with or know of variations of their stories. Read the story of ovarian cancer survivor Margaret Cieprisz, who before surgery had healthy eggs removed, and now has a daughter who was carried to term by her sister. Dan Foster, a survivor of both rectal and lung cancer, now spends much of his time raising money for cancer-related charities. Consider Rose Tisnado, whose cancer in her bile ducts is driving her to pack up her apartment and move to a hospice where she will live her final days.
These faces are the faces of those that all of us know: those that have suffered from this horrible disease in the past, those battling it now, and those that will be attacked in the future. We do know them. They are us.
Posted by John at 7:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackQuote of the Day for Wednesday, May 30, 2007
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May 29, 2007
Get the Stapler: Thomas Friedman on Newly Minted Ph.Ds
Thomas Friedman recently gave the commencement address to the graduating class at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and he writes that he received a first hand view of the problem in graduate education in the United States: we have the world's top universities, but the overwhelming preponderance of our students receiving advanced degrees are foreign-born. It's a problem we have to address with a change in immigration policy, says Friedman:
Posted by John at 5:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackDon't get me wrong. I'm proud that our country continues to build universities and a culture of learning that attract the world's best minds. My complaint - why I also wanted to cry - was that there wasn't someone from the Immigration and Naturalization Service standing next to [Rensselaer President Shirley Ann] Jackson stapling green cards to the diplomas of each of these foreign-born Ph.D.'s. I want them all to stay, become Americans and do their research and innovation here. If we can't educate enough of our own kids to compete at this level, we'd better make sure we can import someone else's, otherwise we will not maintain our standard of living.
It is pure idiocy that Congress will not open our borders - as wide as possible - to attract and keep the world's first-round intellectual draft choices in an age when everyone increasingly has the same innovation tools and the key differentiator is human talent. I'm serious. I think any foreign student who gets a Ph.D. in our country - in any subject - should be offered citizenship. I want them. The idea that we actually make it difficult for them to stay is crazy. . . .
A High School Graduate Against the Odds
"If you stay focused, if you really want that thing, you'll do anything in your power to make that happen . . . I wanted my education."
After his parents divorced, Daniel Lazzatti's mom ran off and his father, who had custody, became a crack addict. At age 16, he didn't want anything to do with foster care but wanted his education. He set up house in an old tool shed and found an old kid's bike in a dump he could use to get back and forth to school. Daniel had a learning disability which caused him to have to work twice as hard as most kids; he would sit through geometry classes twice to make sure he understood the material.
Daniel Lazzatti just graduated from Edgewater High School in Orlando with a 3.7 GPA, and is headed to college to study computers. His inspiring story is here.
Posted by John at 4:48 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackQuote of the Day for Tuesday, May 29, 2007
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May 28, 2007
World's Population Officially More Urban than Rural
Researchers at North Carolina State University and the University of Georgia have estimated that on May 23, 2007, the world's urban population exceeded its rural population for the first time in human history. In the United States, this milestone was passed in the late 1910s. [Source: Science Daily]
Posted by John at 4:48 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackA Memorial Day Recollection from Charles Durning
Most of us recognize Charles Durning as an accomplished Hollywood character actor, but as a 21 year old Army draftee, he was one of the first soldiers to land on Omaha Beach during the Battle of Normandy, commonly known as D-Day. He offers a stirring recollection of his wartime experiences during the National Memorial Day Concert aired on PBS:
As we enjoy the day with our families and friends, let's remember the reason for this day.
Posted by John at 4:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackQuote of the Day for Monday, May 28, 2007
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May 27, 2007
Atlanta "Chock Full of Entrepreneurs"
Jason Caplain and David Jones of Raleigh, NC-based Southern Capitol Ventures held a "Calling All Atlanta Entrepreneurs" session at the ATDC recently, looking for potential investments in young e-commerce, software, wireless, digital media and healthcare IT companies. In an interview with TechJournal South, they praised Atlanta's entrepreneurial milieu:
Atlanta is a great place to start a company! It is chock-full of entrepreneurs, bootstrapped companies, strong universities and has large Fortune 1000 technology companies.
There are some great venture funds and angel groups in Atlanta, but we agree with the entrepreneurial community that there is a lack of early stage capital in that market. That’s why we are taking a more active role in meeting with entrepreneurs there. . . .
It was a great mix of young, experienced and new entrepreneurs. It was slightly weighted towards the newer entrepreneurs which is a really positive sign for the Atlanta economy. . . .
By the way, Jason's Southeast VC blog is worth your regular attention.
Posted by John at 5:08 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackImmigrants Continue to Top Natives in Entrepreneurial Activity
In the Kauffman study of entrepreneurship rates I referenced previously, immigrants continue to exhibit much higher rates of entrepreneurship than natives.
The immigrant rate of entrepreneurship in 2006 was 370 per 100,000 population, compared to 270 per 100,000 for native born Americans. For Latinos, the entrepreneurial rate was 330 per 100,000 population, while for Asians the rate was 320 per 100,000 population.
The complete report can be downloaded here.
Posted by John at 4:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackEntrepreneurial Georgia
The 2006 Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity reveals that Georgia has one of the highest rates of entrepreneurial activity in the country. In 2006, Georgia had about 440 entrepreneurs for every 100,000 people, compared to 290 entrepreneurs per 100,000 population nationally. Only Montana (600 per 100,000 population) and Mississippi (520) ranked higher for 2006. Nationally, the entrepreneurial rate was about 290 per 100,000 population.
Among the top fifteen metropolitan areas, Metro Atlanta ranked second, edged out by Miami. In 2006, the Atlanta MSA had 490 entrepreneurs per 100,000 population, while Miami's entrepreneurial rate was 500 per 100,000.
The complete study can be downloaded here.
Posted by John at 4:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackQuote of the Day for Sunday, May 27, 2007
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May 26, 2007
Hispanics are Radio's Most Loyal Consumers
Posted by John at 6:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackDemonstrating that Hispanics count on radio more than other groups, the study found that 24% of Hispanic polled rate radio as the most essential medium to their lives, versus 17% of total respondents. Driving home the importance of this statistic is how close Hispanics track with the overall market when it comes to other media; 29% of Hispanics cite the Internet as their most vital medium, compared to 33% of total respondents, while the 35% of total respondents who count most on television is nearly in lock step with the 36% of Hispanics who rely mostly on TV.
Driving home the same point from a different angle, the study found that only 14% of Hispanics said radio was the least vital media for them, versus 18% of total respondents. . . .
Quote of the Day for Saturday, May 26, 2007
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May 25, 2007
Quote of the Day for Friday, May 25, 2007
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May 24, 2007
Internal Growth Drives U.S. Hispanic Population
A study from investment bankers The Mercanti Group finds that natural increase (births minus deaths) is a larger factor than immigration in the growth of the U.S. Hispanic population. Such has been the case since 2000, according to the study.
A few other interesting findings:
--The Mexican food and beverage industry in the U.S. is $52 billion; seven in ten U.S. households eat Mexican food and use Mexican food ingredients.
--Latinos shop for groceries 26 times a month, three times more frequently than the typical U.S. consumer.
Posted by John at 5:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackLook at Europe: Currency Exchange Rates Aren't a Major Determinant of Trade Flows with China
In a Wall Street Journal editorial, Dartmouth's Matthew Slaughter offers another explanation of why the yuan-dollar peg has very little to do with the U.S. trade deficit with China:
. . . hasn't the nominal dollar-yuan peg unfairly driven the long-run rise in trade imbalances? No. The exchange rate that matters for trade flows is the real exchange rate -- the nominal exchange rate adjusted for local-currency output prices in both countries. Supply-and-demand pressures in international markets can, and do, alter not just nominal exchange rates, but also nominal prices for goods and services. And these pressures driving the real exchange rate, in turn, reflect the deep forces of comparative advantage such as cross-country differences in technology, tastes and endowments of labor and capital.
Posted by John at 4:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackTo demonstrate this critical point, look to Europe. The yuan floats against European currencies such as the euro and the pound. If nominal exchange rates were driving trade flows as commonly alleged, then Chinese exports to the U.S. should have been growing faster than to Europe. The data show something completely different, however. In 1995, monthly Chinese exports to both destinations averaged about $2 billion. By 2006, monthly Chinese exports to both destinations were still the same, at about $17 billion. Plotted together over that entire decade, these two series look nearly identical. This is because the same real economic forces -- e.g., China's relative abundance of less-skilled labor -- have been driving both sets of trade flows.
Put it this way: In a counter-factual world where over the past decade China allowed the yuan to float against the dollar, the U.S. would still have run a large and growing trade deficit with China. The real economic forces of comparative advantage that drive trade flows operate regardless of which nominal prices central banks choose to fix. . .
Quote of the Day for Thursday, May 24, 2007
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May 23, 2007
Pay-Back Time for the One Child Policy?
That's one question demographers who study China have been debating for some time: given a rapidly aging population, will China grow old before it gets rich? Cai Fang, professor and director of the Institute of Population and Labor Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, gives his own answer in an article ($) published in the latest Far Eastern Economic Review. He calls the situation "pay-back time for the one-child policy":
. . . the age structure of the Chinese population has transformed from a typical pyramid (characterized by a broad base of youth) to a barrel-shaped pyramid. According to the United Nations’ predictions, the population age-structure of China will become more of a reverse pyramid by 2030, with more elderly and fewer youth.
This demographic transition essentially means that China will grow old before it grows rich. The U.N. predicts that China’s ratio of working-age population to total population will not stop increasing until 2015, and that the absolute size of the working population will reach its peak of approximately one billion people at that time, then begin to shrink afterwards. . . .
Observing this already diminishing net growth of working-age population, along with the constantly increasing demand for workers in nonagricultural sectors during the eleventh five-year plan period (2006–2010), we can expect a gap between the supply of and demand for labor in the very near future . . .
Since 2004 the net increase of new entrants to the labor market has tended to lag behind the various scenarios of increase in labor demand, and the gap will widen over time. Although agriculture will continue to release its surplus labor as labor productivity in the agricultural sector rises, structural labor shortages in terms of region, sector and specific skills are likely to occur from time to time. . . .
Mr. Cai's findings reinforce the notion that China must move toward a productivity-based, higher output value economy; there are precious few other choices.
Posted by John at 8:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackQuote of the Day for Wednesday, May 23, 2007
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May 22, 2007
Quote of the Day for Tuesday, May 22, 2007
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May 21, 2007
Why a Large Yuan Revaluation Could Hurt the United States
If China actually caved into demands by some American politicians that it sharply revalue its currency, it could actually hurt, not help, the United States. The Economist explains why in a excellent, in-depth analysis worth your time; a tidbit follows:
Posted by John at 4:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack. . . The biggest myth of all is that a revaluation of the yuan would greatly reduce America's trade deficit. The real cause of the deficit is that Americans spend too much and save too little. This means that the country has to import surplus savings from abroad by running a current-account deficit. If a stronger yuan did not cause Americans to save more, it would do little by itself to reduce the trade deficit.
Another reason why even a big rise in the yuan would do little to reduce America's deficit is that there is little overlap between American and Chinese production, so American goods cannot replace Chinese imports. Instead, other countries, such as Indonesia and Vietnam, would probably replace the Chinese. Shifting purchases to higher-cost producers amounts to imposing a tax on American consumers, says Stephen Roach, chief economist of Morgan Stanley. . . .
Pollution Makes Cancer China's Number One Killer
Death due to cardiovascular disease ranks second; China Daily reports here.
Posted by John at 3:43 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackQuote of the Day for Monday, May 21, 2007
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May 20, 2007
Metro Atlanta's Underrecognized Asset
Thursday morning I heard Dennis Lockhart, newly installed President and CEO of the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank, speak at a Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce gathering: Lockhart has recently came back to Atlanta twenty years after having lived in the city working as Citigroup's senior corporate officer in the Southeast.
Lockhart identified Atlanta's openness to its new citizens as one of the principal reasons for the region's tremendous growth over the past two decades, and went on to add:
". . . wariness of newcomers, whether they are foreigners or from this country, is a huge impediment to economic growth and development. . . I can't emphasize how important this is . . ."
Lockhart put his finger on arguably Metro Atlanta's most underrecognized asset for its economic performance. Many of us do not appreciate the importance to economic vitality of the new ideas and fresh thinking which newcomers bring. They bring more than their added incomes and spending power; their new perspectives are the source of new innovations, ways of doing business, and even new enterprises themselves which help any economy, including Metro Atlanta's, function at a higher level.
Posted by John at 7:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackImmigration Invigorates Spain
Posted by John at 5:22 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackOver the past decade, the traditionally homogeneous country has become a sort of open-door laboratory on immigration. Spain has absorbed more than 3 million foreigners from places as diverse as Romania, Morocco, and South America. More than 11% of the country's 44 million residents are now foreign-born, one of the highest proportions in Europe. With hundreds of thousands more arriving each year, Spain could soon reach the U.S. rate of 12.9%.
And it doesn't seem to have hurt much. Spain is Europe's best-performing major economy, with growth averaging 3.1% over the past five years. Since 2002, the country has created half the new jobs in the euro zone. Unemployment has plummeted from more than 20% in the 1990s to 8.6%, within shooting distance of the 7.2% euro zone average. The government attributes more than half this stellar performance to immigration. "We are very thankful for all these people who have come here to work with us," says Javier Vallés, economic policy chief for Prime Minister José Luis Zapatero. . . .
Quote of the Day for Sunday, May 20, 2007
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May 19, 2007
China Invests in Private Equity
China has begun diversification of its massive currency reserves into other asset classes, placing $3 billion with the Blackstone Group, one of the largest private equity groups in the U.S. Three billion is less than 0.3% of China's total foreign currency reserves.
Posted by John at 7:14 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackA "Critical Shortage" of U.S. Middle Managers
From Management-Issues:
A survey of 750 business and 55 senior HR executives by talent management consultancy Bersin & Associates has found more than half admitting to a critical shortage of line managers and a similar percentage saying they struggle to identify, hire and develop mid-level managers.
Just under half identified critical shortages in engineering and other technical professionals, such as nurses, and nearly two out of five reported similar shortages among mid-level management sales professionals.
The research suggested U.S. businesses were suffering from talent shortages across all industries, but the problem was particularly urgent in healthcare, government, utilities, oil and gas and telecommunications. . .
[Thanks to TP! Wire Service for the pointer.]
Posted by John at 4:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackQuote of the Day for Saturday, May 19, 2007
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May 18, 2007
Loving Peter Drucker in Bogotá
Currently, the largest number of Google searches for "Peter Drucker" are occurring in Bogotá, Colombia. Medellín is number two.
Just one indication, says BusinessWeek in a very interesting overview, of the fundamental change occurring in Colombia.
Posted by John at 9:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackQuote of the Day for Friday, May 18, 2007
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May 17, 2007
The Nation's Minorities Now Top 100 Million . . .
. . . and make up one-third of the country's total population, both historic milestones. (See this USA Today article for further details.)
The nation's Hispanic population, according to this latest Census Bureau release, is now over 44 million, and accounted for half the total growth in U.S. population in 2006.
Posted by John at 9:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackQuote of the Day for Thursday, May 17, 2007
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May 16, 2007
Sights and Sounds of a Georgia-China Groundbreaking
Walter Geiger, editor of the Barnesville Herald-Gazette and the b-lc blog, pointed me to the following video, made by Barnesville's own Cleanup Kitty Productions. It's a very well done video montage of last Saturday's groundbreaking for General Protecht's Barnesville project:
Quote of the Day for Wednesday, May 16, 2007
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May 15, 2007
Coming Up for Air After Planting a Chinese Company in Georgia
Regular followers of my blog have been disappointed (or possibly ecstatic) that the only Tidbits posts made in recent days have been the “Quote of the Day”. I've been in shutdown on writing just about anything due to our involvement in Georgia's largest Chinese investment to date, and one of the largest yet announced in the Southeast.
General Protecht Group, through its U.S. subsidiary General Protecht U.S., Inc., will making an initial $30 million investment in a new plant in Barnesville, Lamar County, Georgia. The new facility is slated to employ 240 by year two of operations. Future plans by General Protecht call for an investment of up to $100 million if all phases of the project are completed.
You can read the Atlanta Journal-Constitution accounts of this story here and here (caveat lector). The press release from Governor Sonny Perdue's office is reprinted here.
I will be posting more on this deal in coming days, and what it could mean in the future. I predicted something like this almost exactly a year ago, in an Atlanta Business Chronicle editorial, “It's Time to Ask for the Business---in Chinese”. This time next year? You can expect to see more announcements in Georgia and in other Southeastern states.
More on that later.
Posted by John at 11:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackQuote of the Day for Tuesday, May 15, 2007
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May 14, 2007
Quote of the Day for Monday, May 14, 2007
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May 13, 2007
Quote of the Day for Sunday, May 13, 2007
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May 12, 2007
Quote of the Day for Saturday, May 12, 2007
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May 11, 2007
Quote of the Day for Friday, May 11, 2007
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May 10, 2007
Quote of the Day for Thursday, May 10, 2007
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May 9, 2007
Quote of the Day for Wednesday, May 9, 2007
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May 8, 2007
Quote of the Day for Tuesday, May 8, 2007
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May 7, 2007
Quote of the Day for Monday, May 7, 2007
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May 6, 2007
The Challenge for U.S. and Chinese Companies: Thinking Locally
The difference between success and failure for U.S. companies in China, and Chinese companies poised to enter the United States, is thinking locally, according to panelists speaking at the annual conference of the Hua Yuan Science and Technology Association (HYSTA). The Standard reports:
Posted by John at 6:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackWhile corporate giants IBM, Volkswagen, Starbucks and McDonald's are succeeding in China, powerhouses such as Microsoft and Google are not, said Focus Media president Tan Zhi.
The difference between failure and success depends on a company's ability to adapt to the Chinese palette, he said.
"McDonald's and Starbucks have created flavors to meet local needs, so they are successful," Tan said. "I worked at Microsoft and know how hard it was to convince my boss in [Redmond, Washington] to change a little bit.
"Microsoft, eBay and Google don't know yet how to do business in China." . . .
Executives at the HYSTA gathering believe Chinese firms will outgrow their borders and launch international operations, facing their own challenges regarding adapting to cultures abroad.
"Globalization is easy to talk, hard to do," said panelist Zhang Weiying, dean of Peking University's Guanghua School of Management.
"It is difficult for people who live around here to deal with Chinese entrepreneurs. Also, it is difficult for Chinese entrepreneurs who go abroad to deal with other people."
Washington's Fastest Growing Radio Station is Spanish-Language
WLZL-FM, "El Zol 99.1", has reached a number five ranking in the Washington radio market, and among the key 25-to-54 age group, the station is now tied for fourth. [Source: Washington Post]
Posted by John at 4:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackQuote of the Day for Sunday, May 6, 2007
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May 5, 2007
Inc.'s Best Cities For Doing Business Heavily Sunbelt-Based
Inc. magazine offers its top cities for doing business, and a short look at an interactive map reveals that a Sunbelt location is a crucial aspect of ranking high in this survey. The Northeast has no representative at all among the highly ranked in either the large, medium, or small category.
Among the country's largest MSAs, Phoenix (14th overall), Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario (26th), Washington (92nd), Houston (120th), Seattle (122nd) and Atlanta (151st) were the highest ranked.
I'm always interested in how the Sunbelt ranks in such surveys, being a Georgia resident, but I'm not sure this particular survey has much value beyond curiosity. It's methodology is based entirely upon various measures of employment growth, which is hardly the sole indicator of a city's receptivity for business.
Posted by John at 5:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackLet's Take Advantage of Good Times
Martin Wolf writes in a Financial Times commentary that now, while the world economy is a golden era, is the time to address needed reforms, including better assistance for workers affected by trade-related job displacement:
This is an ideal time to implement long-term reforms that will allow individual economies to grow faster and adapt better to change. This is, above all, the ideal opportunity to make the policy changes that will allow countries to exploit the opportunities provided by globalisation. US legislators are racing to "bash" China. They should provide a better safety net for displaced Americans, instead. China should expand domestic spending relative to output, thereby reducing its present massive rate of accumulation of foreign currency reserves. It is, more broadly, the ideal occasion for the world economy to wean itself off its dependence on US spending.
At the global level, a successful push to complete the Doha round is overdue. The Group of Eight leading countries is also failing to keep its own promise of increased aid for Africa. Aid is not going to rescue Africa, on its own. But it is part of what is needed. Rich countries should deliver on their promises. They should also accept a long-overdue diminution of their roles in the IMF and World Bank. Beyond this, there is now a need for an agreed policy on climate change that is both effective and economically efficient. . . .
Wolf's points are right on, in my view, but it's not in the world's political nature, whatever the system, to take advantage of such good times.
Posted by John at 4:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackQuote of the Day for Saturday, May 5, 2007
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May 4, 2007
Helping Workers Displaced by Global Trade
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, in a recent speech, addresses an issue we've discussed here previously: aid for displaced workers:
The better approach to mitigating the disruptive effects of trade [rather than isolationism and protectionism] is to adopt policies and programs aimed at easing the transition of displaced workers into new jobs and increasing the adaptability and skills of the labor force more generally. Many suggestions for such policies