|
December
1, 2005
Vol. 1, No.
38
|
|
Also in
this issue:
Jobs
stay as schools shrink
The
man who bought Elvis
Federal
DOE could oust Yucca Mountain contractor
The
education of Andy Grove
Valley
growth propels
hospital upgrades
Report
blasts teacher
hiring in city districts
Commentary:
Fumbling
the Future
Bush
deals with immigration
$500
gold and interest rates
The
trade deficit: An
Austrian perspective |
|
|
|
Recent NPRI Commentaries
Who
gets to
put you in hock?
The
pols have a new scheme to circumvent Nevada's
constitutional debt limit.
Pseudo-Compassion
and the State
Genuine, effective compassion is beyond the
capability of government
|
|
Predation
Fumbling
the Future
The
failure of the political class to deal with
government over-spending means taxpayers need to
take action.
By Dennis Schiffel
A
recent Cato Institute publication noted
that government spending at all levels
“consumes 31 per cent of the nation’s
economy.” Think about it: 31 per cent of
national spending is determined by politicians.
For a free-market economy this seems like a
shocking figure. It suggests a huge amount of
what economists call dead-weight economic loss
and distorted economic incentives. Yet
government spending continues to grow. According
to the Tax Foundation and the National Taxpayers
Union, federal outlays (spending) increased by
over 30 percent between 2001 and 2005, far
outpacing revenue growth. The annual federal
budget deficit is large by historical standards
as is the national debt. The trends in
government spending, deficits and political
intervention in the economy are troubling.
[continued]
Borders
Bush
deals with immigration
By R. Emmett
Tyrrell, Jr.
New
York Sun
This
week in a speech to border and customs agents in
Tucson, Ariz., President Bush fastened the
nation's attention on our immigration imbroglio.
That should come as no surprise. Many Americans
are very concerned about immigration policy.
Nation of immigrants that we are, our appraisal
of the problem has changed - once again.
During periods of the 19th century, the nation
was ambivalent about immigration. A whole
political party, the Know-Nothings, was against
it in the 1850s. Toward the end of the century,
when large groups of Irish and Italians were
swarming in, the nation's older immigrants were
against it.
[continued]
The Fed
$500
gold and interest rates
By
Peter Schiff
Euro
Pacific Capital
As
the Fed
continues its inflation campaign, most have yet
to come to grips with the reality of America's
uniquely precarious situation. In an act of
prestidigitation that would impress Harry
Houdini, the Fed is now attempting to make
inflation disappear by no longer publishing data
on the growth of M3, while mystifying the public
with phony CPI statistics. However, the
relentless rise in the price of gold is evidence
that fewer people are being fooled by the Fed's
slight of hand.
[continued]
Free
markets
The
trade deficit: An Austrian perspective
By
Thorsten Polleit
Ludwig
von
Mises Institute
The
US trade deficit is often viewed with
alarm and has attracted considerable attention
from both the public at large and policy makers.
Much of the uneasiness about the US trade
deficit can quite simply be attributed to the
term "deficit" itself, which holds
with it many underlying negative connotations.
However, in answer to these concerns, one may
take the perspective, drawing on the theories of
Ludwig on Mises and Friedrich August von Hayek
...
[continued]
|
|
WHY
BusinessNevada
|
|
|
|
Self-defense
Businesses
can
impact Nevada’s
swing voters
Employees
want to hear from their companies: How will public
policy measures impact them?
By Steven Miller
BusinessNevada
Although
many Nevada business people don’t know it, they
easily constitute the most potentially powerful new
political force in the Silver State.
That’s
the message that Gregory Casey brought to Nevada this
week.
Casey,
a native Westerner and president of the
Business-Industry Political Action Committee (BIPAC),
spoke at the Nevada Manufacturing Association’s annual
dinners Tuesday and Wednesday in Northern and Southern
Nevada.
[continued]
Educrats
Jobs
stay as
schools shrink
Administrators
fare better than teachers as districts cut back.
By Phillip Reese
Sacramento
Bee
Enrollment
drops, teachers leave, but administrators stay.
That's the story at most of the 25 school districts with declining
enrollment in the Sacramento region, according to a Bee
analysis of state education data.
Just eight of those districts reported to the state that they had
cut administrators between the school years 1999-2000
and 2004-2005, even though the districts lost about
5,000 students during that period.
Five of the 25 districts added administrators.
[continued]
Taking
Care of Business
The
man who bought Elvis
Investor
Robert Sillerman is combining the King, American Idol,
and other entertainment assets to build his next media
conglomerate.
By
Andy Serwer
Fortune
Elvis
left the
building
28 years ago, but as a pop icon he's still hot. Over
half a million tourists from all over the world stream
into the shrine called Graceland each year.
When
his record company rereleased Elvis singles to promote
his latest greatest-hits compilation in 2002, 19 of them
became top five hits in Britain. (A hip-hop-style remix
of "A Little Less Conversation" was a No. 1
hit in more than two dozen countries, including the
U.S.)
And
Elvis impersonators are still fixtures in everything
from movies to corporate events.
[continued]
Yucca
Wars
Federal
DOE could oust
Yucca Mountain contractor
By
Tony Illia
LV
Business Press
The
U.S. Dept of Energy is returning to the drawing
board on how to improve management of the proposed Yucca
Mountain nuclear waste repository, located 100 miles
northwest of Las Vegas. And that upgrade could entail
changing contractors.
The
joint venture of Bechtel SAIC, won the five-year, $3.1
billion site-management contract on Feb. 12, 2001 and
that agreement expires in March. Industry sources say
the DOE is planning to rebid the contract, adding that
competing teams are now beginning to develop.
[continued]
Leadership
The
education
of Andy Grove
A
Harvard historian explains how Intel's legendary chief
became the best model we have for leading a business in
the 21st century.
By
Richard S. Tedlow
Fortune
In
1991, an instructor at Stanford's Graduate School
of Business presented his class with a case study. It
went like this: A CEO was scheduled to address a major
industry gathering, and he could give one of three
speeches. The first would publicly commit his company to
incorporating a sexy, sophisticated new technology in
its products. The second speech would reaffirm the
company's commitment to developing its existing
technology. The third speech would do neither, leaving
the decision to "the market."
The
stakes were enormous: A wrong decision could well ruin
the business. What should the CEO do? The question was
more than academic, because the CEO described in the
case was also the man at the front of the classroom. Dr.
Andrew S. Grove, like professor Indiana Jones, was
better known for his exploits as "Andy," the
famous leader of Intel Corp. But unlike Indy, Grove
wasn't simply biding time here between adventures. His
question was meant not just to challenge students'
thinking but to advance his own. That big speech was
three weeks away, and Grove had yet to make up his mind.
He didn't know the answer.
[continued]
Healthcare
Valley
growth propels
hospital upgrades By Michelle Swafford
InBusiness
Las Vegas
Hospitals
are expanding rapidly in the Las Vegas Valley.
Two chief reasons are: Patients' need for additional
beds and services and hospital operators' demand for
profit. Patient and physician demand is a major reason
why three hospitals have opened in the Las Vegas Valley
in the past five years and several others are in various
stages of completion.
[continued]
Child
sacrifice
Report
blasts teacher
hiring in city districts
By Catherine Gewertz
Education
Week
Contract
provisions that force principals to hire teachers they
don't want are hampering efforts to build a strong corps
of teachers for urban schools, a report contends.
In a study of collective-bargaining agreements
in five large cities, the New Teacher Project calls for
revising rules that allow senior teachers to take their
pick of job openings, while novices are the first to be
cut and can be "bumped" from their jobs by
colleagues with more seniority.
[continued]
Subscribe
to
BUSINESSNevada
Know a colleague who’d be interested? Forward
BUSINESSNevada!
Receiving
BUSINESSNevada
via your trade association?
Click here and get it
DIRECT!
|
