Another Lost Year for U.S. Workers
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on January 5th, 2013 12:08 am by HL
Another Lost Year for U.S. Workers
James Pethokoukis, AEI Ideas
While the December jobs report — 155,000 net new payrolls, 7.8% unemployment rate — was more or less in line with official analyst expectations, plenty of Wall Street economists thought it just might surprise to the upside. Maybe 200,000 jobs or more went the “whisper” estimates.It didn’t happen.Instead it was same old, same old. The increase in total nonfarm payroll employment was only a smidgen better than the average 2012 employment growth of 153,000 jobs per month. And that was exactly the same as the average monthly gain for…
Curt Schilling’s Crony Capitalism Debacle
Anthony Fisher, Reason.tv
The 2012 bankruptcy of Rhode Island-based video-game developer 38 Studios isn't just a sad tale of a start-up tech company falling victim to the vagaries of a rough economy. It is a completely predictable story of crony capitalism, featuring star-struck legislators and the hubris of a larger-than-life athlete completely unprepared to compete in business.Former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, an iconic figure in New England after anchoring a historic playoff comeback which ended a legendary 86-year title drought, founded 38 Studios near the end of his baseball…
Al Gore Went to Bat for Al Jazeera, and Himself
Brian Stelter, NY Times
Al Gore’s Current TV was never popular with viewers, but it was a hit where it counted: with cable and satellite providers. When he co-founded the channel in 2005, Mr. Gore managed to get the channel piped into tens of millions of households — a huge number for an untested network — through a combination of personal lobbying and arm-twisting of industry giants.He called on those skills again after deciding in December to sell Current TV to Al Jazeera for $500 million. To preserve the deal — and the estimated $100 million he would personally receive…