Jackson Library

How much is the cost of living in these modern times? With much talk these days on how far your dollar is not going, you might want to see sources on how to calculate and understand what the numbers mean. Check out these websites:

• Jackson Library's Selected Business Website: Cost of Living
• The University of Michigan's Cost of Living site

Japan has launched a program called “Innovation 25” with the goal to innovate Japan with an extensive long term plan extending to 2025 and beyond. In the September 17 issue of Red Herring dedicated to Japan, an article entitled Country Makeover take a look at the many initiatives the country is taking to make this work from dramatically increasing the number of foreign students at Japanese Universities to increasing investment in science and technology. The goal is to create a second wave of opening up Japan to the world.
Tomorrow evening (Thursday December 6) 4:15-5:30pm Kiyoshi Kurokawa, Science Advisor to the Cabinet of Japan will be at Stanford, as part of the Center for East Asian Studies, to speak on the topic Innovate Japan! among the topics discussed will be “Innovation 25”.

Thanksgiving Feast prices to go up 11% according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. So what’s going on? Energy prices are going up and demand around the world is up for turkeys as well. Over 500 million turkeys are not enough to satiate US demand around the holidays. Read more about the methodology behind the 11% increase on The Voice of Agriculture.

Americans are in debt. We are in debt up to our eyeballs. The Federal Reserve has released the latest Consumer Credit report and the numbers are not good.

GSB Professor Robert Flanagan has written a new book addressing global trade, migration and international capital flows, Globalization and Labor Conditions: Working Conditions and Worker Rights in a Global Economy. Flanagan, who holds the Konosuke Matsushita Chair of International Labor Economics and Policy Analysis at Stanford, presents evidence on how conditions have changed during late-20th century globalization, and how economic growth, international trade, migration and multinationals have influenced labor. Flanagan also reviews the historical effects of migration and its effect on wages, in light of today's concerns about border control. He argues that evidence suggests that nations open to international trade have superior labor conditions. Moreover, foreign direct investment mainly flows to countries with superior labor conditions, and working conditions in multinational companies are superior to employment conditions in host-country firms. This evidence does not support the view that increasing economic integration initiates a 'race to the bottom' that ends in sweatshop labor conditions.

Stanford Economics Professor John Pencavel writes, "Bob Flanagan ... provides an informed analysis and assessment that ought to be of real interest to all those who still have an open mind on this topic. This is by far the best book I know that aims to inform and enhance public discussion on the varied issues linked to globalization." Watch the video, and check out the book in Jackson Library.

Fortune magazine (December 25) presents its Investor's Guide 2007, with 10 recommended star stocks, including ConocoPhillips, General Dynamics, RadioShack and Southwest Airlines. The magazine issue sidebars other potential investment instruments, such as trusty bond index funds and promising precious metals. Seven top mutual funds are reviewed, as well as the real estate market potential for the coming year. Lots of other goodies are included in the issue, such as a roundtable discussion by top investment strategists, highlights of star market analyst Dana Telsey, a talk with the venerable Leo Melamed of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, a search for the next great Euro stocks, and advice to investors on China's hottest IPOs. Enough exciting tips to keep any keen investor warm with anticipation through the winter. Read it in Jackson Library, or check out the abbreviated online version.

Want to know what the big enchiladas were predicting just before (and after) the Crash of '29 ? Check out the 1927-1933 Chart of Pompous Prognosticators. You may be surprised. You may be amused. But you'll definitely be more skeptical, after you have a chuckle at pronouncements of yesteryear by President Herbert Hoover, Bernard Baruch, Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon, Yale economist Irving Fisher and others. Enjoy this 20-20 hindsight from a safe viewing distance.

Edmund Phelps, Economist from Columbia U., speaks to Bloomberg's Suzy Assaad on the state of the U.S. economy. The U.S. economy he views as "amazingly strong" and low unemployment as "remarkable." Professor Phelps won the 2006 Nobel Prize in Economics with his research on the interplay of inflation expectations and employment. His theory is that the containment of expectations in regards to inflation will contain the inflation rate itself. Using Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities or TIPS as well as other methods inflation expectations can be gagged.

Phelps is also asked about emerging markets such as China and India and states that both countries have a long way to go. He mentions China's "phenomenal growth rate" and more "dynamic" environment in the entrepreneurial sector as great economic drivers. Although India is doing well, high-tech in Bangalore constitute only a small portion of India's economy.

Phelps also speaks about investing his prize money in... something "safe" not Real Estate :-)

Watch the video at Bloomberg.com.

BusinessWeek of October 16 has the cover story 'The Organic Myth'. Apparently the growing demand for organic this-and-that is outdistancing supply. As mainstream consumers turn to organic foods, there just isn't enough in the way of organic cows, the organic grain that they eat, and organic fruits and veggies to keep up. To complicate matters, giants like Wal-Mart and General Mills are jumping in. The cottage industry of yesteryear is becoming the conglomerate of tomorrow. And as firms scramble to find bona fide organic ingredients, the ethos that once defined the organic lifestyle is giving way to something that looks increasingly like agribusiness-as-usual: thousands of organic cows kept on mass feedlots, expanding incursions into forest for ever more farmland, importation of ingredients from foreign countries where cheap labor is exploited. Perhaps the Organic Movement has fallen prey to one of History's paradoxes: An excess of success.

Robert B. Reich, former Secretary of Labor, is interviewed in the September issue of Training + Development magazine. The cover story, 'Preparing the Workforce', springboards off Reich's famous categorization of the 'symbolic analyst' -- the person who manipulates information to solve problems -- to discuss his current views. Reich voices his concern that a large segment of the US labor pool remains woefully unprepared for the challenges of the new century : "At least one-third of the current workforce continues to be unprepared. ... They are working at local service jobs for near the minimum wage. Most of these are dead-end jobs." The interview goes on to touch several topics, including outsourcing. Reich opines "Companies are wise to be in emerging markets ... They are wise to source there; they are wise to find human resources there." But he cautions, "On the other hand, it is a fallacy for American companies to believe that they can offshore their most important technical, engineering, research, development, strategic, and sales operations." In conclusion: "The fact is a dedicated innovative, and talented workforce is the only source of sustained competitive advantage. Wall Street, hopefully, will wake up to this reality."

In U.S. News & World Report, publisher Mort Zuckerman draws comparisons between inequalities of the fabled 'Gilded Age' of 19th century America, famously satirized by Mark Twain, and today.