Category: Current Affairs

Fancy words for finding the cheapest labor anywhere in the world. Everybody’s doing it — in fact, you have to do it to survive competitively. Perhaps more troubling for the future is the sheer numbers helping to power such a shift.

Morgan Stanley’s Chief Economist Stephen Roach points out that the combined graduation rates of the major Asia countries (China, India, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan) total about 650,000 science and engineering graduates each year — compared to about 200,000 graduates in the US (and many of those to foreign students!).

Tom Friedman’s column in this morning’s New York Times hits so many themes so well — disgust with the whole Super Bowl half-time thing, the dedication of our soldiers in spite of our leadership, etc.

Before long, the only companies in the US that will matter will be those that can dominate the channels of distribution.

Increasingly, it seems like we’re not making any tangible goods here in this country — so it’s the merchants that really matter. They don’t make anything — but they have what even the cheap global suppliers need — distribution, otherwise know as access to the mass market.

Sunday’s Washington Post has a great article about Wal-Mart putting the squeeze on its Chinese suppliers.

As capital scours the globe for cheaper and more malleable workers, and as poor countries seek multinational companies to provide jobs, lift production and open export markets, Wal-Mart and China have forged themselves into the ultimate joint venture, their symbiosis influencing the terms of labor and consumption the world over.

I feel like I’ve seen a lot of the world in my life — but when you look at my travels on the map, they’re actually pretty meager! I’ve got a lot more to see!

create your own visited country map

I have a bit better coverage of the good ol’ USA!

create your own visited states map
or write about it on the open travel guide

Thanks to World66.com for a nice little service!

I’ve been disturbed — like a lot of people I’m sure — about the WMD story in Iraq, what we knew, what we didn’t know, etc. Obviously, this will take longer to play out that anyone seems willing to give it — but I also found reading the text of CIA Director George Tenet’s speech on the subject this morning to be a bit reassuring.

One this day one year ago, Columbia failed to return home. Seven courageous astronauts were lost in the skies over Texas that morning. Mission details are on the STS-107 web site.

The report of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board is available online.

The Board determined that physical and organizational causes played an equal role in the Columbia accident – that the NASA organizational culture had as much to do with the accident as the foam that struck the Orbiter on ascent.

Some surprising (for Dean supporters!) late survey results this morning in the Iowa Poll from the Des Moines Register:

Kerry, a U.S. senator from Massachusetts, leads the Iowa Poll with 26 percent of likely caucus participants naming him their first choice for the presidency. The poll, conducted Tuesday through Friday, also showed him gaining strength as the week wore on.

Edwards, a North Carolina senator who was in single digits in an Iowa Poll taken two months ago, follows in second place at 23 percent – his highest finish in any media poll of Iowans.

Dean, the candidate who seemed to be in the driver’s seat as recently as two weeks ago with a key endorsement from Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, has slipped to third at 20 percent. But the former Vermont governor remains within striking distance of the lead in an unusually close race in which almost half of caucus-goers say they could still change their minds.

Dick Gephardt, the Missouri congressman who is counting on a strong finish with help from labor unions, has dropped to fourth place at 18 percent. Gephardt won the caucuses in 1988 before losing the nomination to Michael Dukakis.

The poll has a margin of error of four percentage points.

Best wishes to you and yours for a very Merry Christmas!

Steve Lohr reports in today’s New York Times on the offshore outsourcing of technology jobs.

Is the offshore outsourcing of technology jobs a cataclysmic jolt or a natural evolution of the economy? The short answer is that the trend is real, irreversible and another step in the globalization of the American economy. It does present a challenge to industry, government and individual workers. But the shifting of some technology jobs abroad fits into a well-worn historical pattern of economic change and adjustment in the United States.

Here’s another perspective: an interview of CK Prahalad from India’s Economic Times.

It’s fascinating how all of this globalization and offshoring works its way through the economy. The farm belt is suddenly booming — according to a Wall St. Journal front page article last week — largely driven by exports of corn and other grains to China. Similarly, the steel industry is doing well — but not why you’d expect. The part of the industry doing well is shipping scrap steel to China. And, of course, there have been the recent examples of call centers offshored delivering lousy service quality — and being pulled back until things could get tended to. And then, of course, there’s Wal-Mart — often blamed for its relentless focus on costs and the impact that has on American suppliers and their workers.

Meanwhile, here in California, we’re about to enter a new era where the state will impose a minimum patient:nurse ratio in California hospitals — further driving up the costs of health care in the Golden State and weakening its global competitive position even further.

Health care is one of those industries that could really benefit from a provider driven to lower costs ala Wal-Mart! Unfortunately, the economies associated with globalization and offshoring don’t easily apply to health care costs — unless you’re talking about importing prescription drugs from Canada!

Meanwhile, I had to chuckle at today’s story in India’s Economic Times: Now, China, Inc. to outsource to India. The Economic Times, which claims to be the world’s second largest business newspaper, has a section dedicated to coverage of business process outsourcing which is subtitled “How India, Inc. is cashing in.”