The Bureau of Labor Statistics has a new report (pdf) out comparing employment in the Silicon Valley tech sector in 2001 and 2008. The gist: Employment is down by a lot (17%), but wages are up by even more (36%). I’ll let Tom Abate of the SF Chronicle explain: The report documents a stunning shift [...]
Andrew J. Hall, Citigroup’s $100 million man, is considering a compromise to please pay czar Kenneth Feinberg. Reports the WSJ: The discussions include converting a substantial chunk of Mr. Hall’s compensation for 2010 to equity from cash, these people said. A deal wouldn’t affect the head of Citigroup energy-trading unit Phibro LLC’s ability to collect [...]
Emanuel Derman writes (via Felix): [T]he EMH, if you don’t take it too literally and get carried away about axiomatically defining strong, weak and other kinds of efficiency as though you were dealing with axiomatic quantum field theory, does recognize one true thing: that it’s #$&^ing difficult or well-nigh impossible to systematically predict what’s going [...]
My Authors@Google talk is behind me, as is—sadly—my excellent free Google cafeteria lunch (tandoori sturgeon, lentil cakes, roasted potatoes, kale, some sort of coconut-tofu curry, rice and salad). Now I’m sitting in the lobby of Google’s SF office using the guest wifi network to check on the Federal Open Market Committee’s statement today. Turns out [...]
A British company focuses on helping the environment and maintaining profits
In response to Justin’s post about an increase in worker productivity, commenter Newdealanne writes: The real issue here isn’t how many jobs there are or aren’t; it’s how much they pay. I’m sorry to say things aren’t looking rosy on that front. As I write in this Time.com story, companies have taken the most recent [...]
Right after the Federal Open Market Committee makes its post-meeting announcement this afternoon, I’m going to walk into Google’s San Francisco office to jabber about my book (as part of the Authors@Google program). This means it would be very convenient for me if the FOMC’s announcement weren’t particularly newsworthy. So you may want to add [...]
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this morning that labor productivity rose at a sizzling 6.4% annual rate in the nonfarm business sector in the second quarter. To put it in ever-so-slightly less jargony terms, corporate America squeezed dramatically more output per hour out of its employees. This is partly just a cyclical thing. In [...]
General Motors, after prematurely announcing the news back in July (before it actually had a deal with eBay), is really truly going to start selling cars via eBay on Tuesday. You can tell it’s for real this time because the press release announcing the program is available on the eBay website (pdf!) as well as [...]
The TV critic is on vacation. Plus, Shark Tank is about business and stuff. So I watched the first episode of Mark Burnett’s latest reality offering Sunday night. As did Curious Capitalist Jr., who was supposed to go to bed but kept watching because he was riveted. Hmmm, a 10-year-old (who thinks economics and business [...]
