As long as we’re all snowed in, we might as well use some of the time to think about our economic and political predicament in the U.S. Jon Taplin has just written a very important post entitled “Men At Work.” I guarantee it will generate 40 or more comments from Mr. Taplin’s large community of… [Read more…]
February 4, 2010
I think the second dip of the double-dip recession began this week. It’s hard to expect much, if any recovery in 2010 or 2011. Just my opinion. The worldwide stock sell-off might be only the beginning of another crisis. The financial story was Greece on Wednesday, Spain and Portugal on Thursday. It could be anywhere… [Read more…]
February 2, 2010
Gov. Martin O’Malley delivered his annual State of the State address to the Maryland General Assembly, and you could sum it up in three words: “jobs, jobs, jobs.” “As we work to emerge from this global economic recession,” O’Malley said today, “the state of our state is stronger than most.” Unemployment is about 11 percent… [Read more…]
January 26, 2010
Ocean City will offer 84 town employees incentives to retire this year in a continuing effort to downsize the town’s work force and cut the budget. At budget time last year, Ocean City used many one-time savings measures and a hiring freeze to keep spending in line with falling real estate tax revenues. In addition,… [Read more…]
January 19, 2010
“O’Malley plans cuts to almost everything but schools,” reads a headline in today’s Washington Post. The Maryland budget that Gov. Martin O’Malley will submit this week will include real budget cuts of $1.2 billion to $1.4 billion, Post reporters estimate, on top of $600 million in cuts made last year. Very few Maryland agencies or… [Read more…]
January 13, 2010
Today is the first day of the 2010 legislative session for the Maryland General Assembly. The state of Maryland, along with most of its counties and local governments, is at a point of financial reckoning. Maryland is not alone. Almost every other state is in the same predicament, or worse. It is possible that California… [Read more…]
January 4, 2010
You never know when you might experience an Epiphany about the American economy. St. Luke’s Catholic Church in Ocean City, Maryland, was closed for renovations last winter. Sunday, I went to Mass at St. Luke’s for the first time since it reopened. The reason: St. Luke’s has an 11:30 a.m. Mass on Sundays, the last… [Read more…]
December 31, 2009
It’s the last day of 2009, the last day of the decade. Let’s have some fun. Nobody can predict the future, but that’s not going to stop me from making a few wild speculations about things that might happen in 2010. Herewith, wild guesses based on nothing more than a hunch. No ambitious Republican is… [Read more…]
December 30, 2009
We’ve reached the bitter end of the first decade of the new century. It’s also the end of the line for Editor & Publisher, trade journal of the newspaper industry in North America, and its sister publication, Kirkus Reviews, a leading book industry journal. Nielson Business Media announced in December that it is closing Editor… [Read more…]
December 29, 2009
The past two years have been punishing for businesses and consumers, probably the most painful years since the Great Depression. Things CAN ONLY IMPROVE in 2010, don’t you think? Not so fast. We yearn, in our heart of hearts, to return to the comfortable status quo ante. Let the good times roll! Can’t we all… [Read more…]
February 6, 2010
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