It's only a single month of stats, but the matter of the unemployment rate dropping due to massive work force reduction points to other systemic issues.
March Jobs Report
We are approaching the long anticipated Boomer retirement "bubble" and almost 500,000 just quit trying to find work in one month.
Boomer Retirement Bubble
Retirees are depending on solvent Social Security and Medicare programs. Those are paid by current workers, just as the retiring boomers paid for their parents' services.
Retiring Boomers Retirement Readiness
There are virtually no defined-benefit plans left in the private sector. We cannot all work for the government.
Disappearing Defined Benefits
So the "drop" in the unemployment rate was just a number placed on top of mounting evidence that the boomer retirement bubble will spur crisis.
November 19, 2011
Breakdown of Fire's Cost To Make
Amazon is willing to lose a couple of bucks per device to take a leading role in the tablet space.
Kindle Fire Tear Down Analysis
Kindle Fire Tear Down Analysis
Why Science Majors Change Their Minds
Insights into why merely saying "Sputnik moment" does nothing.
New York Times Article: Why Science Majors Change Their Minds
New York Times Article: Why Science Majors Change Their Minds
September 23, 2011
Free Books Leads Me to An Internet Kerfuffle
Those who know me well know that I like hard cover books (but only in subjects that I fancy). I know that is like admitting to driving a 1995 Buick Regal, but none the less.
Anyway, during one buy at a thrift store, the lady offered me two free hardcover books because “we cannot get rid of those hard cover books fast enough!” Wow. OK, shrill comment aside, I scrounged and picked up a beautiful, fine condition, large ENCARTA DICTIONARY. I love the old GIANT dictionaries like at the school’s library. This was kind of the modern trim version.
Sounded familiar, and had MicroSoft on the cover, so I decided to google “Encarta” and figure out the connection. I barely recalled this recent Internet kerfuffle.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/30/microsoft-encarta-dies-after-long-battle-with-wikipedia/
Anyway, during one buy at a thrift store, the lady offered me two free hardcover books because “we cannot get rid of those hard cover books fast enough!” Wow. OK, shrill comment aside, I scrounged and picked up a beautiful, fine condition, large ENCARTA DICTIONARY. I love the old GIANT dictionaries like at the school’s library. This was kind of the modern trim version.
Sounded familiar, and had MicroSoft on the cover, so I decided to google “Encarta” and figure out the connection. I barely recalled this recent Internet kerfuffle.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/30/microsoft-encarta-dies-after-long-battle-with-wikipedia/
September 10, 2011
Work Style Article We Need to Read
Work Style Article We Need To Read
Entries 1 and 2 describe my career of last 15 years to a tee. Since I made the switch, only two weak-earnings years (2/15), and tons of time off to recharge and refresh.
1. Out: The Traditional Career, In: The Short-term/Multiple Careers/Multiple income stream Model
The career as we know it is dead. Just like you’ve heard many times over the last few years, “this is not your parents’ job search”, it is probably obvious that you shouldn’t expect that 40-year retirement watch either. We no longer live in a world of the “lifetime career” and nor can one job serve as a reliable source of income.
2. Out: Full-time Permanent Jobs, In: Contract/Part-time/Consulting Work
Peter Weddle, an HR executive and self-proclaimed career activist recently wrote that what is on most peoples’ minds is “an honest-to-goodness, full time permanent job,”….. “but what has changed is that the definition of an honest-to-goodness full-time permanent job now looks uncomfortably like an honest-to-goodness full-time here-today-gone-tomorrow job.”
Whole article is a good read. I would add: no pensions. Save-on-your-own is the new mantra. Less than 10% of private employment features pensions for new employees -- and government | quasi-municipal is shrinking (except for utilities), so no hope there.
Work Style Article We Need to Read
Entries 1 and 2 describe my career of last 15 years to a tee. Since I made the switch, only two weak-earnings years (2/15), and tons of time off to recharge and refresh.
1. Out: The Traditional Career, In: The Short-term/Multiple Careers/Multiple income stream Model
The career as we know it is dead. Just like you’ve heard many times over the last few years, “this is not your parents’ job search”, it is probably obvious that you shouldn’t expect that 40-year retirement watch either. We no longer live in a world of the “lifetime career” and nor can one job serve as a reliable source of income.
2. Out: Full-time Permanent Jobs, In: Contract/Part-time/Consulting Work
Peter Weddle, an HR executive and self-proclaimed career activist recently wrote that what is on most peoples’ minds is “an honest-to-goodness, full time permanent job,”….. “but what has changed is that the definition of an honest-to-goodness full-time permanent job now looks uncomfortably like an honest-to-goodness full-time here-today-gone-tomorrow job.”
Whole article is a good read. I would add: no pensions. Save-on-your-own is the new mantra. Less than 10% of private employment features pensions for new employees -- and government | quasi-municipal is shrinking (except for utilities), so no hope there.
Work Style Article We Need to Read
September 4, 2011
Expanding Life Expectancies
Cro-Magnum Era: 18 Years
The Renaissance: 30 Years
1850 America: 43 Years
Modern America: 78 Years
Source: Wall Street Journal
The Renaissance: 30 Years
1850 America: 43 Years
Modern America: 78 Years
Source: Wall Street Journal
August 25, 2011
Who Is Acting Like Steve Jobs Now ?
The news of Steve Jobs resigning is so ubiquitous, there is no point in my linking to it here. What is noteworthy is that Mister Jobs mind and drive percolated at a time when America was in a state of severe economic malaise.
About the USA's 1973 to 1975 Recession
I am looking at the local paper's Business section from yesterday (24 August 2011). The macro indicators are dour: Japan's credit rating cut, California's unemployment rate is 12% (second only to Nevada), and new-home sales are less than half the 700,000 that economists assert represents a healthy market.
This moment, at a low-rent industrial park amidst the whirring and clanking of light machining, another great mind is focused on the same task accomplished by Jobs: invention. She is unaware we are watching, typing behind her back. She senses only the vision materializing and would not read this paper if you handed it to her on a silver plater; too distracting; task at hand; damn it, get out of my shop.
I return to the aforementioned Business section. There are several obvious hints about the new treasure: baby boomers a 70,000,000 member marketing space, another big bank is cutting jobs due to shrinkage in the financial sector, and it is boom times for the data analysis industry. Subtler hints are also begging for attention in the contra treatment of the headlines I mentioned: the home is no longer a sure investment, mass layoffs mean skills and trades in transition, while big governments are weighed down in debt.
Hey lady, what is that thing you're working on?
About the USA's 1973 to 1975 Recession
I am looking at the local paper's Business section from yesterday (24 August 2011). The macro indicators are dour: Japan's credit rating cut, California's unemployment rate is 12% (second only to Nevada), and new-home sales are less than half the 700,000 that economists assert represents a healthy market.
This moment, at a low-rent industrial park amidst the whirring and clanking of light machining, another great mind is focused on the same task accomplished by Jobs: invention. She is unaware we are watching, typing behind her back. She senses only the vision materializing and would not read this paper if you handed it to her on a silver plater; too distracting; task at hand; damn it, get out of my shop.
I return to the aforementioned Business section. There are several obvious hints about the new treasure: baby boomers a 70,000,000 member marketing space, another big bank is cutting jobs due to shrinkage in the financial sector, and it is boom times for the data analysis industry. Subtler hints are also begging for attention in the contra treatment of the headlines I mentioned: the home is no longer a sure investment, mass layoffs mean skills and trades in transition, while big governments are weighed down in debt.
Hey lady, what is that thing you're working on?
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