Your daily Economy dose!
Over the past few years, the drop in employment has been steep and painful. A recent reassessment of the job count shows that even steeper declines have taken place than initially thought—both across the U.S. as a whole and in the Seventh Federal Reserve District, which covers all of Iowa and most of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
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Job Revisions Downward
Steve Meyer, music industry veteran and publisher of the Disc and Dat Newsletter, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the evolution of the music industry and the impact of the digital revolution.
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Meyer on the Music Industry and the Internet
Mark your calendar for Tuesday, June 15 as the Chamber presents a special breakfast program with new insights as to how and why Disney chose Central Florida. 45 years ago this June, Walt Disney made the landmark decision to build his new Disney World project in Central Florida. A recently published book gives the fullest account yet of this momentous event that forever changed the Central Florida landscape
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How and Why Disney Chose Central Florida …
Everyone wants a piece of the famous “Chinese consumer”, whatever, and wherever that may be. Some are doing a pretty good job, and they are taking different routes – big city, second tier, or even beyond the tiers… Starbucks, which is so well established that at least one tweep uses as a city-centre marker in China, is also localising its offering: • RT @stinson: This sounds stupid, but when planning trips to other Chinese cities, I search for Starbucks on the map to find the city center. 8:11 AM Mar 12th • Tea time RT @raykwong: Starbucks discovers that Chinese people like tea.
Pratap Chakravarty’s Agence France-Presse article “Gay couples find surrogate mothers in India” caught my attention.For gay U.S. businessman Brad Fister, experiencing the joy of fatherhood meant flying half way around the world to India where he first held his baby daughter, born to a woman who had signed away any right to her child.Commercial surrogacy is a booming industry in India, and in
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On assisted reproduction and its problems
Arizona has a tax credit available for people who make donations to certain “qualifying” nonprofit organizations. In past years, these organizations could qualify relatively simply and only needed to obtain qualifying certification once in order to remain certified for future years. But in 2009 the law changed. As a result, a number of our clients who had qualified in the past received a letter from the Arizona Department of Revenue (ADOR) asking these organizations to apply. Going forward, these organizations are now required to re-certify on an annual basis. The ADOR is now required to do a more detailed review of information provided by the organization. To be certified for the tax credit, the organization must be able to show that they provide services that meet a specific definition, and also that they are providing those services to a qualifying population: • Population served: o People who receive temporary assistance for needy families, OR o People who are low income residents, OR o People who are chronically ill or physically disabled children. • Services provided: o Cash assistance o Medical care o Child care o Food, clothing or shelter o Job placement and job training services o Any other assistance that is reasonably necessary to meet immediate basic needs In applying for the certification, it is important for the organization to provide clear financial information that specifically shows the organization’s expenditures for these particular types of services. If the organization does not provide the appropriate information in its request for certification, there is a chance it may be denied or the ADOR may request additional information to clarify. If you are denied by the ADOR but feel that your organization does provide the necessary services to the appropriate population, you may want to contact the ADOR to discuss it and to find out if there is some more detailed information that you could provide to prove your case
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Arizona Working Poor Tax Credit
by Edward Hugh: Barcelona As Irwin Stelzer argued in a recent opinion article in the Wall Street Journal , Spain’s Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero seems to be an admirer of Charles Dickens’s character Mr. Micawber. When asked what he plans to do about Spain’s 11.4% fiscal deficit, first he promises to extend the retirement age, only to later tell us the measure may not be necessary
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Waiting For Something To Turn Up: Europe’s Looming Pensions-based Sovereign Debt Crisis
by Edward Hugh: Barcelona Well, I for one can’t help thinking that it’s now well time we all stopped getting carried away with the use of so many acronyms. Not only may one man’s meat easily prove to be another’s poison, it may even be that for some the entire meal will be so distasteful as to prove totally indigestable
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Serious Problems Emerge For The F-UK-De Group Of Countries
Don Boudreaux of George Mason University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about public choice: the application of economics to the political process. Boudreaux argues that political competition is a blunt instrument that works less effectively than economic competition
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Don Boudreaux on Public Choice
The invaluable Livejournal blogger demographer was kind enough to link to an overview of the latest Goskomstat figures on Russia’s population profile. There is a lot of interesting stuff there.Russia’s population is stabilizing, largely thanks to the rate of natural decrease, well, decreasing sharply. As Scott and me noted earlier, the deficit of women of childbearing age will impact negatively
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"The demographic situation in Russia in 2008"
Susan McGinnis anchor’s this morning’s Clean Skies New Energy Report from Washington, DC On the Program:- Assistant for Economic Policy, Lawrence Summers, talks about the Presidents’ view of domestic natural gas use.- Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) questions GM and Chrysler’s role in the US Climate Action Partnership after getting billions in taxpayer assistance.- New report says California’s global warming law could lead to job losses.- Los Angeles power officials have scrapped plans for an 85-mile “green transmission line” through the southeastern California desert.- NASA study shows droughts have no effect on Amazon rain forests, contrary to previous IPCC reports.
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The Energy Report – 3/12/10: Morning Edition
Some interesting backstage comments followed the Oscars on ABC News/Entertainment made by Kathryn Bigelow (Best Director for Hurt Locker) on the quality of the 2010 Oscar nominees.
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Oscars Results Reflect Today’s Marketing Climate – Content Reigns
by Edward Hugh: Barcelona According to Bundesbank President Axel Weber, Germany’s economic recovery is “essentially intact” , and is now set to benefit from stronger demand in countries outside the euro region. “I firmly believe that the recovery process that began in summer 2009 is essentially intact, and that it will continue despite the slower growth dynamic in the winter semester. An additional factor in this context is that the German labor market continues to be in extremely robust shape.” What exactly it means to say that an economy is intact we will explore below, but it is clear that some confirmation for the view that the German economy is benefiting from increased demand originating outside the Eurozone can be found in the latest press release on manufacturing industry turnover from the Federal Statistics Office , where they note that while January’s manufacturing sector turnover surpassed that of January 2009 – by a working day adjusted 2.6% – domestic sales actually fell (by 1.1%), and export turnover rose by 7.3%.
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The German Economy Is Essentially "Intact"
If you are a performing arts organization and have substantial expenses relating to advertising for people to buy tickets for the performances, it would make sense to functionally allocate those expenses to program activities, right? After all, providing these performances is part of your mission. Actually, the answer is probably no. Whether advertising expense can be classified as a program or supporting services expense depends on the purpose of the advertising. Generally, costs of soliciting funds (other than contributions) should be classified as management and general expenses. This includes the costs of soliciting funds for exchange transactions. If you are recording income from grants as an exchange transaction (i.e., the funds are received in exchange for a service provided), then the costs that go into managing that grant would be properly classified as management/general and should not be classified as program or fundraising expenses. Grant management costs in this case could include the expenses relating to preparing the grant application, monitoring and reporting
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Advertising Expense May Not be a Program Activity
Katherine Newman, Professor of Sociology at Princeton University, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about Newman’s case studies of fast-food workers in Harlem. Newman discusses the evolution of their careers and fortunes over time along with their dreams and successes and failures. The conversation concludes with lessons for public policy in aiding low-wage workers.
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Newman on Low-wage Workers
Technorati and Ingboo have partnered together to provide an all new kind of subscription experience for Technorati content, including search results. Look for a blue Ingboo icon for a full range of subscription options. Feeds are also available for: Hottest Blogosphere Posts Latest Original Articles from Technorati The Technorati Blog We also have channel feeds, writer feeds, and tag feeds, which can be found on their respective pages.
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New Search Results, from Technorati and Ingboo
by Edward Hugh: Barcelona In the time of my confession, in the hour of my deepest need When the pool of tears beneath my feet flood every newborn seed There’s a dyin’ voice within me reaching out somewhere, …………. It’s not often that I await the ECB after-meeting press conference statements of Jean Claude Trichet with such an intense feeling of anxiety and bated breath. But this time, as the song goes, it will be different
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Hanging In The Balance Over At The ECB
By Revolter Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it’s been confirmed, the BoRev’s faithful editor has tragically been disappeared by Alvaro Uribe linked death squads. Anyway, hey look “Hillary Clinton” met up with the Hillary Clinton of Latin America and The Times UK is here to clarify for us which one of them is bullshitting, sortof: What began as a last-minute change to Mrs Clinton’s itinerary on her five-day sweep through Latin America has snowballed into a major diplomatic incident that has emboldened Argentina and caught the US largely un- awares
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Chile Not Only Place Clinton Pretend Concerned About
by Edward Hugh: Barcelona According to data released on Monday by the Swedish statistical office Sweden unexpectedly fell back into recession in the fourth quarter, adding to the impression there has been a growth dip among Europe’s economies and raising further questions about the durability of the recovery in Europe. Gross domestic product contracted by a seasonally adjusted 0.6 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2009 (when compared with the previous three months), despite analyst expectations for growth of 0.3 per cent. In addition the third-quarter figure was revised to a 0.1 per cent quarterly decline (down from an original 0.2 per cent gain) which means that Sweden is now back in recession.
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Just What Is Going On In Sweden?
Both the Form 990 and your financial statements are required to disclose any joint costs that have been allocated. Many times our clients will respond to our inquiry about such costs with an explanation of how they allocated the cost for this one activity between the two programs to which it related. While we appreciate that they were able to allocate those costs, they do not qualify as Joint Costs
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Joint Costs
by Edward Hugh: Barcelona Global manufacturing activity continued to expand in February, albeit at a slightly weaker pace than in January.
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The "Three Speed" Global Manufacturing Recovery Continues in February
Barry Ritholtz, author of Bailout Nation: How Greed and Easy Money Corrupted Wall Street and Shook the World Economy, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the history of bailouts in recent times, beginning with Lockheed and Chrysler in the 1970s and continuing through the current financial crisis. In addition to the government role in aiding ailing companies, Ritholtz also looks at the role of the Fed in discouraging prudence through its efforts to keep asset prices and the stock market at high levels. The conversation closes with a discussion of what Ritholtz has learned from the crisis.
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Ritholtz on Bailouts, the Fed, and the Crisis
by Edward Hugh: Barcelona “Doom-mongers” – the Economist tells us – “are licking their wounds”. And why exactly are they licking their wounds? Well for two years now (apparently) they have been telling us that “the struggle to save the lat’s peg to the euro was bound to end in tears”.
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Too Soon To Cry "Victory" On Latvia?
Will business use of Twitter perish? Various rounds of phishing schemes have pelted Twitter users over the last couple years. Usually this means someone you know had their account hacked and you receive a DM (Direct Message) that attempts to compel you to click on a link in the DM.
At a recent Lunch & Learn I presented the topic of cost allocations for nonprofit organizations. Allocating costs in a nonprofit involves the functional allocation of expenses between 3 different classifications: program activities, management/general activities, and fundraising activities. Allocating costs may not be considered to be much of a priority at a nonprofit organization. Why does it matter? But then an organization is denied a grant that was applied for because the grantor has a rule that program expenses must be at least 75% of total expenses and the organization’s Statement of Functional Expenses that was submitted with the audited financial statements show that program expenses were only 62%. Or a grantor doesn’t want to give an organization funds for their job training program because job training is not included as a program on the Statement of Functional Expenses and the grantor thinks that the organization doesn’t have a focus in this area
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Cost Allocations