« July 17, 2005 - July 23, 2005 | Main | July 31, 2005 - August 06, 2005 »
Dennis Delano Hastert speaks. From the AP wire:
WASHINGTON (July 28) - In its last act before leaving for its summer recess, the House is to approve what could be the biggest public works program of the decade, a $286.4 billion highway and transit bill that will get construction projects moving and create jobs across the country."Jobs, jobs, jobs," House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said Thursday in describing the legislation that the House is expected to take up and overwhelmingly pass late Thursday. He cited estimates that every $1 billion spent on highways generates 48,000 jobs.
Once all this spending, paid for by yet more borrowing, works its way into the economy, maybe we'll finally gain some of those 5.1 million jobs that we should have at this stage of a recovery but are missing.
Posted by dan at 02:24 PM
Americans continue to turn away from giant American beer brands. A continuation of the low-carb craze? A rising preference of increasingly snobby brew drinkers for imports and craft beers? Aging boomers ceasing to pound beers like they did in the 1970s? Anheuser-Busch reports, you decide.
"During the second quarter of 2005, domestic beer sales-to-wholesalers decreased 3.7 percent compared with the second quarter 2004, and wholesaler sales-to-retailers declined 0.2 percent. . . During the first six months of 2005, domestic beer sales- to-wholesalers declined 3.2 percent, while wholesaler sales-to-retailers declined 0.4 percent (on a comparable selling day adjusted basis)."
Posted by dan at 10:49 AM
My take on Eliot Spitzer's radio payola settlement, in Slate.
Posted by dan at 08:02 AM
Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz doesn't the U.S. should be lecturing China about how to manage a stable economy. He writes in today's Financial Times: (Here's a link, but I think you need to subscribe.)
The US economy is growing at a third the pace of China’s. Poverty is rising and median household incomes are, in real terms, declining. America’s total net savings are much less than China’s. China produces far more of the engineers and scientists that are necessary to compete in the global economy than the US, while America is cutting its expenditures on basic research as it increases military spending. Meanwhile, as America’s debt continues to balloon, its president wants to make tax cuts for the richest people permanent. With all this in mind, China’s leaders may not feel they need to seek advice from the US on how to manage either the exchange rate or the economy.
Posted by dan at 04:31 PM
Can George Shaheen do for 90s phenomenon Siebel what he did for 90s phenomenon Webvan? Shaheen, the onetime head of Andersen Consulting presided over one of the great blowouts of the .com era. Several years later, he resurfaced as the fallback CEO at Siebel Systems, a broken-down high-flier.
Siebel reported its results yesterday. The company notched a quarterly loss, but saw it's net cash rise by $45 million. That's not particularly impressive given that it has $2.242 billion in cash and short-term investments. If Seibel took all that cash, shut down its operations, and just bought some nice multi-year CDs, or a 10-year Treasury bond, it would generate almost as much cash for shareholders as it does by selling software.
Posted by dan at 04:15 PM
The Republican party continues to deal with the consequences of its expansion in the Piedmont. Edmund L. Andrews reports in the New York Times.
With promises of more trade protection for textile companies, President Bush coaxed as many as six Republican lawmakers on Monday to vote for the Central American Free Trade Agreement.Three House Republicans from textile-producing districts announced they would support the trade pact, mainly because the White House promised to get commitments from Central American countries to maintain or increase their use of American fabrics. . . . .
On Monday, Mr. Bush picked up the votes of Representative Bob Inglis of South Carolina, along with two Alabama congressmen, Spencer Bachus and Mike Rogers. Three other wavering Republicans, Representative J. Gresham Barrett of South Carolina, along with representatives Phil Gingrey and Lynn A. Westmoreland of Georgia, let it be known they were likely to come on board as well.
Mr. Inglis said he agreed to vote for the pact in return for three specific commitments by Mr. Bush.
One agreement would let Central American countries export trousers duty-free to the United States only if they are made with pockets and linings from American mills. The measure was important to several mills in Mr. Rogers' district in Alabama that employ about 2,400 workers.
Another side agreement would increase the amount of American fabric that Nicaragua agrees to buy in making clothing for exports. And a third would make it tougher for Central American clothing factories to rely on fabric from Mexico.
"With those three corrections, this Cafta is now a much better Cafta," Mr. Inglis told reporters on Monday.
No word on the proposed provision that would prohibit Costa Rican seamstresses from stitching together denim made in Venezuela on the day of the Auburn-Alabama football game.
Posted by dan at 10:02 AM
The French economic mandarinate has its collective beret bent out of shape over the prospect that U.S. behemoth Pepsi might be interested in acquiring “crown jewel” Danone. Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin last week said the government would try to ward off a hostile bid. President Jacques Chirac deemed the threat worthy of cutting short his trip to Madagascar (the island, not the movie), to defend “the interests of France.”
But as Lina Saigol noted in yesterday’s Financial Times, French companies are busily buying up companies outside their borders, including some crown jewels.
In less than a week, France Telecom snatched Amena, the Spanish mobile phone business, from under the noses of two private equity consortiums with a knock-out bid of more than €10bn (£7bn); while Saint-Gobain attempted to snare BPB, the UK producer of gypsum.This year, French acquirers have bought foreign businesses worth almost $34bn, higher than the $28bn for all of last year, marking the highest level of activity since the height of the 2000 bull market, says Dealogic, the global data provider.
Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite, Hypocrise.
Posted by dan at 09:52 AM
My latest in the Times: economists tackle smoking and obesity.
Posted by dan at 07:39 AM