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"The rights and interests of every or any person are only secure from being disregarded, when the person interested is himself able, and habitually disposed, to stand up for them." --- John Stuart Mill 1861

 
 

2007 November

U	M	T	W	R	F	S
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30

 
 

"Man did not enter into society to become worse than he was before, nor to have fewer rights than he had before, but to have those rights better secured." --- Thomas Paine 1791

 
 
 

My 4*great uncle's (captain William Scott's) flag for the Republic of Texas.

2007-11-01

2007-11-01
_Dice_
Dice Report: 96,445 job ads

2007-11-01 05:30PST (08:30EST) (13:30GMT)
Subri Raman & Tony Sznoluch _DoL ETA_
un-employment insurance weekly claims report
current press release
"The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 301,317 in the week ending Oct. 27, a decrease of 6,305 from the previous week.   There were 301,079 initial claims in the comparable week in 2006.   The advance unadjusted insured un-employment rate was 1.7% during the week ending Oct. 20, an increase of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 2,246,741, an increase of 71,675 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 1.6% and the volume was 2,087,657.   Extended benefits were not available in any state during the week ending Oct. 13."
graphs

2007-11-01 06:40PDT (09:40EDT) (13:40GMT)
Rex Nutting _MarketWatch_
Income and spending growth slowed in September
"After adjusting for inflation of 0.2% after-tax incomes rose 0.2% in September and real spending increased 0.1%."
BEA press releases

2007-11-01
_Industry Week_/_Agence France-Presse_
Chrysler to Cut 8,500 to 10K production workers, on top of 13K announced in February
"According to the consulting firm Challenger Gray & Christmas, some 800K U.S. auto industry jobs have been eliminated since 1999."

2007-11-01
_Conde Nast Portfolio_
Lay-off announcements down 12%
UPI
Reuters
CNN/Money
Philadelphia Inquirer
CNN/Money/Investor's Business Daily
"The number fell to 63,114 from September's 71,739.   With 2 months remaining in 2007, year-to-date job cuts totaling 650,708 were 8.1% lower than last year's 10-month total of 708,406.   October job cuts were 20.5% lower than the recent peak of 79,459 in August.   They were 8.8% lower than 2006 October when employers announced 69,177 job cuts.   Financial services sector job cuts were down 71% in October from their August high.   Of course, that's not saying much considering a whopping 35,752 finance jobs were axed in August.   Lay-offs fell 24% to 27,169 in September, according to data collected by out-placement consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, then another 61% to 10,515 cuts totaled in October.   Sounds promising—but keep in mind that the record-breaking 140,442 job cuts announced by financial firms through October of this year compares to a reduction of 50,327 positions for the same period in 2006.   October's supposedly encouraging head-count is still almost double what it was last year.   The dim economic outlook has even affected holiday job hirings at the nation's stores. CG&C estimated retailers will hire 650K new holiday hires in the November to December period, down from 721K a year ago."

2007-11-01 15:11PDT (18:11EDT) (22:11GMT)
Marcus Wohlsen _AP_/_Yahoo!_
Test created for head-ache producing chemicals
"The chemicals, called biogenic amines, occur naturally in a wide variety of aged, pickled and fermented foods prized by gourmet palates, including wine, chocolate, cheese, olives, nuts and cured meats...   Scientists have nominated several culprits for 'red wine head-ache', including amines like tyramine and histamine, though no conclusions have been reached.   Still, many specialists warn headache sufferers away from foods rich in amines, which can also trigger sudden episodes of high blood pressure, heart palpitations and elevated adrenaline levels...   The prototype -- the size of a small brief-case -- uses a drop of wine to determine amine levels in 5 minutes, Mathies said.   A start-up company he co-founded is working to create a smaller device the size of a personal digital assistant that people could take to restaurants and test their favorite wines.   The researchers found the highest amine levels in red wine and sake and the lowest in beer.   For now, the device only works with liquids."

2007-11-01 15:59PDT (18:59EDT) (22:59GMT)
Ruth Mantell _MarketWatch_
10 worst jobs in America
"Last year, models made a median hourly wage of $11.22, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a bit less than twice the minimum wage of $5.85. Not so glamorous...   The young and beautiful aren't the only ones working like dogs and earning peanuts..."
 

2007-11-02

2007-11-02 07:38PDT (10:38EDT) (14:38GMT)
Rex Nutting _MarketWatch_
ISM index fell for 4th straight month from 52 in September to 50.9 in October

2007-11-02 12:18PDT (15:18EDT) (19:18GMT)
_MarketWatch_
Very high levesl of foreclosures
"45 out of 50 states have seen increases in the last year as foreclosures rose 30% in the third quarter.   So says Rick Sharga, a vice president at RealtyTrac.   Among the worst hit: Ohio, Michigan, California, Arizona, Nevada and Florida.   And Sharga tells John Wordock this problem should last right through the end of next year."

2007-11-02
Katherine M. Skiba _Milwaukee Journal Sentinel_
Sensenbrenner vows immigration reform, but proposal would worsen matters on some counts
"The number of temporary visas granted every year to skilled workers would double, from [over 85K] to [over 150K].   These are H1-B visas for workers in specialty occupations, who are admitted based on education, skills and/or experience, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.   The program of granting H-2A visas to temporary or seasonal agricultural workers would be [weakened]...   At FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, spokesman Bob Dane said 90% of the bill contained 'fair, practical and sensible solutions'.   The Washington-based group stresses border security and enforcement of existing laws.   Dane took issue with the proposal to double the number of H1-B visas, saying Sensenbrenner 'mixed up a Bill Gates memo into his bill by mistake'.   Dane said tech firms such as M$, IBM, Google and others have been pushing for more foreign workers to take on computer programming and project management jobs.   He maintained that, if that happens, it would [further] drive down wages and discourage [more] U.S. students from studying math and engineering."

2007-11-02
Thomas D. Elias _Ventura County Star_
U.S. policy allows H-1B visa abuses
critique by Norman Matloff

Employment/Un-Employment Data Released Today: See the Graphs

2007-11-02

DJIA	13,595.10
S&P 500	1,509.65
NASDAQ	2,810.38
10-year US T-Bond	4.29%
crude oil	$95.93/barrel
gold	$808.50/ounce
silver	$14.599/ounce
platinum	$1,462.70/ounce
palladium	$377.40/ounce
copper	$0.2078125/ounce
natgas	$8.413/MBTU
reformulatedgasoline	$2.4329/gal
heatingoil	$2.5704/gal

I usually get this info from MarketWatch and the "Futures Movers" and "Metals Stocks" columns (and BigCharts and FT Interactive).
 
 

2007-11-03

2007-11-03
Thomas Brewton _View from 1776_
Banking: From Personal to Colossal

2007-11-03 08:31:28PDT (11:31:28EDT) (15:31:28GMT)
Julie Forster _St. Paul Pioneer Press_
Working class heroes
"In many cases, those who've been trained in highly technical skills or tackled jobs with life-and-death responsibilities will find themselves suddenly under-employed or simply restless with a desk job.   Others will know what they did before no longer fits and will move on to what's next."
 

2007-11-04

2007-11-04 02:00 local time
Daylight Savings Time ends

2007-11-04
Steve Sailer _V Dare_
Reflecting On James D. Watson: Why The Truth, Even About About IQ Differences, Will Indeed Set Us Free
"Somewhere around 11M Hispanics and 7M African-Americans have higher IQs than the average white American...   Still, sizable majorities of blacks and Hispanics do fall beneath the white (and Asian) IQ average...   for high-IQ Hispanics and blacks, IQ-type tests are less the problem than the solution to negative stereotypes...   The under-lying trouble with forbidding discussion of any single element of scientific knowledge, whether the movement of the Earth or the distribution of intelligence, is that all truths are connected.   Lies, ignorance, and wishful thinking are dead ends.   But if you follow one truth far enough, it will eventually lead you to others."
 

2007-11-05

2007-11-05
Don Tennant _ComputerWorld_/_IDG_
Matloff vs. Aron with biased questions from Tennant

Runner-Up of 2007: More US citizens earn science & tech degrees than there are jobs, begins here.

2007-11-05
Edwin S. Rubenstein _V Dare_
Washington, We Don't Have A Science And Engineering Problem
"The most vocal groups?   Surprise, surprise: the educrat and big-business lobbies...   We have long argued that Gates and Co. had a self-serving agenda -- namely, low wages and the exploitation of foreign workers who are little more than indentured servants while in their employ.   A new report by the Urban Institute, a left-of-center think tank, offers corroboration.   Authors Hal Salzman of the Urban Institute and Professor Lindsay Lowell of Georgetown University show that both in terms of quantity and quality, U.S. students are now at the top of the international rankings.   (Into the Eye of the Storm Assessing the Evidence on Science and Engineering Education, Quality, and Work-Force Demand [and PDF])...   With its large immigrant and minority population, the U.S.A. is at a big disadvantage vis-a-vis other industrialized countries.   U.S. white students, however, are singled out as being world class..."

2007-11-05
Thomas Brewton _View from 1776_
The less economic sense it makes, the more appealing an idea is to liberals
 
 

2007-11-06

2007-11-06
Jim Kuhnhenn _AP_/_Kansas City Star_
Ron Paul raised over $4.2M in one day
Anchorage Daily News
Philadelphia Inquirer
Christian Broadcasting Network
WBOC
"The $4.2M represented on-line contributions from more than 37K donors [averaging just under $115 per contributor], fund-raising director Jonathan Bydlak said Monday night...   Paul as of Monday had raised more than $7M since Oct. 1, more than half his goal of $12M by the end of the year, according to his Web site.   Paul advocates limited government and low taxes like other Republicans, but he stands alone as the only GOP presidential candidate opposed to the Iraq war.   He also has opposed Bush administration security measures that he says encroach on civil liberties."

2007-11-06 11:30PST (14:30EST) (18:30GMT)
_US House Committee on Science and Technology_
hearing on globalization of R&D and implications for science and engineering work-force
Committee Members
(R-AL) Jo Bonner
(D-AR) Mike Ross
(D-AZ) Gabrielle Giffords
(D-AZ) Harry E. Mitchell
(R-CA) Brian P. Bilbray
(D-CA) Jerry McNerney
(D-CA) Laura Richardson
(R-CA) Dana Rohrabacher
(D-CA) Lynn C. Woolsey
(D-CO) Mark Udall
(R-FL) Mario Diaz-Balart
(R-FL) Tom Feeney
(R-GA) Paul Broun
(R-GA) Phil Gingrey
(R-IL) Judy Biggert
(D-IL) Jerry F. Costello
(D-IL) Daniel Lipinski
(D-IN) Baron P. Hill
(D-KY) Ben Chandler
(D-LA) Charlie Melancon
(R-MD) Roscoe G. Bartlett
(R-MI) Vernon J. Ehlers
(R-MO) W. Todd Aiken
(D-MO) Russ Carnaham
(D-NC) Brad Miller
(R-NE) Adrian Smith
(D-NJ) Steven R. Rothman
(D-OH) Charles A. Wilson
(R-OK) Frank D. Lucas
(D-OR) Darlene Hooley
(D-OR) David Wu statement
(D-PA) Paul E. Kanjorski
(R-SC) Bob Inglis
(D-TN) Bart Gordon
(R-TX) Ralph M. Hall
(D-TX) Eddie Bernice Johnson
(D-TX) Nick Lampson
(R-TX) Michael T. McCaul
(R-TX) Randy Neugebauer
(R-TX) Lamar Smith
(D-UT) Jim Matheson
(R-WA) David Reichert
(D-WA) Brian Baird
(R-WI) F. James Sensenbrenner
testimony of Harold Salzman [pdf]
"The available data indicate that the United States' education system produces a supply of qualified STEM graduates in much greater numbers than jobs available.   If there are shortages, it is most likely a demand-side problem of STEM career opportunities that are less attractive than career opportunities in other fields.   However, standard labor market indicators do not indicate any shortages.   Although there have been steady increases in the numbers of U.S. citizens and permanent residents pursuing a STEM education at both the under-graduate and graduate levels, the number of graduate students on temporary visas has also grown...   The current U.S. IT work-force, for example, is certainly smaller than if all the global IT work were being done here.   Yet, the U.S. IT work-force is not appreciably smaller now than it was in the past because of the global growth in demand for software services.   At the same time, large numbers of IT workers have been laid off or forced to change jobs as a result of global shifts in the location of different types of IT work...
 
As the supply of skilled workers develops across the globe, firms will not decide to locate work in the United States just because there is a large supply of skilled labor here.   If the supply is already adequate elsewhere, as all indicators suggest, then increasing the supply here will not make the United States more attractive to firms.   If, as we find, there is not a problem of supply of STEM workers in the United States, then what about the cost of STEM labor?   Although cost is certainly important, particularly in the initial phases of off-shoring, over time it becomes less important, particularly for high-end work.   The wage-cost differential is declining, and when we include the coordination costs of travel and communications, we estimate the net cost savings of off-shore STEM work is under 30% and shrinking...
 
There was a one-time dramatic 'Sputnik Spike' of students entering STEM fields in the early 1960s, followed by a sharp decline and then a gradual increase beginning in the mid-1970s and continuing until today.   The actual numbers of STEM college graduates has increased over the past 3 decades and held steady in recent years (figure 4).   The 'continuation rate' of S&E bachelor's graduates going on to graduate school, following the early 1960s spike and then decline, has also remained at a steady rate for the past 2 decades.   The major change since the 1960s, of course, has been the large increase in foreign-born students (on temporary visas) entering graduate school and the work-force... the supply of college graduates doesn't account for workers entering the work-force without a college degree or without a STEM degree (e.g., in IT occupations, up to 40% of workers do not have a 4-year college degree).   The overall STEM work-force [employed] totals about 4.8M, which is less than a third of the 15.7M workers who hold at least one STEM degree.   STEM employment is also a fairly consistent one-third of STEM graduates each year.   From 1985 to 2000, the United States graduated about 435K S&E students annually with bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees -- that total includes only U.S. citizens and permanent residents (about 72% of STEM workers hold a bachelor's, 20% a master's, and 7% a doctorate degree).   [This isn't quite correct, since NSF has repeatedly reported that some 22% of capable STEM workers do not have university degrees. Adjusting accordingly, 56% have bachelor's degrees, 16% have master's degrees, and 5% have doctor's degrees...jgo]   Over the same period, the net change in STEM occupational employment ran about 150K annually, such that the average ratio of all STEM graduates to net employment change was about 3 to 1.
 
Of course, net employment growth is not a direct measure of employment demand or total job openings, since net growth does not include replacement for retirements or occupational quits, nor do these aggregate numbers indicate the types of workers sought (education level, experience, etc).   Moreover, it does not address future changes in supply or demand.   But it certainly is suggestive that plenty of STEM students have been graduating relative to employment growth in STEM occupations...
 
there is a surprisingly low rate of STEM retention for the 1993 to 2001 cohorts of STEM graduates.   One to two years after graduation, 20% of STEM bachelor's are in school but not in STEM studies, while another 45% are working but in non-STEM employment (total attrition of 65%).   One to two years after graduation, 7% of STEM master's graduates are enrolled in school but not in STEM studies, while another 31% are in non-STEM jobs (total attrition of 38%) (NSF 2006, table 3)...
 
Whether increasing the supply of STEM-educated work-force entrants would have any significant impact on work-force supply (given a graduate pool already 50% larger than annual openings) is a question that requires a better understanding of the labor market for these graduates...
 
A few labor market studies, notably by Richard Freeman and colleagues (2004, 2006), have focused on the quality of STEM jobs.   These studies conclude that the decline in the native STEM worker pool may reflect a weakening demand, a comparative decline in STEM wages, and labor-market signals to students about low relative wages in STEM occupations.   Indeed, research finds that the real wages in STEM occupations declined over the past 2 decades and labor-market indicators suggest little shortage (Espenshade 1999).   Some researchers see these demand-side market forces causing highly qualified students to pursue other careers...
 
In previous research (Lynn and Salzman 2002), we found that managers in engineering and technology firms do not claim a shortage of applicants, nor do they complain about applicants with poor math and science skills or education.   They do often note difficulty in finding workers with desired experience, specific technical skills, or a sufficient number of 'brilliant' workers in the pool.   The complaint, quite often, appears to be one of unrealistic expectations, as unwittingly illustrated in a recent BusinessWeek (2007) article on labor shortages.   In this article, a company president described the current labor shortage as follows: 'There are certain professions where skills are in such demand that even average or below-average people can get hired.'   It is difficult to consider an inability to only hire above-average workers a labor market shortage.
 
Complaints also reflect firms' dissatisfaction about the need to train new entrants; often at issue is whether firms or education institutions should shoulder the costs of training new hires.   Other than frustration at not having an applicant pool at the tail-end of the skill distribution, the skills deficits most likely to be mentioned are the 'soft skills' of communication and the ease of working across organizational, cultural, and disciplinary boundaries (Lynn and Salzman 2002; Salzman 2000).   Science and engineering firms most often complain about schools failing to provide students with the non-technical skills needed in today's firm.
 
It is also worth noting that, more generally, employers do not complain about the math and science skills of employees hired for professional positions.   In a study of engineering skills, managers did not identify technical qualifications as a concern... (Murnane & Levy 1996)...   Science and engineering jobs make up only 5% of all occupations, and even in highly technology-based industries, such as electronics or aerospace, the S&E work-force is well under 50%.   Only in computer systems design and architectural and engineering services [body shopping rather than full-time permanent product development] does it exceed half of their total work-forces (57% and 58%, respectively)..."
 
testimony of Paul J. Kostek [pdf]
alternate link (pdf)
"the decades long growth in employment opportunities for scientists and engineers in the United States appears to have ended in 2001.   Even more troubling is the Project's finding that real salary growth for most STEM professionals has been flat or declining for at least 10 years...   The one/two punch of reduced demand (fewer job opportunities) and wage depression (flat or declining real wages) will [continue to] encourage incumbent mid-career and older STEM workers to leave for better job opportunities in other fields and discourage talented students from pursuing science and engineering careers."
 
testimony of Michael S. Teitelbaum [pdf]
First, no one who has come to the question with an open mind has been able to find any objective data suggesting general "shortages" of scientists and engineers.   The RAND Corporation has conducted several studies of this subject; its conclusions go further than my summary above, saying that not only could they not find any evidence of shortages, but that instead the evidence is more suggestive of surpluses.   I would add here that these findings of no general shortage are entirely consistent with isolated shortages of skilled people in narrow fields or in specific technologies that are quite new or growing explosively.
 
Second, there are substantially more scientists and engineers graduating from U.S. universities that can find attractive career openings in the U.S. work-force.   Indeed science and engineering careers in the U.S. appear to be relatively unattractive -- relative that is to alternative professional career paths available to students with strong capabilities in science and math.
 
Third, students emerging from the oft-criticized K-12 system appear to be studying science and math subjects more, and performing better in them, over time.   Nor are U.S. secondary school students lagging far behind comparable students in economically-competitive countries, as is oft-asserted.
 
Fourth, large and remarkably stable percentages of entering freshmen continue to report that they plan to complete majors in science and engineering fields; however, only about half of these ultimately do so.
 
Fifth, the post-doc population, which has grown very rapidly in U.S. universities and is recruited increasingly from abroad, looks more like a pool of low-cost research lab workers with limited career prospects than a high-quality training program for soon-to-be academic researchers.   Indeed, if the truth be told -- only a very small percentage of those in the current post-doc pool have any realistic prospects of gaining a regular faculty position.
 
Sixth, rapid increases in Federal funding for scientific research and education is more likely than not to further destabilize career paths for junior scientists.   Under the current structure, the effect is substantial growth in "slots" for PhD students and post-docs to conduct the supported research, but only limited increases in the numbers of career positions (I will give you a concrete and large example in a moment).
 
There are many researchers and organizations that have developed this set of understandings of what is actually happening -- for example: leading researchers at the Rand Corporation; Harvard University; National Bureau of Economic Research; Urban Institute; Georgetown University; Georgia State University; Stanford University; etc.   I'll be happy to provide your staff with a bibliography of the now-substantial body of research and analysis that comes broadly to this set of conclusions...   In my judgment, what you are hearing is simply the expressions of interests by interest groups and their lobbyists...   the way we currently fund graduate education in science is a recipe for instability, for enthusiastic booms followed by dispiriting busts...
 
What should NOT be done is to take actions that will increase the supply of scientists and engineers that are not intimately coupled with serious measures to ensure that comparable increases occur in the demand for scientists and engineers...   the positive feed-back loops in the current system will produce destructive effects over the medium term -- deteriorating grant success rates, and declining interest in science and engineering studies and careers among domestic students.
 
It has long been the case that no one has been able to accurately forecast future labor market demand for highly-educated scientists and engineers more than a few years into the future --- as an outstanding National Academies report on the topic concluded forcefully in 2000...   the risks and uncertainties of pursuing a STEM career in the U.S.A. are rising...
 
Charles A. Goldman and William F. Massy, _The PhD Factory: Training and Employment of Science and Engineering Doctorates in the United States_ (Boston: Anker Publishing, 2001). The research on which this book was based was supported by a peer-reviewed grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation...   David Korn, et al., "The NIH Budget in the 'Post-doubling' Era", _Science_, Vol 296, 2002 May 24, pp. 1401-1402...   Dr. Paula Stephan of Georgia State University "Careers for Biomedical Scientists (pdf)...   National Research Council, Office of Scientific and Engineering Personnel, _Forecasting Demand and Supply of Doctoral Scientists and Engineers: Report of a Work-Shop on Methodology_ (Washington: National Academies Press, 2000)...
-30-
 

2007-11-06
Patrick Thibodeau _ComputerWorld_/_IDG_
Senator Charles Grassley says H-1B visas are abused to displace capable US workers
InfoWorld
"Grassley, who has been a vocal H-1B critic, also cited a string of 'bad apple' practices associated with the visa program.   'One of my constituents has shared copies of e-mails showing how he's often bombarded with requests by companies who want to lease their H-1B workers to him.', the senator said, referring to visa holders who are awaiting a work assignment -- or on the bench, in industry parlance.   'Another constituent sent me a letter saying that he saw first-hand how foreign workers were brought in while Iowans with similar qualifications were let go.', Grassley said.   'He tells me that he is a computer professional with more than 20 years of experience.   He was laid off and has yet to find a job.'   Grassley and senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) pushed for [token, ineffective] H-1B reforms in legislation that was introduced last Spring..."

2007-11-06
Stephanie Overby _CIO_/_IDG_
The on-going wave of globalisation: Off-Shoring R&D to India and Red China
"[Body shopper]-turned-academic Vivek Wadhwa is up front about his [abuse] of off-shoring and importing foreign talent in a previous professional life as founder and CEO of 2 technology [body shops].   'I was one of the first to out-source software development to Russia in the early 1990s.   I was one of the first to use H-1B visas to bring workers to the U.S.A.', Wadhwa says.   'Why did I do that?   Because it was cheaper.'   That tactic is even more lucrative for corporations today, says Wadhwa: 'When you have a person on H-1B waiting for a green card, you have them captive for 6 to 10 years.'...   'I had 4 or 5 students come up to me one week and ask, ''What courses can we take that will make us out-sourcing-proof?''', says Wadhwa.   'These students were paying megabucks to study there and should be very well sought after and yet they were worried about their jobs.   That didn't make sense to me.'   He and his students began to explore what he describes as commonly accepted misinformation about graduation rates around the globe and the 'skills shortage' forcing U.S. companies to go abroad...   According to the U.S. Department of Education, America matriculates 70K students with under-graduate degrees in engineering every year, versus 350K produced by India and 600K produced by [Red China].   But [Red China's] numbers, which Wadhwa calls 'propaganda', include 'short cycle' degrees and rely on a looser definition of engineering...   India's numbers also include 2-year diplomas.   As a result, India and [Red China] can promote themselves as engineering-degree machines but 'the vast majority of the graduates are un-employable', he says...   There's a shortage all right, says Wadhwa, but it's 'a shortage of engineers below market price that work day and night like slave labour'...   87% said U.S. workers were as productive as or more so than Indian or Chinese workers, and 96% said that their U.S. locations produced equal or higher quality work than their centres in [Red China] and India.   The advantage with U.S. workers, according to survey respondents, included communication skills, understanding of U.S. industry, business acumen, education and proximity.   Chinese workers were valued for their low labour cost and willingness to work long hours, while Indian workers were sought after for their low labour cost, work ethic, English skills and technical knowledge...   India produces fewer than 1K PhDs a year compared to nearly 8K in the U.S.A...   many of the researchers and scientists currently working there were educated in the U.S.A...   Though cost-cutting remains the driver behind off-shoring, Engardio says this work won't come back to the U.S.A. as India's wages or other costs rise.   'The shift is permanent.', Engardio says.   IOW, American workers may be terrific.   But they're expensive..."
Lou Dobbs video, Ron Hira

2007-11-06
Mark Krikorian _Center for Immigration Studies_
Supply of Farm Workers

2007-11-06 (5768 Mar-Cheshvan 25)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
Stop "making a difference"
 

2007-11-07

2007-11-06 16:27PST (2007-11-06 19:27EST) (2007-11-07 00:27GMT)
Sheila Riley _EE Times_
Report says math and science talent is plentiful in USA

2007-11-07 10:49PST (13:49EST) (18:49GMT)
Rex Nutting _MarketWatch_
Productivity rose 4.9%, unit labor costs fell 0.2% in 2007 Q3

2007-11-07
Tori Newmyer _Roll Call_
Lobbyists Complain Ethics Law Mandates to Disclose Clients Is Unfair
"At issue is a piece of the bill aimed at requiring new disclosures for 'stealth lobbying coalitions' -- those shadowy groups with seemingly harmless names that spring up to lobby while refusing to disclose who is behind them.   The new law requires the coalitions to disclose any organization that contributes at least $5K per quarter and actively participates in shaping the lobbying campaign.   But unlike earlier Democratic proposals, the language of the final reform package does not exempt established trade associations from the rule -- which means they could be forced to disclose their members as well."

2007-11-07 (5768 Mar-Cheshvan 26)
Walter E. Williams _Jewish World Review_
Academic Cess-Pools part 2

2007-11-07
Marianne Kolbasuk McGee _Information Week_/_CMP_
Congress axed amendment to add scholarship fee to H-1B visas
 

2007-11-08

2007-11-08 05:30PST (08:30EST) (13:30GMT)
Subri Raman & Tony Sznoluch _DoL ETA_
un-employment insurance weekly claims report
current press release
"The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 324,232 in the week ending Nov. 3, an increase of 20,589 from the previous week.   There were 326,711 initial claims in the comparable week in 2006.   The advance unadjusted insured un-employment rate was 1.7% during the week ending Oct. 27, unchanged from the prior week.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 2,264,639, an increase of 22,630 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 1.6% and the volume was 2,150,055.   Extended benefits were not available in any state during the week ending Oct. 20."
graphs

2007-11-08
Chuck Grassley _Wall Street Journal_
Investing in America for a change would make things better
"I'm startled to learn that the Wall Street Journal seriously believes that an investment in American students will make things worse for U.S. businesses.   Your editorial asserts that the number of foreign workers on H-1B visas is so minimal that we shouldn't care if Americans are in fact displaced.   I challenge the Journal to wave their labor force figures in the face of one of the hi-tech workers who have had to train their own replacement who is an H-1B visa holder.   That's a smack in the face to the American worker and hardly an issue to take lightly.   I am committed to an effort to include additional H-1B reforms and increase the visa supply along with an increased investment to educate Americans.   But, I strongly disagree that the only solution is to increase our reliance on foreign workers by raising the annual cap.   Reforms to the program must be a top priority.   Big business cannot continue to ignore the home-grown American talent who should be getting at least a good portion of these jobs."

2007-11-08
Z. Byron Wolf _abc_
Ron Paul vs. Ben Bernanke on the value of the dollar
"when you are Ron Paul, although you are technically a Republican, you are really a libertarian, and your strict adherence to the gospel of the Constitution leads you to question why the Federal Reserve -- the consortium of 12 reserve banks that acts as the U.S. central bank -- even exists.   It doesn't say anything about any central bank in the Constitution.   Not only that, the primary responsibility of the Federal Reserve -- to control the money flow and availability of currency on the open market -- is something that you, Ron Paul, find incorrigible.   The government, you believe, creates inflation when it prints money and moves it willy-nilly into the market to control the very inflation you think it's causing by moving that money around in the first place."

2007-11-08
Marianne Kolbasuk McGee _Information Week_/_CMP_
H-1B visa changes look unlikely this year
 

2007-11-09

2007-11-09 05:51PST (08:51EST) (13:51GMT)
Rex Nutting _MarketWatch_
US trade deficit reached 2-year low
"A surge in exports in September helped push the U.S. trade deficit down to $56.5G, the lowest in more than two years, the Commerce Department reported Friday.   U.S. exports rose 1.1% to a record $140.1G on record shipments of capital goods, industrial materials and foods.   Boosted by record imports of capital goods and an increase in the value of petroleum shipments, imports into the United States increased 0.6% to $196.6G, the second highest ever...   Compared with a year ago, the trade deficit has fallen by about 14%, with exports up 14% and imports rising 4.9%."

2007-11-09 06:05PST (09:05EST) (14:05GMT)
Robert Schroeder & Rex Nuting _MarketWatch_
U.S. October import prices up 1.8% on higher oil

2007-11-09 11:07PST (14:07EST) (19:07GMT)
Ruth Mantell _MarketWatch_
UMich consumer sentiment index fell from 80.9 in October to 75 (1966=100; with graph)

2007-11-09 12:57PST (15:57EST) (20:57GMT)
Rex Nutting _MarketWatch_
Could California be in recession?: Rise in un-employment shows down-turn

2007-11-09
Thomas Brewton _View from 1776_
Leftist "income gap" hobby-horse has just left the stable

2007-11-09
Frosty Wooldridge _American Chronicle_
America's Body Count of Immigration Suicide
"Today, our Congress and president serve foreign constituents above US citizens with H-1B and L-1 visas that have given 1M jobs to foreigners in India, [Red China] and Brazil.   Our wages, standards of living and quality of life are being eroded.   In 1965, we had 72 immigration lawyers.   Today, 8K immigration lawyers serve illegal aliens by exploiting every means possible to block deportation."

2007-11-09
Frosty Wooldridge _American Chronicle_
Immigration's Destruction of America's Middle Class

2007-11-09
_National Socialist Radio_
How the USA measures up in math and science (video)
alternate path

2007-11-09

DJIA	13,042.74
S&P 500	1,453.70
NASDAQ	2,627.94
10-year US T-Bond	4.23%
crude oil	$96.32/barrel
gold	$834.70/ounce
silver	$15.545/ounce
platinum	$1,426.00/ounce
palladium	$376.25/ounce
copper	$0.19659375/ounce
natgas	$7.878/MBTU
reformulatedgasoline	$2.455/gal
heatingoil	$2.6177/gal

I usually get this info from MarketWatch and the "Futures Movers" and "Metals Stocks" columns (and BigCharts and FT Interactive).
 
 

2007-11-10

2007-11-10
Feline "Queen Anna", of fond memory, died this morning at about 03:00PST (06:00EST) (11:00GMT).

2007-11-10
Mark Lane _Daytona Beach News-Journal_
Step 1: Discard directions
"As a writer, I'm painfully aware of the number of un-employed, under-employed, semiemployed and will-work-for-food writers and editors out there.   Our cheap and useful guidance would, in a more rational world, make consumers happier.   Less likely to tie up customer call centers in India.   Less likely to throw objects at the clerks behind the return counters.   Less likely to electrocute themselves.   On the rare occasion when I do see a product explained well, I can be overcome with professional admiration.   Just look at those wordless LEGO instructions some time to see how little plastic blocks can be turned into space ships.   These are works of art.   I salute them."
 

2007-11-11

2007-11-11
Kim Berry _Programmers Guild_
Bias against American tech workers

2007-11-11
"kdawson" _SlashDot_
Red Chinese trojan horse found in new disk drives
Ziff Davis
 

2007-11-12

2007-11-12
Norman Matloff _H-1B/ L-1/ Off-Shoring e-News-Letter_
on the Urban Institute report on science/math education
Readers will recall that a couple of weeks ago I commented on a BusinessWeek On-Line article about a forthcoming study by the Urban Institute on the state of science and math education in the U.S.A.   The theme of the study is that contrary to many claims made by various parties, a close look at the data shows that American kids are doing pretty well in science/math at the K-12 level, and that the colleges and universities produce far more graduates in science/math than the economy and society need.
 
I view the science/math "crisis" as manufactured for political ends (see below), and I must say that the authors of the Urban Institute study have done an excellent job.   The analysis is very, very careful -- itself a rare commodity these days -- and includes a wealth of interesting insights and details.   Authors B. Lindsay Lowell and Hal Salzman are to be commended.
 
In my previous comments on the study and its potential role in the H-1B debate, I pointed out the negative claims seen constantly in the press are largely direct or indirect plants by industry lobbyists and their proxies aimed at pressuring Congress to expand the H-1B work visa program, and that most of the educational issues are irrelevant to the H-1B issue (M$ and Intel don't hire many math majors, for instance, so the issue of math graduates is irrelevant).   I also pointed out that the main points of the UI study are not new, though the details seemed interesting based on the summary I saw at the time.   Having now read the study, I comment on it here, and also on the "debate" on NPR [Friday] between one of the study's authors and Craig Barrett, Chairman of Intel... [Full Urban Institute report (pdf)]
 
Let's take the NPR show first [which can be viewed here].
 
As noted, all the breathless press reports on the alleged woes of science/math education in the U.S.A. stem largely from direct or indirect efforts of industry lobbyists to pressure Congress to increase the H-1B visa cap.   The indirect versions of this typically are funneled through commissions stacked by industry representatives and their academic allies, the latter having hidden vested interests of their own concerning H-1B, as I've explained before.   Not surprisingly, then, when inviting UI study author Salzman to appear on yesterday's show, Talk of the Nation host Ira Flatow also invited Intel Chairman Barrett to serve as counter-point.   He also invited Shirley M. Malcom, head of education and human resources at the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
 
Salzman started the show off by giving a summary of the findings of his study.   Barrett responded quite predictably (the following is quite close to verbatim, from notes I jotted down): "[Salzman is wrong in saying we are producing plenty of science/math graduates.]   Just look at the numbers of H-1B visas we use to import foreign tech workers.   We wouldn't be doing that if we had an adequate supply here?...   Look at the graduate students in physical science and engineering.   We have 60% foreign nationals.   Why would we have that if we had an excess supply of domestic students?"
 
Of course, this is egregiously misleading.   The reason companies like Intel hire H-1Bs is not because they can't find qualified Americans but because the H-1Bs serve as cheap labor, especially as a means to avoid hiring the "expensive" over-40 Americans.   This is well-documented, as readers of this e-news-letter know; see my report [pdf] for extensive details and citations.
 
Following up on Barrett's comments on the large numbers of foreign students in U.S. science/engineering PhD programs, Salzman said, "[So many Americans get bachelor's degrees in science/math but] only 1/3 go on to graduate school.   It puzzles us."
 
The answer is that this situation, in which relatively few Americans pursue a graduate dgree, was, incredibly, a deliberate goal of our National Science Foundation.   And equally incredibly, the NSF pushed Congress to enact the H-1B program in 1990 for this express purpose.   In the late 1980s, the NSF complained that PhD salaries were too high, and proposed a solution to this "problem" in the form of importing a large number of foreign students.   The NSF noted that the resulting stagnant salaries for PhDs would drive the American students away:
 
A growing influx of foreign PhDs into U.S. labor markets will hold down the level of PhD salaries...   [The Americans] will select alternative career paths... [as] the effective premium for acquiring a PhD may actually be negative.
 
(Eric Weinstein How and Why Government, Universities, and Industry Create Domestic Labor Shortages of Scientists and High-Tech Workers, NBER, MIT, 1998)
 
Clearly, the NSF's projection/goal has now been realized.
 
Then came the show's one phone caller.   And he was right on point.   The caller noted that his wife had a degree in the life sciences, but had finally bitten the bullet and quit graduate study to attend medical school.   She had reached this decision by noting that what would face her as a PhD in the life sciences was a dismal future of low pay and poor job tenure -- as opposed, of course, to a good income as a physician.   He also noted that foreign students and H-1Bs (the post-docs) are happy to accept the low pay and poor job security because they get a green card out it, something that has high non-monetary value to them.
 
That summed things up perfectly.   Barrett then responded in a predictable manner, stating, "It's illegal to under-pay H-1Bs."   Barrett was wrong here on 2 counts.   First, the huge loop-holes in the law make it easy to under-pay H-1Bs yet be in full compliance with legal requirements.   I've detailed how this is done in my writings on this issue [pdf].
 
But more importantly for the present context, Barrett missed the caller's point (maybe due to too much time with his handlers in rehearsing canned answers to "anticipated questions").   The caller wasn't saying that foreign-national post-docs get paid less than American ones in those post-doc jobs; he was saying that due to the willingness of the foreign nationals to work for low pay, universities can keep post-doc pay very low [and the chance to latch onto a more permanent position less likely], thus making it unattractive to Americans.
 
It's sad that Salzman did not comment on Barrett's claim that H-1Bs aren't used for cheap labor.   Salzman knows the claim to be false.   The National Research Council, commissioned by Congress, hired Salzman to conduct research on the H-1B pay and other issues, and his work is one of the studies I often cite on this issue.   The NRC writes that "...based on interviews with some H-1B employers, Salzman reported that H-1B workers in jobs requiring lower levels of IT skill received lower wages, less senior job titles, smaller signing bonuses, and smaller pay and compensation increases than would be typical for the work they actually did." See my university law journal article for some more on this point (including the qualifier "lower levels") [pdf].
 
Salzman has in fact been critical of the H-1B program, but to my great dismay, he is part of a group of researchers, including Richard Freeman, Ron Hira and Vivek Wadhwa, who have signed on to IEEE-USA's proposal to expand the employment-based green card program instead of increasing the H-1B cap.   As I will explain below, these analysts are misguided, but I certainly understand why they take such a position.
 
First, such a stance has the political advantage of projecting a pro-immigration ethos, important both in general political terms and also to mollify the industry.   It is interesting, for instance, that in a Brookings working paper proposing a method to increase the number of American students pursuing doctorates, Freeman says,
 
I present a policy -- increasing the number and value of graduate fellowships in science and engineering -- that can augment the supply of U.S. students in science and engineering without impairing access to immigrant scientists and engineers,
 
That last clause alludes to the fact that the Hamilton Project, which funded Freeman's research, is largely a Wall Street operation founded by Robert Rubin, and is bent on getting those foreign workers.   Note that former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan recently stated, quite explicitly, that these imported tech workers are "needed" in order to hold down wages.   (See my analysis of the Bloomberg news article on Greenspan's remarks.)
 
The second reason some analyses find the fast-track green card idea so appealing is that it is tailor-made for the economist mentality: Since the H-1Bs are typically de facto indentured servants and thus subject to exploitation, the "solution" would seem to be to give them green cards and thus full mobility in the labor market.   I have high respect for all of the analysts I mentioned above, but unfortunately their solution is wrong, a non-solution, because it ignores an even more fundamental economic principle, the law of supply and demand.
 
What they over-look is that H-1B is more than anything about AGE; it enables employers to hire young H-1Bs instead of older (age 40+) Americans.   That is the biggest reason Intel, M$ et al. want the foreign workers so much -- and they don't care all that much whether they are H-1Bs or green card holders.   Giving the foreign students -- almost all of whom are young -- green cards swells the youth labor market just like the H-1B program does, and thus is only slightly less harmful.
 
Thus it is ironic that those calling for fast-track green cards, whom I believe are mostly my fellow political liberals, are supporting legislation that would serve as a vehicle for age discrimination just as much as the H-1B program does.   (I'm using the term "age discrimination" in a colloquial sense, not a legal one.   At least on the federal level, it is legal to shun older workers for younger ones if the latter cost less.)
 
Back to the show: Then Barrett gave another canned answer to the caller:
 
"Intel, M$ and other firms hire hundreds of PhDs each year, at above-average salaries."
 
That phrase "above average" is an industry lobbyist favorite, meaning "above the average salary made by all workers in all occupations in the U.S.A.".   Of course, it's completely misleading.   The comparison shouldn't be to what a baker or truck driver makes; it should be to what others with high levels of education can make.   And the caller's point was that his wife can make far more as a physician than she can as a PhD biologist.
 
The same is true for Barrett's own firm, if it's anything like M$.   At M$, a new PhD in computer science makes about $90K, while M$ pays newly-minted lawyers $140K.   And the gap grows after that.
 
Again, keep in mind that this discrepancy is exactly what the NSF planned.
 
The UI report points out:
 
...research finds that the real wages in S&E occupations declined over the past 2 decades...
 
Malcom made an important point about post-docs.   PhD scientists these days must go through a succession of post-doc position to even have hope of finding a permanent position.   In the old days, they would do just one post-doc stint, for a couple of years.   Malcom pointed out that this is direct evidence of an over-supply of PhDs in all the post-doc-oriented fields.
 
Salzman also contended that the international test scores don't necessarily tell us the direction in which our own schools should go.   "Singapore is number one in those international school rankings, but we're creative.   Do we want to have a rote-memory system like Singapore's?   I don't think so."   Of course I fully agree with him.
 
The UI study found that overall American kids are doing well, not always at the very top, but certainly in a good range, and that American students often did better ACROSS subjects.   For example, the authors remark
 
...percentages of fourth-grade students at or above the high achievement bench-mark in science ranged from 27% in Scotland to 49% in Japan.   In the United States, 45% of students reached the high bench-mark in science The percentages of students meeting the advanced bench-mark in science ranged from 5% in Scotland to 15% in England (with Japan at 12%).
 
Barrett retorted that this isn't good enough; the U.S. needs to be consistently at the TOP.   The UI study questioned that assertion (see also an excellent piece in a recent issue of the American Prospect), saying for instance,
 
Does the level of panic about lagging U.S. performance, and characterizations of a student population falling dramatically behind those in other countries correspond to actual performance differences of a few percentage points?   Or perhaps more to the point, what, exactly, does a 1.7 percentage point gap mean?   Even using the normalized scores, the gap is only 0.17 of one standard deviation.   Does this really represent a threat to the nation's science, engineering, or innovation capacity?   Is a country with a 62% correct response rate versus a 64% correct response rate at a disadvantage in producing leading-edge technology, pioneering science, or delivering efficient services or production?   There is no empirical basis for drawing such conclusions, so it seems the answer is just assumed.   Normalized scores are a useful metric for representing a population distribution but they do not necessarily provide any insight into the importance of the differences, and seldom is the magnitude of the score differences analyzed.
 
But even if Barrett is correct, then why is he advocating policies that encourage America's best and brightest science students to NOT go into science, as I discussed above?   Indeed, the UI authors make this point too:
 
...IT executives calling for greatly increasing, or even completely removing, numerical caps on foreign worker visas (e.g. the H-1B) may be sending strong signals to students and current workers about diminished career opportunities.   Human capital is a long-term investment and potential S&E students read all the tea leaves before investing.   We have conducted interviews with current managers and engineers who believe that there is little future in entry-level engineering jobs in many industries, and IT in particular.
 
This last statement contrasts greatly with the "study" put out by the ACM, saying that press accounts of the demise of the field have been greatly exaggerated.   The ACM report was highly biased; its president stated before the study began that the goal was to convince students to major in IT fields by showing that the job market is robust, and one member of the study group has spoken out that dissent was dismissed as "anti-industry".   The report engages in statistical sleight of hand and is misleading in umpteen different ways (see my analysis).   But here the UI authors went straight to the source and asked the hiring managers what they thought of future prospects for the job market.   The managers responded negatively, as they have when I've talked with them myself.
 
Now, I do have some comments on the study itself.   I won't go through a list of the main points of the study, which are summarized well in the UI blurb enclosed below, but there are some interesting special points here.
 
Right there on the first page, there is the startling remark,
 
Graduate schools have an ample pool of qualified 4-year graduates to draw from but seem unable or unwilling to do so.
 
"Unwilling"?   What do the authors have in mind here?   Presumably this is an allusion to the point made so often by the industry lobbyists (including Barrett above) that there are large proportions of foreign students in U.S. PhD programs.   The UI authors' point is, I suppose, that there are so many international students interested in pursuing graduate study in the U.S. that the graduate programs simply don't want to spend the time, effort and especially money (in the form of more generous graduate research assistantships) to attract the Americans.   Once again, it boils down to an issue of cheap foreign labor.   Another claim constantly made by the industry lobbyists is that we are going to "lose" the foreign students to our competitors, the latter term referring to the European Union.   The UI authors comment:
 
We will not address this latter concern in depth, but suffice it to say that [although] the competition for S&E students is growing worldwide, the potential supply from abroad remains strong, and it is unclear that the United States must retain the greatest share of the global student body to remain competitive.   More to the point, the United States will retain the lion's share of the global student body under almost any future scenario, and it is unclear that a race to retain a numerical majority will ensure that the United States retains the best and the brightest students.
 
As I explained above, the primary concern ought to be that we are losing our own best and brightest science students, not losing them to other countries but to more lucrative fields outside of science.   Moreover, as shown, the non-lucrative nature of science careers is a direct consequence of bringing in so many people from abroad.   So, to worry that we are not bringing ENOUGH people from abroad is to get it exactly backwards.
 
I have always strongly supported bringing in the best and the brightest from around the world, but only a small proportion of our foreign students in science and engineering are in that category.   I discuss this in detail in my university law journal article at the above link.
 
Interestingly, the UI authors seem to realize that the tech industry lobbyists are playing games with the data, for example by looking at the number of graduates in ALL science/engineering disciplines, when the industry hires mainly in only a few of those areas.   They say,
 
We focus here on the aggregate level and ALL science/engineering degrees in order to evaluate the broad based assertion that all S&E output is in decline.
 
All in all, the UI people have produced an excellent study.   Those of you readers who are researchers and journalists would find that it is well worth reading.   The UI summary follows below.
 
Norm
- 30 -
 

2007-11-12
Lin Ching-lin _Taipei Times_
Red Chinese sub-contractor blamed for trojan horses in disk drives
"Seagate recommended that all customers who had purchased the product install protective anti-virus software.   To this end, Seagate said that Kaspersky Labs would offer all Seagate customers a 60-day fully functional version of the Kaspersky Lab Anti-Virus 7.0 software for download and installation.   In September, the British online information technology magazine The Register published information saying that Kaspersky Labs had found a pre-installed virus named Virus.Win32.AutoRun.ah on Maxtor 3200 external hard drives sold in the Netherlands.   When the virus accesses software, it looks for gaming passwords and deletes mp3 files."

2007-11-12
Mike Brooks _NY Sun_
Our Collapsing Economy
"Even though most of the Wall Street crowd don't talk much about it, there are grudging admission that our out-of-control free trade policies have led to this mess.   You cannot outsource the crown jewels of your technology, your technical and scientific jobs (or, worse, replace American's with those skills with cheap foreign guest workers...   the H1-B and L-1 visas programs that have cost 4M U.S. engineers and programmers their jobs), and expect to survive as a nation and as a viable economic entity.   We either place curbs on out-sourcing, in the forms of duties and fees and taxes on goods and services that are produced as a result of outsourcing, or the only world that will be flat will be ours, as we are crushed by the greed of corporations and investors."

2007-11-12
Patrick Thibodeau _NetworkWorld_
NACE says recent CS grads get higher offers, but mid-career IT workers' careers continue to be in peril
"The heightened interest is evident in survey data collected by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), which reported in September that computer science graduates have been offered an average salary of $53,051 this year, up 4.5% from last year’s level.   Contomanolis is president-elect of Bethlehem, Pa.-based NACE, which also says that those graduating with MIS degrees this year have received an average starting salary offer of $47,407, up 4.7% year to year.   The salaries being offered to computer science graduates from the class of 2007 are the highest reported to NACE in the past 7 years.   The next-highest salary level was recorded in 2001, when graduates were offered $52,4703 on average...   Electronic Data Systems Corp. said in a filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last month that it was offering an early retirement program to about 12K of its 50K U.S. workers."

2007-11-12
Nidhi Hareja _abc_
Brains of children with ADHD develop about 3 years later
Medical News Today
"'In children with ADHD, the brain matures in a normal pattern but is delayed by 3 years in some regions, when compared to children without the disorder.', said the study's lead investigator, Dr. Philip Shaw, a child psychiatrist at the National Institute of Mental Health.   According to the National Resource Center on ADHD, the condition is the most common neurodevelopment disorder of childhood.   It is present in 5% to 8% of school age children, with symptoms persisting into adulthood in as many as 60% of cases...   Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)...   The scientists found that the outer mantle of the brain -- the cortex -- develops with an average delay of 3 years among ADHD children.   They studied 450 children, 225 had ADHD, while the other 225 did not."

2007-11-12 (5768 Kislev 02)
Rabbi Doctor Asher Meir _Jewish World Review_
Judaism and the National Government Debt
 
 

2007-11-13

2007-11-13 16:00PST (19:00EST) (midnight GMT)
Lou Dobbs _CNN_
Yahoo! CEO apologized for being in bed with Red Chinese rulers; US science and tech talent is plentiful; more poisonous products from Red China; Old, spoiled meat given a like-fresh look with carbon monoxide
video clip
Lou Dobbs: Also tonight, Yahoo! reaches a settlement in a case that highlighted Yahoo!'s close links with China's communist regime and its cooperation with a police state for the purpose of commerce.   We'll have the report.
 
And, we'll challenge corporate America's repeated assertions it can't find enough qualified Americans to fill key technology jobs.   It turns out it just ain't so.   Imagine that.   We'll have that story, and a great deal more as we continue, live tonight with our "Independents Day" tour, live from, you guessed it, there's the Space Needle, Seattle, Washington.   We'll be right back...
 
Lou Dobbs: New study show American colleges are producing more than enough graduates in Science and Math in this country to fill the needs of U.S. business, but corporate America continues to claim there simply aren't enough Americans trained in those fields and they must hire foreign workers, workers that of course end up being paid quite a bit less than American workers.   Bill Tucker has our report.
 
Bill Tucker: There is no shortage of students studying for careers in Math and Science.   There is a shortage of jobs.   That's the simply bottom line finding of a new study from the Urban Institute [pdf].
 
The study shows that between 1985 and 2000 435K U.S. citizens and permanent residents a year graduated with Bachelors, Masters, and Doctoral degrees in Science and Engineering.   That's 3 times the number of jobs in Science and Engineering added per year, 150K during that time.
 
Separately Michael Teitelbaum at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation told Congress last week (pdf) that neither he nor a separate study by the RAND Corporation can find any evidence of worker shortages.   These studies are not anomalies.
 
Vivek Wadhwa, Harvard University, Duke University and former cross-border body shopper: Bottom line is that all of our research at Duke and now at Harvard shows the same thing.   That there is no shortage of engineers; there's no shortage of scientists.   Companies aren't going abroad because of skills.   They're going abroad because it's cheaper.
 
Bill Tucker: As a result, Wadhwa says that more than half of the engineering graduate students at Duke don't pursue engineering as a career and there is another indicator that the market is anything but short of scientists and engineers.
 
Paul Almeida, department for professional employees, AFL-CIO: We should be trying to figure out how to incentivize (ph) students to advance in these Math and Science areas.   It's clearly that there is no shortage.   If there is a shortage, the supply and demand wages would be going up in these areas.
 
Bill Tucker: Wages in the science and engineering fields over the last 5 years when adjusted for inflation have been basically flat.
 
Now Lou, that's the Urban Institute, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Duke, Harvard, the RAND Corporation.   Studies done independently of each other, different researches, different funding, all reaching the same basic conclusion that there is no worker shortage.   Lou, the problem is not a lack of workers.   The problem these studies all conclude is a lack of companies hiring them.   And as we've reported many, many times on this program those companies either off-shore the work or as you mentioned at the top, demand more H-1B visas and then pay those workers less -- Lou.
 
Lou Dobbs: We've been reporting on this issue, the exporting of American jobs, the out-sourcing of American jobs, middle class jobs, for 4 years.   And point of fact, the idea that all of these highly regarded, highly respected institutions have found the same thing that we have reported her for 4 years.   Congress just last week, the subcommittee on technology and innovation, suggesting that 30% to 40% of American jobs now are at risk of being out-sourced, in addition to the H-1B problem.
&bsp;
Bill Tucker: Right.
 
Lou Dobbs: Let's put this in some context.   Let's just deal with that H-1B program, which all of these companies want to bring those foreign workers in under.   What's the number of Indian companies that are using H-1B visas, seeking H-1B visas for the purpose of out-sourcing those jobs right here in the United States?
 
Bill Tucker: Well 5 of the top 6 users of the H-1B visa program, Lou, as you well know, are Indian companies.
 
Lou Dobbs: Yes I did, but I wanted because I'm in Seattle, Washington, tonight Bill Tucker, and I thank you very much -- I want to repeat that just for the purpose, the benefit, the illumination, the education, the enlightenment of one of the -- this city's most famous citizens, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates.   Bill Gates is among those calling for more H-1B visas.   In fact, Bill Gates wants an unlimited number of H-1B visas.   And we really think it's important that he be brought up-to-date on this issue.   Gates testified before a Senate committee in March -- by the way, he was the only witness and there was only one fellow chariot -- that was Senator Ted Kennedy -- and Gates said the United States should allow, as he put it, an infinite number of foreign workers.   We can't get above infinite no matter what we do.
 
Bill Gates, M$ chairman: We have to welcome the great minds in this world, not shut them out of our country.   Unfortunately, our immigration policies are driving away the world's best and brightest precisely when we need them the most.
 
Lou Dobbs: Bill Gates, you just heard the RAND Corporation, the Urban Institute, Harvard University, come on and look at the facts.   Most of those H-1B visas are being used by Indian companies seeking to out-source jobs at a very, very reduced wage.   In fact, most of the H-1B computer professionals in this country are brought in at the lowest skill levels; over half of the H-1B visa computer professionals recently admitted to the United States [are being paid] entry level salaries, so much for the advanced, best minds.   These are entry level jobs, not the highly skilled jobs seeking those H-1B visas.
 
So Mr. Gates, I certainly hope that you and I can have a discussion on that.   I'm sure that you would be delighted to do that, but I'm going to ask for something less than an infinite number of H- 1B visas and when we compromise, as a matter of fact, I want to return to 2 years ago levels.
 
Now a follow-up to our reports on how American technology companies are helping communist China crack down on its own citizens.   Technology tonight has a lot to be proud of, don't you think, in the reports that we're considering tonight.   Yahoo! today settled a law-suit with 2 Chinese journalists, both of whom were jailed after Yahoo! provided information about their on-line activities to communist Chinese government officials.
 
Yahoo!'s CEO, Jerry Yang, testified about the incidents before Congress last week.   Yang had the decency and the civility and the maturity to apologize to the mother of one of the jailed journalists after being urged to do so by members of that congressional panel.
 
Congressman Tom Lantos, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Yang (ph) and other Yahoo executives at that hearing, quote, "while technically and financially you are giants, morally you are pygmies".   Today Chairman Lantos said "it took a tongue lashing from Congress before these high-tech titans did the right thing and coughed up some concrete assistance for the family of a journalist whom Yahoo had helped send to jail."
 
Human Rights USA represented the 2 journalists, BTW.   Attorney Morton Spar (ph) tells us more than 200 dissidents in communist China have been arrested as a result of information provided by U.S. Internet companies or by technology provided to [Red China] by U.S. companies...
[Christmas toys, wreaths, lights, etc. have dangerous levels of lead, enough on their surfaces for handling them to cause problems.   Old, spoiled meat is being exposed to carbon monoxide to give it a fresh, red color.   Hillary Clinton's campaign admits planting a question at a public event.]
-30-
2004-07-09: Indicators point to an over-supply of scientists and engineers
2000-10-31: 10th PDK report on the condition of education: NAEP math scores rose from 1990 to 1996
1995-06-05: Doctorate surplus in science and engineering continues
 

2007-11-13
_AP_/_Technology Review_
Yahoo! agreed to pay reparations and apologized for their role in arrest of Chinese for political dissent
Tech Republic/Ziff Davis
"Yahoo! would not say whether its dealings in [Red China] or Alibaba's mode of responding to government requests will change as a result of the settlement.   But Yahoo! has said it only owns a 40% stake in Alibaba and has no control over the Chinese company, a subsidiary of Alibaba Group.   Many other U.S. companies, including Google Inc., Cisco Systems Inc. and M$ Corp., are facing similar quandaries in [Red China], said business professor Peter Navarro of the University of California, Irvine.   'They have all crossed a gray ethical line in [Red China] with their anything-for-a-buck mentality.', Navarro said.   'I don't believe that will change without a broader examination of the U.S.-[Red China] relationship.'   He and other China watchers said the settlement would do little to stem similar behavior by other U.S. business operating in one of the world's fastest growing economies...   At the congressional hearing, Yahoo! chief executive Jerry Yang and general counsel Michael Callahan apologized to Shi's mother, who sat behind them."

2007-11-13
Bill Haymin & Phyllis Schlafly _American Chronicle_
What We Want in a Presidential Candidate
"We want our candidate for President to announce that he considers it a presidential duty to prevent illegal entry into our country.   We want him to be forthright in praising the American people for successfully demanding that the U.S. Senate defeat the Bush-Kennedy Amnesty bill earlier this year.   We want our candidate to promise that he will never try to bamboozle us with a similar so-called 'comprehensive' immigration bill or a so-called 'DREAM Act', that includes amnesty for the millions of illegal aliens now in our country.   We want our candidate to reject any bill that would bring into our country hundreds of thousands more aliens who are falsely called guest-workers, most of whom have never been to high school and will take jobs from our own millions of high-school drop-outs who desperately need entry-level low-paid jobs to start building their lives.   We want our presidential candidate to keep the lid on the multinationals' attempt to bring in thousands more foreigners on H-1B visas, who take jobs from our college graduates, especially our engineers and computer specialists.   We want to hear our candidate's plan for getting the guest-workers already here to leave our country when their visas expire.   We want our candidate to tell us how he will lift the tax burden that Americans suffer today in providing the net value of $20K a year to every illegal alien household.   (That figure is provided by the Heritage Foundation.)..."

2007-11-13
George Leopold _EE Times_/_CMP_
Engineering education report ignites fire
"the number of U.S. engineering graduates is more than sufficient to fill available jobs...   in the words of co-author Harold Salzman, 'Rather than a supply problem, we probably have a demand problem'...   'there has been growth in the number of under-graduates completing [science and engineering (S&E)] studies and the number of S&E graduates remains high by historical standards.'...   The Urban Institute report nevertheless argues that 'the U.S. education system produced qualified graduates far in excess of demand', estimating there are more than 3 times as many engineering under-graduates as technology job openings.   Salzman did, however, conceded one point to his critics, acknowledging that the engineering field in the U.S. isn't what it used to be.   As a profession, 'engineering is not a field that has a bright future', he said.   Quoting an engineer interviewed for the Urban Institute study, Salzman said, 'It was a great ride, but it's over.'"

2007-11-13
Virgil Moore _Mass Media Distribution News Wire_
US citizens send chocolates to USCIS to get prompt processing of visas for fiances
"Waiting times for this initial step have increased from one month in April to five months and climbing - and USCIS has said it will get worse.   This is in spite of a more than 150% increase in the filing fee in July.   This extended time apart is very stressful for the couples who have to deal with separation anxiety, medical issues like miscarriages or family health emergencies, and even children being raised without one parent.   These citizens are angry that USCIS is giving priority to work related visas and has pulled immigration officers off their cases for 'other priorities'.   Another sore point is that USCIS has begun to review many petitions from September and October while earlier petitions from May through August languish untouched.   They also want adjusted what they believe is an unreasonable and unfair internal USCIS goal of 6 months to complete the initial step of the I129f petition (which can take a processor as little as 15 minutes to review).   This type of I129 petitioner is also not allowed to pay for premium 15 day processing as employment visas are allowed to request."

2007-11-13
Jared Taylor _V Dare_
Race/ IQ Explanation Gap At "Achievement Gap Summit"

2007-11-13 (5768 Kislev 03)
Daniel Pipes _Jewish World Review_
US Federal Government Protects the Terror Masters

2007-11-13 (5768 Kislev 03)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
Crusades Versus Caution: Autism part 1
 

2007-11-14

2007-11-13 16:47 (2007-11-13 19:47EST) (2007-11-14 00:47GMT)
_Indiana News Center_
After adjustment for inflation two-thirds of American families earn more than their parents
"experts from The American Enterprise Institute, The Brookings Institution, The Heritage Foundation and The Urban Institute, the project seeks to investigate the status of economic mobility in America...   According to the first report, 'Economic Mobility of Families Across Generations', two-thirds of Americans saw increases in income, adjusted for inflation.   At the same time, Americans live in smaller families, so higher incomes are spread over fewer people.   In percentage terms, income gains were highest for children born to parents at the bottom of the income distribution.   The report also shows that Americans' ability to move up or down the economic ladder is tied closely to their parents' economic position.   42% of children born to parents at the bottom of the income distribution remain at the bottom, while 39% born to parents at the top, stay at the top...   While black children are experiencing some of the income gains that all Americans do -- 63% make more today, after inflation, than their parents did -- there are dramatic differences between blacks and whites at each income level.   The report found that only 31% of black children born to parents in the middle-income group have family income greater than their parents, compared to 68% of white children in the same circumstance.   Further, nearly half (45%) of black children in the middle-income group fall to the bottom of the income distribution in one generation, compared to only 16% of white children.   In fact, for every parental income group, white children are more likely to move ahead of their parents' economic rank while black children are more likely to fall behind."

2007-11-14
Jennifer LeClaire _Sci-Tech Today_
Yahoo! settles with families of journalists jailed in Red China
"'It is not the end of the issue.', U.S. representative Tom Lantos, the San Mateo Democrat who chaired last week's hearing, said in a published statement.   'Yahoo! and other U.S.-based Internet companies need to work harder to ensure that they resist any attempts by authoritarian regimes to make them complicit in cracking down on free speech -- otherwise, they simply should not do business in those markets.'"

2007-11-14
_New America Media_/_World Journal_
Traitorous senators petition DHS for extension of OPT to 29 months
"19 U.S. senators have written to Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff earlier this week asking to extend the Optional Practical Training (OPT) visa for international students from the current 12 months to 29 months, according to the World Journal.   The OPT visas allow international students to legally work in the United States for up to 12 months after they graduate. During that time, they can apply for their H1B work visas...   Patrick Leahy (D-VT), John Kerry (D-MA), Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Charles Schumer (D-NY), asked for the extension."

2007-11-14
Warner Todd Huston _Border Fire Report_
Richard Nadler & J.D. Hayworth positions on immigration aren't far apart
Stop the ACLU
Post Chronicle
Mens News Daily
"I also got the feeling that Nadler expected to be roughly treated by everyone he came across at this conservative gathering because he feared that our 'home-boys', as he put it, were not too keen on hearing about policies that comforted Hispanics...   Nadler appears to be an open boarder economist type and, in Rovian fashion, ready to bend principle to any measure that will get the Hispanic vote and assure the GOP a seat at the table of power for the foreseeable future.   Hayworth appears to be a raging nativist, anti-immigrant advocate who has no problem throwing away the very power Nadler wishes to cement in place if it means stopping 'them' from getting into the country...   Hayworth's fears that we are, indeed, in danger of throwing away our principles just to get that Hispanic vote is also a trenchant point...   'our message of national security and border security, ah, the American people get it and sadly the malefactors of great wealth -- or as we might say with the Fred Travalena game show of the 1980's, the anything for money crowd -- is desperately trying to change people's minds.   But the American people are having none of it.'...   Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once said, 'We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.'...   For instance, Hayworth accuses Nadler of being an open borders type who does not care about our sovereignty or the integrity of the border and that cheap labor is all he is interested in.   If one were to judge by what he's 'already done', and by his own admission, Nadler was an open borders type in the past.   He claims, however, that [the terrorist attacks of 2001/09/11] changed that for him.   He is now a believer in building the fence and in making sure we know who is coming into the country.   Of course, this -- if we can take Nadler at face value -- is exactly where Hayworth stands...   [Hayworth said] 'Now, I don't call for mass deportation and guess what happens once you start enforcing the law?   People start obeying the law.'   And, it turns out that Nadler feels that Hispanics tend to agree with Hayworth on enforcing the law.   'You can advocate for more border patrol, for more fence, for more electronic surveillance, for expedited deportation of people who do violent crimes.', without losing the Hispanic vote, according to Nadler...   Nadler laments that the rule of law has broken down with the Federal government not enforcing our immigration laws.   'But in effect', Nadler told me, 'you have had a break down of law over 25 years involving vast sectors of the population, not just the immigrants themselves, not just the illegals but the people who employ them... and also the people who voted the people in office who haven't enforced the laws...'   Hayworth basically said the same thing with, 'Enforce the law.   And for all those who say, ''Oh, it won't work.'', how do ya know? We've never even tried it.'...   The Bush administration announced not long ago that they would allow another 10K Middle Eastern men (mostly Saudis) into this country on student visas...   Both men also agreed that a more effective policy for imported workers is called for.   Hayworth wants to re-tool our H1B visa program to get the best and brightest 'those who can contribute to our way of life in the United States'.   And Nadler wants to talk of a guest-worker program to control the flow of needed workers..."
Hayworth interview
Nadler interview
index to articles by Warner Todd Huston

2007-11-14
Doug Carlson _Felonious State University_
Florida has fewer physicians than previously estimated
WCTV
Capitol News Service
Composite: "The number of physicians in Florida is about 34K.   Florida has more than 18M people and the population is growing by 300K each year.   13% of physicians in Florida plan to leave or significantly reduce practice within the next 5 years.   The average age of survey respondents was 51 and a quarter of physicians are older than 60, indicating an aging work-force that could be severely affected by attrition through retirement in the not-too-distant future...   In Florida, about 50% of the state's allopathic physicians renew their licenses in a given year.   Brooks and Menachemi completed their analysis using the 2007 voluntary survey.   Of the 24,840 physicians who went through renewal in 2007, 88% (22,035) responded to the survey.   Of those, more than 5K (23%) do not have a practice address in Florida and were excluded from the survey results...   Extrapolating the accumulated data of the 15,518 responding physicians with a Florida practice address helped Menachemi and Brooks glean interesting and previously unknown trends in the state's physician work-force.   For example, more than 22% of responding general surgeons in Broward, Orange and Polk counties said they intend to leave or significantly reduce practice within 5 years.   In Polk County, more than 21% of surgical specialists, anesthesiologists and pathologists also are planning to leave or significantly reduce practice by 2012.   Statewide, an average of more than 14% of respondents indicated a similar planned reduction or departure from all of the following specialties: radiology, surgical specialties, family medicine, pathology, emergency medicine, psychiatry, obstetrics and gynecology and general surgery."

2007-11-14
Edwin S. Rubenstein _V Dare_
Penicillin Is No Match for Immigration

2007-11-14 (5768 Kislev 04)
Bryan Appleyard _Jewish World Review_
A NeuroScientist's Case for the Existence of the Soul
"There is no clear scientific consensus on how the brain produces the higher functions we call being human...   How does matter produce mind, how can it?"

2007-11-14 (5768 Kislev 04)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
Crusades Versus Caution: Autism part 2

2007-11-14 (5768 Kislev 04)
Walter E. Williams _Jewish World Review_
Congressional and Leftist Lies
 

2007-11-15

2007-11-15
Norman Matloff _H-1B/ L-1/ Off-Shoring e-News-Letter_
more on the Urban Institute study -- and now, a "competitor"
 
[Recently published items of interest are] an insightful piece from the Electronic Engineering Times and a
transcript... from the Lou Dobbs show, both on the Urban Institute study of science and math education in the U.S.A.   Many of you readers will recall that I reviewed that study here a few days ago.   Afterward, [I'll comment on] an article on another study, reported on in the New York Times.
 
The EET article includes some very insightful comments by the dean of engineering at Dartmouth, surprising as university administrators generally love to cry wolf on education, in the hope it brings them more funding, and to please their industrial patrons.   (If you study computer science at Stanford University, your courses will be in Bill Gates Hall, right across the street from the Wm. Hewlett Teaching Center and the David Packard electrical engineering building, etc.)
 
Here's the excerpt quoting the dean:
 
The math and science backgrounds of foreign and U.S. students appear similar, at least at one top U.S. engineering school.   While acknowledging that his students may not represent a true cross section of a typical U.S. high school, Joe Helble, dean of the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College, said he sees surprising uniformity.
 
"When I look at incoming graduate students at Dartmouth and I compare the ones who are U.S.-educated and those [educated over-seas], I don't see huge differences.", he said.
 
What Helble sees "are differences in creativity.   I would say that the U.S. students are among the most creative and innovative."
 
Although some Asian students may have better raw quantitative skills, that doesn't necessarily make them better engineers or scientists, Helble said.   "You have to look at their ability to tackle a problem without a clear solution."
 
Some Dartmouth engineering grads end up in other fields, including financial services and investment jobs where they are valued for their ability to think quantitatively and analyze technologies, the Dartmouth dean noted.
 
I have some comments on those points.
 
First, one of the themes here is that averages are often not very informative.   If one is concerned with the future of science and engineering in the U.S.A., one should look at the better students, as they are the ones who enter those fields.   TIMMS and the other international tests basically look at averages.
 
Second, the dean should have pointed out that the bar for admission is usually higher for foreign students.   Accordingly, the average foreign student at Dartmouth actually should be a bit better than the Americans; but that is very different from saying that the countries the international students come from are better.
 
The issue of creativity is of course key.   It was brought up by one of the UI study authors here in this article as well:
 
But the skills that testing evaluates may not be the ones needed for innovation in a global economy.   "Japan, Singapore and [South] Korea do have the kind of education that leads to [better] test performance, but does that lead to more innovation, better jobs and a better economy?" Salzman asked.
 
For example, Singapore is promoting a national "creativity initiative" because the Asian city-state's leaders realize the need to de-emphasize its narrow educational approach, Salzman said. But for now, he added, it makes...
 
Where, for instance, are the "killer apps" (great software packages), the miracle drugs and so on from these Asian countries?   There have been very few important innovations from Asia to date.   And though the Asian governments have tried to improve creativity (besides Singapore, the governments of Japan, S. Korea, [Red China] and Taiwan [the Republic of China] have all had such initiatives), it's not just a matter of changing the education system.   Instead, the problem is cultural: The teacher is treated as such a master that the students don't realize they may have some good ideas themselves.   Obedience does not produce the Einsteins and Edisons of the world.
 
Nobel physicist Yang Zhen Ning has also commented on this.   So has Chen Lixin, an engineering professor in [Red China] ("China's New Engineering Obstacle" Chen Lixin, Prism, published by the American Society for Engineering Education, 1999 September).   Chen warns his nation that the engineers being produced by [Red Chinese] universities are not good enough for [Red China] to compete in the global high-tech market.   Professor Chen says the educational system in [Red China] produces students who cannot think independently or creatively, and cannot solve practical problems.   He writes that the system "results in the phenomenon of high scores and low ability".   This turn of phrase captures the problem quite succinctly, especially in our context here of test scores.
 
The New York Times article is a little odd.   To my knowledge, the Times has not covered the UI study, nor for that matter has any major newspaper.   Why would the NYT cover this rather superficial study by AIR and not the more extensive UI work?   The answer is probably that the industry's PR people want to draw attention to the rather gloomy tone of this AIR study.
 
As to the AIR study itself, the same criticisms UI made of the TIMMS and NAEP data apply to the AIR work.   This is even more true in light of the fact that the AIR authors used TIMMS and NAEP, and attempted to link them together via a statistical technique.   It was an interesting idea, but is, as noted, subject to the same short-comings as TIMMS and NAEP
 
Norm
-30-
 

2007-11-15
Jane Macartney _Times of London_
Dissidents in China still fear Red Chinese police despite Yahoo! pledge
"Announcing the settlement Jerry Yang, a founder of Yahoo!, said: 'It was clear to me what we had to do to make this right for them, for Yahoo! and for the future.   Yahoo! was founded on the idea that the free exchange of information can change how people lead their lives, conduct their business and interact with their governments.   We are committed to making sure our actions match our values.'   At a congressional hearing in Washington this month Mr Yang apologised to the families of Shi Tao, a journalist, and Wang Xiaoning, who are both serving 10-year jail sentences after Yahoo! shared information with the [Red Chinese] authorities about their online activities.   In 2002 Mr. Wang, an engineer, was detained by [Red Chinese] officials for writing pro-democracy articles on a Yahoo! Groups web site.   Mr. Shi was arrested in 2004 after he forwarded an e-mail [message], directing him not to cover the Tiananmen Square anniversary, to an over-seas web site.   Yesterday dissidents wanting to share their thoughts with others in [Red China] said that the settlement would not reduce the dangers they faced.   One man, who has spent most of the past 18 years in jail, said that Chinese wanting to exercise freedom of expression had no choice but to use the internet and thus expose their writings to [Red China's] cyber-space police."

2007-11-15 05:30PST (08:30EST) (13:30GMT)
Scott Gibbons & Tony Sznoluch _DoL ETA_
un-employment insurance weekly claims report
current press release
"The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 353,231 in the week ending Nov. 10, an increase of 27,393 from the previous week.   There were 286,151 initial claims in the comparable week in 2006.   The advance unadjusted insured un-employment rate was 1.7% during the week ending Nov. 3, unchanged from the prior week.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 2,295,507, an increase of 34,447 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 1.6% and the volume was 2,110,151.   Extended benefits were not available in any state during the week ending Oct. 27."
graphs

2007-11-15
Jeannine Aversa _Deseret Morning News_
Fed injected $6.75G into financial system
"The Federal Reserve injected a fresh infusion of $47.25G into the U.S. financial system on Thursday, reflecting normal operations as money flows into and leaves the market.   The net effect was it added $6.75G, when accounting for securities that expired, or matured, an official from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said.   The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is responsible for conducting market operations for the central bank.   Those operations help keep the Fed's key interest rate -- called the federal funds rate -- at its current target of 4.50%.   The funds rate, the interest banks charge each other on overnight loans, affects other rates charged to millions of consumers and businesses.   Thus, it is the Fed's main tool for influencing overall economic activity.   The total, or gross, cash infusion of $47.25G on Thursday came in 3 operations.   That total amount was the most since 2001 September, the New York Fed official said.   However, the net, $6.75G, that ended up being added to the financial system in temporary reserves was considered within a normal range."

2007-11-15
_Iowa Politics_
Grassley asks Chertoff & Rice about visa fraud
"Grassley said he is looking for more information because of a grand jury indictment this Fall that uncovered a major visa fraud case in Atlanta, Georgia.   The indictment alleges that Suren Agadzhanov and 11 other individuals fabricated petitions and sold B-1, B-2, H-1 and L-1 visas to hundreds of foreign aliens using shell companies and false employer names on visa applications.   Both the Homeland Security and State Departments were part of uncovering the fraud.   Now, Grassley said, 'The question is whether this scam is the tip of an ice-berg, and what's being done by the federal government to crack down on other cases and to prevent fraud in the future.'...   'In September, your Departments were successful in helping to uncover a major visa fraud case in Atlanta, GA.   This case involved an individual who fabricated petitions and sold B-1, B-2, H-1 and L-1 visas to hundreds of foreign aliens...   this individual was able to carry on a visa scam for years without the knowledge of our consular and immigration officers.'"

2007-11-15
Steve Daniels _WTVD_
Guest-workers are not treated like guests: Close to Slavery
"We've discovered workers who say they're being exploited on some local farms.   They're part of a Federal program called the guest-worker program.   But some workers say we're certainly not treating them like guests.   Critics say we invite them here, mistreat them, and don't let them come back if they complain...   when he arrived there was no work and no money...   'We got here and we waited, a week went by, another week.', says Robles.   He continues, 'Until about a month and a half passed and we were desperate.'   Robles could not go to work anywhere else.   Federal law says under the guest worker program he can only work for the farmer who brought him to North Carolina.   And, a farm worker advocate says Robles was living in a broken down house with rats and roaches, not enough beds for the workers and no drinking water.   'The employer holds all the cards.   The employer controls the decision of whether the worker gets to come in the first place, whether the worker gets to stay.', says Mary Bauer.   She's a lawyer at the Southern Poverty Law Center [SPLC] in Alabama."
 

2007-11-16

2007-11-16 06:14PST (09:14EST) (14:14GMT)
Robert Schroeder _MarketWatch_
Capital flows into USA declined in September

2007-11-16 06:32PST (09:32EST) (14:32GMT)
Greg Robb _MarketWatch_
US factory output fell 0.5% in October: Capacity utilization fell 0.5 percentage point to stand at 81.7% in October

2007-11-16
Frosty Wooldridge _American Daily_
Alien Nation: Immigration & America
News by Us
"'When I came in to look at the technical literature on the economics of immigration in the early 1990s, I was amazed to find that the consensus among labor economists -- the consensus -- was that the great inflow triggered by the 1965 Act, and the simultaneous break-down of the southern border, is not beneficial in aggregate.   It brings no net aggregate economic benefit to native-born Americans.   In a micro-study, the NRC found the cost to every native-born family in California of the immigrant presence, as of 1996, was something like a thousand dollars a year.   Every native-born family is subsidizing the immigrant presence by a thousand dollars a year.   Essentially, Americans are subsidizing their own displacement...   Even though immigration doesn't raise the per capita income of the native-born, it does cause immense redistribution between the native-born communities -- amounting at that point to about 2% of GDP shifted from labor to capital...'"

2007-11-16
Joe Guzzardi _V Dare_
Time To Get Mexico Out Of Our Hair!

2007-11-16 11:14PST (14:14EST) (19:14GMT)
William L. Watts _MarketWatch_
Democrats split on trade
"The split pits Democrats who fear what they see as a rising tide of protectionism under-cutting U.S. efforts to compete in the global economy against Democrats who contend that recent trade agreements contain flaws that have accelerated U.S. job losses and contributed to stagnant wages."

2007-11-16
David Sirota _Denver Post_/_Politics West_
Hillary Clinton thinks the negative consequences of NAFTA are funny

2007-11-16
Nydra Karlen _The Hill_
Ron Paul would return government to the people

2007-11-16
_US Department of State_
Department of State Issued Record Number of Student Visas
"During Fiscal Year 2007, the Department issued more than 651K student and exchange visitor visas -- 10% more than last year and 90K more than were issued in Fiscal Year 2001."

2007-11-16
Rabbi Label Lam _Torah.org_
Message to Garcia
"In 1899 Elbert Hubbard penned a letter to explain who he thought was the real hero of the Spanish-American war.   Here are a few truncated excerpts from that now famous essay entitled, 'A Message to Garcia': '...When war broke out between Spain and the United States, it was very necessary to communicate quickly with the leader of the Insurgents. Garcia was somewhere in the mountain fastnesses of Cuba -- no one knew where.   No mail or telegraph could reach him.   The President must secure his co-operation, and quickly.   What to do?!   Someone said to the president, 'There's a fellow by the name of Rowan who will find Garcia for you, if anybody can.'   Rowan was sent for and given a letter to be delivered to Garcia.   How 'the fellow by name of Rowan' took the letter, sealed it up in an oil-skin pouch, strapped it over his heart, in four days landed by night off the coast of Cuba from an open boat, disappeared into the jungle, and in three weeks came out on the other side of the island, having traversed a hostile country on foot delivered his letter to Garcia -- are things I have no special desire now to tell in detail.   The point I wish to make is this: McKinley gave Rowan a letter to be delivered to Garcia; Rowan took the letter and did not ask, 'Where is he at?'   By the Eternal!   There is a man whose form should be cast in deathless bronze and the statue placed in every college in the land.   General Garcia is dead now, but there are other Garcias… No man, who has endeavored to carry out an enterprise where many hands were needed, but has been well-nigh appalled at times by the imbecility of the average man -- the inability or unwillingness to concentrate on a tying and do it. Slipshod assistance, foolish inattention, dowdy indifference, and half-hearted work seem the rule; and no man succeeds, unless by hook or crook, or threat, he forces or bribes other men to assist him; or mayhap, God in His goodness performs a miracle, and sends him an Angel of Light for an assistant...   My heart goes out to the man who does his work when the 'boss' is away, as well as when he is home.   And the man who, when given a letter for Garcia, quietly takes the missive, without asking any idiotic questions, and with no lurking intention of chucking it into the nearest sewer, or of doing aught else but deliver it...   Civilization is one long anxious search for just such individuals.   Anything such a man asks will be granted; his kind is so rare that no employer can afford to let him go.   He is wanted in every city, town, and village—in every office, shop, store and factory.   The world cries out for such; he is needed, and needed badly the man who can 'Carry a Message to Garcia'."

2007-11-16
Jon Erlbaum _Torah.org_
Trading Places on the Ladder of Life

2007-11-16
Rabbi Naftali Reich _Torah.org_
Body & Soul

2007-11-16
Rabbi Yissocher Frand _Torah.org_
The Tzadik Does Not "Flee" He "Leaves" (With Dignity and Confidence)

2007-11-16

DJIA	13,176.79
S&P 500	1,458.74
NASDAQ	2,637.24
10-year US T-Bond	4.15%
crude oil	$95.10/barrel
gold	$787.00/ounce
silver	$14.51/ounce
platinum	$1,453.20/ounce
palladium	$365.85/ounce
copper	$0.19759375/ounce
natgas	$8.001/MBTU
reformulatedgasoline	$2.3754/gal
heatingoil	$2.5871/gal

I usually get this info from MarketWatch and the "Futures Movers" and "Metals Stocks" columns (and BigCharts and FT Interactive).
 
 

2007-11-17

Not much worthy of note happened.
 

2007-11-18

2007-11-18
Steve Sailer _V Dare_
The IQ Gap, The "Test Gap", And Jack O'Connell

2007-11-18
Marc Guttman _Joe Cobb_
The meaning of the support for Ron Paul
 

2007-11-19

2007-11-19
Christine Harper _Bloomberg_
Share-owners have lost $74G this year, but brokers will take $38G in bonuses
"Share-holders in the securities industry are having their worst year since 2002, losing $74G of their equity.   That won't prevent Wall Street from paying record bonuses, totaling almost $38G.   That money, split among about 186K workers at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch & Co., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Bear Stearns Cos., equates to an average of $201,500 per person, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.   The five biggest U.S. securities firms paid $36G to employees last year.   The bigger bonus pool derives from a record $9G of fees for arranging acquisitions and $5G for underwriting initial public offerings and sales of junk bonds, the most lucrative securities, Bloomberg data show.   Bankers' record fees help explain why 2007 will prove to be the industry's second- most profitable after the sub-prime mortgage market collapse led to losses at Merrill and Bear Stearns.   The last time bonuses declined was 2002 when the Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 23%, and Enron Corp. and WorldCom Inc. went bankrupt...   The industry's bonuses are larger than the gross domestic products of Sri Lanka, Lebanon or Bulgaria.   The average $201,500 bonus is more than 4 times the $48,201 median household income in the U.S. last year, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics."

2007-11-19 13:35PST (16:35EST) (21:35GMT)
_AP_/_Forbes_
Clintonistas hired by ITAA to lobby for more of the already vastly excessive H-1B visas
Houston Chronicle
CNN/Money
"The Information Technology Association of America, whose more than 300 members include M$ Corp., Dell Inc. and Yahoo Inc., hired PLM Group LLC to lobby the federal government on immigration matters, according to a disclosure form.   The firm will lobby on issues related to the H-1B visa program... according to the form posted on-line Nov. 13 by the Senate's public records office...   Congress also is questioning the use of the visa program by 9 India-based companies, who collectively used nearly 20K of the H-1B visas available last ye