Fred Siegmund

Is There A Manufacturing Skills Gap?

Thumbnail image for Is There A Manufacturing Skills Gap?

President Carter’s domestic policy advisor, Stuart Eizenstat, and Robert Lerman, an Urban Institute Fellow, claim there is a skills gap in manufacturing that threatens America’s manufacturing comeback (“Bring back the apprentice”, Washington Post, May 5, 2013). Readers are asked to accept a citation from an unnamed survey that claims 600,000 jobs go unfilled because the [...]

Read the full article →

The New Minimum Wage Proposal

Thumbnail image for The New Minimum Wage Proposal

The Obama Administration recently proposed an increase in the minimum wage to $9.00 an hour. The current minimum continues at $7.25 an hour where it has been since July 24th 2009, the date of the last of three planned increases passed by Congress. The proposed increase is a little over 24 percent over the three [...]

Read the full article →

Flaws in the American Health Care System

Thumbnail image for Flaws in the American Health Care System

Recently, the Obama Administration announced the time has arrived to appoint health care experts to an Independent Payment Advisory Board as part of its duties under the Affordable Care Act. The legislation gives the advisory board authority to change Medicare reimbursements for doctors and determine new ways to deliver quality health care. However, the flaws [...]

Read the full article →

Does Cutting Unemployment Benefits Increase the Supply of Labor?

Thumbnail image for Does Cutting Unemployment Benefits Increase the Supply of Labor?

A Washington Post article (“N.C. looks to cut jobless benefits“ 2/13/13) describes cuts in unemployment benefits as a drastic proposal from North Carolina lawmakers. Under the new plan, benefits would drop from 26 weeks to 20 and the maximum benefits from $535 a week to $350. The governor believes they have little choice because they have [...]

Read the full article →

In Virginia, the Sky is Falling

Thumbnail image for In Virginia, the Sky is Falling

In the Chicken Little folk tale, Chicken Little and his friends Henny Penny, Lucky Ducky and Foxey Loxey becomes hysterical when they all agree the sky is falling. In Virginia, delegate Robert G. Marshall believes the Federal Reserve Bank will bring financial hysteria with hyperinflation like Germany after WWI. He wants to protect Virginians by [...]

Read the full article →

The Final Stats on Jobs in 2012

Thumbnail image for The Final Stats on Jobs in 2012

The Bureau of Labor Statistics published its January report showing a seasonally adjusted December increase of 155,000 jobs. The increase for the 12 months ending December 2012 is 1.836 million jobs, a respectable – but hardly spectacular – increase for the year. The job totals for 2012 will be subject to review and possible revision [...]

Read the full article →

Taxes, Entitlements and the 47%

Thumbnail image for Taxes, Entitlements and the 47%

During the Presidential campaign, candidate Mitt Romney had a speech secretly recorded where he told listeners that he could not expect to get votes from the 47 percent of tax payers who do not pay federal income taxes. In the speech, Romney characterized that group of income-tax-free Americans as being “dependent on the government” and [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries