I cheerfully admit to being a short-term economic pessimist, and a long term optimist.
But I have been appalled recently to read the all-too-numerous accounts that happy days are (for sure, probably, or at least nearly) here again.
My question is: What if they’re not?
I believe that there is a tremendous amount of data that supports a [...]
The Schumpeter column in the current issue of The Economist examines the question of whether CEOs serve their firms better when they are high-profile egoists like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, or low-profile “anonymous managers,” such as Sam Palmisano at IBM. It mentions Haruku Nishimatsu, the boss of Japan Airlines, “who travels to work on [...]
Dr. Joe Webb is one of the long-time leading economists focused on the printing industry. In his column today on WhatTheyThink? (membership may be required) he looks at the employment drop in the printing industry, but offers a charts the reveals comparisons to other publishing sectors.
Only newspapers and direct mail advertising are dropping staff faster than [...]
As reported in the Wall Street Journal Adobe Systems has just repeated what one prays does not continue as an annual event, the pre-holiday season layoffs. Last year it was 600, or 8% of the workforce; this year 680, or 9% of the workforce. This layoff is in addition to the some 100 laid off [...]
I was asked tonight by a friend the simple, “How’s it going?”
I’m generally in a positive mood and responded: “Times are still tough, but I remain optimistic about the future of publishing.”
It’s later now and I got to thinking:
There are still more deaths than births in the publishing business. And that can be depressing.
Let me [...]
I’m not a trained economist, although I’ve worked as a businessman for some 30 years, and have closely followed economic issues for many years. I think it’s obvious to everyone that works in publishing that the economic situation worldwide (and particularly in the U.S.) has become the “double whammy” that’s causing huge distress for publishers [...]
I read the news today, oh boy! A little less gloomy than earlier in the week, but another barrage of depressing madness. I found an article from a couple of days ago in The New York Times by Vikas Bajaj titled “Forget Logic; Fear Appears to Have Edge.” It begins: “The technical term for it [...]
I am not an economist (thank God), but have always been fascinated and perplexed by sudden changes in the economy and their secondary effects. I’ve just updated my article on “Current Economics and the Future of Publishing,†using my admittedly limited knowledge to make some modest observations on how the current economic crisis in the [...]
The Canadian dollar, after many years trading as low as 62 cents on the American dollar, has now reached a point of near-parity: closing just above 97 cents yesterday.
In an article in the Globe and Mail, BMO Nesbitt Burns deputy chief economist Douglas Porter said “The latest run in the Loonie has been fuelled by [...]
