You have probably never heard of the Horizon Project or even Ralph Gomory and William Baumol and their book on Trade and Conflicting Interests..

But, these policy proposals are unique, innovative and deserve strong consideration and discussion.

The Horizon Project's Agenda:

Project members believe we need to act now - on economic & trade policy issues, education, health care and public infrastructure investment - to stave off the rosion of our competitive advantages and the loss of the nation's middle class base

What is it with the super wealthy in this country? They make their billions in this country and instead of just retiring and disappearing, they keep pushing economic policies that continue to run the middle class into the ground? And they continue to do this even though the economy is going into the tank.

Bill was up in Canada claiming Microsoft forced to look for talent in developing countries. Once again Gates spreads the "technology worker shortage myth" claiming that poor Microsoft, the alleged victim of the "strict government H-1B policy" cannot hire enough technology workers in the U.S. This is his big lie that he continually repeats.

If hiring talent was a problem for Microsoft, I would probably be working there right now, instead of working temporary contract jobs with weak benefits and no hope of being able to save for retirement. If Microsoft has a problem hiring talent, it is due to the age discrimination that they practice, along with all the other big corporations based here in Washington State (and across the country). Also, they need to fix the way that they deal with contractors. They hire thousands of contractors, which make up most of their workforce now days. The contractors also have a limit of 1 year on the job, after which they are forced to leave Microsoft and seek employment elsewhere. If Microsoft was really having trouble hiring, they would put a stop to this practice as well.

With the release of today's January 2008 CPI showing a yearly reading of 4.1%, inflation hawks are certainly out in force in the blogosphere. While I certainly agree that the average American family has faced a vastly increased burden purchasing food, gasoline, and medical care, I do not think it is inflation itself that will be the problem going forward in 2008. Below I explain why.

Below is a graph showing how inflation tends to play out over economic cycles. The blue line is consumer inflation (cpi). The red line is producer inflation (ppi) which is the rate at which costs are increasing to producers. The green line is household debt.

Just last week, the news was filled with the announcements of huge layoffs among UAW members at Chrysler. The UAW planned to file complaints with the National Labor Relations Board because it seems Chrysler was shedding the American workers while maintaining the H-1B workers ( foreign workers here on guest worker visas).
It did not take TATA Consultancy Services (TCS) long to begin bragging of their latest deal - a contract with Chrysler worth $120,000,000.

TCS in $120 mn Chrysler deal
BS Reporter / Mumbai February 21, 2008
IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has signed a multi-year contract worth $120 million (around Rs 480 crore) with US automaker Chrysler.

TCS will deliver application maintenance and support services to Chrysler. The IT services initiative will encompass a portion of the functional areas within Chrysler such as sales and marketing and shared services.