Economy

It's easy to get rich here

Filed under: Economy

Want to get rich? Stay right where you are. Or move to Plano, Texas. But who really wants to do that anyway?

According to a new survey released on Salary.com Minneapolis is the fourth best place in the country to bring in and multiply the bling.

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Posted by Beth Walton at July 1, 2008 9:03 AM | Comments (1)

 

Tired of high gas prices? Make your own ethanol

Filed under: Economy

Terrified of those rising gas prices? Instead of undertaking less genteel solutions like walking or public transportation, now you can buy a home ethanol converter and pump to brew your own fuel.

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Posted by Jeff Shaw at May 16, 2008 11:58 AM | Comments (3)

 

Minneapolis foreclosure crisis story in USA Today

Filed under: Economy

A local crisis goes national, as USA Today uses the Hawthorne neighborhood as a jumping-off point to talk about foreclosures.

Some highlights:

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Posted by Jeff Shaw at May 16, 2008 1:21 AM | Comments (0)

 

Reporter's Notebook: Buried Treasure

Filed under: Economy

If you just can't get enough of the Iron Range, read on for these two web-only nuggets. First: more history! Also, a detailed accounting of the cutting-edge science behind refining sulfide metals. Without further ado:

(Photo of the Rust Hull Mahoning mine, the largest open pit iron mine in the world. For a sense of scale, see the truck on the right side of the picture? And those two grey rectangles a little to the left of it? Those little grey dots are 12-passenger vans.)

It is said there are two histories of the Iron Range—one of the companies and the other of the workers. In the early days, the miners were European immigrants who came to the Range by the thousands. As Marvin Lamppa relates in his seminal history of the region, Minnesota’s Iron Country: Rich Ore, Rich Lives, “Their purposes for coming were clear. ‘You can get rich in America.’ ‘There’s work for everybody in America.’ ‘The streets are paved with gold in America.’”

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Posted by Jonathan Kaminsky at May 6, 2008 6:15 PM | Comments (1)

 

Oberstar to NWA, Delta: Not so fast

Filed under: Economy

Rep. Jim Oberstar, who chairs the House Transportation Committee, is threatening to "run out the clock" on the NWA-Delta merger until a new president is in office.

From Politico:

“We have no legal authority to block the merger, but we can continue to raise issues about it and ask the [Transportation Department] and [Justice Department] to address them,” said Oberstar spokesman John Schadl. “Simply put: Jim may be able to run out the clock on this.”

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Posted by Jonathan Kaminsky at April 16, 2008 10:06 AM | Comments (1)

 

Look at that pretty housing map

Filed under: Economy

Yikes. I suppose we can be glad that we aren't Detroit, or one of a number of California or Florida cities. But this is still a cavalcade of lost equity.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at April 10, 2008 5:28 AM | Comments (0)

 

We're Number 11!

Filed under: Economy

Rest easy, fellow Minnesotans: We are among the top 22 percent of states in per capita income. Which is, like, totally in the top quarter and easily in the top third. The Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal reports the Commerce Department puts our average annual income for 2007 at $41,034. Edging us out for the top ten was Colorado. Damn you, Boulder!

The per capita income statistic, it ought be noted, doesn't take into account income disparity. This explains how Connecticut, with its wealthy suburbs and broken inner cities, placed first.

Posted by Jonathan Kaminsky at March 27, 2008 9:25 AM | Comments (0)

 

Civil Disobedience

Filed under: Economy

Minneapolis police officers arrested 17 people for trespassing yesterday afternoon at a labor rally in downtown Minneapolis. The protest was held to support security guards locked in a contract dispute with five companies that are hired to safeguard Twin Cities office buildings. The rally at the U.S. Bancorp Center came two days after the workers overwhelmingly rejected what the security contractors had deemed their final contract offer. The primary dispute is over healthcare costs. Among those arrested were represenatives of the Workers Interfaith Network and ISAIAH. The security guards, who are represented by Service Employees International Union Local 26, are seeking to ratchet up the pressure on large corporations like U.S. Bancorp and Ameriprise that hire the contractors to protect their buildings.

(Photo courtesy of SEIU Local 26)

Posted by Paul Demko at March 21, 2008 12:13 PM | Comments (2)

 

No security

Filed under: Economy

Security guards at Twin Cities office buildings are inching closer to a strike. Yesterday the workers rejected the latest contract proposal from five security contractors by a 278-26 margin. The companies had billed the offer as their final proposal. The primary disagreement is over health insurance costs. Last month the security officers staged a one-day strike to put pressure on the security contractors.

Service Employees International Union Local 26, the union representing the nearly 800 workers, held a press conference at City Hall in Minneapolis today to highlight the labor dispute. U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison was on hand to lend support for the workers, as were city council members Elizabeth Glidden, Betsy Hodges, Ralph Remington, Don Samuels and Gary Schiff.

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Posted by Paul Demko at March 19, 2008 1:42 PM | Comments (0)

 

Another uneasy post about the housing market

Filed under: Economy

There's a lot to digest in this post at Alex J. Stenback's Behind the Mortgage blog. It breaks down the Pi Press' most recent housing statistics story, for one thing, and links to other relevant sources.

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Posted by Jeff Shaw at March 18, 2008 3:21 PM | Comments (3)

 

Mortgage crisis: is help on the way?

Filed under: Economy

A Minneapolis program would offer homebuyers a $10,000 bonus toward buying houses in 18 foreclosure-heavy neighborhoods. With additional neighborhood assistance, this news could be worth $14,000 to 50 potential purchasers.

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Posted by Jeff Shaw at February 26, 2008 11:04 AM | Comments (1)

 

20 Years Behind in Transportation Spending

Filed under: Economy

In two decades, Britney Spears has grown from a Mouseketeer to a pop diva and then slumped back into insanity. During that same 20 years, Minnesota's roads have fallen into disrepair, lengthening commutes and choking out economic opportunity, which in a small way is its own kind of madness.

According to a new study from economic think tank Growth & Justice, to keep pace the state would have had to invest $13.89 billion more from 1986-2006.

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Posted by Jeff Shaw at February 11, 2008 11:21 AM | Comments (1)

 

Make your payments, lose your house

Filed under: Economy

Want to know all you need to know about the arcana of adjustable rate mortgages? Read the first few paragraphs of this article.

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Posted by Jeff Shaw at February 7, 2008 3:52 PM | Comments (3)

 

Consider the economy in bad shape? It's worse than you think

Filed under: Economy

The national economic news can be summarized in a word: Gulp.

Worse, as Dane Smith notes this morning, Minnesota's economy is actually under-performing compared to the national standard. Smith -- like the three authors of another op-ed in today's St. Cloud Times -- focuses on the absence of smart public investments.

This is a fact, but sadly not the whole picture. Some hair-whitening state stats to follow.

Continue reading "Consider the economy in bad shape? It's worse than you think"

Posted by Jeff Shaw at February 5, 2008 9:15 AM | Comments (0)

 

New home sales in image form

Filed under: Economy

The dismal science is detail-laden, so it's easy to glaze over at talk of federal reserve policy and forget the impact it has on your life. That's why I'm a big fan of the graphical representation. Unsure of what a few percentage points one way or the other means? Me, too. Pictures! I want pictures!

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Posted by Jeff Shaw at January 28, 2008 1:22 PM | Comments (0)

 

Housing crunch: wide disparity among neighborhoods

Filed under: Economy

The Minneapolis Real Estate Blog has an interesting post about housing costs in the area and how the market has such a wide neighborhood-to-neighborhood variance.

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Posted by Jeff Shaw at January 23, 2008 2:18 PM | Comments (0)

 

Housing Crisis: Threepeat Story of the Year?

Filed under: Economy

For the second straight year, the mortgage crunch has been named national business story of the year. It's Time Magazine's second-biggest news story of 2007, period.

How prescient does Beth Hawkins' City Pages cover story from 2005 look at this point? Some of the warnings even look understated, like one mortgage insurer's estimate of a 25 percent chance housing prices in the Twin Cities would decrease between 2005 and 2007.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at January 6, 2008 11:34 AM | Comments (1)

 

Housing bust as deconstructivist architecture

Filed under: Economy

Maybe it's a piece of art. The medium is lime green rebar and concrete—tons and tons of concrete—and the sculpture (if that's what it is) can be found squatting just a block from the river, in Minneapolis's North Loop neighborhood. The structure is perhaps 25 feet high, and 60 yards long on each side. If you happened to live next to it, in a half-million-dollar condo, you might identify the monumental concrete slab as an unfinished building foundation and consider it an eyesore.

This much is known: The slab started out as a high-end residential project, back in the spring of 2003, when the condo market was in full bloom. It was known then as "The Reserve," a planned 108-unit luxury development, with amenities like a concierge and doorman. Yet according to a June, 2005 article in the Twin Cities Business Journal, the mover behind the Reserve, B.J. Spathies of Bejco Development Corp., filed for personal bankruptcy in 2004. Next Lehman Brothers, the project's New York financiers, foreclosed on the property. The remains of the original plan are entombed in that concrete crypt.

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Posted by Michael Tortorello at March 13, 2007 12:48 PM | Comments (1)

 

Time Waster

Filed under: Economy

Pre-Black Friday Bah-Humbuggery

How long will you be paying for Junior's iPod? The fine folks at Lutheran Social Services' Financial Counseling Service are experts in the art of monetary tough love, and they think you should know: Paying 8 percent in interest and making a minimum payment of $10 a month, it will take you 28 months to pay off that $250 Christmas splurge. If you're joining Friday's retail madness, you might want to first plug your list into LSS's "Scrooge-O-Meter."

Posted by Beth Hawkins at November 21, 2006 11:31 AM | Comments (0)

 

Convention fever

Filed under: Economy

So some bigwigs from the Republican National Committee are in Minnesota today, sizing up the suitability of the Twin Cities as a potential site for the 2008 Republican National Convention. In the view of local boosters (a bi-partisan bunch that includes Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman, Senator Norm Coleman and Governor Tim Pawlenty), hosting a presidential nominating convention is practically the greatest thing that can happen to a city or state; that's why the mayors et al are also doing their best to lure the Democrats to town in 2008.

But there are good reasons to question this head-long rush to play host and it extends beyond the inherent ickiness of the modern political convention. After calculating various costs, some economists think those eye-popping economic benefit numbers are so much hooey. More tellingly, an increasing number of cities are saying "No, thanks" to the conventions. I wrote about some of those issues here.

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Posted by Mike Mosedale at August 14, 2006 2:51 PM | Comments (0)

 

Cruelest Cut

Filed under: Economy

Minimum wage hike will actually cut pay for Minnesota waitstaff

If the U.S. Senate tomorrow approves a controversial measure that would both increase the minimum wage and lower estate taxes for the very wealthy, servers in Minnesota restaurants can kiss goodbye some $4 an hour in wages. The bill, which would increase the federal minimum wage--that is, the least a state can mandate--from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 over three years. But wages for some 1 million tipped employees in seven states would actually fall. In Minnesota, waitstaff, cab drivers, and other workers who earn at least $30 a month in tips will see their wages fall from the state's current minimum--$6.15 for most workers--to $2.13.

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Posted by Beth Hawkins at August 3, 2006 12:25 PM | Comments (2)

 

Minnesota by the numbers: We're number 44!

Filed under: Economy

If you believe the cheerleaders, the Minnesota economy is going gang-busters these days. Much of the credit, the argument goes, belongs to the Pawlenty administration, which has supposedly cultivated a much more business friendly environment by slashing taxes and reining in spending. Not surprisingly, the recent news that Minnesota has fallen from the fourth highest taxed state in the nation to the 16th produced plenty of crowing from all the usual suspects.

Now along comes the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis to spoil the party. In a report released this week, the Bureau found that Minnesota ranked 44th among the states in economic growth between 2004 and 2005. Nationally, there was a 3.5 percent increase in real gross product over that period; in Minnesota, that figure was a paltry 1.3 percent.

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Posted by Mike Mosedale at June 8, 2006 12:51 PM | Comments (0)

 

Debtor Nation

Filed under: Economy

Hey, Mister, Meet Your New Landlord

According to the Washington D.C.-based Center for American Progress the typical middle-income American family saw its debt rise by 33.1 percent between 2001 and 2004. Staggeringly, said household now probably owes 108 percent of its annual income--the first time since the Federal Reserve began tracking this information that debt has exceeded income.

The reasons for greater economic distress among middle class households are not hard to pinpoint. Slow income growth between 2001 and 2004, the last year for which complete data is available, has not kept pace with the rising cost of big ticket items such as housing and education loans, medical expenses and transportation. Family budgets have been squeezed.

A common but misplaced assumption is that the growth in debt among middle-income families--those with incomes roughly between $25,000 to $70,000 a year--is the result of over-consumption through increased credit card debt. Rather, growth in debt is primarily due to heavier borrowing for investments in homes or education, both of which saw dramatic price increases in recent years. The cost of a college education, for example, grew by 24.6% between 2001 and 2004, after adjusting for inflation.

You can find a synopsis of the report here, as well as a link to the complete version.

Posted by Beth Hawkins at May 12, 2006 11:27 AM | Comments (0)

 

T Paw's Alternate Universe

Filed under: Economy

In his hour-long appearance on Minnestoa Public Radio's Mid-Morning show today, Governor Tim Pawlenty displayed two of the gifts that make him an effective politician: a relaxed, confident manner and a wonkish capacity to marshall statistics that bolster his arguments. But in sparring with host Kerri Miller on the health of the state economy, Pawlenty unleashed one fairly spectacular whopper. Citing the growing number of employment vacancies in the state, the governor declared, "Basically, everyone who wants a job can have a job."

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Posted by Mike Mosedale at April 18, 2006 1:15 PM | Comments (0)

 

Stop me if you've heard this one: Minnesota's running a surplus

Filed under: Economy

Here comes another round of happy-face headlines with the word "surplus" in them to describe the current condition of the Minnesota state economy. You're going to hear and read that the state's latest forecast has uncovered an extra $88 million, even after paying off the $93 million Minnesota borrowed from its public schools four years ago. When you do, keep a couple of salient facts in mind that might provide a more realistic appraisal of the state's current financial health.

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Posted by Britt Robson at February 28, 2006 3:56 PM | Comments (0)

 

Minnesota by the numbers: The rich do keep getting richer

Filed under: Economy

There is a compelling argument to be made that the defining characteristic of the U.S. economy over the past two decades has been the steady rise in income inequality between classes. Sure, there is some truth to the old Reagan era aphorism that that a rising tide can lift all boats. But there is also little disputing that yachts seem to rise a heck of a lot faster than lifeboats. That, in a nutshell, is the chief finding of a recently released study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

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Posted by Mike Mosedale at February 15, 2006 10:23 AM | Comments (0)

 

Nexis search reveals unexplained spike in deaths by auto-erotic asphyxiation

Filed under: Economy

On Wednesday night at the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis, author Tamara Draut will discuss her new book Strapped: Why America's 20- and 30-Somethings Can't Get Ahead. Her thesis is that today's young adults face financial hurdles unknown to previous generations, including skyrocketing college tuition costs, increasingly wretched pension and healthcare options, and the erosion of manufacturing jobs.

While the trends that Draut describes are undoubtedly alarming, she often struggles in attempting to argue why these problems are specific to the Gen X population that her book targets. In the opening chapter of Strapped, which details the ever-escalating costs of college tuition, Draut throws out a real whopper of dubious statistical analysis.

To illustrate how nonexistent student loan debt was for previous generations, I conducted a simple Nexis search. When I typed in the words "student loan debt" for the years 1971 to 1980, the search yielded no articles; not a single article on this subject appeared in any newspaper or magazine in the entire country. The next decade brought only a handful of articles, only sixty-seven about student loan debt between 1981 and 1990, to be exact. ... Continuing the Nexis query, I searched "student loan debt" for the decade 1991 to 2000. The search was interrupted because it would yield more than 1,000 articles. The debt-for-diploma system had arrived.

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Posted by Paul Demko at February 6, 2006 2:24 PM | Comments (3)

 

Class warfare

Filed under: Economy

The incomes of the poorest fifth and the middle fifth of Minnesota families have grown about half as much as the wealthiest fifth since the early 1980s, according to a recent study by the Minnesota Budget Project, a branch of the Minnesota Council on Nonprofits. The average incomes of the poorest fifth grew 47%, or $7,171, since the early 1980s, after adjustments for inflation. For the middle fifth, the rise was 49%, or an inflation-adjusted $18,847. Compare that to the 85% bump enjoyed by the richest fifth, amounting to an inflation-factored $60,449.

One reason for this disparity is the recent emphasis on business profits over labor wages in apportioning corporate income. According to the MBP study, an average of 21% of corporate income growth went to corporate profits, versus 79% to compensate workers, over the past eight business cycles. But in the current business cycle, 85% of the income growth has gone to corporate profits and just 15% to workers.

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Posted by Britt Robson at January 25, 2006 2:08 PM | Comments (2)

 

Debtor Nation

Filed under: Economy

So much for those wealthy debtors Congress feared abused bankruptcy

Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren's always excellent group blog on the economics of being middle class this week offers a link and a nice little teaser to a Washington Post story on the squalid situations of the bankrupt. We're not talking about yuppies trying to skate out from under their Capital One cards here.

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Posted by Beth Hawkins at January 20, 2006 10:56 AM | Comments (0)

 

So what if panhandlers drink their profits?

Filed under: Economy

Over the past year, I have noted a pronounced increase in the number of panhandlers in Minneapolis. I have noticed this because I am not blind. There are simply a lot more drunks, addicts, homeless and otherwise marginalized folks hovering at the steet corners.

Most of the prime begging spots--especially busy interesections with easy access to liquor stores (such as Washington Avenue and West Broadway)--are now occupied nearly round the clock. Even more remote locales are regularly worked by panhandlers. The ramp near the intersection of Dowling Avenue and I-94 is one of the most desolate corners of the city, yet it is almost always manned.

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Posted by Mike Mosedale at January 5, 2006 9:29 AM | Comments (5)

 

Stocks drop into the red in 2005

Filed under: Economy

With the Dow average falling on the last day of trading today, the New York Stock Exchange is almost certain to post its first losing year since 2002. As of 12:14 p.m. CST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was at 10,728.55, a drop of 56.27 for the day. It needs to nudge above 10,783.01 to close out 2005 in the black.

The silver lining? President Bush's proposal to allow citizens to invest a portion of their social security in the stock market remains politically dead in the water.

Posted by Britt Robson at December 30, 2005 12:51 PM | Comments (0)

 

If gas cost $9 a gallon, would you take the bus?

Filed under: Economy

By Eliot Brown

What's bad for SUV dealers is good for the light rail... and visa versa.
High gas prices earlier this fall brought Metro Transit a welcome boost in popularity as more metro-area residents were leaving their cars parked at home and hopping on the bus or light rail. In September, the month with the highest fuel prices to date, the transit system saw a boost of 450,000 rides over the same month in 2004: a 7.5 percent increase.

But today, with gas prices at somewhat more reasonable levels, transit ridership has followed the numbers at the pumps. October registered a 5 percent increase over 2004 and November saw a modest 4.2 percent increase over the previous year. While these numbers still spell out generally good news for Metro Transit--the system managed to bring in new riders despite a fare increase over last year--thousands of riders turned back to their cars... or SUVs.

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Posted by Corey Anderson at December 21, 2005 4:22 PM | Comments (3)

 

Alms From the Poor

Filed under: Economy

"Reform" won't protect the middle class from the stealth tax

If you've wondered how it is that Bush has financed five straight years of tax cuts, chances are you've considered a) cuts in entitlements; b) cuts to the safety net; and c) an end to corporate welfare. Okay, okay, so we're kidding about that last one. The point we're getting to in what's in danger of becoming too round about a way is that one reason W has been able to cut taxes on the super-rich so deeply is because of this nifty little algorithm in the tax code known as the alternative minimum tax.

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Posted by Beth Hawkins at December 8, 2005 3:09 PM | Comments (0)

 

Fact check: the black hole of consumer confidence

Filed under: Economy

The last Gallup consumer confidence survey for November found only 37 percent rating the health of the economy as "excellent" (5 percent) or "good" (32), while 63 percent called it "fair" (39) or "poor" (24). A few more gleanings from post-2000 (and post dot-com bubble) Gallup consumer confidence numbers:

1. Last time the percentage of Americans who described the state of the economy as "excellent" was greater than 7 percent: January 2001.

2. Last time the percentage of Americans who described the state of the economy as "good" exceeded 40 percent: September 2001.

3. Last time Americans with a favorable view of the economy outnumbered those with an unfavorable view: February 2001.

4. Of the 87 consumer confidence surveys Gallup has conducted since George W. Bush took office, the number in which more Americans said the economy was getting better rather than worse: 24 (27.6 percent)

5. Of the 21 consumer confidence surveys Gallup has conducted in 2005, the number in which more Americans said the economy was getting better rather than worse: 2 (9.5 percent)

(Gallup consumer confidence survey results archived at pollingreport.com)

Posted by Steve Perry at December 2, 2005 9:30 AM | Comments (0)

 

The Fake Surplus

Filed under: Economy

Here we go again. At least once or twice a year, the folks in the Pawlenty Administration call a press conference, use the economic forecast to paint an artificially rosy picture of the state budget, and spin themselves a windfall of positive publicity. The irony is, if the Governor and his crew structured their budgets in a fiscally responsible manner, minimizing cost shifts and counting for inflation on both sides of the ledger, they wouldn't be able to get away with these dog and pony shows.

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Posted by Britt Robson at December 2, 2005 1:19 AM | Comments (2)

 

Minnesota: 7th richest state in US

Filed under: Economy

Today the AP published lists of the US's 10 richest/poorest states and 20 richest/poorest counties. The state list placed Minnesota seventh with a median household income of $50,750 (Connecticut placed first at $56,409). Two Twin Cities metro suburban counties appeared on that top 20 list: Carver at number 16 and Scott at number 17, with median incomes a little over $74,000. Los Alamos County, New Mexico led the pack at $93,089.

In a pair of lists dominated mostly by the East Coast (highest incomes) and South (lowest), the only other Midwestern state to appear on radar was South Dakota: Three of its counties rank among the country's 20 poorest. Buffalo County has the lowest median income in the US ($17,003), and Ziebach County is third-lowest. Todd County also appears on the list. All 17 of the remaining counties on the list are in states in the deep South or in the Kentucky/Appalachian region.

Posted by Steve Perry at November 29, 2005 5:01 PM | Comments (1)

 

Take this job and build a database around it!

Filed under: Economy

Want to know what company in Minnesota has the most on-the-job injuries? Or what company has been busted the most times for federal labor law violations? Or how much the CEO at said company got paid last year? You can always hire a shamus to find out--or you can check out the AFL-CIO's nifty new searchable database, the Job Tracker. Just click here.

Posted by Mike Mosedale at November 29, 2005 2:56 PM | Comments (0)

 

Gas pains

Filed under: Economy

What's the real value of gas? Whatever you're willing to pay for it. That's the line grinning economists were giving at the height of the fall price spike--safe in the knowledge that angry mobs couldn't afford to douse them in gasoline and set them aflame.

Now, a few months after the number "3" made its debut in the lefthand column of local gas station signs, fuel prices have fallen steadily. It appears the "real value" of gas in the weeks after the hurricanes reflected a serious speculative markup. After peaking at $70, crude oil contracts now sit at $55.

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Posted by Michael Tortorello at November 23, 2005 11:58 AM | Comments (0)

 

Pension Panacea

Filed under: Economy

Even though its research staff says it won't help, Congress tosses a bone to airlines

Pension obligations are something Northwest has been kvetching about for months. Over the next four years, the airline is legally obligated to come up with either $4 billion or $5.7 billion to make up shortfalls in its pensions. The former amount assumes the airline keeps operating its plans; the latter, that Northwest washes its hands of its promises and dumps its pensions on the federal bailout agency. In any case, it's more money than the airline has or will have unless oil is discovered in Eagan. And as Blotter has harangued in the past, it's cash Northwest's clever, highly paid executives, would rather someone else came up with. And by someone, we mean its middle class workforce and, more circuitously, you, the taxpayer.

The backstory to all of this could choke an auditor. U.S. pension laws contain countless pages of assumptions and formulas employers and regulators are supposed to use to decide whether a given company's pensions are healthy enough to pay promised benefits to the employees and retirees who are counting on them. Whole office parks of pencil-pushers are employed to test assumptions about interest rates, lifespans, employees who will quit before becoming eligible to participate, health care costs, terrorism, hurricanes, and the financial prospects of virtually every industry on earth. The only thing in the world of finance that's as complicated is the voodoo that's used to set the price of an individual plane ticket.

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Posted by Beth Hawkins at October 6, 2005 11:47 AM | Comments (0)

 

Wal-Mart's latest marketing strategy: philanthropy

Filed under: Economy

The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy released an interesting report yesterday scrutinizing the philanthropic practices of Wal-Mart and the Walton family. The report, "The Waltons and Wal-Mart: Self-Interested Philanthropy," focuses on three main organizations through which their giving is directed: the Wal-Mart Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation, and the Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Political Action Committee for Responsive Government. In recent years, as Wal-Mart has come under increasing fire for its shoddy labor and business practices, all three non-profit groups have grown astronomically.

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Posted by Paul Demko at October 5, 2005 1:09 PM | Comments (2)

 

Crash Course in the New Economy

Filed under: Economy

What would the ticker symbol be for Air Tegucigalpa?

Harold Meyerson has a nice commentary in the American Prospect that starts with JetBlue's near miss last week at LAX and the troubles with outsourcing airline maintenance, and then segues into the larger, and in some ways thornier, issue of how American workers (and consumers) might weather globalization.

The non-crash, for those who might have missed it, involved the emergency landing of an Airbus A-320 with jammed wheels. News that this isn't an isolated problem with this plane, which was likely inspected and/or overhauled either in Canada or El Salvador, was eclipsed by the much easier headline that passengers had watched the near-catastrophe on TV monitors from their seats. Almost as post-modern as the economy that underlies the debacle, no?

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Posted by Beth Hawkins at September 30, 2005 12:30 PM | Comments (0)

 

If you lived here, you wouldn't have a home by now

Filed under: Economy

You don't have to open up the piles of daily mail from mortgage companies to know they all offer similarly specious-sounding promises: Do you rent? Have good credit? Let us put you in the home of your dreams for as much as you're paying in rent! But if your apartment is the home of your dreams, you can pretty much forget about paying as much in rent once it's converted into a condo. In fact, in some cases you'll be paying almost twice as much.

One such apartment building at 35th and Hennepin was renting one-bedroom apartments for $750 a month. The same apartments recently were converted into condos and put up for sale for $183,900. With $15,000 down at a 30-year-fixed mortgage, the monthly payment with condo fees jumps to $1,378 a month. According to Home Line, a local tenant advocacy organization, the condo conversion craze is putting the squeeze on Minneapolis' already depleted affordable-housing stock. In the last five years, the city has lost 1350 affordable apartments to condo conversions.

Continue reading "If you lived here, you wouldn't have a home by now"

Posted by at September 30, 2005 11:25 AM | Comments (0)

 

Location, Location, Location

Filed under: Economy

Minneapolis and Edina tie for national average home price

Have any of you channel-surfed past that cable TV show that compares what kind of house a given amount of money will buy in several different parts of the country? Coldwell Banker has done a similar experiment, examining the disparity between prices for similar houses around the country. Seems Minneapolis and Edina come closest to the national average of $401,000 at $397,133 and $404,150, respectively, for a "single-family dwelling, 2,200 square feet (approximately), four bedrooms, two and one-half baths, family room (or equivalent), and two-car garage in neighborhoods/zip codes within a market that is typical for corporate middle-management transferees."

If that describes your house, know that you've paid almost three times what you would have in the nation's cheapest market, Killeen, Texas, and a pittance compared to the $1.9 million it would cost you to play house in LaJolla, the costliest market for the third year running.

I realize this is the place where one should insert the obligatory nod of pity for Killeen, a landlocked burg located southwest of Waco, but my thoughts today are with the fine folk of Edina who are probably going to need some assistance getting over the shock of being called "average."

Posted by Beth Hawkins at September 22, 2005 2:01 PM | Comments (1)

 

Vikings stadium deal: "Preferable to being mugged and run over"

Filed under: Economy

In recent years, few journalists have followed pro sports stadium shenanigans more closely than Neil deMause, co-author of the acclaimed Field of Schemes: How the Great Stadium Swindle Turns Public Money Into Private Profit and proprietor of the fieldofschemes.com website. City Pages contacted deMause this afternoon to get his response to Viking owner Zygi Wilf's proposal to build a $675 million retractable roof stadium/shopping complex in Blaine; as described in press reports, approximatley $400 million of that considerable sum will come from public sources. deMause has posted here and here on the subject, but CP had a couple more questions.

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Posted by Mike Mosedale at September 20, 2005 2:52 PM | Comments (0)

 

Race for the bottom, chapter 76

Filed under: Economy

Bankruptcy as the airlines' last best business tool

There's been a flood of good stories about last week's simultaneous bankruptcy filings by Northwest and Delta--much of it published in cities where neither airline is the hometown carrier. My favorite is a piece in last Thursday's issue of the Arizona Republic--that's right, the oft-shrill house organ of the late Barry Goldwater's right-to-work state.

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Posted by Beth Hawkins at September 19, 2005 3:01 PM | Comments (0)

 

NEWS ALERT: Al Checchi and Gary Wilson still solvent

Filed under: Economy

Northwest files for bankruptcy

Ending months of halfhearted speculation, Northwest filed Chapter 11 today, hours before a $65 million pension payment was due.

Expect the morning papers to carry a flurry of "What Does This Mean for Twin Cities Travelers" stories, Northwest flight attendants and mechanics to wonder how come they've been written off as "high labor costs" even though they can't afford a starter home, pilots to discover the magic of Target's Shabby Chic line, and Northwest executives to be rewarded for a) realizing that Asia is the future, and b) understanding how to outsource the operations of an entire airline, while its planes fly on here as if nothing had happened. Taxpayers, meanwhile, can be expected to ignore all of those dreary stories chronicling the pension defaults and other costs to them. Way too reminiscent of the S&L crisis, or--style points if you can remember this one--the federal bailout of Detroit.

Posted by Beth Hawkins at September 14, 2005 4:51 PM | Comments (0)

 

Katrina, poverty and the shame of the cities

Filed under: Economy

A lot of commentators have pointed to New Orleans' endemic poverty as a main explanation for what went wrong in the aftermath of Katrina. Put bluntly, the argument is that New Orleans was vulnerable to social breakdown because so many damn poor people lived there. Poverty prevented these people from evacuating and, in the absence of help from the government, chaos ensued. This strain of analysis offers a measure of reassurance to all of us who don't live in the beleagured city because, well, we don't live there. But it's a false reassurance.

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Posted by Mike Mosedale at September 6, 2005 2:27 PM | Comments (0)

 

Forty west-central MN stations keeping fuel blend prices down

Filed under: Economy

If your car can make it to west-central Minnesota, you can fill your tank for a lot less than in the Cities. The 40 west-central Minnesota stations supplied by the Chippewa Valley Ethanol Company of Benson, Minnesota, are keeping E-85 -- a fuel blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline -- 70 cents below the price of regular unleaded gasoline through the month of September. E-85 typically sells for about 40 cents less per gallon than gasoline.

Posted by Corey Anderson at September 1, 2005 3:35 PM | Comments (2)

 

Gas stations in Wisconsin and elsewhere running out

Filed under: Economy

Concerns about gas shortages have sent people all over the nation into the local Pump 'N' Munch to top off their tanks. Stations in Wisconsin, North Carolina, West Virginia, and Arizona are running out and have no idea when shipments are coming in. Gas prices jumped by more than 50 cents a gallon Wednesday in Ohio, 40 cents in Georgia and 30 cents in Maine. In southern Illinois, gas prices at some stations jumped more than 50 cents in less than four hours Thursday morning. "Everybody is panicking. They think there's not going to be any gas," said Keturah Jackson, a clerk at a gas station in Atlanta's upscale Buckhead district. Read the AP story here.

Posted by Corey Anderson at September 1, 2005 11:35 AM | Comments (0)

 

How far are you willing to go for cheap gas?

Filed under: Economy

All the way to the depths of your psyche?

In the wake of Highest Gas Prices Ever, the trusty Strib has published a list online this evening of the lowest prices in the Twin Cities metro.

(LIfted from TwinCitiesGasPrices.com)

Perhaps not surprisingly, some of the now-exurban stations are relatively cheap, with the three cheapest locations--at $2.50 to $2.55 a gallon--being in Prior Lake. (Interesting to note that two of those are by Mystic Lake Casino.)

But the two surprises on the list are in what folks in Prior Lake or other outlying areas of the metro would call the "Inner City."

Two Marathon stations on the north side and near north are coming in at $2.62 and $2.63, respectively. The station on Fremont Avenue North and West Broadway is close enough to what's is generally considered to be "the bad part of town"--sometimes translated as "where black people live." Will any suburban commuters swallow perceptions and stereotypes and venture in for cheap fuel?

Even money says they're more likely to drive out to the casino.

Posted by G.R. Anderson Jr. at August 31, 2005 7:12 PM | Comments (1)

 

Crazy Like a Fox

Filed under: Economy

Why Northwest Wanted a Strike, and its Mechanics Had No Choice

Here we are in day five of AMFA's strike against Northwest Airlines and, as anticipated, there have been some blown tires and cancellations and safety-related intakes of breath, but the planes are mostly flying, and the mechanics are looking like the house band on the Titanic. For my money, the only real question unanswered is why is it that today Nick Coleman looks like the only member of the local mainstream media establishment who has strapped on any reportorial cojones at all. That this is noteworthy is telling.

Since the strikewatch clock set up by virtually every news outlet of record in these good cities ran down to zero and started ticking upward again, precious little has been reported that goes beyond handicapping the number of planes grounded and local travelers disrupted. Today's Star Tribune does carry one analysis of Northwest's "hardball" position, but it's written by an Associated Press staffer and we're hard-pressed not to conclude that it was plucked from the wires because the New York Times--which Twin Citians can have delivered to their doorsteps, remember--Monday ran a revealing, disturbing background piece.

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Posted by Beth Hawkins at August 24, 2005 3:42 PM | Comments (0)

 

Minnesota by the numbers: We're number 17!

Filed under: Economy

Housing bubble alert There is a 25 percent chance that the Twin Cities will see a decline in average home value in the next two years, according to a new report from the PMI Group, an international mortgage insurer. In an analysis of the country's 50 biggest housing markets, PMI ranked the Twin Cities as 17th most risky. Only one other non-coastal metro area--Detroit-Dearborn--scored higher on the company's risk index. At the top of the heap: the Boston-Quincy metro, where PMI concluces there is a 55 percent likelihood of a drop in average home values.

Posted by Mike Mosedale at August 15, 2005 2:14 PM | Comments (2)

 

High-Stakes Poker

Filed under: Economy

Bankruptcy: The Ultimate Union-Busting Tactic

There's a terrific analysis of the pre-strike motives of and stakes for both Northwest Airlines and its unionized mechanics in today's Wall Street Journal. Sadly, stories on the Journal's website are available to subscribers only, but we'll try to present the jist of the story--a more nuanced and comprehensive look than either of our rather timid-looking dailies has taken to date.

The subtext, by my read, is that Northwest is prepared to use the strike to crush the union altogether: "Now, though, a work stoppage is something the financially troubled airline actually might welcome."

Continue reading "High-Stakes Poker"

Posted by Beth Hawkins at August 11, 2005 11:21 AM | Comments (2)

 

Nickled and Dimed

Filed under: Economy

PiPress' Northwest apology unintentionally shows why you should care about its mechanics

There's a lengthy story in today's Pioneer Press contending that there may not be much economic fallout in the event Northwest Airline's mechanics strike. Even if planes are grounded, the story says, Minnesota commerce will remain robust.

We beg to differ. Perhaps the Twins will still get to their away games, and Best Buy's corporate managers will be able to visit the new store in Pocatello, but there is real damage being done to the state's economy. To wit: Good, salaried jobs with benefits are being sent overseas and to other domestic markets where the race to the bottom among temp workers and other desperate types may save some pennies. (We say may because there are signs that it's pennywise and pound-foolish, but let's not digress.) Thousands of taxpayers and parents are about to be unemployed. How is that not an economic problem?

Perhaps the most telling line in the PiPress account is this:

Northwest is no longer among the state's top 10 employers, according to The Business Journal. It dropped from No. 7 in 2003 to No. 11 last year. Wal-Mart Stores now employs more Minnesotans than Northwest. So does Wells Fargo Bank.

Would that be the same Wal-Mart whose employees--and whose employees' children--regularly clog the rolls of state health care programs? Whose uninsured workers are costing taxpayers so much that a number of states--most famously California--have passed or are considering legislation to force Wal-Mart to provide affordable benefits? Yep, that Wal-Mart.

The United Food and Commercial Workers' calculation of some of the c