Anecdotes.

Was doing some research on average compensation last week and came across this interesting bit of information.  This information is from the Employer Costs for Employee Compensation Summary put out by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In September 2008, private industry employer compensation costs averaged $27.07 per hour worked.

In September 2008, employer costs in state and local governments averaged $39.18 per hour worked.

On the face of it, I never thought there would be a differential between the two, never mind that much of one.  Kinda yikes.

The Dollar

A bit old, but I have been busy.  Paths to Repudiation.

As readers of this blog and my newsletter are aware, I have laid out the case whereby the United States eventually repudiates its public debt. The means by which this happens is unclear. There are several paths to the same place however, and it’s not necessary to choose only one method of ultimate default. All the usual methods will do, and I am now confident we’ll witness most of them in the next five years.

A short read where he lists a couple of plausible scenarios.

New York City

Generally, the cost of doing business is so high in NYC, in order to be competitive with other places, you need some help from the government.  A Plea to Keep Cameras Rolling in New York.

At a news conference at Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens, dozens of film and television workers gathered on Monday to ask politicians to expand the incentive program offered to their industry in the past few years, not scale it back as planned.

The program, which offers studios tax credits from the city and state for up to 35 percent of the production costs — 30 percent from the state and 5 percent from the city — has been so successful that the state has already paid out the $690 million that was to last through 2013.

Perhaps it would be best to find a way for New York (or New  York City) to become cost competitive with other areas.  Find out why you can not film here and work out those issues instead of taking money from those areas of the economy that are cost competitive and subsidizing those that are not.

And where else would you film a show shot in NYC you ask?

Beth Kushnick, the set decorator for the science fiction drama “Fringe,” which is relocating to Vancouver in May, said the show had 200 workers here, most of whom would lose their jobs.

The strangest part of the article, however, was the last paragraph,

And then there is the global effect. Maxine Kaplan, president of the Prop Company — Kaplan & Associates, said that two of the seven workers she employs are from Tibet and depend on their salaries to send money to relatives overseas.

Would not a Tibetian employee working in Vancouver still be able to send his proceeds to his native country, not even mentioning the issue of tax incentives in New York for money that is to then be sent overseas?