The return of manufacturing to the U.S. is just getting started, writes Charles Fishman, telling the remarkable story of the rebirth of GE's giant Appliance Park, which employed 23K in 1973 and less than 2K 28 years later. Assembly lines are moving again as GE invests $800M. "I don't do that because I run a charity," says Jeff Immelt. "We can do it here and make more money." [View news story]
Economies experience abnormal growth when a disruptive technology changes the overall efficiency of the society. Bill Clinton happened to be president when the Internet Browser was invented ushering in the Dot.Com boom and President Obama happened to be president when oil and gas fracking came to fruition. Now the US has a 6:1 price advantage over Europe for natural gas used in manufacturing. Our GDP should be growing by 5-6% per year instead it is expected we will fall below 2% for the fourth quarter. President Obama will use the fiscal cliff to blame others for his failed policies.
Transocean will rebound when the specter of the Federal government fining them billions goes away. I sold mine because of the uncertainty of the Obama administration and its justice department.
The Affordable Care Act actually discourages small businesses from growing, says TheStreet.com's Robert Weinstein. Buried within 2,700 pages of the Act is a requirement that businesses provide all employees with "acceptable" health insurance coverage, but exempts businesses with 49 or fewer full time employees. For small business owners, this is a glaring disincentive not to grow beyond 49 employees as a result of the costs and additional regulations companies face with 50 or more. [View news story]
Having grown a business from 13 to 144 employees in six months, I can tell you there is a crushing number of laws, regulations and compliance issues including ADA, EEOC, OSHA, DAV, HIPPA, FMLA, etc. when you cross the magic number 50. I hired two human resource personnel, an in-house attorney and a labor law firm. The cost of compliance easily exceeded 180k/year. My training budget for personnel on sexual harassment was an additional 20k/yr.
If the president had any interest in the economy he could simply issue a change to all federal laws raising compliance levels to 500 employees, the SBA's definition of a small business. I understand he doesn't have the legal authority however he could simply declare he can't wait on Congress and do it similarly to the way he does new regulations.
The return of manufacturing to the U.S. is just getting started, writes Charles Fishman, telling the remarkable story of the rebirth of GE's giant Appliance Park, which employed 23K in 1973 and less than 2K 28 years later. Assembly lines are moving again as GE invests $800M. "I don't do that because I run a charity," says Jeff Immelt. "We can do it here and make more money." [View news story]
When Will Transocean Rebound? [View article]
The Affordable Care Act actually discourages small businesses from growing, says TheStreet.com's Robert Weinstein. Buried within 2,700 pages of the Act is a requirement that businesses provide all employees with "acceptable" health insurance coverage, but exempts businesses with 49 or fewer full time employees. For small business owners, this is a glaring disincentive not to grow beyond 49 employees as a result of the costs and additional regulations companies face with 50 or more. [View news story]
If the president had any interest in the economy he could simply issue a change to all federal laws raising compliance levels to 500 employees, the SBA's definition of a small business. I understand he doesn't have the legal authority however he could simply declare he can't wait on Congress and do it similarly to the way he does new regulations.