Category Archives: Economics

Kiva Fellows Blog: Nepalese Entrepreneur Success

Posted on August 30, 2008 by John Hunter

Kiva is a great charity and example of how to use the web effectively. Kiva has added a fellows blog – which is a great idea. Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Respect | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Rhode Island Manufacturing

Posted on July 19, 2008 by John Hunter

Manufacturing has new look in R.I. [the broken link was removed] She used the auto industry as an example, pointing out that in the early years of the last century Henry Ford manufactured Model-T’s that were all the same. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Economics, Lean thinking, Manufacturing | Comments Off on Rhode Island Manufacturing

California Uses More Gas than China

Posted on July 17, 2008 by John Hunter

Amazing Stat: California Uses More Gas than China [the broken link was removed]: California alone uses more gasoline than any country in the world (except the US as a whole, of course). That means California’s 20 billion gallon gasoline and … Continue reading →

Posted in China, Data, Economics | Tagged , | Comments Off on California Uses More Gas than China

Businesses Tell the IRS They Are Not American but Executives Stay in USA

Posted on June 4, 2008 by John Hunter

I have previously written about the ethically challenged companies that claim they are not American to avoid paying the taxes that they owe. For some reason the executives, often seem to stay in the USA though? It is sad that … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Outsourcing To America

Posted on May 30, 2008 by John Hunter

Outsourcing To America [the broken link was removed] Toyota began operating in North America in the mid-1980s. It currently operates seven automotive plants there, four of which are in the U.S. A fifth plant is under production in Mississippi. Toyota … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Lean thinking, Management Articles, Manufacturing, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Outsourcing To America

Fed Funds Rate Changes Don’t Presage Mortgage Rate Changes

Posted on May 13, 2008 by John Hunter

The recent drastic reductions again emphasize (once again) that changes in the federal funds rate are not correlated with changes in the 30 year fixed mortgage rate. In the last 4 months the discount rate has been reduced nearly 200 … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Economics | Comments Off on Fed Funds Rate Changes Don’t Presage Mortgage Rate Changes

China Outsourcing Manufacturing to USA

Posted on May 8, 2008 by John Hunter

Chinese firms bargain hunting in U.S. Liu is investing $10 million in the Palmetto State, building a printing-plate factory that will open this fall and hire 120 workers. His main aim is to tap the large American market, but when … Continue reading →

Posted in China, Economics, Manufacturing | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Overview of 5 Nations Health Care Systems

Posted on April 16, 2008 by John Hunter

PBS presents a very nice overview of the heath care systems in Japan, United Kingdom, Germany, Taiwan and Switzerland in: Sick Around the World. It is a just a surface view of the overall system but even so does a … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Health care, UK | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

Making a Difference

Posted on April 13, 2008 by John Hunter

Kiva provides loans through partners (operating in the countries) to the entrepreneurs. Those partners do charge the entrepreneurs interest (to fund the operations of the lending partner). Kiva pays the principle back to you but does not pay interest. And … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Fun, Respect | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Drug Price Crisis

Posted on March 18, 2008 by John Hunter

In 2005 I posted about some of the problems with drug pricing. It is nice to find at least a couple of people at MIT that want to have MIT focus research on the public good instead of private profit. … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Economics, Health care, Science | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments