Category Archives: Economics

Comparative Performance of American Health Care

Posted on May 16, 2007 by John Hunter

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: An International Update on the Comparative Performance of American Health Care The U.S. health system is the most expensive in the world, but comparative analyses consistently show the United States underperforms relative to other countries … Continue reading →

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Fixing Health Care – Andy Grove

Posted on May 2, 2007 by John Hunter

Intel’s Andy Grove Pitches a Plan for Fixing Health Care Call it fear of mortality, opportunism or altruism — Grove sees a major breakdown in a system that leaves nearly 50 million Americans uninsured and emergency rooms closing down in … Continue reading →

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Data Visualization Example

Posted on March 28, 2007 by John Hunter

[I replaced the embedded video, since Google broke the original link with the way they shut down Google Video after buying YouTube] In Myths About the Developing World, Hans Rosling shows some great graphics to display data on health care … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Economics, Health care, Management, webcast | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Making Suits in the USA

Posted on March 21, 2007 by John Hunter

Trying On Toyota’s Methods (site broke link so I removed it): Keeping Abboud’s suit manufacturing in the United States has advantages, such as reduced shipping time, he said. He also believes overseas workers can’t beat the quality and price of … Continue reading →

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Investors Business Daily on Deming

Posted on March 10, 2007 by John Hunter

He Pointed Firms To Quality [the broken link was removed] by Kirk Shinkle: Management responsibility took on an almost moral role for Deming. Failure in business and the resulting unemployment could be blamed almost entirely on leadership. Leaders, he believed, … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Economics, Investing | Tagged | 1 Comment

Top 10 Manufacturing Countries

Posted on January 28, 2007 by John Hunter

The newest data from the UN* confirms most of the recent trends in manufacturing output – most notably that China continues to grow dramatically. The data also shows a stagnation in USA manufacturing output over the last several years, though … Continue reading →

Posted in China, Data, Economics, India, Manufacturing | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments

Manufacturing in Asia

Posted on January 13, 2007 by John Hunter

The Economist explores the trend to manufacture in Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia… instead of China in: The problem with Made in China: helping China’s share of the world’s exported goods to triple to 7.3% between 1993 and 2005. In comparison, every … Continue reading →

Posted in China, Economics, India, Manufacturing | 2 Comments

USA Healthcare Costs Now 16% of GDP

Posted on January 10, 2007 by John Hunter

U.S. Health Spending Estimates [the broken link was removed]: Health care spending growth in the United States slowed for the third consecutive year in 2005, increasing 6.9 percent compared to 7.2 percent growth in 2004 and 8.1 percent in 2003, … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Health care | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

Starbucks: Respect for Workers and Health Care

Posted on December 16, 2006 by John Hunter

Starbucks Corp. CEO Howard Schultz interview on Marketplace [the broken link was removed] I grew up in Brooklyn, New York. I guess it’s been well documented, many times, in federally subsidized housing known as the projects. My dad never made … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Economics, Health care, Management, Respect, webcast | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Womack on Lean in China

Posted on December 5, 2006 by John Hunter

From the Lean blog another valuable podcast: Lean in China with Jim Womack. He is not impressed with the state of lean in China yet. Lean Enterprise China [the broken link was removed] has been established to aid the adoption … Continue reading →

Posted in China, Economics, Lean thinking, webcast | Tagged , , | 1 Comment