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Japan has coped with its long period of low growth by increasing the temp workforce. Loss of nontraditional workers jobs was 158,000 between October and mid February and accounted for much of the 220,000 jobs lost in the October to January period, according to the Japanese Labor Ministry. During the years that EU countries liberalized their labor markets allowing the hiring of temporary workers. During the 1990's Spain, Italy, Greece began allowing the hiring of temporary workers and workers on shortterm contracts. Germany allowed temporary workers and loosened labor laws earlier in this decade. By 2007 17% of the workers in the EU countries which share the euro were temporary workers. Many of these are young people or immigrants. But the labor laws in the EU for permanent employees remained the same and the worker protections were in place, including unemployment benefits and severance. This helped bring the EU unemployment rate down to 7.2% in 2007 during the upturn years. Now this whole process is going into reverse with the young and immigrants hit hardest. In Germany it costs 11,927 euros to layoff a permanent employee according to the Cologne Institure of Economic Research, and zero for laying off a shortterm employee. Now as the economy deteriorates the shortterm workers are being laid off first in large numbers. BMW has laid off 5000 shortterm workers. And short term contracts usually last only 4.7 months on average in Germany, about 12% of temp workers in Germany get hired as permanent workers. To get full unemployment benefits the workers have to have worked steadily for at least 1 year in Germany. ...

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Under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) executive order of 2012, a group of immigrants brought to the country as children can have temporary status to stay and work in the U.S. In 2012 this was restricted to children brought in under the age of 16, with a maximum age of 30. The program was called "Dreamers." Under president Obama's executive order this will be changed to children brought in under the age of 18, with no maximum age. The number of immigrants goes up from 1.2 million in 2012 to 1.9 million with this particular change in 2014. A new group of parents of children who are citizens or legal residents residing in the U.S. for more than 5 years adds another 3.3 million to this number, with an additional 100,000 for parents of Dreamers. The total 1.9 million children and 3.4 million parents would be 5.3 million given new status to stay and work in the U.S. The 5.3 million will not be eligible for subsidies and for the Affordable Healthcare Act assistance. All will be required to pass security checks. This leaves about 6 million, including farm workers and other undocumented or illegal immigrants not touched by the new executive order. President Obama is expected to make the announcement of the executive order on Nov. 20, 2014, in Nevada, a state with a large Hispanic population. On the question of legal authority for the executive order, Prof. Stephen Yale-Loehr, an expert on immigration law at Cornell says the U.S. president does have broad authority to decide which group should get a reprieve from deportations. The decision to exclude benefits of government subsidies and subsidized healthcare was made to appeal to increased support of the American public for the executive order. ...

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Chile's experience in Latin America stands out for the painful experience of the dictatorship years and the mismanagement of the economy by the government preceding it. The governments of the last 20 years of the Concertacion have studied the mistakes of these years and corrected them to aremarkable degree, like no other country in Latin America. The new politicians decided that the economy had to be managed so that inflation was under control and these Concertacion administrations produced budget surpluses in all but 4 years says Finance Minister Velasco. Velasco himself was 13 years old when the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet was set up, and his father a law professor had to leave the country for criticizing human rights abuses. He studied economics at Columbia University, and his principal focus there was he says, " to understand how did this happen to Chile and how do we make sure it will nhot happen again." His finding was that runaway inflation had created so much unrest among the people that coup plots could take place, and that political stability could not be maintained without good management of the economy. It also meant that Chile must avoid extremes, try to take amoderate position, which meant preserving the free market reforms that had taken place, and introducing policy measures, projects and investment which helped to bring up the vast majority of the people including the least well off of society. Velasco also studied the history of Latin American economies with their boom and bust cycle, the situation in countries especially Argentina and sometimes in Brazil and other countries since the fifties. He found as he says that when " a country seems very creditworthy, everyone wants to lend to you, capital flows in and consumption booms." At some point excessive amounts of capital flow in which cannot be absorbed and is wasted in unproductive ways, which becomes adebt burden as the bust part of the cycle takes hold. So Chile has been careful to control speculative inflows of capital. But Velaco went further. In 2006 he left a Professorship at Harvard University to become finance minister of Chile under President Ms. Bachelet. Copper prices were surging and Velasco insisted on caution. In 2006 he pushed through a law requiring the annual budget to be based on an independedt committtee's estimate of the average price of copper in the next 10 years. Any copper income above the budgeted price goes into a savings fund maintained outside the country. In 2007 the copper price used in the calculation was $1.21 a pound, while the market price was $3.23 a pound. The profits $6 billion for 2007 went into the rainy day fund, which is invested conservatively in government bonds or money market instruments denominated in dollars, euros and yen. This fund is now at$20 billion. What is remarkable for Velasco is the way this was executed. The price used was conservative, the political pressures from unions and students and other groups was resisted effectively, and the whole exercize was carried out to successful conclusion even as popular support for the government dropped. When the crisi hit in December 2007 copper prices plummeted. Velasco announced a stimulus package, getting the $4 billion stimulus package through both Houses of Congress in January 2009. Chile expects only adrop of 0.5% in GDP in 2009 year over year. $500 million was given to stae owned bank BancoEstado, which reduced consumer lending rates by half. The package offers subsidies for businesses to hire younger workers, $700 million for large infrastructure program designed to create 60,000 jobs in road paving, airport upgrades and housing construction. And 1.7 million families, the poorest 40% of the population received cash stipends from the government equivalent to $70, with another stipend due in August....

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As Japanese sales in the USA drop from 4.35 million vehicles in 2007 to 4 million in 2008 and an estimated 3.67 million in 2009 according to CSM Worldwide, even the Prius and the Honda Civic are afected. The Mississipi Blue Springs plant originally designed for the Higlander SUV , then assigned the task of making Prius after the shift to smaller cars, now will not make the Prius. The plant investment will stop at $300 million, with the plant construction being completed but the equipment not being installed, and no plans to manufacture cars there till things improve and the plant is made fully operational. At the same time it is noteworthy that employees Toyota has hired at the plant will keep their jobs. Toyota has not laid off permanent staffers at its plants in North America or any other region despite slowing sales in its worldwide markets. What does this mean? The culture of the United Autoworkers Union developed through the prewar confrontations between the union and the auto companies, and union workers and union officials and company managers came to a consensus through these struggles with the coexistence of high executive compensation and union medical benefits and other benefits and job security. But its not really been a frutiful arrangement as it has constantly been whittled away and eroded to the point of going out of existence even as the union clung on to the old ideas and management just went on with the status quo. Jobs security is nonexistent and jobs constantly cut as plants close, and now high executive compensation will face government oversight with the auto loans. See the link to Business Week which states that the numbers show the auto workersin Detroit union plants pay about 5% of their medical costs as opposed to 30% for workers who have healtcare coverage in the USA. But what good is the additional benefit in an environment where plants are constantly closing and jobs being cut. Is'nt aworker at a Toyota plant with no job cuts but costlier medical benefits better off than his Detroit counterpart? Which is to say with forward looking management that lowered executive compensation and unions that discarded an entitlement attitude and proactively matched its medical benefits to levels to nonuninized Japanese plants, and management that proactively shifted to higher fuel efficency and smaller cars in the interest of energy conservation and good strategy to be level with companes like Honda ad Toyota in that performance measure, wouldn't that have led to fewer plant closures and jobs, and public support across the country including in dealer showrooms?...

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A survey of 414 National Association of Business Economics (NABE) economists shows Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson with 15%, overtaking Trump at 14% on who would best manage the economy. On protectionist views only 9% support this. 15% said they have no opinion and 55% said Hillary Clinton would do the best job of managing the economy. About 62% say the election uncertainty is holding back growth. Some aspects of Hillary Clinton's economic plan are the $275 billion infrastructure investment over 10 years, taking action against companies that ship jobs overseas, a capital gains tax paln that encourages long term investments, supporting $15 minimum wage, making upward mobility a top priority, providing government financed access to public colleges for working class and lower income groups. Donald Trump's plan has suffered form lack of specifics, shifting comments, lack of careful study, and excessive use of slogans. Both candidates oppose trade agreements that shift jobs overseas. Trump's plan also suffers from lack of credibility overseas as this is important in a global business structure, with fears of protectionism increasing. and reminding people of the protectionism under Smoot-Hawley that increased the damage from the depression of the thirties. ...

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A Sept 2012 Census Bureau report shows the median income of a typical U.S. family declined or was flat in almost all states in 2011. Median household income declined in Nevada by 6%, in California by 3.8%. In Arizona and Florida incomes declined by 2.9%. For the U.S. median income declined by 1.3% to $50,502 in 2011. Poverty continues to increase, with California showing 335,760 people falling into annual income levels below $23,021 for a family of four in 2011, giving the state a 16.6% poverty rate.

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Jessica Todd, a USDA economist, says in a report that about 20% of the improvement in the diets of people surveyed comes from Americans eating out less at fast food places or restaurants. And this particular improvement she says is from an increased awareness on nutrition in picking out food, more choices available, and more nutritional information available to buyers. About one third of U.S. adults or 36% were obese in 2009-2010, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is a large increase from 15% in 1980. Studies show this is now declining gradually with increased public awareness of the risks of poor eating habits, including risks of diabetes.

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Only 23% of meals in America include a vegetable. The number of dinners made at home with a salad dropped to 17% in 2010 compared to 22% in 1994. Salads ordered at restaurants dropped to 5% in 2010 from 10% in 1989, according to NPD research company in its 25th edition of "Eating Patterns in America." The U.S. is going backwards in good eating habits and no enough attention is being paid to this in the debate about cost of health care. Their is a clear connection between good eating habits and health, and while invention and use of the latest research and innovations in health care are lauded, the decline in patterns of healthy living and food habits are receiving less attention.

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Rachel Swarns describes life for Latinos working parttime or working close to the minimum wage in New York City.

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GM will invest $3 billion in electric car production in Michigan. The Orion Assembly plant near Detroit  will produce electric pickup trucks- renovation costing $2 billion and bringing 1500 jobs. A new battery cell factory near Lansing would bring $2 billion in investment in 50-50 joint partnership with LG Energy Solutions creating 1200 jobs. Ford is investing in other states, with $11 billion investment in building 3 battery plants- 2 in Kentucky, one in Tennessee near Memphis. Tesla is investing in Austin, Texas. GM says it is revamping existing factories to save $10 billion through 2030. The new GM investments are part of $35 billion in spending on electric cars through 2025.  For the US as a whole these investments change the look of the auto industry from one that in the past put factories in China and Mexico for gas and diesel vehicles. The shift to electric is now being taken as an opportunity by the Biden administration to encourage auto companies to make a new beginning and speedily build the future electric car base in the homeland itself. So that American workers and families come first in the great American tradition. ...

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Toyota has passed GM in sales worldwidefor the first quarter 2007. But this is happening against a changing backdrop which is that worldwide sales and markets are shifting to China and India, and GM has the initative in both countries. Its Chinese sales increased by 32% to 876,000 units in 2006 and it plans to inroduce 10 new models or upgrades in the Chinese market in 2007. The other change is that after years of growth Toyota sees a relatively stagnant US market and its strategy is shifting to extracting more profit from each car, by increasing the flexibility of US plants to make more and diverse models, and building plants in low wage areas like the one in Mississippi. Note that the plant in Mississippi is expected to come onstream a year later in 2010 and produce 150,000 not 200,000 Highlander SUV's. Also related to this is the disappointment in Tundra pickup sales which may miss the modest target of 200,000 for 2007. On the manufacturing front Toyota is slowing down product development to ensure that all needed quality checks are performed by engineers. Mr Watanabe, Toyota's CEO, and a manufacturing man himself, has referred to quality checks being skipped or neglected in the rush for sales growth. GM is pursuing cost, efficiency and quality goals of its own and $9 billion in cost savings are planned for this year compared to 2006, another $9 billion is expected to be achieved in 2008. Another factor that is relevant to Toyota's experience in the US market is its fear of being labeled as a foreign company taking away American jobs. Hence the build up of US manufacturing capacity to 1.8 million now to increase to 2.2 million by 2010. And advertising for Toyota continues to foster an image of cars made in America, by American workers for the American buyers. In this new environment leadership in a worldwide market may actually shift back and forth between competitors and new challenges will come up as the Asian market explodes, and profitability and quality will become just as important or more important than sales....

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Clements provides an exceptionally useful reasoning for the average investor to give an important role to high dividend paying stocks in retirement planning. This applies to today's low interest environment with stock market volatility. The higher dividends help reduce the need to sell stocks in a volatile stock market and limit this to occasional selling. Using estimates from Yale Prof. Shiller's website for past 100 years data diversified U.S. stocks with high dividends pay about 4.4% in annual dividends outpacing the inflation average of 3.2%, and 5.6% appreciation in value of the stock each year. This helps preserve retirement capital. As many high dividend large cap stocks are also value stocks there is an additional value effect in holding these stocks.

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New rules by the Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) and Moody's would show U.S. public pension funds as about 57% funded instead of 75% funded under earlier rules. This will open up an even wider gap in how much they have in the funds and their promises to retirees to about an estimated $2.2 trillion. This puts pressure on state and local governments to either reduce benefits for new hires, have workers increase contributions, or set aside more money from the budget. Local governments face the risk of credit downgrades and higher borrowing costs if no action is taken and finances are worsening. An example is Illinois retired teachers who earn annual pensions of about $46,000 on average, and do not participate in Social Security under state opt-out. Even under old accounting rules this pension fund had $37 billion of assets and $81 in future liabilities. Under the new rules the unfunded liabilities could jump to 83% by one estimate, from over 50%.

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Research from Australian National University shows steadily improving conditions for migrant workers in China. Migrant workers were able to spend more time in cities- an average of 8.9 years. The hukou sysem ensures migrants return to rural areas when they have to raise a family. About 252 million migrant workers work in factories and construction jobs in urban areas. Migrants with children leave them with grandparents back home. Improving the conditions of these workers is important to reduce the wage and income disparities in China and to reduce inequality. About a fifth of the migrant population now has pension and health benefits. Creating a balanced economy with domestic consumer spending making a larger share of GDP also requires improving wages and benefits of migrant workers. Incoming prime minister Li Keqiang says in a statement on a government website: China "must take migrant rural workers and gradually change them into urban residents. This requires that we push forward household registration reform." If done seriously this will create a new kind of China as these migrant workers are integrated into urban society after years of being shunned and ignored by China's educated middle class. Professor Meng's research at Australian National University of migrant workers shows the proportion of migrant workers with unemployment insurance increased from 11% in 2008 to 21% in 2012. The research shows similiar figures for health and pensions. Improving their living standards also make it attractive for more young people from rural areas to migrate to cities increasing urbanization....