(Reuters) – On a quiet stretch of the waterfront here, about a mile from Boston’s main tourist sites, a Gillette factory hums along 24 hours a day making an unlikely commodity: top-of-the-line razors. The factory, which employs about 700 people in manufacturing as well as another 800 in design, engineering and management, is an anomaly in modern America – a manufacturing site in one of most expensive cities in the … Continue reading
THE UN-COMFORT ZONE with Robert Wilson The First Million Until I was thirty years old, I wasn’t much of a fisherman. I’d take a rod and reel along on a camping trip, but I never expected to catch much of anything. In my mind, fishing was a relaxing past time you enjoyed with friends and beer. Then my buddy Brian asked me to go fishing. I took him to a … Continue reading
THE UN-COMFORT ZONE with Robert Wilson With the morning mist still on the Hudson River, and the sun just kissing the cliff tops of the New Jersey Palisade, Aaron Burr, Vice President of the United States shot and killed former Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton. Political opponents for years, the duelists faced each other after Burr sent these words to Hamilton: “Political opposition can never absolve gentlemen from the … Continue reading
Via BusinessWeek By Shobhana Chandra May 6 (Bloomberg) — The productivity of U.S. workers probably rose in the first quarter at the slowest pace in a year as employers took on staff to meet growing demand, economists said before a report today. Employment may keep growing as companies such as Timken Co., which slashed payrolls and relied on becoming more efficient to lower expenses and protect profits during the recession, … Continue reading
Via CNNMoney.com By Annalyn Censky, staff reporter NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The manufacturing sector grew for the ninth consecutive month in April, and at its fastest rate since June 2004, according to a report released Monday. The Tempe, Ariz.-based Institute for Supply Management (ISM) manufacturing index rose to 60.4 in April, from a March reading of 59.6. Any score above 50 indicates growth in the manufacturing sector. April’s number is … Continue reading
via The New York Times By JACK EWING FRANKFURT — The past weekend was definitely not a good time to be a Kenyan flower grower, an Israeli avocado farmer, a package tour operator or anyone else trying to run a business that depends on air transport to or from Europe. Consider TUI, the largest travel operator in Germany. With all the country’s airports closed because of the danger posed by … Continue reading
THE UN-COMFORT ZONE with Robert Wilson Seventeen years ago, I became the president of my community association. It was a lively organization with scores of activist members who were busy gentrifying an inner city neighborhood. One of my responsibilities was to deliver a monthly speech and conduct a formal meeting with a loud and raucous crowd. Over the course of my two year stint, I always spoke from behind the … Continue reading
Compelled by an Idea by Robert Wilson I was leaving my last class for the day when I saw my friend, Ken Frankel, working out in the hallway with one of those pistol-grip label makers. I stopped and asked what he was doing. “The Dean asked me to put the room numbers up in Braille so the blind students can find their classrooms.” As I watched Ken work, I thought … Continue reading
via The New York Times By ALAN TONELSON and KEVIN L. KEARNSWashington FOR a quarter-century, American economic policy has assumed that the keys to durable national prosperity are deregulation, free trade and a swift transition to a post-industrial, services-dominated future. Such policies, advocates say, drive innovation, which leads to enormous labor productivity and wage gains — more than enough, supposedly, to make up for the labor disruptions that accompany free … Continue reading
THE UN-COMFORT ZONE with Robert Wilson On a summer weekend in 1977, my friend Tony and I made plans to go waterskiing. When he picked me up there were two people in the car that I did not know. He introduced his new girlfriend Sue, and her brother Bubba. Bubba was the quintessential redneck. Within minutes of getting on the boat, he stuffed a wad of chewing tobacco the size … Continue reading