Danish Companies Seek to Hire, but Everyone's Already Working

Denmark’s economy is growing too fast for the workforce to keep up with. When employers are trying to look for people to do specialized jobs, everyone is already working. Now that Europe is recovering from its economic fall, Denmark is growing extremely fast. Industries with advanced technology cannot recruit enough people to fill jobs that require highly specialized skills. The labor shortage could impact and possibly stunt their growth if they don’t find workers soon. Their growth will quickly stop if they don’t satisfy their labor supply. Germany has similar problems because they do not have enough engineers or nurses. Both Denmark and Germany are looking to start programs to train refugees for these positions, but not enough of them are qualified to do these jobs. This problem is severely hurting the potential of many of these fast growing companies. If this is not fixed soon, it could be detrimental to Denmark’s newly regrown economy.

1. How do you think employers in Denmark could solve this problem?
2. How does this contrast the the US’s problem with the work force?
3. How do you think this will play out on its effect on the economy?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/28/business/economy/denmark-jobs-full-employment.html?ref=business

Trump speech could detail economic plan, tax cuts

Article link

President Trump is scheduled to address a joint session of Congress Tuesday evening and analysts are awaiting any details of his economic plan, particularly his ideas on tax cuts. However, economists are concerned. Lowering the corporate tax rate from 35% to 15% as Trump has proposed is likely to be viewed lowly by Republicans worried about swelling the budget deficit. Other lawmakers are also skeptical of Trump's belief that the government's revenue losses from a tax cut would be made up by the economy's growth. If Trump goes through with his plans for tax cuts, many expect the significant tax reform by August. 

A few things to think about:
1. Do you think it is a smart idea for Trump to reduce the tax rate by such a significant amount?
2. Do you think it's possible for the tax rate to change drastically by August?
3. Are there any other economic issues you think Trump should be more focused on?

AT&T is cutting the price of its unlimited data plans

link

AT&T has a new data plan! They released on Sunday that they would be offering a new data plan this week, a basic one and a more advanced one. The basic line is a 40$ price drop from their current plan but it caps out at 3mb per second, which means no high definition streaming. The more fancy plan will cost 90$ for a single line and allows high definition streaming, and the teathering data is 10 gb. The more expensive plan also offers a discount to television services that were previously required on high end data plans. The article also notes that AT&T may slow your speeds each month after you use more than 22gb.

1. With this new information, would you think about switching plans to AT&T?

2.How can you apply aspects of TRIBE or GETWIN to this situation?

3. How do you think other companies will respond to this?

US, North Korea talks called off

Article Link



The Trump Administration was planning informal talks with the North Korean delegation the week of February 27th. These under the radar talks were to be held in New York, American Experts and the 6 man team from North Korea were supposed to attend. Up until Friday the 24th this was the plan, but news was sent to North Korean officials that their visas had not been granted and that the talks were to be called off. The withdrawal of the visas came shortly after the Malaysian Government announced that they had successfully assassinated Kim-Jong Nam, Kim-Jong Un's half brother. They used a nerve agent to kill him, one that the United Nations classifies as 'a weapon of mass destruction.'

While it seemed that America was looking to calm the relations between North Korea, this event could potentially cause even more tension between the two countries.

1. How do you think the last minute withdrawals of the visa's make us look as a country?
2. With the visas being denied right after the death of Kim-Jong Un's brother, do you think fingers of blame will be pointed in America's direction?
3. Being that Malaysia used a classified weapon of mass destruction, should that raise eyebrows not only here, but around the globe as well?

Trump says H&R Block will be unhappy with his tax plan

  Trumps has set to simply the tax plan which will be bad for H&R. Trump declared saying We're going to simplify very greatly the tax code. Its too complicated. H&R block probably wont be too happy that one business that might not be happy with what were doing"  Trump said. " Other than H&R block, I think people are going to love it." Trumps administration is reforming a tax plan for both individuals and businesses. Trumps says the massive tax plan is going very well and hopefully will do better in the future. Shares of H&R Block fell nearly 4% after Trump was elected and an additional 2% since then. Trumps has dissed H&R Block before, during his campaign Trump wanted " to put the company out of business by greatly simplifying taxes " Hell to make it simpler both for us as tax prepares and for you as an individual. The tax code is is complex and difficult to navigate for many Americans its time for a change. Before the tax rules can be changed the govt needs to figure out how they are going to administer  social programs. Regardless of the outcome , people will still need help to sort through the changes and the impact on their taxes.

1. If you pay or if you would pay taxes how would you feel about Trumps actions?

2. Do you think H&R shares will gradually fall even more?

3. What do you think is the best solution for this situation ?

http://money.cnn.com/2017/02/15/pf/taxes/donald-trump-hr-block/index.html

Economists Have Been Demoted in Washington. That's a bad idea.

Article link

The new head of the Council of Economic Advisers will not be a part of the new Trump administration cabinet. There are many business executives already on the Trump cabinet, but there is a difference between economic policy experts and business leaders. At the national level one of the largest economic problems of the 21st century has been managing the budget and this is projected to get even worse under the new administration.

Discussion Questions:

1. Given all the business expertise on the Trump cabinet, is it reasonable to leave the head of the Council of Economic Advisers off of the cabinet?

2. Would economic policy expertise go well alongside the business leaders to help the administration manage the budget or can the business leaders handle this responsibly?

3. Can the Trump administration be trusted to make responsible business decisions with the tax dollars they receive from Americans?

Trump's New Deportation Plan Will Cost Billions

                   Trump has requested a dramatic increase in deportations all across America and that means more money will be funded. The Department of Homeland Security has estimated that the extent of his ideas that he has for his deportation force will cost around 400 to 600 billion dollars in order to deport approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.  The article also describes the facilities that undocumented immigrants are kept at after they are caught and are held for about 30 days. The article says in order to maintain one facility it costs 1 billion over the time of four years. An estimated 126.46 dollars a day to maintain the facilities. Labor costs is another factor in the budget saying that the ICE agency has almost 21,000 agents which is almost double what they had before which adds another 3.8 billion dollars to the already huge budget.

Article: http://www.newsweek.com/trump-immigrant-deportation-costs-559933 

Discussion Questions:  - Do you believe it is necessary for Trump to invest this much money  into                                               deporting immigrants from the U.S?
                                      - What other things could Trump invest in that could be more helpful for the                                           United States?
                                      - Where do you think Trump is going to get all this money from if he is                                                    planning to repeal 40% of federal state tax?

Trump sends top aides to Mexico amid deep strains with US

President Donald Trump sent out his top diplomat and homeland security Chief to Mexico on Wednesday regarding the fence he wants to build on the southern boarder. Communication between both countries have stopped since Trump took office because he insists that Mexico pay for the wall and has other demands. Mexico was still reeling from the Trump administration's announcement a day earlier of a deportation crackdown that envisions sending people to Mexico who cross the border illegally... even if they're not Mexican citizens. Mexico doesn't understand why Trump is having massive deportations that are unnecessary. On Tuesday, the U.S. changed immigration enforcement policies that could effect millions of people living in the U.S. illegally, including many Mexicans to deportation. President Barack Obama focused on deporting immigrants convicted of serious crimes, new memos signed by Kelly show that  deportation for anyone convicted of a crime or charged with any offense which also includes crossing the border illegally. Trump was barley in office for like 2 weeks when he cancelled his meeting with Mexico's president Pena Nieto. Mexico is still unwilling to pay for the wall and another meeting has not been rescheduled.Anti-Trump protests have erupted. Earlier this month, some 20,000 people marched through Mexico's capital demanding respect from the U.S.

1. Do you think Mexico's president will accept to pay for the wall ?

2. With everything going on, do you think trump will be able to successfully be able to continue his massive deportation ?

3. Do all of these immigration law changes seem like the right thing. 

These new air fares are for the cheapest of the cheapskates

American Airlines and United Airlines announce that they were lowering the prices of their tickets.  They are trying to go after the lower priced market more aggressively.  Lower cost carrier airlines have become very big and popular which is causing some competition to with the bigger airlines such as Delta, United and Continental.  These big companies have realized that people want to get places at a cheaper rate and they don't want to watch all the business go to the smaller companies like Spirit.

Do you think that more people will fly with American and these other big airlines if they were to lower their prices?

Do you think it is a smart choice to lower their prices in order to be better compete with lower cost carrier airlines?

Do you think that they will lose money by lowering their prices or make just as much as they were before?



https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/these-new-air-fares-are-for-the-cheapest-of-the-cheapskates/2017/02/22/b0a25892-f92b-11e6-be05-1a3817ac21a5_story.html?utm_term=.db01626823af

US housing starts total 1.25M in Jan vs. 1.22M starts expected

The US home building has fallen in the month of January as many constructions of multi family housing projects have dropped. The houses have declined 2.6% to an annual rate of 1.25 million units. Home building has gone up 10.5% compared to January 2016. A permit for the future constructions have have gone up 4.6% to a rate of 1.29 million units which is the highest since of two years ago. Economists have said that the forecast groundbreaking activity has fallen and caused building permits to rise. The housing market is being recovered by a strong labor market and is improving employment opportunities for the future generations. With the higher mortgage rates, it could slow demand for housing. Since last month, the single family home is the largest share of  the residential housing market while multi family homes have gone down to a rate of 423,000 units.





http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/16/us-housing-starts-jan-2017.html

Questions:
1. What do you think has caused the housing project to fall?
2. How can we stop this from happening?
3. What would you do if you were a construction worker?

No place like home: America’s eviction epidemic

In the great Depression, a family being evicted would draw riot crowds, even though the number of evictions was a fraction of what is today. The rise in evictions has been caused by fluctuation of rent prices, due to a lack of rent control, to the point of companies being formed for the express purpose of efficiently carrying out evictions efficiently. Family incomes stay stagnant while housing costs skyrocket. Despite this, only a small portion of families who are eligible for housing assistance receive the aid they need and deserve. This results in many of America's poorer families living while spending the majority of their incomes on rent and power alone, food notwithstanding. Roughly 1,000,000 families get evicted each year, and in New York City it is reported that near 60 evictions occur per day. Most evictions occur without any connection to the condition of the rented space or the behavior of the tenant, relating only to the price of rent. It is wrong to evict a person  solely due to an abrupt change in rent price.

Do you believe that there should be rent control?

Do you think that 24 hours is an inadequate amount of time for an eviction notice, and if so, what do you believe is a better amount of time?

What do you think is proper grounds for eviction?


https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/feb/12/americas-eviction-epidemic-matthew-desmond-housing-crisis

New Republican Health Plan Said to Redirect Money From the Poor to the Rich

We have heard time and time again how the republicans hate Obamacare and how they want to repeal it and create an entirely new system. And like most things Trump has said he would do, for better or for worse, he plans to take action. Obamacare, also known as the Affordable Care Act, was signed into law in 2010 and extended health coverage to 20 million Americans. It expanded Medicaid to Americans below or just above to poverty line and offered middle-income Americans to buy insurance based on income-based tax credits. Obamacare was seen as a re-distributive law which transferred money from the rich to the poor and was an attempt balance the so severely skewed wealth distribution in the United States. The outline of the new plan to repeal and replace Obamacare would substantially cut funding for the states that provide free insurance to low-income Americans and would change how tax credits are distributed by giving all Americans not covered through work a flat credit based on age(instead of income). The New York time states that the plan has additional features that would result in redistributing resources from the poor to the rich and says it would, “allow Americans to sock more money away for health spending in  special tax-free health saving accounts”. But what the plan doesn’t do is change any of the Obamacare regulations that are said to drive up the cost. Changing these rules and regulations could makes insurance cheaper, but would require separate legislation. Although this is just a draft and things are still subject to change. Sorry to all the people who relied so heavily on the Affordable Care Act, we will watch and see what Trump does next.

1. Do you think we should repeal, keep, or change Obamacare?

2. What do you think this new plan will do the the economy?

3. What do you think will happen to the people who rely on Obamacare?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/16/upshot/republican-health-proposal-would-redirect-money-from-poor-to-rich.html?ref=economy

Trump administration threatens Caltrain electrification project & HSR

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/matier-ross/article/Trump-administration-deals-a-big-setback-to-10941880.php

Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao announced the Federal Government is withholding $647 million in funding that was to be used for the electrification of Caltrain. The process of issuing contracts for the project has a March 1 deadline, which creates a problem for Caltrain, which has already spent $150 million on the process. The $647 million of Federal dollars is a significant chunk of the $1.98 billion dollar project. This has the potential to further delay high speed rail, which can't move forward until Caltrain switches from diesel to electric. Delays can also mean higher price tags.

1. Is it reasonable for the Federal government to hold off on spending $647 million on Caltrain electrification until they know if the HSR project is financially viable?

2. Should Caltrain be electrified even if HSR doesn't happen?

3. How should Caltrain collaborate with the Federal government to get the funding given that they've already invested $150 million?

While We’re Distracted by the Drama, the Economy Seems to Be Taking Off

Link



Ever since Trump became president, our economy has been becoming stronger and stronger. or example, retail sales rose 0.4% in January, the Consumer Price Index rose 0.6%, and overall industrial production fell 0.3% in January. The economy has added 227,000 jobs in January, which will ultimately lower the unemployment rate. Furthermore, the number of people who file for unemployment is becoming lower and lower by the week. Because of this, people are starting to come up with ways to cap the market. For example Janet Yellen, the chairwomen of the Fed, proposed an interest rate increase in an effort to keep the economy form overheating and for inflation to not become a issue. The stock market has also reached new all time highs in the recent months since Trumps inauguration.

1. Do you think that because Trump is a businessman that the economy is doing so well?
2. What should we keep doing in order to keep our economy strong?
3. Do you think that despite all of the hate, that Trump is actually proving himself to be a suitable president in certain areas?

Trump's relationship with Silicon Valley is off to rocky start

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Silicon Valley's relationship with Trump is not going very well because they are separated by many things like culture and politics. He has imposed to ban all immigration from seven predominantly ,Muslim Countries, which outraged many companies because they rely on foreign engineers. "Most of the CEOs are pretty hard-core Democrats," Moore said. "You have to search far and wide to find people in Silicon Valley who believe in the things that Trump talked about." The tech industry was far more vehement in its opposition for the Trump candidacy. Trump feels more comfortable in a managerial world of office rather than the entrepreneurial world of computing. Many of the tech companies already disagree with his ideas so it is already tough enough to do business with him. He wants to take away a resource that they rely on heavily by putting a ban on immigration from the Muslim countries. This makes it even worse for the companies to agree with anything that Trump suggests. 

What would you do if you were the CEO of a popular tech company in this situation?

Do you think that it is really necessary to impose a ban of immigration considering the consequences?  

How do you think the Silicon Valley should deal with Trump? 

Stocks hit record again. But is Trump the reason?

Since Trump has been elected stocks have been rising another 8%. Donald Trump has been critical to Janet Yellen. She has been begging congress to do more on the physical stand point to stand more and to keep rates low. The feds said that the stocks will rise a little bit more in 2017. The fed made it clear that in December that it will rise regardless who won the race for president. Though it may sound bad the good news is that the U.S. economy seems to be growing steadily, but not at risk of overheating itself. The world's largest money manager is worried as well because wages grew at a decent rate of 2.5% annually. If Yellen and the Fed go three times this year it will be by each quarter. Which will become 1.25% to 1.5%. At this rate Stocks will be more attractive than bonds. Investors should not allow Yellen to control the stock rates to go up and always just focus on the president.

Do you think that the stocks going up is Trumps fault?
Do you think that the wage going up helps the economy?
Do you think Trump is going to keep rising the stock rates? 

http://money.cnn.com/2017/02/13/investing/stocks-all-time-highs-donald-trump-janet-yellen-fed/index.html?iid=hp-toplead-dom

This company makes food packaging out of bamboo to cut down on trash

Link to article

A manufacturing company in Thailand has developed a new and environmentally-friendly way to package food and other goods. Universal Biopack has created a material from bamboo and cassava that acts as a substitute for plastic and styrofoam. They collect leftover materials from chopstick production as well as crops from bamboo and cassava harvests then treat these natural components to form a shapeable, biodegradable solid. Thailand and other countries in the east Asian region have an extreme waste management issue, so as landfills exceed their capacity, trash spills over into public areas and creates numerous sanitation and lifestyle issues. Universal Biopack and companies that produce similar goods hope to reduce the use of plastic bags and styrofoam cups/bowls and minimize non-degradable waste. Consumers have seen similar products in the past, but the market has yet to see a product that is in widespread use.

Is it worthwhile to develop and produce biodegradable alternatives to trash materials?
If these products are beneficial, how can we make them more widely used?
What effect does this product's price (high or low) have on its popularity?

Humana Pulling Out of Obamacare

http://money.cnn.com/2017/02/14/news/economy/humana-obamacare-insurer/index.html?iid=hp-stack-dom
Humana is expected to pull out of Obamacare according to an announcement on Tuesday the day that the merger agreement ended with Aetna. Humana's executive chief spoke about the topic and said that they are seeing an unbalanced risk pool according to the 2017 enrollment period which means that the costs of all patients will be super expensive to pay for and that is why they want to pull out of Obamacare in 2018. It is expected for the insurer to loose roughly $45 million in that segment of time.  Humana is the first major insurer to exit out of Obamacare Under President Trump's term. Donald Trump notes that Obamacare is a failure and due to that Healthcare should be brought back and saved. The Obamacare coverage has stopped over 90% of the countries that it was operating on last year meaning patients would have to seek another health insurance. It is also said that insurers have grown so big has congressional republicans remain divided over how to repeal and replace Obamacare.

1. Do you believe that Obamacare should remain active?
2. Do you think that it would be best if Healthcare was brought back?
3. What do you think should happen with Obamacare and healthcare?

Are Millennials 'entitled' or just underpaid?

Apparently, earning $1,466.00 a month is not enough to meet the needs and living costs of a millennial working and living in San Francisco. Being one of the most expensive cities to live in, this does not come to much surprise. The average rent for a 1-bedroom is $2,575.00 in San Francisco, while Talia Jane pays $1275.00 to live in one these homes for rent alone. Struggling to make ends meet, Talia Jane wrote a letter to the CEO of the company that she worked for, Eat24, a Yelp delivery service, about her struggles in not being able to purchase groceries. She mentioned how she could not even afford to $6.00 train ticket to work until someone overheard her woes and and donated some cash. Prompting sympathy from many individuals, more than 65 people have donated to her GoFundMe reaching $2,300.00 in just two days of reading her letter on a public platform. However, that was evidently not the only reaction she received. Others backlashed on her for her sense of entitlement and blamed her for picking an expensive city to live in and a low-pay job. Some others said that she was not struggling because she has health insurance and receives free snacks at her workplace. Furthermore, she was criticized because she should have known that her small salary would not have been able to pay for both rent and groceries. The company also fired her within a few hours but denied that it had anything to do with the letter. The question here is if the American Dream is attainable for millennials like Talia Jane, or are they suffering from an attitude of entitlement? In a recent survey from Bank of America, 40% of millennials receive financial aid from their parents, and 1 in 5 receive assistance from them to pay off college debt. She also has a degree in English Literature, which doesn’t seem to helping her a great deal. The median income for recent grads has grown to $43,000.00, but this number varies by major. For example, median salaries for English majors is $32,200.00 in the early stages of one’s career, and grows to about $55,000.00 by mid career when engineering salaries can start at that number. What do you believe is the main problem in her situation?

Questions:

1. Do you think Talia Jane’s act of writing a letter to the CEO and receiving donations occurred through an attitude of entitlement?
2. What could she do to alleviate her financial situation?
3. Why do you think San Francisco has such high living costs?
4. Do you think millennials are "entitled", or do you think they are underpaid?

Talia Jane's Open Letter

LINK TO ARTICLE

Trump For President, Stocks All For It

As Trump has been elected president, stocks have begin thriving. Due to the political agenda of President Trump, regulations on financial industry are preparing to decrease drastically. As fewer regulations are soon to be in place, corporations will soon be able to increase the profit they make. When the profit of the corporation increases, the stocks increase as well. Since the stocks are supposed to increase soon, many people are beinging to buy more stocks. For example, in the past few weeks, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 186.55 points to get above the 20,000 evel once again. In addition, The Standard & Poor's 500 closed just 1 point under its record high of 2298.37, where as the Nasdaq actually did beat its record closing high at a closing high of 5666.77. Therefore, with the current events happening in the stock market, we are able to see the progress in the economy due to the new, easier restrictions on corporations.



1. Although many disagree with many of President Trump's political issues, do you feel that he has a possitive effect on the economy thus far?

2. Do you feel that the less regulations on financial corpurations is actually a good thing?

3. Do you think President Trump will make actual change in the economy during his presidency? (such as create more jobs, actually follow through with reducing regulations, etc.)

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/markets/2017/02/03/asian-stocks-sag-after-wall-street-ends-little-changed/97436360/

Dakota Access pipeline construction expected to get go-ahead

As many may know over the past several months, there has been protests in North Dakota against a pipeline construction. The pipeline would be used to run oil through North and South Dakota and Iowa into Illinois to a shipping point. Although, The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has been fighting against the army corps pipeline in order to protect their tribe and treaties. The tribe fears that there could be a leakage in the pipeline which would cause pollution to the tribe's drinking water. In their treaties it states that "the federal government is obligated to consider a tribe's welfare when making decisions that affect the tribe," With all this in mind it is said that the 3.8 billion project could get cleared as early as Wednesday. The tribe vows to keep fighting and will not let their guards down. Former President Obama and his administration had agreed and found that the treaty rights need to met and respected. Although, it is said that Trump may reverse that decision, clearing the pipeline to work. If this happens this will continue the endless cycle of Native American rights being withdrawn and treaties being broken

Questions:
1. Do you think the Pipeline should be put to work?
2. Do you think the government is doing what they're suppose to with the treaty?
3. Thoughts on Trump reversal decision?
4. Do you believe that the protests and marches will stop the pipeline from happening?