Old-School Economics

Take a look at this provocative commentary in today's New York Times, and ask: Does this apply to Pittsburgh?

Why do presidential candidates touting their concern for the economy pose with factory workers rather than with ballet troupes? After all, the U.S. now has more choreographers (16,340) than metal-casters (14,880), according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. More people make their livings shuffling and dealing cards in casinos (82,960) than running lathes (65,840), and there are almost three times as many security guards (1,004,130) as machinists (385,690). Whereas 30 percent of Americans worked in manufacturing in 1950, fewer than 15 percent do now. The economy as politicians present it is a folkloric thing.

If Republicans have had more luck talking about the economy for the last generation or so, it is because they were the less folkloric of the two parties. Broadly speaking, they cut taxes and regulation and trusted that entrepreneurs would hasten the arrival of the economy to come. There were Democrats who did the same, but they shared a party with others who were nostalgic for a disappearing world, reflexively backing unions and fighting management. Republican optimism beat Democratic nostalgia.

This campaign season, Republicans no longer look so confident. Mike Huckabee suggested to a group of Detroit executives that “instead of talking to people in the corporate boardroom, you talk to people on the line.” He aspires to remind Americans “of the guy they work with, not the guy who laid them off.” The latter guy, in Huckabee’s view, resembles Mitt Romney, who may have triumphed in Michigan, but only after promising to restore 250,000 factory jobs lost to layoffs. Republican rhetoric about trusting the transition to a new economy is not allaying fears as it once did.

The reason is simple. It is that the transition is over. The new economy we have been promised is in place. While the economy of 1998 was a world away from the Internet-less, land-line-dependent, non-Nafta, I.B.M.-Selectric-powered, partly Communist world of 1988, today’s economy is fully recognizable as the one we inhabited in 1998.

Today’s economic anxiety is not the same anxiety that simmered between 1980 and 2000. Back then, recessions and slowdowns were understood as the pangs of a new economy struggling to be born. But the recession we now seem to be entering is to the information age what the recession of, say, 1957-1958 was to the industrial age — a “normal” recession in the midst of an economy with stable bases, an economy that (to use a current cliché) “is what it is.” The “jobs of the future” that were promised 20 years ago are here. Choreographers, blackjack dealers and security guards have replaced factory workers as the economy’s backbone, if not yet its symbol. . . .

Cutting taxes and slashing regulations were appropriate strategies for managing a transitional economy. But we no longer live in such an economy. This does not mean that Republicans need to embrace a single-payer health system or subsidized day care. But neither can they go on automatically favoring the hypothetical needs of tomorrow’s entrepreneurs over the real needs of today’s dental hygienists and landscape gardeners. The future is now, as the late Redskins’ coach George Allen used to say. The promise that prosperity is just one more tax cut or one more rescinded regulation away is a rapidly depreciating rhetorical asset.

How to Pittsburgh 2.0

As part of my continuing series of posts on Pittsburgh 2.0 -- social media for the emerging Pittsburgh economy -- I pulled a New Year's mail out of my archive. I got the following message from Keith Ferrazzi. (I suspect that many of you got this message from Keith Ferrazzi!). I've posted about Keith in the past (see this link, and also this one). He's a master marketer-of-the-self, a one-man business/personal relationship machine, and at times he comes off as a bit over the top. But if you set some of the marketing rhetoric aside, the core of his message is a good one. It meshes with the kinds of thinking that goes into connecting Pittsburgh both inside and outside the region. So, to kick off Pittsburgh 2.0 and to encourage you to reach out to others and to encourage others to reach out to you, I give you Keith:

Get Your Goals
--------------------------------
It's a new year and 2008 is going to rock your socks! Why? Because you are going to make resolutions and stick to them - with a little help from me and your friends.

I have several goals: to have an accepted manuscript for my next book at the publisher by July, to participate in one major spiritual activity (could be church, could be meditation, etc.,) a week; to see my blood pressure go from 140/90 to 130/70 without meds and to raise 100k this year for the new Political Action Committee Our Leadership Our Future.

To be a successful goal getter, you must first define your goal. It will likely fall into one of the seven aspects of my personal success wheel: health & wellness, spirituality, job & career, intellectual & cultural, financial, deep relationships and giving back. Your goal must be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely.

But you can't do it alone! Choose three friends to serve as your accountability buddies. Knowing they are watching you will help you to stick to and reach your goals. I like to call it peer-to-peer pressure. They can cheer you on and send you inspirational songs and helpful website links.

You should also rally your friends to make improvements in their own lives. Don't leave them in your dust!

To help you and your friends get your goals, my team has developed an application called Goal Post on Facebook . It is an easy and visual way to set your goals, choose your accountability buddies and keep track of your progress. To get started, login to Facebook (or register if you have yet to) and then search for the "Goal Post" application.

Come on, do it now!

To a healthier, happier and more successful you!

A Potential Pittsburgh 2.0 Success Story

From today's Pop City profile of Lourdes Sanchez Ridge:

While the US average for foreign-born nationals is a healthy 12 percent, Pittsburgh lags behind with an anorexic three percent – despite some 4,000 foreign-born college graduates in Pittsburgh. How many of them are Spanish speakers? Some 24,000, according to the 2000 census, a number that may be low, given the undocumented Latinos living here.

Currently, Sanchez Ridge’s best guess is some 40,000, including as many as 25 percent undocumented (and therefore invisible). “It’s a matter of opportunity,” she says. “People go where the opportunities are, and Pittsburgh has a lot to offer. Cost of living. Housing. Livability. Size. Access to government.”

Keeping Latinos, and attracting others, is Sanchez Ridge’s crusade. “I want to represent them,” she says, “the success stories, the professionals. The stereotype is that all Latinos are poor and uneducated, but that’s not true.”

Link

See also this earlier Pittsblog post.

Smiles, Everyone, Smiles!

But even Mr. Roarke would have a tough time grinning through these two recent posts:

Harold Miller, "Is Pittsburgh Ground Zero for the Recession?"

Chris Briem, "boom goes the bond insurance market"

I sure wish that someone working for the City of Pittsburgh could read this stuff.

Pittsburgh as Hoops City

At least to the New York Times, Pittsburgh is the home of some impressive basketball grit. Each of the highest-profile local college men's programs has been the subject of a flattering NYT writeup in recent weeks:

"Pittsburgh Perseveres Without Injured Starters" (today)

"With Reminders of Past, Duquesne Moves Ahead" (1/19)

What He Said

Among my resolutions for the New Year is a commitment to blog less about the bizarre machinations and petty jealousies of local politics. And since I wasn't blogging much about them before, that means almost no politico-blogging. Why? Tony Norman explains far better than I ever could.

Next week: More about IntoPittsburgh and Pittsburgh 2.0.

I Am Samizdat

Some winter afternoon silliness:

Pittsblog, presumably, along with all other Blogger-hosted blogs, is now unavailable to City of Pittsburgh employees -- unless they sneak a peek on their own time, at home or at a friend's place. Or unless they evade the ban like any 12-year-old could.

I'm reluctant to take a cheap shot here, but I can't resist a cheap nudge.

Let's take the policy at its word. Now that the power of the Burghosphere has been unconditionally confirmed by the City of Pittsburgh ("Bloggers at the door, sir!" "Sound the alarm and send for reinforcements!"), I say: Onward! Aux barricades! Next up: Allegheny County. Harrisburg! Philly!

Exeunt omnes, to the strains of Ain't No Stopping Us Now!

Ireland and Models for Entrepreneurship

My law professor colleague Gordon Smith, who is on the faculty at BYU, writes and teaches and blogs about corporate law and entrepreneurship. Prompted by a story in the New York Times, he posted the following today about Irish entrepreneurship:

"The NYT suggests that Ireland's recent entrepreneurial success is the 'culmination of nearly four decades of government policies.' Here's the formula:

The government rewrote its tax policies to attract foreign investment by American corporations, made all education free through the university level and changed tax rates and used direct equity investment to encourage Irish people to set up their own businesses.

In addition, there was the fact that Ireland is a member of the European Union. What, exactly, has the EU contributed?

One reason for many changes in Ireland is its membership in the European Union, which has brought new perspectives and regulations from its governing councils in Brussels.

New perspectives and regulations? 'Perspectives' seems to refer to the fact that some Irish entrepreneurs are transcending Ireland's borders. Of course, that is not just a matter of perspective, but a matter of free movement of goods and services across EU member state borders.

The EU 'regulations' referred to in the story aren't new rules designed to promote entrepreneurship, but rather new rules that, for example, aim to improve worker health and safety, thus creating business opportunities for compliance firms. One firm's burden, another firm's treasure.

Of course, all of the EU benefits inure to every member state, so what makes Ireland special? Is it really just a matter of reducing taxes, providing free higher education, and making direct government equity investments? This paper suggests a more complex answer for Ireland:

Regional transformation through technology-based entrepreneurship cannot be easily measured by solely by 'tangible' resource input factors such as access to seed capital or telecommunications infrastructure. Instead, it is important that policy makers need to recognize the importance of fostering a 'bottom-up' approach towards technology-based entrepreneurship especially the role of 'intangibles' such as role models, culture towards risk and failure, and leadership in stimulating technology based entrepreneurship in regions.

I am not trying to suggest that the academics are spot on about Ireland while the NYT reporters are hopeless simpletons. But I believe that finding the root causes of entrepreneurship is a difficult task. In the end, I tend to give more credit to the accounts that describe a stew with many ingredients than the linear cause-and-effect stories."

Pittsburghers, take heed.

Pop City's Real Deal Companies

While I wait for more feedback on my "Real Deal" post, other blogs are following my lead, asking (and answering) the same question. Yesterday, Matt Harbaugh at IW weighed in. Today, Pop City offers "Top Pittsburgh Tech Companies to Watch in 2008." The Pop City list and Matt's list overlap -- but they aren't the same. From Pop City:

• Akustica


• BPL Global


• Knopp Neurosciences


• Landslide


• Plextronics


• Medrad


• A Meakem Becker Venture Capital "stealth" company


• Redpack Logistics


• Renal Solutions


• Talkshoe


• Tiversa


• Vivisimo

Focus on Pittsburgh Entrepreneurship

Today's Sign of Utopia:

Welcome to the blogosphere and Burghosphere to Pittsburgh Ventures, a new blog written by Matt Harbaugh at Innovation Works. The blog will focus on "new (primarily tech related) ventures in the Southwestern PA region, as well as on the act of 'venturing,' as it applies to entrepreneurs, investors and the region as a whole." Matt's first substantive post responds to my "Real Deal" post of last Thursday: What are the up-and-coming companies in the region with meaningful potential economic impact?

In the same spirit, don't miss Harold Miller's most recent column for the Post-Gazette: "Attracting more entrepreneurs leads to more jobs." Harold has posted what I believe is the same copy on his blog, Pittsburgh's Future.

Best Networking in Pittsburgh

Continuing with my "Pittsburgh 2.0" theme for 2008 -- "open Pittsburgh's social network," as it were, here is another survey question:

Consider this very incomplete list of business-oriented networking events around Pittsburgh:
The MIT Enterprise Forum of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh Technology Council events
Entrepreneurial Thursdays

Add to that list any others that you think that I've missed (because I've surely missed a few).

What are their strengths and weaknesses?

The question is directed to two groups of people:

First, if you're relatively new to Pittsburgh, and/or relatively new to the start-up, new business, and/or entrepreneurial space in Pittsburgh, which of these has been useful to you -- in finding customers, partners, service providers, funders? Which not? Which events consist largely of members of the establishment circulating among themselves?

Second, if you're already part of Pittsburgh's entrepreneurial/start-up/new business community, which of these events would you characterize as useful for someone who's new to town and new to this community -- if any of them are?

The Real Deal

A long-time friend of Pittsblog wrote me yesterday to suggest this post:

What are the top three entrepreneurial companies in the Pittsburgh region that folks think are the real deal, with job creating potential and wealth creating potential of 100+ jobs and $10M plus in annual revenues?

The 100+ employee threshold and the $10M revenue numbers are arbitrary. What my friend and I are trying to get at, however, is whether folks think (i) that there are more real prospects for sustainable success locally than there were, say, five years ago, and (ii) there are more prospects than ever that can attract and sustain successive rounds of formal and informal private investment -- as opposed to economic development investment via a government-affiliated or subsidized entity.

Post your nominations, justifications, and reservations in the comments. I'm especially interested in hearing from folks in the economic development and investment spaces. Anonymity and pseudonymity are permitted, so long as the comments are on topic and civil.

Manufacturing Jobs in Pittsburgh?

Pop City reports today that Medrad's new plant will house hundreds of new workers, "making it the largest source of high tech manufacturing jobs in Western Pennsylvania."

Cool beans.

Pittsburgh Hits the Big Time?

Some time back, Sports Illustrated magazine, among other publications, began to offer "Signs of the Apocalypse" as a measure of the decline of American popular culture. In Pittsburgh, we need "Signs of Utopia." Here's one: Wesla Whitfield is coming to town.

Wesla Whitfield is one of the country's great cabaret singers. Adrian McCoy at the PG has a great feature; the paper included a terrific photo. Her accompanist and husband, Mike Greensill, is a gem of a pianist as well.

I first met her roughly 20 years ago, before her singing career really took off and became a full-time thing. Welsa was working part-time as a paralegal at my law firm, and she still spelled her name "Weslia." (She changed the spelling to match the pronunciation in the mid-1990s). But everyone in San Francisco knew that Wesla had no future as a paralegal. She would hit it big, very big, and she has. Pittsburgh is lucky to have her on the way.

250 Birthday Candles

Amid inaugural public celebrations of Pittsburgh 250th year that run from dry to drier, don't miss Ken Thompson's letter to the editor of the Post-Gazette:

Pittsburgh's 250th birthday is clearly upon us. We have a year of exciting events to look forward to.

A line from Kate Dewey's Jan. 6 Forum piece "Past as Prologue" struck me and, I think, bears scrutiny. She wisely suggests that we "cannot afford to be insular and parochial." Yet, I wonder if our approach to the 250th has not been just that.

Who besides ourselves are we inviting to the celebrations? A good Pittsburgh birthday party usually involves good friends and family in equal measure -- people who care about us and who we care about.

Whom are Pittsburgh's "good friends and family?" Let's start with family. Our parents come from every distant shore -- we are a child of the world. Clearly Eastern Pennsylvania is our oldest sibling, if a bit estranged. Since our birthday is also the birth of the gateway to the west, the cities and towns of the Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys are our younger siblings. We have close cousins in every industrial and post-industrial region in America and distant ones in similar regions around the globe.

Our friends -- people who have been touched by Pittsburgh, its story and its people -- stretch the world over. It seems to me that, in celebrating ourselves, we are celebrating them, too. Perhaps we should let them know that, and specifically invite them, to rekindle our deep historic relationships. We have a lot of candles to blow out and could use their help. Roll out the carpet and roll out the barrel!

In short, the risk evident in Pittsburgh 250 is that the region veers madly from inward-looking self-flagellation ("Our navel is a terrible navel") to inward-looking vamping and preening ("Hey, our navel is pretty great!"). Pittsburgh's birthday isn't just about us. It's about reaching out.

The Pittsburgh - Hawaii Connection

The feel-good story of the New Year featured University of Hawaii graduate assistant football coach Brian Kajiyama, who uses a wheelchair to get around and a computer-assisted speaking device to communicate. He has cerebral palsy. (The 'Bows undefeated regular season took them to the Sugar Bowl, where the team was crushed yesterday by Georgia, 41-10.)

The Pittsburgh connection? (There's always at least one, and I'm surprised that the local MSM didn't pick this up.) Kajiyama's speaking technology was produced by local firm DynaVox.

(Thanks, Christian.)