Heavily urbanized states--like Massachusetts--tend to be more productive than their rural counterparts
A new report from Credit Suisse has been getting a fair bit of buzz in the business press, largely thanks to the graph below. The report focused on how urbanization affects developing economies. As an example of the differences between rural and urban productivity, researchers broke down government data on American GDP by state and by hour. Then they looked at how urbanized the states are. And they found that, by and large, the more urban the state, the more more productive it was on average. (The glaring exceptions to this rule being ultra-resource-rich Alaska and Wyoming.) Continue Reading →
The sovereign debt crisis has hurt the European economy and sparked unrest across the continent
To people not directly involved in fixing, analyzing, or monitoring the Eurozone crisis, it can take on the character of black magic. And it’s easy to think that the dark arts of the European Central Bank’s low-interest lending initiatives, national bond auctions, and bailout talk have little bearing on our daily lives.
In fact, they very much matter.
Economists say Europe’s ongoing sovereign debt difficulties could very well plunge the continent into a double-dip recession, if it hasn’t already. And, as America’s recent history demonstrates, when the economy’s on the downswing, not many people are anxious to buy anything. Those jitters ultimately hit the export economy…and when orders slow down, so does demand for workers to make the stuff we ship overseas. Although tiny New Hampshire isn’t exactly a Rustbelt-style manufacturing powerhouse, the state makes a lot of advanced, high-demand products, which means it’s heavily exposed to what’s going on in Europe. Continue Reading →
MaryAnn Manoogian is Executive Director for the new Center for Women’s Business Advancement.
Like the proverbial phoenix rising from the ashes, the new Center for Women’s Business Advancement seeks to build upon the foundation of its predecessor of supporting women entrepreneurs in New Hampshire and to go much further.
The CWBA provides free, one-on-one business counseling, workshops and other resources to women looking to start their own businesses – although male entrepreneurs are also welcome.
Refinery closures could trigger bigger gas price spikes
The quirky calculus of oil price economics is notoriously complex. What that often translates to, in terms of media coverage, is continual score-keeping. How much have prices risen over the past week? From this time a month ago? A year ago?
Foster’s Daily Democratis particularly good at keeping up with the flow of figures. For example, the newspaper noted New Hampshire saw an average price increase of 5.3 cents a gallon last week. The national average price spike was much lower, at only 1.4 cents per gallon. Foster’s reports:
“Including the change in gas prices in New Hampshire during the past week, prices Sunday were 21.7 cents per gallon higher than the same day one year ago and 15.4 cents per gallon higher than a month ago… Continue Reading →
“A developer is looking to build a sprawling warehouse operation on Integra Drive, off Manchester Street, that Concord officials say could employ 150 people.
But the name of the company that would use the proposed 350,000-square-foot facility seems a closely guarded secret. Land records provide few clues, and both City Manager Tom Aspell and Deputy City Manager for Development Carlos Baia said last week they don’t know who it is. Continue Reading →
As the demand for job training services continues in the face of high unemployment, federal funding for these programs has actually decreased
We’ve talked a lot recently about the so-called “skills gap” in New Hampshire vis-à-vis the manufacturing sector. In a nutshell, the state’s fabricators say they have lots of openings for skilled labor, but not enough people are qualified to fill them. Now, Motoko Rich reports for the New York Timesthat other sectors are demanding skilled and semi-skilled workers–and meeting with shortages, too. Part of the problem, she writes, is that as demand for training programs has increased with unemployment over the years, the supply of federal funding for them has gone down dramatically:
“The Labor Department announced on Friday that employers had added only 120,000 new jobs in March, a disappointing gain after three previous months of nearly twice that level. But with 12.7 million people still searching for jobs, the country is actually spending less on work force training than it did in good times. Continue Reading →
Why The Mega Millions Jackpot Is Extra-Important For New Hampshire: One of our most popular series of posts is our look at how New Hampshire’s lottery is struggling in the face of competition from Massachusetts. So we re-posted in honor of the Mega Millions frenzy.
Talk of another round of BRAC closures has politicians from both NH and Maine nervous about the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard
With continued talk of pruning the Pentagon’s budget, the military has told Congress it plans to save money by starting a new round of base realignment and closure, or BRAC. The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard was spared during the last BRAC round in 2005. Still, the senate delegations from Maine and New Hampshire have been vocal in their protests against another look at American installations, especially the one in Kittery. Now, as Deborah McDermott of SeacoastOnline.com reports, the Navy’s Chief of Operations, Admiral Jonathan Greenert, has noted the importance of the shipyard:
“…Adm. Jonathan Greenert, touring Bath Iron Works on Wednesday, was asked about the prospect of Portsmouth Naval Shipyard surviving a base closure process.
‘Portsmouth fills a critical need for overhaul of our submarines and provides other things, as well. I don’t see that need diminishing at all in the future,’ he said.”
The shipyard’s main mission is overhauling and repairing Los Angeles-class submarines.
States are dividing up a massive settlement with big banks. But what will the influx of money do for NH's foreclosure situation?
Since 2005, the number of foreclosures in New Hampshire has increased 700 percent. Last year, more than 3,800 families were forced out of their homes due to foreclosure.
The banks are accused of fast tracking foreclosures through improper documentation by so-called “robo-signing,” as well as engaging in another practice called dual tracking. Dual tracking occurs when borrowers are in the process of refinancing and the bank is also working to foreclose on them. Continue Reading →
A hallmark of angel investors is aggressive risk-taking in the hopes that when a company's ready to go on the market, they'll see big returns
If you’ve watched “Shark Tank” on ABC (or its British forbear “Dragon’s Den” on BBC in America), you’ve seen, to some extent, angel investors in action. Underneath the high-gloss of ratings-driven reality TV, you can catch a glimpse of this opaque, mysterious investment market. As Colleen Debaise of the Wall Street Journal explains, angel investments can act as bridges “between that money you’ve gotten from friends and family and the venture capital that you hope to secure down the road.” Of course, there’s a price to pay: Continue Reading →
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