Archive for June 29th, 2010

Super skimmer kept out of the Gulf … score another for the unions.

June 29, 2010

This is nuts.

A skimmer capable gathering more oil in a day than has been collected to date in the Gulf is being kept out of the action because of the union-protectionist Jone’s Act.

Makes sense since Louisiana voted for McCain and the unions voted for Obama.

* * * * *

Excerpted from AP: Super skimmer stops in Virginia while waiting for clearance to work in Gulf, June 28th, 2010

With no assurances it will be allowed to join the Gulf of Mexico oil spill cleanup, a Taiwanese-owned ship billed as the world’s largest skimming vessel is docked in Norfolk, VA ready to join the Gulf clean-op effort.

The ship—the length of 3 1/2 football fields and 10 stories high—is designed to collect up to 500,000 barrels of oily water a day.

The company is still negotiating with the Coast Guard to join the cleanup and does not have a contract with BP to perform cleanup work. The company also needs environmental approval and waiver of a nearly century-old Jones law aimed at protecting U.S. union interests.

Environmental Protection Agency approval is required because some of the seawater returned to the Gulf would have traces of oil.

The Coast Guard, which has received more than 2,000 cleanup proposals, said the supertanker skimmer had survived a preliminary review and was being studied further.

The converted oil tanker has the capacity of holding 2 million barrels, but would limit its holding tanks to 1 million barrels for environmental reasons. Oil skimmed up by the tanker would be separated from seawater, then transferred to another vessel.

Its owners claim the ship could gulp oily water at a daily rate that nearly matches the skimming total to date in the Gulf.

“This spill is unprecedented and you need an unprecedented solution.“

Full article:
http://dailycaller.com/2010/06/28/super-skimmer-stops-in-virginia-while-waiting-for-clearance-to-work-in-gulf/

Posted in Gulf Blowout & Clean-up | 3 Comments »

Alum props: Jen Folsom of Momentum Resources featured in Newsweek

June 29, 2010

Jen Folsom, MSB MBA ‘02, got some nice press in Newsweek … she’s become one of our rockstar alums ! 

Way to go, Jen.

* * * * *

Newsweek, The Vanishing 9-to-5 Job, June 25,2010

On a typical weekday, Jennifer Folsom works from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m., from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and from 7 p.m. to about 8 p.m. Her hours may sound like they belong to a college student cobbling together a hodgepodge of part-time jobs, but Folsom is the director of a successful D.C. headhunting firm where she oversees a handful of employees with equally irregular schedules.

“We get the job done and I work 50 or 60 hours a week,” says Folsom, who adapts her work schedule to give herself time with her three sons. “I just don’t necessarily do it from 9 to 5.”

As the traditional U.S. workday continues to fade, Folsom’s experience may soon become the rule rather than the exception. Two generations ago, America’s workforce — from Ford’s assembly-line workers to IBM’s “company men” — would show up to work at 9 a.m. on the dot and leave the second the whistle blew at 5 o’clock. Now, one in five Americans works mostly nonstandard hours — nights, weekends, or rotating shifts.

Experts believe that statistic will balloon in coming years as the Great Recession accelerates a cultural shift in the corporate world, allowing more employees to tailor their work schedules to preference, position, and personal life.

Folsom has seen this firsthand. Her company, Momentum Resources, is designed to place professionals in senior-level positions with flexible hours.

When she helped start the firm in 2007, her biggest challenge was convincing CEOs that their stringent loyalty to the 9-to-5 workday was impeding them from acquiring top talent, specifically working mothers with impressive résumés.

“They just weren’t set up to do it,” she says. But the model has proven remarkably successful at companies like Best Buy and employers seem more willing to adapt these days: since 2007, Momentum has placed flex employees with more than 250 clients in the D.C. metro area, and Folsom says demand is growing.

Full article:
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/06/25/the-vanishing-9-to-5-job.html

Posted in Careers & Interviewing, MSB - School & Alums | Leave a Comment »

A middle class marginal tax rate of 37% … way to go ObamaCare

June 29, 2010

There are many perverse incentives built into ObamaCare. Here’s one:

Middle class Americans who aren’t insured through their companies can buy heavily subsidized policies under the plan.

The problem is that as their incomes rise, the subsidies decline, giving them far less incentive to work more hours or stretch for raises.

For example, if the income for a family of four rises from $55,000 to $66,000, their contribution to their premium jumps from $4,400 to $6,600, erasing 22% of the $10,000 increase.

Source: Fortune, The best stimulus? Spend less, borrow less, June 24, 2010
http://money.cnn.com/2010/06/24/news/economy/stimulus_spending_cuts.fortune/index.htm

* * * * *

Note:

Assuming that the $66,000 puts the family in the 15% tax bracket, it’s the equivalent of a 37% marginal tax … right up there with the rich folks.

Go figure …

Posted in ObamaCare | Leave a Comment »