True genius
sees with the eyes of a child
and thinks with the brain of a genie
Puzant Kevork
A Libertarian Take on the Benghazi Kerfuffle
On the Ignorance of Gun Prohibitionists
Many prohibitionists don't understand how they are being manipulated by mainstream media given the nature and extent of coverage of sensationalized coverage.
Slumping Labor Force Participation: Just Due to Baby Boomers: No...
There's no question that labor force participation rate will decline as a result of the more numerous Baby Boomers retiring, being replaced by fewer younger workers joining the labor force. But only a small percentage of workers have reached the regular retirement age of 65; this process should be more continuous in nature and doesn't explain the steep drop-off and the breadth of it; for example, job hiring has generally not kept up with population growth, many college graduates are having to settle for jobs not requiring a college degree, and we are seeing the worst long-term unemployed statistics in decades. It is possible that some, as a result of the "Great Recession", have decided to retire earlier than expected , taking advantage of any government program
I have mentioned Mark Perry of Carpe Diem has been constantly hyping what I call "perky" economics--e.g., the oil shale employment boom in North Dakota and Texas, job listings on the Internet, lower unemployment rates for college graduates, etc. He's at it again, this time pushing a JP Morgan study arguing two-thirds of the fall have to do with an aging labor force, not a tough economy. I'll give him credit for admitting the study is "somewhat contrarian". I am not an economist, but the Huffington Post here cites labor rate participation rates are at decades lows for younger worker groupings.
I can speak from my own anecdotal experience; I'm sure Perry as a tenured professor (plus whatever, at minimum, his AEI affiliation pays) has not had to look for work (where do most economists find work? Working as government bureaucrats or teaching? The last time I checked, very few economists made the lists of wealthiest folks--so much for economists not only failing to eat their own dog food, they probably can't manufacture it either.) I don't intend to make this an anti-economist rant; I generally like Mark, but I can't understand why a free market economist wants to validate activist fiscal and monetary policies.
I think I've had to look for work during every recession at least since the Bush 41 Administration (which ended my academic career--I had a temp position and the year I left there were something like 4 applicants for each position). I can assure you this time is different. During the Great Recession I have talked to at least 2 recruiters whom took their job after 2 decades or more of being on the other side of the fence as IT career professionals; being a recruiter is a last-resort type of employment for IT professionals. One Texas HR executive rejected me because of a bad phone connection and she accused me of shouting at her. On multiple occasions I've been interviewed for phantom jobs, e.g., if they win a project bid (in none of these cases did they inform me of the contingent nature of the opening in advance of the in-person), and I can think of 3 times I've waited for months for the position to be awarded. I've been willing to accept temp jobs, steep pay or rate cuts, night shift work, even relocate at my own expense. There is an arrogance in this market--you apply for something, do a phone screen and follow-ups are more the exception, not the rule. You get spammed with irrelevant job listings with requirements not a fit with one's resume. You get calls from window-shopping recruiters or those looking for contacts for unrelated opportunities. And keep in mind--I have 18 years of DBA experience with highly selective employers like IBM and Oracle Consulting, never mind 3 advanced degrees, including an MIS PhD. (I think part of the resistance is from future colleagues whom don't want to compete against me. I once interviewed with a Baltimore area company; the new tech manager wanted to recruit a second senior DBA to balance his existing senior DBA. He wanted the guy to tech-screen me--whom proceeded to drill down on newer business technologies not in my resume--I more recently did unrelated public sector work. Most DBA's pick up new technologies as part of the job, and I'm a very quick study. In essence, the manager gave the guy veto power over hiring me, and this guy didn't want me looking over his shoulder.)
The point is--even the best and brightest have problems finding work in this economy. Anyone who disputes that is in a state of denial. I'm in an in-demand profession. I can remember more normal times, e.g., I can recall getting a cold call at 6:30 PM on Monday and starting an assignment in Orange County Wednesday morning. I've probably been Fed-Exed W-4/I-9 paperwork at least 3 times, even being hired without a face-to-face. Today's job listings often include wishlists impossible to fill (because they reflect a company's idiosyncratic technology mix). Even I have had to put up insane job skill matrices (when did you last use this technology? How long? How would you rate yourself?) Maybe for junior DBA's; but no one is going to hire me as a senior DBA because USPTO implemented Business Objects. To give you a simple example, a recruiter probed me for years of experience with a commercial variation of the Unix operating system. I've professionally worked on Unix/Linux platforms for at least 17 years--Solaris, HP/UX, AIX, Digital/Compaq Tru-64, Red Hat Linux, Oracle Enterprise Linux For the most part, from a DBA perspective, the differences are not significant; for example, a command to dump data to tape might differ in syntax, no big deal. Mostly a DBA works with Unix shell scripts, knows how to check processes, etc. But putting on a req, say, "6 years on HP/UX" is frankly a stupid requirement, especially since I've done ancillary Unix administrative work on Solaris, Digital Unix, and Linux servers. I'm tired of trying to explain this and other things (like performance tuning) to recruiters whom don't understand the technology but insist the clients need to know the sum total of my 18 years as an Oracle DBA was on HP/UX database servers. Or want to know my years on versions 10G and/or 11G I've done, when I have done every version since 6 professionally and 2 others while in academia. These are examples of filters used to narrow candidates. These, unfortunately, can also filter out the best candidates.
Benghazi Talking Points Edited Out Terrorist References
ABC reports that there were 12 iterations of CIA talking points where there was clear White House pressure to scrub references to known terrorist activity in the region. I don't care about the rationale: clearly that was politically motivated, but the result is hardly "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth". Clearly Obama's talking point that he had crushed Al Qaeda's infrastructure could have been called into question by Romney, but this incident has stained the Office of the Presidency--and the legacies of Barry Obama and Hillary Clinton.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland raised specific objections to this paragraph drafted by the CIA in its earlier versions of the talking points:
"The Agency has produced numerous pieces on the threat of extremists linked to al-Qa'ida in Benghazi and eastern Libya. These noted that, since April, there have been at least five other attacks against foreign interests in Benghazi by unidentified assailants, including the June attack against the British Ambassador's convoy. We cannot rule out the individuals has previously surveilled the U.S. facilities, also contributing to the efficacy of the attacks."
In an email to officials at the White House and the intelligence agencies, Nuland took issue with including that information because it "could be abused by members [of Congress] to beat up the State Department for not paying attention to warnings, so why would we want to feed that either? Concerned …"
The paragraph was entirely deleted.
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of Henry Payne and Townhall |
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups
Bruce Springsteen & the E-Street Band, "Hungry Heart"
