Thursday, January 26, 2012

One impressive public servant

Source: U.S. Dept. of the Treasury
I thoroughly enjoyed this piece from today's New York Times profiling Lael Brainard, our present Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs. As a civil servant, I find her example an inspiring one: she is an extraordinarily talented economist and could have built a successful career without ever setting foot in government -- yet she chose to serve. And by all accounts, she has done an exceptional job. It is also inspiring to see a woman take such an influential role in a field, international finance, that has been all-too-overwhelmingly male-dominated for a very long time. She's the highest-ranking female Treasury official in history (at least according to her Wikipedia page).
Keep up the great work, Lael!

Monday, January 23, 2012

Chúc mừng năm mới -- Happy New Year!

Tết display in Saigon. Source: Wikimedia Commons
Today, Vietnamese people around the world are celebrating Tết Nguyên Đán (or just Tết), the Vietnamese Lunar New Year. Here is an interesting article that addresses how important the holiday is for Vietnamese retailers, much as the December holidays are for retailers in the United States. It also notes that demand for consumer goods for Tết was so high this year that it might  have been too much of a good thing, as robust consumer demand has done nothing to help tame galloping inflation. Also interesting is the article's quoting of one firm's prediction of a banner year for sales of baby products, as some observers expect an increase in births  due to this being a "lucky" dragon year in the Vietnamese zodiac.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

A skilled-labor shortage... for retailing?

This article describes a problem we don't often think of: a skilled-labor shortage in the retailing industry. In this case, the particular industry segment in question is luxury retailing in India. It seems that more often than not, we are accustomed to thinking of retailing as a low-skill profession for which the labor supply is virtually unlimited (even though one could make a strong argument that virtually all retail jobs require specialized skills, from supply chain management, to merchandising, to the interpersonal techniques vital for securing sales). While the shortage in India is in all likelihood real, one might reasonably question whether the country ought to dedicate scarce educational resources to teaching people how to sell luxury goods. Perhaps that is a line of education best left to the companies doing the hiring.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Ikea's meatballs = unfair trade?

Image source: Steffan Wurzel, Wikimedia Commons
According to  Michael Freeman of TheJournal.ie, Belgian restaurateurs have launched an aggressive campaign against Ikea's low-priced meatballs. The leaders of the campaign are accusing Ikea of "dumping" the meatballs at artificially low prices that harm competition.

This is an interesting case on a number of fronts. It is the first time I have heard "dumping" used in the context of the restaurant industry. This term is more commonly associated with trade disputes involving tires, shrimp, and other traded commodities. And given that the alleged perpetrator is a foreign multinational, it brings to mind a vision of a most unusual anti-dumping dispute: imagine, for a moment, that Belgium's enraged restaurateurs won the day, and the government sought to impose some sort of special surcharge on Ikea's meatball sales. Does a forum exist at the WTO or elswhere at which the Swedes could hope to have such a dispute settled? I'm not sure.

In  the meantime, it will be interesting to see if the anti-meatball campaigners can capture public settlement. A lot of folks (myself included) have trouble saying "no" to a plate of cheap, reasonably satisfying meatballs.