Links and quotes for June 15, 2017: Job offshoring, libertarian solutions to climate change, apprenticeships, and more – American Enterprise Institute

The Exporting Jobs Canard WSJ

Mr. Trump assumes that when U.S. multinationals expand abroad, it necessarily reduces the number of people they employ in the U.S. But this assumption is wrong, and tariffs would hurt American workers, not help them.

Academic research has repeatedly found that when U.S. multinationals hire more people at their overseas affiliates, it does not come at the expense of American jobs. How can this be? Large firms need workers of many different skills and occupations, and the jobs done by employees abroad are often complements to, not substitutes for, those done by workers at home. Manufacturing abroad, for example, can allow workers in the U.S. to focus on higher value-added tasks such as research and development, marketing, and general management. Additionally, expanding overseas to serve foreign customers or save costs often helps the overall company grow, resulting in more U.S. hiring.

The ultimate proof is in the numbers. Between 2004 and 2014, the most recent year for which U.S. government data are available, total employment at foreign affiliates of U.S. multinationals rose from nine million to 13.8 million. Yet the number of jobs at U.S. parent companies rose nearly as much, from 22.4 million to 26.6 million

President Trump is right that America needs millions more good-paying jobs. But he does not seem to realize they can be created by U.S.-based multinationals that know how to invest capital, operate globally and create knowledge. In 2014, U.S. multinationals undertook 45.4% of all private-sector capital investment, were responsible for 49.5% of all U.S. goods exports, and conducted a remarkable 78.9% of total U.S. private-sector research and development

Limit the ability of U.S. multinational companies to flourish abroad and you limit their ability to create high-paying jobs in America. Washington should base its policies on data and research, not anecdotes and assertions.

The Case For and Against Policing Todays Tech GiantsAxios

The Choice Facing Americans, According to Tyler CowenLibrary of Law and Liberty

Cowen, the Holbert L. Harris Chair of Economics at George Mason University and director of George Masons Mercatus Center, has best escaped the boundaries of his discipline to become a public intellectual who examines his assumptions as an economist by the light cast by other disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. Such an approach gives his work an admirable breadth, not to mention making it remarkably accessible to non-economists.

His new book is no exception. The Complacent Class: The Self-Defeating Quest for the American Dream has nine chapters. The first four draw mostly from economic and other social scientific data to try to explain an unhealthy trend that Cowen detects in our society, and even in the American character: a loss of flexibility and concomitant embrace of the status quo that were never, he argues, as pronounced before as they are today

Complacency runs contrary to what the author regards as the central trait of the American: her restlessness. Restlessness is a good thing, in Cowens view. It signifies the successful pursuit of economic opportunities, a dissatisfaction with the status quo, and the constant effort to innovate. The choice facing Americans, then, is either a kind of desperate preservation of the status quo and, with it, a rapid shrinking in opportunities; or the return to restlessness, with all of its risks, its violence, and its mobility.

Canada to Teach Computer Coding Starting in KindergartenPhys.org

A Market-Friendly Approach to Combating Climate Change Slate

Ultimately, the only way to combat American automobile dependency is to reform the way we build, and in particular, to help avoid low-density settlement patterns that make it impractical or impossible for Americans to get anywhere without a personal car

But even in Berkeley, liberals have a blind spot when it comes to housing policy and the transportation choices it requires. As a councilman in 2014, Arreguin pushed a ballot measure putting superstrict conditions on new development. It failed, but his elevation to mayor in November was seen as a reproach of his opponent Laurie Capitellis pro-development record.* It was a very clear choice between me and my opponent, who has literally rubber-stamped every [real estate] project that came before this council, Arreguin told the San Francisco Chronicle last fall.

At Tuesday nights City Council meeting, which touched on a number of housing issues, this dissonance was on display in a residents complaint about a proposed new building that would cast shadows on her zucchini plants. The project was returned to the citys Zoning Adjustments Board. The zukes live another day

That overturning housing restrictions is part of the fight for economic and racial justice is well-established. But in a moment of all-in activism and outrage over climate change, its worth reflecting on the degree to which the prohibition of infill housing is an environmentally reactionary policy.

The fewer people live in Berkeley and other job-rich, close-in Bay Area cities and suburbs, the more people have to drive. More than half of Berkeleys greenhouse gas emissions come from cars and trucks

Infill housing production is the municipal equivalent of driving a hybrid: If youre serious about fighting climate change, its no longer up for debate.

Why the Tighter Labor Market isnt Generating Better Pay WSJ

Janet Yellen and the Case of the Missing Inflation NYT

Inflation has stubbornly stayed lower than the Federal Reserve has desired for the past eight years, and it has been falling in the last few months. In a move that could well define her chairmanship of the central bank, Janet Yellen is betting that falling prices are a temporary blip that will soon be forgotten.

If her forecast is right, the Fed policy meeting on Wednesday will turn out to be a nonevent in a gradual return to normal policy. If shes wrong, the June 2017 meeting will look like a giant unforced error that unnecessarily prolonged an era in which the Fed proved impotent to get inflation up to the 2 percent level it aims for and lost credibility needed to fight the next downturn

What is worrisome is not direct economic damage, but the fact that the Fed has missed its (arbitrary) 2 percent target in the same direction undershooting year after year. If its not a drop in prices for cellphone plans, its a falloff in oil prices, or cheaper imports because of a strong dollar.

That in turn implies that the low-growth, low-inflation, low-interest-rate economy since 2008 isnt going anywhere. This would prove especially damaging if the economy ran into some negative shock; a lack of Fed credibility could leave it less able to prevent a recession.

Preparing for Brexit, Britons Face Economic Pinch at Home NYT

How Trump Can Make Apprenticeships a Hit Bloomberg

Replicating the German apprenticeship model in the U.S. would require nothing short of a revolution. For one thing, it would be expensive: The U.S. federal government spends $90 million a year on dedicated apprenticeship programs; accounting for both education and training, the German system costs $27 billion.

A more immediate challenge is to persuade U.S. employers to sign on. Few companies have the time or resources to educate, train, pay and certify apprentices. Thats especially true in industries without a track record of employing apprentices, such as technology, health care and finance. Many businesses leaders remain skeptical of the preparation that prospective apprentices receive from public high schools and community colleges. If the scale of a U.S. apprenticeship program is to come anywhere close to Germanys, apprentices will have to become easier for businesses to manage and public-education systems must be more responsive to the job requirements of local industries.

It can be done.YouthForce NOLA, a partnership of political, business and education leaders in New Orleans, places 1,200 high-school seniors from local public high schools in paid internships in fields such as software development and advanced manufacturing Another successful model is the state-run Apprenticeship Carolina program in South Carolina, which serves as an intermediary between businesses, workers and educational institutions.

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Links and quotes for June 15, 2017: Job offshoring, libertarian solutions to climate change, apprenticeships, and more - American Enterprise Institute