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Friday, February 11, 2005 |
 Strata Lucida on closed OODA loops. Another way of saying "breathing your own exhaust."
7:24:28 PM 
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WT. Trade deficit in 2004: $618 billion.
Despite a substantially weaker dollar, which makes U.S. products cheaper overseas, a deficit emerged for the first time in farm goods after 50 years of surpluses, according to yesterday's Commerce Department trade report. The U.S. edge in advanced technology products disappeared two years ago, and analysts forecast that at the current rate, many remaining U.S. strong points in trade — including banking and legal services — also soon will be toppled and succumb to the burgeoning deficit.
11:02:28 AM
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WSJ. Here is a trend that bears watching. Companies are increasingly vertically integrating into services normally provided by the state. There has been a flurry of acquisitions in the private military company space. In house security lowers costs and provides a level of security not provided by police/military or host governments (a necessity for doing business in an ever greater span of the globe). Now, companies are starting to offer primary health care to their employees (to lower costs). Here's a health care example:
Last year Quad/Graphics, one of the nation's biggest printing companies, spent about $6,000 per employee on medical costs, 30% less than the average company in its home state of Wisconsin. Its 12,000 workers spend fewer days in the hospital and take their medicines more regularly. Even more unusual: Quad provides most of the care itself. Starting with a small plant clinic in 1990, Quad has brought nearly all of its primary health care in-house. As the whir of its giant presses hums through the waiting-room wall, company doctors and nurses practice everything from pediatrics to gynecology.
10:16:28 AM
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© Copyright 2005 John Robb.
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