Ward on Words

NPR reports that consumers who are squeezed at the pump have pulled back on spending in other areas. The result is being felt on the economy. " High gasoline prices, government budget cuts and weaker-than-expected consumer spending caused the economy to grow only weakly in the first three months of the year." Thanks to NPR for pointing out the obvious - that higher gas prices cut into money consumers would rather spend elsewhere. That's why the corporate leaders who feel that squeezing as much out of their employees for as little as possible are remarkably short-sighted. A consumer-driven economy needs consumers with funds to spend. So dip into the profit goody bag and start giving employees much-deserved raises. Hire new talent to fill key positions. (There's a lot of talent looking for a compatible work hook-up right now, FYI.) If business leaders want to sell their product, they need to make sure America's got consumers with money to put towards consump...

Who knew that getting a seasonal job at Best Buy would be harder than getting into Harvard? According to a story on NPR today, more than one million people applied for 24,000 seasonal jobs this year at Best Buy. That's 40 applicants vying for each job. By contrast, in spring of 2008, Harvard had received approximately 27,000 applicants for almost 2000 spots, which translates into roughly 13 applicants for every student admitted.* You can listen to NPR's story here . And you can read about Harvard's applicant pool here . *Math skills highly questionable, due to lifelong interest in language arts. Apologize in advance if ratio is off in anyway.