Vorts, FYI,
There's a thoughtful lengthy Business Week article by Michael Mandel, with Steve Hamm in New York and Christopher J. Farrell in St. Paul, Minn. It concerns how we measure the health of our nation's economy at:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_07/b3971001.htm
http://tinyurl.com/dvgwb
The title: Why The Economy Is A Lot Stronger Than You Think
It states GDP and similar national statistics are being skewed adversely because statisticians do not effectively take in account the impact intangible goods make to our economy's health. IOW, it's easy to count WIDGITS, but not so easy to assess the results that R&D, training, and other types of services have contributed as well.
Jed, I think you might find portions of this article fun to read as well. They briefly touch on the fact that training costs are being drastically reduced in a lot of corporate sectors because students no longer need to be flown as extensively to distant centers located in other states - which incurs considerable air fare and hotel expenses. Trainees can now learn a lot more by staying home and taking advantage of the advancements of much cheaper e-learning technology.
There is a somewhat disparaging metaphorical remark linking Cold Fusion to obscurity, See sentence: "A recent report from Goldman, Sachs & Co. (GS ) likened Hausmann's dark matter to cold fusion." close to the end of the article, but it didn't really bother me that much.
There's a lot to chew on in this article.
Regards,
Steven Vincent Johnson
www.OrionWorks.com
