Montreal Releases Entrepreneurship Report

For the third consecutive year, the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal has published its Montreal health report. This year’s edition, devoted to the subject of entrepreneurship, assesses the performance of Montreal in comparison with that of eleven other North American metropolitan areas. The study was carried out with the on-going collaboration of researchers at the INRS-Urbanization, Culture et Société and data collected for the study of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor - Canada.

“After studying the issue of talent last year, the Board of Trade wished to determine how that talent was being used to create businesses in Greater Montreal. We believed it was important to take the pulse of company creation in our city, since this is an important engine of wealth creation,” reports Isabelle Hudon, president and CEO of the Board of Trade.

Get report here.

U.S. Economic Growth Softening

The pace of economic growth softened more sharply than expected in the second quarter and corporate profits rose feebly, according to a Commerce Department report on Thursday that pointed to a significant easing in expansion.

Gross domestic product, which measures total economic activity within United States borders, advanced at a revised 2.6 percent annual rate, down from the 2.9 percent estimated a month ago and less than half the first quarter’s 5.6 percent rate.

Prices continued to bubble higher.

An inflation gauge favored by the Federal Reserve — a measure of personal consumption spending that excludes food and energy — rose at a revised 2.7 percent rate instead of the 2.8 percent reported a month ago. But that was still well above the first quarter’s 2.1 percent and was the highest since the 2.8 percent rate posted in the first quarter of 2001.

A separate report from the Labor Department showed new claims for unemployment pay dipped 6,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 316,000, a level considered by economists to show a healthy hiring environment. The four-week moving average of new claims, which irons out volatile weekly data to provide a better picture of underlying labor market trends, nudged down 500 last week, to 315,500.

Read more here.

Montgomery County, MD Gets Good Development Grades

Montgomery County, MD had a ‘‘spectacular year” economically in 2005, according to its annual economic report card, but the county’s chief economist warned there could be trouble ahead.

The county received mostly A’s and B’s, with seven marks higher than last year’s report card and none lower than the previous year. For the first time in the nine years the report card has been issued, Montgomery County received a C-plus in the category of Transportation Capital Expenditures. The county previously had received D’s and F’s.

‘‘We are pleased that our grades improved in several key areas, but we realize there is still room for improvement,” said David W. Edgerley, the county’s economic development director.

Read more here.

Virginia Looking at Competitive Effects of Rising Electric Rates

Sharply rising electric rates in Maryland and Delaware have Virginians, including state lawmakers, wondering what will happen when capped rates end here in four years.

Like Virginia, its two northern neighbors deregulated their electricity suppliers a few years back; and, like Virginia, they had protected consumers with temporary rate caps on existing power companies. As rate caps have expired in Maryland and Delaware this year, consumers have faced rate increases from 50 percent to more than 100 percent.

In Virginia, a specially created subcommittee of a General Assembly commission that monitors electric deregulation has begun studying the implications of the expiration of capped rates in 2011.

The special panel also will examine how the State Corporation Commission should set up "default" electric service in 2011 for those consumers who don't want to switch to a competitive electricity supplier -- assuming competition develops between now and then.

Read more here.

New Data Shows Foreign Business Jobs Declined in North Carolina

North Carolina has the nation's 10th-largest employee base derived from foreign companies, but that work force shrank by nearly 6,000 workers from 2003 to 2004, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

About 198,000 North Carolinians worked for U.S. subsidiaries of companies based outside the country in 2004 - the most recent data available - down from 203,800 in 2003. About 40 percent, or 78,400, of the "insourced" jobs are in the manufacturing sector.

Those U.S. subsidiaries account for 6 percent of North Carolina's private-sector work force, according to the Organization for International Investment, a foreign-trade advocacy group based in Washington.

Read more here.

GO Cincinnati

A public/private steering committee will oversee the creation of a comprehensive economic development strategy for Cincinnati and its neighborhoods, Mayor Mark Mallory announced Thursday.

The initiative, called GO Cincinnati, will be co-chaired by City Councilman Chris Bortz and Ellen van der Horst, president of the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber, according to a news release from the city. It will be responsible for overseeing committees that will address job attraction and retention, work-force development and neighborhood revitalization.

ED Futures Update

Welcome!

While demands on my time have been great, I continue to post some good articles on the ED Futures website. Hopefully you will find some information or ideas that are useful to you.

Best wishes,

Don Iannone
Publisher, ED Futures Journal
Email: dtia@don-iannone.com
Tel: 440.449.0753

Racial and Ethnic Social and Economic Links

Looking for data on how well various racial and ethinic groups are performing in an economic sense. Check out these links:

Hispanic population

Black/African-American population

Native American population