PODCAST: Face tattoo regrets and a public college fund
It’s day four of a strike that has shut down much of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Management is trying to find common ground with striking clerical staff; dock workers refuse to cross their picket line. The local strike could ripple across the entire U.S. economy.
They say it’s never to soon to start saving for college. Starting next fall, one Ohio county will give a $100 to every kindergartner who lives there to put toward a college fund. The multi-million dollar program is the largest of its kind in the country.
For decades, the story of American manufacturing has been all about offshoring or outsourcing. Lately though, some new terminology has come into vogue — onshoring and insourcing. Insourcing refers to when companies move manufacturing production back from overseas. For the cover story of the latest issue of the Atlantic, journalist Charles Fishman set out to document the economics behind the trend. Fishman joins us to discuss why some companies are moving production back home.
The Los Angeles auto show opens to the public today. It comes at an interesting time; the market for cars in the U.S. has rebounded and the industry is back on its feet, even as the broader economic recovery continues to unfold at a painfully slow pace.
Volkswagen is at the Los Angeles auto show, with a new ragtop convertible Beetle. The German carmaker is the focus of our final piece this week on the current challenges in the European auto industry.
Today lawmakers in Germany approved the latest bailout for Greece, by a large majority. It’s a relief to those worried about German resolve to continue supporting its struggling neighbors to the south. The vote happened as the European Central Bank won a legal battle to keep some of its internal documents on Greece secret. Those documents could help shed light on how Greece covered up the level of its debt.
It was exactly two years ago that the government of Ireland got its international bailout. Since that time, on a couple of occasions, we have talked to Father Iggy O’Donovan, a parish priest in the town of Drogheda. He’s one of the favorites of my morning report colleague Jeremy Hobson, and on the occasion of the bailout anniversary he caught up with him again.
And finally, Mitt Romney met President Obama for a private lunch at the White House yesterday. Surely kind of a bittersweet invitation. After Romney himself, few folks can perhaps match the disappointment of Eric Hartsburg in Indiana — who at the peak of his excitement and optimism, tattooed a three-inch version of the Romney/Ryan logo on the side of his face. Hartsburg is now looking into getting the thing removed, and I love this quote he gave to Politico: “I’m the guy who has egg all over his face. But instead of egg, it’s a big Romney/Ryan tattoo.”
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