Is this a surprise - Indiana manufacturing declines

Indiana Manufacturing Jobs Drop Nearly 8 Percent According to Industrial Directory:

"The Directory reports Indiana suffered a 1% loss in manufacturing employment between 2005 and 2006, a loss of 2.4% between 2006 and 2007, and a 2.2% decline over the 2007-2008 survey period.

Manufacturers' News reports Indiana is now home to 10,748 manufacturers employing 610,491 workers.

'As with the entire nation, the recession continues to chip away at Indiana's core sectors. The auto industry has taken the greatest hit, while the faltering housing market has affected industries such as wood, furniture and building products,' says Tom Dubin, President of the Evanston, IL-based publishing company, which has been surveying industry since 1912.

MNI reports a quarter of the state's losses were felt in the auto industry, which tallied a loss of 12,814 jobs or 14.4% over the year following layoffs and closings at RV manufacturers and suppliers such as Monaco Coach Corp, Starcraft RV, Travel Supreme and Newmar Corp., as well as continuing cuts at the Big Three and their suppliers. The auto industry currently accounts for 73,364 jobs, while the transportation equipment sector as a whole employs 90,660. One bright spot in the auto sector was the opening of a new Honda plant in Greensburg that will be producing fuel-efficient vehicles."

Ball State National Road Documentary

Ball State documentary on the National Road debuts with free screenings

A Ball State University documentary about the Indiana segment of the National Road will be featured across the state with six free screenings. "Movers and Stakers: Stories along the Indiana National Road" will debut in Muncie at 7:30 p.m. May 7 at Pruis Hall. The documentary will also be shown in Greenfield, Indianapolis, Terre Haute and Richmond.

The documentary focuses on the Indiana segment of the nation's first federally funded highway, which was commissioned in 1806 by President Thomas Jefferson and runs from Cumberland, Md., to Vandalia, Ill.

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"Movers and Stakers: Stories along the Indiana National Road" will not only air on public television, but will also be used in visitor centers, touch screen kiosks, museums and schools. To watch the trailer and learn more about the documentary, visit www.nationalroadfilm.com.

Teaching Children to Manage Money

From Secretary of State - Securities Division because it is a very good idea:

Teaching Children to Manage Money
by Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita

Consider this: the latest version of the classic board game Monopoly trades in cash for debit cards, but does it explain to children what overdraft charges are or how to maintain a register of transactions? What about the Barbie doll that comes equipped with her own credit card and cash register? When she swipes too many times, her balance resets without requiring any payment. What message does that send children about the reality of using debit and credit cards?

Establishing good money management habits and a solid understanding of financial concepts is important for Hoosiers of all ages. But it’s especially important for younger generations to understand how to manage money even at a young age, giving them a solid foundation for when they enter the “real world” later. Today’s youth are tomorrow’s spenders, savers and investors. It’s critical that we stay invested in their future and make financial literacy a focus of their education.

April is national Financial Literacy Month, highlighting the importance of establishing and maintaining healthy financial habits. Simply put, financial literacy is a basic understanding of personal finance. It includes concepts like budgeting, saving, investing, insurance, understanding how credit and debit cards work, retirement planning and much more.

Lauth Goes Into Bankruptcy

Okay, we all have been concentrating on Chrysler, and while not as big, Lauth unit seeks bankruptcy protection has osmethng to say about our Indiana economy:

"Real estate developer Lauth Investment Properties LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy court protection this morning after months of weathering brutal market conditions here and across the country.

The filing in Indianapolis bankruptcy court listed assets and liabilities of up to $10 million.

It wasn't immediately clear whether Lauth Investment Properties represents only part of the Lauth Group Inc. development empire.

IBJ reported last month that Lauth Group had cut about 90 percent of its staff and lost control of part of its portfolio to an equity partner."

GM: The You Know What Looks At The Fan

Pressure on GM grows as bankers attack survival plan - Times Online

A statement issued by GM bondholders said: “We believe the offer to be a blatant disregard of fairness for the bondholders who have funded this company and amounts to using taxpayer money to show political favouritism of one creditor over another.” The advisers are preparing to issue a counter offer within the next ten days.

GM, in its revised survival plans, made no mention of Vauxhall, its British operation, which employs 5,000 people, nor of the German business operating under the Opel brand with a workforce of 25,000.

Tony Woodley, joint general secretary of Unite, the union, said that a fire-sale by GM of Opel and Vauxhall to Fiat might follow as part of GM’s restructuring. Mr Woodley said that the British, German and Spanish governments should fight such a move because GM Europe needed far more investment than Fiat could muster.

Fritz Henderson, chief executive of GM, admitted that the chance of bondholders agreeing to the debt-for-equity swap by the May 25 deadline was slight. He said: “It’s not impossible, but the bankruptcy is now more probable.”

Thin the headline says it all - very close to the feces hitting the fan. is this a game of chicken or a drag race down a blind alley?

Ball State Business startup film to debut

Business Line | thestarpress.com | The Star Press

A group of Ball State University business and telecommunications student fellows will debut their documentary film entitled Increasing the Odds: Starting a Business. The presentation on April 30 will begin with hors d'oeuvres at 6 p.m. after which the film will premiere at 6:45 p.m. in the Interurban Hall of the Horizon Convention Center.

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The film features a number of start-up businesses in various stages of development to illustrate the process. Insight from top executives at Vera Bradley, Anheuser-Busch and Ball Corporation represent the large, well-known and developed companies. Muncie's Blue Bottle Coffee Shop and Air Robotics LLC are included in the film to feature younger and smaller start-up companies.

Admission to the film is free and open to the public.

Information: www.bsu.edu/vbc or call the Virginia B. Ball Center for Creative Inquiry at 287-0117.

Purdue's Brains Ferments Business

Purdue startup marketing ethanol yeast

An Indiana biotechnology company announced yesterday that it has begun producing a genetically modified yeast that promises to make it easier and faster to turn corn cobs, wood chips and a host of agricultural wastes into ethanol.

Green Tech America Inc. of West Lafayette said its modified yeast ferments both major forms of sugar - glucose and xylose - involved in creating cellulosic ethanol from plant matter.

Adn what keeps Indiana from more businesses like this?

Lafayette Doing Well - Lessons for Anderson?

From Masson’s Blog, Lafayette, Indiana: Rising Star :

"(H/t Thomas for this link). There is a report on newgeography.com that lists Lafayette as #1 in the nation for its improvement in the “Best Cities for Jobs” rankings."

Take a look and I think there are things we can do here. Plus we have a closer relationship with Indianapolis. Do we have the will and the imagination?

Rural Rental Housing Association of Indiana

Here is an association I never heard of but might be of more interest, Rural Rental Housing Association of Indiana

RRHA is a not-for-profit trade association established in 1983 of approximately 300 property management companies in the state of Indiana, from single owner, corporation, partnership and other organizations which own one or more Rural Affordable Housing project(s), or which is a public housing authority or a full-time employee of either of the agencies, representing over 15,000 Affordable Housing apartment units.

RRHA is the only association that solely represents the needs of the rural rental housing industry in Indiana, through education, networking, promoting professionalism, initiating the cooperation and exchange of information among our membership, relating important industry information, and encouraging ethical practices within the Affordable Housing industry. RRHA is committed to providing a respected voice for its members, and it regularly meets with key members of USDA Rural Development to discuss the Section 515 program.

Indiana and The Civil War

Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln: Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Volume 8.:

"The State election of Indiana occurs on the 11th. of October, and the loss of it to the friends of the Government would go far towards losing the whole Union cause. The bad effect upon the November election, and especially the giving the State Government to those who will oppose the war in every possible way, are too much to risk, if it can possibly be avoided. The draft proceeds, notwithstanding its strong tendency to lose us the State. Indiana is the only important State, voting in October, whose soldiers cannot vote in the field. Any thing you can safely do to let her soldiers, or any part of them, go home and vote at the State election, will be greatly in point. They need not remain for the Presidential election, but may return to you at once. This is, in no sense, an order, but is merely intended to impress you with the importance, to the army itself, of your doing all you safely can, yourself being the judge of what you can safely do. Yours truly A. LINCOLN"

How strange that we now vote consistently with the States of the Confederacy.

Mitch's Financial Bungling

I am seriously surprised that not much has been made of Critics: Welfare changes cost state $100M so far:

"The 12 counties including the cities of Kokomo, Anderson, Muncie and Marion saw food-stamp participation fall 3.5 percent in the 12 months beginning November 2007 after the state took away individual welfare case managers and introduced call centers and the Internet as tools for determining eligibility, said the leaders of senior advocacy organizations and others.

In counties still operating under the old system with case managers for each household, food-stamp participation grew 14.3 percent over the same period.

A spokesman for the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration said the critics' numbers were wrong and that food-stamp participation has increased in modernized counties."


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One of the critics, former Vigo County Welfare Director Glenn Cardwell, said the $100 million in lost economic activity figure represented a benchmark because backers of the welfare changes in the Daniels administration have said it would cost the state that much to cancel the IBM-ACS contract.

Cardwell calculated that figure by estimating the economic activity that would have been generated if participation in food stamps and TANF had grown in the modernized counties as they had in counties still under the old system.

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FSSA spokesman Marcus Barlow said participation in food stamps has increased in the counties where welfare has been modernized.

"We disagree that people that are eligible for food stamps aren't getting them," Barlow said.

Barlow provided numbers that challenged the critics' without directly contradicting them. The critics said food-stamp participation fell from 13,450 to 7,956 from November 2007 to November 2008. Barlow countered that food-stamp use in all of the 59 modernized counties grew from 111,115 in February 2007 to 112,263 in December 2008.

Muncie - Child Abuse Vigil

Vigil to prevent child abuse set for Tuesday | thestarpress.com | The Star Press

MUNCIE — The public is invited to join the Prevent Child Abuse Council of Delaware County to remember local victims of child abuse and neglect at a candlelight vigil at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Muncie City Hall auditorium.

Follow up on The Iowa Same-Sex Marriage Decision is Not Anti-Democratic

Please read Don Sherfick's Iowa's impact on Indiana: my heart versus my head from Indiana Equality:

Besides, all this stuff about the “tyranny of an unelected activist judiciary” as the reason for a constitutional amendment is just so much disingenuous baloney (you won’t find that term in Black’s Law Dictionary). Once upon a time those pushing a prior version of their proposed amendment loudly claimed that it definitely wouldn’t keep the General Assembly from enacting civil unions. Now, although they’ve gone to great lengths to avoid pointing it out, their new measure would stop a popularly elected set of lawmakers from passing such legislation or anything near it.

Read My Lips: It AIN’T just about judges…that’s a convenient and misleading slogan…..what they really want is do is make it nearly impossible for future Hoosiers, already changing in their attitudes, to work the popular will concerning the civil rights of gay and lesbian couples. “The times, they are a changing”, and those who take upon themselves to permanently enshrine what they consider “God’s will” into the state’s highest legal document are getting frantic.

Want to Know How Indiana Spends Its Stimulus Money?

Check out INvest.IN.gov: Home:

"The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act became law on February 17, 2009. Congress and President Obama have decided to commit $787 billion in spending and tax relief in hopes of stimulating the economy and creating jobs. Governor Daniels has made clear his priorities in carefully using Indiana's portion: jobs and speed."

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The federal government has established a website, http://www.recovery.gov/, to provide transparency and accountability for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. This Indiana Web site, http://INvest.in.gov/ will accomplish the same goal for Hoosiers. It will help Hoosiers know how stimulus funds will be distributed in Indiana and what kinds of projects and programs are eligible for the funds. It also will be used to connect Hoosiers to other resources and provide more information about funds as it becomes available.

William Henry Harrison Biography

Remember that Indian a history class we have to take in elementary school? Willaim Henry Harrison seems to loom large. Well, there is a new biography of him and the following comes from H-Net Reviews:

"All criticism aside, Owens presents a very readable and enlightening biography of William Henry Harrison. The material is well situated within the historiography and takes advantage of the Harrison papers painstakingly collected by the Indiana Historical Society. It provides valuable insight into the ways in which federal policy worked on the ground through the filters of individual context and local politics. And in very important ways it fleshes out the life of a man who had a far greater impact on early American expansion than many realize."

Good News/Bad News for Randolph Southern Wind Turbine

The Muncie's Star Press headline of Plans on hold for Randolph Southern wind turbine sounded a bit bad but it appears it was location and not much more causing the delay.

"Plans for a 330-foot wind turbine on the west side of campus are on hold after the manufacturer said it didn't want to place it too close to the school. Now, school officials and consultants from Performance Services of Indianapolis, an engineering and construction company, are hoping to find a site nearby to get the project back on track.

The ultimate goal is to build a turbine, sell the energy it generates on the grid and reap the financial benefits by blowing new money into the school's budget. Over the typical 25-year life span of the turbine, Randolph Southern hoped to net $2.5 million."

I think I saw some wind turbines coming south of Kokomo on US 31. A better idea to put money into than mainlining coal.

Interesting News Out of Evansville

Evansville's Old National Bank rejected TARP funds. I saw Old National changes course, rejects TARP funds in The Indianapolis Business Journal but nowhere else.

"But a rigorous stress test Old National performed in conjunction with an outside accounting firm on its balance sheet and earnings found the company is well-positioned to withstand current and financial economic challenges without the TARP funds, the bank said in a written statement.

'Repurchasing our preferred stock will enable us to continue to fulfill our mission of serving as a community partner with integrity,' CEO Bob Jones said in the statement.

With $7.9 billion in assets, Old National is the largest bank headquartered in Indiana. It was founded in Evansville in 1834."

The largest bank headquartered in Indiana is not in Indianapolis (give a requiem to AFNB and Merchants) but in Evansville.

Public Notices for Madison County and Indiana

I found a new website that has public notices for Indiana. Here are the listings for Madison County. You might want to take a look. This could be very useful.

Government and the Economy - A History Lesson

Something from The New York Review of Books that is well worth repeating. Too much has been made that America was made without government intervention. That the federal government increased its investment in the country during the last century is true but that the Nineteenth Century saw no government intervention or subsidy in support of economic development. Indiana saw its share and the failure of one big venture brought the state to bankruptcy. Take a run down to Metamora and see the remnants. Now, about that New York Review of Books essay.

Government Beyond Obama?:

"'Market-based solutions,' in this new conventional wisdom, have become—for every Republican and Democratic administration since Jimmy Carter deregulated the airlines—the mantra for solving the big public policy issues of our times. Ronald Reagan, guided by such economists as Milton Friedman and Arthur Laffer, declared government 'the problem, not the solution,' but it was Bill Clinton a decade later who, prodded by Robert Rubin and the Democratic Leadership Council, proudly announced that 'the era of big government is over' before going on to back legislation for a balanced budget, welfare reform, and an ever-declining public workforce.

Leaders who have endorsed this bipartisan consensus running from the right to the center left don't always agree fully on particulars, but tend to share a uniform enthusiasm for 'market-based solutions,' whether the deregulation of transportation, utilities, telecommunications, and finance; the privatization of services from trash collection at home to security services in Iraq, as well as retirement savings and investment; the provision of vouchers for education and health care; or so-called cap-and-trade solutions to issues of the environment such as global warming."

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The book's opening historical essay reminds us that from the American Revolution to the Great Depression, government's share of GDP—that is, federal, state, and local public spending as a proportion of the nation's total income—was quite small. It was probably about 1 or 2 percent in 1800, and 7 to 8 percent a century later. Yet its influence was disproportionately large for several reasons. First, upon organization of the Northwest Territory in 1789, the federal government became the nation's largest landowner—a fact not reflected in conventional GDP calculations. And over the next century and a half the federal government was able to shape economic growth through its land distribution policies: for example, it used sales and leases of its land to foster small-scale farming, promote free primary (and later higher) education, encourage forestry and mining, and finance the nation's vast transportation network.^[1] Second, state and local governments from the beginning of the Republic actively promoted large-scale investments in infrastructure, notably in roads and canals, and subsidized America's primary education system, which made the young nation the most literate in the world—an enormous advantage in utilizing the new technologies on which mass production was founded.

Between the Civil War and World War I, moreover, governments at the federal—but especially the state and local—level all steadily expanded their regulatory powers to meet the challenges posed by the surging immigration, urbanization, and industrialization that made the United States the world's largest economy by the 1890s. Although primarily at state and local levels initially, government intervened actively and repeatedly in matters of business organization, consumer rights, working conditions, new technology, utilities, public health, agriculture, urban design, and private and public finance.^[2] Particularly impressive, for example, was the construction of large-scale sanitation systems in cities throughout the nation.

Renewable Energy News

Some news and some questions.

First, Local engineer lands wind-farm contract:

"Indianapolis-based Bowen Engineering Corp. has been selected by Horizon Wind Energy LLC as contractor for its Meadow Lake wind farm in White County, the companies announced today.

Houston-based Horizon's wind farm in northwest Indiana will consist of 121 wind turbines that can generate 200 megawatts of power. The estimated cost of the project is $500 million. Bowen declined to divulge the value of its contract."

The Indianapolis Business Journal also published Biotown USA development site acquired:

"Valero Energy will buy seven ethanol plants and a key development site in the Indiana city of Reynolds from VeraSun Energy for $477 million, the largest biofuel buyout ever in terms of production capacity.

VeraSun, the country's second largest ethanol producer, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last October.

VeraSun suspended construction of a 110-million-gallon-a-year plant in Reynolds, north of Lafayette, in 2007, citing deteriorating market conditions. Reynolds is the centerpiece of 'Biotown USA,' a state-led initiative to make Indiana a dynamo in the production of ethanol and biodiesel."

Which sounds like good news compared with this from Scotland, Renewable energy in for a bumpy ride:

Galàn says, in halting English, that Iberdrola "wants to" make new network investments and is pleased that politicians see it as part of the solution for reigniting the economy, but he argues that the credit crunch has made lenders more risk averse. This has meant that the existing rate is no longer high enough to enable companies such as ScottishPower to borrow the money for the upgrades, which echoes a recent report by Ernst & Young that said that rates of return on electricity projects would have to rise by a couple of percentage points to keep investor cash viable.

"I don't know if British banks will provide the money to make the investment," he says.

He contrasts this with the US, where the Obama administration is to subsidise Iberdrola's project to build an interconnection line between Canada and Maine, as part of a $4.5 billion (£3.1bn) programme to build a smart grid' that is more efficient and produces fewer carbon emissions.

I do not believe in clean coal. I learned about coal as a small boy when a relative had a pile of coal. Still, I think human ingenuity ought to be able to find a solution to any problem and so I am piqued by Coal-to-gas system could bring 10,000 new jobs to Fife.

Here is the idea:

Underground coal gasification (UCG) does exactly what the name suggests - it turns coal into a gas while still underground. The gas is then brought to the surface and can be processed to provide fuels for power generation, ultra-clean diesel, and hydrogen.

The concept was invented by Nobel prize-winning Scottish chemist Sir William Ramsay 100 years ago, but it is only in the last few years, with advances in oil and gas technology, that the concept has become commercially viable.

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If successful, the technology could offer Scotland energy security for hundreds of years, as geological studies estimate that Scotland is sitting on at least 200 years' worth of coal.

However, Thornton New Energy, the company granted the licence, admits the concept of clean coal will seem like an oxymoron to most people. Steve Walters, director of sub-surface operations, told the Sunday Herald: "Burning coal in the atmosphere will give off smoke and it will give off gases including carbon dioxide - it is the filthiest of all the fuels. So how can the filthiest and dirtiest of all these things become clean coal? The answer is quite simple:you can use oil-field technology deep underground, much deeper than conventional deep mines."

Here is the closest to a rebuke:

McLaren said: "Friends of the Earth Scotland believes this UCG is a technology with some promise - but at present it is only promise'. For the Fife project to contribute in practice to cutting our carbon emissions it cannot be permitted to progress in advance of firm arrangements for the capture and storage of the carbon emissions. If the carbon is captured and the clean hydrogen gas used to generate electricity then this would be a valuable demonstration of cleaner technology. But if the carbon is not captured, and the gas is turned into a vehicle fuel - one of the options proposed by the developers - that is a recipe for increased carbon emissions."

Would this work in our Indiana coal fields? Are there not enough engineering students at Purdue who could make this work?