Tariffs Good or Bad Idea?

Much has been discussed in the news concerning tariffs in the U.S. and the desire to implement new tariffs on aluminum and steel to balance the trade deficit. While these ideas can be beneficial under certain circumstances they may not have beneficial long-term effects unless a few adjustments and changes to the policy make it plausible to implement. One of the biggest concerns is whether or not such policies will help or hinder the American economy.

Building it Here

Tariffs can sometimes encourage foreign companies to circumvent the new costs by setting up operations here and hire employees. The problem is that there must be an easy method for foreign entities to invest and set up operations for this to be a successful strategy. China has been using this approach successfully for some time and end up adding to their own knowledge base.

Higher Supply Costs and Prices

It is important to remember that a change in the price of commodities works it way through the economic system and eventually raises costs for everyone. To avoid this, or at least limit it to a short period of time, domestic companies need to quickly reach capacity at the prices needed to effectively compete domestically and internationally.

Help or Hurt Domestic Companies

While it can help domestic by protecting them from cheaper imports it can also damage them if they don't capitalize on this opportunity to become competitive quickly. Large protected industries often fall competitively behind other industries. Once the tariffs are eventually lifted they collapse leaving the sector even weaker than what it was before.

Fair Trade Culture & Retaliation

The U.S has been an open economy for decades and has promoted these policies from other nations. Reversing this could cause problems with our trading partners who may feel that they are unfairly disadvantaged. Tariffs will need to be restricted to those countries that abuse the Free Trade Policies inadvertently creating new military and economic partnerships that may or may not be advantageous to U.S. interests.

When it Works

Small tariffs that target products from the most abusive countries can be helpful in fighting dumping policies. Countries that abuse Fair Trade don't have as much regulation, lower manufacturing costs, and don't care as much about the environment as the U.S.. Inherently, they have advantages that we don't have but they are also not as technologically savvy or stable as the U.S.. Tariffs must be followed by a plan for significant investment and development to maximize benefits. There should be enough protection to let budding industries grow, become profitable, and create economies of scale. Once they are in a position to compete, the tariffs should be reduced. No one can tell you there is not significant risks to trade, retaliation, consumers and economic retractions. Tariffs can be a helpful strategy for a limited time as long as the geo-political and economic problems of the day don't create unexpected difficulties.

Research Reveals the Personality of a "Bad Hire"

Hiring the wrong employee can cost your company time, money and piece of mind! While the most aggressive "go getter" employees look great in the interview they may not be the person you want working for your company. Research shows that aggressive personality traits may impact their ability to work with others and may damage the long-term goals of your company.

The study sought to determine what type of personalities impacted workplace deviance. They analyzed 150 permanent non-manager employees in a Fortune Global 500 Company. They found that diminished conscientiousness (r.39, P<.05) and agreeableness (r.29,P<.05) was often associated with workplace deviance.

1. Conscientiousness and agreeableness are negatively associated with organizational and interpersonal deviance.

2.Organizational commitment partially mediates agreeableness and organizational deviance.

In other words, employees that ranked low on conscientiousness and agreeableness often displayed behaviors that were antithetical to running a strong organization. They argued, lied, manipulated, caused descent, took credit for work they did not complete, and damaged a productive work environment. In contrast, employees who ranked high in conscientiousness and agreeableness not only helped the organization but also had pro-social behaviors that improved their work environments.

As organizational mangers we often assume that those who are pushy are confident and those who show extreme confidence are result oriented employees. We hire them based on the outward behaviors that were designed to manipulate the interviewer in the first place. We fail to take into account that organizations are social networks that require polite, honest, and hardworking individuals.

Organizations that adjust their hiring and performance evaluations to include positive pro social behaviors will find that the "right" hire is someone who contributes to the organization and to the higher functioning of others. As we hire employees with these pro-social behaviors our organization begins to operate better through better social exchange and positive interactions that lead to informational and resource efficiency.

The study helps managers and strategic planners to better understand what type of personalities they should be looking for in their next employee. Organizations are collectives of transactions and people that work together to create organizational efficiency and thus rely heavily on pro-social behavior. Hiring to better ensure that internal transactions run smoothly and employee collaboration stay high is essential for long-term planning.

Russell, G., et. al. (2016). Why people harm the organization and its members: relationships among personality, organizational commitment, and workplace...Human performance, 29 (1).

2018 International Conference on Business, Information, Tourism, and Economics (BITE 2018)

2018 International Conference on Business, Information, Tourism, and Economics (BITE 2018)
Bangkok Thailand, August 8-10, 2018
http://soci-science.org/bite/

We cordially invite you and your colleagues to participate and submit papers to 2018 International Conference on Business, Information, Tourism, and Economics (BITE 2018) which will be held in Bangkok, Thailand, August 8-10, 2018. We welcome submissions from all over the world and we encourage you to join us in Bangkok, Thailand to share your research and knowledge. To submit abstracts/papers for presentation or participate as an audience member, please visit the conference website for more details. All submissions will be subject to a double-blind review process. All accepted manuscripts will be published in the conference proceedings, under an ISSN reference, on CD-ROM support. Please join us in Bangkok, Thailand for the great academic events. BITE will be held together with the other two conferences. These two conferences are
IConEGS 2018-Summer: https://soci-science.org/iconegs-summer/
LIS 2018: https://soci-science.org/lis

The objectives of the conference are:
Provide a platform for the researchers to seek further opinions, comments, and suggestions.
Contribute knowledge in the fields of Business, Information, Tourism, and Economics.
Provide wider opportunities for participants to interact and create networking.
Deliver your research findings to global audiences.
Participate in a truly international, interdisciplinary and intercultural event.

Bangkok, the Thai capital, is one of the world's top tourist destination cities. Bangkok's multi-faceted sights, attractions and city life appeal to diverse groups of tourists. MasterCard ranked Bangkok as the global top destination city by international visitor arrivals in 2016 and 2017. Bangkok was also named "World's Best City" by Travel + Leisure magazine's survey. Royal palaces, temples as well as several museums constitute Bangkok's major historical and cultural tourist attractions. Shopping and dining experiences offer a wide range of choices and prices. All participants not only will have a fruitful stay at the conference, but also an enjoyable stay at the city of Bangkok.

Conference Website: http://soci-science.org/bite/
Online Submission: https://my-ecase.org/bite/
Enquiries: conf.bite@gmail.com
Submission Deadline: April 22, 2018

Conference Chairs
Norbert Jesse, QuinScape GmbH, Germany
Zne-Jung Lee, Huafan University, Taiwan
Tie Su, University of Miami, USA
Worarak Sucher, National Institute of Development Administration, Thailand

Europe's Economy is Improving. Why?

2017 was the European Union's best since 2007 with a 2.5% growth rate. While news is good for the EU it does indicate an increasing confidence in the EU's political sustainability and economic prospects in general. It also shows that some of their debt crisis has passed and they are not free to focus on other agendas. The three main factors why this growth is occurring is below:

1.) Debt Crisis Handled: The debt crisis where Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Cyprus needed a bail out have been dealt with. While they will continue to be a drag on the EU economy they have a plan going forward and the immediate crisis is over.

2.) Global Trend of Growth: Global markets are changing, technology is innovating, and communication is connecting to create greater value for consumers. Demand is rising and people are buying more items. EU fits within a general global upward swing the same as the U.S., India and China.

3.) Global Adjustments: Major global adjustments such as ISIS and international conflict have temporarily subsided. Likewise, countries and their way of interacting and trading is become more settled and there is a level of trust in the global economic system.

New Book Discusses the Misleading Economic Numbers that Don't Include Pollution

The new book The Growth Delusion: Wealth, Poverty, and the Well-Being of Nations by David Piling indicates that we may be calculating the wrong thing in determining overall growth of our economy. The premise is that we are not calculating the costs of pollution. His ideas seem to make sense considering these are lost costs that eventually will come out of economic output. 

Local pollution is a cost while global pollution impacts overall economic output over all economies. This is a cost that according to the book isn't well calculated. 

These numbers are just numbers. They are samples and indicators but the real economy is often very different. The real economy is based on human behavior and costs and rewards of opportunities. In this case, we are taking advantage of today and not worrying about the higher cost of pollution tomorrow. 

That doesn't mean we can do much about it but as those costs rise there will likely be innovative ways of reducing pollution and managing waste. These are costs and production factors that should be calculated. 

Whether or not all countries will calculate them in the future is difficult to tell. It sounds like a negative drag on the economy. It already exists but we are not actually looking at them and that is misleading. What leader would like to encourage those numbers in their time at the top?

The 5G Economy

There are new ideas around that the U.S. should engage in a possible 5G nationalized network that is either built by companies or the government itself. While experts have brought forward the idea that companies building this network doesn't protect the economy from foreign hackers. However, there are other considerations why this may be the best long-term approach.

The first is culture. There is a general push back against nationalized anything. We just don't like such powerful institutions being in the hands of government. All of the countries, and much of the worlds, data in one place may not sit well. Having companies manage this network makes more sense from a historical and economic background.

There are some issues of security but there are abilities to regulate the security of this industry by using the largest carriers of the networks to run this system (i.e. shared governance or other industry mechanism) according to government rules/regulations. Smaller industries can rent the system like any others but security is managed by an adaptive independent system.

The biggest advantage is growth in innovation which often leads to more jobs and opportunities. A large system like this will naturally influence on information movement, e-commerce, business networking, and the amount of content for consumption.

This would definitely be a big movement forward in our data infrastructure. It is one of the things that could have a big impact on multiple aspects of society that "connect" into the faster speeds. As data infrastructure improves so does the overall environment that businesses operates in and can have a larger organic approach to improving GDP.

There is also the issue of competitiveness and investment. Companies want highways, roads, sewer, trash, etc... In the United States we have fairly solid systems in place for everything except data infrastructure. We are not there yet in terms of a cohesive system. By putting in place a strong national data structure we are helping to ensure we are covering the needs of businesses in a way that can lead to greater investment on a local and national scale.

Is the economy offering the right kind of jobs?

Economic growth and jobs are all good news right now. Any continued improvement in a bull economy is welcome. The numbers may not be telling the whole story and greater care should be given to long-term employment opportunities that help slow income gaps.

Those with significant education and technology skills are making more but most other people are not. Its a big problem for future sustainability if income distribution isn't fixed.

While jobs are great, higher wages depend on the fundamentals of economic structures. Manufacturing and technical industries have to be lured back into the country. That is a very complex problem.

I think that tax reform is a good step but there is more we can do. We can improve our data infrastructure and rethink government's hand in developing viable and self sustaining industry clusters. Government and business should be partners in coordinating their marketing and development for maximum economic growth.