Business News

Piramal Health says Glaxo, Sanofi acquisition reports unfounded
Reuters: Business News - 3 hours ago
MUMBAI (Reuters) - Indian drug maker Piramal Healthcare Ltd said reports about a potential sale of the company to GlaxoSmithKline Plc or Sanofi Aventis SA were 'unfounded.'
Treasury to approve insurers for TARP funds: sources
Reuters: Business News - 10 hours ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Insurance companies that applied for capital injections from the government's $700 billion financial bailout fund could get approval as soon as Monday, two sources familiar with the ...
GM may cut thousands of salaried workers: report
Reuters: Business News - 15 hours ago
CHICAGO (Reuters) - General Motors Corp. is developing a plan to fire up to 5,000 salaried employees as it tries to cut costs by a March 31 deadline to keep $13.4 billion in U.S. government aid, according ...
U.S. linking bank aid to loan changes: sources
Reuters: Business News - 15 hours ago
WILLIAMSBURG, Virginia (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury chief Timothy Geithner said on Saturday that banks getting public aid under a new rescue plan must help struggling homeowners by reworking their mortgages, ...
Regulators close 3 more U.S. banks
Reuters: Business News - 1 day ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Regulators closed banks on Friday in Georgia and California, bringing the total of U.S. bank failures to nine this year.
U.S. bank plan to offer asset support, mortgage help
Reuters: Business News - 1 day ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration's eagerly-awaited bank rescue plan will offer to insure some distressed assets held by banks, authorize the government to purchase others, and spend up to $1...
U.S. weighs new auto industry help, no decision yet
Reuters: Business News - 1 day ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration is talking with U.S. auto industry about more help, but no decisions are expected until General Motors Corp and Chrysler LLC submit turnaround plans to the g...
Fed's Yellen sees dynamics similar to Depression
Reuters: Business News - 1 day ago
KOHALA COAST, Hawaii (Reuters) - The United States is not facing a downturn as deep as the Great Depression, but many of the current dynamics are similar, driving the need for "urgent, aggressive action" t...
SEC looks to reassure investors
Reuters: Business News - 1 day ago
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Securities and Exchange Commission officials looked to reassure investors on Friday that they would reinvigorate the agency's policing of Wall Street, improve the quality of credit rat...
Fed's Yellen says urgent action needed on economy
Reuters: Business News - 1 day ago
KOHALA COAST, Hawaii (Reuters) - The U.S. economy could start to grow again by late 2009, but policy-makers must take urgent, aggressive action to boost demand and create jobs, the president of the San Fra...
Emerson to cut up to 14,000 jobs
Reuters: Business News - 1 day ago
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Industrial conglomerate Emerson Electric Co could cut its workforce by up to 14,000 from current levels by the end of the fiscal year that ends in October, Emerson Chief Executive Davi...
Geithner to outline U.S. banking fix on Monday
Reuters: Business News - 1 day ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will spell out a "comprehensive plan" on Monday to stabilize the financial system, the Treasury Department said on Friday.
Harvard to cut 25 percent of investment unit's staff
Reuters: Business News - 1 day ago
BOSTON (Reuters) - Harvard University is sending pink slips to about one-quarter of its investment management staff after the school's endowment shrank by about 22 percent and its president said cost cuts ...
U.S. consumers missing more debt payments
Reuters: Business News - 1 day ago
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. consumers are falling further behind on their debt payments even as both borrowers and lenders struggle to keep the debt burden from getting even heavier in the face of a worsenin...
SEC says magnitude of Ponzi schemes growing
Reuters: Business News - 1 day ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The frequency of Ponzi schemes is not increasing but the magnitude of the frauds is, a Securities and Exchange Commission official said on Friday.
GE "to evaluate" dividend for second half
Reuters: Business News - 1 day ago
BOSTON (Reuters) - General Electric Co will evaluate its planned second-half dividend in light of the slumping global economy, the U.S. conglomerate said on Friday, leaving open the possibility of a cut in...
Biogen cuts Tysabri outlook
Reuters: Business News - 1 day ago
BOSTON (Reuters) - Biogen Idec Inc scaled back growth projections for its multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri on Friday and said another patient has developed the potentially deadly brain infection known as PM...
U.S. job losses accelerate
Reuters: Business News - 1 day ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. employers slashed 598,000 jobs in January, the biggest monthly loss in 34 years, and the jobless rate soared to a 16-year peak, putting pressure on lawmakers to act quickly to c...
Julius Baer confirms trading incident
Reuters: Business News - 1 day ago
ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss bank Julius Baer said on Friday it had suffered a "minor trading incident" last year, playing down investor concerns over an anonymous letter which said employees hid losses.
Oil falls $1 as U.S. job losses mount
Reuters: Business News - 1 day ago
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices fell $1 on Friday as news of the largest job cuts in 30 years in the United States signaled still weaker demand in the world's biggest oil consumer

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Environmental protection, the economy, and jobs

Having done some work on this topic for the UK this study by Roger Bezdek is of interest.Bezdek, Roger (Lead Author); Tom Tietenberg (Topic Editor). 2008. "Environmental protection, the economy, and jobs." In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment).

Environmental protection, the economy, and jobs

The relationship between environmental protection, the economy, and jobs has been an issue of harsh contention for decades. Analysts and policymakers of all points of view seem to agree that a strong relationship exists between environmental protection and jobs; the debate is over the sign of the correlation coefficient. Does environmental protection tend to harm the economy and destroy jobs or to facilitate economic growth and create jobs? If the latter is the case, can the positive affects be quantified and estimated at a meaningful level of detail?

Here we address this issue by summarizing the initial results of the Jobs and the Environment Initiative, a research effort funded by nonprofit foundations designed to quantify the relationship between environmental protection, the economy, and jobs. We estimate the size of the U.S. environmental industry in 2003 and the numbers of environment-related jobs created at the national level and in the states of Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, and Wisconsin. The problem is identifying what is a green job. Here I agree with the authors:
More specifically, what constitutes an “environmental job?”

While a definitive analysis of this important topic is outside the scope of this report, our review of the literature indicates that there is no rigorous, well-accepted definition of an environmental job. Rather, the definitions used are often loose and contradictory.

The Positive Relationship Between Jobs, Environment and the Economy

The assumption that the environment must be sacrificed to create more jobs is prevalent in American business and society. But environmental studies tell us that the economy is dependent on the environment to provide resources and accept wastes, so a good environment should make for a better economy. Empirical evidence from a number of studies substantiate that finding and show that states with lower pollution levels and better environmental policies generally have more jobs, better socioeconomic conditions and are more attractive to new business. Pollution is only one of many external costs borne by the public that provides subsidies to an economic sector that distorts the market and results in poorer socioeconomic conditions, including growing income disparities. A Louisiana case study explains why jobs increase while pollution declines.
Louisiana Case Study
If there are positive economic effects from environmental improvements, there ought to be cases where it can be demonstrated. And indeed there are. During the years 1988-1992, new environmental laws and regulations and rigorous enforcement, policies, and programs in Louisiana reduced emission approximately 50 percent, while over the same period, investment in Louisiana increased two and a half times and unemployment dropped from 12 percent, the nation's highest, to about 6 percent, the nation's average.
Cleaning up the environment occurred concurrently with more investment and more jobs. Why should this be so? The connections between economy and environment are often subtle, indirect and difficult to quantify. What, for example, is the effect on economic development of the "Cancer Alley" label applied to the industrial corridor along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans? Undoubtedly, having that kind of reputation is detrimental to development, even if the label isn't deserved, but it's difficult to put a dollar value on it.
One direct economy-environment connection that can be demonstrated and quantified in dollars is that of spending on pollution control and its effect on job creation. The primary reason why toxic emissions decreased by 50 percent in Louisiana from 1988 to 1992 was that the state's manufacturing industry increased its capital outlay spending on pollution control from about $144 million a year in 1988 to about $1.06 billion -- greater than a six-fold increase -- by 1992. The impetus for increased spending was environmental laws passed by the U.S. Congress and the state Legislature and agency regulations and programs designed to bring Louisiana's pollution levels into line with national averages.
Concurrent with the increased spending, employment in the manufacturing sector increased by about 14,000 direct new jobs by 1991, excluding construction and contract jobs -- see Figure. Prior to 1988, employment in the manufacturing sector in Louisiana was slowly declining. The chemical industry's multiplier of 4.6 related jobs for each new direct job yields an additional 64,000 new jobs because of pollution-control spending, which partially accounts for the current low unemployment rate in Louisiana. Pollution-control spending creates jobs; the U.S. average is 23 new jobs created for each $1 million spent, which predicts 21,000 new direct jobs and about 96,000 indirect jobs for Louisiana by 1992.
Thus, at least one of the direct connections between reduced pollution and jobs is apparent and positive. Because of the increased pollution spending by industry, portions of Louisiana are now experiencing a mini-boom in employment.
Other studies on the relation between environment and the economy include the 1992 study by Stephen Meyer of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who found that over time those states with good environmental programs have better employment, productivity and economic growth than poor environmental states. A Bank of America study in 1993 found similar results.
In a 1994 study entitled "Gold and Green," B. Hall of the Institute for Southern Studies, located in Durham, North Carolina, ranked states according to both their economic and their environmental health, using 20 indicators of each. The 20 economic indicators emphasized job opportunities, working conditions, protection for disabled or unemployed workers, and job creation. The 20 environmental indicators focused on toxic emissions, recycling efforts, and state spending to protect natural resources. The state rankings on the two lists were remarkably similar. Louisiana ranked last on both lists, and Southern states and those reliant on mineral extraction generally ranked low on both. The New England and Scandinavian-influenced states ranked best on both sets of indicators. A correction of the Gold and Green scores shows them to be very significant and positively related, indicating again that a good economy is compatible with a good environment. Since the economy is a subset of the larger environment and relies on it for services, it is becoming clear that the direction of causation is that a clean environment is a necessary condition for a good economy, at least when the long term is considered. That brings us to the concept of sustainability.
Sustainability
A sustainable economy recognizes the need for the long-term viability of a culture and is being promoted by the United Nations and most countries. To be sustainable, a culture must integrate environment with economics in its planning and policies. Although the term has been in limited use since the early seventies, it was popularized by the World Commission on Economic Development in 1987, sometimes called the Brundtland Commission for its chairwoman, Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland. Sustainable economic development is usually defined as a means of satisfying the needs of today without sacrificing the needs of future generations.
Another way to look at the notion of sustainable development is that we should live off the income from our capital rather than the capital itself. Living off the income from our stock of capital is sustainable; endlessly drawing down the stock of capital will bankrupt us. In much the same way as our stocks of money, equipment and other assets are man-made capital from which we create wealth; the environment is natural capital essential to wealth creation, and if it is depleted it won't contribute its income, i.e., resources and waste disposal, to our economic system, or its life support to us.
Although the concepts of sustainable development are still being developed, H.E. Daly, writing in the 1990 issue of Ecological Economics, proposed three conditions for sustainability to protect the environment from over-use: economic scale, waste emissions within capacity and harvest rates equal to regeneration.
The question we are asking is whether sustainability is enhanced or retarded by externalities such as high pollution levels. One disturbing result of large externalities is increased income disparity, which deserves further comment. Income disparity is the gap in average income between the top 20 percent of income and the bottom 20 percent. It increases significantly as externalities and subsidies increase.
In fact, the gap between the rich and poor has been increasing in the United States for some time. During the decade of the 1980s the gap widened in 43 states, and in 27 of those states the average income of the poorest fifth of the population declined while the average income of the top fifth increased. The widening gap indicates that externalities are increasing in the United States, and that is unfortunate for a developed country. Large income disparities are usually a characteristic of a developing country.
Conclusion
It has become abundantly clear that there is little or no supporting evidence for the supposition that progressive environmental policies are detrimental to a state's economy. There is substantial and growing evidence, much of it practical empirical evidence, that the converse is true, i.e., that a clean environment not only is good for business, but is probably a necessary condition for a healthy economy over the long term. The efforts we make to improve our environment can only benefit our quality of life, including our economic life, and improve our chances of being sustainable. A sustainable society follows a path that includes low pollution and conserved resources with more equity, leading to a higher quality of life for all its citizens

the relation between the economy and jobs

Pranab may ask banks to cut rates to push credit flow
The Economic Times- News- Economy- Finance - 6 hours ago
Reduction in home, auto and corporate loan rates and review of sectoral credit flows are likely to figure prominently when officiating Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee meets heads of public-sector banks o...
Bank funds not reaching industry, consumers: Nath
The Economic Times- News- Economy- Finance - 1 day ago
Liquidity injected by the Indian government and the central bank has not reached the cash-starved industry and consumers, posing a key challenge for the policy-makers, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal ...
SBI expected to cut interest rates soon
The Economic Times- News- Economy- Finance - 1 day ago
Rate cut is expected before a meeting with acting finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday. *Gainers: BSE (* *A*, *B* *)* *NSE* *Losers: BSE (* *A*, *B* *)* *NSE* *Earnings*
Forex reserves below $250 bn
The Economic Times- News- Economy- Finance - 2 days ago
Foreign exchange reserves dipped $4.5bn during the week ended January 23 to dip below $250 billion mark largely on account of revaluation of non-dollar assets in reserves vis-a-vis the US dollar.
IMF finalising $100-bn loan from Japan: Report
The Economic Times- News- Economy- Finance - 2 days ago
IMF is finalising a USD 100-billion loan from Japan and is considering issuing bonds to double financial resources.
Jittery Indians cut outward remittances
The Economic Times- News- Economy- Finance - 2 days ago
Indians who had slowly started investing in overseas debt, equity and real estate have turned on their tracks mid-Sept. *NRI Taxation* I *Remittances made easy*
Composite cap for foreign inflows likely
The Economic Times- News- Economy- Finance - 2 days ago
The govt proposes to do away with the ceiling on portfolio investments by FIIs and instead prescribe a composite foreign investment cap, said an official in the commerce and industry ministry.
Centre eases debt rules for states to raise Rs 30,000 crore
The Economic Times- News- Economy- Finance - 2 days ago
The government has relaxed the debt relief guidelines for states to help them borrow an additional Rs 30,000 crore from the market for capital expenditure in the current fiscal.
Banks told to turn prudent in lending during slowdown
The Economic Times- News- Economy- Finance - 2 days ago
The Cabinet secretariat has suggested that banks should stick to their prudential lending norms to ensure their loans do not turn into bad assets, a top government official told ET.
Orissa spends only 32% of budgeted funds
The Economic Times- News- Economy- Finance - 2 days ago
Even as the global meltdown has started hitting the Orissa economy, the government officials have failed to spend the money earmarked for various development activities.
RBI asks WB to complete 100% financial inclusion in 8 districts
The Economic Times- News- Economy- Finance - 2 days ago
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has advised West Bengal to complete 100% financial inclusion in eight districts by March 2010.
Government increases states' borrowing limit
The Economic Times- News- Economy- Finance - 3 days ago
The borrowing limit of state governments will be increased and their fiscal deficit targets relaxed to allow them raise funds for capital expenditure for 2008-09, the government said Thursday.
RBI should cut rates to make India Inc competitive: Anand Mahindra
The Economic Times- News- Economy- Finance - 3 days ago
Stating that high interest rates can make the Indian industry uncompetitive, Mahindra & Mahindra Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Anand Mahindra on Thursday said RBI should cut rates further.
Bankers fear rise in bad assets, want RBI to relax deadline for loan recast
The Economic Times- News- Economy- Finance - 3 days ago
Bankers expect more loans to turn bad in coming quarters, as the impact of global slowdown starts setting in.
ADAG to invest Rs 40,000 crore in Madhya Pradesh
The Economic Times- News- Economy- Finance - 3 days ago
Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group will invest Rs 40,000 crore in power and cement sectors in Madhya Pradesh.