Adam Davidson

Structural Or Cyclical? The Type Of Unemployment Matters

Adam Davidson — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 20:47:00 +0000

Every week, the Department of Labor issues data detailing the number of people who filed for unemployment benefits in the previous week. According to Thursday's report, 385,000 people filed last week, the third weekly increase in a row, and a higher figure than expected. Robert Siegel talks with Adam Davidson about this week's initial claims report. Davidson says the report can help illuminate the vital question of whether the United States has a cyclical or a structural unemployment problem.

4.2 Million Americans Were Hired In January (And 4.1 Million Quit Or Got Fired)

Adam Davidson — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 18:41:00 +0000

One jobs number gets all the attention: The number of jobs lost or gained in the previous month.

That number is important. But focusing too much on the net change in jobs can be misleading. It gives the impression that a job is like a widget — it's something that gets made in a factory somewhere, and that we hope exists forever.

That's not how it works. Even in good economic times ,new jobs are constantly being created and old jobs are constantly being destroyed.

Dow's 'Record Highs' Misleading Without Including Inflation

Adam Davidson — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 21:30:00 +0000

Transcript

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News . I'm Melissa Block.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

And I'm Audie Cornish.

And a record close. That's what we've been hearing both today and yesterday as the Dow Jones industrial average climbs upwards.

BLOCK: That may be an ear-grabbing headline after a recession and years of unimpressive growth. But we begin this hour with a different take from Adam Davidson of NPR's Planet Money. Hey, Adam.

ADAM DAVIDSON, BYLINE: Hey, Melissa.

BLOCK: And I understand, Adam, that you've been a real wet blanket on this.

Raising Revenues Or Taxes — What's The Difference?

Adam Davidson — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 21:56:00 +0000

Transcript

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

We're going to dig into some of those policy differences now between Republicans and Democrats. When it comes to reducing the deficit, both sides insist it's time for compromise. But President Obama says tax cuts for the richest Americans must end.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: When it comes to the top two percent, what I'm not going to do is to extend further a tax cut for folks who don't need it.

CORNISH: So, raise taxes on the rich. Republicans say don't raise taxes on anyone.

This Man Makes Beautiful Suits, But He Can't Afford To Buy One

Adam Davidson — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 07:23:00 +0000

Peter Frew is one of a tiny number of people left in the United States who can — entirely on his own, using almost no machinery — make a classic bespoke suit. He can measure you, draw a pattern, cut the fabric and then hand-stitch a suit designed to fit your body perfectly.

Frew spent more than a decade as an apprentice for a remarkable tailor in his native Jamaica. He now sells his suits for about $4,000.

Scandal That Cost Barclays Chairman His Job Threatens To Spread

Adam Davidson — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 21:51:00 +0000

Every day at 11 a.m., a few big banks tell the British Bankers' Association what it costs them to borrow.

Why Matzo Makers Love Regulation

Adam Davidson — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 07:16:00 +0000

For more, see our video, Inside The Matzo Factory, and see Adam Davdson's latest NYT Magazine column

The matzo business may be the most heavily regulated business in the world.

The regulators are rabbis, who stand on the factory floor and make sure that everything adheres to kosher law.

Why Are Some Countries Rich And Others Poor?

Adam Davidson — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 17:06:00 +0000

Why are some nations rich and others poor? In a new book called Why Nations Fail, a pair of economists argue that a lot comes down to politics.

To research the book, the authors scoured the world for populations and geographic areas that are identical in all respects save one: they're on different sides of a border.

The two Koreas are an extreme example. But you can see the same thing on the border of the US and Mexico, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and dozens of other neighboring countries.

Meet Claudia, The High-Tech Cow

Adam Davidson — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 05:01:00 +0000

Here's the secret of the modern dairy farm: The essential high-tech advances aren't in machinery. They're inside the cow.

Take a cow like Claudia. She lives at Fulper Farms, a dairy farm in upstate New Jersey. Claudia is to a cow from the 1930s as a modern Ferrari is to a Model T.

In the 1930s, dairy farmers could get 30 pounds of milk per day from a cow. Claudia produces 75 pounds a day.

To appreciate a cow like Claudia, you have to know where to look.

"You see her udder? How well attached, how high it is?" says Robert Fulper, who runs the farm.

A Revival In American Manufacturing, Led By Brooklyn Foodies

Adam Davidson — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 05:01:00 +0000

One day Chris Woehrle decided to finally leave his corporate job and pursue his dream: to become an artisanal food craftsman. And so, every day at home, he'd basically pickle stuff.

"I had a refrigerator full of plastic food buckets that were full of pickles and kimchee and sauerkraut and harissa and salsa and ketchup and mustard and, you know, any kind of craft food you could make," Woehrle says.

Woehrle lives in Brooklyn, where shops are filled with handcrafted, grass-fed, organically raised whatever. Too much of it, in fact.