Baby boomers have five more years, 10, 15-then it’s time to enjoy retirement. Except that we keep buying everm o r e – ex p e n s ive houses. What will happen when the paychecks stop? Facing this, I reassessed my situation in Florida. In two years, my taxes there tripled; insurance, doubled. An affordable mortgage didn’t offset increases from the state and my friendly insurance company. To stay viable, I had to leave. Where to go? I figured…
In just over one quarter, shares of Celadon Group lost nearly half their value as profitable cargo got harder to find in a
slowing economy. The stock closed at $9.13 on Dec. 19, down from nearly $17 in late August.
Another year gone, and yet another Christmas gift for you. Every year, I collect examples of utterly horrendous technological snafus and write about them. No matter how awful your own meltdowns may have been, they can’t have been as bad as these, so enter the new year with a light heart. The first example of disaster is fresh in the news still, at least in reports from the British Broadcasting Corp. The English government has lost disks with personal information…
Carol D’Amico, president and CEO of the newly formed industry advocacy group Conexus Indiana, is intent on boosting the visibility
and growth of the logistics industry. Large though it is, it’s also relatively ambiguous and sits in the shadow of the state’s
much-vaunted life sciences industry.
The debate on globalization most often focuses on imported goods. This is natural, for it is the sole source of pain associated with increasing international trade. The pain accrues to workers and investors in businesses that cannot compete internationally. Of course, the net impact is positive, in part because trade reallocates workers and capital to more productive activities. These more productive activities pay better and so are ultimately better for the economy-both here and abroad. One often-overlooked element of the…
Uncle Uriah Marcus visited us on Thanksgiving. It took over a week to recover. He blames “the @#%$# unions” for most of our state’s woes. Uncle Uriah asserts “them big unions scares businesses away from Indiannie.” A sample of his views: High property taxes: It’s the teachers’ union’s fault because teachers keep pushing up their earnings and reducing their responsibility. Congestion in cities: Bus workers’ unions keep fares too high for anyone to ride the bus. The battle between the…
The massive new AllPoints Midwest industrial park in Plainfield has landed its first tenant in a mega deal that likely will
be the area’s biggest industrial lease in 2007. Local logistics firm Prime Distribution Services Inc. has signed a lease for
1.2 million square feet in the 920-acre park, a joint venture between Indianapolis-based Duke Realty Corp. and Browning Investments
Inc.
The effort to put high-speed trains into service in Indiana and eight other Midwestern states sometimes seems as fanciful as the first manned flight to Mars. There have been years of talk and countless meetings. And it will be many more years before a vehicle is fueled-and-ready, if ever. In the 13 years since the Indiana High Speed Rail Association was formed in Highland, the closest thing to high-speed rail Hoosiers have seen is an occasional speedy European locomotive brought…
Interstate moving companies have operated for decades under industrywide price fixing blessed by the federal government. But
the system–one Tony Soprano and the boys in the back room of Bada Bing would love–will end Dec. 31, ushering in price cuts
and other changes that could affect the cost of a move.
According to the article titled “Traffic Transformation?” in the Oct. 15 IBJ, the Indiana Department of Transportation is working on a roughly $600 million plan to relieve traffic congestion in the area of interstates 465 and 69. Hold on a second! What is really broken here? I contend little to nothing. Yes, roadways need maintenance and upkeep, but these roadways operate just fine. Because this area is congested at the morning and evening rush hour, the perception exists that these…
As Hoosiers, every time we open our wallets and pocketbooks, we should think about going back to school. For the last three decades, Indiana’s per capita income growth has lagged the rest of the country, to the point where the average Hoosier earns less nized for work force development use a combination of state and local dollars and even lottery funds (as in Georgia). Private management of the Hoosier Lottery, as proposed during the last legislative session, could provide the…
The writing has been on the wall that Indianapolis might lose the headquarters for ATA Airlines and/or parent Global Aero
Logistics ever since April, when Global said it was buying Georgia-based World Air Holdings. Now, the writing is on paper:
Indianapolis has lost another headquarters.
Twenty U.S. cities have some form of light rail systems in operation, and about 40 more are constructing or seriously considering light rail systems. While the list of cities with active systems isn’t really all that surprising (you can see it online at w w w. a p t a . c o m ) , are other cities so busy building or extending them? Imagine a trolley system with regular stops within a city, but it has the ability…
Indianapolis-area companies are ponying up $1.15 million to help put on this month’s National FFA convention, an event expected to draw more than 55,000 members and their chaperones to the city. They’re backing the bigbudget affair largely because of the access it gives them to future leaders-from tomorrow’s policymakers to those who could someday work at these local firms. And the city is putting on quite a show to get the attention of the roughly 46,000 12-to 21-year-old members and…
Whether it’s southbound I-69 traffic backed up almost to Noblesville, or northbound I-465 traffic a parking lot all the way
to 56th Street, the northeast highway system is grossly inadequate at peak hours. But a report issued last month by an INDOT
consultant shows a radical, $600 million reconfiguration is in the works.
It’s always fun when I find something on the Web that’s highly critical, vaguely disgusting, entertaining and informative, all at once. Mollieindustria has created an online video game at w w w. m c v i d e o game.comthat lets you run the burger giant McDonald’s, and while it’s not sparing of the company’s faults, it’s a great study in how hard it is to keep the sandwich empire going. The creators say on the site that they built…
Five local industry leaders conducted a serious debate over problems and issues facing our health care system during the most recent installment in Indianapolis Business Journal’s Power Breakfast series. The event took place at the Downtown Marriott hotel on Sept. 21 The panelists: Robert Brody, president and CEO of St. Francis Hospital & Health Centers, the Indianapolis-area’s fourth-largest hospital system. Brody has been chief executive at St. Francis since 1996. Dr. Robert Mouser, a primary care physician at Cornerstone Family…
The recent Indiana Logistics Summit framed a number of issues that matter to Hoosiers young and old. I’ve done a fair amount of transportation and economic development research, but this conference held in Indianapolis was a chance for me to listen and learn. Here’s my take on some of the issues: Nationally, a significant piece of the public transportation infrastructure (roads and bridges, for example) has already outlived its anticipated life span. Solid engineering and construction coupled with continual maintenance…
A week rarely passes without news of our obesity epidemic. Fattest-state rankings and the like are a staple of our news diet. These stories are often served with dire health warnings, which politicians invoke when they encourage us to eat less and exercise more. But does anyone really stop to think about why obesity has become our national obsession? Our infamous rotundness isn’t only a byproduct of poor eating habits and a reluctance to hit the gym. Chalk some of…
More than 18 months after flying out of a bankruptcy reorganization that unloaded $1 billion of debt and costly aircraft leases,
the parent of ATA Airlines still finds landing a profit elusive. Indianapolis-based Global Aero Logistics posted a loss of
$46.1 million in the first half of 2007, according to documents it filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
