Brad Rourke

Category: economy

  • Poverty Up, Income Down

    The Great Recession officially began December 2007. Here is the impact of the last few years, as released by the Census Bureau today: Real median household income in the United States in 2010 was $49,445, a 2.3 percent decline from the 2009 median. The nation’s official poverty rate in 2010 was 15.1 percent, up from…

  • An Entrepreneur

    A family member sent me this note recently: I’ve seen a man on the street the last few days that has intrigued me. I finally talked to him a bit this morning outside my office building. Since I’m in the middle of . . . yet another downsizing, I’ve been thinking a lot about the…

  • A Growing Hacker

    My son lately seems to have been bitten by a similar bug that plagues my father and me. It’s the computer virus. Men in my family seem not to be able to get enough of those shiny gadgets. We are forever tweaking, disassembling, reassembling, reinstalling, uninstalling, recompiling, hacking, and more. I don’t know how many…

  • Keeping Track Of The Other Unemployed

    My latest article on my blog at the Washington Times Communities, Public Square Today, is now live: Keeping Track Of The Other Unemployed Yesterday, the government released data by metropolitan region on unemployment. That got me thinking about one of my pet peeves with unemployment data. That number that gets reported? It dramatically understates the…

  • How Does The Current Economic Climate Benefit Civil Society?

    I got a note over the weekend: I’m student [at an Israeli university]. I’m doing a Seminar work about Civil society in USA. I’m trying find an answer for the question: What have happened to the civil society in USA through the financial crisis. Is the civil society is getting stronger or weaker from it?…

  • The Barber Shop Is Closed

    As I left Dayton last week after a series of meetings at the Kettering Foundation, I walked by this sign: “The Barber Shop Is Closed.” It was taped to a covered-over window just inside security at Dayton airport. Tip’s was gone. I’d always wondered about Tip’s. It was a large barbershop with two chairs, behind…

  • Agents, Come Out Of The Shadows

    Seth Godin wrote recently about the plight of agents. Literary agents, travel agents, stock brokers, real estate agents — all either extinct or becoming so. Why? Anonymity: The problem with being a helpful, efficient but largely anonymous middleman is pretty obvious. Someone can come along who is cheaper, faster and more efficient. And that someone…

  • The Financial Crisis: Rocks And Water?

    This article by me first appeared in Pajamas Media. There is a parable I learned long ago from the continuous improvement management philosophy. It’s called “rocks and water.” Imagine you want to row your boat along a full, gently flowing river. No sweat. Imagine the water level drops significantly, exposing the jagged rocks along the…