WBEZ | Economy

So, what’s (still) made in the Chicago area?

Mon, 20 May 2013 17:31:00 -0500

Dozens of you have started our Curious City excursions with great questions. Some of those questions were subtle. Others were, um, less so. But few of these questions had an answer turn so much on one word.

Jessica Chronister of Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood asked, “What’s still being manufactured in Chicago in terms of factory-made items?”

We didn’t notice how one word — “still” — could be taken, at least not until it popped up during an interview.

“Well, it’s interesting how you framed the question ‘What’s still being manufactured in the Chicago region,’ ” said Garett Ballard-Rosa, a policy analyst at the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning. “Manufacturing’s never left the Chicago region.”

Many of us may have assumed that Chicago’s evolved out of the industrial age. But then, there’s counterevidence: The South Side’s Ford plant makes cars; mills in Gary, Indiana, churn out steel; and one factory makes a Chicago neighborhood smell like chocolate brownies.

But these are operations you notice on your own, since they overwhelm your eyes or one of your other senses. (Again, just try forgetting a neighborhood that smells like brownies!)

There is, though, another side to the region’s manufacturing profile. It’s just not so easy to spot.

“Our manufacturing segment is composed of a lot of small and medium size manufacturers,” Ballard-Rosa said.

Ballard-Rosa explained how we stack up; Chicago, he said, is the second-largest manufacturing center in the nation, behind Los Angeles. And, unlike cities such as Detroit and Seattle — where one specific industry makes up more than half of the manufacturing scene — our manufacturers are diverse: We make Lava lamps, lollipops, leather, plastics, martial arts uniforms, trophies, etc.

That is, we make all sorts of things.

But Jessica and I put a face on this smaller side of manufacturing. We started small and then got a little bigger.

First stop: West Side granola

The Milk and Honey brand of granola is made at a West Side industrial kitchen that’s infused with the smell of honey and oats. Owners Carol Watson and Karen Skrainy gave me and producer Logan Jaffe the opportunity to see the making of flavors like Pumpkin Spice, Blueberry Pecan Mix and Rick Bayless’s Mexican Mix.

“It’s not a fancy, highly automated procedure whatsoever,” Skrainy told me. “We do it just like you would at home. In standard-sized sheet pans we mix all the ingredients by hand, bake them in hand, stir them by hand.”

The kitchen is big for Milk and Honey’s 10 workers, but Skrainy and Watson said they hope to expand without having to move locations again. On average, they churn out 330 bags of granola each day.

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Watson started the granola business out of the kitchen of her cafe, which bears the same name. They sold enough of the crunchy stuff that they had to grow into a new location. And more growth turned into yet another move.

Interestingly, Watson doubts expansion will lead them to turn this “mostly by hand” process into an automated one. Instead, she said, they’re likely to just add more hands.

Watson said though they’re small, they can also pull off a national contract with Whole Foods. Milk and Honey’s location helps with that.

“Chicago is centrally located for shipping because if we were on the East Coast or the West Coast. So it works out well for us,” she said.

Coffee (grinders) for the world

Location is key for another small manufacturer that Jessica and I visited together: a midsize firm called Modern Process Equipment, located in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood.

If you drink Intelligentsia coffee, or if you ever drank Turkish coffee while in the Middle East, there’s a good chance those coffee beans were ground by an MPE grinder.

Company president Dan Ephraim said MPE ships between 30 and 35 percent of its product overseas.

“We’re the largest coffee grinder manufacturer in the world,” he said. “In the United States, we produce over 90 percent of the coffee grinders for industrial and commercial applications.”

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MPE employs about 100 workers, several of which were on hand to demonstrate their skills to Jessica and me. At one point, we passed by people who operate machines that cut metal with high-pressure streams of water. Others assembled or tested coffee grinding machines that are large enough to put your home or office version to shame.

Unlike the manually-driven processes at Milk and Honey, automation is key at MPE. At one point, we were introduced to a machine that uses lasers to count coffee grounds.

Ephraim and his brother bought the company 30 years ago. Back then the firm concentrated on reconditioning grinders. But the brothers innovated.

“Pretty much all our machines are computer-operated,” Ephraim said. “Anything that is accurate or repetitive, we try to computerize it.”

The future is lean, small

Innovation is something that experts at CMAP mentioned several times, and it’s a point that addresses a myth that Chicago no longer manufactures much.

CMAP’s Simone Weil said we make lots of stuff, but automation has thinned our manufacturing workforce.

“The flip side of that though and the kind of positive shift that we’re seeing the work force, since you need fewer people, they need higher skills,” she said.

CMAP says the region lost manufacturing jobs between 2000 and 2010, but automation wasn’t the only cause.

Weil says we sent manufacturing jobs overseas, and some employers turned full-time employees into part-timers. But she says we’ve recovered a bit, by adding 20,000 manufacturing jobs over the past few years.

She said upping recruitment for these jobs is important in growing the more skilled manufacturing workforce.

Weil’s colleague — Ballard Rosa — says innovation is Chicago’s key to a sustainable manufacturing center.

“The number one thing the region needs to do is re-establish itself as a center of manufacturing research that leads to new commercial products and processes and efficiencies,” he said.

That would make our region more competitive, more vibrant and, maybe — when it comes to manufacturing, anyway — a little more noticeable.

Runaway youth face increasing economic struggles

Wed, 08 May 2013 15:40:00 -0500

The National Runaway Safeline says more youth are running away because of money problems.

“Youth are telling us [their families are struggling] so if they are able to be on their own, it really will help that family as a whole, succeed,” says Maureen Blaha, Executive Director of NRS.

She also said older youth are sometimes explicitly asked to leave the home and become independent, “Which is not a choice I think they family would make if the economic situation was different.”

This anecdotal evidence is supported by a report the organization released about runway trends over the past decade. Youth contacting the safeline this year were more likely to mention economic problems, an increase of 14 percent over the past year and 56 percent over the last 10 years.

Runaway youth are also much more likely to end up in shelters than they were even a year ago, and have a harder time finding ways to support themselves.

“Going back home may not always be the right solution, so it’s even more important for those youth to be able to have job opportunities,” said Blaha.

As a result of these changes, the safeline is now providing more information on job training opportunities.

Both youth and concerned adults, can call the runaway safeline at 1-800-Runaway or live chat at the organizations website.

Shannon Heffernan is a reporter for WBEZ. Follow her @shannon_h

U.S. demand for high-skilled, foreign workers up

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 06:00:00 -0500

The opening of the filing period for petitions to bring specialized, educated employees through the H-1B visa program begins Monday, and after years of lagging interest in filling high-skilled jobs with temporary, foreign workers, many anticipate that U.S. companies have found their footing well enough to compete for these specialized employees. Successful petitions will authorize a foreign national to start working at a U.S. company temporarily during the 2014 federal fiscal year, which starts in October of 2013.

“This’ll be the first year in a long time that we anticipate that the cap is going to be reached in the first week in April,” said Eldon Kakuda, an immigration attorney at the Chicago-based law firm Masuda, Funai, Eifert & Mitchell. The U.S. sets a limit of 85,000 H-1B visas every year, a cap that was quickly reached within the first week of accepting petitions in years prior to 2009. In the last four years, however, U.S. employers filed far fewer petitions, sometimes taking up to nine months to reach the limit. “I do think it’s a strong indication that our economy is on the upswing,” said Kakuda.

H1-Bs typically work in the so-called “STEM” fields of science, technology, engineering, and math, and between 2000 and 2009 nearly half of those visas went to Indian nationals. The program is meant to help companies that can’t find U.S. employees with the requisite skills or experience. “There are not enough US citizens or Americans available with IT skills in the country,” said Shoji Mathew, President of the North American Association of Indian IT Professionals.

But Mathew said small companies with 50-150 employees are nervous to file petitions this year, because of the possibility that Congress will change the H-1B program. In particular, the H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act of 2013, introduced by Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH), would limit the number of H-1B employees in a company of at least 50 people to 50 percent. It would also enact more rigorous compliance audits with the program, and set a wage level for H-1B workers that is higher than what most employers currently pay foreign nationals on those visas.

Mathew said many of the small companies have started the application process for H-1B petitions, but are nervous about completing paperwork before legislators finish their work. “What happens if a company has 250 employees and, say, 80 percent is H1Bs?” asked Mathew. “They say why we should we apply for H1B (when) they’re on the verge of laying off their employees?”

But some hope that the bill will pass, citing suspected abuses of the H-1B program. “There’s a huge demand for underpaid workers through this program,” said Daniel Costa, an immigration policy analyst with the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. Costa said that though federal law requires employers to pay H-1B workers at a prevailing wage, the law gives pay scale options depending on the profession. “And the vast majority of the time they choose the lowest wage or the second-lowest wage, both of which are below the average wage,” said Costa.

Costa added that the bill would close some loopholes in the H-1B program, while giving U.S. workers a fair shot at those jobs by requiring employers to post job openings on the Department of Labor’s website, for all interested candidates to see. “We need to recruit and get and retain the best and brightest workers, especially in these STEM fields,” said Costa, “But there’s no evidence that we have some huge shortage. There’s always going to be a need for the workers, but we should just have some really basic protections in place for U.S. workers.”

At the same time, Washington lawmakers are considering a separate, bipartisan bill to expand the number of H-1B visas.

Odette Yousef is WBEZ’s North Side Bureau reporter. You can follow her at @oyousef.

Misery is ... Chicago (according to Forbes)

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 05:00:00 -0600

'CHICAGO: WE'RE NOT AS MISERABLE AS _______' The city's new travel slogan is ready. Based on Forbes magazine's 2013 rating of "America's Most Miserable Cities," you could fill that blank with the names of three other cities – Detroit, Flint and Rockford – because Chicago shows up at No. 4.

* Retired general who led military response to Hurricane Katrina: National Guard could help Chicago.
* Search crime data in your community (Tribune interactive database).
* New tourist attractions for Chicago could be up and running within months.
* Justin Timberlake, Jay-Z reportedly headed to Soldier Field this summer.
* Chicago to be home of new American Writers Museum.
* Congress Theater owner plans ambitious renovation.

'THE AMBULANCE INDUSTRY TAKES IN MORE MONEY EVERY YEAR THAN HOLLYWOOD.' That's Steven Brill, author of Time magazine's "longest single piece ever published by a single writer" – 36 pages on "Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us" – in an extended, online-only Daily Show interview with Jon Stewart.
* Brill's article wasn't originally supposed to run in Time.
* FBI declares war on The Scooter Store.

... AND THIS WEEK'S NEWS QUIZ:

ANNOUNCEMENTS.
* Suggestions for this blog? Email anytime.
* Get this blog by email, free. Sign up here.
* Follow us on Twitter: @WBEZ and @Meyerson.
* Thanks to WBEZ's Alex Keefe for inspiration.
* This blog is taking a day off Monday. See you early Tuesday.

Jobs, Education and the Economy: The Elmhurst College Governmental Forum

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 15:42:00 -0600

On January 30, days after President Barack Obama begins his second term, four of the region’s foremost corporate leaders discussed the economic landscape and how our workforce can succeed in it, during the Sixth Annual Elmhurst College Governmental Forum.

The topic of this year’s Forum was "Jobs, Education and the Economy." Moderating the event was John Engler, a former three-term governor of Michigan and, as president of the Business Roundtable, leader of the foremost CEO association in the country. The key presenters at the Forum were Caterpillar Inc. chairman and CEO Douglas R. Oberhelman, Johnson Publishing CEO Desiree Rogers; and TMX Group CEO Thomas A. Kloet, who also serves on the Elmhurst College Board of Trustees.

Part One

Part Two

Recorded Thursday, January 30, 2013 at Elmhurst College.

Cyber Monday sales hit Chicago-area small business

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 16:23:00 -0600

Holiday shoppers turned so-called "Cyber Monday" into one of the biggest spending days ever, according to a new report released Tuesday.

Research from the IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark show online purchases grew 30.3 percent compared to the same time in 2011.

“Cyber Monday was not only the pinnacle of the Thanksgiving shopping weekend but when the cash register closed it officially became the biggest online shopping day ever,” said Jay Henderson, Strategy Director with IBM Smarter Commerce, in a statement Tuesday. “Retailers that adopted a smarter marketing approach to commerce were able to adjust to the shifting shopping habits of their customers, whether in-store, online or via their mobile device of choice, and fully benefit from this day and the entire holiday weekend.”

But Cyber Monday was not a success for every business.

According to Northern Illinois and Chicago Better Business Bureau President Steve Bernas, brick and mortar small businesses in the Chicago-area worried before the holiday season that sales would drop as consumers decided to take advantage of Internet deals on Monday.

"On the cyber world, you're competing on a global marketplace," Bernas said. "As opposed to a brick and mortar, it's usually a neighborhood store or an area in a specific neighborhood [...] It's hard to compete with a worldwide marketplace."

Internet purchases typically tend to rise on weekdays, said Andrew Lipsman, Vice President of Industry Analysis with the research firm comScore. He added that that trend is “magnified” during the holiday shopping season.

And for Madison Street Shoes in Forest Park, business fell Monday despite a busy weekend.

"Today is extremely quiet. Now Monday is typically our slowest day here, but not this slow. I mean this is highly unusual for us," said Julie Lane, who works at the store.

Lane credited the slowdown to, in part, online sales. But she said the store tries to match or beat online prices in order to compete with Internet retailers, along with "the personal touch, the customer service."

Stocks plunge after election

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 11:53:00 -0600

The election behind them, U.S. investors dumped stocks Wednesday and turned their focus to a world of problems — tax increases and spending cuts that could stall the nation's economic recovery and a deepening recession in Europe.

The Dow Jones industrial average plummeted as much as 369 points, or 2.8 percent, in the first two hours of trading. The average was on track for its worst decline in a year.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell as much as 40 points, or 2.8 percent.

Energy companies and bank stocks took some of the biggest losses. Both industries presumably would have faced lighter and less costly regulation if Mitt Romney had won the election.

"It does look ugly," said Robert Pavlik , chief market strategist at Banyan Partners LLC. He said it's hard to untangle Europe-related selling from nerves about the nation's fiscal policy, he said.

"It's a combination of all that, quite honestly," Pavlik said.

Stocks seen as benefiting from President Barack Obama's decisive win rose. They included hospitals, free of the threat that a Romney administration would have sought to roll back Obama's health care law, and renewable-energy companies.

With the election over, traders' attention returned to an increasingly sickly European economy, dragged down by a debt crisis for more than three years. The 27-country European Union said unemployment there could remain high for years.

The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, said that it expects the region's economic output to shrink 0.3 percent this year. In the spring, the group predicted no change.

For next year, the commission predicted 0.4 percent growth, barely above recession territory. It predicted 1.3 percent last spring.

U.S. stock futures were higher overnight after Obama cruised to victory. They turned sharply lower after the European forecasts and discouraging comments from Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank. European markets turned negative as well.

Now that the U.S. election has been resolved, it's natural for traders to focus on Europe's problems, said Peter Tchir, who manages the hedge fund TF Market Advisors.

What they're tuning in to, he said, is the failure of a major European summit last week and minimal progress on the issues that are holding the region back.

"People can only digest one or two stories at a time, and people had put Europe on the back burner" before the election, he said.

Obama's win followed a costly campaign that blanketed markets with uncertainty about possible changes to tax rates, government spending and other issues seen as crucial to the prospects of some industries and the broader economy.

As jitters about the election subsided, traders confronted an ugly reality: The so-called fiscal cliff, which will impose automatic tax increases and deep cuts to government spending at the end of the year unless the president and Congress can reach a deal.

That's no easy task for a deadlocked government whose overall composition has barely changed — a Democratic president and Senate and a Republican House.

If Congress and the White House don't reach a deal, the spending cuts and tax increases could total $800 billion next year. Some economists say that could push the economy back into recession.

"Obama's re-election does not change the bigger economic or fiscal picture," Paul Ashworth of Capital Economics Ashworth, an economic research company, said in a note to clients.

Fitch Ratings offered a warning about the fiscal perils facing the U.S. If Obama does not quickly forge agreement with Congress to avert the fiscal cliff, the credit rating agency said Wednesday, it may strip the U.S. of its perfect AAA credit rating.

Fitch changed the outlook for the U.S. rating to negative last year after Congress and the Obama administration failed to meet an earlier deadline for resolving their differences on fiscal policy. Other rating agencies also have warned of possible downgrades.

Tobias Levkovich, a financial analyst at Citi Research, told clients Wednesday that a compromise on taxes and spending was likely in mid- to late January, but that stocks will probably fall in the meantime.

A deal early next year is much more likely "once the political class begins to negotiate realistically and as the consequences . . . are too costly for either party to ignore," he wrote.

Shortly before 12:30 p.m. EST, the Dow was down 296 points at 12,949, dipping below 13,000 for the first time since Sept. 4. The S&P 500 was down 31 at 1,397. The Nasdaq composite index dropped 68 to 2,943.

European markets closed sharply lower, with benchmark indexes in France and Germany losing 2 percent. Italy lost 2.5 percent; Spain lost 2.3 percent.

As traders streamed into lower-risk investments, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note plunged to 1.64 percent from 1.75 percent late Tuesday. A bond's yield declines as demand for it increases.

Stocks continue to hurt from lackluster third-quarter earnings reports, Tchir said.

"There's been this whole litany of things that have been dragging down the market for a while, earnings chief among them, and that's still out there," he said, adding that those concerns "play as much of a role as anything to do with the election."

Earnings have been relatively weak, with many companies reporting lower revenue and darkening expectations for the coming quarters.

With more than four-fifths of them having reported, companies in the S&P 500 index say earnings are up about 2 percent over last year, the lowest growth rate in three years, according to data from S&P Capital IQ.

Most industries reacted to the election much as analysts had expected.

Hospital companies soared because of expectations that they will gain business under the health care law, known as ObamaCare. HCA Holdings and Tenet Healthcare leapt 7 percent, Community Health Systems 6 percent and Universal Health Services 4 percent.

Not all hospital companies are expected to benefit. Many of the patients who will gain insurance will be covered by Medicaid plans, which generally do not cover the full cost of care provided by hospitals.

Health insurance stocks sank, defying many analysts' expectations. ObamaCare will expand coverage of the uninsured in 2014, giving insurers millions of new customers. But the overhaul also imposes fees and restrictions on the companies, potentially threatening their profitability. Humana slid 10 percent, UnitedHealth Group 5 percent, Aetna 4 percent and Wellpoint 6 percent.

With Obama seeking to restrain the growth of military spending, defense companies could struggle to win government contracts. Their stocks fell sharply: Lockheed Martin Lost 5 percent, Northrop Grumman 6 percent and General Dynamics 5 percent.

Among the 10 industry groups in the S&P 500 index, financial stocks and energy companies fell the most.

Banks figure to face tougher regulation in a second Obama term than they would have under Romney. JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup fell 4 percent, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs 6 percent and Morgan Stanley 8 percent.

The biggest losers were coal companies, which had hoped that a Romney administration would loosen mine safety and pollution rules that make it more costly for them to operate. Peabody Energy dived 9 percent, Consol Energy 7 percent, Alpha Natural Resources 13 percent and Arch Coal 11 percent.

Oil companies fell less steeply.

Alternative energy companies, especially solar manufacturers, outperformed the indexes on expectations that they will continue to enjoy generous subsidies. First Solar was roughly flat and Yingli Green Energy Holding edged slightly higher.

Trading also reflected the outcome of ballot measures decided in Tuesday's election. After two states approved the recreational use of marijuana for the first time, Medical Marijuana Inc., a company too small to be listed on major exchanges, surged 17 percent.

Other notable moves included Apple, the world's most valuable company. IT fell 3 percent to $564.57 and has dropped 20 percent from its all-time high of $705.07, reached Sept. 21.

___

AP Business Writers Steve Rothwell in New York, Tom Murphy in Indianapolis and Linda Johnson in Trenton, N.J., contributed to this report.

U.S. Cellular to sell Chicago customers to Sprint, shed hundreds of local jobs

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 09:22:00 -0600

U.S. Cellular is selling its Chicago customers to Sprint and shedding hundreds of local jobs.

Sprint is buying U.S. Cellular markets in the Midwest for $480 million to boost its network capacity in that region.

CEO Mary Dillon said Wednesday morning that U.S. Cellular customers won’t see any immediate changes and that it will likely take months for the FCC to approve the deal.

Dillon said the deal will mean job losses in Chicago and around the Midwest.

"In Chicago, it’s about 160," Dillon said. "In the greater Chicago area, about 680 and overall a little over a thousand associates (will lose jobs)."

Dillon said about 860 jobs will remain at the company's Chicago headquarters as well as 7,000 associates overall.

Sprint Nextel Corp., the third-largest U.S. cellphone carrier, said Wednesday that it is buying spectrum and 585,000 customers in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri and Ohio. That covers about ten percent of U.S. Cellular's customer base and includes its key Chicago and St. Louis markets.

The acquisition should give a needed boost to the Overland Park, Kan.-based company's network. Sprint doesn't have as much available spectrum, or space on the airwaves, as the larger carriers do. That holds back its network speeds somewhat.

Chicago-based U.S. Cellular Corp. said the sale will help it focus on its strongest markets.

The acquisition, which remains subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close in the middle of next year.

Also on Wednesday, U.S. Cellular said its third-quarter net income dropped 43 percent, as the company subsidized sales of new smartphones.

U.S. Cellular earned $35.5 million, or 42 cents per share, down from $62.1 million, or 73 cents per share, in the same quarter last year. Revenue rose 3 percent to $1.14 billion.

Sprint shares fell four cents to $5.69 in premarket trading. U.S. Cellular Corp. shares were unchanged from Tuesday's close of $39.02.

Foreclosures continue to impact Chicago-area home prices

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 13:48:00 -0600

Sales of foreclosures and other distressed properties continue to weigh down overall Chicago-area home prices, which declined 2.9 percent in September compared to the same time last year.

That's according to the real estate information company CoreLogic, which released its monthly Home Price Index on Tuesday. Unlike other monthly home price data, CoreLogic tracks distressed properties as well as regular home sales. (Distressed properties include short sales and foreclosures, or real estate owned transactions.)

"The foreclosures are having a pretty substantial impact on the market because there’s still so many of them," said the Illinois Association of Relators' Jon Broadbooks, who added that foreclosures can take as long as 22 months to wind their way through the legal system. "Until earlier this year, many of them were bottlenecked in the court system. Now they’re beginning to move through, and so that’s having somewhat of a dampening effect on prices."

Without foreclosures or short sales, home prices in Chicago increased nearly two percent compared to September last year.

Nationally, home prices increased five percent, including distressed sales. CoreLogic said it was the biggest increase in more than six years — since July 2006 — and the seventh consecutive monthly year-over-year price increased. All but seven states are experiencing these year-over-year price increases.

Illinois is second only to Rhode Island as having the greatest home price depreciation.

Some numbers are really scary! Some numbers make me angry!

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 05:00:00 -0500

Even though we are in the second full year of recovery from the stunning financial effects of the 2008 Recession, according to a recently issued Census Bureau report, the overall National Rate of poverty is a staggering 15 percent, and national median income (the point on the income scale where half earn more and half earn less) has declined by 1.5 percent.

When you translate these percentages into real numbers the issue becomes even more alarming. The national household median income is $50,054 and in Chicago it is $43, 628, a drop of 4.7 percent since 2010. The national standard for poverty is an annual income of $23,021 or lower for a family of four. That means that the national poverty rate is 15 percent or 47,123,889 people, and the Chicago poverty rate is 19.7 percent or 261,400 people.

Aristotle has suggested that abstract numbers put no one in a passion, unless of course they apply to you! In, arguably, the richest nation in the world — in a nation built on the ethos of “hard work” and the mythology of “progress and well-being” — to be poor, to be without, to be economically disenfranchised constitutes a crushing blow to one’s sense of identity and self-worth. Moreover, to be at the bottom of the economic ladder is to be trapped into a life of limited options and opportunities.

Unfortunately, I have no political or economic remedies for that problem. My comments here are only the angry musings of someone who is philosophically troubled by these statistics and numbers. It bothers me deeply that us as a nation we can simultaneously be engaged in foreign wars, nation building, feeding the hungry of the world, and trying to alleviate the poverty of others, but we do not do enough to be of help to our own. These figures are reason for public anger and embarrassment. That 15 percent of us live in poverty is a cancer on the body politic of this nation.

Al Gini is a Professor of Business Ethics and Chairman of the Management Department in the Quinlan School of Business at Loyola University Chicago.