Barackface

Wednesday, June 09, 2010

NewPage Bit The Hand That Feeds It And Is Hurting

A robust free trade global and domestic environment is the optimal condition in which a company like NewPage can best flourish. But NewPage did its level best this past year to pour oil into that water and in the process has damaged itself and more than a few players in its industry and especially in its affiliated industries. It is high time for counter arguments and counter measures. A counter balance has to be provided so paper and publishing industries go back to being in a healthy state.

The US economy has always been in a state of change, some major some not so major. A country that elected Abrahan Lincoln was primarily agricultural.

There is a right way to get rid of the competition and there is a wrong way. There is a market way and there is a non market way. The market way is the right way. NewPage has made some shady moves the past year. And now the situation has to be rectified. Common sense has to prevail in September.

Coated-Paper Maker NewPage Withdraws Planned IPO Wall Street Journal NewPage Group Inc. Tuesday pulled its planned initial public offering, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing
NewPage Withdraws Plans For $805 Million IPO Reuters NewPage manufactures coated paper, which is used in corporate reports, brochures, magazine covers and catalogs. The filing did not give a reason for the withdrawal. .... NewPage filed to float shares in May 2008 but never said how many shares it hoped to sell or gave an expected price range, despite two amendments to its initial filing.
Paper Manufacturer NewPage Cancels Plans For IPO BusinessWeek Coated paper manufacturer NewPage Group Inc. withdrew a two-year-old plan for an initial public offering ..... The company, based in Miamisburg, Ohio, makes paper used by the media and in marketing materials such as corporate annual reports and high-end advertising brochures. .... Earlier in May, NewPage said its parent company's first quarter net loss widened to $179 million from $114 million a year ago .... NewPage was formed by private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP in 2005 to acquire the printing and writing papers business of MeadWestvaco Corp.
Proposed Paper Tariff Pits Jobs Vs. Costs Hartford Business Journal A U.S. Department of Commerce proposal to impose stiff tariffs on coated free sheet paper imported from China and Indonesia would help save American jobs and allow domestic companies to compete more fairly for business, supporters say. ..... But the plan could launch an international tariff war, warns a Connecticut printer and other opponents, that could backfire and almost certainly would drive up the cost of printing everything from multicolored catalogs, magazines and books to advertising flyers, menus and greeting cards. .... Chinese and Indonesian producers already hold 30 percent of the U.S. market for coated paper. ..... “If this decision holds, which I think it will, it will be a very good one for our industry,” said John Williams, president of the Maine Pulp & Paper Association. ...... Whether they make coated free sheet (CFS) paper or not, U.S. producers will benefit from the ruling because it likely will reduce Asian imports worth more than $269 million and drive up domestic sales, said Williams. ........ But there’s another view. ..... duties will hurt U.S. printers. ...... “Duties in this case will lead to reductions, delays and disruptions to the paper supply that will increase business costs for thousands of U.S. printers and related industries” ...... “It will jeopardize the competitiveness of U.S. printers as higher costs force many publishers to seek cheaper foreign printing solutions or use other media.” ......... The dispute came to a head when three paper companies — New Page Corp., Appleton Coated LLC and Sappi Fine Paper North America, the U.S. arm of South Africa’s Sappi Ltd. — joined the U.S. Steel Workers in filing a joint anti-dumping petition with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission last year. ........ New Page Corp., the largest paper manufacturer in the U.S. ....... “We haven’t seen any new coated free sheet paper mills in decades.” ....... As part of its preliminary anti-dumping ruling in March, the U.S. Department of Commerce suggested a rate of 135.8 percent on certain CFS paper products imported from China — up from a range of 30.82 percent to 89.71 percent; the agency proposed a single rate of 10.62 percent for all coated paper products imported from Indonesia. ....... That means a Chinese company assessed at 30 percent would pay the U.S. Treasury $300,000 in fees to export $1 million worth of coated paper to the U.S. For companies assessed at 135 percent, the import rate would be $1.35 million for every $1 million sent to the U.S. ...... In a similar case brought by U.S. paper manufacturers in December 2007, the International Trade Commission blocked final duties from going into effect because the domestic paper industry had not been harmed. ...... a final determination expected from the U.S. International Trade Commission in September.
Paper jam hits Cerberus The Daily Deal NewPage, the Cerberus-owned coated paper manufacturer, filed for an $805 million initial public offering two years ago but never got close to market.

(Blog post ad)

Wednesday, June 02, 2010

Reshma Saujani At The Huffington Post

WASHINGTON - MAY 06: Arianna Huffington (C), ...

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Reshma Saujani At The Huffington Post

My parents, originally of Indian origin, barely escaped the brutal regime of Idi Amin in Uganda. Forced to flee during the government’s violent persecution of foreigners, my family lost everything. But amnesty in America gave them a chance to rebuild. A highly qualified mechanical engineer, my father found work in a machine shop. My mother was pregnant – arriving in a new country with little money, our family couldn’t afford medical treatment. My sister was born at a local hospital supported by Catholic Charities, and my father still describes the free care my family received as a miracle...... After the enactment of the Patriot Act, I volunteered with the New York Bar Association to offer free legal services to documented immigrants in Queens. I painfully witnessed innocent New Yorkers having their civil liberties being violated day after day. This experience emboldened me to build a national movement within the Democratic Party to encourage South Asian Americans to get involved in the political process. ...... my deep understanding of the financial industry ..... We need a bridge builder who can align the ambitions of Wall Street with the needs of Main Street to rebuild our economy. We need to reclaim the City of Aspiration, and create hope and opportunity for everyone – from the small business owner in Murray Hill, to the woman behind the counter at the bodega in Astoria, to the public school teacher in the East Village. I believe these times call for innovative policies and bold leadership to prepare the next generation for the new global economy.

Empire State of Security

The danger is that the US today risks losing the high tech race to India, China, Brazil, and other emerging economies. ........our economic competitiveness and our national security are increasingly not distinct issues, but two sides of the same coin...... The future of our national security is inextricably linked with our efforts to get our budgets back in the black, revitalize our economy, manage our borders, and reduce our dependence on foreign sources of energy. ....... We need more networked cooperation with foreign intelligence agencies to thwart terrorist plots. We need more spending on high tech port security to prevent smuggled nuclear material from landing on our shores in containers. That means reinstating the 28 percent drop in Transit Security Grant funding for New York this year. ..... . What we really need is to
rethink what national security means, and how to achieve it. ......Increasingly, security means innovation. ..... I plan to work with President Obama to double the National Science Foundation's funding, make the Research and Experimentation tax credit permanent, and restore our national R&D investment to its previous level of 3 percent of GDP. .....as the city with the highest concentration of hospitals in the world, and the largest concentration of research facilities in the nation, New York can spearhead a new national biotech strategy. With eager investors and a rich talent pool, we're the ideal place to ramp-up a new National Innovation Fund that leverages private investment against national priorities, notably biotechnology research. ....... In 2009, for the first time, China topped the G-20 in clean energy investing, more then doubling what the US committed to this sector. ..... the President's proposal for 25 percent of our national energy portfolio to come from renewable, homegrown sources by 2025. ...... craft a comprehensive national security strategy (read: national innovation strategy) that will secure a prosperous and safe future for all Americans. ....New York can lead the way.

Comprehensive Immigration Reform to Create Jobs and Secure our Future

From 1995 to 2005, over 25 percent of technology companies started in the US had a key immigrant founder. These companies generated over $50 billion in sales and employed half a million Americans during that span. Immigrants are just 12 percent of our population but earn a staggering 47 percent of the nation's science and technology PhDs and file for 24 percent of US patents. Today, over 50 percent of the immigrants returning to India or China hold advanced degrees......We should lift the cap on H1-B and EB-5 work and investor visas and pass the "StartUp Visa" program ..... Creating a pathway towards legal status for the 12 million illegal immigrants in the US today would boost GDP by $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years. Implementing a guest worker program would add another $792 billion to GDP during the same period. ...... reframe the debate around cultural inclusion, economic competitiveness, and plain common sense ....... moving illegal immigrants from our under-the-table economy to our above-the-table economy is smart fiscal policy for the nation ......In 2010, New York's share of the Department of Homeland Security Transit Security Grant Program - which funds sensors and bomb detecting equipment - fell by 28 percent. This is unacceptable. ...... pass provisions for illegal immigrants who have critical witness information to come forward and help law enforcement personnel address street crimes and security threats .....3.1 million American children have at least one parent who is in the US illegally ...... the Uniting American Families Act, which would allow US citizens in same-sex couples to sponsor their partners for legal immigration status ..... 36,000 of these couples are at risk of being separated because one partner is not a citizen ...... I am the daughter of political refugees. My family was forced to flee the brutal regime of Idi Amin after he ordered the mass expulsion of Indians from Uganda. They lost almost everything, and sought asylum from many countries, but were only offered that opportunity in the United States.

On Women's Rights, Democrats Should Stand Up, Not Back Down

In times of political turmoil, when difficult decisions were required, Democrats stood their ground and fought hard for the Civil Rights Act, Social Security, Medicaid, Head Start, campaign finance reform, and other critical legislation....... As a leader of one of the most progressive districts in the nation, the representative of the 14th should always stand up and fight for core Democratic principles, such as reproductive choice. ...... Deal making is part of the political process. But a core Democratic principle like a woman's right to choose should have never been on the table for negotiation. ....... If there's one thing that separates the two parties, it's that Democrats are the party of principle. And when we stick to our principles, our party wins, and our nation wins. ....... (I spoke at event recently on the need to focus on job creation. Someone asked me if I was really a Republican. It's clear our party has lost its way when New York Democrats think job creation is the sole territory of the GOP.) ...... We need to stop "legislating in haste and repenting at leisure." We need to stop "voting against the bill before we vote for it."

Financial Reform From Soup to Nuts

.....Wall Street needs to stop obstructing reform in Washington...... Congress needs to stop demonizing Wall Street...... It's about eliminating the bad lending practices, encouraged by loose regulation, which together have conspired against the entire economy. It's about a new regulatory framework that empowers Wall Street to generate growth and jobs in New York City and across America. ...... I'm not making the case to engage the financial sector because it used to pay my rent. If the circus were the biggest employer in New York, I'd fight for every acrobat and ringmaster in the tri-state area. ..... We need to work with Wall Street to move high finance away from unsustainable short-term thinking, and toward long-term investments in clean-tech, biotech, nanotech, health-tech, and new media......

Generation Innovation: Creating Jobs and Growth in New York City

New York ... even managed to reach the highest point in the sky at the lowest moment of the depression." ..... New York City has always been a place of possibility, innovation, and imagination. That's why, in the wake of the Great Recession, our sustained economic crisis calls for an audacious economic vision. ....... The national retailer Macy's started in 1858 as a modest dry goods store on 6th Ave. and 14th Street. MetLife, one of the nation's largest insurers, began as a downtown startup during Reconstruction. ...... the world's most vibrant and diverse city, and also the world's most vibrant and diverse economy. ....... Since the 1970s, New York City's economy has been dominated by the financial services sector. ....... In 2007, an astounding 38 percent of the New York City's total payroll came from the financial sector. ....... New York must and will remain an epicenter for global finance. But we must also diversify our economy. ........ Bailouts have targeted mega-banks, and stimulus dollars have gone to construction contractors. These are necessary measures, but they're not sufficient to spark the kind of innovation we need to jumpstart economic growth in New York City. The Bloomberg Administration has certainly demonstrated progress in this area, doing what it can on a tight city budget - but there's a long way to go, and federal funding can help. ........some 47 New York venture capital firms funded startups to the tune of more than $2 billion in the first half of 2009. ..... growth industries such as clean-tech, high-speed rail, and broadband ...... investing in the dreamers and doers of tomorrow.

Morgenthau Withdraws, Cites City's 'Resentment' Of Him Huff Post Former Manhattan district attorney Robert Morgenthau withdrew on Tuesday from his role overseeing the city's efforts to improve the hiring of black and Hispanic firefighters, citing the city's "resentment" of him. ...... He said it appears the administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg "has exhibited resentment against me." ...... arguing Morgenthau's "known distaste" for Bloomberg would make it impossible for him to be impartial. ..... his performance as district attorney had "not been to its liking." ...... There are about 350 black firefighters out of 11,500 firefighters working for the Fire Department of New York. Most city residents are minorities.

Tuesday, June 01, 2010

An Afternoon At The Reshma 2010 Headquarters

I was at the Reshma 2010 headquarters for a few hours this afternoon: 833 Broadway. The highlight was I made 70 phone calls, and made 10 contacts with voters. It did not feel like a Buzzd office shared with Reshma 2010. It felt the other way round. There were many more Reshma 2010 staffers and interns. (Buzzd)

In my mind I have been toying with the idea of going to work full time for Reshma 2010 for three and a half months. But that might or might not be the best fit for me and/or Reshma 2010. We will have to see about that. (My Political Resume, Reshma 2010, And September 14) If I end up with a formal role, it is likely going to be amorphous.

The campaign is not in top shape right now. If the elections were held today, we would lose. Two words: name recognition. But the campaign is promising. I see victory possible. September 14 could be ours. But there has to be a willingness to try out new things, to push the envelope. But we can not be worrying about poll numbers right now, this is why: February To September: Little Change.

If we emerge victorious, September 14 is going to be the second most glowing item on Kevin Lawler's resume, the first being the Obama victory in Iowa in January 2008. Kevin was there. (My Talk With Kevin Lawler Of Reshma 2010) He told me some of the war stories. I hope to ask him more about that experience. Without that Iowa victory, Hillary might have been president.

The first debate is going to be our Iowa. We really, really have to win that first debate with Maloney.

We have to hold mock debates. A few different people could step in for Maloney.

I asked Aaron why we don't canvass the East Side the way we canvass Astoria and Long Island City. He said it is because on the East Side we have these huge buildings that we can't get into. And at that moment an idea struck me. Take a look at this site called NYC Bloggers. It lists about 7,000 bloggers by subway stop. People on the East Side have to be digitally savvy. We should perhaps create a blogroll of all the bloggers in our district, and we have to engage them. We read their blog posts, leave comments for them, engage them, and gently guide them over to the Reshma 2010 website. This might work better than reaching out to the community newspapers, or working the subway stops. If there are 1,000 bloggers listed in our district, and each such blogger has at least 10 readers in the district, that is 10,000 people!

This NYC Bloggers idea is no argument against community newspapers, community leaders, and community events though.

There are three types of campaigning.

Targeted Campaigning. And we seem to spend a lot of our time and resources on this one. We know who the potential voters for September 14 are. And we try our best to reach out to them, to identify them, to target them.
Broadcast Campaigning. This is when you put out an ad in the New York Times (Reshma Saujani Ad Spotted At The New York Times Website) or when we work a subway stop. Or when our candidate gets media coverage. Not everyone who reads a newspaper article about Reshma Saujani is a potential voter. But getting that buzz is still important. If a potential voter has already heard of her through broadcast campaigning, it becomes easier to reach out to them through target campaigning. Right now most voters are not even paying attention. Primaries tend to be low turnout events in the first place. But the real mad dash to the finish line will begin with the debates.
Getting First Time Voters. This is key. The Maloney campaign might match us in the first two categories, and we have to make up for that by reaching out to people who might otherwise not even bother voting on September 14. We have to appeal to the New Woman on the East Side.

Talking about the New Woman and the East Side, I spent my first 15 minutes at the Reshma 2010 offices staring at the three huge maps of the district, the district split into three. That was revealing to me. The backbone of the district is the East Side. Unless we can compete with Maloney on the East Side, we can't win. And there is no reason why we can't. Reshma had a lot of early donors on the Upper East Side. You compete on the East Side, and you beat with the votes in Astoria and Long Island City. But the big chunk of the votes are on Manhattan's East Side.

Within a week, the Reshma 2010 headquarters will be moving to a bigger space in Midtown. The office could use a few netbooks - $300 each - and a few Metro PCS family plan phones: unlimited talk.

My best phone call of the day was with a voter with whom I deviated from the script. So would you say you are very political? I asked. The guy got flattered. He took over the conversation. He told me how strongly he felt about the various issues. He said he had been voting a long, long time. He said he thought Obama was a "weak president" for not having passed immigration reform already. Finally he said, don't waste your time on me, I am already committed to voting for Reshma, go talk to someone else.

So I am working the phone, and a Buzzd staffer walks by. He points at me and exclaims, "Barackface!" And walks away. That's right, I say.

"How do you know him?" Aaron asks me.

"I don't."

Aaron gets impressed.

A 14-7 Office For Reshma 2010
My Political Resume, Reshma 2010, And September 14
Reshma Saujani, Carolyn Maloney
My Talk With Kevin Lawler Of Reshma 2010
Reshma 2010 Get Together In Little India
Reshma Saujani Ad Spotted At The New York Times Website
Reshma Saujani, Scott Heiferman, Chris Hughes: TechCrunch Disrupt
Reshma Saujani, Haiti Earthquake, Harvard Yale, And 2016
Reshma Saujani "Gets" Tech
Reshma Saujani: Innovation, Ethnic Pride, Thought Leadership

Pages

Wednesday, June 09, 2010

NewPage Bit The Hand That Feeds It And Is Hurting

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Wednesday, June 02, 2010

Reshma Saujani At The Huffington Post

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Tuesday, June 01, 2010

An Afternoon At The Reshma 2010 Headquarters

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