QUOTE OF THE DAY
Wall Street Journal: Just in Time for LeBron: Downtown Cleveland Stages a Comeback
Hipsters battling to rent warehouse lofts. Trendy bars, espresso shops and music venues. A funky, celebrity-chef-owned restaurant serving bone marrow and crispy pig ears.
This isn’t Brooklyn or Portland. It is downtown Cleveland. Nicknamed the “Mistake on the Lake,” the much-maligned city on the shore of Lake Erie has long had a reputation for crime, pollution and corruption. Over the years, Cleveland’s downtown became almost a ghost town at night.
Now, Cleveland’s fortunes seem to be turning around. LeBron is headed home! The 2016 Republican National Convention is coming! The Browns nabbed quarterback Johnny Manziel in the draft! There is lots of exuberance and chest thumping in Cleveland, accompanied by lofty predictions of the positive economic impacts of these events.
Built in Chicago: Rivet News Radio raises $1.7M to revamp audio news
The audio news startup HearHere has rasied $1.7 million. Investors include The Associated Press, A. H. Belo Corporation, Whittier Ventures, Ringleader Ventures, and individuals including family, friends, and Chicago VC Steve Miller.
“Not only are we using these funds to bring smart audio news to more people,” said CEO John McLeod in a statement, “we’re working diligently to optimize proprietary technology that better understands listeners’ interests and delivers them exactly the news they care about.”
Bloomberg: Chicago Manufacturing Index Climbed to 64.3 in August
Business activity in the Chicago area climbed in August as orders accelerated, a sign that manufacturing will continue to add momentum to the economy.
The Institute for Supply Management-Chicago Inc.’s business barometer rose to 64.3 this month from 52.6 in July. The median forecast of 44 economists in a Bloomberg survey projected the index would climb to 56.5. Readings greater than 50 signal growth.
Manufacturing, which makes up about 12 percent of the economy, has been supported by rising demand for durable goods such as automobiles, appliances and machinery. Faster improvement in the labor market could generate more wage growth and further boost consumer purchases, in turn feeding demand for factory-made goods.
Crain’s: War breaks out again over Illiana Expressway
Hostilities have resumed in the political war over the proposed Illiana Expressway, with Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and environmental groups trying to block a legal maneuver that would make it easier to build the controversial road.
The focus of the renewed battle is the board of the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, an obscure but powerful group that acts as the gatekeeper for many federal funding programs in the Chicago area and whose blessing is needed to proceed with any mayor transportation project.
CMAP’s staff and board last year strongly objected to including the Illiana, a toll road that would run from Interstate 55 in Illinois to I-65 in Indiana, in its “Go to 2040” priority list of approved projects. But after intense lobbing from aides to Gov. Pat Quinn, CMAP’s policy committee backed the proposal in October.
Chicago Sun Times: City study paints rosier picture of cabdriver wages
The average Chicago cabdriver earns $12.14 an hour and $33,857 a year after expenses, according to a city consulting study that, an influential alderman said Thursday, could set the stage for the city’s first fare increase in nearly 10 years.
Chicago cabdrivers have produced a series of studies to highlight their financial plight and build momentum for their drive to unionize to bolster their clout.
One cabdriver study claimed Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s overhaul of the taxicab industry has snatched $7,531 a year out of the average cabdriver’s pocket, dropping annual income to $20,234 or just $5.40 an hour.
Wall Street Journal: Grand Central: Fed Job Index a Year Away From Normalcy
An index of labor market conditions watched by Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen is on track to return to long-term norms in the second half of 2015 – about when many Fed officials say they expect to start raising short-term interest rates.
The index, produced by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, aggregates 24 indicators of labor market conditions and assesses how far they are from their long-term averages going back to 1992. The indicators include measures inculding long-term unemployment, the rate at which individuals quit their jobs, the labor force participation rate, and surveys of job availability and expectations.
Ms. Yellen cited the index in her speech in Jackson Hole last week as evidence that the unemployment rate – at 6.2% in July – overstates the amount of improvement in the broader labor market. (See footnote 14.)
CARTOON OF THE DAY
