Unfavorable conditions? Academic experts predict a grim outlook for 2009
Tuscaloosa News – Dec. 22
An annual list of predictions for the coming year from University of Alabama professors tells the rest of us what the past few months have already foreshadowed: The economy is going to be a big deal in 2009. Out of 19 predictions for the new year, 13 deal in some form with the economy, few of them upbeat…
North vs. South tension unlikely to vanish after auto bailout
Birmingham News – Dec. 20
…Jim Cashman, a University of Alabama management professor who has worked closely with the automotive industry, said he doesn’t think the White House’s action will completely eliminate any divisiveness that has erupted over the auto bailout. In coming months, the automakers’ use of the money and the restructuring plans that it requires are sure to dominate the national conservation, he said. “This thing is going to stay in very sharp focus for some time, and I can’t imagine how much hay is going to be made in Washington,” he said. But what’s missing from the debate, he said, is the intertwining nature of the automaking industries in the North and the South, despite the differing domestic and foreign pedigrees…”What people fail to recognize is that the traditional Midwest Big Three UAW-organized plants really forced the hand of the transplants to transplant themselves,” Cashman said. “On the other hand, if it wasn’t for the fact that the Big Three and UAW existed, my suspicion is pay rates wouldn’t be as high here.”
Ala. jobless rate climbs in Nov. to 6.1 percent
Montgomery Advertiser – Dec. 20
…”The good news is we are still better than the U.S., which is what we were expecting,” said Sam Addy, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Alabama. “But we’re a little disappointed — we thought it would reach six percent in December and seeing it in November is a little disheartening.”…
Tuscaloosa News – Dec. 20
Mobile Register – Dec. 20
Opelika auto supplier temporarily lays off 200
Montgomery Advertiser – Dec. 20
…Sam Addy, the director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Alabama, said it’s encouraging that so far companies in Alabama have announced temporary layoffs and have not shut down plants. Addy said about 11,000 people work for the three major automobile manufacturers in Alabama — Mercedes, Honda and Hyundai — and about 40,000 more work for auto suppliers and other companies in the industry in the state…e said because Alabama’s three automobile manufacturing plants are foreign owned and not part of the struggling Big Three automakers, the effect is not as severe here…
Rick Bragg named 2009 Harper Lee Award recipient
Mobile Register – Dec. 21
…Rick Bragg has been named the 2009 recipient of the Harper Lee Award for Alabama’s Distinguished Writer of the Year, the Alabama Writers’ Forum announced recently…Bragg lives in Tuscaloosa with his wife, Dianne, and stepson, Jake, where he is Professor of Writing at the University of Alabama…
Thin red line
Salt Lake (Utah) Tribune – Dec. 22
…the tradition battle between the Crimson Tide and Utes might be closer than many think. The schools both began playing football in 1892 and their association with crimson dates back to the late 1800s. According to Cathy Andreen, director of media relations for the University of Alabama, that school chose crimson and white as its colors after its cadet class wore them while winning the 1885 New Orleans Exposition competitive drill…Pat Whetstone, the director of alumni affairs at the University of Alabama, while offering respect to Utah, remains convinced his school owns the “true” crimson. “We could make the argument that we are the Crimson Tide so crimson has been in our name for the ages,” he said, adding that “ours may have started as fire engine red but it has faded through time as we have prevailed over the years in football. Maybe we are more weathered and have made it come back to a true crimson color.”…