Jay Hancock's blog - baltimoresun.com

A business columnist bids farewell and looks back

Jay Hancock — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 05:01:00 GMT

It's not about more or less regulation; it's about the right regulation

There comes a time for every trader to tally the bets that paid off, revalue the stinkers and recalibrate assumptions according to changing facts.

Want to create jobs? Stop complaining and get to work

Jay Hancock — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 23:42:00 GMT

I located some job creators. Fells Point Wholesale Meats puts protein on the table every day at hundreds of restaurants and hotels from Cecil County to Northern Virginia.

Exelon gets tax cuts despite pledge to locate in Baltimore

Jay Hancock — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 08:00:00 GMT

Among the many advantages Constellation Energy's headquarters gives Baltimore — Fortune 500 cachet, hundreds of well-paid workers, millions in charity — is this: The building pays sticker price on property taxes — $745,000 a year.

Electric deals often look good — until the contract ends

Jay Hancock — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 23:08:00 GMT

Your first job as a Maryland electricity shopper is to sign up for a good deal at a good price. I'll remind you how to do so later in the column.

Price funds grant small but exclusive Facebook entree

Jay Hancock — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT

Among the elite insiders who got to invest in Facebook before it goes public were several Silicon Valley venture capitalists, a Russian oligarch and the rock star Bono.

Doomsayers were right before. Are they wrong now?

Jay Hancock — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:35:00 GMT

Adam Davidson has a piece in this weekend's NYT magazine : "It Is Save To Resume Ignoring Prophets Of Doom, Right?" He quotes such sourpusses as Noriel Roubini, Peter Schiff and Johns Hopkins University econmist Steve Hanke, all predicting dire events for jobs and growth.

Jobs report shows economic acceleration

Jay Hancock — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:12:00 GMT

The economy added 243,000 jobs in January, the Labor Department said this morning. It was the 4th-best best monthly job growth in almost six years. More important, it looks like part of a trend. There were a couple good job months in 2010, but they were surrounded before and afterward by months with job losses. Now the economy has clocked 16 consecutive months of job growth. The numbers are finally well into six figures.

Report: O'Malley gas tax hike hits poorest the hardest

Jay Hancock — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 23:32:00 GMT

The Maryland Public Policy Institute, which has no fondness for taxes generally, does not like Gov.Martin O'Malley's proposed gas-tax increase. Fuel taxes are well-known as regressive, but the institute says a Maryland gas-tax increase of 15 cents (the Sun has estimated it would be 18 cents are current gas prices) would hit the poorest of the poor especially hard. Say Wendell Cox and Ronald Utt:

Exelon building will pull energy from downtown

Jay Hancock — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:59:00 GMT

Granted, the announced move of Constellation Energy/Exelon's new Baltimore headquarters around the Inner Harbor's northeast corner is not a quantum jump. Constellation's present location at 750 E.Pratt St. is already on the edge of downtown, furnishing walk-up patrons for restaurants in Little Italy and other eastern neighborhoods. The new HQ will be less than a mile away.

Md. could get 5th highest gas tax under O'Malley plan

Jay Hancock — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:16:00 GMT

Gov. Martin O'Malley has proposed applying Maryland's 6 percent general sales tax to the price of gasoline, Michael Dresser reports in the paper . Maryland would be the eighth state to put a general sales tax on motor fuels on top of a state excise tax, not to mention the federal excise tax, according to the Tax Foundation .

Shale gas energy of future despite estimate cut

Jay Hancock — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:48:00 GMT

Reports that shale gas may not be as plentiful as people thought are getting lots of attention. Last week the Energy Information Agency sharply cut its estimate of shale gas -- from 827 trillion cubic feet to 482 trillion cubic feet, reports the New York Times . Estimates for the Marcellus Shale in Appalachia cut cut from 410 trillion cubic feet to 141 trillion.

Are Romney-Buffett taxes truly that low? Yes

Jay Hancock — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:41:00 GMT

The Web economics argument of the day is whether Romney's and Warren Buffett's tax rates are really 15 percent or lower. Last night Obama reiterated Warren Buffett's argument that Buffett's tax rate is lower than that of Buffett's secretary. Mitt Romney's tax rate for 2010 was way less than 15 percent, his tax return shows.

Which cliche will Obama say first in SOU speech?

Jay Hancock — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 22:53:00 GMT

Paddy Power, the Irish bookmaker, is offering odds on President Obama's speech tonight. If you have access to PP's tills, you can bet on which cliché Obama will roll out first, reports Jim Geraghty of the National Review Online.

New O'Malley wind farm proposal still a long shot

Jay Hancock — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 01:16:00 GMT

In its most important respects, Gov. Martin O'Malley's new proposal to build a wind farm in the Atlantic Ocean isn't different from the old one.

View: Baltmore can thrive if it cuts taxes like NY, SF, Boston

Jay Hancock — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:07:00 GMT

Of the four cities whose football teams played for league championships yesterday, Baltimore was the only one to steadily lose population through the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. Boston, New York and San Francisco all lost thousands of residents in the three decades after World War II, but they began to grow again after 1980, say Steve Hanke, professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins, and Steve Walters, a fellow at JHU's Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and Study of Business Enterprise. (This WSJ op ed piece is behind a paywall.)

Is this how private equity firms really work?

Jay Hancock — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:41:00 GMT

Sunday's column was about the Bain/Romney/private equity problem writ large -- so large that it's a lot bigger than private equity. Buyout firms are only part of a process that has led to big productivity gains, the column said, whose benefits have accrued mostly to the wealthy: "Not surprisingly, corporate profits as a percentage of revenues are near all-time highs. The middle class is struggling. The top 1 percent of the income gradient has gotten very rich indeed. And many people want to occupy Wall Street."

Queries about Romney's jobs record miss bigger point

Jay Hancock — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 05:00:00 GMT

Did Mitt Romney destroy or create jobs while running Bain Capital?

BWI flights to Sarasota, Huntsville will disappear

Jay Hancock — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 21:16:00 GMT

More repercussions of the AirTran Southwest merger. Southwest said today it'll end service to six additional AirTran destinations: Allentown, Lexington, Harrisburg, Huntsville, Sarasota and White Plains. That means BWI direct flights to Sarasota and Huntsville will disappear starting in August. I suspected that Sarasota was the more popular destination for Baltimoreans -- snowbirds. But BWI's Web site says there are two daily Huntsville flights and one for Sarasota. Probably a lot of defense-related travel between BWI and Huntsville. But apparently not enough.

O'Malley gets publicity savvy about tax hikes

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:00:00 GMT

Lists and rankings are surefire click bait and instant wisdom for Web surfers. The way to gain fame is to make the good lists -- Oscars, Forbes billionaires, best place to live etc. Membership on bad lists summons notoriety, deserved or not. Worst dressed. 10 Things We Hate. Forbes billionaires!

Gripes continue over BGE Web upgrade

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:28:00 GMT

BGE has upgraded its billing and payment software on the Web site. Customers continue to complain about delays in confirming their banking information, about long waits on the customer-service phone lines and now about bills that never got sent out.

After urologists got machine, cancer treatments soared

Jay Hancock — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:49:14 GMT

Four years ago, doctors at Chesapeake Urology Associates started ordering the most expensive kind of prostate-cancer therapy for many more of their patients.

Cohen saved billions, showed health regulation can work

Jay Hancock — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:40:00 GMT

For years, Hal Cohen was director of the rate-setting Health Services Cost Review Commission

Hospitals gouge employers and insurance companies. Combining into powerful alliances, they raise prices almost at will, forcing carriers to pass the costs on to patients and the companies they work for.

Corporate welfare for Bain and Romney

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 18:50:00 GMT

Rugged individualist Mitt Romney is all for the free market, unless it involves pocketing millions in government corporate welfare. Check out the impressive list from Phil Mattera of Good Jobs First of all the companies backed by Bain Capital, Romney's company, that fed at the government udder. In case after case after case, Bain was enjoying public emoluments even as it bought and sold and downsized its way through these employers.

BGE customers unhappy with website upgrade

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 21:01:00 GMT

Baltimore Gas & Electric has upgraded its website and customer interface software. As often happens in these matters, not all seems to be going smoothly. I've heard from several customers who are having problems with the site. Says one:

Mitt Romney likes to fire people and so should you

Jay Hancock — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:41:00 GMT

Republicans and Democrats are attacking Romney for his remark: "I like being able to fire people who provide services to me." It fits in wtih the idea (I refuse to call it a meme) that Romney is an economic predator, a ruthless levergaed buyout artist who raided companies for cash and laid off the workers. That he may be.