Foreign Affairs has a detailed analysis of the economic impact of outsourcing, as well as a look at the political ramifications. It makes the important point that the benefits of outsourcing are diffused across the entire economy, while the negative effects are concentrated. In the political sphere, an individual who has lost his job offers a more compelling narrative than abstract discussions of such and such an increase in GNP. Policies that benefit the economy as a whole are only politically possible when they recognize the needs of those individuals.

(Link by way of TechDirt.)

TSMC is claiming still more intellectual property theft by SMIC. The suit couldn't come at a worse time, since SMIC just launched its IPO.

At the same time, I'm not sure I understand why any of this is happening in US courts. TSMC is Taiwanese. SMIC is Chinese. Neither has fabs in the US. While I'd much rather fight an intellectual property suit in the US than in China, I'm not sure why the US has jurisdiction. Anyone care to enlighten me?

(Silicon Strategies article. Free registration required.)

It's election season, and politicians are scrambling to prove how friendly to small businesses they are. As they should, since small businesses account for the majority of job creation.

As a small business owner, my number one political concern by a wide margin is affordable health insurance. Health insurance costs make new businesses harder to start, and make it harder for existing businesses to add employees. For a service business like mine, insurance can very easily be the single largest overhead expense. Lack of it can pose the single largest threat to the business's survival.

I love Wyoming. It's a beautiful state. It's also where my brother lives, so I think Wyoming should do all it can to protect against terrorism and other public safety threats. But should Wyoming really get more than three times as much homeland security money per capita as California? Should Alaska get more than twice as much as New York?

My word count is starting to climb again, though not as fast as I would like. 3450 words since my last update, 27,835 since January 1.

In other news, we are dogsitting for my brother-in-law this week while he moves. Our houseguest is a real sweetheart (pictures to follow), but also gets up at about 6:00 AM. Oof.