government

Monday's D-Day for outsourcing junkies when Forrester Research issues its long-awaited study on the number of American jobs being sent offshore. Forrester helped fan the fires of this debate a couple of years back when it predicted the U.S. would lose 3.3 million jobs. I can't help wondering whether offshoring would have turned into such a big campaign issue for 2004 had the economy not undergone a recession and subsequent slow-growth recovery. John McCarthy, who authored the original report, complained to the Wall Street Journal earlier this spring that he was miffed how people were seizing … Read more

I wonder whether the preliminary results of India??s parliamentary vote will impact the country's future as an outsourcing hotbed. Looks as if the ruling BJP is going to lose a lot of seats to the Congress Party. Could that result in a cooling--or even reversal--of India's welcoming stance on foreign-owned companies setting up shop?

Floor is open. Who will last the tango? Meanwhile good news on the jobs front in Silicon Valley. After announcing a helluva strong quarter, Cisco announced plans to hire up to 1,000 salesmen and engineers--mostly in the United States.

What do you know? Joe Lieberman says Uncle Sam needs to think up new ways to deal with the human costs of offshore outsourcing--including the possibility of wage-loss insurance.What was once a far-out idea is quickly gaining currency with the mainstream. The same sentiment was reflected in the results of the CNET-Harris Interactive poll we published last week. My take is that the numbers reflect the enlightened self-interest of many--though not a majority--in the business world.

During the TiE gig, I broached the question, only to have Sequoia Capital's Doug Leone dump all over it. I didn't … Read more

Received some interesting feedback on my last post. Several readers took me to task for mentioning the race issue, accusing me of searching out an issue that does not exist. Maybe, maybe not.

On Friday, I dropped by the offices of The Indus Entrepreneurs, which was hosting a press reception in advance of their big conference later this week. One of the folks I spoke with was Kanwal Rekhi, one of the big names in the Indian-American high-tech community. Rekhi is aware of the "Lou Dobbs" effect, but he nonetheless believes things are a lot better for Indian … Read more

I've received several private e-mails from Indians working in the U.S. since we began publishing the offshore outsourcing special on Tuesday. Their big concern: a possible racial backlash against foreign-born workers.

To their credit, the hired help in Washington has refrained from playing racial politics--so far, at least. But with more Americans worried about losing their jobs, all it takes is one demagogue to ignite an uproar.

Admittedly, my antennae aren't as sensitive to the nuances of this issue as someone from, say, Bangalore, working in San Mateo. But you have to ask whether there isn't … Read more

Kudos to Craig Barrett of Intel for taking part in the op-ed roundtable. Unfortunately, he was the only big-time tech CEO with the guts to go on the record. (I'm sure T.J. Rodgers of Cypress Semi would have agreed, but I didn't ask.) Once the PR handlers heard about the topic, they ran for the hills. Truth be told, some of the explanations got quite creative. Without mentioning names, suffice it to say that they wanted no part of anything that even remotely smacked of controversy.

Why not?

Seems to me that sticking your head in the … Read more

Lots of good feedback to our special. Most of the e-mail responses have been measured and insightful. Of course, you run into the occasional bomb-thrower, but offshoring is the sort of subject that ignites passions. I was bracing for a lot worse.

Our poll turned up the tantalizing nugget that a number of U.S. businesses are willing to pay a per-head tax on jobs exported abroad. My assumption going into this was that any tax-proposal idea would be positively radioactive. Yet in private conversations, I've heard several technology execs acknowledge this is something they would support. Interesting. What … Read more

Amid all the Sturm und Drang about offshoring, America's academic decline in the sciences is getting relatively little attention. The number of new science doctorates has been dropping since it peaked in 1998. Now there's something Lou Dobbs should be screaming about.

The bigger worry is that some of the foreign talent propping up places like Silicon Valley may decide to take their freshly minted Ph.D.s back home. If you believe the National Science Foundation, a mini-reverse brain drain is already under way. That's bad news in bells. And if the trend accelerates, don't … Read more

The Wall Street Journal's making a big deal about the creation of 20,000 new tech jobs since late last year.

Fair enough. But after a three-year drought, Silicon Valley's got a long way to go before it starts to feel good about itself. I still get the feeling we're only one massive terror attack away from another 700-point drop in the Dow and another IT customer deep freeze.