February 5 was the day Pres. George W. Bush submitted his FY 2008 budget to Congress. On that same day, the National Science Foundation (NSF), Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) and AeA announced their takes on that budget. "We believe that the 7.1 percent increase to $11.4 billion for government research is a great investment for American competitiveness in the global market, and is one that will prove to be beneficial for the American economy," said William T. Archey, AeA president and CEO. "Competitiveness is the number one public policy issue for high-tech companies across the country."

NSF Director Arden L. Bement, Jr., said opportunities have never been more promising. photo by Peter West, National Science Foundation

For its part, the BEA noted that the budget's $81.4 million allotment for BEA includes funds of $2.1 million for an initiative to incorporate R&D as investment into the National Income and Product Accounts (NIPAs), or the gross domestic product (GDP) by 2013.

Meanwhile, NSF Director Arden L. Bement, Jr., proposed an investment of $6.43 billion for agency programs to advance frontiers of research and education in science and engineering. The request includes an increase of nearly $409 million over the FY 2007 request of $6.02 billion. In addition to continuing ongoing projects, the new budget emphasizes new research on improved computing abilities to meet the challenges of 21st Century inquiry, as well as polar research, ocean research, nanotechnology, education and international collaborations. Among the hikes would be a 6.8-percent increase in funds for the American Competitiveness Initiative . "Last year, the president's American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI) committed to doubling over the next 10 years investments in NSF programs and those of other federal agencies that fund physical sciences and engineering," said an NSF release. "That promise recognizes the vital role those disciplines play as major drivers of U.S. economic well being, innovation, education and international leadership. NSF's request of a 6.8 percent increase reflects that commitment."

According to the most recently available research on research, in 2004 for-profit companies spent $208 billion on R&D in the United States. That same year, federal agencies provided $109.7 billion for R&D activities.

Turns out Feb. 5 was a big day for the introduction of new union organizing legislation too, in the form of H.R. 800. Those looking to educate themselves about this piece of federal legislation called the Employee Free Choice Act, which deals with how union vote ballots are administered, may want to pay a visit to the respective Web war rooms established on the subject by the AFL-CIO and the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace.

While Romania and Bulgaria attracted all the pomp with their Jan. 1 accession to the EU, Slovenia reached its own milestone on that date, becoming the first of the 10 nations admitted in 2004 to convert to the euro as its official currency. It becomes the 13th EU nation to use the euro, and does so at a time when it has also amended its domestic tax legislation as it relates to corporate income tax, personal income tax and value-added tax. The country, part of the former Yugoslavia, has a population of 2 million (compared to Romania's 22 million), but, like Hungary, is capitalizing on its geographic position connecting different parts of Europe. According to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia , "over 85 percent of Slovenians had no troubles in bidding farewell to the tolar, their currency for over 15 years, according to the results of a survey published by the Ninamedia polling agency on Wednesday, 14 February. The majority of the respondents (70.4 percent) labelled the 1 January euro switch as an important or very important event.

When you're putting operations into a foreign land, it helps to know some history. When you're assembling funds to pay for it, knowing some history may also pay off. For surprising insights into how the free flow of global capital today may be traced to European regulatory maneuvers — including moves by French socialists of the 1980s following their failure to restrict that very flow — check out Capital Rules: The Construction of Global Finance by Harvard Business School Associate Professor of Business Administration Rawi Abdelal.

To view this chart more closely as a pdf, click here.

Those looking for a leg up on intelligence about a nation's education system should immediately bookmark the tools made available by the OECD's Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which assembles a report every three years evaluating performance of 15-year-olds in leading OECD nations. The organization's next report for 2006, covering 60 nations, has yet to be published. Its 2003 report, with a special emphasis on mathematics proficiency, found the highest performance quotient in Finland, followed by Korea and Canada. Others in the top 20 included Slovakia, Australia, Japan, Germany and Ireland. All were ranked above the United States, which placed 28th overall. The PISA program also includes a finely tuned tool for evaluating and comparing the student performance and educational resources of different countries.

Further concern about U.S. students’ mathematics performance was generated in late February, when the National Assessment of Educational Progress revealed the results of its "Nation’s Report Card," based on the performance of some 21,000 high school seniors. It found that a mere 61 percent of high school seniors performed at or above the "basic" level, with only 23 percent performing at or above "proficient."

FPL Advisory Group in February issued its Leading the EnterpriseTM 2007 report, based on the feedback of more than 150 senior executives in real estate and related industries on the subject areas of strategy, finance, human capital, compensation and corporate governance. Among the findings and predictions the survey generated:

• "Global expansion will be a key source of growth for companies in the commercial services & brokerage, CMBS, investment banking, private equity, and hospitality sectors. REITs and Investment Managers predict moderate overseas growth. For other sectors, international expansion is not predicted to be significant. For companies planning overseas expansion, Europe is the most-cited target, followed closely by China, India, and Japan. A material number of companies are already off-shoring certain corporate functions or are considering doing so."
• "While only 5 percent mention mergers & acquisitions as their biggest concern, mergers, acquisitions, and privatizations received the most votes (44 percent) for the big capital markets story of the coming year, and 43 percent predict consolidation and privatization to increase beyond 2006 levels.
• "Nearly 75 percent of respondents report that they'll be increasing the size of their work force. Hiring will be strongest on the East and West Coasts, followed closely by the Southeastern U.S. For companies operating overseas, close to half will be growing their workforces in Europe, and nearly as many in Asia."
• "A strong majority expect moderate pay increases at all levels of seniority, and a significant number predict major increases, despite the increased demand among investors for stronger links between pay and performance. Executives aren't losing sleep over regulatory issues; nearly 60% predict that compensation levels will be generally unaffected by new SEC disclosure rules."

In an article in the January edition of the Economic Letter from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Anil Kumar, an economist in the bank's research department asks, "Does Foreign Direct Investment Help Emerging Economies?" His answer is "yes." Drawing on figures from the World Bank, he examined 19 emerging economies. "Our model indicates that FDI has a significant effect on both investment and savings," he writes. "A percentage point rise in the ratio of FDI to GDP leads to an increase of a half percentage point in domestic investment and three-fourths percentage point in domestic savings."

Drawing on the costs attached to more than 40,000 U.S. properties it services, Utah-based facility and property service provider Symbiot in February released its 2007 Landscape Cost Index. "The latest release is consistent with our expectations," said Symbiot CEO Mike Edwards. "Areas with long growing seasons like the Southeast and Southwest tend to have higher costs whereas areas with short growing seasons like the Great Lakes and New England tend to fall below the average — even with high labor costs. We also see a flattening of inflationary pressures as fuel costs have leveled and labor cost inflation has remained within a relatively tight band (2 percent - 4 percent) nationally. That said, property managers should expect some market variation since labor costs tend to be a function of the local economic conditions in this segment."