- We're Approaching a Market Bubble: Portfolio Manager
- Hershey Shares: What Options Are Saying
- Nov. 30: Unusual Volume Leaders
- Why Careful Shoppers Are Great for the Box Office
- Blue Nile CEO: 'We're Having the Best Cyber Monday Ever'
- Best Online Retailers to Buy Now: Internet Analyst
- ESPN The Magazine’s Body Issue: A Financial Success
- Cyber Monday: The Last Vestige of Dotcom Hype
- Dubai Fear is 'Noise'—Stay Fully Invested: Strategist
- Lesson From Dubai: Start Cutting Risk In Your Portfolio
- Iranian Seizure of British Yacht Pushes Oil Above $77
- Should Homeowners Be Able to Stop Paying Mortgage?
- Buffett's Predictions For Next Year—And Every Year
- The World's Biggest Debtor Nations
- Goldman Sachs Party Ban: No Gatherings of 12 or More
- Fed Tweaking Plan to Pull Money Back out of Economy
- Scientists Gone Wild: Climate Debate Turns Nasty
- Blue Nile CEO: Having 'Best Cyber Monday Ever'
MOST SHARED
- Timeless and Time-Tested Warren Buffett Watch Predictions
- Should Homeowners Be Able To Walk Away From Mortgage?
- Black Friday Sales Disappoint Investors; Amazon Up
- Goldman Sachs Party Ban: No Gatherings of 12 or More
- Governments Must Take Steps To Avoid More Dubais: El-Erian
- Oil Demand Sees Year-Over-Year Rise, First Since 2007
- Get Paid Six Figures to Wear a T-Shirt?
- Blue Nile CEO: 'We're Having the Best Cyber Monday Ever'
- Notre Dame Fires Charlie Weis After 5 Seasons
- BofA Aims to Clearly Spell Out Credit Card Terms
ABOUT THIS BLOG
|
This blog will look at the winners and losers in the retail space. Who has the right strategy to capture consumer dollars? It also will look for trends in consumer spending and how that will impact the economy.
Text Size 
 |
The broader issue of overhauling H1-B policies is what fired up reader John Shivdat. He thinks the H1B (visas given to skilled workers and currently also to fashion models) and P-4 (visas given to entertainers) visa issues are separate. The real concern, in his opinion, should not be in fixing this minor part of legislation but instead we should be focusing on recruiting more high tech professionals from within American educational institutions. In his words:
“The industry needs to expand it's search right here in the US. Unfortunately the same cannot be said about high tech professionals, and until our high schools start graduating these folks then we have no choice.”
Some readers were annoyed that I took the time to write about Congressman Weiner’s bill to change foreign models’ visa status. They were more irked that Weiner would take the time out of his legislative schedule to introduce such a bill. Reader Herman So decided to send a letter to Congressman Weiner to say just that:
“your effort can be better spent trying to improve the primary and secondary school education in your district. If you want to rub elbows with Models, I suggest you attend Fashion Week.” Ouch!
Blogger and lawyer Greg Siskind posted a response to my blog on his own site. Greg took issue with my “expert experience” on fashion shoots and says that I ignored the statistics that show that “ten jobs are supported in New York for every foreign fashion model working on a fashion shoot.” I guess Greg thought that I was arguing against Congressman Weiner’s efforts to move models into the P-4 visa ranks. I wasn’t.
So in case other readers had a similar misinterpretation, here’s a quickee clarification. I’ve got no problem grouping models under P-4 status along with entertainers. In fact, it sounds like a good idea. The reason it is a good idea is because it may mean allowing a larger number of technically skilled workers to receive H1-B visas.
Clearly, we need to amend the H1-B visa issue but we should make the models a footnote in the overhaul. Making a “model shortage” a headline issue is frankly creating fodder for opponents of visa overhaul. Weiner would gain more traction with an argument about skilled workers but, I suspect, he recognized that the media loves the sexy headline of model visa reform (as well as tv outlet’s excuse to run video of models!)
In my view the net benefit of giving models P-4 status is not necessarily because it might help uptick the number of fashion shoots in NYC (I haven’t seen any data showing that the lack of foreign models has meant fewer fashion shoots but I’ll humor the premise.) So that’s great if ten jobs are supported in NY for ever foreign fashion model but I suspect that the same number of workers are employed when the model is American… unless of course, you are counting a translator.
Anyhow, please keep posting and writing. I like to engage with readers – it let’s me know you’re out there.
Questions? Comments?
- Ever wished your cab driver would stop chatting and just get to where you're going? Well, that moment is closer than ever.
- UPS is giving its customers the option to offset its carbon emissions when sending a package.
- Romania's presidential campaign has been rocked by a video that may show the president striking a 10-year-old boy.
- Raising alligators is hard work, and the fickle taste of rich consumers has just made it much harder, says the NY Times.
- A recent issue of ESPN Magazine was one of its top sellers ever, and it only took scantily clad athletes to make it happen.
- The continued real estate boom in China is partially fueled by a generational flood of newlyweds.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes