The cost of the Twelve Days of ChristmasIt’s become something of a tradition for us to write about the PNC Christmas Price Index
(CPI) in the December issue of TINAN. Since 1984, PNC has created the CPI as a way of measuring consumer spending and trends in the American economy, much like the
U.S. Consumer Price Index, by tracking the cost of the gifts mentioned in the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas”. This year, the cost of the gifts comes in at $34,130.99, an increase of +0.6%
over $33,933.22 in 2014. While the overall cost has risen slightly, just three gifts actually increased in price (the partridge in a pear tree, two turtle doves, and ten lords-a-leaping). Along with the annual results, PNC also provides some interesting (although brief) analysis of trends seen in the CPI over the past 32 years. According to PNC, there are three factors
have had significant impacts on changes in the CPI over the past 32 years: the internet, the price of services, and fuel costs. In keeping with the whimsical nature of the CPI, PNC created the world’s first life-size bank made of real gingerbread in Philadelphia for the release of this year’s findings. You can tour the digital version of the Gingerbread Branch for an
interactive look at the Christmas Price Index 2015.
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A new look at the state of millennials worldwideMillennials
(adults between the ages of 18 and 34) are known to be tech-savvy, diverse, and less loyal to brands than previous generations. And, according to the Pew Research Center, they now make up the largest portions of the American and Canadian
workforces. In response, employers and political leadership (especially in cities) must adapt to support, and attract, the millennial workforce. The Citi Foundation recently released a report, Accelerating Pathways,
that explores how 35 major cities around the world are supporting young people’s economic ambitions and how these supports line up with the aspirations of young people. A number of interesting insights about youth employment can be found in the study, which was conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit, including: As millennial workers take their place as workers and decision makers in economies around the world, attracting
more talented youth has never been more important for communities. Take a look at the report for more on how your community can advance young people’s opportunities.
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The libraries of tomorrow (and why they matter)“Bad libraries build collections, good libraries build services, great libraries build communities”, said Professor R. David Lankes of Information Studies at Syracuse University. This statement was true a half century ago and it is still true today. And yet, as municipalities across Canada struggle to cut budgets, libraries have come under intense scrutiny. With the
changing ways people access information, decision-makers often question the role libraries play in their communities. So what is the future of libraries in communities? Librarians have thought long and hard about this question. They suggest the following: If you’re still not convinced, the Libraries Transform Campaign is designed to increase public awareness of the value, impact and services provided by libraries. This campaign showcases the transformative nature of today’s libraries and their role in the digital age.
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Company CornerBest wishes for 2016!It’s been an exciting and busy 2015 as we introduced our new name and look - Millier Dickinson Blais became MDB Insight! We’ve had opportunities to work with an incredible group
of clients and industry partners. We’ve continued to expand into new areas and new types of work. As we look towards the new year, we're grateful for what we’ve achieved this year, both internally and for our clients. We hope 2016 brings you many opportunities to celebrate your success. From our team to yours, we wish you a restful holiday season and all the best for 2016!
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Resource ReviewThe Next Big Idea: Unleashing Public WealthOne of the greatest challenges facing public sector organizations today is a lack of resources. Money is often tight, expenses are high, and the appetite for tax increases to bankroll new initiatives is limited. But what if we told you that the public sector is actually wealthy? That it controls billions in unused funds, wasting away
unproductively in quiet corners? This is the exciting premise underlying the wave-making new book The Public Wealth of Nations: How Management of Public Assets Can Boost or Bust Economic Growth. The book’s authors are Swedish; Dag Detter, who manages Stattum (a Swedish government holding company), and
Stefan Fölster, who heads the Reform Institute (a Swedish think tank). Their basic argument is that far from being cash-strapped and poor, governments actually control billions of dollars of public assets. If these assets existed in the private sector, they would be professionally managed to generate incomes and revenue, but in the public sector they often lie dormant. Indeed, in public sector accounting, they are often not even assigned a value, so that their economic and revenue generating potential is hidden and ignored. This wealth exists in many forms – lands,
forests, utilities, transportation infrastructure, postal services, etc. While privatization of these assets is sometimes possible, it is not always desirable. Nor is government management of these assets entirely workable – the urge to make decisions based on short-term political factors or outcomes (or outright cronyism in some cases) means that government is often an ineffective manager of these assets. But through the creation of transparent, independent and professionally-manage structures, wealth generation and new revenue become possible. And while these opportunities are often most obvious at the level of national government, they are equally present for local and regional governments. The approach they envision is
somewhat complex, but essentially the authors imagine scenarios in which a government – say a municipality for the sake of argument – could carve out underutilized or underperforming assets, and place them inside an arm’s-length “State Owned Enterprise” (SOE). This could include real estate assets, parking systems, or transit systems, for example. Professional management focused on key goals – such as revenue generation – would both improve performance of current operations and identify opportunities for new revenue generation, where the public sector has traditionally been slow, inefficient and innovation-averse. It’s a genuinely intriguing idea, with huge potential. Detter and Fölster describe, for example, how Chinese authorities have financed road-building projects by understanding the implications of road development of real estate value, and using future real estate gains as a source of financing for current projects. Or they contemplate the way in which local Councils in Britain have been able to establish joint ventures with private sector developers by leveraging underutilized and brownfield lands for redevelopment projects, bypassing the cumbersome and expensive Public-Private Partnership (PPP) process. Having said that, these few examples
highlight the book’s main weakness… It’s based on a very compelling context, but the practical examples and directions are few and far between. In fact, some sections of the book feel like filler material, including a chapter-long digression into principles of good corporate governance. It would be helpful to dive into more concrete and practical examples, and to see some speculation as to potential approaches from varied levels of government. Nonetheless, the basic concept of better utilizing public wealth is compelling, and, as a primer, this book sets the stage for further research. One comes away with a sense of enormous opportunity. In the Canadian context, it’s easy to imagine, for example, that band-operated structures could assemble and generate wealth from the immense land and resource assets controlled by First Nations, or that municipalities could use
similar approaches to generate revenue from municipally-owned lands and real estate holdings. Ultimately, The Public Wealth of Nations is a genuine eye-opener, but it poses more questions than it answers. It’s a dense, technical read. But for anyone struggling with the questions of how to derive wealth from public resources, it’s an important read too.
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