Job Creation

Dan Rodricks ' advice that "complaining CEOs need to take a hike" (May 9) comes a bit late. For the first time anyone can recall, this year's Fortune 500 includes zero Baltimore-based companies. We are now the largest U.S. city without a single corporate headquarters, and there are only four left in the state - down from 11 as recently as 2007. Clearly, those who decide where to create local job opportunities (and, let's not forget, lead many philanthropic efforts) have been taking a hike for many years, just as over 300,000 Baltimore residents voted with their feet over the decades and fled the city's high property taxes, incredible shrinking economy and dismal provision of public services.

Maryland employers added 6,700 jobs in January, picking up the pace from the end of last year, the U.S. Department of Labor said Monday. Businesses added 5,300 jobs in December, according to the agency's revised estimates. In both December and January, all gains came from the private sector as government agencies cut back — eliminating 1,500 jobs in each month. January's uptick wasn't large enough to lower the unemployment rate, which held steady at 6.7 percent. The U.S. jobless rate was 7.9 percent that month.

Cities are like gardens; we cannot command their growth ("The mayor's mission," Dec. 11). Families, like plants, need good soil in which to put down roots and flourish. The "good soil" of Baltimore has always been its churches and synagogues. These provided the moral and spiritual center around which families lived, neighborhoods grew and developed. Everything else - school improvement, crime reduction, entrepreneur investment, job creation, sanitation, family structure and functioning - depends on this moral and spiritual ground which, by the way, is not primarily the job of government.

Letter writers like Michael Stevens who maintain that "President Barack Obama has had four years to dig us out of the economic slump and has not done so" ignore the fact that tea party members of the Republican-controlled House have stymied his every effort to move ahead with responsible budgets and job-creation ("Romney can create jobs," Oct. 10). Immovable objects who then blame others for lack of cooperation should not be given a free pass. The grown-ups need to take back the U.S. House of Representatives so our country can move ahead again.

Maryland has hosted 1,775 clinical trials for new medicines targeting six major chronic diseases since 1999, including 369 that are still in the early stages of recruiting patients, according to a study by two pharmaceutical industry groups released Friday. The report assessed the economic impact of clinical trials in the state, noting that the industry helped support 81,000 jobs, total employee salaries of $1.9 billion and $71 million in Maryland taxes as of 2008. More than half of the continuing clinical trials in the state are occurring in Baltimore, at the University of Maryland Medical Center and Johns Hopkins University, the report found.

Kmele Foster writes skeptically of President Barack Obama's approach to job creation ("Obama's half measures won't do it," Oct. 25), and Republicans believe that regulations are a drag on economic growth. Their primary dissatisfaction is with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and consumer protection laws that they blame for impediments to industries that are proven job generators such as domestic energy production. They also profess that regulations make life too difficult for banks and Wall Street.

After seeing that a majority of those polled blame the Democrats for the S&P downgrade, I am beginning to be concerned about the mental health of some of your readers. After all, it was the Republicans who caused the nation to erroneously obsess about the budget deficit rather than job creation and economic recovery, and then to take the dangerous step of holding the nation hostage on passing what had been a routine debt-ceiling increase. To make matters worse, the Republican leadership refused to consider a debt reduction package that balanced job-killing spending cuts with revenue increases that would affect only those enjoying preferential tax loopholes.

Given that in 2011 Maryland ranked last in job creation and 44 t h in having a business-friendly environment, some response is required. We could start by getting rid of the Baltimore Development Corporation, the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development, and any other public or quasi-public group that has business development in its charter. Think of all the millions of dollars we could save and put to better use, like lowering the personal and corporate tax rates here.

Kudos to Lisa Jackson, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency who is stepping down from her cabinet-level position after the president's State of the Union address in January ("Chief of EPA to leave post," Dec. 28). Ms. Jackson has performed brilliantly in an often thankless job. Because of her efforts, the nation has been spared countless deaths and illnesses due to polluted air, water and soil. She was vilified by Republicans who accused her of harming the economy and slowing job creation.

Jack Neu, in his letter of Aug. 11. "Credit downgrade reflects realism," is only the latest supply side apologist to unwittingly make the case for higher taxes on the wealthy. More than a few letter writers complain about "the 5 percent of taxpayers who already pay 59 percent of the taxes. " Putting aside the obvious problem that wealth in our country is concentrated at levels not seen since the robber baron era and those at the top pay a lesser share of taxes than the percentage they control, the middle class would love to be able to pay more taxes.