Private Sector

Columnist Thomas Schaller makes a very solid argument about the relative ability of the government and free markets to get things done ("Government is flawed, but markets are too," May 15). His critics' arguments, however, fall flat. One reader wrote that competition in the private sector this leads to greater efficiency and better outcomes. But this argument fails to take into account the effect of monopolies and oligopolies on the supposed free market. Many industries are so expensive to get into that only a few players run the show (think of cable TV and energy)

Carroll County spokeswoman Maggy MacPherson is leaving her job for a post in the private sector. MacPherson, 41, of Gettysburg, Pa., has accepted a job as government/public relations executive for Cavalier Mid-Atlantic LLC, a Richmond, Va.-based telecommunications company that is expanding into Maryland. MacPherson has been with the county for 11 years. She was hired as a public information coordinator in 1988 and was promoted to communications manager in 1991. She has been the county's public information officer since 1995.

BAGHDAD - Hampered by years of violence, a decimated infrastructure, a lack of foreign investors and a flood of imports that undercut local businesses, Iraq's private sector, particularly its small non-oil economy, has so far failed to flourish as its American patrons had hoped. In its absence, the Iraqi government has been sustaining the economy the way it always has: by putting citizens on its payroll. Since 2005, according to federal budgets, the number of government employees has nearly doubled, to 2.3 million.

WESTMINSTER -- The County Bureau of Aging chief told a Carroll Chamber of Commerce gathering this month that private businesses will play an increasingly larger role in helping the elderly remain independent and out of publicly financed nursing homes.County government won't be able to meet all the needs of Carroll's 17,000 or so residents over the age of 60 through the 1990s and beyond, said Janet B. Flora. Government allocations for senior citizen programs, such as nutrition and transportation, have been decreasing for several years, a trend Flora said will continue.

Maryland gained about 22,000 jobs in 2012, the smallest annual increase since the recession, underscoring the challenges facing the state in a year dominated by the federal budget and the collapse of a major employer. U.S. Department of Labor estimates released Friday show a volatile year in which the state move back and forth between job expansion and loss, ending with a gain in December. The preliminary figures suggest that the major culprit was government, which shed 8,500 jobs — the first time in nearly a decade that the usually reliable sector turned in an annual loss.

Mayor-elect Martin O'Malley says he will ask Baltimore's community and business elite to help develop a strategic plan for a widespread attack on the city's most troublesome ills.O'Malley said yesterday he wants the private sector to help perform an audit of city agencies that will identify waste in such areas as health care and public works and to help find ways of reducing the city's crime rate."We're going to embark on a transition process that opens the doors of government," O'Malley said.

Analysts with the National Security Agency see the threats coming at corporate America: viruses, worms and other malware targeting the computer networks that serve the nation's banks, utilities and businesses. But the 64-year-old law that established the modern U.S. intelligence community prevents them from sharing the classified details with the private businesses in the cross hairs. "I'm really concerned that we will have some type of serious attack within the year," said Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, who receives security briefings as the top-ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening's agreement last week to grant an 8 percent pay raise over two years to union-represented state employees has met with little criticism because of a bipartisan consensus that Maryland government workers are underpaid. Some legislative leaders have raised questions about the long-term affordability of the raise, but so far none has suggested trimming it back. With a budget surplus approaching $1 billion, they believe the state is clearly in a position to make up for some of the lean years when its workers got nothing.

As talk of the sequester ratchets upward in the ranks of government employees who might be affected ("Sequester furloughs begin for U.S. public defenders," April 4), here's a quick word of advice: Keep the whining to yourselves! While readers generally do not like to hear of the government's heavy handed financial impact on fellow citizens, the vast majority don't shed crocodile tears over discussions of government employee furloughs "of up to 14 days. " Before posting lengthy editorials on the possible negative effects of the sequester, please consider how those in the private sector - outside of the golden triangle of government contractors, finance and health care - have been brutalized by the recession.

The state has a long list of public-works projects but little money. The private sector is willing to invest but has been starved for work. From that simple equation comes a business model called public-private partnerships — or P3s — that Maryland hopes will help alleviate its backlog of transportation and other infrastructure needs. The O'Malley administration is expected to unveil legislation this week that would offer a channel for tapping into a reservoir of corporate money and expertise.