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Forget Sun Tzu, Try the Art of Business

America is the main customer of the Chinese economic expansion, and the two countries would be far better suited as allies than competitors ["China Changes Everything," March]. Look at what happened to Germany. If it had partnered with America and the rest of Europe at the beginning of the last century, instead of starting wars, it would be the dominant economic powerhouse. Now is the time to put aside our differences and look at the big picture.

Allen Hing, director, HARB Management Consultants, Sydney, Australia

The short-term positive impact of Chinese manufacturing and "always low prices," as Wal-Mart says, masks the dangers that lurk downstream: American job losses and high poverty rates. Cleveland is already experiencing the devastating effects. Our poverty rate is one of the highest in the nation. We cannot look at these trade policies in isolation because the ripple effect for communities across the United States is tremendous.

John Colm
President
WIRE-Net
Cleveland

I've worked as an economist in Asia since 1980, and I thought Ted Fishman's article was unfair to China. It seems to imply that China is the sole reason oil prices rose more than 30% last year. There was no mention of supply constraints or the 4% growth in the U.S. economy or wars in the Middle East. Just China. There was also little praise for the fact that all electronics, among many other consumer products, are considerably less expensive than they were a decade ago, thanks to China.

David O'Rear
Chief economist
Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce
Hong Kong

The Cost of Options

There is no reason to believe that the new regulations for expensing stock options will spook investors in privately held companies ["FASB Limits Stock Options," March]. Investors in closely held companies are far more attuned to what is really going on financially than investors in public companies, so their reaction to seeing those costs on an income statement should be more muted. If, on the other hand, investors are foolish enough to think that a company is a worse investment the day after it has to expense options than it was the day before -- even though its compensation strategy has not changed at all -- then you don't want these investors.

Corey Rosen
Executive director
National Center for Employee Ownership
Oakland, Calif.

Labor Pains

Norm Brodsky knows that unions do quality work and that hiring local people is good for a business's reputation in the community ["Why the Union Can't Win," March]. He says that before he met with the representatives from Local 361, he was considering hiring a few union guys, as a gesture of goodwill -- but after the business manager for Local 361 was gruff with him, that went out the window. The lack of sales technique on the part of Local 361's representative was an affront to the author's entrepreneurial sensibilities.

Brodsky makes a very good point: Union leaders should learn to treat employers like potential customers instead of adversaries.

But that advice cuts both ways. What are union leaders supposed to do when employers treat them as adversaries instead of potential partners? And how can a union official successfully market his rank and file when the competition is willing to travel from 12 hours away and sleep in trailers on the job site?

Let's face it: Whatever leverage labor once had is long gone. It's up to us as employers to squeeze a little social justice into the work environments we create. Bringing in construction workers from several states away, when competent people live right next door, is not exactly a recipe for success in this regard.

Robert Cavanaugh
Owner
Cavanaugh Wallcovering
Exton, Pa.

I lived most of my life in Virginia and recently moved to West Virginia, so I was happy to read about Norm Brodsky's experience with Walt Conklin and his crew, the subcontractors from Virginia. I have been self-employed since I was 19 years old and now, at age 32, I also try to take a strong stand for the small guy. I can't tell you how many "mountain men" I've hired with great success.

Ron Meade
President
AquaMax
Charles Town, W.Va.

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