Kansas Taxes Gasoline More than Missouri, Colorodo, or Oklahoma

The American Petroleum Institute provides a map showing how much tax there is on gasoline by state:

Exxon-Mobil notes its profit per gallon is 5.5 cents.

Is Koch overpaying for Molex?

Yesterday's (9/9) Wall Street Journal proclaimed that Koch Industries (a "conglomerate known for unglamorous industries") is buying Molex.  Koch, privately held, is one of Wichita's largest employers and one of the two largest privately held U.S. companies.  Cargill is the other.

The current Merger and Acquisition market is pricey, if not frothy.  According to the Journal, Koch is paying 38.50 a share or $7.2 billion.  Given the scanty numbers in the article, that seems rich: about twice sales, thirty times earnings, and 1.78 times enterprise value.

Nevertheless, Koch only buys companies when it thinks its Market Based Management philosophy can produce positive results.  It has found that it has a core competence in managing process business.  Still this is an industry with powerful customers including Apple (14% of Molex's revenues) and the automotive industry.  They do not roll over for suppliers.

James Haggerty and Bob Tita report in the Wall Street Journal, "Molex, based in Lisle, Ill., makes products including connectors, sockets, antennas and switches used in cars, computers, cellphones and factory equipment, among other things."

MOLEX is traded on the NASDAQ. You can find their SEC filings online.

Why Wichita and Kansas Are Places to Move Your Business to or Start Your Business.

John Stears writes in the Wichita Business Journal that "Wichita businessman Wink Hartman hopes [he can[ elicit warm and fuzzy feelings about living in Wichita and Kansas — and catch the eye of job creators."  He has produced a pair of ads highlighting the type of people who make up our local economy and its culture of growth.  Spending his own money for production and airing the ads,  Stearns characterizes Hartman's campaign as "one man’s economic-development cause."




Meanwhile the American Legislative Council has boosted Kansas' economic outlook based on improved policies.  Kansas jumped 15 rankings in the ALRC's ratings of the fifty states' prospects: "Rich States, Poor States."

Wichita's Unemployment Rate Jumps from 8.5% to 9.9%

The Kansas Department of Labor reported today that Wichita's economy lost 4,671 jobs in July and the unemployment rate hit 9.9 percent.

Seasonality plays a big part of it. In the Eagle, Dan Voorhis rightly points out that "The Wichita unemployment rate typically peaks in the summer months because some workers are laid off temporarily and claim unemployment. That may be exaggerated this year by employee furloughs." The summer labor force also reflects school leavers and youngsters looking for summer work. Some of this month's high unemployment rate reflects this.

Wichita's labor force participation rates have run about seven tenths of a percent higher than average in July, although the seasonal increase is greater when employment is scarcer. Comparing July this year with July two years ago, the labor force has grown about 21,300. A little over a third of that is population growth and a bit less than half is the increase in the labor force participation rate. So more people are looking for work either to supplement the lost income of families hit by the recession or to take advantage of the increases in the minimum wage. The federal minimum wage rose in the second of three steps in July. A seasonal reduction in the work force in August may keep us below 10%, but it is a touch and go proposition at this point.

The Kansas unemployment rate rose from 7% to 7.7 percent while Kansas payrolls shed 48,500 jobs. Labor Economist Tyler Tenbrink comments, "The amount of over-the-year job losses dropped from 54,800 jobs in June to 48,500 jobs in July. Although this is still a significant loss, it indicates that the rate of job loss did slow from last month. It remains to be seen if July will begin a new trend of slowing job loss or if we will return to the more rapid pace of job loss we were experiencing in the months prior to July."

The Kansas Economy Grew Above Average In 2008

Exports, world economic growth, and the aircraft industry helped make Kansas the eighth fastest growing state in 2008.

Kansas Ranks #3 In MaintStreet.com's Financial Happiness Index

Based on our ranking in unemployment (#11), foreclosures (#17) and non-mortgage debt to income (#6), Kansas scored #3 in MainStreet.com's financial happiness index.

Good news for Jayhawks, even if the Cornhuskers came in first. They do have Warren Buffet, after all.

The Wall Street Journal's Take On the Coal Plant in Western Kansas

The Wall Street Journal editorial page has weighed in on the state's decision to deny the Sunflower Electric Cooperative to build a coal plant in Western Kansas. Listen to Joe Rago editorial writer for the Journal:

Federal Prosecutors will retry Former Westar Energy Executives David Wittig and Douglas Lake

According to the Kansas Star via Kansas.com "The government will retry former Westar Energy executives David Wittig and Douglas Lake on charges of defrauding the company."

According to the Kansas City Business Journal, the two former executives had been convicted on 39 and 30 counts of defrauding the utility. An appeals court threw out the convictions due to insufficient evidence on one of the isues in the case. Although prosecutors will not be able to pursue all of the original convictions, "Wittig will face 14 counts of circumventing internal controls and one count of conspiracy, [a federal spokeperson] said Monday. Lake will face 13 circumvention counts and one count of conspiracy ."

This will be their third trial.