The Detroit automakers are in the news again this week, making their case to Congress. Top Administration officials head to Beijing for the U.S.-China Strategic Economic Dialogue, Wednesday and Thursday.

President-elect Obama adds to his cabinet today with the naming of Senator Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, with the attendant drama and speculation and speculative drama. The President-elect then travels to Philadelphia Tuesday to meet with governors and governors-elect to discuss economic issues; some states are asking to be rescued from the consequences of budget decisions. Governor Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania is chairman of the National Governors Association, hence the Independence Hall location.

Also Tuesday, the runoff election in Georgia for U.S. Senate between incumbent Republican Saxby Chambliss and Jim Martin, a Democrat. Voters, remember to bring a voter ID.

Executive Branch: President Bush and First Lady Bush participate today at the Saddleback Civil Forum on Global Health at the Newseum, Washington, D.C. On Tuesday, President Bush is in Greensboro, N.C., to visit Youth Focus, Inc.

Treasury Secretary Paulson speaks this afternoon, Monday, on the economy and markets at the Fortune 500 Forum in Washington. On Tuesday, Paulson speaks on the U.S.-China Strategic Economic Dialogue at a luncheon of the World Affairs Council of Washington, D.C. The delegation to Beijing is puissant:  Paulson will be joined by Ag Secretary Ed Schafer, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt, Office of Management and Budget Director Jim Nussle, U.S. Trade Rep Susan Schwab, EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, and others.

Legislative Branch: The Detroit-based automakers are due to submit their plans to Congress on use of federal financial aid by Tuesday. Congressional committee hearings follow: On Thursday, the Senate Banking Committee holds a hearing on the state of the domestic auto industry. On Friday, the House Financial Services Committee gathers for “Review of Industry Plans to Stabilize the Financial Condition of the American Automobile Industry.”

Judicial Branch: The U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments today through Wednesday. Two cases the NAM is following: Entergy Corp. v. River Keepers, which also includes PSEG Fossil LLC v. Riverkeeper, Inc., a case over use of cost-benefit analysis in cooling water intake regulation; and Philip Morris USA v. Williams, a case concerning punitive damages/smoking and the Oregon Supreme Court’s rejection of U.S. Supreme Court instructions.

Economic Reports:

strong> Today is the release of the ISM’s manufacturing index for November. Tuesday the Fed releases the Beige Book, updating key economic indicators in the 12 regions. Friday the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the employment data for November. More on the week ahead here and here.

John J. Miller reacting to a story about the dearth of acorns here in the D.C. area:

Today’s Wash Post has a story on acorns—or rather the lack of them. Apparently oaks in the region aren’t producing very many this year:

The idea seemed too crazy to Rod Simmons, a measured, careful field botanist. Naturalists in Arlington County couldn’t find any acorns. None. No hickory nuts, either. Then he went out to look for himself. He came up with nothing. Nothing crunched underfoot. Nothing hit him on the head. …

“I’m used to seeing so many acorns around and out in the field, it’s something I just didn’t believe,” he said. “But this is not just not a good year for oaks. It’s a zero year. There’s zero production. I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

Sort of interesting, but not a matter of grave concern unless you’re squirrel. Oaks live a long time. They can deal with a low-acorn year. But this is a newspaper story about an environmental quirk. And so…

Wait for it…

Wait for it…

Yes! Paragraph #11:

You have to wonder, is it global warming?

Funny thing is, last year was the acorn crop was incredible, putting a crunchy covering on top of sidewalks throughout the city. Remarkable, truly, the heaviest crop we’d seen in 10-plus years in the city. You have to wonder, was it global warming?

And the answer in both case is, of course it’s global warming. Everything’s caused by global warming.

UPDATE (5:15 p.m.): More acorn reports from John’s readers. They’re abundant, even bumperish, in Missouri and South Carolina.

John Hinderaker at Power Line, pushing back against the “things are bad and only getting worse” storyline:

We have finally entered (I think) what must be history’s longest- and most eagerly-awaited recession. News reports and commentary have been so relentlessly negative for so long that it is easy to lose sight of the actual performance of the economy. This happened again this week, with universally-gloomy predictions for “black Friday,” the opening of the Christmas shopping season. Yesterday morning, the Boston Globe, to cite one of many examples, headlined “Black Friday takes a hit from the economy” and highlighted its pessimistic account with the National Retail Federation’s prediction of an 11 percent drop in Black Friday shoppers.

In fact, though, most people’s incomes are no worse today than they were a year ago, notwithstanding daily references to “hard times” and casual talk about a possible depression. That reality was reflected in what actually happened yesterday: a 3 percent increase over last year’s “black Friday” sales, which itself represented a fat 8 percent rise over 2006.

Hinderaker illustrates the argument with a photo from shoppers lined up before a Minneapolis Best Buy.

And no, all is not rosy, he says, “But the hysterical terms in which the economy is discussed are unwarranted and unhelpful.”

From the Fort Wayne (Ind.) News Sentinel, “Leininger column: In support of secrecy“:

This story actually began in April 2007, when the Cincinnati-based Kroger Co. bought all 18 non-unionized Scott’s Foods stores in northeast Indiana and asked the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which already represented Kroger employees, to wait at least a year before trying to organize Scott’s employees. As of today, employees at eight of the remaining 14 Scott’s stores - including John Carroll’s store on West State Boulevard - have agreed to representation by UFCW Local 700, according to Kroger spokesman John Elliott.

But that representation wasn’t the product of an anonymous vote, which some employees of the West State store say influenced them to support something they would have otherwise opposed.

“I love Scott’s, but I’m probably going to quit because of this,” said Rebecca Coffelt, 18, a student at Elmhurst High School. “I’m not anti-union, but I didn’t like the way they came across. They were always harassing me. I didn’t really want to sign, but I was trying to control my temper and help customers. I was more worried about customers yelling at me (than signing the union card.)”

“I signed, too, because they kept telling me I had to sign and that the union was already approved. We were told we’d have a vote, but we never did. It’s really irritating,” agreed Tara Groves, 16, a student at Northrop High School.

Groves, Coffelt and John Carroll said they doubt the union would have won a secret vote among store employees - if one had been held, that is.

Working up the schedule for the week ahead, we’re surprised to see that the U.S. Senate is convening at 2 p.m. today in a pro forma session. A Saturday session…

The Senate leadership has held these twice weekly sessions to prevent President Bush from making any recess appointments, a legislative practice and loss of executive branch authority the President chose not to challenge by making such an appointment. (The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank briefly addressed the issue in a blog post in early November.)

We’re curious to see what happens once President Obama is sworn in. Will the pro forma sessions continue as a demonstration of Senatorial authority, or will they be shelved as no longer necessary given the shared partisan control of the executive and legislative branches?

Seems like a good subject for a dispassionate journalistic inquiry.

Down here in the Tidewater area of Virginia for the Thanksgiving weekend, happened to catch the Neal Boortz radio program. Boortz, of Atlanta, is a libertarian known for his advocacy of the flat tax.

Boortz’s guest host today is Herman Cain, who warrants attention for his highly successful manufacturing career at Pillsbury and later his running of Godfather’s Pizza.

Cain’s topic for the day: The death tax! He’s informing his audience, repeatedly, in passionate terms, that the estate tax drops to 0 percent in 2010 and then returns to its earlier 55 percent rate in 2011.

From 0 to 55 percent: Not to be macabre or anything, but that’s certainly a motivation to get your dying over before January 1, 2011.

Cain provided testimony to the Senate Finance Committee in 2007 on the death tax, relating the story of his father’s climb through hard work to prosperity:

By the time of my mother’s death in 2005, my father’s assets had grown modestly leaving his family with a death tax liability of $1.3 million. My father would have been proud to have known that his hard earnings had been well-managed and used to propel his family to ever greater heights. Somehow, I do not think he would be nearly as pleased to learn that nearly half of it never made it into the hands of his grandchildren.

Yet my father is only one example of thousands. Most Americans who have earned over a million dollars in their life time have done it through hard work and rigorous discipline. It is easy for members of congress to talk about wealth disparity and to gloat about their grand schemes to ensure “fairness.” It is another matter when they confront the individuals whose “wealth disparity” they are actually seizing. Somehow, I get the impression that my father’s story – and the thousands like it – does not fit their expected redistributionist model.

Although the death tax’s fundamental unfairness and its effect discouraging investment are major issues for many small-business owners, including hundreds of smaller manufacturers who belong to the NAM, the issue never really made a mark in the 2008 presidential campaigns.

But unless Congress acts soon to change the law, the death tax could be a defining issue in the 2010 congressional elections. As it should be.

So, yes, surprised that Cain was talking about the issue, but gratified, too. In a time of economic difficulty, there’s a looming increase in an important tax rate, the death tax — from 0 to 55 percent. It SHOULD be talked about.

The BNA Daily Labor Report (subscription needed) provides an interesting re-cap of a seminar held by NYU’s Center for Labor and Employment Law where Thomas Kochan (member of President-elect Obama’s transition team) asserts that the misleadingly named Employee Free Choice Act would “build quality labor-management relationships.”

Kochan said that he sees “no significant differences found between settlements reached through arbitration or through bargaining” in public sector collective bargaining. No difference? Unfortunately there will be clear difference in collective bargaining agreements negotiated in good faith in the private sector compared to the terms imposed on businesses by a Federal bureaucrat as this legislation would allow.

Andrew Kramer, an attorney at the firm of Jones Day reminds us that “that the government is not in the business of imposing terms and conditions,” under concepts held in current labor law. Unfortunately this bill would be a radical overhaul of our current legal system that does nothing to encouraging cooperation between employers and labor unions.

Bruce Lee plays table tennis with nunchuks. Some fine digitizing done in the name of commerce. Looking forward to the Errol Flynn sword sequel.

NBC Nightly News this evening carried a report on Peoria, Illinois, where manufacturers are adding jobs. The thesis of the story is that businesses are learning from past mistakes and doing things differently. Doug Parsons, CEO of Excel Foundry and Machine, comments to the point, “Never get too dependent on one customer, one industry, one product line – you constantly need to be reinventing yourself.” NBC reporter Janet Shamlian notes the company now ships a third of its products overseas.

The workforce issue is also touched upon as Jeff Bahnsen of Foremost Industrial Technologies, a machine shop, says they’re looking to hire people.

Yet the story is so sketchy as to be fundamentally misleading. Shamlian refers to Peoria as “what used to be a one-company town” and calls the area “an unlikely pocket of prosperity.” Peoria has added more jobs this year than any other region in the state, she says.

Caterpillar. Peoria is home to Caterpillar. With all due credit to all the fine companies and manufacturers featured in the story, how can you do a report about Peoria’s economy without naming Caterpillar, a company whose exports rose 20 percent in 2007? NBC also referred to Excel’s export success. We suggest there might be a connection — strong manufacturing exports have encouraged economic growth making Peoria a very likely pocket of prosperity, indeed.

The big transportation story down in the Tidewater region of Virginia is the Nov. 8 closure of the Jordan Bridge between Chesapeake and Portsmouth, a key transportation route across the Elizabeth River. Major structural problems …

And to replace it? “Norfolk mayor seeks no-toll replacement for Jordan Bridge“:

Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim said he will urge state officials to build a new, toll-free Jordan Bridge between Chesapeake and Portsmouth.

Fraim said he will ask state officials to bundle the replacement of the Jordan Bridge with a proposal made from a private group to expand the Midtown Tunnel.

Skanska, a Swedish construction firm, is leading a group that offered the state a $2 billion proposal to expand the Midtown Tunnel, build the Martin Luther King Freeway Extension in Portsmouth, and improve the Downtown Tunnel.

The group, Elizabeth River Crossings, would levy tolls and operate the roads and tunnels for 50 years. The group has proposed tunnel tolls as high as $3. Fraim has said a toll of $1 likely would be charged.

The toll on the Jordan Bridge, constructed 80 years ago, was 75 cents.

Skanska is involved in many construction projects in Virginia and the Tidewater area.