I checked some of the facts for my details are before the bail out and this is after. So far, all correctly cited, although the "socialist" red China is kind of crap, they aren't at all European socialism such as Canada, Norway, Sweden and so on, so that spin gives European/Canadian socialism a bad name.
Anyway, the unions really went to town on Romney when the fact is here is GM talking about offshore outsourcing advanced R&D to China, something they were doing before the bail out and that's huge U.S. jobs, never mind the factory expansion is in China, instead of demanding China reduce their auto & truck tariffs so U.S. workers can export to China and keep the jobs here.
This video was made in May but I just saw it now. More validation on the auto industries business model to labor arbitrage, offshore outsource jobs and move jobs to China on promise for access to their consumer market.
Yes, we all know Romney is private equity and so on, but blasting that campaign for this particular ad was a real hit piece.
It seems, starting in the 1980's, anything goes towards workers. Workplace bullying, workplace abuse, all of this is originating from the top and that derogatory view, to coin Reagan, trickles down.
Work is high stress, one never knows when they will be fired, the pensions stolen, rules are simply for HR and corporate attorneys to not get sued. There is no cause and effect anymore to losing one's job either. Generally work life is highly abusive, seemingly in the majority of workplaces these days instead of being the exception.
Seems most who get just the least bit of power, supervisory positions, can scapegoat, target, pick a victim and get completely away with it. Meritocracy is just another HR propaganda statement for the most part, including areas where one would assume work product would be most evident, say the technical and manufacturing fields.
No surprise to me at all workers attitudes are "I need the pay to survive" and that's it.
We've pulled many a CBO estimate on this site and social security is not in danger. There is an obvious fix, to raise the top income limit for percentage contributions. We've also written many times about the for profit health industry and how the U.S. pays at least 3x as much for the same care as other industrialized nations.
Medicare and social security are not government transfers. People have paid into social security and earned those benefits. They have already paid for these benefits and that's what payroll taxes are all about.
"Set aside" is because Congress raided the fund.
Blaming the Community reinvestment act for the housing crisis has been disproved, repeatedly. Black people did not cause Wall street to bundle up bad mortgages into CDOs /w tranches, slap them with AAA ratings and then issue CDSes on them. That's all Wall street, the banks, in cahoots with the credit rating agencies and they are at fault.
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and Commodity Futures Modernization Act were the culprits and lest we not forget Bush administration encouraging "home ownership" among those here illegally, along with BoA and Countrywide.
Confusing historical events to fit your philosophy is not fact based statistical and event reality.
Gotta love this comment, it attacks the site generally and then spews out a bunch of fiction, perpetuated by corporate lobbyists hiding behind propaganda institutions such as a the Heritage foundation.
Sorry dude, we actually pull up CRS and CBO analysis and look at their assumptions, go to the raw statistical data, run our own numbers and you're just touting some very worn out lobbyist generated talking points for the long standing Wall Street/GOP agenda to destroy America's social safety nets.
My first time to your blog. At times it seems reasonable and at times it shows a tendency for left-wing rantings (populism, as you say).
To be fair, we should note that the "Great Recession" was preciptated not only by Clinton-era deregulation, but also by Clinton-era over-regulation (CRA re-auth. in 1995 and HUD sub-prime quotas for FNMA & FRMC for ex.).
I find the stance here on pensions and SS to be not-fact-based. Certainly, ppl were led to believe that they were paying into SS, but it is a pay as you go system, there is not a single nickel set aside. Kinda like that Bernie Madoff situation, eh?
You want fact-based, here it is. Due to an aging population and exponentially increasing health costs, the 3 big gov't transfer programs (SS, MC, MI) are set to ex/implode our nation's finances as the Baby Boomers retire. That is straight from the CBO.
Beatdowns happen to subordinates, bosses + management think praise will make people feel too good or make them lazy, too much vacation time or sick time (or any of either) will coddle them. The rules and punishment go one way, and it definitely doesn't roll uphill. These rules of course come from people that enjoy 10-100X the annual salary of the average worker, that enjoy free cars and drivers, enjoy free meals, and endless "seminars" and conventions of other CEOs and bosses across the country and globe. And of course while they maintain the beatings will continue until morale improves and if people will work for free why pay them, the bosses maintain they need every single extra dime (and in some cases, bonuses in the tens of millions of dollars) because otherwise they just wouldn't be attracted to the job which requires them to hobknob with politicians and other bosses and never break a sweat. On the other hand, those risking life-and-limb, or working two or three jobs so they can afford medical care and could never dream of a vacation, should just suck it up.
MBA and talking heads on TV like to pretend they know what they are talking about. So where are all the statistical breakdowns, deep analysis, etc. of positive feedback, salary increases improving productivity, etc. on Fox or in Forbes. Because whenever I tune in, the PR/spin is so lacking in any facts or analysis it's laughable. Every single CEO is some sort of genius, and when they fail dismally, the story is quickly forgotten while they keep their huge salaries and bonuses. They are often hired again if they ever lose a great gig. Of course the CEOs are the one invited for the interviews and coddled in the press, the average worker is absent, which is odd, considering the workers compose the vast majority of Americans. On the other hand, the workers are constantly bashed, always seem to be called unskilled, or uneducated, or unwilling to move here or there to find that imaginary job, or some other insulting lie. And when the workers protest or ask for more, they are some sort of labor agitators or Communists, while the people at the top colluding and geting rubber stamp approval from boards and politicians is anything but a mockery of capitalism and democracy. Of course anything that runs counter to lower pay for the workers and the endless revenue streams for the big CEOs can't be tolerated. It's dogma, and dogma doesn't allow for dissent. Double standards and hypocrisy abound, and if you call them out on it, they'll just grab the microphone out of your hand. CEOs pay for the advertising, and if they don't like what you are saying, no more ad $ for you.
I have posted a petition to the White House which might encourage them to more honestly address U.S. population growth. It needs 150 signatures to go to the publicized (national) listing of petitions.
If I can get on the public page and get 25,000 more signatures in 30 days, the White House promises to publicly respond to the fact that we are expected to reach half a billion people within the next fifty years.
Be one of the first 150 to launch this innovative approach to getting Washington to hear the concerns of the people. And please support this effort by forwarding this message to friends and family.
You can read my petition here, and then register with We the People to sign it and move it forward.
http://wh.gov/XykU
Many thanks in advance for taking a few minutes to register and sign the petition.
Naked Capitalism has posted an interesting aspect of the Walmart Black Friday protests. To get the global transport, shipping unions to join or at least show support for Walmart employees. There is no doubt this is where it would hurt Walmart. They depend on cheap Chinese imports and on top of shutting down Mom & Pops all over the nation they very short inventory on hand. If anyone has shopped at Walmart the phrase we're out of that product is one of the reasons there is no guarantee they will have your favorite item in stock. It's all about volume maximizing delivery schedules versus having in stock needed items.
Cut off Walmart from China and they would pay attention.
Just a side note. Japanese manufacturers are also getting hammered by unfair Chinese competition. Wild table turn around from the 1980's. Sony & Panasonic were just downgraded to junk status. Sony screwed the pooch on audio on demand, surprise, surprise, stifling corporate culture plus a horrific screw up on executive hires. It is astounding to me how many people get into executive positions who really have had their heads up their ass, never to see the light of day for their entire lives, but that's another story.
Japan, surprise on the infamous race to the bottom, can't compete on price point against Chinese TVs.
Anyway, cut of Walmart from mainland China and watch that company implode in no time. Yet another reason you should buy American when possible.
One point consistently missed in the media narrative is that not only were the workers screwed so were the owners... the shareholders ... The debt holders and the managers (here which are one and the same) are the people who profit at the expense of the workers and shareholders. The two sides who have an ongoing stake in the success of an enterprise are trumped by those with the shortest possible term interest.
The Wall Street Journal has a great story on how work is a place where there is no gratitude.
Research suggests that employees who feel appreciated are more productive and loyal. But that message hasn't reached many of those in charge. Some bosses are afraid employees will take advantage of them if they heap on the gratitude. Other managers believe in thank-yous but are nervous about appearing awkward or insincere—or embarrassing the employee they wish to praise.
A common attitude from the corner office is "We thank people around here: It's called a paycheck,"
I don't know what employers are thinking these days. It's like hire a slave is the attitude, there to look down upon and abuse.
Happy Thanksgiving to all Economic Populists! Please post thoughts or facts regarding the disconnect between economic life for most people in America and the shopping frenzy, driven by marketing, that is about to be thrust upon us when the majority of people can barely make rent or pay for food.
EP is way overdue for a major upgrade. I've been working on code, sloowwwlly behind the scenes and I'm hoping to do a major upgrade over this holiday, since reader traffic is notoriously slow. Just be aware and for EP regulars, I'll announce the site upgrade is 1st phase complete in the comments if I can get to it, fingers crossed. The plan is to make this site much more accessible via mobile devices, get graphs and whatnots to scale, and also eventually improve finding older articles.
You'll potentially see "site is down for maintenance" or even a 500 error (hopefully not) and just check back in 10. I'll need people to give feedback generally for while I try to debug as much as possible, frankly things go wrong every time and I didn't catch it, so your help would be appreciated!
Remember, EP's comments are their own twitter feed and RSS feed, much more than a typical comment space on other sites.
"When people cheat the government and lie" it does suck, doesn't it? Like Bill Gates and other current and former CEOs claiming they just can't find "qualified" Americans; that there's a "skills gap,"; that sending credit card + SSNs and personal financial and medical information won't cause massive ID theft and won't cause massive risk to Americans that American citizens and American law enforcement will have to deal with for decades; that American taxpayers have to pay for millionaire banksters betting on derivatives and other instruments they don't understand despite creating and betting on because the FDIC backstops all such BS bankster plays; etc. "Deserving poor"?
Please sir, I'd like to feed my family and enjoy my Bill of Rights. I apologize, some people I know have degrees, served our Nation, and worked long and hard and never stepped on anyone else. Are we deserving, Sir? Please, Sir, can I have some more food?
DESERVING POOR?! ON THANKSGIVING?! Jamie Dimon is knocking and he wants props and rights back for Scrooge. Charles Dickens is rolling over in his grave. "Deserving poor." I give up. WTF. Read, read, and read some more. Deserving? People are literally earning $1 billion+/yr. for sitting in front of computer screens and losing to market INDEXES while others lose limbs for less than $30,000 or work for free despite having BAs and graduate degrees and more than $200,000 in education loans and knowing multiple languages, 10+ years of work experience, etc. DESERVE? Yeah, Koch PR, is that you? Damn, why would you "cheat the government and lie" by trading with Iran in violation of sanctions? For $? That doesn't sound honest or patriotic, does it? Why would you "cheat the government and lie" about breaking environmental laws? That doesn't sound very honest or patriotic? Walmart? Is that you? Why would you cheat and lie about locking workers in overnight posing the risk of death if a fire broke out? That's not cool. Why would you lie about bribing Mexican officials? JPMorgan? Lying about bribing Jefferson County officials? HSBC? Lying about aiding and abetting terrorists and drug cartels by laundering money for them? Standard Chartered? Wells Fargo? Is that cheating and lying? Oh poor banks and poor corporations. How you must suffer. Poor Murdoch. Breaking corruption laws for bribing police and hacking phone lines (although always careful to make sure his subordinates are only implicated). But look out, it's dem crazy poor in the US we must be on the look out for. Oh, so scary. "I see poor people! And they're growing in numbers! Oh no!" You want to know how many smart, ethical, patriotic Americans are suffering in their own country in 2012 despite all the skills, education, and incredible work backgrounds? Take a guess. Is it: A) a minute amount; or B) a massive number? Take a guess. Go ahead. On Thanksgiving, go ahead and insult tens of millions of Americans. Because the answer is B, but I guess they just aren't "deserving" or worthy of recognition and respect.
Denigrating the poor on Thanksgiving, no, this should not stand.
Jobless:
For the deserving poor to get the help they need, the program has to have integrity. When people cheat the government and lie, including those well-offs who buy and redeem the benefits, defrauding on the back end, it puts the program in jeopardy and takes benefits from the deserving. Because it is so widespread, per usda, we all should be concerned and demand a more competent program.
USA 2012. Thanksgiving. And let the bashing begin. PBS is some Commie Channel (vs. a channel paid for by an Aussie that paid Newt for citizenship and an Aussie (no beef against Aussies, just this one) that interferes with child murder investigations and bribes police internationally violating RICO and FCPA). Murdoch, inherit gifts from father much while calling everyone else lazy and corrupt?
Man, it's not even about that. It's about fellow Americans suffering needlessly, NEEDLESSLY, while the rich get richer and everyone else struggles to survive. "Peace dividend" my ass. And for those that dare, ever dare to question the values of those that ask these questions or state their disgust with the status quo on Thanksgiving, know this, vets are one of the biggest groups of unemployed in America 2012. Vets that the same Murdoch-run channel likes to say are being oppressed by the blue party, and you know my "love" for politicians dressed in blue and red is equal. Vets, those with PhDs and vets with said degrees, BAs, etc. And lots of politicians voted against helping vets gets jobs because that would violate budget rules (guess those same pols wouldn't sacrifice their salaries or healthcare to help those same vets). Meg Whitman, if you had a conscience, Pelosi, and on and on, I know you don't care, otherwise you would never enter politics or rise to CEO, where's the love for the 99.999%? But seriously, the rest of us, is this what we allow? Is this what our ancestors envisioned when they fled from wherever? Folks from Cambodia, Russia, Vietnam, Germany, and on, and on, and on, what is this?
is now saying Hostess has to go back to liquidation because the unions wouldn't gave to having their livelihoods stolen.
Good God, this bankruptcy judge sure sounds like he has a philosophy. Using the courts to corporate raid and give labor the shaft has been quite the enterprise for some time. But considering both were willing to go mediation and I thought potentially arbitration, having a judge say "oh no you can't" seems pretty biased to me. There is only an entire brand and 20,000 jobs on the line. Gez, can't wait a week or two? Such a rush.
They have been doing slash and burn in earnest since 2000, offshore outsourcing guest workers using recessions as an excuse.
Right the one policy as a theme we never heard promoted is tethering bonuses, corporate profits to the health and welfare of the employees. Tax breaks tied and enforced to hiring and retaining of U.S. workers. CEO bonuses as a percentage of worker hires. Bankruptcy courts which first thing, are allowed to throw worker pensions to the dogs and private equity firms get priority treatment on company assets.
There was clearly public outcry on executive bonuses at fever pitch during 2008/2009 and so of course politicians buried any chance of reforms.
Only way this madness stops is former and current CEOs are the first ones on the chopping block (former CEO's performance would be reviewed by the company currently employing them - why retain losers that screwed up their other companies). Same way only way banksters will care about customers and ID theft is if they personally pay a fine for every screw up. They'd learn right quick. If corporate boards had any balls/integrity/concern for shareholders, they would demand that CEOs' performance be examined thoroughly and anything that wouldn't be tolerated by the lowest paid employee would be grounds for dismissal, claw backs on salaries, bonuses, stock options, etc. whenever a CEO sought to cut a company down to boost their own paychecks.
Meg Whitman announced what, 20,000, or 30,000 HP employees + could be fired earlier? Those people were hired for reasons, right? Unless HR completely sucks (okay, they do, but still), some percentage of those people had to pass some screening, had to be contributors, and were valuable to HP at some point. I'll even say the vast majority of those people probably were valuable employees that had skills and educational backgrounds that could contribute a great deal to HP and/or competitors. But HP and corporate America can just cut those people to pad the CEO's bonuses? Of course that is self-destructive. But look at Whitman and the former CEO, they skate and get to keep huge amounts of loot for gross incompetence? If corporate America is all about "creating jobs," "profits," "building better products and services," how does that compute? It doesn't. As everyone knows, it's a closed club mean to rape and pillage companies for the top brass and the rubber stamping interlocking directorates of all these corporations. Sounds almost like the bad old days before people like Teddy R. gave a crap. Oh well, so much for the last 100 years. Back to the Gilded Age.
Meg, could you please resign, show an ounce of class or brains, return your salary, and go do something valuable like move sand on the beach from one location to another using a tweezer. It will keep you busy while preventing any further destruction with your company and to American workers.
Same could be said for all these folks. Marissa Mayer, hired for big bucks (up to $129 million, awesome, how many worker could be hired or paid more for that cash), what's her turnaround plan? Who knows, but it does include firing people. Don't they always? Does it include earning as much as the lowest-paid employee? No, no way, how can someone fire 1,000-100,000 people and do that for only $10,000, or $20,000 or even $100,000/yr. No, the tough job of firing the brains and muscle and actual worker bees that imagine, create, design, produce, transport, sell, and maintain products and services demands at least $10,000,000 yr. Oh, a private car and driver. And stock options. And bonus. Private jet? Sure, CEOs deserve it, the elderly don't deserve Social Security, but CEOs deserve everything. Plenty o' vacation time? Why not. And the asskissing business press slathers on the praise because she's a woman, forgetting about all the female employees that they fire.
Men and women CEOs, taking care of America's workers, whether they are disabled, have cancer or diabetes or asthma or MS, are pregnant, taking care of young children or elderly parents, one pinkslip at a time. Thank you big CEOs, you deserve every million you earn.
What you're seeing in each case is people at the top getting something for nothing. The imbalance in those transactions goes down the ladder, and at the bottom you have people who get nothing for something. That's why hourly workers are losing ground, that's why equity is concentrating, that's why the unions are painted as villains.
We're paying the 1% a commission with every transaction, in interest, in lost wages, in hidden fees, and who knows what else. They're not doing a thing to earn that money, they're just tinkering with the system to squeeze another fraction of a penny out of each transaction. I am beyond fed up.
Found this through Economy in Crisis.
I checked some of the facts for my details are before the bail out and this is after. So far, all correctly cited, although the "socialist" red China is kind of crap, they aren't at all European socialism such as Canada, Norway, Sweden and so on, so that spin gives European/Canadian socialism a bad name.
Anyway, the unions really went to town on Romney when the fact is here is GM talking about offshore outsourcing advanced R&D to China, something they were doing before the bail out and that's huge U.S. jobs, never mind the factory expansion is in China, instead of demanding China reduce their auto & truck tariffs so U.S. workers can export to China and keep the jobs here.
This video was made in May but I just saw it now. More validation on the auto industries business model to labor arbitrage, offshore outsource jobs and move jobs to China on promise for access to their consumer market.
Yes, we all know Romney is private equity and so on, but blasting that campaign for this particular ad was a real hit piece.
It seems, starting in the 1980's, anything goes towards workers. Workplace bullying, workplace abuse, all of this is originating from the top and that derogatory view, to coin Reagan, trickles down.
Work is high stress, one never knows when they will be fired, the pensions stolen, rules are simply for HR and corporate attorneys to not get sued. There is no cause and effect anymore to losing one's job either. Generally work life is highly abusive, seemingly in the majority of workplaces these days instead of being the exception.
Seems most who get just the least bit of power, supervisory positions, can scapegoat, target, pick a victim and get completely away with it. Meritocracy is just another HR propaganda statement for the most part, including areas where one would assume work product would be most evident, say the technical and manufacturing fields.
No surprise to me at all workers attitudes are "I need the pay to survive" and that's it.
We've pulled many a CBO estimate on this site and social security is not in danger. There is an obvious fix, to raise the top income limit for percentage contributions. We've also written many times about the for profit health industry and how the U.S. pays at least 3x as much for the same care as other industrialized nations.
Medicare and social security are not government transfers. People have paid into social security and earned those benefits. They have already paid for these benefits and that's what payroll taxes are all about.
"Set aside" is because Congress raided the fund.
Blaming the Community reinvestment act for the housing crisis has been disproved, repeatedly. Black people did not cause Wall street to bundle up bad mortgages into CDOs /w tranches, slap them with AAA ratings and then issue CDSes on them. That's all Wall street, the banks, in cahoots with the credit rating agencies and they are at fault.
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and Commodity Futures Modernization Act were the culprits and lest we not forget Bush administration encouraging "home ownership" among those here illegally, along with BoA and Countrywide.
Confusing historical events to fit your philosophy is not fact based statistical and event reality.
Gotta love this comment, it attacks the site generally and then spews out a bunch of fiction, perpetuated by corporate lobbyists hiding behind propaganda institutions such as a the Heritage foundation.
Sorry dude, we actually pull up CRS and CBO analysis and look at their assumptions, go to the raw statistical data, run our own numbers and you're just touting some very worn out lobbyist generated talking points for the long standing Wall Street/GOP agenda to destroy America's social safety nets.
My first time to your blog. At times it seems reasonable and at times it shows a tendency for left-wing rantings (populism, as you say).
To be fair, we should note that the "Great Recession" was preciptated not only by Clinton-era deregulation, but also by Clinton-era over-regulation (CRA re-auth. in 1995 and HUD sub-prime quotas for FNMA & FRMC for ex.).
I find the stance here on pensions and SS to be not-fact-based. Certainly, ppl were led to believe that they were paying into SS, but it is a pay as you go system, there is not a single nickel set aside. Kinda like that Bernie Madoff situation, eh?
You want fact-based, here it is. Due to an aging population and exponentially increasing health costs, the 3 big gov't transfer programs (SS, MC, MI) are set to ex/implode our nation's finances as the Baby Boomers retire. That is straight from the CBO.
Beatdowns happen to subordinates, bosses + management think praise will make people feel too good or make them lazy, too much vacation time or sick time (or any of either) will coddle them. The rules and punishment go one way, and it definitely doesn't roll uphill. These rules of course come from people that enjoy 10-100X the annual salary of the average worker, that enjoy free cars and drivers, enjoy free meals, and endless "seminars" and conventions of other CEOs and bosses across the country and globe. And of course while they maintain the beatings will continue until morale improves and if people will work for free why pay them, the bosses maintain they need every single extra dime (and in some cases, bonuses in the tens of millions of dollars) because otherwise they just wouldn't be attracted to the job which requires them to hobknob with politicians and other bosses and never break a sweat. On the other hand, those risking life-and-limb, or working two or three jobs so they can afford medical care and could never dream of a vacation, should just suck it up.
MBA and talking heads on TV like to pretend they know what they are talking about. So where are all the statistical breakdowns, deep analysis, etc. of positive feedback, salary increases improving productivity, etc. on Fox or in Forbes. Because whenever I tune in, the PR/spin is so lacking in any facts or analysis it's laughable. Every single CEO is some sort of genius, and when they fail dismally, the story is quickly forgotten while they keep their huge salaries and bonuses. They are often hired again if they ever lose a great gig. Of course the CEOs are the one invited for the interviews and coddled in the press, the average worker is absent, which is odd, considering the workers compose the vast majority of Americans. On the other hand, the workers are constantly bashed, always seem to be called unskilled, or uneducated, or unwilling to move here or there to find that imaginary job, or some other insulting lie. And when the workers protest or ask for more, they are some sort of labor agitators or Communists, while the people at the top colluding and geting rubber stamp approval from boards and politicians is anything but a mockery of capitalism and democracy. Of course anything that runs counter to lower pay for the workers and the endless revenue streams for the big CEOs can't be tolerated. It's dogma, and dogma doesn't allow for dissent. Double standards and hypocrisy abound, and if you call them out on it, they'll just grab the microphone out of your hand. CEOs pay for the advertising, and if they don't like what you are saying, no more ad $ for you.
Greetings, fellow environmentalists,
I have posted a petition to the White House which might encourage them to more honestly address U.S. population growth. It needs 150 signatures to go to the publicized (national) listing of petitions.
If I can get on the public page and get 25,000 more signatures in 30 days, the White House promises to publicly respond to the fact that we are expected to reach half a billion people within the next fifty years.
Be one of the first 150 to launch this innovative approach to getting Washington to hear the concerns of the people. And please support this effort by forwarding this message to friends and family.
You can read my petition here, and then register with We the People to sign it and move it forward.
http://wh.gov/XykU
Many thanks in advance for taking a few minutes to register and sign the petition.
Mark Powell
Naked Capitalism has posted an interesting aspect of the Walmart Black Friday protests. To get the global transport, shipping unions to join or at least show support for Walmart employees. There is no doubt this is where it would hurt Walmart. They depend on cheap Chinese imports and on top of shutting down Mom & Pops all over the nation they very short inventory on hand. If anyone has shopped at Walmart the phrase we're out of that product is one of the reasons there is no guarantee they will have your favorite item in stock. It's all about volume maximizing delivery schedules versus having in stock needed items.
Cut off Walmart from China and they would pay attention.
Just a side note. Japanese manufacturers are also getting hammered by unfair Chinese competition. Wild table turn around from the 1980's. Sony & Panasonic were just downgraded to junk status. Sony screwed the pooch on audio on demand, surprise, surprise, stifling corporate culture plus a horrific screw up on executive hires. It is astounding to me how many people get into executive positions who really have had their heads up their ass, never to see the light of day for their entire lives, but that's another story.
Japan, surprise on the infamous race to the bottom, can't compete on price point against Chinese TVs.
Anyway, cut of Walmart from mainland China and watch that company implode in no time. Yet another reason you should buy American when possible.
One point consistently missed in the media narrative is that not only were the workers screwed so were the owners... the shareholders ... The debt holders and the managers (here which are one and the same) are the people who profit at the expense of the workers and shareholders. The two sides who have an ongoing stake in the success of an enterprise are trumped by those with the shortest possible term interest.
The Wall Street Journal has a great story on how work is a place where there is no gratitude.
I don't know what employers are thinking these days. It's like hire a slave is the attitude, there to look down upon and abuse.
Happy Thanksgiving to all Economic Populists! Please post thoughts or facts regarding the disconnect between economic life for most people in America and the shopping frenzy, driven by marketing, that is about to be thrust upon us when the majority of people can barely make rent or pay for food.
EP is way overdue for a major upgrade. I've been working on code, sloowwwlly behind the scenes and I'm hoping to do a major upgrade over this holiday, since reader traffic is notoriously slow. Just be aware and for EP regulars, I'll announce the site upgrade is 1st phase complete in the comments if I can get to it, fingers crossed. The plan is to make this site much more accessible via mobile devices, get graphs and whatnots to scale, and also eventually improve finding older articles.
You'll potentially see "site is down for maintenance" or even a 500 error (hopefully not) and just check back in 10. I'll need people to give feedback generally for while I try to debug as much as possible, frankly things go wrong every time and I didn't catch it, so your help would be appreciated!
Remember, EP's comments are their own twitter feed and RSS feed, much more than a typical comment space on other sites.
Folks claiming people are cheating and making money off of their food stamps, $133.42 per month is the average benefit.
Wow, that's really some financial haul there to cheat off of. Let's see, what kind of riches can one get if they are cheating from $133.42 a month.
"When people cheat the government and lie" it does suck, doesn't it? Like Bill Gates and other current and former CEOs claiming they just can't find "qualified" Americans; that there's a "skills gap,"; that sending credit card + SSNs and personal financial and medical information won't cause massive ID theft and won't cause massive risk to Americans that American citizens and American law enforcement will have to deal with for decades; that American taxpayers have to pay for millionaire banksters betting on derivatives and other instruments they don't understand despite creating and betting on because the FDIC backstops all such BS bankster plays; etc. "Deserving poor"?
Please sir, I'd like to feed my family and enjoy my Bill of Rights. I apologize, some people I know have degrees, served our Nation, and worked long and hard and never stepped on anyone else. Are we deserving, Sir? Please, Sir, can I have some more food?
DESERVING POOR?! ON THANKSGIVING?! Jamie Dimon is knocking and he wants props and rights back for Scrooge. Charles Dickens is rolling over in his grave. "Deserving poor." I give up. WTF. Read, read, and read some more. Deserving? People are literally earning $1 billion+/yr. for sitting in front of computer screens and losing to market INDEXES while others lose limbs for less than $30,000 or work for free despite having BAs and graduate degrees and more than $200,000 in education loans and knowing multiple languages, 10+ years of work experience, etc. DESERVE? Yeah, Koch PR, is that you? Damn, why would you "cheat the government and lie" by trading with Iran in violation of sanctions? For $? That doesn't sound honest or patriotic, does it? Why would you "cheat the government and lie" about breaking environmental laws? That doesn't sound very honest or patriotic? Walmart? Is that you? Why would you cheat and lie about locking workers in overnight posing the risk of death if a fire broke out? That's not cool. Why would you lie about bribing Mexican officials? JPMorgan? Lying about bribing Jefferson County officials? HSBC? Lying about aiding and abetting terrorists and drug cartels by laundering money for them? Standard Chartered? Wells Fargo? Is that cheating and lying? Oh poor banks and poor corporations. How you must suffer. Poor Murdoch. Breaking corruption laws for bribing police and hacking phone lines (although always careful to make sure his subordinates are only implicated). But look out, it's dem crazy poor in the US we must be on the look out for. Oh, so scary. "I see poor people! And they're growing in numbers! Oh no!" You want to know how many smart, ethical, patriotic Americans are suffering in their own country in 2012 despite all the skills, education, and incredible work backgrounds? Take a guess. Is it: A) a minute amount; or B) a massive number? Take a guess. Go ahead. On Thanksgiving, go ahead and insult tens of millions of Americans. Because the answer is B, but I guess they just aren't "deserving" or worthy of recognition and respect.
Denigrating the poor on Thanksgiving, no, this should not stand.
Jobless:
For the deserving poor to get the help they need, the program has to have integrity. When people cheat the government and lie, including those well-offs who buy and redeem the benefits, defrauding on the back end, it puts the program in jeopardy and takes benefits from the deserving. Because it is so widespread, per usda, we all should be concerned and demand a more competent program.
As usual we're getting bombarded with marketing when we have so many on food stamps and so on.
USA 2012. Thanksgiving. And let the bashing begin. PBS is some Commie Channel (vs. a channel paid for by an Aussie that paid Newt for citizenship and an Aussie (no beef against Aussies, just this one) that interferes with child murder investigations and bribes police internationally violating RICO and FCPA). Murdoch, inherit gifts from father much while calling everyone else lazy and corrupt?
Man, it's not even about that. It's about fellow Americans suffering needlessly, NEEDLESSLY, while the rich get richer and everyone else struggles to survive. "Peace dividend" my ass. And for those that dare, ever dare to question the values of those that ask these questions or state their disgust with the status quo on Thanksgiving, know this, vets are one of the biggest groups of unemployed in America 2012. Vets that the same Murdoch-run channel likes to say are being oppressed by the blue party, and you know my "love" for politicians dressed in blue and red is equal. Vets, those with PhDs and vets with said degrees, BAs, etc. And lots of politicians voted against helping vets gets jobs because that would violate budget rules (guess those same pols wouldn't sacrifice their salaries or healthcare to help those same vets). Meg Whitman, if you had a conscience, Pelosi, and on and on, I know you don't care, otherwise you would never enter politics or rise to CEO, where's the love for the 99.999%? But seriously, the rest of us, is this what we allow? Is this what our ancestors envisioned when they fled from wherever? Folks from Cambodia, Russia, Vietnam, Germany, and on, and on, and on, what is this?
Motion to close, sell assets granted. Ding dong the company is dead.
is now saying Hostess has to go back to liquidation because the unions wouldn't gave to having their livelihoods stolen.
Good God, this bankruptcy judge sure sounds like he has a philosophy. Using the courts to corporate raid and give labor the shaft has been quite the enterprise for some time. But considering both were willing to go mediation and I thought potentially arbitration, having a judge say "oh no you can't" seems pretty biased to me. There is only an entire brand and 20,000 jobs on the line. Gez, can't wait a week or two? Such a rush.
They have been doing slash and burn in earnest since 2000, offshore outsourcing guest workers using recessions as an excuse.
Right the one policy as a theme we never heard promoted is tethering bonuses, corporate profits to the health and welfare of the employees. Tax breaks tied and enforced to hiring and retaining of U.S. workers. CEO bonuses as a percentage of worker hires. Bankruptcy courts which first thing, are allowed to throw worker pensions to the dogs and private equity firms get priority treatment on company assets.
There was clearly public outcry on executive bonuses at fever pitch during 2008/2009 and so of course politicians buried any chance of reforms.
Only way this madness stops is former and current CEOs are the first ones on the chopping block (former CEO's performance would be reviewed by the company currently employing them - why retain losers that screwed up their other companies). Same way only way banksters will care about customers and ID theft is if they personally pay a fine for every screw up. They'd learn right quick. If corporate boards had any balls/integrity/concern for shareholders, they would demand that CEOs' performance be examined thoroughly and anything that wouldn't be tolerated by the lowest paid employee would be grounds for dismissal, claw backs on salaries, bonuses, stock options, etc. whenever a CEO sought to cut a company down to boost their own paychecks.
Meg Whitman announced what, 20,000, or 30,000 HP employees + could be fired earlier? Those people were hired for reasons, right? Unless HR completely sucks (okay, they do, but still), some percentage of those people had to pass some screening, had to be contributors, and were valuable to HP at some point. I'll even say the vast majority of those people probably were valuable employees that had skills and educational backgrounds that could contribute a great deal to HP and/or competitors. But HP and corporate America can just cut those people to pad the CEO's bonuses? Of course that is self-destructive. But look at Whitman and the former CEO, they skate and get to keep huge amounts of loot for gross incompetence? If corporate America is all about "creating jobs," "profits," "building better products and services," how does that compute? It doesn't. As everyone knows, it's a closed club mean to rape and pillage companies for the top brass and the rubber stamping interlocking directorates of all these corporations. Sounds almost like the bad old days before people like Teddy R. gave a crap. Oh well, so much for the last 100 years. Back to the Gilded Age.
Meg, could you please resign, show an ounce of class or brains, return your salary, and go do something valuable like move sand on the beach from one location to another using a tweezer. It will keep you busy while preventing any further destruction with your company and to American workers.
Same could be said for all these folks. Marissa Mayer, hired for big bucks (up to $129 million, awesome, how many worker could be hired or paid more for that cash), what's her turnaround plan? Who knows, but it does include firing people. Don't they always? Does it include earning as much as the lowest-paid employee? No, no way, how can someone fire 1,000-100,000 people and do that for only $10,000, or $20,000 or even $100,000/yr. No, the tough job of firing the brains and muscle and actual worker bees that imagine, create, design, produce, transport, sell, and maintain products and services demands at least $10,000,000 yr. Oh, a private car and driver. And stock options. And bonus. Private jet? Sure, CEOs deserve it, the elderly don't deserve Social Security, but CEOs deserve everything. Plenty o' vacation time? Why not. And the asskissing business press slathers on the praise because she's a woman, forgetting about all the female employees that they fire.
Men and women CEOs, taking care of America's workers, whether they are disabled, have cancer or diabetes or asthma or MS, are pregnant, taking care of young children or elderly parents, one pinkslip at a time. Thank you big CEOs, you deserve every million you earn.
What you're seeing in each case is people at the top getting something for nothing. The imbalance in those transactions goes down the ladder, and at the bottom you have people who get nothing for something. That's why hourly workers are losing ground, that's why equity is concentrating, that's why the unions are painted as villains.
We're paying the 1% a commission with every transaction, in interest, in lost wages, in hidden fees, and who knows what else. They're not doing a thing to earn that money, they're just tinkering with the system to squeeze another fraction of a penny out of each transaction. I am beyond fed up.
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