Category Archives: Business/Economics

Business/Economics, Idaho, Opinion, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Dairy industry asking government for new industry “welfare” programs, as state governments slash and burns Food Stamps for families

The national average for a gallon of milk is about $4.00.  Many people in the dairy business say they’re losing money because people can’t afford to buy the product. They want the Federal government to create new industry welfare programs to bail them out.

In Idaho it’s estimated that Idaho dairymen lost $700 million in 2009.  Even Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson has jumped on the band wagon calling for more corporate welfare for dairymen.  But, you know what, I buy milk at the Pocatello, Idaho, Fred Meyer, and sometimes at the Chubbuck, Idaho, WalMart, and I’ve always paid less than $3.00 per gallon (usually no more than $2.50).

I have relatives in California who complain about the nearly $4.00 per gallon milk price there, but I haven’t seen that price in Idaho.  So why are Idaho Dairymen complaining?

The real reason dairy products, as well as other food products, are seeing a drop in sales is because the average consumer doesn’t have the money!

Maybe the Federal government should increase Food Stamps pay outs by greatly increasing the maximum income cutoff.  After all, the original purpose of Food Stamps was to subsidize the agriculture industry, by providing lower income people with money to buy food.  That’s right Food Stamps was originally created to support Farmers!

Instead it looks like individuals will get nothing, while “industries” get increased direct welfare!

 

 

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Idaho slashes and burns social programs, yet can fork up $2.4 million for college bowl name?

The Idaho Potato Commission, a state taxpayer funded agency, has signed a $2.4 million deal, to rename the college football Humanitarian Bowl game.  It will now be known as the “Famous Idaho Potato” Bowl.

Commission officials say they need to spend that kind of money to promote Idaho grown potatoes: “The bottom line, is that we believe we have negotiated a very favorable contract when compared to other similar bowls with similar national media coverage.”-Frank Muir, IPC President

Business/Economics, International

BBC serves employees food covered in mouse crap

130 employees, at the British Broadcasting Corporation’s West London office, complained that the food they got in the company cafeteria, was covered with mouse droppings!

This is not the first time the BBC has been criticized for the food it serves its employees.  The famous comedian Peter Sellers (the original Pink Panther movies, Dr Strangelove) once said: “Lunch is now being served in the BBC canteen. Doctors are standing by.”

Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Average Consumers are blamed for not spending, but it’s the Elites that are hoarding the cash, minimum wage earners are losing money by working

Basic economics views an economy like a cash flow circle.  Economies are doing good when a lot of money is being circulated.  When money stops flowing the economy goes down.  This is the basic idea of a consumer based economy.

For at least the past two years I’ve heard “experts” whine about consumers not spending.  Some even blame the average consumer for keeping the economy down.  But there’s good reason the average consumer isn’t spending; they don’t have the money (disposable income)!

According to the cash flow circle, people holding onto money put the brakes on a growing economy.  This is one reason why saving money was actually discouraged in the past, because money sitting in a bank is doing nothing for the consumer economy.  It does slowly get out, in the form of loans issued by the banks (yes, your money in your savings account is loaned out by the bank).

But there is a more dangerous form of holding onto money, it’s called money hoarding.  The average person doesn’t money hoard, the average person loves to spend money, it’s the elites that money hoard.  Why do you think the super rich get super rich?  You can’t get super rich by spending your money.

The latest numbers show that 90% of the money/wealth in the U.S. is being held by only 10% of the people.  In fact, according to Edward Wolff, the New York University economist, by the end of 2009 the top 1% (yes, that’s one percent!) of elites held 35.6% of the wealth!  Those people are the elites, the super rich, and the too big to fail corporations (corporations are legal entities or “persons”).  They are not spending that money!

By the way, studies have been done that show the average person in the U.S. is totally ignorant of the wealth inequality in their country.

90% of the people, have only 10% of the money/wealth in the U.S.  How can anyone expect the 90% of the population, with only 10% of the wealth, to spend enough money to save the economy?!?

Don’t think the bad economy is hurting the elites, it’s not.  Here’s some facts showing how the average person is making less money, and the elites are making more money:  By 2005, the Federal Minimum Wage, when adjusted for inflation, actually went negative; -9.3%.  The average “production” worker’s pay, when adjusted for inflation, has remained stagnant since 1990, seeing a piddly 4.3% increase by 2005.  Corporate profits soared 106.7% by 2005, adjusted for inflation.  The median salary for Chief Executive Officers exploded to 298.2%, from 1990 to 2005, and that’s adjusted for inflation.  Source:Executive Excess 2006, the 13th Annual CEO Compensation Survey from the Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy

So, corporate execs get an almost 300% increase in pay, while the average worker gets a measly 4.3% increase (over 15 years!!!), and those on minimum wage are actually losing money by working!  Yet we average consumers are expected to save the economy?!?

Those stats prove that only a minority of U.S. citizens (10%) are actually “making” money.  The rest of us are going broke, are broke, or are digging a financial grave.

Here’s proof those 10% who’re making money are not spending it: General Electric (GE), ended the second quarter of 2011 with $91 billion in profits, but they’re not going to spend it: “Our main protection against something like that not going well, or having a rocky outcome, is to have a lot of liquidity.”-Keith Sharin, CFO

Liquidity means cash.  To “have a lot of liquidity” means you’re not going to spend any money, your going to hoard it.

Goldman Sachs announced second quarter profits up 57%.  JPMorgan profits up by 13%.  Citigroup reported a profit of 24%.  The list goes on an on. Yet corporate America is not only not spending those profits, they keep laying off employees.

Bank of New York Mellon will layoff 1,500 workers, despite making a $77 million profit.

Here’s a real doozey of an example: Navistar. They reported a profit of 72% for the second half of this year, yet they say they have to close two U.S. plants, and one Canadian plant.  Navistar said closing the factories will save them up to $30 million per year, yet it will cost up to $230 million to close all the factories (actually they’re calling it a charge off, so they can deduct it from the corporate taxes they try not to pay)!

The big drugmaker, Merck, reported more than $1 billion in profits, yet will layoff another 14% of their employees, on top of the thousands they’ve already laid off.

Again, the list goes on and on.

One reason corporate America is getting rid of good paying jobs is because they can hire cheap prison labor.  This has been going on since the late 1990s, thanks to the ALEC prison labor program, and it’s growing.  So far 37 U.S. states allow prisoners to be used for labor other than public works.  Even Toys R Us uses prison labor!

Several of the huge meat recalls in the U.S. have been connected to prison labor being used at the meat packing plants.  Add to that the fact that foreign exchange students are being exploited as cheap labor for corporate America.

The bottom line is that those elites running corporate are doing everything they can not to spend money.  Some officials say they’re hoarding cash because they don’t think the economy will get better.  No shit Sherlock, if you’re not going to spend the money on hiring more workers, who then can spend the money buying your products or service, as well as pay their taxes, then yeah, the economy is going to get worse!!!

Remember the economic cash flow circle?  It’s the elites/corporations that are putting the brakes on any economic recovery, by sucking money out of the cash flow.

Corporate icon, and pioneer of welfare capitalism, Henry Ford hired lots of people and paid them well ($5.00 per day in 1914, that’s $114 per day now!), because he wanted them to buy his Model T.  It worked!

Ford also has a warning for us average Joes: “It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”

 

 

 

 

 

Business/Economics, International

What Economic Recovery? U.S. Groupon laying off thousands of workers in China

Gaopeng.com, the Chinese arm of U.S. based Groupon Incorporated, has been laying off Chinese workers on a weekly basis, and has threatened current employees if they reveal the lay offs.

Many current and former employees are revealing the lay offs through social media.

One micro blog, called Gaopeng Will Fail (loose English translation), said the U.S. owned company started laying workers off last month, but made it official on August 19.  They also ordered employees not to talk about it.

At least 30% of Gaopeng employees, and contract workers, will lose their jobs.

Ouyang Yun, Gaopeng’s chief operating officer, said that the company is just “…experiencing a reshuffling of personnel and only dismissed (employees) for poor performance.”

However, business analysts say Gaopeng can not blame employees, Gaopeng itself is a poor performer: “Backed by Groupon, Tencent and other venture capitals, Gaopeng should not be running low on cash.  So its shrinking profitability indicates it needs more innovative ways to lure clients.”-Chen Shousong, Analysys International

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Gold nears $2,000 per ounce in overseas trading, U.S. dollar crashing, caused by fears the Federal Reserve will print billions more in worthless money

In Asian markets, gold went over $1,900 per ounce.  The U.S. dollar continues to fall against most Asian money.

Even in Burma the U.S. dollar hit a ten year low. Nobody wants the worthless money: “Despite the falling price, most of the customers are selling their dollars.”-a foreign exchange dealer in Tamwe Township in Rangoon.

The reason for the exploding gold prices, and crashing U.S. dollar, is because many international market players believe the Federal Reserve Bank will try to stimulate the U.S. economy, by making credit easy, and printing more worthless dollars.

Here’s a little lesson in the concept of value: The more there is of something, the less it’s worth.  So, if a country prints off money like there’s no tomorrow, and that money is already worthless, how do you think the world is going to react?

They’re going to react like they already are; buying gold and dumping U.S. dollars.

The Japanese central banks are trying to stop their yen from rising in value (which hurts their export economy), so they’ve been flooding their markets with cash.  But the U.S. dollar is so worthless that it continues to fall against the yen, which pushes up the value of the yen.

Even the Australian and New Zealand dollars are now worth more than the U.S. dollar.

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Young adult workers leaving the United States for jobs in China

U.S. citizen Hunter Levan, 29, came to China in 2009.  Initially it was to learn Chinese:  “I realized if I ever wanted to learn Chinese, I would have to move here and ‘do as the Romans do’.”

But after learning the language, Levan realized it was a good place to find a job: “I sent out e-mails and resumes in Chinese, and got feedback in less than five days.” He now works as a consultant for Spring Airlines in Shanghai.

Alison Watts, 28, knew little about China: “But all my friends who have been here said it was incredibly fantastic, so I decided to take the big step forward.”

Watts’ experiences with journalism got her a job hosting an English-language TV show in Shanghai.  She says “…amazing opportunities keep popping up.”

Ted Hornbein, a U.S. businessman, has worked in China since the early 1990s. Now he’s a board member of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai.  He says a lot has changed since the 1990s:  “Today you have local and Western restaurants and your whole family here with you…I have seen a 180-degree shift from my first July 4 party in China.”

In January 2011, CNN asked the U.S. Department of State how many U.S. citizens were leaving for jobs in China.  The official response was that it was difficult to know because U.S. citizens are not required to tell the state department about living and working in China.

However, international employment agencies say they’ve seen a big jump in U.S. workers going to China for jobs, ever since 2007.

The Research Center for Chinese Politics and Business at Indiana University, says Shanghai and Beijing are the big hot spots for U.S. workers, but in the past couple of years other regions of China are opening up.

Seems like China is doing more to find jobs for U.S. citizens, than the U.S. government is doing here in the United States!

Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Proof that most U.S. citizens will never be able to retire

According to AARP, for the Baby Boomers that are still in the workforce, 40% of them plan to work “until they drop.”

A recent survey of U.S. workers, that included all age groups, found that 54% plan to keep working when they hit retirement age, and 39% plan to either work past age 70, or never retire at all.

A CESI Debt Solutions survey found that 56% of U.S. retirees still had outstanding debts when they retired.

The University of Michigan found that people 55 years of age, or older, now account for 20% of all bankruptcies in the United States.  In 2001, they accounted for only 12% of all bankruptcies.

Between 1991 and 2007 the number of people between the ages of 65 and 74, that filed for bankruptcy rose by 178%!!!

The American Journal of Medicine reports that medical bills are a major factor in more than 60% of personal bankruptcies in the United States.  Approximately 75% percent of the people who file bankruptcy due to medical bills have health insurance!

More than 30% of all U.S. investors, currently in their sixties, have more than 80% of their 401k retirement plans invested in the volatile stock markets.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Social Security system paid out more in benefits than it received in payroll taxes in 2010. That was not supposed to happen until at least 2016.

The University of Chicago, and Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management,  calculated the combined pension liability for all 50 U.S. states. They found that  all 50 states are collectively facing $5.17 trillion in pension obligations, but they have only $1.94 trillion set aside in state pension funds. That means, collectively, the state governments are short $3.2 trillion.

The U.S. government now says Medicare will run out of money five years sooner than they were projecting just last year.


Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Pentagon admits Direct involment with military action in Libya, despite Obama’s claims, big loss for U.S. taxpayers

President Obama has said over and over that the United States would play a supporting role for NATO, in the attacks on Libya.

Now the Pentagon admits they’ve been directly involved with attacking Libya.

U.S. forces have launched at least three air strikes per day, for the past 12 days.  These attacks are done by UAVs.  Even though the bombings are done with UAVs that does not negate the fact that it means direct U.S. military involvement.

The total cost of U.S. involvement in the attacks on Libya, have cost taxpayers $1 billion, so far.  And don’t think the U.S. military industrial complex is making enough money off this to make up for the $1 billion in spent tax revenues, so far only $220 million in weapons and ammo have been sold to NATO members.