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September 03, 2012

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Side note: I just posted a reply in the previous thread to Petro (he was right in his speculation), regarding jobs created since the recession, after looking at two (seemingly conflicting) studies.

P.S. I tried a Google Images search for "charlotte nc women" after reading Mr. Talton's comments above. Maybe they have really good microbreweries there?

Ahh yes! Charlotte . . in the eyes of that Talton fella who really knows the city.

Ken Lewis (former BofA guru) acquired both Countrywide and also Merrill Lynch . . if memory serves. Was he hauled up for malfeasance? Naah! Probably is juggling multiple residences and cocooning himself with his cronies. I remain convinced that the DOJ can't hit a bull in the backside with a bass fiddle.

Warren Buffet is bring this to the DNC floor. "We dont need MORE jobs we need

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/08/30/dear-american-companies-heres-how-to-fix-the-economy/?ncid=webmail26

JON, Given your coverage on the RNC and DNC I see the title for your next book,
HUCKSTERVILLE

I lived there for 23 years and worked with Jon at The Observer. His description of the place is spot-on, down to the beautiful people.

Wow, what a great article!

cal: would you be willing to give Grady Gammage a small chapter in this book? Let's do this before he gets revved up about the Sunshine Corridor!

Side-note: a new reply to Petro and Occupant in the previous thread.

I wonder if Grady can get to where the Udalls got. They came to believe they were wrong about the water and the dams.
And if you believe its going to get better, your Fracking wrong.

My my but the DNC was a colorful event.
Rather pleasing after watching the Aryan RNC folks gather around the burning crosses.

New milestone

AZ Motorola employee count.

Now below 50

49

Motor who?

Ola

It is the company that put the radio in the covered wagon you rode in when you came out west

Radio?

If U have not clicked on Jon's link to America on the Brink of an Oligarchy.
I suggest U do and then scroll down to the bottom right of the page and listen to James Baldwin (died 1987) talk about today.

Regarding the article Calvin linked to, "Dear American Companies: Here's How to Fix the Economy", the proposed solution is based on false premises.

In 1914 when Ford doubled the hourly wage at his factories, manufacturing was labor intensive and skilled labor was at a premium. Detroit was already a high-wage town and employers were forced to compete for the best workers by raising wages, else lose them to competitors. That's why Ford had such heavy turnover (e.g., hiring 300 men a year to fill 100 slots). They got a better offer and moved on. This was possible because of a shortage of such labor in that particular market.

Ford also benefitted from the fact that burgeoning sales (allowing efficiencies of scale in production) allowed the price of the the Model T to drop every year since it had been introduced in 1908. That gave considerable flexibility in the matter of determining wages, because per unit cost had been decreasing and this was expected to continue.

Today is quite different. There are currently about 12.8 million officially unemployed Americans, 41 percent of whom have been out of work for more than six months. There is another 8.2 million who work part-time because they are forced to by the economy, some of whom have inadequate weekly income as a result. There are another 2.5 million (including discouraged job seekers) who aren't counted as unemployed because they didn't look in the last four weeks. All of them would strenuously disagree with Calvin's cold-blooded insistence that the country "doesn't need more jobs".

High unemployment and underemployment with low growth in job creation results in a labor glut. It's why employers have been filling low-education jobs (the majority of jobs created since the end of the recession) with overeducated applicants; they can pick and choose. Employers don't have high turnover because workers are glad to get work and desperate to keep it. In many cases they can't move to seek work elsewhere because they are underwater on their mortgages.

Today, though there are limited exceptions for jobs requiring special skills where qualified applicants are in short supply, in general employers have absolutely no incentive to double wages (or even raise them) because there is a general oversupply of labor relative to the number of available jobs.

Thanks for the video suggestion, cal. If you click through to "more videos" you can find footage of Bessie Smith singing "St. Louis Blues"! Off topic, but I love Bessie Smith. :)

Thanks Petro.
Tonite,I think I'll toss "Bird" in the VCR and watch Charlies (the yardbird) history.

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