News Commentary

How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work - NY-Times story.

2012-02-05T11:10:00.001-08:00

(Commentary):

I do not see a huge compelling reason to read the full text of this story by following the link (below) to this story.

Only reason for posting this; is to add documentation to the growing articles / blogs / etc. following the lowest wages jobs - (Where they are located - Outside USofA).

Full story link below.

(End of my comments).

BUSINESS DAY

How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work

By CHARLES DUHIGG and KEITH BRADSHER

Published: January 21, 2012

Building Apple's iPhone in the United States would demand much more than hiring Americans — it would require transforming the national and global economies.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-and-a-squeezed-middle-class.html

Hi-Tech US Corporations - Skilled American Workers Jobs - Work-Visa Loophole question - Google plus and our president - Question raised.

2012-02-05T10:07:00.001-08:00

No comment from me "necessary" with this following writing... Spells out the job story as I have been hearing / reading it for several years now.

Full story link below:

http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/13305

Hi-Tech US Corporations Deny Skilled American Workers Jobs Through Abuse of Visa Loophole

MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

A short time ago, BuzzFlash at Truthout ran a commentary on how US global corporations don't give a hoot about increasing jobs in America.

In it, we included a section about how Silicon Valley high-tech companies, particularly Apple, use overseas contractors to manufacture their latest technological consumer products. It has been documented that some of these contractors create such harsh conditions and pay such low wages that workers have been driven to suicide, as The New York Times and other publications have detailed.

In a two-part Times expose, an Apple executive claimed: "We [Apple] don't have an obligation to solve America's problems." That was in response to Apple shipping so many potential US jobs overseas to these slave-wage sweatshops; e.g., "90 percent of the parts of an iPhone are made outside the U.S."

But there's another insidious way that the high-tech industry denies jobs to US citizens. It's called the H-1B visa, which allows America's technological firms - and other specialized employers - to bring in foreign employees, frequently at a lower wage package than might be paid to an individual with the same qualifications who is an American citizen. There are many arguments against the program, primarily the allegation that there is generally no actual shortage of US citizens with high-tech skills for the work done by H-1B visa holders.

President Obama appeared blindsided by a question on a Google Plus interactive town hall the other day from a woman whose husband had been laid off by Texas Instruments:

Jennifer Wedel was the second to question Obama, and the four-minute exchange was among the most memorable of the 50-minute online event.

"My question to you is to why does the government continue to issue and extend H-1B visas when there are tons of Americans just like my husband with no job?" she asked.

Obama offered that industry leaders have told him that there aren't enough of certain kinds of high-tech engineers in America to meet their needs. Jennifer Wedel interrupted him to explain that that answer didn't match what her husband is seeing out in the real world.

"Jennifer, can I ask what kind of engineer your husband is?"

"He's a semiconductor engineer," she told the president, who seemed genuinely surprised.

"If you send me your husband's resume, I'd be interested in finding out exactly what's happening right there," he told her. "The word we're getting is somebody in that high-tech field, that kind of engineer, should be able to find something right away. And the H-1B should be reserved only for those companies who say they cannot find somebody in that particular field."

Of course, the high-tech companies are telling the White House and Congress that they can't find US citizens for the H-1B jobs, but many critics argue that many high-tech companies hire H-1B workers without even offering the positions to Americans. On top of that, after the H-1B workers are sent back to their native nations, there are reports that they are rehired by US companies abroad to start offshore high-tech offices that move more US jobs overseas. In short, the H-1B visa could be seen as an outsourcing training program at the expense of highly skilled US professionals.

It was nice of the president of the United States to offer his personal job placement services to Jennifer Wedel's husband, but it's a bit disturbing that the White House appears to have fallen for the Silicon Valley canard.

When it comes to the H-1B visa, it's the same old story: follow the profits.

Jobs / Labor: Discussion about manufacturing today and into the future.

2012-01-24T09:37:00.001-08:00

(Comments):

This article goes a bit into the issue of what manufacturing jobs mean to the U.S. during a still evolving machine replacing the paid worker - (Within those manufacturing businesses whom are increasing their robotic automation - As one wage worker replacement model example). Those relying on manufacturing income may have to rethink their positions... {What will or will there be moderate income jobs in the future}?

(End of my comments).

http://business.time.com/2012/01/23/is-manufacturing-really-back/#dsq-form-area-419267073

NYTimes: Central Bank Becomes an Unlikely Hero in Euro Crisis

2012-01-21T09:26:00.001-08:00

(Comments:)

Europe reads as part of the global economic fabric - Would be nice to see disclosure statement on "how-much" tied to "economic stability" the USofA is to the European economies. (Story seemed to indicate world wide fall out if banks of Europe were in some way fail). Not sure if this story completely spells out the entire story so we can have a more of an American impact understanding. [(Story was written by a non U. S. based reporter - (I think I read) - So that may have much to do with the European slant / view)].

(End of comments).

-----------------------------------------------

Banks have used quiet emergency loans from the European Central Bank, which has resisted buying up government debt in its own right, to come to their governments' rescue. http://nyti.ms/zyHd4c

USA TODAY article: Kodak files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

2012-01-19T08:46:00.001-08:00

(Comments)

Which corporation is next? Technology and ways to market products change so quickly.. Large corporations adjusting to these changes seems similar to turning a ship the size of a city around in a small harbor. Kodak reads like one of those great employers for so many years. My favorite camera of all time is their model Z612 which I still use and was purchased at decent price from Target Stores years back. Lots of features... The 12x high quality optical zoom was a huge selling point then.

Hope Kodak stays around!

Link to story below.

(End of comments)

----------------------------
http://usat.ly/yA7NTF

Yahoo co-founder Yang resigns from company - U.S. business

2012-01-18T15:56:00.001-08:00

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46030638/ns/business-us_business

Yahoo co-founder Yang resigns from company

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE

The Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO — Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang is leaving the struggling Internet company, as it tries to revive its revenue growth and win over disgruntled shareholders under a new leader.

The surprise departure, announced Tuesday, comes just two weeks after Yahoo Inc. hired former PayPal executive Scott Thompson as its CEO.

Thompson is the fourth CEO in less than five years to try to turn around Yahoo — a challenge that Yang was unable to pull off during his own tumultuous 18-month reign as the company's CEO in 2007 and 2008.

Yang, 43, endorsed Thompson in his resignation from Yahoo's board of directors. He had been on Yahoo's board since the company's 1995 inception.

"My time at Yahoo, from its founding to the present, has encompassed some of the most exciting and rewarding experiences of my life," Yang wrote in a letter to Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock. "However, the time has come for me to pursue other interests outside of Yahoo."

The letter didn't say what Yang plans to do next. He doesn't need to work, thanks to the fortune he has amassed since he began working on Yahoo in a trailer at Stanford University with fellow graduate student David Filo. Yang is worth about $1.1 billion, according to Forbes magazine's latest estimates.

Yang is also stepping down from the boards of China's Alibaba Group and Yahoo Japan. Yahoo is negotiating to sell its stakes in both of the Asian companies as part of its efforts to placate investors. The deal could be worth as much as $17 billion, but still faces a series of potentially daunting obstacles before it gets done.

(Commentary):

Wow! A Billion dollar parachute? Really? For leaving a fledgling biz? If only any of us could pull this caper and be a free person.....

(End of comments):

Whitehouse - Brian Deese on the Payroll Tax Cut | The White House

2011-12-14T15:13:00.001-08:00

>Comment: The effectiveness of payroll tax decrease... Explained very nicely!
Tax break about to expire here in 2011
End of my comment <

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/12/14/white-board-brian-deese-payroll-tax-cut?utm_source=email136&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=taxcut

Mortgage failures - The process!

2011-12-04T12:23:00.001-08:00

(My comment: Another huge corporation wow - Whoa already to the
bullying - GMAC)!

This move by GMAC, now Ally, is remarkably
brazen. GMAC has effectively said that Massachusetts must hew to its
demands of how to deal with foreclosures. It announced it is
withdrawing from mortgage lending in the state in an effort to bring
it to heel.

Surviving economically.

2011-12-04T11:59:00.001-08:00

(comment) - Story discovered by me on Newsvine.... Does not look good for the average worker....

By Cliff Carson, December 4 at 8:36 am Link to this comment

This morning on CNN a man was interviewed who had been out of work long enough to have to rely on extended unemployment benefits. His wife has been unable to find work for two years now.

If nothing changes, in January - next month - and 1.8 million families like him will no longer have any income. And if his three at home and two at school children are typical of these 1.8 million families, then 9 million more people will have no way of buying food, paying for shelter, or getting any of the other life subsistence needs.

They will join the already approximately 22 million in the same fix. And that will just be in January. Another 2 million is expected to join them during 2012.

Corporatism - Collectionism

2011-10-23T10:33:00.001-07:00

(Comments: Here is another story covering the hoarding of wealth)

(Story link below):

http://www.prisonplanet.com/corporatism-is-not-capitalism.html

(Excerpt from the above link story - below)
>>
"Under all collectivist systems, a small elite almost always enjoys most of the benefits while most of the rest of the population suffers."
<<

Fw: Faster Wireless Data Speeds possible with iPhone 4s?

2011-10-05T23:28:00.001-07:00

(My comments):
Was this faster iPhone 4s data speed claim over one specific companies wireless network a coincidence? Faster data speeds via one type of networking protocol only? Hum? Companies, news providers and commercials on TV continue to stun me with their competitive approaches to selling products today... Again; I ask of anyone before making unheard of before claims: Where are the actual data average through-put rate numbers - Please: No peak data bursts / spike numbers please.... From real customers, using no specialized sites.... Customers watching a streaming video for one example... Watched a TV advertisement couple of days ago from a wireless provider raving about having the largest 4G network... Of course they do not specify verbally who's 4G network they utilize... (4G in a couple of flavors, is just starting out in it's geographic deployment for customer use... For one type example: 4G-LTE; as one type). May take a year to get from the talk stages to installation and operation.... After reading a news article about a company called Light Squared, or something similar I think it was).... Lots of small print that is flashed across the bottom of your TV display... Might have all the additional information listed there... Not in easy to read font size....
Wow and more wow!
Here below should be a link to the news article that sparked this blog post...
Thank you for reading!
(End of my comments)
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-10-05/at-t-may-be-big-winner-in-new-iphone-battle-with-verizon.html

The internet!

2011-09-29T10:26:00.000-07:00

A quick comment / question:

The internet has brought us together like nothing I can think of before.

Do you think having one homogenous world is a better thing? Is having harmony good for creative thinking.

(Historical perspective below to support my written down thought-comments)

Seems conflict and sacrafice has been huge human motivators to strive for something more out of this world. So with that written: If everyone is equal and thinking simillarly - (due to sharing of information via the internet), will this encourage humans to think differently or just be all the same....

    I really do not know anything about how humans collectively (more than just a few people of our world) view progress. Obviously we may have to collect our thoughts about internet-sharing and think about what larger impact the internet may have on society and future human development - (as each person or groups of people view development).

*****Just writing thoughts here via a blog, rather than keeping this internt thought to myself****

{Hope you do not object too much to this thought post}.

    Thank you for your time and bye for now....

     Please feel free to comment... Thanks!!

Anyone want to invest in America yet?

2011-08-18T18:57:00.000-07:00

Another wow!

— Honda Motor Co. plans to build an $800 million factory in Mexico to make small cars for customers in North America, the company said Friday.

Looking for economic growth? Look no further... Please read on! Thanks !

2011-08-18T17:47:00.001-07:00

Comment:

Wow!

Coca Cola Co. said Thursday it plans to invest $4 billion in China as food brands scramble to expand in its fast-growing consumer market.

The investments will take place over three years beginning in 2012 and raise Coca Cola's total investment in China between 2009 and 2014 to $7 billion, the company said.

Global food brands are investing heavily in China, looking to a relatively healthy economy that expanded by 9.5 percent in the quarter ending in June to drive sales amid global uncertainty.

"China is one of our most important growth markets," said Coca Cola chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent in a statement announcing the plans.

Chinese retail spending in June rose 17.7 percent over a year earlier, according to the government.

In July, Nestle SA announced the purchase of a 60 percent stake in candy maker Hsu Fu Chi for $1.7 billion. Earlier this year, Nestle also bought a controlling stake in Chinese food processor Yinlu Foods Group.

Restaurant chains such as McDonald's Corp. and Yum Brands Inc.'s Pizza Hut and KFC also are expanding.

Kent said Coca Cola's sales volume in China for the first half of 2011 was double that of five years ago.

Coca Cola, based in Atlanta, opened five new facilities in China in 2009-10 and this year has opened one and plans to open a second and break ground for a third, according the company.

Economic viewpoints from others

2011-08-17T17:06:00.001-07:00

Bureau of Labor Statistics, it made back a little more than a third of that loss, mostly with low age, low benefit jobs. By June of 2011 the stimulus spending had largely run is course but that seems to have had no stimulating effect on big business. At the end of 2009 U.S. corporations were sitting on $1.6 trillion in cash. As of June, excluding banks and other financial corporations, their hoard had increased to $1.9 trillion.

--------------------------------------

A fierce symmetry is at work. Congress agreed to shrink public spending by $2 trillion. The next week stock market capitalization plunged by almost $1.5 trillion.

Welcome to the new era of austerity, driven by the superstition of our age. We will grow the economy by shrinking it.

Bye for now,

Jim

US water has large amounts of likely carcinogen: hexavalent chromium, a probable carcinogen, The Washington Post reported Sunday. study - Yahoo! News#buzzed=http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/healthusenvironmentpollutionwater#buzzed=http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/healthusenvironmentpollutionwater

2010-12-19T20:30:00.001-08:00

Thank You!
Your comment has been received and should be available shortly. A preview is shown here.

Nobody a second ago
>> Do the home use tap water mounted faucet filters reduce / eliminate this chemical? <<

US water has large amounts of likely carcinogen: study - Yahoo! News#buzzed=http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/healthusenvironmentpollutionwater#buzzed=http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/healthusenvironmentpollutionwater

Bernanke Unwise? News stories and following commentary continue to confuse us readers.

2010-12-03T08:33:00.001-08:00

(My commentary):

Below is an MSNBC Newsvine article and comments that I scanned my eyes across. The quoted comment below best documents the confusing / disservice viewpoints between bank regulation when comparing to little regulation. Our economy just went through the banking low interest rate loan program, giving the banking personnel nice paychecks.... What has happen to our economic stability most noticeably since year 2006, is my question for everyone?

(The Real Story: Adding the confusion factor with all these Newsvine comments).

(End of my comment).

________________________
(From a Newsvine commentor):

"The only defense of the Fed's actions are reserved to an over-analysis of economic behavior in place of a principled assessment. The rhetoric that you put forth in your posts must have mirrored that of the bankers and politicians in the early 1900's when the fed was created. Markets, when left to function and rationally regulated will flourish organically if possible and correct themselves where failing. Any action taken by the Fed, notably QE, runs counter to this and its consequences resonate beyond the institutions and markets targeted".

(Link to article below).
________________________
http://www.businessinsider.com/nassim-taleb-beon-cnbc-2010-12

Sent by Jim at BBT

It's All About the Holidays at the Disneyland Resort

2010-11-26T19:26:00.000-08:00

Disneyland sure knows how to put everyone in the holiday mood!! Great going once again Disney!

Fed lowers outlook for economy through 2011- Business

2010-11-24T07:08:00.001-08:00

(My comment: Any positive news concerning our USA is a real rare treat to stumble upon! Thanks AP News ! End of my comment).
_______________________

updated 2:41 PM. ET Nov. 23, 2010

Business

Fed lowers outlook for economy through 2011

By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Federal Reserve officials have become more pessimistic in their economic outlook through next year and have lowered their forecast for growth.

The economy will grow only 2.4 percent to 2.5 percent this year,

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40339960/

Sent by Jim at BBT

Newsvine - Report: Feds conducting big insider trading probe

2010-11-21T09:41:00.001-08:00

(My comments)
Here is a copy of my comment post directly from Newsvine dot com:
>>
Thank you Assoicated Press for publishing these articles that add some "element" of hope to saving our economic times! Read many articles about the "money grabbing" going on in the financial world... Nice to read that the SEC is not sitting on the side lines and watching all this questionable activity go unchecked. Thanks once again AP News group!!! Great Job!
<<
(Some story highlights below):
(End of my comments).
The investigations have been conducted by the FBI, federal prosecutors in New York, and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Ellen Davis, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office and SEC spokesman John Nester declined to comment. A call to the FBI wasn't immediately returned.
The probe is also examining whether traders at some hedge funds and trading firms gained nonpublic information about upcoming health-care, technology and other mergers, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The SEC investigation includes potential leaks on takeover deals going back to at least 2007. Last fall the SEC subpoenaed more than 30 hedge funds and other investors, the Journal said.
© 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

Newsvine - Report: Feds conducting big insider trading probe#c19599917

I am back... After blog spot deletion.... Very interesting to see how bloggers are treated when it comes to deleting their blog posting work.

2010-11-14T11:50:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone!

This blog spot was deleted by who knows who, (there was very little information provided any place I searched after I noticed access to this blog was denied - Blog spot not found.). I will not drop company / corporate names here. I am just posting up this message here indicating that... I am back!! {It was time for my original blog to be deleted... (too many old posts).... Out dated topics}! (Gone are the historical blog posted writings / archives)...

Bye for now for this round, please feel free to leave your comments here... Thanks!