2004 January
Economic News

2004-01-01

2004-01-01 15:00PST (18:00EST) (23:00GMT)
Lou Dobbs _CNN_
capture of Saddam Hussein
"From dictator on the run to U.S. prisoner number one, Saddam's capture.   For some, cause for celebration.   For others, a time for revenge...   2004 will be a world with one less dictator oppressing and torturing his people.   Saddam Hussein began the year a wealthy, bloody despot with a vast apparatus of killers and thugs at his command.   He ended the year, as we all know, alone, dirty and living in a hole.   But what, if anything, does that mean for the larger struggle between radical Islam and the West?...   Daniel Pipes: 'Democracy can be imposed from the outside.   It's happened.   Look at Germany, Italy, Japan, Austria.   It's happened.   It doesn't necessarily mean it can happen in Iraq.   So it can be, in theory.'...   George W. Bush: 'Today in Tripoli, the leader of Libya, colonel Moammar al Gadhafi, publicly confirmed his commitment to disclose and dismantle all weapons of mass destruction programs in his country.'...   Infectious diseases kill millions of people each year.   In fact, those diseases account for more than a quarter of the deaths worldwide.   And it is not only new diseases.   Public health experts are fighting outbreaks of tubercolis, malaria and other diseases that we once thought had been eradicated.   It is all part of why 2004 will see a continuing battle against the microbe.   In an isolated facility at Columbia University, under very tight security, and off limits to all but four scientists, are some of the deadliest killers known to man.   West Nile, Hanta virus, SARS and many others you may never have heard of...   A group of scientists here developed a test for the new virus.   Armed with 10K SARS test kits lab director Dr. Ian Lipkin flew to [Red China]...   It seems the harder we battle against the microbes, the stronger they come back.   One reason, drug companies may not be producing the needed drugs...   Graeme Maxton, director of Autopolis: '[Red China] is the home of counterfeits, copying DVDs and videos and all sorts of software.' The FBI estimates that American businesses lose $200G to $250G each year to counterfeiting."

2004-01-01
_AP_/_NY Times_
New Statutes Challenge Citizens in 2004
"stop hogging the left lane on Illinois Interstates.   Do not try to sell a used mattress as new in Tennessee.   And be extra careful not to call in a false fire alarm in Delaware...   Identity theft drew attention in many states in 2003.   New York, Delaware and New Mexico will now require that store receipts print only a few digits of a customer's credit card number...   Such fraud costs $2G a year nationwide."

2003-01-01
David Cay Johnston _NY Times_
The Very Rich Give Their Share & More in Charity
"top 400 American earners in 2000 provided nearly 7% of all the charitable gifts reported on income tax returns for that year, well in excess of their roughly 1% share of overall income, according to data released yesterday by the NewTithing Group, a charity that tracks giving.   The 400 tax-payers with the highest reported incomes in 2000 made an average of $174M and gave away, on average, $25.3M that year.   Their combined giving totaled $10.1G, or 6.9%, of the $146G in charitable donations that Americans deducted on their income tax returns in 2000.   Charitable giving by this wafer-thin yet deeply rich slice of Americans, the new Internal Revenue Service data showed, represented an average of more than 14% of their incomes, compared with overall charitable tax deductions equal to 2% of adjusted gross incomes.   Only a fourth of tax-payers file returns that allow them to deduct charitable gifts...   Giving by the top 400 from 1997 to 2000 grew significantly faster than their incomes...   Their average incomes rose 80% in those years, to $174M from $93M, while average giving from the stratum more than quadrupled to $25.3M from $5.9M...   The I.R.S. also issued a special report on the 400 Americans with the highest incomes each year since 1992.   There were 2,211 tax-payers in the 3,600 tax returns examined over the 9-year period; just 21 tax-payers made the list every year."

2004-01-01
John Schwartz _NY Times_
For the Ex-Buccaneer a Pillage-Free Play-List
"As one whose living depends on copyright protection, I couldn't see myself denying others the value of their creative labors...   The $20 per month for iTunes will add up, as will the $10 per month for Rhapsody, once our free trial period is over.   If you're keeping score, that's $360 a year..."

2004-01-01
Amy Waldman _NY Times_
Indian Soy Bean Farmers Enter Global Futures Markets On-Line
"'If it goes up there, it goes up here.', Mr. Choudhry said.   The correlation is rough but real.   Real, too, is the link between farmers in rural central India and around the globe, thanks to a company's innovation.The concept is the e-choupal, taken from the Hindi word for village square, or gathering place...   E-choupal allows the farmers to check both futures prices across the globe and local prices before going to market.   It gives them access to local weather conditions, soil-testing techniques and other expert knowledge that will increase their productivity...   There are now 1,700 in this state, Madhya Pradesh, and 3K total in India.   They are serving 18K villages, reaching up to 1.8M farmers...   Even more tantalizing, ITC now has the means to reach into some of India's 600K villages, where 72% of the people live and where the greatest potential markets lie.   Most businesses never venture to an area with fewer than 5K people, said ITC's chairman, Y.C. Deveshwar...   An Indian soybean farmer is one-third as productive as an American one, said David Upton, co-author of a case study of e-choupals for Harvard Business School."
 

2004-01-02

2004-01-02 06:53PST (09:53EST) (14:53GMT)
Allen Wan _MarketWatch_
Asian Stock Markets Booming
"Markets in South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore were sharply higher Friday in the first trading day of 2004 as investors anticipated the global economic rebound will yield more gains.   South Korea's Kospi rose 1.3% to end at 821, Taiwan's Weighted Average jumped 2.6% to finish at 6,041 and Australia's All Ordinaries Index edged up 0.1% to 3,309.   Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 1.8% to 12,801 while Singapore's Straits Times Index climbed 1.5%..."

2004-01-02 07:05PST (10:05EST) (15:00GMT)
Greg Robb _MarketWatch_
US December ISM shows surprising strength
"...grew in December for the sixth straight month and at a faster pace than November the Institute for Supply Management reported.   The ISM index rose to 66.2% in December from 62.8% in November.   The new orders index rose to 77.6, the highest level since 1950 July."

2004-01-02 13:31PST (16:31EST) (21:31GMT)
Tomi Kilgore _MarketWatch_
US stocks closed mixed as Dow slides
"The Institute of Supply Management's reading on manufacturing activity for the month of December rose to 66.2% from 62.8% in November.   Economists surveyed by CBS MarketWatch had been expecting a dip to 61.5%...   The Dow Jones Industrials Average slipped 44 points, and closed at 10,409.85.   The S&P 500 slipped 3.44 points to 1,108.48 and the Nasdaq Composite ended up 3 points at 2,006.68.   The Dow reached a peak of 10,527 in intraday trading, its highest level since 2002 mid-March.   The S&P 500 has risen an average of 1.9%, and the Nasdaq has gained an average of 4% in January the past 33 years.   The Dow has posted gains in 9 of the last 12 years on the first trading day of January, according to the Stock Trader's Almanac.   It has advanced an average of 2.3% during the month of January over the past 33 years...   Volume was respectable, given that many Wall Street traders extended the New Year holiday.   On the Big Board, a total of 1.14G shares changed hands and 1.65G shares turned over on the Nasdaq.   The dollar fell 0.4% vs. the euro to $1.2592, but rebounded from its overnight low of $1.2630.   Against the Japanese yen, the buck lost 0.5% to 106.93."

2004-01-02 15:00PST (18:00EST) (23:00GMT)
Kitty Pilgrim & Kelli Arena & Satinder Bindra & Casey Wian & Louise Schiavone & Miles O'Brien & Lou Dobbs _CNN_
terrorism concerns delay flights
"Tonight, concerns about a terrorist attack are disrupting airline travel around the world.   British Airways today canceled another flight from London to Washington, also a flight tomorrow between London and Saudi Arabia's capital, Riyadh...   officials tell us that that that flight number and the naming of the airline [British Airways flight 223 from London to DC] both came up through a variety of sources, one being an informant, a human source, over-seas that gave U.S. officials that information...   Religious passions run high outside Baghdad's Ibn Taymiyyah mosque.   The Sunni Muslims who worship here every Friday are incensed after U.S. forces raided their mosque Thursday...   At a news conference, U.S. forces displayed pictures of a large arsenal of weapons, sticks of explosives, TNT, grenades, grenade launchers, AK-47s, and magazines that they say were uncovered there; 32 people, including the Ibn Taymiyyah mosque top religious leader, Imam Mahadi Emed Sumede (ph), have been taken into custody.   The U.S. says it appears some of those in custody are -- 'foreigners'.   Crying out for a holy war against the Americans, these protesters deny the mosque was used for terrorist activities.   They say it was raided because clerics here had just set up a council to politically mobilize Iraq's Sunnis...   The [Los Angeles] sheriff's department temporarily lost 110 deputies and 270 employees total to the war on terror...   SM, U of MD student: 'I want my beliefs challenged.   And I want them challenged by either students, by faculty or by nonuniversity members who can come on, provide me with an argument which I may disagree with.   And I can argue with them and challenge my beliefs and learn from them.' The University of Maryland, like many universities, has a speech code that enrages free speech advocates.   Drafted in 1990, the code goes on at great length about sexual harassment and prohibits a wide range of behaviors, including 'suggestive or insulting sounds such as whistling, sexual looks such as leering, and holding or eating food provocatively'.   A loose-knit coalition of free speech advocates called FIRE, Foundation for Individual Rights and Education, estimates that about 40% of the nation's roughly 3K state-sponsored universities maintain speech codes...   This summer, the university had to back down from another common speech-related policy, one restricting protest to small free speech zones, after an American Civil Liberties Union court challenge.   The tug-of-war between what is offensive and the fundamental American right of free speech has raged on campus for years, with political correctness slowly gaining the upper hand.   Now it seems the pendulum may be heading in the other direction...   Price tag for the souped up golf carts christened Spirit and Opportunity [robotic exploration vehicles sent to Mars], more than $800M, 3 times the cost of the probes that cratered...   Mission scientist Marc Gollenback (ph) was there in the summer of 1997 when the last air-bag bounced on mars.   The craft inside, Pathfinder with a tiny rover named Sojourner captivated the world with the first pictures from the martian surface since the Viking landing successfully touched down in 1976...   Passengers applaud as a Japanese train sets a world speed record, 581 kilometers or 361 miles per hour.   The train is powered by magnetic levitation, [and] opposing magnetic fields propel the train forward.   A southern California local government group is pushing for more federal money to develop a 270-mile network of maglev trains running between the region's airports.   Other proposals that would connect Anaheim to Las Vegas, Baltimore to Washington, DC, and Pittsburgh to its suburbs are also being studied.   Supporters say maglev trains would reduce freeway and airport congestion and cut air pollution.   So far [Red China] has the only maglev line in commercial operation...   But skeptics say maglev trains aren't worth the cost.   Japan, Germany and [Red China] have all scaled back maglev plans because of financial concerns.   Southern California's proposal would cost more than $6G...   Robert Lenzner of _Forbes_: 'the economy can't expand as fast as it did in the third quarter, when it grew by 8%, and profits of the big companies grew by 35%.'"

2004-01-02
Sergeant Randy Davis, sniper in the Stryker Brigade (reported in Eric Schmitt _NY Times_
In Iraq's Murky Battle Snipers Offer US a Precision Weapon
"We don't have civilian casualties.   Everything you hit, you know exactly what it is.   You know where every round is going."

2004-01-02
Floyd Norris _NY Times_
Energized by the Economy, Small Stocks Lead the Way to Big Gains
"Small stocks had their best year ever and some stars of the bubble era made impressive come-backs."

2004-01-02
_JobStats_
UK Computing-Market Indices
graph of job ads
 

2004-01-03

2004-01-03
Steven R. Weisman _NY Times_
Iran Turns Down American Offer of Relief Mission
"The government in Tehran cited the overwhelming difficulties facing relief workers, but did not rule out the possibility of a future visit."

2004-01-03
Patricia Leigh Brosn _NY Times_
In One Suburb, Local Politics With Asian Roots: Perhaps best known as the head-quarters of Apple Computer, Cupertino, CA, is gaining new attention as a beacon of Asian-American politics.
"But perhaps the most potent symbol of the transformation of this sprawling Silicon Valley suburb may be found at the Joy Luck Place in the Cupertino Village shopping center, where members of the city's Asian-born power elite strike deals over dim sum and tea in a new twist on the smoky back-room...   Asian-Americans now make up 19.3% of the population in the Bay Area, and 31.1% in San Francisco.   But Cupertino, which is about 45 miles southeast of San Francisco, has undergone an even bigger change.   Its population of 50K is now 44.8% Asian-American, compared with less than 10% in 1980.   Unlike in other places with booming Asian populations - most notably Los Angeles - the demographic shifts here have translated into significant political involvement.   9 out of 28 local elected officials are Asian-American...   Her first employer, Altos Computers, paid for her master's in business administration."

2004-01-03
Jonathan D. Glater _NY Times_
Off-Shore Services Grow in Lean Times: Those Pushing Off-Shoring Thrive While Millions of American, European, Australian Workers Are Displaced
"others call the makings of an economic nightmare.   The business of his privately held company, one of Procter & Gamble's consultants, is to advise companies about moving white-collar jobs over-seas.   That process is a hot-button issue in American business and politics, both awash in worries that the job losses in American manufacturing over the last 3 decades [have been corroding] the service and technology sectors, as well...   Moving operations to cheaper locations has always been a response to economic weakness; in this case, though, consultants say the shift is unlikely to slow or reverse as the economy improves.   With excess capacity for almost every kind of service function making competition intense, companies have every reason to take advantage of the lower wage scales in other countries...   'How do we make sure that the jobs that are off-shored,' Mr. Kodali explained, 'that the people who were in those jobs, have opportunities?'   That task may become more difficult as the kinds of jobs that companies want their over-seas employees to perform continue to change...   any functions that are not unique to the company and are not part of its essential business, said Rudy Puryear, director and head of the information technology practice for Bain & Company in Chicago.   'Activities that are highly proprietary and that are unique to the company, it's particularly difficult' to move, he said.   And companies are reluctant to relocate those operations whose secrets they need to protect - the development of corporate strategies, for example...   Todd Furniss, the chief operating officer of Everest Group, another firm specializing in helping companies move operations off-shore, distinguished between rules-based and judgment-based operations...   Andersen Consulting, the company now known as Accenture, played a critical role at this juncture, helping Procter & Gamble identify countries that would be hospitable.   The company and its consultants narrowed the list of cities to 12 from 104 and eventually picked [3]...   the company has sold most of its employee services operations in each location to International Business Machines, which runs them for Procter & Gamble but can also offer the same services using the same facilities to other companies."

2004-01-03
_NY Times_
Immigration Reform
"Washington has not made any serious attempt at reform since the Reagan administration...   American officials cannot keep pretending that 8M to [12M] illegal immigrants do not exist.   A simple crackdown aimed at sending all illegal immigrants back where they came from would not work.   It would simply drive people without proper documentation deeper into the shadows, where they would continue to be at the mercy of unscrupulous employers and would be afraid to report crimes, send their children to school or seek treatment when they had infectious diseases."

2003-01-03
_Madison Wisconsin Journal Times_
State legislation aims to keep jobs in state
"State senator Bob Wirch, D-Pleasant Prairie, is supporting the American Jobs Act, legislation drafted to require all contractual services purchased by state agencies to be performed in the United States.   The legislation was drafted by state Sen. Judy Robson, D-Beloit, and state Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, in response to what they described as the continued out-sourcing of jobs by American companies to other countries...   Green Bay experienced a similar loss of tax-payer-supported jobs last year when eFunds Corp. moved its call center to India."
 

2004-01-04

2004-01-04 12:34:06PST (15:34:06EST) (20:34:06GMT)
_AP_/_MarketWatch_
Corruption arrests tied to South Korean affiliate of IBM
"Prosecutors indicted 48 government and IBM company officials Sunday on corruption charges linked to a South Korean affiliate of the U.S. computer giant, a media report said.   Yonhap news agency said prosecutors alleged that IBM's South Korean branch and its local affiliates used bribes to win some 66G won ($55M) worth of procurement contracts from government agencies." ---

2004-01-04
Mars Exploration Rover Mission

2004-01-04
Sara Rimer _NY Times_
Unruly Students Facing Arrest, Not Detention
"She was one of more than two dozen students in Toledo who were arrested in school in October for offenses like being loud and disruptive, cursing at school officials, shouting at classmates and violating the dress code.   They had all violated the city's safe school ordinance...   Schools are increasingly sending students into the juvenile justice system for the sort of adolescent misbehavior that used to be handled by school administrators...   Others, however, say the trend has gone too far.   'We're demonizing children.', said James Ray, the administrative judge for the Lucas County juvenile court, who is concerned about the rise in school-related cases.   There were 1,727 such cases in Lucas County in 2002, up from 1,237 in 2000...   According to an analysis of school arrest data by the Advancement Project, a civil rights advocacy group in Washington, there were 2,345 juvenile arrests in 2001 in public schools in Miami-Dade County, FL, nearly three times as many as in 1999.   60%, the project said, were for 'simple assaults - fights that did not involve weapons - and 'miscellaneous' charges, including disorderly conduct."

2004-01-04
Edmund L. Andrews _NY Times_
The Joyless Recovery (4 pages)
"The stock market is surging and the economy appears to be booming, but Judith Pike is getting out of business.   'I'm finished; I'm out of here.', said Mrs. Pike, owner of Acme Grinding, whose customers have been vanishing and whose work force has shrunk from 40 to 4.   Two days before Christmas, Mrs. Pike sold her business and more than 40 machines used to grind and finish metal parts.   'It will be for pennies on the dollar.', she said.   'Less than what it cost to buy just one of these machines.'...   here in Rockford, and in the nation as a whole, factory owners like her have seen their worlds turned upside down.   And their struggle goes a long way toward explaining why this continues to be such a joyless recovery.   More than 11K jobs have disappeared in and around Rockford in the last three years, and many of those are not expected to return.   Motorola shut down a big repair plant not far from Mrs. Pike's company last year, eliminating more than 1K jobs, even as it invested $1.9G in a new electronics factory in [Red China]...   Manufacturers have been shedding jobs in the United States for decades, moving plants to low-wage countries or squeezing ever more production from fewer workers at home.   But the process accelerated recently, with manufacturers trimming a whopping 2.8M jobs over the last 3 years alone.   A study published in August by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York concluded that more than half of those job losses stemmed from structural changes and were likely permanent...   This is the second 'jobless recovery', the first having occurred after the slow-down in 1990 and 1991...   This city has long been synonymous with manufacturing.   It has scores of automobile suppliers, tool-and-die makers, machine-tool producers and small companies that provide contract manufacturing services.   The unemployment rate is nearly 11% in the city and about 8% in the surrounding Rock River Valley, much higher than the national average of 5.9%...   One of the few thriving metal-working industries here is the business of scrap metal - mainly because of voracious demand from [Red Chinese] steel mills.   Some of the metal is discarded industrial machinery from factories that have closed...   Companies that once sold easy-to-replicate products to nearby car companies are being bypassed by distant rivals in [Red China].   "We have lost our technological edge, our pricing edge and in many cases our quality advantage," said Eric Anderberg of Dial Machine, testifying before a recent panel on manufacturing that was convened by the Commerce Department...   North American Tool, which makes precision tool parts, was able to retain its 100 employees over the last three years and is now beginning to have a solid pickup in demand.   But it specializes in customized parts ordered by the dozens rather than the thousands..."
 

2004-01-05

2004-01-05 07:44PST (10:44EST) (15:44GMT)
Rex Nutting _MarketWatch_
Construction spending up 1.2%
full Commerce Department report
"Led by outlays for homes, spending on U.S. construction projects rose 1.2 in November after an upwardly revised 1.1% gain in October, the Commerce Department estimated Monday.   Total spending on construction hit a record annual rate of $934.5G in the month.   Outlays are up 7.4% in the past year."

2004-01-05 10:06PST (13:06EST) (18:06GMT)
Frank Barnako _MarketWatch_
On-line holiday sales rise 30%
"Virtual registers were busy this holiday season as consumers drove holiday shopping sales up 29.5% in the last 2 months of 2003.   Sales in the holiday season, which runs between November 1 and December 31, totaled $12.5G, according to preliminary data from ComScore Networks.   These sales exclude revenue generated from travel or auction-related transactions.   For the full year, on-line retail spending hit $52G, up 22% from 2002.   The growth rate of nearly 30% in the holiday season tops ComScore's previous estimate for growth of 25% to 30%."

2004-01-05 13:48PST (16:48EST) (21:48GMT)
Jenny Spitz _MarketWatch_
Kmart gains on positive sales update
"Kmart gained 27%... but most other top retailers declined Monday as analysts weighed in with pessimistic previews of their holiday sales results."

2004-01-05 15:00PST (18:00EST) (23:00GMT)
Lou Dobbs & Bob Franken & Lisa Sylvester & John King & Kitty Pilgrim & Bill Tucker & Jamie McIntyre _CNN_
Foreign Visitor Tracking System
"The government has launched a huge program to photograph and finger-print millions of foreign visitors.   Critics, however, say it will do little to stop terrorists...   U.S. companies are not only shipping American jobs over-seas.   They're also destroying the living standards of middle-class Americans...   the CIA says the latest audio-tape attributed to Osama bin Laden is likely his voice.   Terrorism experts say the tape could be a sign another big terrorist attack is imminent...   Of the 8M to 10M [some sources say 8M to 15M] illegal aliens in the United States, half of them are estimated to be Mexicans...   The federal government today launched a massive new screening program to track millions of foreign visitors to this country.   Citizens from most foreign countries will be photographed and finger-printed when they arrive at air-ports and some sea-ports...   The program has the benign name US-VISIT...   At 115 U.S. air-ports and 14 seaports, foreign visitors will undergo what amounts to a digital finger-printing and will have their pictures taken as well.   The information will be matched against various watch lists and will become part of a permanent record; 28 nations are excluded.   Some of those that are not excluded are not happy.   Brazil, for instance, is retaliating by fingerprinting U.S. tourists.   But officials insist, it is only a minor inconvenience.   And many who had just under-gone the process agreed, even some Brazilian visitors...   The so-called VISIT program gives visa waivers to 27 countries, mostly European countries.   Nearly all Canadian visitors will be exempt as well from this new system.   Those 27 countries include the largest nations in Western Europe, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, as well as 17 smaller European nations.   Countries outside Europe that are exempt from the new program include Australia, Brunei, Japan, New Zealand, and Singapore.   There are also more a few other several significant holes in the programs as well.   Dozens of sea-ports in this country are not yet included in this new registration system.   And foreign visitors arriving from Mexico and Canada are also exempt...   The average U.S. manufacturing worker is paid more than $21 an hour, Mexico, far less, and in [Red China] and India, only 25 cents to 27 cents an hour.   An American textile worker makes $15 an hour.   In Costa Rica and Mexico, wages are less than $3 an hour, in [Red China], only around 48 cents, and, in VietNam, even less, about 22 cents an hour.   Call center workers in India are paid as little as $1.35 an hour.   Accountants in [Red China] make just under $2 an hour, according to the McKinsey & Company Group.   This puts downward pressure on American wages...   if the high-paying jobs move off-shore, that could leave him and other American workers permanently under-employed...   Labor groups say, the U.S. government needs to take a long, hard look at trade agreements and to negotiate protections for American workers, the same way safe-guards are built in for U.S. multi-national corporations...   Most of the candidates acknowledge that cheap foreign labor, lower pay, fewer worker rights, and fewer regulations have caused the hemorrhage of jobs over-seas...   Coalition For the Future American Worker: 'How much longer can Iowa workers be the punching bags for greedy corporations and politicians?   First, meat packers replaced Iowans with thousands of foreign workers.   Next, wages were cut almost in half.   Now, politicians want new laws to import millions more foreign workers and give amnesty to illegal aliens.'...   After a rough and tumble landing which put the Spirit, a 400-pound vehicle right where NASA wanted it, the rover is not expected to extend its legs and get rolling until a thorough checkup is complete.   The immediate desired destination?   A depression near the rover that scientists have named Sleepy Hollow...   Seven months to journey to the surface of Mars.   And as you were speaking, we're looking at that panoramic, the 3-D image that has just come back.   Color photographs on their way.   It will be about nine days on it before Spirit, the rover leaves the platform and heads out...   the army investigation concluded that the Iraqi prisoners brought to a detention camp in southern Iraq last May were mistreated by 3 army military police officers, all from the same Pennsylvania reserve M.P. battalion.   The reservists have all been demoted, fined and discharged from the military, 2 under less than honorable conditions after deciding to accept administrative punishment rather than risk a court-martial that could have sent them to prison...   Master Sergeant Lisa Girman, a 14-year veteran Pennsylvania state trooper, was found to have mistreated an Iraqi prisoner by repeatedly kicking him in the groin, abdomen and head, and encouraging her subordinate soldiers to do the same.   Staff Sergeant Scott McKenzie was found to have abused a prisoner by holding his legs apart and encouraging others to kick him in the groin, while other U.S. soldier kicked him in the abdomen and head.   And Specialist Timothy Canjer was determined to have mistreated a detainee by violently twisting his previously injured arm and causing him to scream in pain.   A fourth reservist Shawna Edmundson was given a less than honorable discharge in lieu of a court-martial...   George Washington: 'If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it.   If we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known that we are at all times ready for war.'...   the Agriculture Department today said it will destroy 450 calves in a Washington state herd that has now been linked to mad cow disease.   Those calves include the offspring of the cow that tested positive for the disease.   And 2 more letter bombs have been sent to members of the European Parliament.   They exploded today.   A third letter bomb was discovered before it blew up.   At least 7 letter bombs have been intercepted since last week.   No one has been injured..."

2004-01-05
Mark Niesse _AP_/_Yahoo!_
US Government Has Begun Taking Finger-Prints, Tracking Visiting Foreigners
"Authorities began scanning finger-prints and taking photographs of arriving foreigners Monday as part of a new program that Home-land Security Secretary Tom Ridge said will make borders 'open to travelers but closed to terrorists'.   The program, aimed at letting Customs officials instantly check an immigrant or visitor's criminal background, targets foreigners entering the 115 U.S. air-ports that handle international flights, as well as 14 major sea-ports.   The only exceptions will be visitors from 27 countries - mostly European nations - whose citizens are allowed to come to the United States for up to 90 days without visas.   Ridge was at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to meet with some of the first foreign passengers to go through the new system."

2004-01-05
Carlotta Gall _NY Times_
Afghan Council Approves Constitution
"Delegates at a national meeting approved a new Constitution for Afghanistan on Sunday, concluding 3 weeks of often tense debate.   Their decision heralded a new era of democracy after a quarter-century of war...   For the first time, Afghans have set up a democratic presidential system, with a directly elected president and a 2-chamber national assembly; elections are to be held in just 6 months.   An independent judiciary is also being organized.   In a carefully balanced wording, the country will be renamed the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, combining democracy and religion.   There is to be a system of civil law, but no law will be contrary to the beliefs and provisions of Islam.   The 502 delegates from all over Afghanistan who have been assembled in a vast white tent in Kabul Polytechnic approved the Constitution by acclamation.   They said prayers, then rose and stood in silent respect."

2004-01-05
Matt Richtel _NY Times_
Regulation of VOIP
"As a member of the Florida Public Service Commission, [Charles Davidson] is a regulator who is eager to see Internet telephone service spread because he predicts it can make the nation's phone services less expensive and richer in features.   That is why Mr. Davidson wants the federal and state governments to let Internet-based phone service blossom, free from regulation, taxes and surcharges.   Like a growing number of officials who advocate minimal oversight of the service - including Michael K. Powell, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission - Mr. Davidson says Internet telephone service should be treated just like other unregulated Internet services, including e-mail messaging and Web surfing...   Because Internet-based phone service rides over traditional telephone or cable lines, it will not work unless the conventional phone network is intact...   While consumers may pay less each month for Internet telephone service than for regular phone service, they cannot obtain the service unless they first have high-speed Internet access - on which they are likely to spend $40 to $70 a month.   So the ability to use Internet phone service may actually require a total monthly outlay of $100 or more.   Those are table stakes far higher than the bare-bones 'life-line' conventional telephone service subsidized by the regulated industry's universal service fund, which can make basic dial tone and 911 service available to the poor or elderly for less than $10 a month in some states."

2004-01-05
John Markoff _NY Times_
5 Giants in Technology Unite to Deter File Copying
"That way everyone can celebrate the long-awaited recovery for the consumer electronics and entertainment businesses that manifested itself in their best holiday buying season since the late 1990s."

2004-01-05
David Bernstein _NY Times_
Song-Writers Say Piracy Eats Into Their Pay
"Song-writers think of themselves as the unsung victims of Internet music piracy since their incomes can depend on royalties from sales of recorded singles and albums."

2004-01-05
Geraldine Fabrikant _NY Times_
Hollinger Board Accused of Lax Supervision
"The board of Hollinger approved deals benefiting top company executives without independent analysis, according to a law-suit filed by a major Hollinger share-holder."

2004-01-05
Michael Liedtke _AP_/_Seattle Washington Times_
High-Profile, High-Tech Under-Taker Takes Up Residence in Silicon Valley
"Amid rising hopes for a high-tech turnaround, there's this sobering sign: Martin Pichinson, a man who has buried nearly 150 failed startups since 1999, has swooped into Silicon Valley like a vulture lurking over a pack of wounded animals.   Pichinson, a self-described 'doctor of reality' who helps liquidate companies, says he wouldn't have moved from Los Angeles to Palo Alto a few months ago had he not smelled more high-tech trouble looming...   Pichinson figures more than 50K people have lost their jobs on his death watch."

2004-01-05
John Gerome _AP_/_Knoxville News_
Tennessee's 5.7% unemployment rate in November highest since 1997
"The 2 hardest hit sectors are manufacturing and construction, which have lost 6,900 jobs and 4,700 jobs, respectively, since 2002 November. Transportation and warehousing also had heavy losses with 4K jobs disappearing... On average, the service jobs that have been replacing durable manufacturing jobs do not pay as well, although Fox says there are many exceptions, especially in the health fields."

2004-01-05
Stacy A. Teicher _Christian Science Monitor_
Update on 4 long-term job seekers: Still looking
"A former vice president at Putnam Investments, he has spent the past 2-1/2 years job hunting and doing 'survival' work in the Boston area - including selling recreational equipment at REI...   Four former executives who were working the cash register with him at REI finally landed jobs back in the corporate world...   Getting a foot in the door doesn't seem any easier yet - especially for the nearly 2.5M people who have been looking for work for at least six months or have stopped looking out of discouragement.   That's because, compared with the recessions of the 1980s and 1990s, this one resulted in more permanent job losses, says Sophia Koropeckyj, an economist at Economy.com in West Chester, PA..."

2004-01-05
Andrea Jares _Dallas-Fort Worth Star Telegram_
Home starts and foreclosures high
"In January, 3,007 homes were posted for foreclosure in Tarrant, Dallas, Denton and Collin counties, the highest monthly batch of foreclosures since the real-estate crash of the late 1980s.   During the fourth quarter, 7,608 homes were posted for foreclosure, also the highest number since the crash.   Construction of new homes also soared.   There were 29,823 home starts during the first 3 quarters of 2003, according to Metrostudy, a housing-analysis company, on par with the 29,812 home starts in the first three months of 2002, itself a record year."
 

2004-01-06

2004-01-05 16:59PST (19:59EST) (2004-01-06 00:59GMT)
Bambi Francisco _MarketWatch_
It's beginning to feel eerily like 2000
"While it feels eerily like early 2000 just ahead of the market tipping point in March of that year, there are many differences between then and now...   The U.S. adult population grew to 126M in 2003, up from 86M in 2000 March, according to Pew Internet & American Life Project.   On-line advertising revenue has surpassed levels unseen since the Fall of 2001, and is growing at a 20% clip...   Reports out on Monday from Goldman Sachs and ComScore show that on-line commerce grew 30% in the holiday season...   advertisers spend a bulk of their dollars trying to create demand, and not just to fulfill demand."

2004-01-06 06:12PST (09:12EST) (14:12GMT)
Irwin Kellner _MarketWatch_
Green-back's pull-back needs perspective
"The problem isn't that the U.S. dollar has fallen against the euro.   The problem is that it hasn't fallen enough against the rest of the currencies out there...   What matters is where the dollar was before its decline, and how it measures up against all the other currencies that trade in world financial markets...   what's been happening in the foreign-exchange markets is not only no big deal -- it's actually healthy all around...   First of all, before the dollar began its slide against the euro, it was seriously overvalued against the single currency.   This means that our goods were very expensive to holders of euros, while their goods were very cheap here.   The flows of goods reflected this.   Imports were sucked into the U.S. as our firms had a tough time selling abroad.   Naturally, this added to our foreign trade deficit -- not to mention hurting our important manufacturing sector...   U.S. manufacturers are already benefiting from this change in trend.   The Institute for Supply Management reported the other day that factory activity in December jumped by the fastest rate in 2 decades...   it's fallen only half as much against a broader index of 35 currencies, according to the Federal Reserve Board.   It's also gone nowhere against [Red China's] currency, which remains nearly 60% under-valued against the dollar.   That's the country with which we are running our biggest bilateral trade gap -- even though [Red China] is only our third-largest trading partner.   And there are other currencies besides [Red China's], such as those in Latin America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe, which have fallen against the dollar over the past 2 years.   By the Fed's calculations, the dollar has actually risen some 5% against the currencies of these other important trading partners."

2004-01-06 07:01PST (10:01EST) (15:01GMT)
_Reuters_/_Forbes_
Lay-Offs at US Firms Ease in December
"Planned lay-offs at U.S. companies fell to 93,020 in December from 99,452 in November, job placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. said in its monthly report.   For 2003, job cuts declined to 1,236,426 from 1,466,823 [in 2002]...   For the first time in 3 years, lay-offs in the government and non-profit sectors in 2003 out-paced job cuts in the telecommunications sector, it said."

2004-01-06 08:27PST (11:27EST) (16:27GMT)
Jeffry Bartash _MarketWatch_
Fresh data paint mixed economic picture
"Factory orders fell 1.4% in November, as expected, in a Tuesday report from the Commerce Department that investors heavily discounted because much of the information was considered old...   For October, orders were revised to an increase of 2.4% from the 2.2% initially estimated...   The Institute for Supply Management reported that its non-manufacturing index fell to 58.6% from 60.1% in November...   Also Tuesday, the out-placement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas reported that publicly announced U.S. lay-offs fell 6.5% in December from the month before, though the fourth quarter saw the heaviest round of job cuts in 2003.   In December, publicly announced lay-offs totaled 93,020, down from 99,452 in November and flat compared with 2002 December.   The total was just below the average job cuts of 104K per month announced last year.   None the less, planned job cuts registered 364,346 in the fourth quarter, or 51% higher than in the third quarter, Challenger said."

2004-01-06 11:25PST (14:25EST) (19:25GMT)
Mark Gongloff _CNN_/_Money_
Will Job Market Improve (graph)
"U.S. businesses announced 93,020 job cuts in December, down 6.5% from 99,452 in November, according to Chicago-based Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which keeps track of monthly job-cut announcements.   December's announcements slightly exceeded those of 2002 December, when 92,917 cuts were announced.   There were 364,346 announcements in the fourth quarter, making it the largest job-cut quarter of 2003.   The first quarter had the second-most cuts, with 355,795.   There were 1,236,426 job-cut announcements in all of 2003, down 16 percent from 1,466,823 in 2002...   Industrial goods makers led the job cutting in December, announcing 12,039 cuts, according to Challenger.   Computer firms announced 10,496 cuts, telecommunications firms announced 8,740 and consumer products makers announced 7,303.   For the full year, government and non-profit employers announced the most cuts, with 177,215, followed by telecommunications, which announced 111,342...   The percentage of people in the Conference Board's monthly consumer confidence survey who say jobs are 'hard to get' has stayed near the highest level in a decade..."

2004-01-06 15:00PST (18:00EST) (23:00GMT)
Lou Dobbs & John King & Lisa Sylvester & Peter Viles _CNN_
Bush's amnesty/guest-worker proposal
"The White House today called on Pakistan to live up to its promises to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction.   The White House statement reflects new concerns about nuclear proliferation, after published reports that Pakistan supplied Libya with nuclear weapons technology.   Pakistan strongly denies any involvement in nuclear transfers.   U.S. officials, however, fear individual Pakistani scientists may have helped Libya for personal gain...   Administration officials acknowledge that those in this country now illegally, some of them will be able to come forward and join a new temporary worker program and keep their jobs and get on the path eventually to legal status here in the United States...   President Bush wants to pave the way for millions of illegal aliens working in the United States to be legally recognized.   It would allow illegal aliens to remain in the country as long as they had a willing employer...   In 1986, President Reagan signed an amnesty bill.   Since then, the number of illegal aliens have grown from an estimated 5M in the early '80s to as many as 12M [or possibly 15M] today...   Now Maytag is closing its factory and moving most of the work to a new plant in Mexico.   And Galesburg is bracing for an unemployment rate of 20% and an uncertain future...   But now the jobs, all 1,600, are leaving...   Scott Ward: 'You can't go to work knowing that you do a good job every day.   And, if you're in manufacturing, knowing that you're making a good product, that's not what is going to keep your job here.   You have to understand that they can move to Mexico or to the Pacific Rim and have your job done for pennies-on-the-hour wages.'...   JC made $15 an hour, but Maytag is building a new refrigerator factory in Reynosa, Mexico, where workers are paid less than $1 an hour...   The local jobless rate right now, 9%.   There are fears it may rise to 20%.   At the heart of this story is a broken promise.   Free trade agreements promised workers at plants like this one a chance to export their products to new markets around the world.   But the reality is, the only thing being exported from this city is American jobs...   _The Times of India_ says Bangalore now has 150K information technology engineers and says that is 20K more than are now employed in Silicon Valley, California...   Joseph Stiglitz: 'Well, it [NAFTA] didn't live up to its promise.   A lot of people thought that it was going to be the magic bullet that would lead Mexico to prosperity.   In fact, the gap between the United States and Mexico has actually grown in the decade.   Real wages in Mexico have actually fallen, and the growth in Mexico in the last decade is much poorer than it was in the decades after, say, 1948...   Mexico is being hurt by our huge subsidies for agriculture...   remember, after NAFTA was signed, unemployment in the United States fell.   It fell to 3.8%...   The point I'm making is that when you have the economy managed well, it can create jobs even though we're reshifting our economy, losing some low quality jobs and gaining high quality jobs...   we have to do at a global level is make sure that we have fair trade agreements, and the problem is United States has been advocating unfair trade agreements [unfair to other countries].'...   we're watching hundreds of thousands of high valued jobs being transferred, along with capital and production facilities, over-seas.   No one ever anticipated that situation, did they?   Joseph Stiglitz: 'Well, what we anticipated is that at the same time we would also be creating new jobs...   We have unemployment, because the president, President Bush, decided to push a tax cut for upper income Americans rather than the kind of stimulus that the country needed and would have gotten us out of the economic down-turn far quicker than it did.   We've lost 3M jobs in the last 3 years.   We should have been creating...' And $1.5T [really $35G] in stimulus isn't enough to drive it, you think?..."

2004-01-06 15:31PST (18:31EST) (23:31GMT)
_CNN_/_Money_
abc News/Money poll shows consumer confidence at highest level since 2002 July
"The ABC News/Money magazine Consumer Comfort Index, which assesses consumer views on the economy, personal finances and the buying climate, is now at -7 on a scale of +100 to -100, its best level since July 7, 2002.   Despite a late year surge, the index averaged -19 in 2003, its worst annual performance since 1994.   42% of Americans last week said the economy's in good shape, raising ratings for this category to their highest level since 2002 May.   The highest level of confidence in this category was set at 80% on 2000 January 16, while the lowest, 7%, occurred in late 1991 and early 1992.   About as many, 41%, say it's a good time to buy things.   Consumer confidence in this category edged up slightly from 40% the previous week and hovers between its best level, 57% set on 2000 January 16, and its worst, 20% set in 1990 Fall.   57% of respondents rate their own finances as excellent or good, up from 55% the week prior.   Consumers expressed the most confidence in their personal finances on 1998 August 30 and in 2000 January when ratings reached 70%.   All 3 gauges are now at or just above their 18-year averages."

2004-01-06
David Barboza _NY Times_
Questions Seen on Seed Prices Set in the 1990s
"Senior executives at the 2 biggest seed companies in the world met repeatedly in the mid- to late 1990s and agreed to charge higher prices for genetically modified seeds, according to interviews with former executives from both companies and to court and other documents.   The Monsanto Company and Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. acknowledge that their executives met to discuss genetically modified seeds.   Monsanto also said the companies discussed prices, but added that they were engaged in legitimate negotiations about changes to an existing licensing agreement, not illegal price fixing."

2004-01-06
Dan Hurley _NY Times_
Crime Control a Neighbor at a Time
"Dr. [Felton] Earls [a psychiatrist] and his colleagues argue that the most important influence on a neighborhood's crime rate is neighbors' willingness to act, when needed, for one another's benefit, and particularly for the benefit of one another's children...   Will a group of local teenagers hanging out on the corner be allowed to intimidate passers-by, or will they be dispersed and their parents called? Will a vacant lot become a breeding ground for rats and drug dealers, or will it be transformed into a community garden?   Such decisions, Dr. Earls has shown, exert a power over a neighborhood's crime rate strong enough to overcome the far better known influences of race, income, family and individual temperament...   His study, based in Chicago, has challenged [complements] an immensely popular competing [complementary] theory about the roots of crime.   'Broken windows', as it is known, holds that physical and social disorder in a neighborhood lead to increased crime, that if one broken window or aggressive squeegee man is allowed to remain in a neighborhood, bigger acts of disorderly behavior will follow."

2004-01-06
Mark Gongloff _CNN_/_Money_/_Job Bank USA_
Can Job Situation Continue?
"US businesses announced 93,020 job cuts in December, down 6.5% from 99,452 in November, according to Chicago-based Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which keeps track of monthly job-cut announcements.   December's announcements slightly exceeded those of 2002 December, when 92,917 cuts were announced.   There were 364,346 announcements in the fourth quarter, making it the largest job-cut quarter of 2003.   The first quarter had the second-most cuts, with 355,795.   There were 1,236,426 job-cut announcements in all of 2003, down 16% from 1,466,823 in 2002...   '...year in which more than 1.2M people fell victim to down-sizing.', said John Challenger, the firm's CEO.   'That is more than double the 553,044 job cuts averaged annually during the 6-year period before the recession.'   Industrial goods makers led the job cutting in December, announcing 12,039 cuts, according to Challenger.   Computer firms announced 10,496 cuts, telecommunications firms announced 8,740 and consumer products makers announced 7,303."
 

2004-01-07

2004-01-07 11:45PST (14:45EST) (19:45GMT)
George W. Bush
speech
White House brief
"between 1891 and 1920 -- our nation received some 18M men, women and children from other nations [about 600K per year as compared to 2,300K per year, now]...   About 14% of our nation's civilian work-force is foreign-born.   Most begin their working lives in America by taking hard jobs and clocking long hours in important industries...   more than 35K foreign-born men and women currently on active duty in the United States military...   we should have immigration laws that work and make us proud.   Yet today we do not.   Instead, we see many employers turning to the illegal labor market.   We see millions of hard-working men and women condemned to fear and insecurity in a massive, undocumented economy.   Illegal entry across our borders makes more difficult the urgent task of securing the home-land.   The system is not working...   our laws should allow willing workers to enter our country and fill jobs that Americans are not filling...   If an American employer is offering a job that American citizens are not willing to take, we ought to welcome into our country a person who will fill that job.   Third, we should not give unfair rewards to illegal immigrants in the citizenship process or disadvantage those who came here lawfully, or hope to do so...   I propose a new temporary worker program that will match willing foreign workers with willing American employers, when no Americans can be found to fill the jobs.   This program will offer legal status, as temporary workers, to the millions of undocumented men and women now employed in the United States, and to those in foreign countries who seek to participate in the program and have been offered employment here.   This new system should be clear and efficient, so employers are able to find workers quickly and simply...   Employers who extend job offers must first make every reasonable effort to find an American worker for the job at hand.   Our government will develop a quick and simple system for employers to search for American workers.   Employers must not hire undocumented aliens or temporary workers whose legal status has expired.   They must report to the government the temporary workers they hire, and who leave their employ, so that we can keep track of people in the program, and better enforce immigration laws.   There must be strong work-place enforcement with tough penalties for anyone, for any employer violating these laws.   Undocumented workers now here will be required to pay a one-time fee to register for the temporary worker program.   Those who seek to join the program from abroad, and have complied with our immigration laws, will not have to pay any fee...   Decent, hard-working people will now be protected by labor laws, with the right to change jobs, earn fair wages, and enjoy the same working conditions that the law requires for American workers.   Temporary workers will be able to establish their identities by obtaining the legal documents we all take for granted.   And they will be able to talk openly to authorities, to report crimes when they are harmed, without the fear of being deported."

2004-01-07 11:48PST (14:48EST) (19:48GMT)
_AP_/_CNBC_
Tech Execs Try to Defend Moving US Jobs Over-Seas; Argue that shifts are necessary for profits

2004-01-07 12:49PST (15:49EST) (20:49GMT)
Jennifer Loven _AP_/_San Diego Union-Tribune_
Illegal immigrants who register could stay for 3 years under Bush plan
abc News
"His plan would create a temporary worker program for [illegal alien] workers now in the United States and those in other countries who have been offered employment here."

2004-01-07 13:25PST (16:25EST) (21:25GMT)
Mark Cotton _MarketWatch_
Nasdaq hits 29 month high
"The Nasdaq Composite ended the session up 20 points or 1% at 2,078, its best closing level since 2001 August."

2004-01-07 15:00PST (18:00EST) (23:00GMT)
Lou Dobbs & John King & Lisa Sylvester & Stuart Rothenberg & Casey Wian & Jamie McIntyre & Bill Tucker & Peter Viles _CNN_
Bush's amnesty program for illegal aliens
"President Bush today out-lined a new immigration plan that critics say will give amnesty to millions of illegal aliens in this country.   The president's plan will enable illegal aliens to work legally in the United States as temporary workers.   The plan would also allow those illegal aliens to apply for permanent residency...   he would like these new 3-year visas to be available to prospective immigrants now outside of the United States, so long as there is a job waiting for them in the United States that no American will take...   those temporary visas should also be made available to the 8M to 10M [to 15M] illegal aliens in the United States, so long as those illegals could come forward and prove that they already have a job and if they are willing to pay a registration fee...   He says there are jobs waiting for workers.   He also says it is compassionate to bring these undocumented workers out of hiding...   George W. Bush: 'We must make our immigration laws more rational and more humane.   And I believe we can do so without jeopardizing the livelihoods of American citizens.'...   Tom Tancredo: 'People are here illegally.   They need to be deported.   People who hire them need to be fined.   If they keep doing it, they need to be sent to jail.   It's against the law.'...   But many, including the Chamber of Commerce, favor more broad amnesty for those in the United States illegally, some sort of a permanent program...   There are 38.7M Hispanics in the United States.   In the 2000 election, 13M were U.S. citizens.   Only 7.5M were registered voters.   And fewer than 6M Hispanics actually voted in the presidential race...   Pro-immigration groups... said his proposals reward businesses that employ illegal aliens, while doing nothing for illegal aliens themselves...   Glenn Spencer of American Border Patrol: 'This is asinine.   This is turning the United States into a day labor center.'...   At least 35 American soldiers have been wounded in a mortar attack against their base west of Baghdad.   The military says about 6 mortars struck the logistical base in Balad in the Sunni Triangle.   It is among the worst attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq in recent weeks...   A Harvard study found that, for example, in California, during the mid-1990s, [it cost] the average household in the state of California...$1,200 a year to provide services to illegal aliens...in that state.   The issue here is a diffused cost to the country, other studies showing $190G to $200G in costs to this economy [to] tax-payers at the state, federal and local level, while businesses are paying low wages to illegal aliens, instead of hiring Americans...   Angela Kelley of National Immigration Reform: 'People are here and they are working.   But without legal status, it is very easy for employers to exploit them.'...   1, I would enforce security at our borders.   Absolutely.   No. 2, I would make certain that everyone who employed an illegal alien was penalized under the terms of the law.   No. 3, I would make certain that everyone who comes to this country receives a fair wage.   And, secondly, in all of this, I would make certain that our immigration policy reached out to people whose skills and talents were needed in this economy and rationally considered, not simply allowing a flood of immigrants to arrive from Asia, from Europe, from Mexico, Central America, without any concern for our laws at the border...   All across America they gather.   Those displaced by H-1B Visas, L1 Visas, those that lost their job to [off-shore] out-sourcers...   Representative Rosalea DeLauro of CT has a bill to limit the number of L1 Visas and it's co-sponsered by Representative John Mica of FL.   Representative Nancy Johnson, also of CT has a proposal to change the L1 and H1-B Visa programs.   Representative Tom Tancredo of CO wants to completely eliminate the H1-B Visa program...   The argument goes when qualified workers are available American countries shouldn't be turning their back on them...   The Sanford study is showing as many as 14M jobs at risk to exporting abroad.   We thank you very much.   In a report released just today, chief executives from some of this country's leading technology company defended their exporting of American jobs to cheap over-seas labor markets.   The CEOs are members of the something called the Computer System Policy Project...   2 advertising executives face criminal charges in a Manhattan court-room alleging they cheated the federal government by over-billing for the work they did for the government's ad campaign for the war on drugs.   Two executives at Ogilvy & Mather indicted on criminal charges alleging they systematically over-billed the government.   Thomas Early and Shona Seifert were both senior partners at Ogilvy.   They both left the agency and both pled not guilty today in federal court.   The alleged over-billing estimated at less than $1M, took place in 1999 and 2000 during the Clinton administration when Ogilvy was beginning a 5-year contract valued at $684M.   Prosecutors have a source inside Ogilvy who tells us he was part of the conspiracy.   Former Congressman Bob Barr, one of the first to spot the billing problem blames both the government and the ad agency...   It [Ogilvy] paid $1.8M in 2002 to settle civil charges...   They said, guys, we're not billing enough, let's just bill more, change the time cards."

2004-01-07
Keith Bradsher _NY Times_
Red China Has Announced New Bail-Out of Big Banks
"[Red China] announced a complex transfer on Tuesday of $45G from its soaring foreign exchange reserves to 2 of the 4 big government-owned banks, the third large bail-out in the banking system in less than 6 years...   The central bank admonished the commercial banks to do a better job of controlling fraud and limiting bad loans...   Beijing bars Chinese journalists from reporting on the full extent of the banks' troubles, especially writers for mass-media publications read by many depositors.   But with their promises of tough action against errant bank officers, the statements issued on Tuesday by the central bank and other agencies hinted at a concern about public perceptions of the bail-out.   The costs of the American savings and loan bail-out more than a decade ago - $123.8G in public funds and $29.1G in supplemental deposit insurance premiums from financial institutions - drew considerable complaints from politicians and the public in the United States.   [Red China] has been eager to prevent a similar controversy.   Its latest bail-out, while costly, covers less than half of the non-performing loans at 2 of the 4 troubled banks, and in an economy that is one-eighth the size of America's."

2004-01-07
Ted Bridis _Atlanta Georgia Journal-Constitution_
Technology Firms Attempt to Rationalize Moving US Jobs Over-Seas
Deccan Herald
_Yahoo!_
"Worried about possible government reaction to the movement of U.S. technology jobs over-seas, leading American computer companies are defending recent shifts in employment to Asia and elsewhere as necessary for future profits and warning policy makers against restrictions."

2004-01-07
Grant Gross _InfoWorld_/_IDG_
Tech CEOs Claim that Hiring Off-Shore Workers Is Good
"Computer Systems Policy Project (CSPP). The 20-page report, titled _Choose to compete_, calls on U.S. law-makers to avoid 'protectionism' through limits on international trade and collaboration, and instead to form a partnership with U.S. companies to improve how the nation competes globally.   'Because U.S. companies are operating globally, they must hire qualified workers around the world to meet customer demands and expand their capabilities -- a business model that makes sense, given that increasing corporate revenues come from abroad.', says the CSPP, representing chief executive officers (CEOs) at 8 U.S. IT companies...   But organizations representing IT workers, including the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-USA (IEEE-USA) have questioned how moving jobs off-shore helps unemployed IT workers in the U.S.   In late 2003, U.S. the unemployment rate for electrical and computer hardware engineers was near 7%, according to the IEEE-USA.   'Their interest is in profits.', Ron Hira, chairman of the IEEE-USA's research and development committee, said of off-shoring defenders during an interview last month.   'They don't feel a responsibility to their work-force.'"
 

2004-01-08

2004-01-07 21:29PST (2004-01-08 00:29EST) (2004-01-08 05:29GMT)
Corbett B. Daly _MarketWatch_
Little economic effect expected from Bush's illegal alien amnesty plan: more about politics than the economy
"Bush proposed granting temporary legal status for millions of illegal immigrants working in the United States...   'New immigration laws should serve the economic needs of our country.   If an American employer is offering a job that American citizens are not willing to take, we ought to welcome into our country a person who will fill that job.', Bush said in an East Room speech announcing the plan...   Under the terms of the proposal, undocumented workers would be allowed to apply for temporary worker status in the U.S. for an unspecified number of years and receive benefits already given to the legally employed, such as minimum wage and due process.   Those who are approved also could apply for a green card granting permanent residency in the U.S. Workers in other countries could also apply for guest worker status in the U.S., provided there was no American to take the job...   Michael Piore, an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology... noted that the program would require workers to have a long-term relationship with their employer, something most of the 6M undocumented workers don't have.   And those that do have a long-term relationship with their employer are unlikely to expose themselves as having provided false documents in the past and run the risk of being deported after 3-years if they have not been granted citizenship...   it is estimated there are fewer than a million workers who are completely off the books...   Bush said the government would increase the number of workers eligible for citizenship (currently 140K are granted annually), but he did not say how much that would increase."

2004-01-08 00:34:09PST (03:34:09EST) (08:34:09GMT)
Norman Matloff _H-1B/ L-1/ Off-Shoring e-News-Letter_
major change point for the USA

2004-01-08 04:20PST (07:20EST) (12:20GMT)
Jonathan Krim _Washington DC Post_/_Yahoo!_
Executives Say that US Could Lose Technology Dominance
NY Times
"An organization of high-technology executives yesterday renewed industry calls for government spending and tax cuts to spur research, improved mathematics and science education and policies that make building technology infrastructure a national priority. With India, [Red China], Russia and other countries rapidly becoming technology centers, the executives warned that without such measures the United States could lose its dominance in the knowledge economy... By some estimates by financial consulting firms, 10% of jobs at U.S. information technology vendors will move off-shore by the end of this year... Sen. John F. Kerry (D-MA) has introduced legislation that would require employees of call centers to identify their location. Organizations of technology employees, many of whom remain out of work after the post-tech-bubble downturn, argue that companies are simply reaping greater profits at the expense of U.S. workers. In November, Indiana governor Joseph E. Kernan (D) canceled a $15M contract with an out-sourcing firm that would have had engineers in India upgrading state computers, even though a domestic contractor cost more."

2005-01-08 05:30PDT (08:30EDT) (13:30GMT)
Thomas Stengle _DoL ETA_
un-employment insurance weekly claims report
"The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 546,823 in the week ending January 3, an increase of 30,431 from the previous week.   There were 620,004 initial claims in the comparable week in 2003.   The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.9% during the week ending December 27, an increase of 0.3 percentage point from the prior week.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,724,660, an increase of 485,181 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 3.2% and the volume was 4,081,930."
graphs

2004-01-08 07:34PST (10:34EST) (15:34GMT)
Rex Nutting _MarketWatch_
UnEmployment Compensation Insurance Claims Up for Week, Down on Average
"The average weekly number of initial claims for state unemployment benefits over the past 4 weeks fell by 5,500 to 350,250 in the week ending January 3.   It's the lowest number since 2001 February 3.   However, claims in the most recent week increased by 14K to 353K.   Initial claims had fallen 3 weeks in a row...   The 4-week average has fallen by about 50K in the past 3 months...   The number of Americans collecting state unemployment benefits in the most recent week ending December 27 fell 12K to 3.27M.   The 4-week average of continuing claims dropped to 3.275M, the lowest since 2001 Sept 22.   The figures do not include some 770K workers receiving extended federal unemployment benefits, which are available only after state benefits are exhausted, typically after 26 weeks.   The federal program is phasing out.   No new workers will be eligible for the program."
graphs

2004-01-08 08:35PST (11:35EST) (16:35GMT)
Jennifer Waters _MarketWatch_
Last-minute shopping brings up holiday sales figures
"An eye-popping 74% of the retailers tracked by Thomson First Call served up better-than-expected December sales results Thursday as spending sprees in the final days ahead of Christmas were only outdone by a rush of post-holiday shopping...   Cumulatively, the results rolled in with a 4.2% increase in sales at stores open longer than a year -- a key industry bench-mark known as comparable-store sales.   The results were in line with predictions by the International Council of Shopping Centers but ahead of even the best intra-month average projection reached by analysts surveyed by First Call."

2004-01-08 14:15PST (17:15EST) (22:15GMT)
Andrea Coombes _MarketWatch_
Over-due credit kkkard bills reach new high
"Late-paying American consumers drove the number of past-due credit-card bills to its highest level ever in the third quarter, even as other consumer-loan delinquencies fell, according to the American Bankers Association.   The number of delinquent credit-card accounts rose to 4.09% of all accounts in the third quarter last year, up from 4.04% in the second quarter, on a seasonally-adjusted basis, according to the ABA's survey of banks released this week.   The previous record-high was 4.07% in the fourth quarter of 2002.   'Clearly the weak job market has had an impact on people as unemployment has lengthened.', said Keith Leggett, senior economist with the ABA...   Of the total credit-card dollars owed, 4.66% is late, up from 4.51% in the second quarter, on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, but below the record-high of 5.45% in 1996...   Counting eight installment-type loans, including auto, personal and home-equity loans, the delinquency rate dropped to 2.14% of all accounts in the third quarter, seasonally adjusted, from 2.18% in the previous quarter...   Personal-loan delinquencies fell to 2.75% of all such loans, from 3.17%, and late payers on indirect auto loans, which are borrowed through financing and other companies and not directly from banks, dropped to 1.8% from 1.86%.   Past-due payments on home-equity lines of credit dropped to 0.52% from 0.63%.   Still, some installment loans saw a rise in delinquencies.   Late payments on auto loans borrowed directly from banks rose to 2.46% from 2.41%, while home equity loan late-payments rose to 2.52% from 2.48% and mobile-home loan delinquencies moved to 6%, from 5.98%."

2004-01-08 15:00PST (18:00EST) (23:00GMT)
Lou Dobbs & Harris Whitbeck & Peter Viles & Casey Wian & Bill Tucker _CNN_
amnesty program, Enron plea bargain
"An estimated 7M illegal aliens in this country are Mexican citizens...   As we have reported here, the millions of illegal aliens in this country already are driving down wages for Americans by as much as $200G a year.   President Bush's proposal will, without question, benefit some corporations, many employers, but it will cost workers even more...   George W. Bush: 'Our laws should allow willing workers to enter our country and fill jobs that Americans are not filling.   And I believe we can do so without jeopardizing the livelihoods of American citizens.'...   Bill Hawkins of the US Business & Industry Council: 'The impact is going to be to keep wages down.   It's supply and demand.   Increase the supply in a given demand situation and prices fall.   And, in this case, prices are wages.'...   9M Americans are officially unemployed and real wages have fallen in this country over the past 30 years.   And by giving employers a new option, to seek out cheaper foreign labor with the government's blessing, the proposal also appears to create a new incentive for those employers to offer wages so low that no American will take the job in the first place.   Jared Bernstein of the Economic Policy Institute: 'You will often hear it said that we need an immigrant work force in this country because no one else will take these jobs, no one else will perform these services in the low-end sector.   But, in fact, that's really not the case.   What we are really saying is, no one will take these jobs, given their current quality, given the wages and the compensation that they pay.'   Immigration, both legal and illegal, is already driving wages down in low-wage jobs.   A UCLA study of wages earned by construction corkers, gardeners, cooks, and farm workers found that nonimmigrants in those professions suffer a wage penalty of up to $200 a month, because recent immigrants, both legal and illegal, drive down wages for everyone...   Sheila Jackson Lee: 'We are 6M [visa] applications behind at the Department of Home-land Security...   It would be almost impossible to deport between 8M and 14M individuals...   But what his bill is, is a temporary guest program that I don't necessarily support.   And the reason is, because all you do is encourage individuals to either not go into the program or, when the 3 years is up, then become someone who is deportable.   Let's have an earned access to legalization, get people in line, assess their criminal background, what kind of job commitment they have, the investment they have made in this country, and get them in line for citizenship.'...   Harvard studies show that $190G to $200G a year are lost in wages to working men and women in this country as a result of illegal immigration...   Tom Tancredo: ' There are 8M, 12M, sometimes people even suggest 15M people who are here illegally.   The existence of those people here right now depresses labor, regardless of what happens beyond that.   It is a supply-and-demand issue.   And if you have 12M people right here who are vying for low-skill, low-wage jobs, I assure you that that, in and of itself, if you didn't do another thing, would have a very depressing effect on wage rates, and it already has.'...   Tom Donohue of the US Chamber of Commerce: 'The reason we have 10.5M, or whatever the number is, illegal aliens in this country, or illegal workers, is, we don't have sufficient workers to take these jobs.   If you take all the unemployment in our country, which is a little less than 9M, figure half of those are structurally employed, there are not near enough to take care of the hospitals and the nursing homes, the hotels, and all of the jobs these people fill...   70% of the jobs in this country do not require extensive training...   you can go to Los Angeles and, for $250, you can buy a [Socialist Insecurity] card, a driver's license and a green card.'...   the most recent estimate that I have seen suggests that two-thirds of illegal immigrants coming to this country don't even have a completed secondary education.   They do not speak English, for the most part.   How effective a work force can they be?...   Tony Samaniego, of San Diego, California: 'It is not Fiorina's God given right to pay [Red Chinese] or Indian wages and expect to get American prices and exorbitant CEO bonuses to return for driving our standard of living into the ground.'...   Levi Strauss closed its last manufacturing plant in this country after making jeans for more than is 50 years in the United States, Levi has moved all its production overseas to suppliers and workers at a fraction of wages paid to Americans...   In 1997 Levi Strauss had 37 North American factories, and 37K employees world wide.   Now the plants and 15K workers are gone mostly to [Red Chinese] sub-contractors...   The company's sales dropped for 7 straight years to the lowest level since 1990...   Juan Zarate, deputy assistant treasury secretary: 'Worldwide we have frozen over $136M in assets, seized over $60M [of alleged terrorists], and we've had an unprecedented effort worldwide...   We also work very closely with all the federal regulators, like the Office of Comptroller Currency and the Federal Reserve System to make sure that they are checking to make sure those types of safe-guards are in place.'...   OFAC, the Office of Foreign Asset Control...   federal officials report that more than 90 children, however, died of the flu this season."

2004-01-08
Elisabeth Bumiller _NY Times_
Bush's Plan for Amnesty for Illegal Aliens (graphs)

2004-01-08
Sheryl Gay Stolberg _NY Times_
Mad Cow Case Aids Push for Food Labeling
"to require that super-market meat carry country-of-origin labels immediately...   contend that they benefit consumers as well as independent farmers and ranchers, who could get a premium price for meat labeled Made in America.   Critics, including meatpackers and the major organization representing cattlemen in the United States, say labels are too costly and do not improve food safety...   The labeling requirements, which apply to beef, pork, fish and fruits and vegetables, are scheduled to take effect on September 30, under a bill passed in 2002.   But the spending bill includes a provision that would delay the program by two years for all foods except farm-raised catfish and Alaskan salmon products, which face stiff foreign competition and are produced in Mississippi and Alaska, the home states of two powerful appropriators, Senators Thad Cochran and Ted Stevens."

2004-01-08
Ian Austen _NY Times_
LEDs
"The apartment has 360 LED arrays, and about 20 yards of plastic ribbons embedded with the glowing semiconductors...   Despite its enormous number of light fixtures, [the] apartment uses no more electricity than four 100W incandescent bulbs would...   he spent $50K to create the apartment's lighting system...   About 20% of all electricity in the United States is used for lighting...   About 90% to 95% of the electricity that goes into most incandescent bulbs is converted to heat rather than light...   The vast video screens and animated signs that cover buildings in Times Square are the most dramatic commercial use of the technology.   But the most common applications tend to be prosaic.   Many traffic signals, Walk/Don't Walk signs and indicator lights on trucks and buses use LEDs...   Currently no LED produces light of a color that that is suitable for everyday household use.   The best produce a white light that has a pronounced and very unflattering blue tinge...   Christmas lights with LEDs can provide up to 200K hours of continuous use."

2004-01-08
Ted Bridis _AP_/_Philadelphia Inquirer_
Off-Shoring of High-Tech Jobs Rationalized
Chicago Sun-Times
"Leading technology companies urged Congress and the Bush administration yesterday not to impose new trade restrictions aimed at keeping U.S. jobs from moving over-seas, where labor costs are lower...   The effort shows the industry's growing concerns that lawmakers may clamp down on the off-shoring of U.S. jobs during an election year...   'This is not a recipe for job creation in this country.', said [Marcus] Courtney, president of the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers, of Seattle.   'This is a recipe for corporate greed.   They're lining up at the public trough to slash their labor costs.'   A Commerce Department report last month said increasing numbers of technology jobs were moving from the United States to Canada, India, Ireland, Israel, the Philippines and [Red China] - and predicted that 'many U.S. companies that are not already off-shoring are planning to do so in the near future'."

2004-01-08
Matt Marshall _San Jose Mercury News_
Off-Shore Labor Drove Firm to Brink
See also
"Go ahead, join the lemmings in the rush to India.   But if you're a Silicon Valley entrepreneur or venture capitalist still considering it, contemplate the over-the-cliff tale of Ishoni Networks.   Last month, the Santa Clara start-up filed for bankruptcy, a victim of moving to India too quickly.   Backed with more than $68M from venture capitalists from the United States and elsewhere, Ishoni once was branded a rising star.   It was developing a cutting-edge chip to allow voice and data services over a single Internet connection -- and was valued as high as $200M and employed 170 people.   Seeking to cut expenses, Ishoni created a subsidiary in Bangalore, India, and hired software engineers there on the cheap.   Weirdly, though, the subsidiary stopped returning phone calls from Ishoni's Santa Clara-based chief operating officer, Amin Varis, early last year.   Varis made a surprise visit to India in May and learned a big lesson about how much damage 12K miles of distance -- even when connected by Internet and phone lines -- can do.   Indian executives, he found, had forced their engineers to join a rival firm, Ample Wave Communications, apparently in a scam to scoop up Ishoni's intellectual assets and then bankrupt it.   Ishoni notified police, and 3 Ishoni India executives were charged with illegally copying Ishoni's software..."
 

2004-01-09

2004-01-09 15:05PST (17:05EST) (22:05GMT)
Mark Cotton _MarketWatch_
Dow closes on triple-digit loss: Nasdaq follows on weak job market data
"The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 134 points, or 1.3%, at 10,458, its first triple-digit intraday decline since November 17.   Alcoa, SBC Communications and AT&T were the most notable fallers.   In the first full week of trading for 2004, the bench-mark index gained 49 points, or 0.5%.   The Nasdaq Composite ended its winning run -- 5 consecutive sessions of gains -- to close down 13 points, or 0.6%, at 2,087.   That was well off an intraday high of 2,113...   The Nasdaq ended the week with a 4% gain, based on last Friday's close of 2,006.68.   The S&P 500 was down 10 points or 0.9%, at 1,122.   Total volume was 1.7G on the NYSE and 2.5G on the Nasdaq Exchange.   On the broader market, there were an equal number of advancers to decliners on the NYSE, while decliners out-paced gainers by a margin of 19 to 12 on the Nasdaq Exchange."

2004-01-09 15:00PST (18:00EST) (23:00GMT)
Lou Dobbs & Peter Viles & Katharine Barrett & Bill Tucker & Kitty Pilgrim _CNN_
job creation stalled, interview with commerce secretary Don Evans
"virtually no new net jobs created in this economy last month, corporate America enjoying rising profits, while unemployed Americans struggle to find work and pay their bills.   In 'Exporting America' tonight, not only does this country have a half-trillion dollar trade deficit with the world; Americans don't even own the ships that bring those products to our shores...   more than 300K people looking for work simply abandoned their search for jobs...   retailers cut 38K jobs last month, on top of 28K jobs they cut in November...   Backed by worker productivity gains, corporate profits rose an estimated 22% last quarter...   Richard Trumka: 'The jobs that are being created...two-thirds of them are part-time, and they are inferior when it comes to wages, on average, $2.50 an hour less.'...   Americans are working harder, smarter and more productively and they have nothing to show for it right now...   Labor leaders now talk of 15M Americans who want work.   And here's how they get there: 8.4M officially unemployed, another 1.5M not working, but not counted as unemployed, because they have given up working lately, and another 4.8M who want a full-time job, but can only find part time work, total 14.7M.   Now, there is another factor.   And that is the huge underground labor market in the United States, illegal workers.   It is likely there is job creation in that sector.   And it could well be that that job creation hurting job growth in the legal economy...   [State] governments are using tax-payer dollars to employ workers in India, Mexico, and other countries to do government business...   The Indian sub-contractor building Washington's new health authority software has repeatedly delayed delivery...   The bill to ban [off-shore] out-sourcing of state contracts sailed through the New Jersey Senate, passing unanimously on a vote of 40-0, and then hit a brick wall in the assembly state government committee, where it sat for over a year and was never given a hearing or a vote.   The Information Technology Association of America opposed the bill and actively lobbied against it...   The ITAA is an industry alliance.   Time Warner, parent of CNN, is a member.   The bill was also supported by NASSCOM, a consortium of companies in India that provide out-sourcing services.   Public relations powerhouse Hill & Knowlton represents NASSCOM's interests...   The senator [Shirley Turner of New Jersey] will re-introduce her bill to ban tax-payer money from going to overseas labor as early as next week...   Foreign companies have bought out nearly all of the top American cargo carriers.   And now our port terminals are increasingly under the control of, you guessed it, foreign companies.   $750G worth of goods come into the United States on ships each year, but not one of the top 10 international shipping companies is American-owned...   Four major American shipping companies have been bought in the last six years.   The premier American shipper, Sealand, has been bought by Danish-owned Maersk.   A company once known as American Presidential Line is now called APL and has been bought by Singapore-based NOL.   Lykes was bought by Canada's C.P. Ships, and Farrell bought by Anglo-Dutch P&O.   One reason for the buyouts, foreign governments often subsidize their international shipping companies.   So many American firms found they just couldn't compete in international shipping...   An estimated 50% of East Coast terminals and 30% of West Coast terminals are leased and operated by foreign companies....   Virtually all U.S. oil imports that come by sea are transported by foreign vessels...   One of [Red China's] leading exports to this country is furniture.   Today, the United States International Trade Commission voted unanimously that there is evidence that cheap [Red Chinese] imports are hurting American furniture-makers.   The Commerce Department now must decide whether [Red China] is illegally dumping that furniture and whether then to take action.   Last year, the government imposed anti-dumping sanctions against [Red Chinese] textile and television makers...   Don Evans: 'I wake up every morning thinking about what it is we can do to... improve the conditions for job creation...   including making the president's tax cuts permanent, including doing things like encouraging Congress to pass an energy bill, encouraging Congress to take action to reduce health care costs and to reduce the lawsuit burden on our businesses all across America...   the global economy is becoming more integrated, more interlinked, more networked than anybody thought imaginable even five or 10 years ago.   But I really think it is all about free trade and open trade and fair trade.   And I think that's healthy in the long run for the American economy and the American workers.   I think the more we work to open up trade all around the world, open up markets for our good products and our good workers around the world, it means that our economy will be stronger.   And so I'm not concerned about the level of job out-sourcing that I hear about...   remember, this is a very dynamic economy.   It's an economy that creates some 1M new jobs every week.'...   Illegal aliens in this country may number more than 12M people.   Close to half of the illegal aliens reside in the 4 states that border Mexico, more than 5.5M people, California, 3.5M, Texas with 1.6M...   Before being folded into the Home-land Security Department, the Immigration and Naturalization Service revised estimates up to 8M, well below current estimates...   Kathleen Newland of the Migration Policy Institute: 'I don't think we know how to make people leave, if we did know how to make people leave, we wouldn't have 8M to 12M people living here without authorization today...   not every immigrant who comes to the United States wants to stay here forever.   Some want to be able to come and go to work for a few years and then go home...   I think there is work that Americans don't want to do at the wages offered.   But the pattern in this country for centuries has been that people come take the jobs on those lowest rungs and then work their way up.   Once they started working their way up, they don't want to go back to the lowest rungs.'...   more than 10% of Mexico's current population now lives in the United States.   Yet Mexico is one of the wealthiest countries in all Central and South America in this hemisphere outside the United States and Canada...   Mexican citizens in this country, legally and illegally, send an estimated $14G in hard currency back to Mexico, second only to the amount of money generated by Mexican oil, $17G...   In more than three decades after they died, the remains of two U.S. Navy pilots have been returned to the country.   The Pentagon says the pilots were killed when their war plane was shot down over North VietNam in 1973.   More than 1,800 American troops are still MIA from the VietNam War...   Do you find it fascinating that no one is trying to figure out how many jobs are being out-sourced [off-shored] under various means and guises?   It's critically important.   The Labor Department isn't tracking it, commerce isn't tracking it, business associations aren't tracking it.   Labor organizations aren't tracking it...   Nearly every CEO we have talked with all over the course of years have invested billions of dollars in [Red China], talking about it as a consumption market.   It turns out, whoops, [Red China] is a production market, not a consumption market.   And what we thought is a production market is a consumption market, the United States...   every proponent of free trade says it isn't a zero sum game.   I would love to get us to zero.   We're down a half trillion.   We're looking at $3T in claims against American assets...   I think there are a few people who might say some probably 15M of them, who say, hell, we need to earn first then we'd be delighted to save, too...   we're not only exporting jobs, we are also exporting intellectual capital, technology, and the factors of production to over-seas economies."

2004-01-09
David Barboza _NY Times_
Bias Issue Faces Judge in Monsanto Case
"A federal judge now presiding over a price-fixing case involving Monsanto did not disclose that he was once listed as a Monsanto lawyer in a case that covered some of the same issues."

2004-01-09
Tracie Rozhon _NY Times_
Holiday Sales Hopping for Luxuries (with graph)
"Store sales for last month, measured against the same stores open in December 2002, rose 3.7%, according to the Bloomberg composite same-store sales index.   Last year, called one of the worst in decades by analysts, holiday sales rose 2.2%...   Bloomberg said its composite index rose 3.26% in November...   The sale of 18-karat gold watches, for example, rose 12% in the holiday season, through December; watches from $5K to $10K rose 16%, according to LGI Network, which tracks watch sales.   Over all, while store sales were up 12.6% at Neiman and its Bergdorf Goodman unit, sales rose 27% for Neiman's online and catalog sales...   The Bloomberg index for department stores rose only 1.62%, weighed down by the more traditional department store chains - Federated and the May Company - which barely eked out a positive comparison with last year.   Saks, on the other hand, rose more than 9% and Tiffany rose 16%."

2004-01-09
_NY Times_
Putting Sex Slavery on Notice
"Around the world, about 1M women and children are seduced into leaving their home-lands every year and forced into prostitution or menial work in other countries.   Most are duped with promises of good jobs in more prosperous nations.   These cases are not confined to remote parts of the world.   Of the 15 nations the State Department listed last year as having done little or nothing to stop this growing human rights abuse, five of the worst offenders were in the Western Hemisphere: Belize, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Suriname.   A study by the Inter-American Commission of Women at the Organization of American States in Washington shows that Latin American nations have mostly sat back as women and children were treated as chattel...   Young Mexicans were enslaved in several states, including Texas, Florida and New Jersey...   Evangelical groups were partly responsible for President Bush's strong statement at the United Nations on human trafficking.   They also won the appointment of John Miller, a former congressman from Washington State, as an adviser on human trafficking to Secretary of State Colin Powell."

2004-01-09
Paul Krugman _NY Times_
Enron and the System
"Although Enron prosecutors finally seem to be getting somewhere, it would be a big mistake to conclude that the system is working.   It isn't...   The charges against Mrs. Fastow don't focus on dubious corporate deals; they focus on her failure to report the personal kickbacks she received from participants in those deals.   And it's still unclear whether the company's top executives will ever face charges.   More important, in political terms the statute of limitations may already have run out.   The political figures with the most direct ties to the Enron scandal, former Secretary of the Army Thomas White and former Senator Phil Gramm, are no longer in office.   War and a rising market have, at least for the time being, diverted attention from the role of other political figures whose deference to corporate demands aided and abetted Enron and other corporate malefactors."

2004-01-09
David Abraham _NY Times_
American Jobs but Not the American Dream
"President Bush's immigration reform proposal, unveiled on Wednesday, is a classic guest worker program on the European model.   As such, it may be doomed from the start...   Guest worker programs were widely used in Europe from the 1950's through the 1970's during a period of [alleged] extreme labor shortages...   Germany's guest worker program was ended more than 2 decades ago.   Yet Germans still have not resolved the question of what to do with the millions of immigrants living in their midst.   Although these immigrant workers get some benefits of citizenship - health care, for example, and unemployment insurance - they are not citizens.   They are not allowed full membership in German society, yet neither are they forced to return home.   It is virtually impossible to find anyone in Germany today who would favor re-establishment of its guest worker program."

2004-01-09
Carolyn Lochhead _San Francisco Chronicle_
US workers object to being displaced by cheap, less-skilled foreign labor
"Comments made in Washington on Tuesday by Carly Fiorina, CEO of Palo Alto information technology giant Hewlett-Packard, and Craig Barrett, chief executive of Santa Clara chip-maker Intel Corp., drew an unusually strong reaction from workers, who suggested the pair forfeit their own highly paid jobs to [Red Chinese] or Russian executives working for a quarter of their pay...   But with unemployment at 7.2% in Santa Clara County in November, the latest figure available, Fiorina's statement hit a sore spot.   'I am curious how Ms. Fiorina would feel about her job being outsourced to China or India.', Sean Ryan of Alameda, where the county unemployment rate is 6.1%, wrote in a representative e-mail to The Chronicle.   'I am certain that there are many extremely bright, ambitious and successful executive types in those countries who would be able to do her job just as well if not better than she can at a cost savings to HP share-holders of millions of dollars per year.'   Many Bay Area residents argued that it was the low wages in India and [Red China] that were motivating Silicon Valley corporations, not a lack of skilled U.S. workers.   Some argued for 'Buy America' campaigns and greater U.S. self- sufficiency.   'I have many, many friends who are unemployed, and continue to be so because they are ''over-qualified'' or ''not a good fit'' for a particular position.', one tech worker at Bechtel Corp. in Seattle wrote.   'I'm talking about people with degrees from Caltech and Stanford...   It's not that Indians and Chinese are better educated.   It's that they'll work for cheap, and they'll work for what most Americans couldn't live on.   That's the issue.'"

2004-01-09
Mike Cassidy _San Jose Mercury News_
Tech titans tell government to let them do as they will but spend money to help them
"At the same time tech titans are madly moving jobs to low-wage countries, they are asking political leaders here to keep the United States competitive and make it a job-creation machine...   Solutions like, well, 2 mostly.   First, government should leave business alone.   Don't pass restrictions on trade or moving jobs over-seas.   Second, spend money.   Not Intel's money or HP's money or IBM's money or the money of Dell, EMC, Motorola, NCR or Unisys.   See, that's their money.   The report calls for spending government money -- billions in federal, state and local tax money.   It urges more government spending on research and development.   It calls for fixing our failing schools.   It calls for corporate tax breaks."

2004-01-09
Dean Reynolds _abc News_
Laid-Off Workers Just Cannot Find Comparable Jobs
"after 30 years as a systems engineer -- laid off from a job that had paid him close to $100K annually.   Now [he] holds down a part-time job at a Best Buy in suburban Chicago and freelances.   His annual income?   'I'll be lucky if I can crack $10K.', he said...   For millions of Americans today, being employed means lowering your expectations...   for the most part the new positions are on the lower end of the pay scale.   And now, with white collar jobs being farmed out to nations overseas, that situation is unlikely to change for years.   John Challenger of Challenger, Gray and Christmas, a firm that helps workers look for new jobs, said it's important that American workers come to terms with this new reality.   'There isn't going to be any miraculous job rebound.', he said.   To suggest that this economy is capable of creating 250K jobs a month is 'unfair', he added...   S worked at the local printing plant in Cedar Rapids for 27 years.   When he was laid off he was making about $22 an hour.   Now he drives a delivery truck for less than half that wage."
 

2004-01-10

2004-01-10 02:00PST (05:00EST) (10:00GMT)
Jon Friedman _MarketWatch_
Red Chinese Piracy
"[Red China], featuring more than a billion untapped consumers who might just embrace all sorts of U.S. movies, represents one of the world's most promising markets.   But until the nation can conquer its piracy problem, it'll fail to fulfill its potential - and will continue to frustrate both Western media and entertainment companies and the Chinese government.   The problem is so rampant that it's a common sight along some of [Red China's] streets to glimpse [pirates] peddling the latest Hollywood block-busters - and the hottest-selling compact discs...   Of course, piracy is hardly a problem that is exclusive to [Red China].   The U.S. has its own head-aches trying to grapple with the thieves...   China remains one of the largest offenders in the piracy problem around the world, and it is the No. 1 nation in the Asia Pacific area in terms of losses to U.S. intellectual property copyright holders, making up $168M of the overall $3G lost worldwide each year, according to a report compiled last year by the Motion Picture Association, a trade association in Washington.   [Red China] is feeling the effects of its negligence, too.   Indeed, the foreign direct investment in China plummeted 39% in 2003 November from year-before levels and is not likely to expand by 10% from 2002's $57G, as the [Red Chinese] officials had predicted."

2004-01-10
Douglas Jehl _NY Times_
Hussein Assigned P.O.W. Status
"The prisoner of war status sets standards for how Saddam Hussein is treated and allows the Red Cross to see him."

2004-01-10
Edmund L. Andrews _NY Times_
Bush Seeks Ways to Create Jobs, and Fast
"The problem confronting Mr. Bush is that there is little he can do between now and the elections except wait and hope that the employment picture improves.   And the administration is not likely to get much more help from the Federal Reserve, which has already reduced short-term interest rates to just 1%...   Last year's tax cuts are expected to produce another big bulge of tax refunds and lower tax bills between now and June - about $40G in extra cash flow to households, according to economists at Goldman Sachs and Macroeconomic Advisers...   Both the White House and the Fed are confronted by a recovery unlike any other in modern history.   Economic growth has been soaring for months, corporate profits have shot up and the stock market has regained much of its old ebullience.   Yet job creation has been slower than in almost any previous recovery, and wage growth has slowed to a crawl.   That appears to reflect another big new element that lies entirely outside the president's control: the enormous increases in productivity, which have made it possible for companies to squeeze more output from each worker.   'The evidence is powerful that we can have 4% or 5% growth without hiring much.', said John Makin, a senior economist at the American Enterprise Institute."

2004-01-10
John M. Broder _NY Times_
Governor Schwarzenegger Seeks Big Cuts in California's Spending Plan
"Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's first state budget, a $76G spending plan, includes cuts in health care, public education and payments to local governments."

2004-01-10
Karen W. Arenson _NY Times_
Students' Data on Web, and N.Y.U. on Defensive
"NYU notified about 1,800 of its students that their Social[ist In]Security numbers, phone numbers, and names had been posted on the Internet...   NYU officials said the information was posted on an Internet page run by Brian Ristuccia, a computer technician in Massachusetts who found it on NYU's Web site in a list of students interested in intramural sports.   The university said it was considering taking legal action."

2004-01-10
David Brooks _NY Times_
Workers in the Shadows
"Imagine a person 10 times as determined as you are.   Picture a guy who will wade across rivers, brave 120-degree boxcars and face vicious smugglers and... vigilantes - all to get a job picking fruit for 10 hours a day.   That person is the illegal immigrant...   Between 1986 and 1998, Congress increased the Border Patrol's budget 6-fold.   Over that time the number of [illegal aliens] in the U.S.A. doubled, to 8M."

2004-01-10
Paul Craig Roberts _Ludwig von Mises Institute_
Clarifications on the Case for Free Trade
Gil Guillory: Comparative Advantage vs. Absolute Advantage
George Reisman: A Reply to Schumer and Roberts
Response by Don Boudreaux
Comment & Clarification by Don Boudreaux
Jose Ferre: Some nuances on Roberts's last reply
Michael Newton: Absolute advantage
Robert P. Murphy, Free Trade and Factor Mobility
Robert P. Murphy, Who Benefits from Free Trade, and How
Paul Craig Roberts: The Real Issue
"Economists need to address precisely what is being traded when a US multi-national discharges its US employees and hires foreign ones."
Robert P. Murphy, Can trade bring poverty?
Robert P. Murphy, Is Free Trade (or "Free" Trade) Wrecking the USA?
 

2004-01-11

2004-01-11
James R. Edwards _NY Times_
Astray on Amnesty
"The Bush administration¥s amnesty/guest-worker proposal should be promptly pricked and all the president¥s men brought back in touch with reality. The idea is yet another mass amnesty of alien law-breakers, this time in the guise of a massive 'guest-worker' scheme just as the president prepares to visit Mexico... DHS recently killed the NSEERS alien registration program. Males 16 years or older here on a temporary visa from 25 terrorist-sponsoring countries had to register with immigration authorities. Some 83K aliens showed up to register. About 14K registrants were breaking our immigration laws and held in custody. Another 143 were arrested on criminal charges, and 11 were connected to terrorism. That is, nearly 17% of NSEERS registrants were violating our laws. By actually enforcing these laws, thousands more illegal aliens left the country on their own. Many illegal aliens fled to Canada or their own country; they 'self-deported'."

2004-01-11
Louis Uchitelle _NY Times_
Incentives Lure Many to Quit, Even With a Lean Job Market
"Fortified with big pension pay-outs and promises of health benefits, early retirees are gambling on the devil they don't know rather than sticking with the devil they do."

2004-01-11
Mark Landler & Daniel J. Wakin _NY Times_
The Rise and Fall of Parma's First Family
"The epic accounting fraud that may have siphoned more than $10G out of Parmalat has brought ruin to one of Italy's most ambitious family dynasties."

2004-01-11
Jacob S. Hacker _NY Times_
Risks Have Been Shifted
"The reality is that the economy has become more uncertain and anxiety-producing for most of us - not just over the past 3 years, but over the past 30...   an increasing shift of economic risk from government and corporations onto workers and their families.   Signs of this transformation are everywhere...   University of Michigan Panel Study of Income Dynamics...   family finances have grown much more insecure...   In fact, the instability of family incomes was roughly 5 times greater at its peak in the 1990s than in 1972...   incomes have grown little for the middle class and working poor - even as wages have become more unstable, the financial effects of losing a job have worsened, and the cost of things families need, from housing to education, has ballooned..."

2004-01-11
Kimberly Blanton _Boston Globe_
US Job Market Poised
"the job market is responding slowly.   Historically, when the country emerges from a down-turn, employment lags as cautious employers try to make do with people who are already on the pay-roll...   The collapse of high-tech manufacturing caused the state's total employment to plunge dramatically to 3.195M currently from 3.371M in 2001 January.   In November, the most recent month for which state data is available, total non-farm employment fell 7,800...   Last year, growth in demand for high-tech equipment nationwide - from semiconductors and machines that make them to computer parts and other electronic equipment - grew nearly as fast as it did during the boom, about 17.7% in the first 10 months, he said.   Rising demand for high-tech products caused Massachusetts' manufacturing employment to expand, albeit modestly, for four consecutive months.   November saw the biggest gain in factory jobs - 600 - according to a monthly survey of the state's nonfarm businesses.   Various factors point to job growth in 2004, Clayton-Matthews said.   Massachusetts' unemployment rate declined for 3 consecutive months, to 5.4% in November from 5.8% in August."

2004-01-11
Robert P. Murphy _Ludwig von Mises Institute_
Free Trade and Factor Mobility
 

2004-01-12

2004-01-12 04:39PST (07:39EST) (12:39GMT)
Steve Goldstein _MarketWatch_
Adecco Slammed on Accounting Woes
"Shares of Switzerland-based staffing giant Adecco lost close to half their value Monday after uncovering 'material weakness' in the internal controls at a North American unit.   Adecco said it would delay publishing its 2003 accounts, initially scheduled for February 4, until it resolves 'possible accounting, control and compliance' issues in 'certain countries'...   Swiss-listed shares were rocked 44% at 45.60 Swiss Franks per share.   Adecco is the third major European company to admit to accounting irregularities in the last year, following in the foot-steps of Italian dairy group Parmalat and Dutch food services and super-market operator Royal Ahold.   Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, which was quick to cut its rating from buy to sell, speculated that the Olsten deal in 2000 unravelled.   'Olsten was primarily U.S. but did have decent sized operations in U.K. and Germany...', the broker noted.   Through 9 months, Adecco posted revenues of 12.1G euros and net income of 254M euros.   Its North American unit of Adecco Staffing posted revenues of 2.233G euros, and at 13M euros, 3.16% of operating income before amortization."

2004-01-12 12:18PST (14:18CST) (15:18EST) (20:18GMT)
_Dallas Morning News_
Firm to screen foreign nurses
"Hospitals have increasingly relied on foreign nurses over the last few years to alleviate the [alleged] nursing shortage, but they have been forced to deal with immigration paper-work and training certification issues on their own.   Now the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council and a Nashville, TN, health care staffing and management firm are teaming up to help local hospitals hire as many as 500 foreign nurses over the next 4 to 6 years."

2004-01-12 15:00PST (18:00EST) (23:00GMT)
Lou Dobbs & Dana Bash & William Schneider & Susan Lisovicz _CNN_
Bush meets with Vicente Fox at the Summit of the Americas, and Made in America?
"The president says his immigration proposal is designed to allow illegal aliens to remain in this country to do jobs that Americans don't want.   Economists say those illegal aliens and high immigration levels depress working wages in the United States...   Do you remember when labels carried 'Made in America' and that was a persuasive buying point in this country?   Tonight, whatever happened to made in America?...   Now, while the president obviously making clear that he wants to give