2004 June

2004-06-01

2004-06-01 07:37PDT (10:37EDT) (14:37GMT)
_Reuters_
US Planned Lay-Offs Rose Again in May
Globe & Mail
Fox News
CBS.MarketWatch.com
Washington Times/UPI
CNN
"Out-placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., said planned job cuts rose by 1.6% to 73,368 in May compared with 72,184 in April.   But the report showed monthly job cuts in May this year were 6.9% above those in 2003 May, making this the first month since December that has seen a year-on-year increase.   Lay-offs hit a nine-month low of 68,034 in March."

2004-06-01
_Dice_
Dice Report: 46,261 job ads

2004-06-01 08:01PDT (11:01EDT) (15:01GMT)
_CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Crude petroleum futures rise 4%, back above $41 per barrel
AAA
http://www.fuelgaugereport.com/
"On the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude for July delivery traded at $41.48 per barrel, up $1.60, or 4%.   It touched an intra-day high of $41.60.   Brent crude for July delivery was up $1.56, or 4.3%, at $38.14 a barrel on the International Petroleum Exchange in London; the contract touched a high for the day at $38.52 per barrel.   July unleaded gasoline also rose, moving up 4.05 cents, or 3.1%, to stand at $1.328 per gallon.   Heating oil for July delivery traded at $1.042, up 3.91 cents, or 3.9%...   At the retail level Tuesday, the U.S.   average for regular unleaded stood $2.043, down from Monday's $2.048, according to AAA's daily fuel gauge report.   It saw a record high of $2.054 on Wednesday."

2004-06-01 08:09PDT (11:09EDT) (15:09GMT)
Myra P. Saefong _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Crude petroleum futures on NyMEx touch $42 per barrel

2004-06-01 13:26PDT (16:26EDT) (20:26GMT)
Carla Mozee _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Accenture (formerly fraud-prone Andersen Consulting) won $10G federal security deal
"An alliance of technology and defense firms led by the U.S.-based arm of Accenture [Andersen Consulting] on Tuesday won a government contract worth up to $10G to implement a system to track people entering and exiting the United States.   The Department of Homeland Security's contract with Bermuda-based Accenture is for 5 years with an option for a 5-year extension.   The system is called US-Visit and the government plans to use it in more than 400 air, sea and land points of entry...   Accenture said key members of its alliance include Raytheon, the Titan Corporation and SRA International."

2004-06-01 15:00PDT (18:00EDT) (22:00GMT)
Lou Dobbs & Harris Whitbeck & Lisa Sylvester & Kitty Pilgrim & Christine Romans _CNN_
Jose Padilla, terrorism, gasoline prices, Accenture/Andersen Consulting, Iraq
"Jose Padilla. The Justice Department says Padilla planned to kill hundreds if not thousands of Americans by detonating a radiological dirty bomb or blowing up hotels and apartment buildings...   U.N. Special Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi spent weeks helping to cobble together the interim government, a presidential council of 4, plus 31 Cabinet ministers...   Interim President Sheikh Ghazi al Yawar was firm in expressing [they will work toward full sovereignty]...   the government passed over two U.S. corporations.   The Department of Homeland Security awarded the lucrative contract to Accenture [see Andersen Consulting], which is based in Bermuda.   That contract could be worth as much as $10G over 10 years...   Christopher Cox, homeland security committee chair: 'I think U.S. visit is a good description of the Accenture business plan.   They visit the United States to take a government tax-payer-financed contract.   They depart from the United States when it's time to pay their fare share of our national security costs.'...   the U.S. Visit [contract] was technically awarded to Accenture LLP.   Accenture LLP falls under Accenture Incorporated, and Accenture Incorporated is a branch of the Accenture Company in Bermuda...   Another Accenture contract has caused some controversy in Illinois.   The Illinois comptroller is withholding a $2M payment from the company.   Comptroller Dan Hynes questions whether Illinois should be doing business with Accenture since it pays no state taxes....   Iyad Allawi, Iraqi prime minister designate...   Crude oil prices closed at an all-time high today, $42.33 a barrel, up $2.45...   Up until then [the 1950s], the United States was energy self-sufficient...   The average household spends 5% of its budget on energy, 3% on gasoline alone.   The problem is it's a fixed expense.   Cutting back on heat in the winter or the daily commute to work is not an option...   Tonight, Saudi Arabian police and troops are hunting radical Islamists after a terrorist attack on western oil workers over the weekend.   That attack killed 22 people, including 1 American.   Three of those 4 terrorists escaped after threatening to kill nearly 250 hostages in a housing complex in Khobar...   median CEO pay rose 27% last year to $4.6M."

2004-06-01
David R. Francis _Christian Science Monitor_
US runs a high-tech trade gap
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0602/p01s02-usec.html
"For the first time on record, the United States has a deficit in high-tech trade, prompting concern about American competitiveness in key job-producing industries from bio-technology to aerospace.   That deficit appears to be widening, fueled in part by the trend of off-shore out-sourcing in areas such as software design.   As computer parts have become commodities, production has long since moved to places such as Taiwan and, now, to [Red China]...   During the second half of 2003, the US imported nearly $17.5G more than it exported in 'advanced technology' products.   That short-fall in goods was not fully offset by a high-tech trade surplus in services, including royalties, totaling $16G.   That gap persisted during this year's first quarter, and will probably grow, Mr. McMillion says."

2004-06-01
Susan Jones _CNS News_/_NewsMax_
Michael Badnarik
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/6/1/111838.shtml
"A press release from the Libertarian Party said Badnarik's victory was considered a shock because he had been beaten in the polls and primaries by two other candidates: movie producer Aaron Russo and radio talk show host Gary Nolan...   Badnarik, in his acceptance speech, said he would keep his campaign focused on the Constitution and forcing the government to abide by it."

2004-06-01
_The Chattanoogan_
Local Delegates Help Select Michael Badnarik for President
http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_51237.asp
"Seven area residents were among over 800 delegates in attendance Memorial Day week-end at the Libertarian Party's National Convention in Atlanta.   On the third ballot, the convention delegates chose computer consultant and Constitutional scholar Michael Badnarik (www.Badnarik.org) of Austin, TX as the party's nominee... in the presidential election this November.   Richard Campagna, an attorney from Iowa City, IA, was selected as the vice-presidential nominee...   Russo actually held a slim lead after each of the first two ballots, but fell well short of the majority needed to secure the nomination.   After the second ballot, Nolan, the pre-convention favorite who had unexpectedly dropped to third place, was eliminated and threw his support to Badnarik...   'The reason we can't find a relationship between the Constitution and our current government is that there is none.', declared Badnarik...   'If you were in prison and faced a 50% chance of death by lethal injection, a 45% chance of the electric chair, and had a 5% chance of escape, would you vote for lethal injection because it was the most likely outcome, or would you try for escape?', [asked] Badnarik.   'Voting Libertarian is our only chance for political survival.   Choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil.'"

2004-06-01
Greg Burns _Chicago Tribune_
Even in alleged recovery, factories are closing: The exit of Rubbermaid Inc. from Wooster, OH under-scores the phenomenon of plants shutting down even as the general US economy is allegedly growing again
"Now the company's flag-ship factory is shutting down, eliminating hundreds of good-paying jobs...   A few miles from Wooster, Canton is losing part of its Timken Co. ball-bearing complex...   Galesburg, IL, is losing its largest employer as Maytag moves refrigerator production to Mexico...   Between 2000 and 2003, America lost 17% of its manufacturing employment base, government data show.   And while production is beginning to boom again, the labor force never will regain all that lost ground, according to Robert McGuckin, director of economic research at the Conference Board.   'It's the fastest decline we've seen, and you're going to see more.', said McGuckin, who in a recent study concluded that American industry will survive only if far fewer workers produce far more goods.   'There are people who will be devastated.'...   So far, the cuts [in Wooster] are tame compared to the crisis that manufacturing job losses have brought on the steel-workers of Aliquippa, PA, for instance, or the auto-workers of Flint, MI...     From tiny roots, Rubbermaid grew to become one of the most admired companies in the nation during the 1980s, with more than $1G in sales and a pipeline of ingenious new products for the home.   The company informally required its executives to live in town, and they showered Wooster with philanthropy.   Rubbermaid stumbled in the 1990s after Gault left, losing a battle with Wal-Mart over price increases and skimping on research and development.   Newell Co., then based in Freeport, IL, bought it in 1998, but never restored its glory.   Gault, a Wal-Mart director, believes the Wooster shut-down has little to do with the decline of American manufacturing, which he primarily attributes to unfair trade practices.   No, he said bluntly, Rubbermaid's problems stem from incompetent management and ineffective directors...   parent Newell Rubbermaid lost $46M in 2003, and it's in the middle of jettisoning a host of low-margin product lines."

2004-06-01
Ameet Sachdev _Albany NY Times Union_
Small pay hikes leave workers out of recovery
"Last year, many workers essentially took home the same pay they did in 2001, when wages are adjusted for inflation.   Some wage increases aren't even keeping up with inflation.     Labor's share of the increase in national income since November 2001, the end of the last recession, is the lowest for any recovery since the end of World War II.   That's the finding of a new study from the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston.     Sum and his researchers studied the aftermath of all nine recessions going back to 1950 and analyzed the distribution of national income, a measure of the economy similar to the gross domestic product.   From the start of 2002 to the end of 2003, national income grew about $804G, or 8.7%.   For the first time, corporate profits received a larger share of the growth than labor did.   Labor compensation, which includes wages, salaries, benefits and employer contributions to pay-roll taxes, made up about two-thirds of national income in 2000.   Corporate profits captured 9.3%, the self-employed about 8%, and the rest went to net interest, rental income and a combination of indirect business taxes and transfers.   In the first 2 years of past recoveries, labor received between 54.5% and 66.5% of the increase.   This time, employees got 38.6%.   Normally, corporate profits account for about 15% to 18% of national income growth.   This time, corporate profits' share more than doubled, to 40.5%.   The reasons for labor's poor showing are not hard to spot.   Employment rolls have shrunk by 1.6M jobs since the recession's start in 2001 March.     Productivity rose 4.4% in 2003.   But workers are not sharing all that much in the benefits of that improved productivity.   Adjusted for inflation, average hourly wages for non-farm workers, excluding managers and executives, rose 25 cents, to $15.35, between 2001 and 2003.   That equates to an annual increase of less than 2%, or below the rate of inflation.     Consultants Hewitt Associates, for example, found that the average salary increase in 2003 for overtime-exempt employees was 3.3%, the lowest in the consulting firm's 27 years of collecting this data.   Meanwhile, the median cash compensation for chief executives was up more than 7%, and that's not including stock options and other long-term incentives, according to Mercer Human Resource Consulting."
 

2004-06-02

2004-06-02 04:46PDT (07:46EDT) (11:46GMT)
Rex Nutting _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
US weekly retail chain sales fell 0.5%
"Sales at U.S. retail chains fell 0.5% for the second straight week last week, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers and UBS.   The ICSC/UBS index is up 5% year-over-year."

2004-06-02 06:49PDT (09:49EDT) (13:49GMT)
Rex Nutting _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Business RoundTable sees stronger sales & hiring
"Top executives of U.S. corporations are more optimistic that the expanding U.S. economy will lead to higher sales, hiring and capital spending at their companies.   The Business RoundTable's CEO economic out-look index rose to 96.5 in June from 94.3 in March, the organization said Wednesday...   The group represents the chief executives of 150 major corporations with 10M employees and $3.7T in annual sales...   38% expect to hire more workers, up from 33% three months ago.   19% expect to reduce employment, down from 22% a month ago."

2004-06-02 14:01PDT (17:01EDT) (21:01GMT)
Jay Reeves _AP_/_San Francisco Chronicle_
HealthSouth execs convicted, not sentenced to prison for fraud
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/06/02/financial1701EDT0251.DTL
PhillyBurbs Intelligencer
http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/24-06022004-310373.html
"a federal judge sentenced him to house arrest and probation for a huge financial fraud.   Another one-time executive with the rehabilitation giant also avoided prison time in the scandal.   Ex-CFO Malcolm 'Tadd' McVay said he was 'profoundly sorry' and 'totally embarrassed' over his role in a far-reaching scam the company estimates was worth some $3.4G...   Clemon ruled that McVay's actions cost investors $400M.   He then rejected prosecutors' request for imprisonment and sentenced McVay to 6 months of house arrest followed by 2 years on probation.   Clemon also fined McVay $10K and ordered him to forfeit $50K gained through the fraud."

2004-06-02
Eric Lichtblau _NY Times_
U.S. Spells Out Dangers Posed by Jose Padilla
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/02/politics/02PADI.html
"Newly declassified documents show Jose Padilla was even more dangerous than previously described."
 

2004-06-03

2004-06-03 05:30PDT (08:30EDT) (12:30GMT)
Thomas Stengle _DoL ETA_
unemployment compensation insurance claims
"The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 302,472 in the week ending May 29, an increase of 7,804 from the previous week.   There were 351,890 initial claims in the comparable week in 2003.   The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.2% during the week ending May 22, unchanged from the prior week.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 2,717,875, a decrease of 16,981 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 2.6% and the volume was 3,297,674.   Extended benefits were available in Alaska during the week ending May 15.   13,882 individuals filed continued claims under the Federal Temporary Extended Unemployment Compensation (TEUC) program during the week ending May 15...   The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending May 15 were in Alaska (4.8%), Puerto Rico (4.2%), Oregon (3.3%), Pennsylvania (3.1%), New Jersey (3.0%), Michigan (2.9%), California (2.8%), Washington (2.8%), Massachusetts (2.7%), and Arkansas (2.6%).   The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending May 22 were in Oklahoma (+2,368), Mississippi (+809), Pennsylvania (+591), Wisconsin (+545), and Florida (+384), while the largest decreases were in Michigan (-3,202), South Carolina (-1,685), Virginia (-1,283), California (-1,122), and Georgia (-837)."
graphs

2004-06-03 06:42PDT (09:42EDT) (13:42GMT)
Rex Nutting _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Unemployment compensation insurance claims show weaker US job market: Continuing claims exceed 3M
"The average number of new weekly seasonally adjusted claims for state unemployment benefits rose by 4,250 to 341K in the 4 weeks ended May 29, after falling to a 3-year low 2 weeks ago...   Seasonally adjusted initial claims in the last week of May fell by 6K to 339K, slightly above the 335K expected by economists on Wall Street but the lowest level seen in 3 weeks.   The previous week's figure was revised to 345K from 344K...   In the first 4 months of the year, the nation's economy has [allegedly] created, on average, 217K jobs a month...   In a separate report on Thursday, Monster said its online employment index rose to 128 in May from 125 in April, with the largest increases occurring in agriculture and forestry, accommodation and food services, finance and insurance, transportation and warehousing, and manufacturing.   The Monster index has risen for 5 months in a row.   Also reported Thursday, the [seasibakkt adjusted] number of American workers receiving unemployment checks rose by 65K to 3M in the week ended May 22, a 5-week high.   The [seasonally adjusted] 4-week average of continuing claims rose by 22K to 2.96M.   The insured unemployment rate rose to 2.4% from 2.3%."
graphs

2004-06-03 09:36PDT (12:36EDT) (16:36GMT)
Corbett B. Daly _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Factory orders fell 1.7% in April
census bureau report
http://www.census.gov/indicator/www/m3/
"Shipments from factories fell 0.5%, the sharpest decline since August, while inventories rose 0.4% in April.   March's factory orders were revised to a 5.0% gain from the initial estimate of a 4.3% gain."

2004-06-03
Michael Janofsky _NY Times_
EPA Nears Pact on Waste by Processors of Livestock
"The EPA is close to reaching an agreement that would lay the ground-work for the first federal emission standards for companies that process millions of pigs, cows and chickens."

2004-06-03
James P. Miller _Morning Call_
ISG is making steel where failure loomed
http://www.mcall.com/business/local/all-steeljun03,0,2581305.story?coll=all-businesslocal-hed
"Investment banker Wilbur Ross stood in the chandeliered ball-room of a Cleveland hotel last week, addressing the first-ever annual share-holder meeting of International Steel Group Inc...   Ross has done it 'by buying assets on the cheap by getting a revised labor contract that sharply reduces costs', says independent analyst Charles Bradford, of Bradford Research/Soleil Securities Corp...   In 2001, Ross left Rothschild to launch his own firm, W.L. Ross & Co., which aimed to buy up troubled companies...   'Legacy costs' is the industry phrase for the promises steel-makers made in earlier decades to provide retirees with health-care coverage and life-long pensions.   As those promises proved increasingly hard to keep -- many older steel companies were paying benefits to 6 or 8 retired workers for every active employee -- U.S. steel-makers big and small began heading to bankruptcy court...   LTV's collapse threw about 7,500 employees out of work, and more than 80K retirees lost their company-provided health insurance...   the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., which makes good on failed companies' pension plans, agreed to absorb billions of dollars in pension obligations of LTV and other bankrupt steel-makers...   Early in 2002, newly formed ISG acquired the LTV assets for a bargain-basement $325M.   It then negotiated a new contract with the steel-workers union, agreeing to pay relatively generous wages and to cut workers in on future profits -- but demanding concessions on the myriad work rules that had long hampered operating efficiency...   A few months after the LTV deal closed ISG paid a fire-sale $65M to acquire assets of another broken-down steel-maker, Acme Metals Inc. of south suburban Riverdale.   Early in 2003, ISG shelled out $1.5G for Bethlehem Steel Corp., which was bankrupt but still operating at facilities in Burns Harbor, IN, and elsewhere...   By the time the government dropped the controversial protections, [Red China's] insatiable industrial machine was soaking up the excess production that had long plagued the global steel industry, and the tariffs were hardly missed."

2004-06-03
Brian Doherty _Reason_
Libertarian Party Stays the Course
http://www.reason.com/links/links060304.shtml
"[Aaron] Russo, a former Bette Midler manager and Republican gubernatorial candidate in Nevada, fought an explicitly anti-status quo campaign within the LP, and lost.   This might help answer his question.   His loss represents, I would posit, a general sense on the part of the dedicated LP delegates that they are reasonably happy with the LP the way it is and has been.   All they want is to see someone out on the campaign trail saying the things that they believe in, in a style they are comfortable with."
 

2004-06-04

2004-06-04 08:12PDT (11:12EDT) (15:12GMT)
Chris Isidore _CNN_/_Money_
Job seekers aren't cheering: Americans believe jobs are hard to come by (graph)
"The latest consumer confidence survey by the Conference Board in May shows 30.6% believing that jobs are hard to find, almost twice as many as the 16.6% who believe jobs are plentiful."

2004-06-04 08:16PDT (11:16EDT) (15:16GMT)
Rex Nutting _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Seasonally adjusted US pay-rolls up by 248K: Unemployment rate remains 5.6%
"The nation's [seasonally adjusted] unemployment rate remained at 5.6% while the participation rate remained at 65.9%, according to the estimate by the Labor Department...   In the past 3 months, the economy has created 947K jobs, the best 3-month gain since the spring of 2000.   Pay-roll growth in April and March was revised higher by a total of 74K jobs.   So far in 2004, the recovery has seen the creation of about 1.2M jobs, or an average of 238K a month, after shedding 2.7M between 2001 March and 2003 August...   According to a survey of 400K business establishments, job growth was widespread across industries in May.   Over the past 3 months, 75.4% of 278 industries have added workers...   The average work-week stayed at 33.8 hours for the fifth month in a row in May.   Total hours worked in the economy increased by 0.3%.   Average hourly pay rose 5 cents or 0.3% to $15.64.   Real wages are up 2.2% in the past year."

2004-06-04 10:45PDT (13:45EDT) (17:45GMT)
Marc Hebert _Ziff Davis_
Off-Shoring
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1107_2-5226703.html
"The software industry clearly is in dramatic upheaval.   Some 90% of software start-ups have gone out of business, and many of the rest are likely doomed.   Yes, newly funded software start-ups are required by venture capitalists to do their product development off-shore, and chief information officers are aggressively using off-shoring to reduce their operational IT costs.   Meanwhile, the domestic IT services industry is being ravaged by deflation.   Independent consultants today command half or less of their pre-2000 billing rates, as the labor arbitrage between the United States and India quickly erodes."

2004-06-04 13:13PDT (16:13EDT) (20:13GMT)
Michael Baron _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
US Stocks gain on jobs data
"The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced almost 47 points, or 0.5%, to nearly 10,243, while the Nasdaq Composite Index tacked on roughly 18 points, or 0.9%, to finish at 1,979.   At their peaks the indexes reached 10,302.08 and 1,995.50, respectively.   The Dow's brief triple-digit gains came after a Federal Reserve official offered a reassurance that inflation can be contained.   The performance enabled the blue-chip index to close higher for the week, rising about 55 points, but the Nasdaq fell short, losing roughly 8 points.   The Standard & Poor's 500 Index added 0.5% to 1,122.51, and the Russell 2000 Index of small-cap stocks gained 0.9% to 567.75...   Computer Associates said Friday Sanjay Kumar has decided to leave the company.   Kumar was named chief software architect in April when he stepped down as chairman and chief executive officer amid a federal probe and a guilty plea to accounting fraud by from former CFO Ira Zar..."

2004-06-04
Stephanie Strom _NY Times_
Some Alumni Balk Over Harvard's Pay to Money Managers
"An alumnus of the university wants Harvard to put management of its $19.3G endowment up for competitive bid."

2004-06-04
Steve Lohr _NY Times_
Ex-Executives of Symbol Technologies Charged With Fraud
"Seven former executives of Symbol Technologies were charged in a suspected accounting fraud scheme that a federal prosecutor called 'breath-taking in its scope'."

2004-06-04
_NY Times_
The Truth about Tiananmen
"After 15 years, [Red China's] leaders still pretend that the Tiananmen movement was a violent counter-revolutionary rebellion that endangered [Red China's] security and its future.   By not acknowledging that the brutal suppression was a tragic mistake, [Red China] keeps Tiananmen an unhealed wound.   For the generation that lived through it, and especially for those whose lives and families were abruptly torn apart, there can be no moving on until that wound is recognized.   For others, the Tiananmen taboo feeds the suspicion that [Red China's] rulers will always put preserving their own power ahead of the truth and the interests of ordinary people."

2004-06-04
Kate McCann _AP_/_Boston Globe_
Libertarian presidential nominee, Michael Badnarik, is member of Free State Project
http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2004/06/04/libertarian_presidential_nominee_is_member_of_free_state_project/
"Libertarian presidential nominee Michael Badnarik, a Texas computer programmer, may soon become a New Hampshire Porcupine.   The 49-year-old Austin resident is a member of the Free State Project, a movement to bring 20K like-minded people to New Hampshire to fight against big government and for individual freedom.   The porcupine, the project's logo, is intended to show that project members can be friendly and cuddly, but prickly when stepped on...   Amanda Phillips described him as an anti-war constitutionalist who was very much in favor of limited government."

2004-06-04
Donald L. Kohn federal reserve governor to the National Economists Club
OutLook for Inflation
http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/speeches/2004/20040604/default.htm
"Inflation has picked up this year, and by enough to raise questions in the minds of some about whether it might be on a rising trend that poses a risk to price stability.   Total consumer price inflation as measured by the chain price index for personal consumption expenditures (PCE) has risen from 1.4% over the 12 months of last year to an annual rate of 3.0% over the first 4 months of 2004.   Of course, a portion of this acceleration is due to the faster increase in energy prices this year.   But the strengthening in price increases has not been confined to energy markets.   PCE prices excluding food and energy have risen at an annual rate of 1.7% this year, up from 0.8% last year.   The consumer price index has shown a similar pattern of acceleration.   The recent shift up in inflation can be seen not just in the price indexes but also in attitudes, anecdotes, and expectations.   Businesses report that the prices of many inputs to the production process are increasing, and they also sense a return of 'pricing power' that has allowed them to pass on at least some of these cost increases to their customers; my impression is that of late a greater number of stories in general-circulation newspapers have focused on rising prices and their effect on households; and expectations by economists and households of near-term inflation have moved higher."

2004-06-04
Jon Chavez _Toledo Blade_
M$ to close 177-worker unit in Findlay, OH
"came to northwest Ohio 3 years ago, yesterday said it would pull out, closing its business software unit in Findlay that employs 177.   Most of the high-paying jobs will be gone by the end of the month, and the center is expected to be vacant in the short term.   However, a new local software firm is expected to hire 70 of those workers...   built and opened just 17 months ago...   The Redmond, WA, firm said it was reorganizing and consolidating its business software unit and that the move was not because of productivity or quality problems at the Findlay development center.   The firm also is cutting 27 jobs in Fargo, ND, and 12 in Denmark in the same unit as Findlay...   Company Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer will assume oversight of the unit, which sells programs for accounting and customer orders mainly to companies with fewer than 1K employees.   The firm plans to invest $10G in the next 5 years to sell more to small businesses, a market the company said may generate $10G in annual sales by 2010.   The announcement to Findlay workers yesterday was made the same week Bank One said it would cut 121 white-collar jobsand the same year Marathon Oil said it would cut about 200 office jobs...   The software giant three years ago promised 250 jobs at the 42,300-square foot center that housed programmers, support technicians, and administrative workers.   It had 215 workers there when it opened, about that many in January, but since lost about 35...   The Findlay operation began in 1980 as Solomon Software, a developer of software for small and mid-sized businesses involved in online transactions.   It was bought in 2000 by its chief rival, Great Plains, in turn acquired in 2001 by M$ for $1.1G to increase sales to smaller firms.   Within a year, M$ said it would build a $5.7M office in Findlay, desiring to stay to retain programmers and other high-tech workers it knew might not want to move...   Gary Harpst, Jack Ridge, and Vernon Strong, who are starting Plumbline Solutions...   The 3 devout Christian men founded Solomon Software.   Mr. Harpst said he plans to quickly hire 70 of the workers and add 20 more by the end of the year."
 

2004-06-05

2004-06-05 13:58PDT (16:58EDT) (20:58GMT)
Gary Olson _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Ronald Reagan dead at age 93
"Ronald Reagan, 40th president of the United States, died Saturday at his home in California.   He had suffered from Alzheimer's disease, first disclosed to the nation 10 years ago.   His hard-line defense policies were credited with putting pressure on the Soviet Union, leading to its dissolution in 1989.   Domestically, his tax-cut policies were credited with spawning an economic recovery after years of stagnant growth and inflation.   Reagan's body is expected to be taken to his presidential library in Simi Valley, California, then flown to Washington where he will lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda, according to the Associated Press."

2004-06-05
_AP_/_NY Times_
Nichols Defense Offers List of Mitigating Factors: Reno, Clinton, Potts, Horiuchi, Whitcomb et al. Yet To Be Tried
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/05/national/05nichols.html
"Lawyers for Terry L. Nichols listed more than 20 mitigating factors that they want to present to jurors, who will be deciding whether to sentence Mr. Nichols to life in prison or death."

2004-06-05
Matt Richtel _NY Times_
Staking a Claim in the Silicon Valley
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/06/realestate/06NATI.html
"The average house price has soared to $469K in East Palo Alto, a former crime capital of the nation that is now one of the few affordable places in Silicon Valley."

2004-06-05
Randall Stross _NY Times_
What's Google's Secret Weapon? An Army of PhDs
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/06/business/yourmoney/06digi.html
"The search technology company's employees include a former rocket scientist and a former brain surgeon."

2004-06-05
David Brooks _NY Times_
Circling the Wagons
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/05/opinion/05BROO.html
"Political party affiliation often shapes values, not the other way around."

2004-06-05
Stephen Dinan _Washington Times_
profits up, compensation stagnant
http://washingtontimes.com/national/20040604-115927-8982r.htm
"although economic growth is strong and corporate profits are growing, workers' salaries and wages are not, even as costs for health care and school tuitions go up.   In addition, with the manufacturing sector exporting jobs over-seas, those laid-off workers end up in new, lower-paying jobs.   Lee Price, director of research at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), said wages usually lag behind job growth in a recession, which is probably why Americans still feel the economy is doing poorly...   [EPI] found a 62.2% increase in corporate profits during the past 3 years, as opposed to a 2.8% increase in labor compensation.   The average of the past 8 recoveries was a 13.9% increase in corporate profits and a 9.9% increase in labor compensation...   Wesbury added that personal income is up 5.7% in the last year, and proprietary income -- which covers sole proprietors and small-business owners -- is up 11.7% , versus 2.3% inflation."

2004-06-05
George Avalos _Contra Costa Times_
job expansion continues, but compensation still lags
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/8845628.htm
"Since President Bush took office, the economy has lost about 1.2M pay-roll jobs.   But last August, that employment deficit stood at 2.6M jobs [both based on the establishment survey].   At this year's pace of job creation, it's possible the president could preside over job gains by October.   Despite the healthy gains, some analysts remained critical because they believe new employees aren't making much money...   average hourly pay rose 5 cents, or 0.3%, to $15.64.   Real wages, including the erosion caused by inflation, are up 2.2% over the last year...   Analysts were heartened that many of the job gains came in sectors that pay well."

2004-06-05
Manuel G. Serapio _Rocky Mountain News_
IT is not so bad: Information technology out-sourcing by high-tech sector in Colorado is smaller than previously believed
http://www.insidedenver.com/drmn/business_columnists/article/0,1299,DRMN_82_2939930,00.html
"Although the study will not be completed for several months, a number of findings already are worth noting.   These interim findings are based on interviews with 18 business executives (CEOs, CIOs, CTOs and heads of IT departments) of Colorado companies in telecommunications, IT consulting, computer software, financial services and others.   These companies include some of Colorado's largest employers, as well as a few mid-size and entrepreneurial firms.   I also have interviewed companies that provide international out-sourcing services in IT as a core business.   More than 60% of the companies report that they are engaged in some form of international out-sourcing, such as owning a subsidiary in India, working with a U.S. company that out-sources to international locations or doing business with a foreign-owned out-sourcing company.   But for most companies in this study, IT out-sourcing operations represent only a small part (1% to 5%) of their business, whether measured in terms of overall employment, employment in the IT department, IT budget, revenues generated or projects conducted."

2004-06-05 22:21PDT (2004-06-06 01:21EDT) (2004-06-06 15:21GMT)
Dick Satran _Macon GA Daily News_
Goldilocks Economy Could Be Pure Fantasy
http://maconareaonline.com/news.asp?id=7060
"A not-too-hot and not-too-cold economic story has warmed the hearts of Wall Street investors for months.   Stocks rose Friday after the release of a long-awaited jobs report that showed an economy that still isn't growing fast enough to require drastic tightening by Alan Greenspan's Federal Reserve.   But Wall Street's Goldilocks tale might need a bit of revising soon...   As corporate hiring continues to surge, wage demands could add to the inflationary pressures already presented by rising oil and commodity prices.   Even if that doesn't rattle the Fed into taking draconian actions, the rising costs will cut corporate results starting in the second half of the year, analysts say...   Corporate profits will be increasingly squeezed by rising costs, which will also lead to sagging demand from sticker-shocked consumers, analysts say."
 

2004-06-06

2004-06-06 07:25PDT (10:25EDT) (14:25GMT)
_Mac News Network_
Steve Jobs ranks #1 in CEO compensation in California
"Steve Jobs ranked at the top of California's highest-paid chief executives, despite earning only $1 in salary per year, according to _The Los Angeles Times: ;This year it was stock grants that put Jobs on top in The Times_' annual survey of executive compensation at California's 100 largest publicly traded companies. His earnings for 2003: $74.75M, thanks to Apple's decision to give him 5M restricted shares of stock. Jobs also earns $1 a week, or $52 a year, as CEO of Pixar [and did not] receive substantial stock options or perks at Pixar...[Apple] reimbursed Jobs $403,766 for business use of the jet in 2003 [while] Pixar reimbursed Jobs $89K for jet use in 2002.'"

2004-06-06 14:25PDT (17:25EDT) (21:25GMT)
_USA Today_
Statins may help fight cancer
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2004-06-06-statin-cancer_x.htm
"The latest data, released Sunday at a large cancer conference, found that people who took statins for at least 5 years appeared to cut their risk of colon cancer in half.   Earlier work has shown reductions in breast and prostate cancer as well as across-the-board cancer risk...   To be convinced, doctors say they would need to see a carefully controlled experiment designed specifically to show that statins reduce cancer risk.   The data so far are based largely on watching what happens to people who go on statins for reasons that have nothing to do with cancer.   The latest of these studies, directed by Dr. Stephen Gruber of the University of Michigan, was presented at a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.   His team, working in Israel, looked at 1,708 people who had colon cancer and 1,737 who did not.   Those on statins for at least five years had about a 50% reduction in the risk of this malignancy.   Adjusting for other factors that could possibly explain the difference, such as better health habits, did not change the strong link between statins and lowered risk.   Also, those who took other varieties of cholesterol drugs had no cancer protection."

2004-06-06
_Washington Post_
Race to Recovery Picking Up Speed
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17419-2004Jun5.html
"recoveries tend to resemble one another.   First comes the strong rally in stock prices...   this is followed by a boom in corporate profits...   workers to begin sharing in the recovery.   It starts simply, as it has this time, with more jobs...   And not far behind comes the long-awaited increase in wages, salaries, bonuses, overtime hours and benefits.   A revised report from the Labor Department this week showed that hourly compensation was 2.7% higher in the first quarter than it was a year ago, even after adjusting for inflation."

2004-06-06
Timothy L. O'Brien _NY Times_
Lock-Boxes, Iraqi Loot and a Trail to the Fed
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/06/business/yourmoney/06ubs.html
"American soldiers in Iraq have recovered about $650M in shrink-wrapped green-backs.   How could large stacks of new bills find their way to Baghdad?...   Most of the money that turned up in Baghdad was new, bore sequential serial numbers and was stored with documents indicating that it had once been held in Iraq's central bank.   One fact particularly bothered Mr. Baxter: the money had markings from 3 Fed banks, including his own in New York.   Iraq, of course, had been subject to more than a decade of trade sanctions by the United States and the United Nations, so large piles of dollars, especially new bills, were not supposed to have found their way to Baghdad...   The investigation led quickly to the vaults of 4 Western banks that were among a select group handling the sensitive task of distributing freshly printed dollars over-seas: the Bank of America, the HSBC Group, the Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS.   Several other commercial banks and foreign central banks, which the Fed did not name, also served as stopovers along Baghdad's money trail, according to a written account Mr. Baxter provided to the Senate Banking Committee about 2 weeks ago.   None of the 4 main banks the Fed scrutinized had sent currency directly to Iraq.   But as the inquiry wore on last year, investigators learned that UBS, Switzerland's largest bank, had transferred $4G to $5G to 4 other countries that were under sanctions: Libya, Iran, Cuba and the former Yugoslavia.   Over an eight-year period, UBS employees had quietly shipped the money to those countries from a vault at the Zurich airport, undetected by Fed auditors who made regular visits to the site.   Early last month, the Federal Reserve Board fined UBS $100M for the currency violations.   It was the second-largest penalty ever levied by America's central bank, surpassed only by a $200M fine imposed on the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, or B.C.C.I., in 1991 for violating American banking laws...   Of the $680G in cash that the Fed has in circulation, more than $400G, or nearly 60%, is outside the United States."

2004-06-06
Patrick McGeehan _NY Times_
Walk Away. Keep the Prize.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/06/business/yourmoney/06agen.html
"As Mel A. Karmazin's departure from Viacom Inc. reminded investors last week, only senior executives can win the jackpot by quitting."

2004-06-06
Dimitri Vassilaros _Pittsburgh Tribune-Review_
Badnarik choosing principles over pay-checks
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/opinion/columnists/s_197198.html
"[When he won the presidential nomination] Badnarik was almost broke.   Putting it mildly.   'I was concerned that I did not have enough money to drive to Atlanta.', he said matter-of-factly in this age of $2-a-gallon gasoline.   He was down to his last few dollars in his wallet -- nothing in the bank, no equity in a home -- when he received enough campaign contributions from his newsletter subscribers to fill the tank.   But it was not enough money for the $99-a-day rate at the convention hotel...   Badnarik, who earned a chemistry degree in Indiana, worked in Monroeville in the early 80s.   He was the senior programmer for a nuclear control room simulator.   He also helped develop a simulator project for the stealth bomber, and was a senior trainer at the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant in California...   This candidate has chosen principles over pay-checks.   'When choosing between the lesser of two evils and your candidate wins, you are still left with evil.', he said about today's de facto two-party political system.   Even though money is tight, Badnarik and his party will not apply for federal campaign finance funds.   And unlike the two dominant parties that take tens of millions in federal dollars to subsidize their conventions, Libertarians insist on paying their own way.   Always.   'Our principle [on this] is that we do not take other people's tax money for our own benefit.', Badnarik said.   President Badnarik first would right-size federal government and increase personal responsibility and individual liberty by trying to repeal the 16th Amendment, essentially abolishing the IRS."
 

2004-06-07

2004-06-07 04:09PDT (07:09EDT) (11:04GMT)
_WBAL_
AmeriDebt Files for Bankruptcy
http://www.thewbalchannel.com/money/3389330/detail.html
"Credit-counseling company AmeriDebt, charged by federal regulators with using deceptive marketing to bilk hundreds of thousands of customers, has filed for bankruptcy, the company announced.   Christine Kraly, a spokeswoman for the Germantown-based company, said Saturday's filing for Chapter 11 protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Greenbelt won't affect AmeriDebt's current operations."

2004-06-07 09:59PDT (12:59EDT) (16:59GMT)
Chris Plummer _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
The secret to resume writing is honesty & brevity
"A new study by recruiting firm Christian and Timbers found 23% of executive job applicants misrepresent their accomplishments on their resumes.   52% of the fabricators claimed to hold a college degree for which they only did partial course-work -- even though that lie's easily exposed with a call to the school... some companies hire the outright liars, ignoring their ethical deficiencies."

2004-06-07 15:36PDT (18:36EDT) (22:36GMT)
_Reuters_/_Yahoo!_
Apple Unveiled Wireless Station to Stream Music
USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-06-07-airtunes_x.htm
"Apple Computer Inc. on Monday unveiled a mobile wireless base station that lets users play digital music from their iTunes music libraries on a Macintosh or Windoze computer over home stereo systems.   The device, called AirPort Express, is slightly larger than the power adapter for a Macintosh notebook computer and works with a new version of Apple's iTunes digital juke-box software."

2004-06-07
Donna Fuscaldo _Dow Jones_/_USA Today_
Merrill calls again for Hewlett-Packard to split in two
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/2004-06-07-hp-dissolve-demand_x.htm
"With Hewlett-Packard hosting its meeting with analysts later this week, Merrill Lynch analyst Steven Milunovich took the opportunity to call yet again for the company to split into two...   He said the 2 most obvious moves would be to split HP by product into printers and computers or by market into consumer and enterprise."

2004-06-07
_Yomiuri Shimbun_
Former Mitsubishi executives face criminal charges
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/20040608wo21.htm
"Kanagawa and Yamaguchi prefectural police will jointly pursue criminal charges against up to 6 former executives of Mitsubishi Motors Corp. over the death of the driver of an MMC truck in 2002 October that was caused by a defective clutch box, it was learned Monday.   Criminal charges will be brought against former MMC President Katsuhiko Kawasoe, 67, and former vice presidents, including Takashi Usami, 63, also a former chairman of MMC spin-off Mitsubishi Fuso Truck & Bus Corp., and former MMC executives in charge of product quality assurance, and of its trucks and buses, on suspicion of professional negligence resulting in death, according to a source."

2004-06-07
Richard Luscombe _The Scotsman_
Enron executives finally go to trial
http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=645392004
"More than two and a half years after the melt-down of the energy giant Enron in a scandal that cost 20K jobs worldwide and left debts of $66.4G, (£36.12G) the first 2 executives from the disgraced company go on trial for fraud and conspiracy today...   Nobody is arguing that the financial executive Daniel Boyle and accountant Sheila Kahanek, plus 4 fellow defendants from Enron's bankers, Merrill Lynch, were directly responsible for the firm's collapse and subsequent bankruptcy.   But the scam they are alleged to have pulled, which involved the $12M (£6.52M) sale of 2 Nigerian power-generating barges, was typical of the kind of accounting skullduggery that inflated profits, disguised debts and eventually led to the implosion of the Enron empire in 2001 October."

2004-06-07
_Globes_
ManPOWER Israel says demand for high-tech workers up 6% in May
"Manpower Israel subsidiary Manpower Information Technologies (MIT) reports that demand for high-tech employees rose by 6% in May 2004, compared with April, and was 50% higher than in May 2003.   The figures are based on an MIT survey of help-wanted ads."
 

2004-06-08

2004-06-08 03:21PDT (06:21EDT) (10:21GMT)
Marilyn Elias _USA Today_
Scientists say "boot camp" can whip brains into shape
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2004-06-07-brains-usat_x.htm
Yahoo!
"M says her memory is now razor-sharp, thanks to a 2-week 'boot camp for the brain' created by Gary Small, a psychiatrist and director of the UCLA Center on Aging.   Small's program for improving memory combines 4 elements: a special diet, daily physical activity, stress release and memory exercises.   It's all explained in his new book, _The Memory Prescription_, co-written with Gigi Vorgan...   The diet is high in omega-3 fatty acids, which are found in nuts and some fish.   It also includes lots of fruits and vegetables and is fairly low in fat, with 3 meals and 3 snacks a day.   The brief stretching, walking and relaxation exercises are done several times a day.   And the 'memory aerobics', aimed at keeping the brain nimble, take about 15 minutes a day, Small says."

2004-06-08 05:37PDT (08:37EDT) (12:37GMT)
Stephen J. Hirschfield & Stephan Rosenfield _US NewsWire_
"America at Work" Poll Presented by Employment Law Alliance: Off-shoring, Mad in the USA
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=110-06082004
Yahoo!
"The latest national survey by the Employment Law Alliance (ELA) reveals a nation deeply divided over the practice of off-shoring by American businesses with nearly 60% of those polled saying companies that send work over-seas that could be done by US workers should be punished by the federal government, it was announced today.   ELA, the world's largest independent network of labor and employment attorneys, selected the controversial out-sourcing practice known as off-shoring as the subject of its latest 'America At Work' poll because, according to ELA CEO Stephen J. Hirschfeld, Esq., 'it may be the most volatile issue in the American work-place today with profound economic, social and geo-political consequences'.   Conducted by the Media, Pennsylvania-based market research firm of Reed, Haldy, McIntosh & Associates, the ELA survey found that:

• 39% of American workers believe that American companies should be free to out-source work over-seas
• 58% believe that companies out-sourcing work that could be done by Americans to off-shore contractors should be penalized by the US government
• 52% said they would turn to government agencies or elected officials for help if their job was threatened by off-shoring
• 37% said they would seek help from a labor union if they thought they might lose their job due to off-shoring   (Note: Only 12%of those surveyed said they currently belong to a labor union)
• 21% said they would seek recourse through the courts if their job security was threatened by the possibility of an employer sending their work over-seas
• 6% of those surveyed said they have lost a job because their work was sent over-seas
• 30% know of someone, including a family member, friend or co-worker who had lost a job due to off-shoring.
• 8% said they personally feel their job security is at risk because their employer might send their work over-seas

2004-06-08 08:41PDT (11:41EDT) (15:41GMT)
Greg Robb _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Greenspan says Fed is "prepared to do what is required" to fight inflation
"Greenspan noted, however, that the Fed could become more aggressive if inflationary pressures mount.   'Should that judgment prove misplaced, however, the FOMC is prepared to do what is required to fulfill our obligations to achieve the maintenance of price stability so as to ensure maximum sustainable economic growth.', he said.   In a question-and-answer session following his satellite-delivered speech, Greenspan stressed there is no evidence from current economic indicators that would push the FOMC to raise rates at a more aggressive pace...   Businesses are becoming more confident about the economy and are now hiring 'with some vigor', Greenspan said.   At the same time, a large proportion of the new hires are temporary workers, an indication that 'business caution remains a feature of the economic landscape', he said."

2004-06-08 12:09PDT (15:09EDT) (19:09GMT)
Herb Greenberg _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Is Take-Two just a one-hit wonder?
"Whenever you wonder why this column is often so skeptical, think of Take-Two Interactive.   Today the company sliced its fiscal 2004 earnings guidance for the third time in 3 months -- the fourth time in 6 months.   Take-Two also guided down (yet again) for its third fiscal quarter, while the second quarter loss was double earlier guidance.   This is where the thing gets dicey: The implied fourth-quarter guidance is lower than it was when first fiscal earnings were announced on March 4 and compared with revised guidance on April 14.   No wonder Take-Two is saying that it's more enthusiastic than ever about the prospects for next version of Grand Theft Auto -- dubbed GTA: San Andreas -- which is expected to ship 2 weeks before the fiscal year ends on October 30."

2004-06-08
Paul Craig Roberts _V Dare_
Those jobs numbers contain more bad news for college graduates
http://www.vdare.com/roberts/college_graduates.htm
"176K of the jobs -- or 71% -- are concentrated in low-paying domestic services that cannot be out-sourced...   Here is where the May jobs are: restaurants and bars 33K; health care and social assistance 36K; temporary help 31K; retail trade 19K; transportation and ware-housing 15K; financial activities 15K; real estate 9K; services to buildings and dwellings 8K; education 8K.   This repeats the pattern of last month and, indeed, of every month in the new millennium.   Our economy is not creating jobs that are part of the high tech global economy or that require university education...   US firms might create 1M jobs for computer specialists, be they Indian, Chinese, East European or American, by 2012, but so far the economy is still losing computer jobs.   There are 8K fewer than a year ago and 223K fewer than in 2001 January...   Pundits are fond of citing 'studies' paid for by [off-shorers] that 'only' 3.3M US jobs will be out-sourced in the next 10 years.   For an economy that has lost 1M jobs since 2001 January, this is a crippling amount.   For an economy that has only 1.1M jobs in 'computer systems design and related' and only 1.26M jobs in 'architectural and engineering services', 3.3M more jobs to be out-sourced is a devastating blow to students who pursue difficult [curricula] in college in hopes of a career."

2004-06-08
Thomas Hoffman _ComputerWorld_
tech worker shortage propaganda
http://www.computerworld.com/careertopics/careers/labor/story/0,10801,93720,00.html
"Meta Group Inc. According to the 2004 _IT Staffing and Compensation Guide_, which is based on surveys of more than 650 large and mid-size companies, 45% of the companies surveyed plan to pay premiums for IT skills that are difficult to find or retain.   Skill shortages are most acute in highly specialized areas such as wireless computing and information security, according to the Stamford, CT-based market research and consulting firm."

2004-06-08
Ton Deusterberg

"In 2002, the United States lost over 500K jobs in high-tech..."

2004-06-08
_PR Web_
Libertarian Presidential Candidate Michael Badnarik to Address Rallies at G8 Summit
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/6/prwebxml131804.php
eMedia Wire
http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2004/6/emw131804.htm
"The Libertarian Party's presidential nominee Michael Badnarik, a constitutional scholar from Texas, will address attendees twice on June 8...   'Most American voters do not know what a constitutional government should look like simply because they haven't witnessed one in action for decades.', said Panos [SC LP chair]...   The 30th G8 Summit will really be held at secluded and heavily protected Sea Island, Georgia, just off the coast of Brunswick, on June 8-10, 2004.   However, many summer tourists are still flocking to Savannah in hopes of a glimpse of delegates and the protesters that always attend the G-8 to make their opinions known.   The United States assumed the Presidency of the G8 from France at the beginning of 2004.   The G8 Summit brings together the Leaders of the world's major industrial democracies: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.   The European Union also attends the G8 Summit, represented by the President of the European Commission and the Leader of the country holding the Presidency of the European Council."
 

2004-06-09

2004-06-09 14:49PDT (17:49EDT) (21:49GMT)
Mike Tarsala _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Red China may subsidize Intel plant there
"'I'm on the advisory board of a major high-tech company, which is now considering making about a $6G investment that involves about 7K jobs.', Clyde Prestowitz said at a trade conference in Morocco, adding that [Red China] had offered $3G toward the cost of new plants...   At Intel, a spokesman said the company had not announced any plans and could not easily build new plants in [Red China] because of U.S. export restrictions on the technology required for making certain chips."

2004-06-09
Erika Morphy _NewsFactor_
Sinking Morale Plagues IT Staffers
Information Week
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=21600061
ComputerWorld
http://www.computerworld.com/careertopics/careers/labor/story/0,10801,93720,00.html
Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2004/06/08/tech_specialists_still_fetching_top_pay_despite_outsourcing/
"The current atmosphere of cost cutting and job insecurity is driving down employee morale, says Meta Group in a new report that discusses out-sourcing of IT jobs...   _2004 IT Staffing & Compensation Guide_...   Meta's research indicates that only a small percentage of firms -- 20% -- are out-sourcing such functions...   moving expensive work off-shore in order to achieve savings can result in unexpected costs, according to Jonathan Dharmapalan, director of Deloitte Research's technology, media and telecommunications group...   Among the 650-plus companies surveyed, more than 72% indicated that low IT employee morale was a serious issue in their organizations -- a problem that could spell longer-range turn-over, lower productivity, and less overall share-holder value to the organization as a whole, if not addressed..."

2004-06-09
Matt Richtel _NY Times_
Game Maker Misses Earnings Target and Cuts 2004 Forecast
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/09/technology/09game.html
"Financial disappointments continue to take a toll on Take-Two Interactive, maker of the hit video game Grand Theft Auto."

2004-06-09
Jon Markman _NBC_
The nation's worst CEOs (table of worst-performing stocks) "the over-paid and under-achieving heads of many public companies... David Dorman... Carly Fiorina... Larry Ellison... AES, Calpine, TECO Energy... Endo Pharmaceuticals... MasTec... Teva Pharmaceutical..."
 

2004-06-10

2004-06-10 05:30PDT (08:30EDT) (12:30GMT)
Thomas Stengle _DoL ETA_
unemployment compensation insurance claims
http://workforcesecurity.doleta.gov/press/2004/061004.html
"The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 308,443 in the week ending June 5, an increase of 5,216 from the previous week.   There were 421,190 initial claims in the comparable week in 2003.   The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.1% during the week ending May 29, unchanged from the prior week.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 2,650,526, a decrease of 52,399 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 2.7% and the volume was 3,438,523.   Extended benefits were available in Alaska during the week ending May 22.   11,459 individuals filed continued claims under the Federal Temporary Extended Unemployment Compensation (TEUC) program during the week ending May 22...    The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending May 22 were in Alaska (4.4%), Puerto Rico (4.3%), Oregon (3.3%), Michigan (3.0%), Pennsylvania (3.0%), New Jersey (2.9%), California (2.7%), Washington (2.7%), Arkansas (2.6%), and Massachusetts (2.6%).   The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending May 29 were in Texas (+2,474), Georgia (+2,226), Minnesota (+1,009), Illinois (+816), and Florida (+780), while the largest decreases were in Oklahoma (-2,192), California (-1,531), Mississippi (-425), Alabama (-406), and Wisconsin (-357)."
graphs

2004-06-10 05:31PDT (08:13EDT) (12:31GMT)
Rex Nutting _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Unemployment compensation insurance claims at 6-week high: Continuing claims at 3-year low as eligibility of many is exhausted
"The [seasonally adjusted] average number of workers filing initial state unemployment claims over the past 4 weeks rose by 4,750 to a 6-week high of 346K last week, the Labor Department reported Thursday.   Initial claims in the most recent week rose by 12K to 352K, a 7-week high, the agency said...   Meanwhile, the number of Americans receiving unemployment checks fell by 106K in the week ending May 29 to 2.88M, the lowest level in 3 years..."
graphs

2004-06-10 11:20PDT (14:20EDT) (18:20GMT)
Rex Nutting _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Personal debt in US grew by 8.6%
Federal Reserve's "Flow of Funds" report
http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/current/default.htm
"Outstanding debt in the United States grew at an 8.6% annual rate in the first quarter, up from a 6.4% pace seen in the fourth quarter, the Federal Reserve said Thursday."

2004-06-10 11:20PDT (14:20EDT) (18:20GMT)
Gregory Robb _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
US government posts $62.5G deficit in May
"The short-fall compares with a larger $88.9G deficit in the same month last fiscal year.   The Congressional Budget Office had estimated a deficit of $65G earlier this month...   Outlays fell 7.5% from a year ago, while receipts rose 11.6%.   Outlays totaled $177.9G in May, compared with $192.3G a year ago.   Receipts totaled $115.5G in May, compared $103.4G a year ago.   Indeed, year-to-date, the nation is running a $344.3G deficit, a larger gap than the $290.9G deficit in the first 8 months of the last fiscal year, Treasury said.   The interest on Treasury debt securities was $20.4G in May, about 12% of total federal budget outlays."

2004-06-10 13:37PDT (16:37EDT) (20:37GMT)
Ed Frauenheim _Ziff Davis_
Lost your Job?   Don't look over-seas.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5230770.html
The Age
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/06/11/1086749869420.html?oneclick=true
NewsDay
http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-offshoring-jobs,0,516750.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines
Ocala Star Banner
http://www.starbanner.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040610/APF/406101008
Out-Sourcing Directly Causes 9% of US Lay-Offs: Fox News/Reuters
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,122394,00.html
"A tiny fraction of workers hit by mass lay-offs earlier this year lost their jobs because of off-shoring, according to research released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Labor.   The department said that in the first quarter, 4,633 non-farm workers in the private sector lost their jobs for at least 31 days due to the shift of work outside the country.   That was less than 2% of the 239,361 workers affected by extended mass lay-offs, according to the department...   The statistics reflect lay-offs only at companies employing at least 50 workers, where at least 50 people filed for unemployment insurance during a 5-week period and the lay-off lasted more than 30 days.   [I.e. it does not count any of those laid off who did not apply for unemployment compensation insurance benefits, nor those from small firms, not any of those laid off over the previous 4 years of the current depression.]"

2004-06-10 13:36PDT (16:36EDT) (20:36GMT)
Tomi Kilgore _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Stocks settle for modest gains
"U.S. stocks ended modestly higher Thursday as a multi-billion-dollar retail deal and a positive outlook on semi-conductor industry sales provided a positive back-drop, helping off-set an intra-day spike in crude prices.   Data showing import prices rose by the biggest amount in over a year and mixed jobless claims data were mostly ignored...   Financial exchanges will be closed Friday, as Wall Street observes the funeral of former president Ronald Reagan.   The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended a fraction of its session high, rising 41.66 points, or 0.4%, to 10,410, with 21 of 30 components contributing to gains.   The blue chip barometer ended with a 1.6% gain on the week.   The lack of activity was punctuated by an extremely narrow intra-day trading range of 10,368 and 10,410...   The S&P 500 Index was up 5.14 points, or 0.5% better, at 1,136.47, putting in a 1.2% on gain on the week while the technology-friendly Nasdaq Composite Index stepped up 9.26 points, or 0.5%, to 1,999.87.   The index rose 1.1% in the last week.   In the broader market, advancing stocks edged past decliners by an 18 to 14 margin on the NYSE, but were tied at 15 on the Nasdaq.   The recent string of relatively low-volume sessions was poised to continue, as 1.2G shares had turned over on the Big Board and 1.3G shares changed hands on the Nasdaq."
graphs

2004-06-10 15:20PDT (19:20EDT) (23:20GMT)
Andrea Coombes _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
12 danger zones
"Few travelers realize [Nepal] the birth-place of Buddha also is playing host to a Maoist rebellion, making it one of the more dangerous tourist spots on the globe...   Iraq tops the list of 5 most perilous countries, followed by Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, according to the survey of Association of Corporate Travel Executives members.   But Colombia, Turkey, North Korea, Spain and Egypt were cited as the top emerging hazard zones, according to the survey."

2004-06-10
_Sify_
Nasscom pro-off-shoring lobbying aimed at security & privacy issues
"NASSCOM President Kiran Karnik told a press conference on the side-lines of the IT-enabled Services-Business Process Out-Sourcing Strategy Summit at Bangalore today... Among the measures proposed by Nasscom is the touchy question of gathering and sharing information about employees working for Indian companies which serve customers in countries such as the United States."

2004-06-10
_Home Channel News_
Lowe's pushes off-shore sourcing: Sriving to be worse
http://www.homechannelnews.com/story/?ID=3675
"More than 50% of products sold in Lowe's stores were made off-shore -- and the retailer is striving to increase that number, according to Dale Pond, Lowe's executive vp-merchandising and marketing, who spoke at the Piper Jaffray 24th Annual Consumer Conference, held here June 9 and 10 at the New York Palace Hotel.   '4 or 5 years ago we took a team through the stores and looked at every item, and 35% of the items in the stores were sourced off-shore.', Pond recalled.   By 2002, Pond said the figure moved to about 45%, and it's over 50% today, with most of the off-shore shift leaning toward [Red China]."

2004-06-10
_Canadian Press_/_Business Edge_
Business RoundTable CEOs fume over flaws in software they purchase
http://www.businessedge.ca/viewnews.asp?id=6214
"In a new lobbying campaign, the Business Roundtable urges technology companies to improve software design, make computer programs easier to manage, and continue support for products after updated versions are released...   The big-business group's assertions mirror criticisms by consumer organizations and security experts."

2004-06-10
Paul McDougall _Information Week_
Accenture fights to retain $10G federal contract
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=21700127
"Officials at Bermuda-based Accenture [formerly US-based Anderson Consulting] insist the company pays its fair share of U.S. taxes and therefore shouldn't be stripped of its multibillion-dollar contract to build a high-tech border-control system for the federal government.   The Department of Homeland Security last week tapped the IT services and consulting firm to build the US-Visit (United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology) system under a deal that could be worth up to $10G over 10 years.   But late Wednesday, the House Appropriations Committee approved an amendment that would prohibit Accenture from building the system because it's a foreign-based corporation...   Accenture was established in 1989 as Andersen Consulting but changed its name after it spun off from accounting firm Arthur Andersen in 2000 [after fraud charges in connection with Enron].   At that time, the company formally incorporated itself in Bermuda."

2004-06-10
Susan Kuchinskas _Internet News_
RFID Privacy Gap
http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article.php/3366811
"The drive to place RFID tags on consumer products is relentless, but IT leaders say public policy on how to use and secure the information they'll provide is lagging behind...   The issue was discussed Thursday during 'Privacy Futures', a conference sponsored by the International Association of Privacy Professionals and online security software company, TRUSTe...   EPCglobal, a not-for-profit industry organization that is building a global network to track RFID tagged products...   The FTC will hold its first public work-shop on RFID and privacy later this month...   Last year, Gillette tested the use of RFID tags to trigger cameras when shoppers removed razor blades from store shelves, while Procter & Gamble used a similar set-up with video cameras to watch consumers interact with packages of lip-stick...   HP... plans to roll out RFID in all aspects of its global operations by the end of this summer...   In stores, retailers could track consumers' movements by way of tags embedded in loyalty cards, as German retailer METRO Group did in a demonstration store.   That trial ended following consumer protests.   Once products leave the store with RFID tags attached or embedded, they could create an 'RFID cloud' around a person, said Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse."
Privacy links
 

2004-06-11

2004-06-10 19:49:09PDT) (22:49:09EDT) (2004-06-11 01:49:09GMT) (02:49:09London)
_London Free Press_
Executives like key work kept in Canada
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/LondonFreePress/Business/2004/06/11/494285.html
"Senior Canadian executives are loath to look outside Canada for software development or to out-source business processes such as pay-roll, staff benefits or inventory management, an Ipsos-Reid poll suggests.   The study said 60% of the 603 companies surveyed were unwilling to out-source any software development and 88% said they wouldn't out-source business processes."

2004-06-11 06:11PDT (09:11EDT) (13:11GMT)
_USA Today_
Lawrence Lasser takes $80M with him
http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/funds/2004-06-11-putnam-severance_x.htm
"Former Putnam Investments chief executive Lawrence J. Lasser will walk away with nearly $80M as part of a settlement with his one-time employer, which blamed him for a mutual fund trading scandal that cost the company billions in assets.   In a regulatory filing Thursday, Putnam's parent company, Marsh & McLennan, said Lasser would receive a cash payment representing $55M in fully vested compensation and $23M in compensation awarded, but not fully vested."

2004-06-11 09:36PDT (12:36EDT) (16:36GMT)
John Woolfolk _Forbes_
SBC refusal to process local phone switch to competitors declared illegal
http://www.forbes.com/technology/feeds/wireless/2004/06/11/wireless01086971085610-20040611-060100.html
"SBC Communications unfairly refused to process requests of customers who wanted to switch local phone service to a competitor but keep their high-speed Internet connection, a state regulatory judge has ruled.   The ruling Wednesday by Anne E. Simon, an administrative law judge with the California Public Utilities Commission, was a victory for Telscape Communications, a Monrovia company serving the Spanish-speaking Latino market...   SBC argued that it has always processed requests to switch local phone service but that federal regulators have said it does not have to offer DSL service to other companies' phone customers."

2004-06-11 11:52PDT (14:52EDT) (18:52GMT)
Greg Morcroft _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
NY AG Eliot Spitzer sub poenas 3 protection rackets
"MetLife, Aetna and Cigna on Friday became the latest firms sub-poenaed by New York state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer in his office's on-going probe of the industry's compensation arrangements with brokerages."

2004-06-11
James Brooke _NY Times_
Asian Scavengers Feed Red China's Hunger for Steel
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/11/business/worldbusiness/11scrap.html
"[Red China], once known as the Middle Kingdom, has become a massive magnet inexorably drawing scrap metal from across Asia."

2004-06-11
Kate Lorenz _CareerBuilder_
Beautiful people are paid more
"Studies show attractive students get more attention and higher evaluations from their teachers, good-looking patients get more personalized care from their doctors, and handsome criminals receive lighter sentences than less attractive convicts.   But how much do looks matter at work?   The ugly truth, according to economics professors Daniel Hamermesh of the University of Texas and Jeff Biddle of Michigan State University, is that plain people earn 5% to 10% less than people of average looks, who in turn earn 3% to 8% less than those deemed good-looking.   These findings concur with other research that shows the penalty for being homely exceeds the premium for beauty and that, across all occupations, the effects are greater for men than women.   A London Guildhall University survey of 11K 33-year-olds found that unattractive men earned 15% less than those deemed attractive, while plain women earned 11% less than their prettier counterparts...   A study released last year by two professors at the University of Florida and the University of North Carolina found that tall people earn considerably more money throughout their careers than their shorter co-workers, with each inch adding about $789 a year in pay.   A survey of male graduates of the University of Pittsburgh found that the tallest students' average starting salary was 12% higher than their shorter colleagues'."

2004-06-11
Michael King _Austin TX Chronicle_
The Sayings of Michael Badnarik
http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2004-06-11/pols_naked7.html
interview
http://home.att.net/~devingreaney
"Recently nominated Libertarian Party presidential candidate Michael Badnarik, an Austin-based computer [programmer,] trainer and self-described constitutional scholar, was on the stump this week, 'addressing the G8 summit' - that is, speaking to a protest rally in Savannah, GA, near the restricted Sea Island summit site...   The Second Amendment is 'not negotiable', and Badnarik refuses to get a Texas concealed-weapons permit - because 'rights do not require permission'.   The USA PATRIOT Act: It violates the Fourth and Sixth Amendments (against unreasonable searches and closed trials).   Affirmative action: 'Either we are all created equal or we are not...   Affirmative action does almost as much harm as slavery.'   Opposes: federal subsidies for agriculture, mass transit, public education, foreign aid of any kind, and all nonconstitutionally specified programs.   'We're going to stop taking their tax money [and] the people will become richer than their wildest dreams.'"

2004-06-11
_Business Times of Asia_
US import prices and unemployment compensation insurance claims
http://business-times.asia1.com.sg/story/0,4567,119387-1087070340,00.html
"the Labor Department estimated yesterday in the first report on the politically sensitive topic that foreign out-sourcing cost 4,633 US jobs in the first 3 months of 2004.   This figure represented about 2.5% of the 182,456 non-seasonal jobs cut over the January-March period, the agency said.   Moving jobs within the US accounted for 9,985 lay-offs, or 5.5% of non-seasonal lay-offs.   76% of jobs moved were within the same company, although 36% of jobs moved over-seas were with a different company.   A recent Goldman Sachs survey indicated US firms have moved 300K to 500K jobs off-shore in the past 3 years.   Import prices climbed 1.6%, notching the biggest one-month rise since February of last year and the 8th consecutive monthly advance, after a revised 0.2% gain in April, the Labor Department said...   Meanwhile, the number of Americans filing initial claims for jobless aid rose unexpectedly last week, the Labor Department said, and the rolling average rose to its highest level since late April.   First-time claims for state unemployment benefits rose 12K to 352K in the week ended June 5.   Economists consider claims near the 350K level as a token of an improving labour market."
graphs

2004-06-11
Jonathan J. Higuera _Arizona Republic_
Workers not happy about off-shoring
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/0611offshore11.html
Indo Link
http://www.indolink.com/displayArticleS.php?id=060904120351
"A national survey shows widespread discontent among U.S. workers about corporations sending jobs overseas and should serve as a wake-up call to employers, according to the survey's sponsor...   That's one conclusion of the survey conducted for the Employment Law Alliance [ELA], a network of labor and employment attorneys...   58% of US workers believe that companies sending work overseas, or off-shoring, should be penalized by the federal government...   While only 6% said they have lost a job because of off-shoring, 30% said they know someone who had lost a job because of off-shoring.   8% said they feel personally at risk of a losing a job because of off-shoring...   In the ELA survey, conducted in late May, 52% said they would turn to government agencies or elected officials to address the issue, 37% said they would seek help from labor unions and 21% said they would be willing to turn to the courts for recourse.   Those surveyed could choose more than one answer."
 

2004-06-12

2004-06-11 19:13PDT (22:13EDT) (2004-06-12 02:13GMT)
_Seattle Post Intelligencer_/_AP_
Fruit export executives are accused of dumping & falsifying records
"Executives of a fruit export company have been arraigned on federal charges that they sent under-priced fruit to Mexico and falsified inspection records.   The 18-count indictment, handed down in U.S. District Court here, alleges that Yakima-based IM EX Trading Co. illegally exported 21 truck-loads of apples and other fruit in 1999, shortly after the United States and Mexico reached an anti-dumping agreement holding U.S. growers to a minimum export price."

2004-06-11 21:27PDT (2004-06-12 00:27EDT) (04:27GMT) (13:27JST)
_Japan Today_
UFJ eyes 50% cut in executive pay for 3 months
Bloomberg
"The UFJ banking group plans to cut the compensation of its top executives by half from July through September to reflect their responsibility for incurring a 400G yen net loss for the banking group in fiscal 2003, ended March 31, group officials said Saturday.   The measure will affect all executives above the corporate officer..."
 

2004-06-13

2004-06-13
Gregory Karp _Allentown Morning Call_
Average pay for area executives last year rose sharply, mirroring improving corporate profits
http://www.mcall.com/business/local/all-exec-compjun13,0,7778306.story?coll=all-businesslocal-hed
"In 2003, average pay among Lehigh Valley executives increased 31%.   That average was driven higher by 10 of 54 executives who doubled their total pay from 2002.   And 22 executives earned in excess of $1M last year.   The Morning Call examined pay data for 64 top executives at 15 local companies.   These companies issue publicly traded stock and must file executive compensation numbers with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission...   Average pay was up 31%, while average profits increased 57%.   The median pay raise -- for the middlemost executive in the survey -- was 10%, compared with a median rise in profits of 12%...   stock owners saw the price of their shares rise 42% on average."

2004-06-13
Kathy Kristof _Delaware News Journal_
Executive pay remains hot topic on minds of share-holders
http://www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/business/kristof/06132004.html
Pocono PA Record
http://www.poconorecord.com/local/alh47317.htm
"This year, the median pay for chief executives topped $10M, experts said.   That's more than 300 times the pay of the average manufacturing worker, according to the Boston-based group United for a Fair Economy.   It wasn't always so.   CEOs used to earn about 40 times the pay of manufacturing workers, said UFE's Scott Klinger.   But in the past dozen years, a trend toward 'pay for performance' has caused executive pay-checks to soar.   The theory was this: Executives would be encouraged to think more like share-holders if they were given economic rewards, such as stock options, that would pay off when the company prospered.   The experiment has been hugely lucrative for executives, but it has been a disaster for share-holders -- and sometimes for employees.   Not only are share-holders paying more for often dubious performance compensation, but experts maintain that some companies set increasingly easy performance criteria to ensure that executives always hit their performance targets...   Graef Crystal, a San Diego compensation specialist who sheepishly admits that he structured one of the nation's first pay-for-performance packages.   Yet year after year, in study after study, Crystal has only been able to find one direct link between performance and pay.   It happens when companies provide unusually large grants of stock options, he said.   More bad news: The correlation is negative.   Crystal said that over a 5-year period, companies providing mega-grants of stock options are highly likely to under-perform when compared with their peers."

2004-06-13
Ginger Thompson & Sandra Ochoa _NY Times_
An Illegal Immigrant's Grim Sea Voyage
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/13/international/americas/13ECUA.html
"A reporter's journey as a client of smugglers provides a look inside the pipe-line that carries untold numbers to the U.S."

2004-06-13
_NY Times_
Gambling on Voting
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/13/opinion/13SUN1.html
"If election officials want to convince voters that electronic voting can be trusted, they should be willing to make it at least as secure as slot machines."
 

2004-06-14

2004-06-14 05:32PDT (09:32EDT) (13:32GMT)
Tim Richardson _The Register_
Chinese cyber-dissident sentenced to 4 years of house arrest for pro-freedom postings
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/14/china_house_arrest/
"Chinese cyber-dissident, Du Daobin, has been sentenced to 4 years under house arrest after being convicted for posting pro-democracy articles on the Net.   Du's trial in Xiaogan, in the central province of Hubei, on Friday lasted just 15 minutes, during which time he was not allowed to speak.   Although Du accepts that he posted 26 essays on democracy and respect for human rights, he refuses to admit that it was a crime or that he was guilty of subversion."

2004-06-14 06:55PDT (09:55EDT) (13:55GMT)
Rex Nutting _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
US retail sales were up 1.2% in May, 0.3% excluding vehicles & gasoline
census bureau report
http://www.census.gov/svsd/www/fullpub.html

2004-06-14 06:59PDT (09:59EDT) (13:59GMT)
Gregory Robb _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Trade deficit set another record in April: imports rose, exports fell
census bureau
http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/www/
"The nation's trade deficit widened by 3.8% in April to $48.3G, the Commerce Department said. This marked the second straight month for a record trade gap... Meanwhile, the U.S. trade deficit for March was revised to $46.7G from the $46.0G initially estimated last month... Imports rose 0.2% to a record $142.3G. Exports fell 1.5% to $93.9G. This is the largest decline in exports since 2003 August."

2004-06-14 10:00PDT (13:00EDT) (17:00GMT)
_Reuters_
US mortgage delinquencies dip, foreclosures up
"The Mortgage Bankers Association said its measure of outstanding mortgages that were delinquent fell to 4.33% on a seasonally adjusted basis for first 3 months of 2004, down from the fourth quarter's 4.49%.   The percentage of 1-to-4 family homes in foreclosure dipped to 1.27% in the first quarter from the fourth quarter's 1.29%, the Washington-based group said.   The percentage of new foreclosures moved up 1 basis point from the fourth quarter to 0.46%, it said."

2004-06-14
T.A. Badger _Detroit Free Press_/_AP_
Exporting of jobs spurs unions: High-tech workers are being recruited
Boston Herald
Seattle Post Intelligencer
Arizona Republic
Contra Costa Times
"Then the computer programmer from Auburn, WA, was laid off last summer after training his replacement, a high-tech worker in India.   Now G, who hasn't worked since, is among those convinced that America's white-collar workers have to band together to keep their futures from being exported to places where skilled labor comes cheap."

2004-06-14
William Safire _NY Times_
Tear Down This U.N. Stonewall
"We're still waiting for a properly empowered investigation into the U.N. oil-for-food scandal."

2004-06-14
_Seattle Times_
Make presidential debates real
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorialsopinion/2001955326_debateed14.html
"If the debates have a feel of being staged, it is because increasingly, they are...   This year, [candidates each need] an average of 15% support in 5 national polls in order to be included...   Who decided the 15% cut-off?   The Commission on Presidential Debates, which is effectively controlled by the 2 major parties."

2004-06-14
_Web CPA_
Out-Sourcing & Off-Shoring & Lay-Offs
"In the report, the BLS said that among the nearly 240K workers laid off during the first quarter of the year, only 2%, or roughly 4,700, lost their jobs for reasons 'associated with the movement of work outside the country'.   Meanwhile the BLS said 9% of 'non-seasonal' U.S. lay-offs during the first quarter were due to out-sourcing, but less than a third of the work was actually sent over-seas.   However, skeptics claimed the BLS statistics were based on a 'limited sample survey' of companies.   The survey [only] covered companies employing where at least 50 employees were laid off and filed for unemployment insurance during a 5-week period and the lay-off lasted more than 30 days."

2004-06-14
Gene Johnson _AP_/_Yahoo!_
Enron Gouged Customers by $1.1G
"Enron Corp. manipulated the energy market practically every day during the 2000-01 power crunch and gouged Western customers for at least $1.1G, according to audio-tapes and documents released Monday."

2004-06-14
_Network World Fusion_
BLS says off-shoring caused 2% of all lay-offs during 2004 Q1
"According to the BLS, which began tracking lay-offs due to 'the movement of work' in January this year, says that of the 239,361 employees who were laid off in the first quarter of 2004, just 4,633 workers lost their jobs because of 'the movement of work outside the country'.   At the same time, 9,985 employees lost their jobs because of 'domestic relocation of work', meaning positions were transferred to another location within the company or to other companies in the U.S."

2004-06-14
Andy McCue _Silicon.com_
Majority of out-sourcing deals are late & over budget
http://www.silicon.com/research/specialreports/offshoring/0,3800003026,39121327,00.htm
"The majority of application development out-sourcing deals are hit by spiralling costs, late delivery and not getting what was originally specified, according to new research.   The findings show that 80% of businesses have suffered time and cost over-runs and non-adherence to specification.   The research was commissioned by Compuware and conducted by Meta Group, which quizzed 150 CIO-level executives in the UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands...   40% of respondents admitted that short-term financial gains were a bigger priority than the longer-term down-stream costs."

2004-06-14
Dean Takahashi _San Jose Mercury News_
Silicon Valley job market continues slow recovery
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/8921481.htm
"in May as the Santa Clara County unemployment rate fell to 5.9% and the number of jobs rose by 4,300 compared with the month before...   the 5.9% unemployment rate looks good compared with 6.3% in April and 8.2% a year earlier.   But the total number of jobs in the county was 848,700, down 15,100 jobs, or 1.7%, from 2003 May.   Still, this is the first time that the county's unemployment rate has slipped below 6% this year, and it is the lowest for the county since 2001 August.   California's unemployment rate was 6.2% in May, unchanged from the month before.   (Statewide numbers, unlike local numbers, are adjusted to take into account seasonal patterns in hiring and unemployment, so the two sets of figures cannot be directly compared.)...   The manufacturing sector in the county posted its fourth increase, adding 1,600 jobs.   Semiconductor and electronic components manufacturing accounted for about half that figure.   Leisure and hospitality, education and health services, construction, trade, transportation and utilities also added jobs.   Professional and business services fell by 300 jobs, in part due to seasonal losses in accounting, tax preparation and bookkeeping services in the wake of April's tax season.   Some workers say that although hiring may be picking up, not everyone is benefiting yet..."

2004-06-14
Doris Kilband _Electronic Design_
Can Anything Be Done To Impede Off-Shore Out-Sourcing?
http://www.elecdesign.com/Articles/ArticleID/8145/8145.html
IEEE USA position paper
www.ieeeusa.org/forum/POSITIONS/offshoring.html
"The rippling affect of off-shoring initially displaces engineers in the U.S.A., which is foremost an economic loss.   Further outstretches of that ripple reveal a deeper, more troubling trend: The best and brightest students are being discouraged away from the engineering field.   Without a highly intelligent, creative force of engineers in the U.S.A., new products and innovative technologies will become one-way tickets from other countries.   'The reality is, we don't know how to deal with those negative affects very well.', says Ron Hira, P.E., assistant professor of Public Policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology and chair of IEEE-USA's Career & Work-Force Policy Committee Complicating the situation are industry suppliers who try to downplay the actual off-shoring figures.   'This is a serious issue that requires immediate attention, but many powerful sources are saying it is not important.', says Hira.   'No one can evaluate it because we don't have enough information.'...   He cited one company with 3700 employees, all on foreign work visas.   The principal reason companies prefer foreign workers, he believes, is the willingness of such workers to work for less pay."
 

2004-06-15

2004-06-14 18:27PDT (21:27EDT) (2004-06-15 01:27GMT)
Brian Monroe _Florida Today_
Brevard county's job market warms up for summer
http://www.floridatoday.com/!NEWSROOM/moneystoryB0615JOB.htm
"The latest quarterly survey by the [body shop] Manpower Inc. found 40% of local employers questioned the plan to increase staff levels in the third quarter, which is higher than the state average of 33% and among the highest percentages in the state...   Only about 3% of Brevard businesses surveyed plan to decrease employment in the July-to-September quarter.   The rest plan to keep staff levels stable.   Of the 21 Florida markets surveyed, five planned to hire at a higher percentage than Brevard, which tied Fort Walton Beach with 40%.   Broward County and Tampa/St. Petersburg tied for the most optimistic areas in terms of job creation, with 50% of firms planning to add employees.   The hiring outlook for Brevard's third quarter is slightly down from the 43% in the second quarter.   Still, the 40% of local companies adding jobs is significantly companies adding jobs is significantly higher than a year ago, when 17% of companies planned to add staff...   Brevard's jobless rate for April was 4.0%, down from a revised rate of 4.3% in March and 5.1% in April 2003.   It was the lowest the local rate has been since July 2001, when the rate was 3.9%, according to the Florida Agency for Work-force Innovation...   Brevard Job Link placed 1,275 job-seekers in May -- the highest one-month total in several years -- and accepted more than 600 new job orders from employers, she said."

2004-06-15 04:25PDT (07:25EDT) (11:25GMT)
_Local Tech Wire_
ManPOWER survey says job market is "red hot"
"job market continues to improve, especially in Raleigh...   30% of 16K firms that were surveyed saying they plan to expand their work-force...   47% of firms interviewed in Raleigh plan to add to their work-force, Manpower reports.   Only 3% intend to reduce work-force...   40% of firms in Winston-Salem plan to add workers.   The percentage planning increases in Charlotte is 33%, in Greensboro 23%, and Durham 20%.   Wilmington (32%), Asheville (23%), Fayetteville (30%) firms are also looking to hire.   Overall, in North Carolina, 30% of firms surveyed plan to hire workers, and 7% plan reductions."

2004-06-15 07:14PDT (10:14EDT) (14:14GMT)
Rex Nutting _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
UMich consumer sentiment index rallies in June
"The UMich consumer sentiment index rose to 95.2 in June from 90.2 in May.   The index had fallen 2 months in a row to a 7-month low in May, depressed by higher gas prices and troubling news from Iraq.   The index peaked at 103.8 in January after plunging as low as 77.6 in 2003 March ahead of the Iraq invasion."

2004-06-15 08:15PDT (11:15EDT) (15:15GMT)
Rex Nutting _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
May's CPI up 0.6% on energy costs: core prices up 0.2% (graph)
BLS report
"However, core inflation rates fell to a 1.7% year-over-year increase in May from 1.8% last month.   Core prices are rising at a 2.9% annual rate so far this year, well above the Federal Reserve's comfort zone of 1% to 2%."

2004-06-15
Tim Engstrom _SW FL News-Press_
Worker demand rising in SW FL
http://www.news-press.com/news/business/040615hiring.html
"[Only] 28% of employers interviewed said they expect to add workers in the next 3 months, according to the survey by Manpower Inc.   The remaining 72% expect to maintain current staffing...   With Lee County's [unemployment] rate at 3.2% in April -- the most recent data available -- employers are aggressively competing for workers, Hartman said."

2004-06-15
Paul Nyham _Seattle Post-Intelligencer_
Seattle job out-look is still grim (graph)
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/177846_jobmarket15.asp
"In the Seattle area, 36% of surveyed companies plan to add staff, though 49% said there will be no changes, Manpower Inc., a temporary staffing firm [i.e. body shop], reported today.   During the same time last year, only 12% of companies were prepared to hire new employees."

2004-06-15
Scott Anderson _Ann Arbor News_
Hiring predicted to rise
http://www.mlive.com/business/aanews/index.ssf?/base/business-2/1087310794187381.xml
"A quarterly study released today by nationwide staffing firm [body shop] Manpower Inc. shows 47% of Ann Arbor area businesses plan to hire more employees during the third quarter, while 3% expect to reduce their work-force during that period.   The remaining half of surveyed businesses said they plan to maintain their current staff levels during the quarter, which begins July 1 and ends September 30...   Industries showing the most potential to hire locally include technology, medical services, and food manufacturing and packaging for retail stores...   Washtenaw County's jobless rate was 2.7% in April, down from 3.5% in March and slightly lower than a year-ago rate of 2.8%."

2004-06-15
Lou Hirsh _Palm Springs CA Desert Sun_
Unemployment rate dips across the valley: more jobs on horizon
http://www.thedesertsun.com/news/stories2004/business/20040615011804.shtml
"A survey by the [body shop] Manpower showed that 40% of companies surveyed in Riverside County plan to hire more workers in the third quarter, compared with 33% a year ago.   According to data released Monday by the state Employment Development Department, all valley cities saw their unemployment rates decline from April to May.   The decline was spurred in part by the start of the agricultural harvesting season.   Riverside County as a whole saw unemployment drop from 5.3% in April to 5.1% in May.   The state's rate was unchanged from April's 6.2%, but down from the 6.8% seen in May 2003, the department reported...   In Riverside County, 40% of companies interviewed plan to hire more employees from July to September, while none intend to reduce their work forces, said Manpower spokeswoman Evlyn Wilcox in San Bernardino.   Another 57% expect to maintain current staff levels, and 3% are not certain of hiring plans...   Work-force Development Center manager Lorraine Chavez-Figueroa said the center is seeing about 400 to 500 new openings per week coming in from employers, in areas such as retail, agriculture and food service."

2004-06-15
Dean Calbreath _San Diego Union-Tribune_
Unemployment rate drops again in San Diego county: building industry leads hiring surge but 700 software product development jobs lost (table)
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20040615-9999-1b15jobs.html
"A red-hot construction market, bolstered by down-town development projects and the rebuilding of fire-damaged homes, helped push San Diego County's already-low unemployment rate down another notch last month.   Total non-farm pay-roll jobs rose by 6,500, including 2K new jobs created by the building industry, according to data released yesterday by the California Employment Development Department.   The spurt in job growth helped push unemployment from 3.9% in April to 3.8% in May ñ the fifth-lowest jobless rate in the state after San Luis Obispo, Orange, Marin and Napa counties.   The state jobless rate remained unchanged at 6.2% last month, while the national rate edged down from 5.4% to 5.3%...   According to seasonally adjusted data ñ which differs from the way the San Diego statistics are released ñ California added 23,600 pay-roll jobs last month, resulting in an annual gain of 110,200...   Even hard-hit Santa Clara County, home of Silicon Valley, added a couple hundred jobs last month, although neighboring counties in the San Francisco Bay Area continued to shed jobs.   Locally...44% of the companies interviewed said they plan to hire new workers this summer, while 7% plan to cut jobs.   Another 40% expect to maintain current staff levels, while 9% are not sure of their hiring plans...   Over the past year, builders in San Diego County have added 8,500 jobs, with the biggest increase for laying foundations and performing finishing work...   Kris Hartnett, business manager, San Diego County Building and Construction Trades Council.   Hartnett says the market is the best he has seen for construction since the late 1970s, during the building of the San Onofre nuclear power plant.   At that time, he said, there was 120% employment for local unionized construction workers, 'meaning there was lots of over-time and we had people coming in from other parts of the country'.   The current market is nearly as hot.   Hartnett estimates employment for unionized workers is as high as 95%...   Last month, for instance, San Diego County manufacturers added a net of 500 jobs to their pay-roll -- although they still have 700 fewer jobs than they did last year."

2004-06-15
Tom Abate _San Francisco Chronicle_
State pay-roll grows again: unemployment rate is static
"California added 23,600 jobs to its pay-rolls in May, continuing a recent string of modest gains, the state Employment Development Department reported Monday.   The increase left the state's unemployment rate unchanged at 6.2% in May, while still leaving 1.087M Californians hunting for work.   The state figures released Monday mirror national trends that show the recovering economy finally creating jobs, but not yet in sufficient numbers to reverse the deep job losses that occurred during the last recession.   The 14,501,200 total jobs in the state are still about 227K below the peak reached in 2001 March...   the nation still has 1.2% fewer jobs than when the recession began.   California has a slightly higher jobs deficit of 1.5%, Levy said.   The job erosion has been far worse in the Bay Area, which still has 11% fewer jobs than it did 3 years ago...   Alameda and Contra Costa counties continued to be the bright spot in the Bay Area job picture, with 1.027M jobs in May, more than any other subdivision of the Bay Area.   Idell Weydemeyer, a labor market consultant with the Employment Development Department in Pleasant Hill, said the two East Bay counties have a diverse economic base and never lost as many jobs as techcentric Silicon Valley or San Francisco...   For the fourth straight month, Santa Clara County added manufacturing jobs, with gains in audio-visual equipment, semiconductors and circuit card assembly.   Nevertheless, after months of relentless losses, there were still 3.8% fewer people holding manufacturing jobs in May than there were a year ago at this time.   The county's total pay-roll of 848,700 remains more than 19% below the peak of 1,052,400 in 2001 March."

2004-06-15
Barry Meier _NY Times_
Group Weighs Plan for Full Drug-Trial Disclosure
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/15/business/15drug.html
"A group of top medical journals is considering a proposal that would require drug makers to register clinical trials at their start in a public data-base."

2004-06-15
Kate Zernike _NY Times_
Woman, 26, Pleads Guilty in Deadly Illegal Immigrant Smuggling Case
"A Honduran immigrant pleaded guilty Monday to being the ring-leader of the nation's deadliest smuggling case, which left 19 [illegal] immigrants dead."

2004-06-15
Maxwell Cooter _TechWorld_
Companies under-estimate cost of off-shore out-sourcing
"Companies looking to out-source applications, development and maintenance (ADM) have not fully considered all the costs.   That's the conclusion of recent research from Meta Group which surveyed 150 senior IT executives across Europe on the implications of out-sourcing.   The survey, which was commissioned by Compuware, found that 80% of companies had suffered problems and that about 30% had made no plans for the cost savings that they could make - even though more than half of the organisations surveyed said cost had been the key driver.   According to Paul O'Neill, VP of Meta Group Europe, organisations have a habit of making decisions without considering all the consequences.   He said that they looked to move off-shore because of cost savings but didn't have a clue as to what level of savings they could actually expect...   The research showed that 80% of organisations have suffered problems ranging from time and cost overruns, to non-adherence to specifications and requirements, when out-sourcing ADM projects."

2004-06-15
Vicky Lovell, Barbara Gault & Heidi Hartmann _Institute for Women's Policy Research_
Substantial numbers of workers lack sufficient paid sick leave (pdf)
http://www.iwpr.org/pdf/B243.pdf
"More than half of all workers in the private sector and in state and local government (54%, or 66M workers) are not provided with any paid sick leave after a full year of service, according to a new analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data by the Institute for Womenís Policy Research...   89M workers in the United States currently have fewer than 7 days of paid sick leave."

2004-06-15 03:00PDT (06:00EDT) (10:00GMT)
_Business Wire_
Chicago Foreclosure Activity High as Local Job Losses Continue
"'Over the last 12 months,' said Foreclosures.com president Alexis McGee, 'Chicago lost 2000 jobs.   In any given week, there are 1300 to 1500 foreclosure cases pending in the 6 Chicagoland counties.'   Ms. McGee went on to say that Cook County led the area in new cases filed.   'Of 423 homes that entered the foreclosure process in the week ending June 12th, 325 were in Cook County.'"

Michael Badnarik
How to Make Health Care Affordable
http://www.badnarik.org/Issues/Unemployment.php
"Excess regulation and government spending destroy jobs and increase unemployment.   Every regulator we fire results in the creation of over 150 new jobs, enough to hire the ex-regulator, the unemployed, and the able-bodied poor."
 

2004-06-16

2004-06-16 06:15PDT (09:15EDT) (13:15GMT)
Corbett B. Daly _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
US May industrial output finally recovers pre-recession levels
"Output of the nation's factories, mines and utilities rose at a faster-than-expected rate of 1.1% in May, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday. Capacity utilization rose to 77.8% from a revised 77.1%, the highest level in 3 years."

2004-06-16 11:00PDT (14:00EDT) (18:00GMT)
Rex Nutting _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Fed's Beige Book says inflation is modest, economy expanding, hiring strong
"Hiring increased 'at a faster pace' in most regions and wages were growing slowly, the Beige Book report on the current economic outlook indicated."

2004-06-16
_Federal Reserve Board_