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updated: 2015-12-28
 

"4.9% of workers were in contingent employment arrangements in 1995 February.   In both construction and agriculture, about 1 in 10 wage and salary workers was contingent, the highest proportion among the major industry groups...   In the services industry, the proportion of workers in contingent jobs, 7.4%, was higher than the overall average.   Within services, some industries had very low rates of contingent employment.   For example, 1.8% of private hospital workers and 2.9% of workers in other health services were in contingent arrangements.   Automobile and repair services also had a low rate of contingent employment, 2.2%.   In contrast, nearly 1 in 5 workers in private educational services expected their jobs to last only a short time longer for an economic reason.   Contingent workers in this industry include several types of workers, such as college and university faculty members who do not have tenure, under-graduate and graduate students in work-study programs or teaching and research assistantships, and staff members with year-to-year contracts at private elementary and secondary schools.   Business services, which include personnel supply services, also had a high rate of contingent employment, 14.8%.   Most jobs in personnel supply services are temporary and thus contingent services, which include personnel supply services, also had a high rate of contingent employment, 14.8%.   Most jobs in personnel supply services are temporary and thus contingent." --- Joseph R. Meisenheimer "The services industry in the ‘good’ versus ‘bad jobs debate" 1998 February _Monthly Labor Review_ pp 37-38

 
 

2009 January

U	M	T	W	R	F	S
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

 

"For example, in some plans, the duration of benefits varies by the length of time workers have been with their current employer.   In 1996, the median tenure was 3.0 years for workers in services and 1.9 years for those in retail trade.   By comparison, the median tenure was 6.1 years for workers in mining and 5.4 years for those in manufacturing." --- Joseph R. Meisenheimer "The services industry in the ‘good’ versus ‘bad jobs debate" 1998 February _Monthly Labor Review_ pg 35

 
 
 

captain William Scott's flag for the Republic of Texas.

2009-01-01

2009-01-01
Froma Harrop _Real Clear Politics_/_Providence Journal_
Off-Shoring, H-1B visas and the Clinton-Bush-Obama economic depression
"When the [guest-workers] go home, the jobs often go with them.   That's a problem for American workers.   For the businesses that abuse the program, it's a plan...   Certainly in this time of massive lay-offs there can be no pretense of a labor shortage.   'IT workers make up the largest of our science and engineering occupations', out-sourcing expert Ron Hira tells me, 'and they essentially have no representation in Washington'.   Not so [the executives of] M$, Google, Intel and other heavy users of the H-1B [described in 8 USC 1101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b)] program."

2009-01-01 08:53PST (11:53EST) (16:53GMT)
Jessica Dickler _CNN_/_Money_
Unemployed workers taking cuts of 30% to 70% in compensation
"In fact, 63% of unemployed workers said they would be willing to accept a job offer that pays less than their previous job, according to a recent survey conducted by the National Employment Law Project.   Still, only 37% of respondents expressed high confidence in finding a job in the next 4 months despite being willing to make such a sacrifice."

2009-01-01
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
Know Your Enemy

2009-01-01
Rob Sanchez _Job Destruction News-Letter_ #1951
Tech jobs, temporary, US citizens need not apply
 
Resourcesoft is hiring programmers, but don't bother applying unless you are an H-1B or an Indian national.   In the first job ad (see below) they are seeking an "H1B Java" programmer.   Just in case someone mistakenly thinks that "H1B Java" is a variant or a new version of Java (like Java 1.0), Resourcesoft further stipulates that the ideal candidate should have "an Indian Passport that is valid for at least 5 years".
 
In the second job ad, which appeared last January, Resourcesoft says that they are: "currently hiring qualified candidates to come and work for us on an H1B Visa in our USA office.   Resourcesoft, Inc. will work with the right candidates to sponsor their work permits."   Just in case a few naive American programmers didn't get the hint, or didn't read that passage, they ask applicants to mail their resumes to: h1bhire@....
 
It's interesting to note that the Resourcesoft website has job openings but none of them, at the time of this writing, contains Indian ethnocentric verbiage similar to their ads on Dice and other websites.   E-mail addresses, when provided are usually something like hr@....   At the bottom of each job ad there is a statement that says: "Resourcesoft, Inc is an Equal Opportunity Employer".
 
Excluding everyone but Indian nationals hasn't seemed to hurt Resourcesoft in terms of reputation or business.   If anything it has helped the company because they were able to get certified as Minority and Woman-Owned Business Enterprise and Small Business Enterprise (MBE/WBE/WOB/SBE).   This certification program is used to put women and minority owned businesses at the front of the line when lucrative city, state and federal government contracts are doled out.
 
Resourcesoft is widely acclaimed in Massachusetts.   The Worcester Business Journal Online rated the company #3 in the area for "Top Women-Owned Businesses" ranked by number of local employees (97 employees and $32M in revenue).   The Mass High Tech Journal praises CEO Anita Rana as "a major player in women-owned IT services companies".
 
If all of this wasn't nauseating enough, in January the Mass High Tech Journal will honor Anita Rana as one of the top ten "women in 2009 to Watch".   The cost to attend is $95 and it will be held on 2009 March 12.   Corporate tables for 10 will cost you $1,300 and that includes premium seating.
 
Oh well, happy 2009!
 
***** SOURCES *****
 
Note: On the sources that may disappear from the web were saved as text.
 
Job Ad Title: Resource soft - QA Engineer - 2 to 6 years
Resourcesoft web site
Directory of Certified Businesses, Massachusetts
PARTICIPATION BY MINORITY OWNED BUSINESSES AND WOMAN OWNED BUSINESSES, MA (pdf)
Anita Rana's profile on Linkedin
Top Women-Owned Businesses
Resourcesoft profile
MASSHIG TECH - Women-owned IT service firms hold their edge
Women to Watch 2009, event and registration form
Confessions of a "Woman-Owned Business" Owner: How I learned to love quotas
My Association with ResourceSoft (unflattering comments about working there)
Job Ad Title: US H1B Java / .Net / Database
Title: US H1B Java / .Net / Database
Skills: US H1B Java / .Net / Database
Date: 12-29-2008
Location: boston, MA
Area code: 508
Tax term: FULLTIME CON_CORP CON_IND CON_W2 CON_HIRE_CORP CON_HIRE_IND CON_HIRE_W2
Pay rate: open
Length: 2+ Months
Position ID: 1229USH1
Dice ID: 10117734
Job description:
We are looking to augment our project services team with bright, talented and experienced individuals.   Resourcesoft, Inc. is a $30 Million a year IT Services Company.   Resourcesoft, Inc. works with its direct end clients and Fortune 100 companies in USA.   Resourcesoft, Inc. provides Information Technology, Project Services and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to match the exclusive business requirements of its clients.   Resourcesoft, Inc. is among the fastest growing, privately owned IT Professional and Project Services companies in USA as shown by the following recent recognitions in Year 2007:
o 3rd largest employer in Worcester, MA Region
o Ranked No. 61 in the Top Companies in Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH
o Recognized by Inc Magazine (Inc 5000 The Fastest Growing Private Companies in America)
 
The ideal candidate should have:
o Good command of English both Oral and Written Skills;
o Bachelors of Engineering;
o 2 to 4 years of relevant software development experience;
o Good knowledge of Object Oriented Concepts;
o Knowledge of Software Engineering Design Patterns is a plus;
o An Indian Passport that is valid for at least 5 years;...
-30-
 

2009-01-01
Elliot Spagat _Yahoo!_/_AP_
Many illegal aliens live in government housing
"Untold thousands of illegal immigrants live in public housing at a time when hundreds of thousands of citizens and legal residents are stuck waiting years for a spot.   Illegal immigrants make up a tiny portion of the 7.1M people in federal housing, according to government statistics.   But authorities may be unaware of thousands more, and critics say no illegal immigrant should get housing benefits...   the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reports that 29,570 people -- 0.4% of all those in federally funded housing -- are 'ineligible non-citizens'.   Some may be on temporary visas, [guest-workers, college students], but many are believed to be illegal [aliens]."

2009-01-01
_Rocky Mountain News_/_AP_/_Scripps_
1M net job cuts forecast for this year
Go Erie

2009-01-01
Thomas Kostigen _MarketWatch_
The bottom is clear and from here it's all up

2009-01-01
Bob Johnson _V Dare_
An Illinois Engineer Says Immigration Lawyers Always See Green No Matter How Much Economic Red Ink Surrounds Them
"No matter how dire America's economic conditions, immigration lawyers will always have some outrageous argument why we need more employment-based visas.   The only green I see in anyone's future is the money that will line the pockets of Mehta and his peers by processing immigration forms and documents."
 
 

2009-01-02

2009-01-02
Beryl Lieff Benderly _Science Careers_
The H-1B Grinder Crushes US and Foreign STEM Talent
"Visa holders such as Otto complain of exploitation and abuse.   But many American scientists and technical professionals blame the H-1B visa [described in 8 USC 1101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b)] for allowing temporary foreign workers to drive down wages and displace them from jobs.   Employers, meanwhile, denounce limits on the number of H-1B visas available, which they say keep them from finding the skilled employees they need."

2009-01-02
Jason Subler _Yahoo!_/_Reuters_
Factories around the world slash output and jobs

2009-01-02
Rob Chaney _Missoulian_/_Billings Gazette_
Lessons learned long ago echo among Crow
"on the Little Big Horn College campus. Two Leggins coordinated the college's tribal history project..."

2009-01-02
Michelle Malkin _V Dare_
The State of Our Borders 2008
"chaos, haphazard enforcement, massive back-logs and deportation negligence remain the order of the day.   A half-million citizenship applications have been pending for more than 9 months.   Some 700K illegal alien absconders—fugitives from deportation like Barack Obama's aunt Zeituni Onyango—are free.   An estimated 4M-5M illegal visa over-stayers from around the world remain in the country...   In June, the White House pushed through a $1.6G border security spending plan... for Mexico and Central America.   While our own border fence remains incomplete, taxpayers shelled out for helicopters, surveillance equipment, computer infrastructure, expansion of intelligence data-bases, anti-corruption initiatives, human rights education and training, and anti-money laundering programs for our southern neighbors...   In a little-noticed announcement this month, Mexican prosecutors reported the stiff sentence against Salim Boughader Mucharrafille, a Mexican of Lebanese descent who operated a cafe in Tijuana and smuggled terrorist sympathizers into San Diego.   Mucharrafille's accomplice was Imelda Ortiz Abdala, a Mexican foreign service official who helmed the Mexican consulate in Beirut."

2009-01-02 (5769 Teves 06)
Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski _Jewish World Review_
Having a holy tongue, Lashon Ha Kodesh
"All matter [can be] divided into four categories: domem (inanimate), tzomeach (vegetative), chai (living) and medaber (speaking)."

2009-01-02 (5769 Teves 06)
Caroline B. Glick _Jewish World Review_
Hamas' march to victory
"Since Tuesday it has become clear that the Olmert-Livni-Barak government has decided to end the war with Iran's Hamas proxy army in Gaza as quickly as possible.   That is, the government has decided to lose the war...   Hamas reinstated its attacks against southern Israel on December 19.   It did so after a six month hiatus which it used to restock its arsenals and strengthen its military forces.   As it resumed its terror offensive against Israeli cities, Hamas announced that it will continue its current round of terror war until it wins full control over Gaza's international land and sea borders.   Israel, for its part has been less clear in stating its operational goals."

2009-01-02

DJIA	9,034.69
S&P 500	931.80
NASDAQ	1,632.21
10-year US T-Bond	2.41%
crude oil	$46.34/barrel
gold	879.50/ounce
silver	$11.49/ounce
platinum	$946.70/ounce
palladium	$192.30/ounce
copper	$0.0913125/ounce
natgas	$5.971/MBTU
reformulatedgasoline	$1.1105/gal
heatingoil	$1.4803/gal
dollarindex	81.73
yenperdollar	90.55
dollarspereuro	1.4065
dollarsperpound	1.4477
swissfranksperdollar	1.0794
indianrupeesperdollar	48.59
MorganStanleyHighTechIndex	356.52

I usually get this info from MarketWatch and the "Commodities" and "Metals" and "Currencies" columns.
 
 
 

2009-01-03

2009-01-03
Rob Chaney _Missoulian_/_Billings MT Gazette_
Tribes race to preserve their culture
"The walls of Murray's tribal history department office at Blackfeet Community College are papered with maps that show history poised to repeat itself.   They chart the legacy of the Dawes Act of 1887 and its nibbling of the Blackfeet homelands.   Most Montanans have never heard of the Dawes Act.   But if you're one of the state's 66K American Indians, that bit of federal law is like knowing cancer runs in your family.   Murray was researching her tribe's history for the state Office of Public Instruction.   While exploring what happened to thousands of acres of lost Blackfeet homesteads a century ago, she saw a pattern that threatens the future of her tribe.   Before the Dawes Act, tribes owned all their land communally.   The federal law forced them to accept allotments of land by family, the way white settlers did.   Murray found 228 families that settled on land outside the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.   They would get behind on their taxes and lose their property.   Then they would discover that they weren't enrolled members of their own tribe.   So, the 30K to 50K acres they had owned were no longer Indian land.   Today, the process is working in reverse.   Murray said that under current Blackfeet enrollment rules, reservation residents must be at least one-quarter Blackfeet for their property to remain part of the reservation.   Dip below that through intermarriage or sloppy record-keeping, and a family's land could lose its reservation status.   Murray is 17/32 Blackfeet.   It says so on her tribal ID card.   Her children will meet the one-quarter 'blood quantum' rule, but her grand-children might not."

2009-01-03
_Palm Beach FL Post_
Budget cuts at universities cause loss of researchers and federal grant money
"Gov. Crist is recommending a 2.1% cut to the university system, or $51M.   That's smaller than the $97M, which represents the 4% hold-back announced in June, that could be implemented.   But we believe it should be 0%.   Faculty and staff at Florida's 11 public universities, who teach and serve 300K students, have not had raises in two years.   Several have left the state for jobs willing to pay more.   Among them are research professors who take not only their expertise and experience, but their federal and private grant money with them.   Public university researchers brought $1.4G to the state last year, dollars that help local economies.   State law-makers would be shortsighted not to consider that economic impact when making budget decisions.   As reported by The Post, the University of Florida has lost more than 100 professors in recent years, 60% of whom were bringing in grants and contracts.   Also, Florida State University has lost 19 top researchers in the past year -- several in high-need areas such as computational biology, oceanography and physics -- to other universities."

2009-01-03
Froma Harrop _Houston TX Chronicle_
Richardson as Commerce Secretary, both supporting off-shoring and guest-work visas while saying he wanted to create jobs didn'd add up
CT Day
Seattle WA Times
Dallas TX Morning News
"'IT workers make up the largest of our science and engineering occupations,' out-sourcing expert Ron Hira tells me, 'and they essentially have no representation in Washington.'...   The companies' collective plaint is that they suffer a desperate shortage of skilled workers.   'But no one has to demonstrate that there is a shortage.', notes Hira, a professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology.   The median base pay for IT professionals fell to $73K this year from $74K last year.   'If wages are dropping, that's an indication there's not a shortage.', Hira adds."
 
 

2009-01-04

2009-01-04
Tom Lutey _Billings MT Gazette_
Freeze-resistant diesel fuel supplies limited
"Demand for No. 1 diesel, the kind that still flows at minus-20 degrees and cooler, surged in December as extremely cold temperatures socked the region for two weeks beginning in mid-month.   Trucks caught with lower fuel grades in their tanks or mixtures of No. 1 and No. 2 diesel stalled as their diesel congealed in the cold temperatures.   Green-handled fuel nozzles at gas stations where No. 1 diesel supplies dried up were hooded.   'The Cenex around here has been selling a 50-50 blend, and it works great until it's 20 below.   Then you're stuck on the side of the road.', said Sid Waller, of Community Oil Co. in Reserve...   Freight haulers, with special heating systems to keep fuel pourable, have fared better."

2009-01-04
Norm Matloff _H-1B/ L-1/ Off-Shoring e-News-Letter_
Science Magazine writer gets it right
 
Most discussion of the H-1B work visa program focuses on IT, not suprising since the computer fields take a plurality of the visas.   Yet H-1B's impact on science and academia is equally important, with the abuse being equally rampant (though, as with IT, fully legal).   Enclosed below is a piece by Beryl Lieff Benderly in Science Careers, a publication of Science Magazine, highlighting this issue.   It's startling but gratifying to see such a staid publication take such an un-PC, though correct, stance.   (I've also enclosed a second article by Benderly.)
 
Many readers of this e-news-letter will recall that I've brought up the subject myself in various ways, most recently in connection with Douglas Prasher, the "almost-Nobelist" who is working as a van driver for a Toyota dealer.   I urge you to read my entire posting as Prasher exemplifies what Ms. Benderly writes about in the enclosures even better than her own Dr. "Otto B. Doing-Better".   In summary: Prasher's work was central to research that led to this year's Nobel Prize in chemistry, and one of the winners said he could well have been selected for the award himself.   Yet he went through a series of jobs in science, with shorter and shorter duration and less and less security.   In the end he was reduced to driving the van for a living.
 
The point is that Prasher is a victim of a crushing over-supply of scientists, in turn caused by a large influx imported from abroad under the H-1B program, just as Ms. Benderly describes.   What Benderly probably doesn't know, though, is that all of this was deliberate.   When the National Science Foundation was lobbying Congress to establish the H-1B program in the late 1980s, the NSF cited as a major goal holding down PhD salaries, which would be accomplished by flooding the labor market with H-1B PhDs.   The NSF also noted that the low salaries would drive away American students from PhD programs, which is of course exactly what has happened.   See Eric Weinstein's investigative reporting on this, and quotes of it.
 
Bottom line: The H-1B program is being used in academia for cheap labor, just like in IT.   It's ruining the careers and lives of people like "Otto B. Doing-Better", even to the point of forcing a Nobel-level researcher into blue collar work to earn a living.   And all this is occurring unseen behind the hype that "Johnnie can't do science" and the U.S.A. is on the verge of losing its technical edge.
 
Well, WHY is it unseen?   Are Benderly and Weinstein and I really the only ones who know this?   Of course not.   Any academic with her eyes open knows it.   Shirley M. Malcom, head of education and human resources at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, knows there is a huge over-supply of scientists, and surely understands the role of H-1B in it.   She spoke of the over-supply on NPR (without explicitly mentioning H-1B).
 
But almost no one is willing to rock the boat, as the personal consequences would be severe.   Though I must note that my own university has been remarkably tolerant of my gadfly writings on H-1B, even bestowing its Distinguished Public Service Award on me in part because of H-1B.   But if, for example, Dr. Malcom had mentioned H-1B explicitly in that NPR segment, her days at AAAS likely would have been numbered, and she would have been blocked from obtaining other positions of that type.   Greg Zachary of the Wall Street Journal wrote some great pieces on H-1B in the mid-90s, then later changed 180 degrees; why the change of heart?   Several academics who have been strong H-1B critics in the past, have, in the last year or so come out in favor of expanding the employer-sponsored green card program, in spite of that program having essentially the same adverse effects as H-1B.
 
Hal Salzman, whose Urban Institute report is cited by Benderly (see below), was on that show with Malcom, and he didn't mention H-1B either -- in spite of the fact that he was the investigator on a 2001 congressionally-commissioned study which found that use of H-1Bs as cheap labor is rampant.   Again, I believe that this reticence on his part is due to H-1B being a kind of Third Rail in the research world.
 
Meanwhile, those with huge vested interests in the program -- academia, industry and last-but-not-least the immigration attorneys -- have been flooding the press with PR, which is the source of the "Johnnie can't do science" perception.   BTW, Benderly appears to be unaware that one report she cites, by NAP, was written by a researcher who has been quite partisan in favor of the industry and whose funding is suspected to come from the immigration lawyers group.
 
And these people, e.g. Google CEO Eric Schmidt, have Barack Obama's ear.   Not coincidentally, Obama's Secretaries-designate of Commerce, DHS and Labor all are in favor of expanding H-1B and employer-sponsored green cards.   Obama's own position paper, linked to in Benderly's article, might as well have been written by the industry, and may well have been.
 
And even though Obama's fellow senator from Illinois, Dick Durbin, has sponsored a good H-1B reform bill and Durbin was one of Obama's most active supporters in the election campaign, Obama doesn't seem to have been educated by Durbin very much, or worse, Obama sees that reform of H-1B is a political non-starter.   I'm sure the Durbin-Grassley bill will languish this coming year just as it did during the Bush years.
 
Voices like Lindsay Lowell, whose outstanding Urban Institute study with Hal Salzman is cited below by Benderly, are lost in the shuffle.   Though UI is well-respected in DC and is especially valued by Democrats, you could knock on doors on the Hill all day and not find more than one or two staffers who are aware of the Lowell/Salzman report.   Similarly you could talk to all the science and business reporters at the New York Times and likely not find any who know about Lowell/Salzman.
 
Nor for that matter would you find congressional staffers who are aware of Congress' own findings, in two of its commissioned reports (the one by NRC that Salzman contributed to, as mentioned, and another by GAO), that H-1B is used widely as a means of cheap labor -- as reported by the employers themselves.   You might find some staffers who know of a recent DHS study that found a substantial percentages of irregularities (some fraudulent, most not) in H-1B applications, but that is missing the real point, which is that most abuse of H-1B for cheap labor is fully legal, due to the loop-holes, as pointed out in the GAO study.
 
The sad truth is that Congress hears what the monied and powerful want them to hear.
 
Norm
2009-01-02: Beryl Lieff Benderly: Taken for Granted: Brother, Can You Spare a Temporary Worker Visa?

2009-01-04
Mark Harper _Daytona Beach News Journal_
How to grow a state college: Daytona State College flourishing in hard times
"Many of the opportunities Sharples sees at Daytona State College are possible because of its inclusion in the state college system bill passed by the Legislature last year.   College officials pressed hard for Daytona State to be included in a group of pilot state colleges.   The first, most obvious change came with the 50-year-old institution's name.   Several of the state's 28 community colleges have become a 'college' or 'state college', reflecting the new 4-year degree focus.   In 2006, Daytona State College introduced its first four-year degree, the bachelor of applied science in supervision and management.   This month, the college starts classes for its second 4-year degree, in education...   22% student growth in the last 2 years.   That allowed Sharples to give $1K bonuses right before Christmas to the school's 900 full-time employees the last two years, buying him goodwill and helping to raise the average faculty salary from the bottom half of Florida's community colleges to second."

2009-01-04
Todd Bishop & Marcus Courtney _Tech Flash_
Marcus Courtney tried to unionize M$

2009-01-04
_Lancaster PA News_
Reality bites job seekers
"According to Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate among people in their 20s increased significantly in the 2 most recent recessions.   It is likely to do so again as industries such as finance and technology, which employ lots of young people, ax thousands of jobs...   Yet a survey of 4,200 young graduates from 44 countries published in December by PricewaterhouseCoopers found they want many of the same things as previous generations, including long tenure with a small number of employers.   And they are willing to put in the hours to get them, if they are treated well."
 
 

2009-01-05

2009-01-05
Philip Elliott _Cleveland OH Plain Dealer_
Yesterday, Bill Richardson withdrew his name from nomination for Commerce Secretary
York Daily Record
Voice of America
Seeking Alpha
Pittsburgh PA Post-Gazette
Lawrence KS Journal-World
Baltimore Sun
Detroit News

2009-01-05
Robert Faturechi _Sacramento Bee_
More students compete for fewer University of California slots
"About 127K students applied to attend at least one of UC's 9 under-graduate campuses during the 2009 Fall term -- a 5% increase over last year...   Only 77,521 of the 121,005 under-graduates who applied for 2008 -- a UC record at the time -- were accepted...   Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed significant funding cuts to the state's university systems.   His proposal aims to cut $131M from the UC system by 2010 June 30, and eliminate a planned 7.5% budget increase of $210M for 2009-2010.   The governor's proposal also is based on the assumption that UC regents will approve fee increases of 9.9%, from $7,126 to $7,788 a year."

2009-01-05
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
Keynes's Wrong-Turn Hypothesis
"What really happens is that savings, through one channel or another, end up as increased deposit balances on lenders' balance sheets.   Several beneficial effects arise from this.   One is that banks and other financial intermediaries have increased and more stable lendable funds.   Consumers with higher savings are more creditworthy and will find it easier to obtain bank loans.   Ask yourself why former investment bank titans Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley opted to become commercial bank holding companies and compete to get stable bank deposits.   Government stimulus programs, in contrast, produce temporary and therefore unreliable bursts of increased bank deposits, leaving lenders wary of significant increases in lending activity."

2009-01-05
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
Leftist Barbarism

2009-01-05
Rob Sanchez _Job Destruction News-Letter_ #1952
Listening to the wind WRT legislative and regulatory changes for visas and incomprehensible immigration law perversion attempts
"I have been in a gloomy mood since the first of the year, but a recent editorial on the Immigration Law web site (ILW) [Immigration Daily] really raised my spirits.   ILW's bad attitude about H-1B and amnesty in 2009 is very encouraging, although their negativity is probably not justified.
 
Considering the current political scene it's difficult to see why ILW is so dour: president elect Obama and all his cabinet support H-1B and amnesty, and Congress is stacked with a majority of Democrats in Congress who are anxious to pass H-1B increases and to shove the immigration issue under the rug by passing amnesty.   The only lip service they give on controlling the alien invasion is to spend more resources on border enforcement.
 
Read the ILW commentary closely and you will discover the source of their angst: YOU!   That's right, you have been raising a stink about H-1B and that's what worries ILW -- they recognize that Congress listened to you.   ILW understands that raising H-1B caps will become increasingly difficult as unemployment continues to get worse.
 
The new [111th] Congress is likely to be more unfriendly on H-1Bs than a post-IMMACT Congress.   This is true for several reasons -- firstly, H-1Bs have been the single most criticized part of employment immigration in the last decade.
 
Well folks, let's keep the stink going because 2009 is going to be a rough ride.   It would be very surprising if there wasn't a major push to raise the H-1B cap soon after Obama becomes president.   Hopefully by the end of the year ILW will have even more to complain about.   LOL!
Immigration Daily: IILP And H1Bs

1009-01-05 08:26PST (11:26EST) (16:26GMT)
Ruth Mantell _MarketWatch_
US construction spending down by seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 0.6% in November

2009-01-09
_Dice_
Dice Report: 55,609 job ads

2009-01-05
Frosty Wooldridge _Official Wire_
Happy New Year! Many on board the immigration sanity band-wagon. We shall never, never, ever give up!

2009-01-05 (5769 Teves 09)
Mark Steyn _Jewish World Review_
Gaza's version of rocket scientists
"In 2007, as part of their attempt to recover Gaza from Hamas, Fatah seized 1K Qassam rockets at the university, as well as 7 Iranian military trainers."
 

2009-01-06

2009-01-06
Douglas Havens _Jacksonville FL Times-Union_
Socialism: We're getting there
"We are being sold out by our political leaders, and most of us are happy to sit back, relax, and watch our country crumble while [Red China], Mexico and American corporations define the very U.S. policy that will ruin this country.   Socialism is the medium between capitalism and communism, where a government changes private ownership to collective ownership.   That sounds like the $750G bail-out!   Furthermore, it's paid for with money borrowed, largely, from the People's Republic of China, the largest one-party Communist nation on Earth.   That's the same country we have a nearly $250G annual trade deficit with, and the country that has destroyed our manufacturing base and millions of jobs.   At the same time all of this is happening, U.S. employers are bringing in foreign workers under visa programs, shipping more jobs over-seas and petitioning our politicians to grant amnesty to illegal aliens.   The United States lost nearly 2M jobs in 2008, and it's predicted that our unemployment rate could rise to 9%.   Don't worry, though, [we're told] the incoming administration projects it will create about 3M jobs fixing America's infrastructure.   Think about how many of those will go to illegal aliens, and the holders of H-1B and H-2B visas.   It's time that all of us wake up!   Stop buying [Red Chinese] junk because it's cheap.   Boycott businesses who out-source jobs and lay off U.S. workers.   Stop allowing our politicians to tell us what is good for us.   It's time to take this country back before it's too late."

2009-01-06
Bill Cotterell _Tallahassee FL Demagogue_
Local delegation of state legislators told FSU likely to lay off 200 due to budget pinch
Lauren Searcy: WCTV
"Florida State University will have to lay off about 200 employees because of a cumulative $65M budget cut, FSU Provost Larry Abele told Big Bend legislators Monday night [in a little-publicized 'public meeting'].   Abele, representing President T.K. Wetherell, said FSU is forced to consider closing departments and ending programs.   He said the current state holdback of 4% of this year's operating budgets will cost $13M, on top of $22M already cut and that $30M more needed by FSU won't be won in the fiscal year starting July 1...   'We've got about 2K employees earning around $20K a year.', said Abele.   'I can't justify laying them off, when what we would do is create an extreme hardship on the community... while faculty members have the skills to land on their feet somewhere else.   We're clearly going to focus first on surviving.'   In an interview after his testimony, Abele said some 1,400 faculty members' 'salaries and benefits are almost the same as those of the other 4K employees, a little less.   To save money, you have to cut where the money is.'   [FSU appears to continue to be in flagrant and belligerent violation of the federal Privacy Act of 1974, and thus ineligible for federal funding and subject to both civil and felony penalties.]"

2009-01-06 07:26PST (10:26EST) (15:26GMT)
Rex Nutting _MarketWatch_
Factory shipments down 5.5% in November, orders down 4.6%

2009-01-06
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
Inquisition or Scientific Investigation?

2009-01-06
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
Treasury secretary Paulson perpetuates Keynesian mythology
Brian S. Wesbury & Robert Stein: Forbes: Treasury's Paulson Gets It Wrong

2009-01-06 14:32PST (17:32EST) (22:32GMT)
Matt Andrejczak _MarketWatch_
Alcoa dumps employees and production in effort to conserve cash
"slashing its global workforce by 13%, including 260 corporate staff.   The company is also jettisoning 1,700 contractor positions, instituting a global salary and hiring freeze, and buying raw materials from alternatives suppliers.   In all, the Pittsburgh-based aluminum giant is cutting capital expenditures by 50% to $1.8G.   Annual aluminum output will drop by 18%, bringing its total yearly output cut to 35%, compared to the year before."

2009-01-06
Jennifer Lawinski _Fox_
Tennessee woman accuses farm owners/managers of favoring foreigners

2009-01-06
Rosanna Ruiz, Janet Elliott & R.G. Ratcliffe _Houston TX Chronicle_
Trans-Texas Corridor project officially dead, but component projects continue
Gordon Dickson: Fort Worth TX Star Telegram
Tony Hartzel: Dallas TX Morning News
Jaime Powell: Corpus Christi TX Caller-Times
"The state will move forward with a series of individual projects that had been considered part of the Trans-Texas Corridor plan, he said.   Among those is the Interstate 69 project, which, as proposed, would run from Texarkana to Laredo or the Rio Grande Valley...   The $175G, 4K-mile network was needed, he said, to accommodate rapid growth of the state's population and the expected increase in Mexican truck traffic following passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA...   Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, said she wants to make sure TxDOT is doing more than just changing the name of the project.   'Is this an admission of error or a strategic maneuver to repackage?', she asked."

2009-01-06 15:30PST (18:30EST) (23:30GMT)
Marshall Loeb & Bao Ong _MarketWatch_
The drive for longer life, and what has slowed America's improvements
"Longevity in America famously surged from an average [life expectancy at birth of] 47 years in 1900 to 77 years in 2000...   Not only are Americans living longer, they are also working for more years than their forebears and they are retiring later.   Another factor, says Butler, is the researchers who receive NIH grants are getting older.   Butler reckons that the average age of researchers receiving their first NIH grant is about 42, whereas he believes it should be 28 or 30."

2009-01-06
_FAIR_/_US News Wire_
Who's Lobbying on Immigration and Why? New Report Details Extensive Corporate Lobbying for Increased Immigration

2009-01-06
_NASA_
fly ash slurry spill in Kingston, TN along the Clinch river

2009-01-06 (5769 Teves 10)
Caroline B. Glick _Jewish World Review_
Iran's Gaza diversion?

2009-01-06 (5769 Teves 10)
Dennis Prager _Jewish World Review_
Dissecting Alan Dershowitz

2009-01-06 (5769 Teves 10)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
The Economic "Stimulus"
 
 

2009-01-07

2009-01-06 19:00PST (2009-01-06 22:00EST) (2009-01-07 03:00GMT)
Richard Rightmyer, Martha Waggoner, Tim Martin, Brett Barrouquere, Dinesh Rambe, Martha Raffaele, & Sue Major Holmes _AP_/_Yahoo!_
State unemployment insurance claims systems are crashing from the load
"Systems in New York, North Carolina and Ohio were shut down completely by technical glitches and heavy volume, and labor officials in several other states are reporting higher-than-normal use...   New York's phone and Internet claims system started to buckle on Monday afternoon... while as many as 10K people per hour tried to get in, said Leo Rosales, a state Labor Department spokesman."

2009-01-06 18:39PST (2009-01-06 21:39EST) (2009-01-07 02:39GMT)
Jennifer Waters _MarketWatch_
Both millionaires and older Americans express grave concerns with economy

2009-01-07 03:01PST (06:01EST) (11:01GMT)
V. Phani Kumar _MarketWatch_
Satyam's fraud hits the fan
more from MarketWatch
Wall Street Journal
Sumeet Chatterjee: Yahoo!/Reuters
"[H-1B visa reliant India-based international body shop] Satyam Computer Services' disclosure Wednesday that it had misrepresented its financial numbers raised fears that India's largest alleged corporate fraud to date will impact the corporate sector and foreign investment."

2009-01-07
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
Is this stimulus plan too late, and more likely to drive inflation than do any good?
Thomas F. Cooley: Forbes: Stimulus Doubts
Greg Mankiw

2009-01-07 10:53PST (13:53EST) (18:53GMT)
Ira Mehlman _Seattle Post Intelligencer_
Ensure new public works projects employ American workers

2009-01-07
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
Marching along the road to serfdom
Charles Krauthammer: Washington Post: From Market Economy to Political Economy

2009-01-07
Doug French _Ludwig von Mises Institute_
Book Review: The Case Against Adolescence

2009-01-07
Rabbi Doctor Asher Meir _Othodox Union_
VaYechi - Prohibition on Shaving

2009-01-07 (5769 Teves 11)
Walter E. Williams _Jewish World Review_
Rich People vs. Politicians
"A GS-9, or a lowly municipal clerk, has far more life-and-death power over us.   It's they to whom we must turn to for permission to build a house, ply a trade, open a restaurant and a myriad of other activities...   In the case of the Fanjuls, and thousands of others buying favors, they are engaged in legal corruption.   Legalized corruption is widespread and that's the job of 35K Washington, DC, lobbyists earning millions upon millions of dollars.   They represent America's big and small corporations, big and small labor unions and even foreign corporations and unions.   They are not spending billions of dollars in political contributions to encourage and assist the White House and Congress to uphold and defend the U.S. Constitution.   They are spending that money in the expectations of favors that will be bestowed upon them at the expense of some other American or group of Americans...   When politicians can give favors, they will find buyers."
 
 

2009-01-08

2009-01-07 16:00PST (2009-01-07 19:00EST) (2009-01-08 00:00GMT)
Lou Dobbs _CNN_
Cheap Science
video
Lou Dobbs: And tonight, compelling evidence that corporate America has been simply plain wrong in asserting that there is a shortage of scientists and engineers in this country.   It turns out that corporate America [executives], what else, may have been simply trying to force down labor costs...   Also, corporate America's aggressive campaign to drive down the wages of American scientists and engineers.   That's not what they've been telling everybody.   We'll tell you the truth, next.   New evidence tonight there are enough American scientists in this country to fill job openings in science and engineering and in science and engineering companies, despite many industry [executives'] claims to the absolute contrary.   Those companies actively discourage American workers by keeping wages lower than they would otherwise be without foreign workers being imported.   They keep wages low by exploiting visa rules and bringing cheap foreign workers into this country.   Bill Tucker has the report.
 
Bill Tucker: This fact from the National Science Foundation highlights a serious problem.   "The number of foreign post-docs has increased by 52% since 1996, whereas the number of U.S. citizen and permanent resident post-docs has grown by 9%."
 
Bill Tucker: The conventional wisdom is that that data shows a shortage of scientists and a dire need to bring in as many foreign scientists on H-1B visas as we can.   Science professionals see it very differently.   Beryl Benderly writes a monthly column for science careers on science labor force issues.
 
Beryl Lieff Benderly, Science Careers columnist: There is no shortage of people.   There are thousands of people who cannot find careers as scientists after they've been through years of training.
 
Bill Tucker: Studies from the Urban Institute, the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation all agree, the United States produces more scientists annually than science jobs.   There is no shortage reflected in the pay they receive either.   Ellis Research Services (ph), which has been doing wage studies in the science and engineering fields for 20 years, has consistently found pay for scientists to be in line with or lower than the average for all fields.
 
Ron Hira, Rochester Institute of Technology: There's no premium to these careers, and at the same time, what's happened is that there's been an increase in the risk to those workers, right as employers cut, for example, benefits, as employers start to look to move work over-seas, and a lot of science positions are vulnerable to being moved over-seas.
 
Bill Tucker: IOW, there's a disincentive for choosing a career in science.
 
professor Norm Matloff, University of California at Davis: The first thing the Obama people should do is take a hard look.   Ignore the PR and take a hard look at what's really going on in terms of wages and job opportunities and science today.
 
Bill Tucker: There are winners.   Just not the scientists.   A typical post-doc in their early 30s, after years of school, earning a PhD will earn about $35K, maybe $40K a year in a research position.   Helping keep those wages low, the fact that research institutions have unlimited access to H-1B visas.   And according to Ron Hira, some 60% of post-docs are foreign students, Lou, here on guest-worker visas.
 
Lou Dobbs: I'm not sure I quite understand this.   You're telling us that a person with a doctorate in this country, roughly... late 20s, early 30s is making just about the same as the median household income in this country?
 
Bill Tucker: They're making about $35K or $40K a year, after all of those years of [education] which really is below what [the average person with a bachelor's degree makes].
 
Lou Dobbs: Why would it not occur to geniuses like Bill Gates, who's had the tamari to stand in front of Congress and demand an infinite number of H-1B visas, why would it not occur to such a genius as Bill Gates and others in corporate America and in academia to perhaps offer greater pay for higher education in corporate America?
 
Bill Tucker: Well I can't speak for them, but they're the ones who benefit from the lower wages, Lou, so I would imagine they're acting as they would say in their own self-interest.
 
Lou Dobbs: Well a horrible -- a horrible construction of self- interest, denying an incentive for people to move into those jobs and give them a living wage, outrageous...   And I really would love to hear from the Chamber of Commerce -- the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable.   We invite you to come here and demonstrate to us the error of our ways because you've been among those, Chamber of Commerce, Business Roundtable, and Bill Gates, I want to invite you too, Bill, because you and I have known each other a long time and you know I'm a straight shooter and I know that you can be when you're wrestled to the ground.
 
Lou Dobbs: So why don't you come here and we'll talk about what's really going on, and how the American interest and American middle class workers can best be served.   Because it looks like, frankly, folks, you're doing the nation a great disservice by distorting what is happening in this country for higher education, graduates, particular post-docs in corporate America.
 
Lou Dobbs: Well there are right now 23 guest worker programs.   By the way, I know you're one of those people, I'll bet you, who like me has listened to the president say we've got to have a guest worker program.   Well, let me repeat that number.   We keep trying to keep -- to figure out how many there are.   And the number right now is just 23 guest worker programs.
 
Lou Dobbs: So, Mr. President, I know you only got a couple of weeks left, a little less than that, but I want you to hear me loud and clear.   As you've been going around the country saying this nonsense, there are 23 guest worker programs, folks.   Foreign workers enter here under an alphabet soup of different visas in those guest worker programs.
 
Lou Dobbs: In addition to the H visas there are also the E, the G, the I, the O, the P and there's an R-visa as well.   There's also a visa for workers covered under NAFTA.   In total, almost 810K foreign worker visas were issued in 2007.   H-visas account for more than 400K of those workers and 8 of the top 20 companies requesting H-1B visas last year -- are you ready -- those American companies looking for that skilled talent that Bill Gates talked about and the Chamber of Commerce wants, well, 8 of the top 20 -- that's right, they were based in India.   They were out-sourcing jobs.   Just thought we'd bring that to your attention as well, Mr. Gates.
 
Lou Dobbs: A major scandal at one of the big Indian out-sourcing companies today.   The chairman of Satyam Computer Services was forced to admit that Satyam has been falsifying its books for years.   The company's balance sheet inflated the amount of cash the company held by just $1G in the quarter ending last September.   The company over-stated its operating profits by just a factor of 11, 11 times their actual profit.   Satyam is third on the list of companies, by the way, receiving those good old H-1B visas.   You've got to love it.
-30-
 

2009-01-08 05:30PST (08:30EST) (13:30GMT)
Scott Gibbons & Tony Sznoluch _DoL ETA_
un-employment insurance weekly claims report
current press release
"The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 726,420 in the week ending Jan. 3, an increase of 9,420 from the previous week.   There were 521,311 initial claims in the comparable week in 2008.   The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 4.0% during the week ending Dec. 27, an increase of 0.6 percentage point from the prior week.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 5,316,124, an increase of 743,487 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 2.5% and the volume was 3,273,400.   Extended benefits were available in North Carolina, Oregon, and Rhode Island during the week ending Dec. 20."
graphs
more graphs

2009-01-08
_Ironton OH Tribune_
Government must cut too
Markos Kaminis: Seeking Alpha
PR Inside
Francine Knowles: Southtown Star/Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
Bob Willis & Courtney Schlisserman: Philadelphia Inquirer/Bloomberg
Finance & Commerce
Courtney Schlisserman: Akron OH Beacon Jrounal/Bloomberg
Kansas City Star
Washington Times
Patricia Kuo & Aaron Pan: Bloomberg
David Hogberg: Investor's Business Daily (with graph)
Georg Szalai: Hollywood Reporter
Kenneth Musante & David Goldman: CNN/Money
Catherine Clifford & Jessica Dickler: CNN/Money
Times of the Internet/UPI
Camilla Webster: Forbes
Rex Nutting: MarketWatch
"According to out-placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas employers announced 1,223,993 job cuts in 2008, up almost 60% from the year before, when 768,264 cuts were announced, and the biggest total since 2003, when 1,236,426 job cuts were announced.
 
December's reading of 166,348 was close to November's 181,671, the largest December number since out-placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas began tracking such data in 1993.   The cuts nationally in December were nearly 4 times larger than a year earlier, when employers announced 44,416 job cuts.
 
In December, financial firms planned 39,604 cuts.   Chemical makers announced 17,968 lay-offs.   Retailers followed at 17,783.
 
For 2008, financial firms announced 260,110 lay-offs.   The automotive industry was the second-biggest down-sizing industry of the year, with 127,281 announced cuts, down from 158,766 eliminated in 2006.   Transportation was next at 82,859.   Lay-offs in the media industry, which includes film and TV companies, amounted to 28,083 last year, the highest since 43,420 staffers were let go in 2001 following the bursting of the dot-com bubble.   Compare with the telecommunications sector's annual 317,777 job cuts and 268,851 job cuts in 2001 and 2002, respectively.
 
Employers announced 460,903 job cuts in the fourth quarter of 2008 alone, producing the largest one-quarter total since 478,905 job cuts were announced in the first quarter of 2002.
 
There were 2,759 job cuts announced by Illinois-based employers, down from 4,901 a year earlier.   Illinois-based employers announced 47,052 job cuts last year, down from 62,991 in 2007.
 
The Labor Department's mass lay-off figures reported 1.9M workers were let go in October, representing about 1.4% of total employment, while 2.1M people quit their jobs voluntarily in October.
graphs

2009-01-08
Diane Cochran _Billings MT Gazette_
CDCP report shows first rise in teen pregnancies since 1991

2009-01-08
Brian Sommer _Ziff Davis_/_CNET_
Questions Satyam executives must answer

2009-01-08 12:12PST (15:12EST) (20:12GMT)
Rex Nutting _MarketWatch_
Consumer debt dropped by $7.9G in November to $2.57T
Martin Crutsinger: Yahoo!/AP
Federal Reserve Board

2009-01-08
Frosty Wooldridge _News with Views_
Immigration Lobbying: How America's rich take advantage of the middle class
"How many of you would be excited to learn that the very people you gave $700G to in the recent bail-out -- Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG, Goldman Sachs, Countrywide Mortgage and Lehman Brothers -- used trade associations to lobby to give amnesty to 20 million illegal aliens, hundreds of thousands of H1-B, H2-B visas and the Dream Act for illegal alien students in hundreds of our colleges across the USA?   Their efforts work, too!   Our government fails to enforce our immigration laws.   U.S. House member Zoe Lofgren, D-CA, attempted to pass an H2-B visa bill in October to allow another 550K more foreign workers into the U.S.A. in spite of the fact that we suffered a financial and job melt-down -- with 15M Americans out of work."

2009-01-08
Rob Sanchez _Job Destruction News-Letter_ #1954
Midcom job ads - H-1B hanky-panky in O'Bamaland
A consulting firm called MIDCOM Corporation posted a job ad that bears an eerie similarity to the one this news-letter recently covered from Resourcesoft.   Besides the fact that both of them posted a job ad that is obviously for H-1Bs only, there is one other thing the two companies have in common -- they are both WBE certified.
 
I wouldn't blame you if you forgot what that means, but the first ad below will remind you and so will their web site: MIDCOM is a Woman-Owned business (WOB)
 
WOBs and WBEs mean about the same thing.
 
Being a WBE is not just another piece of paper.   This certification program is used to put women and minority owned businesses at the front of the line when lucrative city, state and federal government contracts are doled out.   Certification gives them an advantage even while dealing with private enterprise companies.
 
Another important thing about being WBE is that it gives them some measure of immunity if angry job seekers accuse them of discrimination.
 
Midcom is owned by Barbara Cepinko and her husband Stephen Grande.   I wasn't able to find out much about Cepinko because it seems she keeps a very low profile.   The CEO of Midcom is Diane Zak, who got her start in Human Resources.   Perhaps a coincidence, but the owner of Resourcesoft got her start in HR also.
 
The first job ad can be seen directly on dice.com or it can be found by searching the Midcom data-base.
 
Enter "h1-b" into their search engine to find the first ad.   The 2nd ad can be viewed by entering "h1b" and for the 3rd enter "citizen".
 
There is an important reason I included the 2nd and 3rd job ads: to show that Midcom routinely specifies immigration and/or citizenship status in their job ads, so it's no accident when they ask for H-1B, green cards, or U.S. citizens.   The second job ad says that they won't hire an H-1B for that position but green cards and EAD status are OK -- they didn't say if being a U.S. citizen is OK.   The third ad is very specific -- the job is for U.S. citizens ONLY.
 
I apologize for all the acronyms but sometimes it's unavoidable.   This paragraph has enough acronyms to make your head spin!   EAD stands for Employment Authorization Document, which gives people who are not lawful permanent residents permission to work in the United States.   The Midcom requirement for EAD is somewhat redundant if not contradictory because EADs aren't needed for green card holders, however they are used for H-1B, L-1, and foreign students on OPT.   Perhaps Midcom meant to specify EB (employment based) green cards, but EB GCs don't need EADs.
 
In order for you to understand the dilemma faced by American job seekers please read the comment from the FEMALE that made me aware of Midcom.   She has dual Master's degrees in business and computer related disciplines, and a multitude of certifications.   Without question she is qualified for many types of technical and business jobs.   Currently she is severely under-employed.   Her earnings aren't enough to make ends meet so she will soon be forced into bankruptcy and foreclosure.
 
One of the concepts that is very important to understand is that companies like Midcom aren't necessarily discriminating based on gender or race -- often it's a question of nationality.   She asked me if the Midcom job ad is legal.   I get that question every time I send a news-letter out with discriminatory job ads.   Unfortunately there isn't a simple answer.
 
I have written extensively on this subject of legality and the possibility of law-suits in the following archived news-letters.   Please everyone, don't ask me the legal questions until you have read those news-letters!   I just know I'm going to get an avalanche of replies to this one which is OK, I love to hear from you, but I just don't want to spend time repeating myself.
 
Reference material from news-letter archive (link at bottom of page):
2007-06-15 Private right of action gutted in Pascrell bill
2006-06-20 Discrimination Complaints Filed Against H-1B Employers
2006-02-12 Job ad for H-1Bs only
2005-11-30 2 Articles about Sona Shah and Pascrell's bill
2005-08-23 Melindez vs. Quantum and SAP
2004-12-21 Civil Law-suits and Pascrell's Bill
 
COMMENT BY JOB SEEKER:
My own personal experience is that the major corporations in Chicago are using unknown foreign vendor firms.   They refer to their "primary client" as though that client is the Chicago corporation.   Instead, it turns out that they are second, third, (fourth...?) level down from primary vendor, with each company getting a percentage of the billing rate.
 
WORSE is that I have no way to verify that those foreign firms have even submitted my resume AT ALL, particularly when only 2 resumes may be submitted.
 
I strongly suspect that resumes of Americans are no longer being submitted at all; instead, statements about having submitted an American candidate effectively has taken those Americans off the market for that engagement entirely to avoid a double submittal.   And again, even if that "submittal" did occur, it may have simply been to another vendor firm, not to the end client personnel.
 
Remember being told to avoid Human Resources at all cost?   This is sooooo much worse, because my resume may be going through 2-3-4 different company layers before even being submitted to Human Resources/hiring manager at all!   And half the foreigners on the phone don't even know what a business analyst or a quality assurance analyst is!
 
Happy New Year -- if Americans no longer have jobs and/or the rates have plummeted to 50% of prior incomes, the Great Depression will look better than what's coming.   :-(
 
Midcom has had my resume for many years [snipped for privacy] in the Chicago market.
 
FYI -- I worked a total of 2 weeks in all of 2008 (ran out of unemployment/federal extension failed because it requires year's earnings to be 1.5 times best quarter and I only worked one good quarter in 2007!), so I am now filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy and will be losing this home that I designed and my rental half-duplex to foreclosure.   Worse, I have about $3K left to my name.   When that runs out, I will have no money for food or money to even get to a food pantry!
 
P.S. Add age descrimination, as well:
- Takeda Pharmaceuticals puts in its job reqs that no one "over-qualified" will be considered.
 
- Covenant Health Care specifies "mid-level career" for its fulltime positions -- d'ya think that eliminates me as an over [snipped]-yr.-old?
 
- Job reqs used to have minimum number of years specified.   Now, they routinely have maximum number of years specified, e.g., 3-8 yrs.experience.   Even as a second career, 8 years maximum means under 40!
 
You are about the only one who is discussing the loss of work for Americans.   Thanks for the information in your news-letters.
 
Is this even legal (referring to first ad)?
Midcom job ad on dice
another
2004-07-26: Diane Zak Named Director of Human Resources at the University of South Dakota

2009-01-08
_Sacramento Bee_
California government cancelled $69M deal with body shop BearingPoint

2009-01-08 (5769 Teves 12)
Kamran Bokhari & Reva Bhalla _Jewish World Review_
Arab regimes secretly rooting for Israel?

2009-01-08 (5769 Teves 12)
Larry Elder _Jewish World Review_
Israelis and Palestinians: Who's David? Who's Goliath?

2009-01-08 (5769 Teves 12)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
An Emergency Review: ObummerDoesn'tCare
"Before you do anything else, make a note to read _The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care_ by Sally C. Pipes.   It might literally save your life, by checking the political stampede toward a government-controlled medical profession -- usually presented politically as 'universal health care'."

2009-01-08 (5769 Teves 12)/2008-07-16
Christel Kucharz _abc_
2 Germans share DNA found in 3K year old human remains in Lichtenstein cave (4-4.5 miles W of Osterode am Harz, 9.5-10 miles NW of Herzberg am Harz, 47-49 miles NE of Frankenhausen
WickedPedia
 
 

2009-01-09

2009-01-09
Tom Lutey _Billings MT Gazette_
Slower rises in grocery prices good for consumers, not so good for farmers
"In its latest food price out-look, the USDA's Economic Research Service ties flattening grocery prices to significant drops in commodities pay-outs.   Wheat prices hit a historic high in 2008 March but finished the year at nearly half that amount.   And meat counter prices for beef were faltering at year's end as consumers filled their grocery carts with cheaper alternatives.   A slower increase in food prices is good news, said Ephraim Leibtag, USDA Economic Research analyst, but it won't erase recent price increases...   The high price increases of the past two years will stick for cereals and baked goods, which jumped in price 9% or more in 2008.   Falling grain prices mean those goods will likely increase in price 3% or less in 2009.   Eggs, which went from $1.21 per dozen in 2006 to nearly $2 in 2008, should actually decrease in price, but only by a few pennies."

2009-01-08 21:01PST (2009-01-09 00:01EST) (2009-01-09 05:01GMT)
Bruce Bartlett _Forbes_
The Fiscal Stimulus: What Will Work?
"Friedman concluded that people spend largely on the basis of what they view as their 'permanent income'."

2009-01-09
_CNN_
60% Pay Cut
""I was laid off in March of 2008.   I was making $55K a year as a media-relations manager at Pace Global Energy Services.   The company reorganized, and now I work part time at Lucky Brand Jeans in the mall making $10.25 an hour."

2009-01-09 08:32PST (11:32EST) (16:32GMT)
Rex Nutting _MarketWatch_
Carnage continues: employment down 524K in establishment/pay-roll survey, seasonally adjusted unemployment rate from household survey at 7.2%
"Nearly 2.6M jobs were lost in 2008, with 1.9M destroyed in just the past 4 months, according to a survey of work-places.   It's the biggest job loss in any calendar year since 1945, when 2.75M jobs were lost as the war-time economy was demobilized."
graphs

2009-01-09
Robert Higgs _Ludwig von Mises Institute_
The Great Credit-Crunch Hoax of 2008 (with graph)

2009-01-09
Kevin L. Kearns _American Economic Alert_
Domestic Manufacturers Decry Nation's Job Losses; Urge Trade Policy Overhaul as Key to Economic Recovery
"Manufacturing's 149K lost jobs not only represented 28.44 percent of the 524K total non-farm jobs eliminated in December.   The sector's total 2008 job loss of 791K represented an even higher 30.54% of the 2.59M non-farm total for the year.   Put differently, 1.13% of manufacturing jobs were shed in December, as opposed to 0.38% of all non-farm jobs.   And manufacturing's 5.74% job decline in 2008 was more than 3 times greater than the 1.88% of total non-farm jobs eliminated last year."

2009-01-09
Christina Romer & Jared Bernstein _Economy.com_
the impact on employment of the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan" (pdf)

2009-01-09
J. Nicholas Hoover _Information Week_
IT customers closely monitor Satyam body shop's accounting fraud scandal

2009-01-09 (5769 Teves 13)
Martin Peretz _Jewish World Review_
At War, Not at War

2009-01-09 (5769 Teves 13)
Rabbi Yonason Goldson _Jewish World Review_
Why there's hope amidst the destruction

2009-01-09 (5769 Teves 13)
Christopher Cooper & Brody Mullins _Wall Street Journal_
Wall Street is big donor to inauguration

2009-01-09 (5769 Teves 13)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
Manufacturing a crime

2009-01-09

DJIA	8,599.18
S&P 500	890.35
NASDAQ	1,571.59
10-year US T-Bond	2.40%
crude oil	$40.83/barrel
gold	855.00/ounce
silver	$11.32/ounce
platinum	$1,005.50/ounce
palladium	$191.90/ounce
copper	$0.09746875/ounce
natgas	$5.51/MBTU
reformulatedgasoline	$1.1112/gal
heatingoil	$1.4877/gal
dollarindex	82.483
yenperdollar	90.42
dollarspereuro	1.3452
dollarsperpound	1.5175
swissfranksperdollar	1.1150
indianrupeesperdollar	48.73
MorganStanleyHighTechIndex	353.74

I usually get this info from MarketWatch and the "Commodities" and "Metals" and "Currencies" columns.
 
 
 

2009-01-10

2009-01-10
_Billings Gazette_/_AP_
Wyoming unemployment rate among the lowest
"Recent declines in commodity prices are being felt across Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Nebraska, with plans for natural gas and biofuel production being scaled back...   Montana's unemployment rate for November was 4.9%, according to the Montana Department of Labor and Industry...   Wyoming, the nation's least-populated state but one of the largest producers of coal and natural gas, posted the lowest jobless rate for November (3.2%).   Another source of strength is that its largest employment sector -- government -- remains healthy because the budget has not been plagued by declines in real estate, income and retail tax collections.   The states with the next lowest unemployment are North Dakota (3.3%), South Dakota (3.4%), Utah (3.7%) and Nebraska (3.7%).   Michigan leads the U.S.A. with a 9.6% unemployment rate."
graphs

2009-01-10
Zachary Hilbun _Dallas Morning News_
H-1B labor hurts USA
"I agree that H-1B visas hurt American scientists and engineers as well as America in general.   Importing this labor is the first step to losing high-tech business to foreign countries.   We are training and funding our future competitors.   In effect, we are giving away this business.   Focusing on short-term profits at the expense of long-term financial health caused the current financial crisis.   The companies who are pushing for green card and H-1B increases were originally U.S. companies but have become international companies.   They have no loyalty to the U.S.A., and if we become a second-rate technology power, it doesn't really matter to them.   Like the employers of illegal aliens, these companies want to create an over-supply using cheap foreign labor.   There is a real question whether there is a true shortage or if these companies want to manipulate the labor market.   Making the jobs of scientists and engineers pay less is certainly not going to encourage U.S. citizens to pursue them as a career."

2009-01-10
Andrew Nusca _Ziff Davis_/_CBS_
Focus tends to increase most kinds of productivity, while multi-tasking tends to reduce productivity
 
 

2009-01-11

2009-01-11
reverend Lainie Dowell _Canada Free Press_
Is USA Economy Being Politically Manipulated?

2009-01-11
Paul Craig Roberts _V Dare_
Collapsing Economy: By how much will the federal government crank up the currency printing presses?
CounterPunch
Prison Planet
On-Line Journal
Op Ed News

2009-01-11
Arnold Kling
Lectures on MacroEconomics (collected)
Lectures on MacroEconomics #14
 
 

2009-01-12

2009-01-12
Robert P. Murphy _Ludwig von Mises Institute_
Does "Depression Economics" Change the Rules?

2009-01-12
Llewellyn H. Rockwell _Ludwig von Mises Institute_
How This Happened

2009-01-12
John Stossel _Free Library_
Socialist Insecurity and Medicare are real Ponzi schemes

2009-01-12
John Ribeiro _ComputerWorld_/_IDG_
World Bank won't be doing business with Wipro, Satyam, Megasoft for a couple years
CIO/IDG
IT World/IDG
PC World/IDG
Chicago Tribune/AP
Manchester Guardian
Salil Panchal: Times of the Internet/AFP
Post Chronicle
Stephen Foxwell & Pooja Thakur: Bloomberg
Business Week
V. Phani Kumar: MarketWatch
"Wipro said the World Bank had barred its software unit in 2007 June from participating in direct contracts from the lender between 2007 and 2011.   The ban was prompted by the sale of about 1,750 shares for about $72K, Wipro said.   In connection with Wipro's initial public offering (IPO) of American Depository Shares (ADS) in the U.S.A., Wipro offered a 'Directed Share Program' in 2000, targeted at customers, prospects, and employees, that allowed them to buy ADSs at the IPO market price."
Wipro median salaries by city

2009-01-12
Frosty Wooldridge _News with Views_
End Parallel Societies within America

2009-01-12
Arnold Kling _Library of Economics and Liberty_
The Best of Times, the Worst of Times: unemployment and productivity

2009-01-12
Rob Sanchez _Job Destruction News-Letter_ #1956
Satyam (and Wipro and Megasoft) scandal not likely to lead to significant reform
 
The blogosphere is abuzz over the Satyam scandal in India.   Many of them are declaring the incident to be the beginning of the end of off-shore out-sourcing and a return to "Made in America" for all things in Computer/IT.   Others hope that Satyam can be used as a silver bullet to put a stop to the H-1B visa program.
 
Folks, stop drinking the KOOL-AID!
 
In the grand scheme of things the Satyam scandal will probably amount to very little in terms of restoring jobs in the U.S.A.   It might even make India more competitive because if Satyam folds, labor in India could become cheaper, which is the main reason we have lost so many jobs to that country in the first place.   Ex-Satyam employees will have to go somewhere and big out-sourcers like TCS (Tata) and Infosys will be waiting to offer them jobs at cut-rate salaries.   CEO Kris Lakshmikanth of Headhunters India couldn't have described the situation better when he said:
 
"It is most likely that Satyam will cut 10K jobs next month as the company is left with no cash to pay the salaries.   The current fiasco is likely to put pressure on salaries, which may reduce by 10% due to the surplus of about 20K people in the jobs market."
 
NeoIT's CEO Eugene Kublanov said that the Satyam fraud case doesn't necessarily mean U.S. customers will shun Indian outsourcing companies because "fraud happens globally, in Houston with Enron, Louisiana with WorldCom, and now in India".   Kublanov is probably correct even considering that his statement is somewhat self-serving since his bodyshop will be one of the winners if Satyam falls.   Keep in mind that customers of Satyam will consider the down-fall as a mere inconvenience because they may have to hire another company to out-source to (like NeoIT), but that's just part of doing business in our global economy.   Investors will get burned as Satyam stock drops in value and they may lose all their money if Satyam goes belly up, but again that is just the cost of doing business.   As was explained in the Los Angeles Times:
 
Though there's little evidence that the fraud leaked over to Indian banks or hurt Satyam's customers, share-holders have watched the value of their investment all but disappear.   And one Indian job web site reported receiving 15K resumes from Satyam workers this week.
 
If this scandal proves anything to transnational investors and corporations it would be that doing business in India may be less risky than doing so in the more criminal friendly U.S.A.   India is demonstrating that it has very little tolerance for white collar fraud and they are showing that corporate criminals will be swiftly punished.   It is yet to be seen if most of those arrested will bribe themselves out of trouble but so far the punishment is more severe than anything we see in the U.S.A.
 
In contrast to India, the U.S.A. coddles its corporate criminals by allowing them to stay on the job with big pay raises, or giving them golden parachutes so that they can retire in the Bahamas.   When the U.S.A. does incarcerate CEOs or executives it's usually in a place that resembles a country club.
class action against Tata
Job Destruction News-Letter Home Page
Support this News-Letter and www.JobDestruction.com by donating
Tata median salaries by city
Wipro median salaries by city
Infosys median salaries by city

2009-01-12
_USCIS_
Delay for Federal Acquisition Regulation Policy Requiring Federal Contractors to Use E-Verify System
"Implementation of the final rule requiring federal contractors and subcontractors to begin using USCIS' E-Verify system has been delayed until 2009/02/20.   An amendment providing notice of this postponement will publish in the Federal Register on Wednesday, 2009/01/14.   The final rule will be legally final and effective on 2009/01/19, but Federal contracting officers will not begin to insert the new E-Verify clause into federal contracts and solicitations until 2009/02/20."

2009-01-12
_Conference Board_
The Conference Board Employment Trends Index (ETI)™ Suggests Economy Could Lose 2M More Jobs
"The Conference Board Employment Trends Index (ETI)™ fell further in December.   The index now stands at 99.6, decreasing 1.6% from the November revised figure of 101.2, and down almost 16% from a year ago."

2009-01-12
Edwin S. Rubenstein _The Social Contract_
Twincrises: Immigration and Infrastructure
V Dare

2009-01-12 (5769 Teves 16)
Mark Steyn _Jewish World Review_
The "oldest hatred" lives, from Gaza to Florida

2009-01-12 (5769 Teves 16)
Barry Rubin _Jewish World Review_
Ending the Gaza War: Choices, Not Solutions

2009-01-12 (5769 Teves 16)
Rabbi Doctor Asher Meir _Jewish World Review_
Ethics of encouraging spending during recession
 
 

2009-01-13

2009-01-13
Aaron Smith _CNN_
Pfizer plans to axe up to 800 STEM workersMarketWatch
Jonathan D. Rockoff: Wall Street Journal
"Tony Butler, pharma analyst for Barclays Capital, said Pfizer has already shed some 13K jobs since 2007, down to the estimated level of about 87K staffers."

2009-01-13 07:06PST (10:06EST) (15:06GMT)
Rex Nutting _MarketWatch_
US trade deficit fell to $40.4G in November
"Imports fell a record 12% to $183.2G, the lowest level in two and a half years, as the average price of imported petroleum dropped by $25.30 a barrel to $66.72.   Meanwhile, exports dropped 5.8% to $142.8G, led by weakening foreign demand for industrial supplies and capital goods."
BEA report

2009-01-13 14:29PST (17:29EST) (22:29GMT)
John Letzing _MarketWatch_
Yahoo! named Carol Bartz as new CEO

2009-01-13
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
Freeman Dyson on earth's climate
Heretical Thoughts about Science and Society: _Many Colored Glass: Reflections on the Place of Life in the Universe_

2009-01-13
Robert Oak _Economic Populist_
United Health Group rips off millions for decades, gets slap on wrist

2009-01-13
_TMC Net_
Massive increase in L-1 visas
"L-1 visas, which can take from a couple of weeks to 4 months to process, are being issued in larger numbers: from 54K in 2000 to more than 84K in 2008, according to the U.S. Bureau of Consular Affairs."

2009-01-13
Chad Perrin _Tech Republic_/_Ziff Davis_/_CNET_/_CBS_
25 most dangerous programming errors

2009-01-13
N. Nicholas Hoover _Information Week_
Scrutiny of out-source, off-shore contract work should increase in light of Satyam accounting fraud

2009-01-13 (5768 Teves 17)
Lawrence M. Reisman _Jewish World Review_
What Arab propagandists don't want you to know about Gaza

2009-01-13 (5768 Teves 17)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
Pretty Talk and Ugly Realities
Town Hall
"Since everybody seems to be criticizing Israel for its military response to the rockets being fired into their country from the Gaza Strip, let me add my criticisms as well.   The Israelis traded land for peace, but they have never gotten the peace, so they should take back the land...   Why don't the Palestinians vote for some representatives who would make a lasting peace with Israel?   Because any such candidates would be killed by the terrorists long before election day, so nobody volunteers for that dangerous role.   We don't know what the Palestinians really want -- and won't know as long as they are ruled by Hamas, Hezbollah and the like...   Those who think 'negotiations' are a magic answer seem not to understand that when A wants to annihilate B, this is not an 'issue' that can be resolved amicably around a conference table."
see also _Dismantling America_
 
 

2009-01-14

2009-01-14
Martin Crutsinger _AP_
Retail sales fell 2.7% from November to December, 9.8% from previous year
Rex Nutting: MarketWatch
census bureau

2009-01-14
William Gheen _News Blaze_
Untold Story of American Workers vs. Illegal Immigration

2009-01-14 (5769 Teves 18)
Walter E. Williams _Jewish World Review_
Congress' financial mess
"News media people, often plagued with little understanding, fail miserably in their duty to inform the public.   This is particularly evident in their reporting on the current financial melt-down...   The Federal Register, which lists new regulations, annually averaged 72,844 pages between 1977 and 1980.   During the Reagan years, the average fell to 54,335.   During the Bush I years, they rose to 59,527, to 71,590 during the Clinton years and rose to a record of 75,526 during the Bush II years.   Employees in government regulatory agencies grew from 146,139 in 1980 to 238,351 in 2007, a 63% increase.   In the banking and finance industries, regulatory spending between 1980 and 2007 almost tripled, rising from $725M to $2.07G."
 
 

2009-01-15

2009-01-15 05:30PST (08:30EST) (13:30GMT)
Scott Gibbons & Tony Sznoluch _DoL ETA_
un-employment insurance weekly claims report
current press release
"The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 952,151 in the week ending Jan. 10, an increase of 220,205 from the previous week.   There were 547,506 initial claims in the comparable week in 2008.   The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 4.4% during the week ending Jan. 3, an increase of 0.4 percentage point from the prior week.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 5,832,746, an increase of 515,294 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 2.6% and the volume was 3,508,053.   Extended benefits were available in North Carolina, Oregon, and Rhode Island during the week ending Dec. 27"
graphs
more graphs

2009-01-15
Kathleen Parker _Salisbury NC Post_/_Gannett_
US citizens with advanced degrees trying to survive gig to gig
Harrisonburg VA Daily News Record
Arizona Republic
Sacramento Bee/McClatchy
"Something has gone terribly wrong with the American dream.   No longer is a college degree -- or even an advanced degree -- a guarantee of employment or job security.   Suddenly, there seem to be an awful lot of 'consultants' floating around, lingering longer than usual over coffee because there's no office to get back to.   My 28-year-old niece, with whom I am staying (the rate is unbeatable), is similarly and suddenly 'consulting' -- mostly through the want ads on MediaBistro and Craigslist these days.   The magazine for which she's been a marketing strategist is suffering financial woes and has had to cut several positions, including hers.   'Consulting' and 'free-lancing' are old euphemisms for a new demographic, the up-scale terms for 'outta work'.   Down on their luck, these newbies to the unemployment lines aren't living pay-check to pay-check.   'We're living gig to gig.', says my niece...   The poll, conducted on-line among 500 employed Americans over 18, found that a third are working as free-lancers or in 2 jobs.   Of those who call themselves free-lancers, 58% previously had a staff position with the company for which they're now doing 'gigs'."

2009-01-15 11:01PST (14:01EST) (19:01GMT)
Dan Gallagher & Jeffry Bartash _MarketWatch_
Motorola to RAZR 4K more employees

2009-01-15 11:16PST (14:16EST) (19:16GMT)
_Dayton OH Business Journal_
Survey by body shop Spherion/Technisource says IT workers are even less confident about future
"76% of technology workers believe the economy is getting weaker, up 12 percentage points from the third quarter of 2008.   Three out of four technology workers (76%) believe that fewer jobs are available, an increase of 17 percentage points from the previous quarter.   Conversely, the percentage of workers who are confident in the future of their current employer increased by 2 percentage points, to 67%, in the fourth quarter of 2008."

2009-01-15
_Talking Points Memo_
Obama named Lisa Konwinski to white house legislative lobbying team
"President-elect Barack Obama today announced eleven additions to his legislative affairs team, naming Lisa Konwinski as Deputy Director for Legislative Affairs and ten additional staff members with strong ties to Capitol Hill.   The new appointments will assist the President-elect, the Vice President-elect and their policy teams in continuing close collaboration with congressional leaders from both parties.   The President-elect had previously named Phil Schiliro as Director of Legislative Affairs, Dan Turton as Deputy Director for the U.S. House of Representatives, and Shawn Maher as Deputy Director for the U.S. Senate."

2009-01-15
John Rosevear _Motley Fools_
Going down the tubes!
"Banking? Citigroup is falling to pieces.   [Bank of India] will need yet another bailout -- and is talking about lay-outs that could exceed 10% of its work-force.   Retail? Ravaged -- from Best Buy to Borders Group, the last few months have been grim.   Tech? Apple's Steve Jobs is taking a medical leave of absence to fight his still-mysterious illness.   Reeling Motorola announced another 4K job cuts.   Not all of the news is bad, of course: Ford showed signs of real strength at the North American International Auto Show earlier this week, and JPMorgan Chase actually made (a little) money in the fourth quarter."

2009-01-15 13:05PST (16:05EST) (21:05GMT)
Alistair Barr & Sam Mamudi _MarketWatch_
Bank of India to get billions more from US tax-victims
"[Bank of India] received $25G from the Treasury Department last year under TARP."

2009-01-15
Paul McDougall _Information Week_
Satyam firing workers on-site
"To save money, Satyam is 'firing employees on-site' in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe, Krishnamurthy Iyengar wrote, citing third-party news reports.   Satyam has claimed to have more than 53K workers worldwide, but the analyst said the real number is 'far fewer'."

2009-01-15
_SpaceMart_
Ford starts making Fiesta in Red China
Reality Zone
 

2009-01-16

2009-01-15 20:50PST (2009-01-15 23:50EST) (2009-01-16 04:50GMT)
Chelsea Schilling _World Net Daily_
Rubenstein: Immigrants ravage US infrastructure: Cost $1.6T
PR News Wire
"'Since 1987, capital spending on transportation infrastructure has increased by 2.1% per year above the inflation rate.   At $233G (2004 dollars), infrastructure is already one of the largest categories of government spending.   Our infrastructure is 'crumbling' because population growth has overwhelmed the ability of even these vast sums to expand capacity.'...   Immigrants make up 21% of the school-age population in the U.S.A.   'In California, a whopping 47% of the school-age population consists of immigrants or the children of immigrants.'"

2009-01-16 07:33PST (10:33EST) (15:33GMT)
Tracy Staton _Fierce Pharma_
Pfizer mulls massive sales-rep cuts

2009-01-16 11:09PST (14:09EST) (19:09GMT)
Matt Andrejczak _MarketWatch_
Grocery-store prices hikes most since 1980
"By food category, prices for cereal and baked goods hit consumers the hardest, rising 11.7% over 2007, followed by prices for meats, poultry, fish and eggs, which gained 5.1%.   Fruits and vegetable rose 3.4%, while dairy products advanced 2.7% in price...   In 2007, food prices at supermarkets rose 5.6% over 2006..."
graphs

2009-01-16 13:33PST (16:33EST) (21:33GMT)
Ronald D. Orol _MarketWatch_
Treasury publishes CEO pay package strings that go with bail-out/buy-out package

2009-01-16 14:57PST (17:57EST) (22:57GMT)
Karen Hansen _Bloomington IL Pantagraph_
State Farm terminates deal with Satyam in wake of fraud
"The insurance giant said Friday that it has cancelled its contract with Satyam Computer Services, [a cross-border body shop and off-shoring operation]...   According to the company's web site, Satyam has nearly 53K [temps] that work in more than 65 countries, and 185 Fortune 500 clients."

2009-01-16
Joe Guzzardi _V Dare_
As Obama Takes The White House, Amnesty Ranks Thirteenth (Of 13) On His Priority List

2009-01-16 (5769 Teves 20)
Rabbi Avraham Pam _Jewish World Review_
Misplaced mercy and the stifling of blessings

2009-01-16 (5769 Teves 20)
Caroline B. Glick _Jewish World Review_
Friends of Israel have a lot of repair work to do in the USA

2009-01-16 (5769 Teves 20)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
The Bush Legacy
"President Bush's number one achievement was also the number one function of government -- to protect its citizens.   Nobody on 2001 September 11 believed that there would never be another such attack for more than 7 years."

2009-01-16

DJIA	8,281.22
S&P 500	850.12
NASDAQ	1,529.33
10-year US T-Bond	2.33%
crude oil	$36.51/barrel
gold	839.90/ounce
silver	$11.215/ounce
platinum	$953.30/ounce
palladium	$185.95/ounce
copper	$0.09546875/ounce
natgas	$4.83/MBTU
reformulatedgasoline	$1.1672/gal
heatingoil	$1.4734/gal
dollarindex	83.952
yenperdollar	90.55
dollarspereuro	1.3287
dollarsperpound	1.4740
swissfranksperdollar	1.1160
indianrupeesperdollar	48.8
MorganStanleyHighTechIndex	342.24

I usually get this info from MarketWatch and the "Commodities" and "Metals" and "Currencies" columns.
 
 
 

2009-01-17

2009-01-17
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
Fading Dreams?
How FDR Destroyed the Dollar

2009-01-17
_The NewsPaper_
$2.6M in "red light" camera tickets refunded in Minnesota
 
 

2009-01-18

2009-01-18
Norm Matloff _H-1B/ L-1/ Off-Shoring News-Letter_
Obama's cabinet picks
 
As many of you know, though I'm a life-long Democrat, I have not been happy with the party's nominees for the presidency in recent elections (nor have I liked the Republicans).   And though I was quite pleased that an African-American won the election, and I find Obama to be an inspiring speaker, I don't think his promise for Change will be fulfilled.   On the contrary, I'm thinking of the French saying, "The more things change, the more they stay the same."
 
Case in point is the first article enclosed below, which reports that Symantec CEO John Thompson may be Obama's choice for Sec. of Commerce.   Talk about NON-change!   Just a few minutes of web browsing revealed a Thompson letter to a Symantec PAC, reported in a critical blog under the title, "US company Symantec using PAC to bypass campaign contribution limits 2008".   I then found several articles showing that Symantec does a substantial -- and apparently increasing -- fraction of its R&D in India.
 
Equally disturbing is the list of people pushing Thompson's candidacy.   We find that Thompson was suggested to Obama by representative Zoe Lofgren, Queen of H-1B, and he has enthusiastic support from the ITAA's Phillip Bond (who came to ITAA from the Dept. of Commerce).   There's also Carl Guardino, one of the most outspoken advocates for increasing the H-1B cap.   It's clear that they all expect Thompson to advance their agenda at DoC.
 
Indeed, Bond's description of Thompson as "globally experienced" is very telling.   The firm says about 30% of its engineers are in India, and last year Symantec opened a second R&D center there.   (And no, this is not for the local market; it's for Symantec's core products.   Details in the enclosures.)
 
Meanwhile the front runner for Obama's new national CTO position is said to be Padmasree Warrior of Cisco Systems.   Seems like Obama intends Business As Usual in his administration.
 
I must interject here that Hilda Solis, Obama's pick for Sec. of Labor, did say in her confirmation hearing that employers should do a better job of looking for Americans before hiring H-1Bs.   (This was in response to a question from senator Johnny Isakson.)   But she prefaced her remarks by conceding that she didn't know much about H-1B, and it was clear that she didn't know that (other than a minuscule exceptional category) H-1B law doesn't require recruiting Americans.   Though some H-1B reform activists were excited by her remarks, I believe it means nothing.   Once she gets educated (not least by the industry lobbyists), she'll be speaking the industry party line, "H-1Bs for now, better K-12 education for the future labor supply".   Solis seems to be a decent person (I've followed her career a bit the last few years), but the reality is that she will be required to support the industry.
 
Let's hope I'm wrong about these people.
 
Norm
2009-01-16: Pete Carey & Scott Duke Harris: San Jose Mercury News: Symantec's Thompson eyed for Obama posts
2009-01-15: Eric Savitz: Barron's: Symantec CEO Thompson Could Be Commerce Secretary
2009-01-15: Fox: Symantec Chief a Contender to Lead Commerce
Wikileaks: US company Symantec using PAC to bypass campaign contribution limits 2008
Symantec PAC contributions in 2008
2007-05-02: Symantec Expands in India, Opens Second Centre of Innovation in Chennai
2007-02-12: India is Symantec's second largest engineering site

2009-01-18
_Public Citizen_
How Many Jobs Are Being Off-Shored?

2009-01-18
Dave Holthaus _Cincinnati OH Enquirer_
Rural on-shore out-sourcing
"It's cheaper than hiring city help ($17 an hour vs. $40); the people doing the work all speak English, and there's no juggling schedules with workers in a time zone on the other side of the world.   That's what a company called Rural America IT is trying to do -- keep those IT jobs on U.S. shores by hiring professionals in places like Bowling Green, KY; Two Rivers, WI; and Nelsonville, OH.   It's called on-shoring, and some say it's a way to keep good jobs and tax revenue here rather than off-shore.   Christopher Hytry Derrington started the company at the Hamilton County Business Center in Norwood and still runs it from there.   In a previous venture, Derrington had hired IT specialists in India, deciding to do so purely because of the $13.57 an hour wage rate.   It soon became apparent to him that the real cost of the overseas help was much higher because of the spotty quality of the work, the language barriers, the missed deadlines and the inherent problems in working with people 10 hours ahead of you.   When he discovered he could hire IT talent for $17 an hour in rural Wisconsin, the proverbial light bulb went off: 'Why aren't people sending more work to rural areas?'   Derrington started a business to do just that.   His company just hung out its shingle in August and Herington has about 10 people working with him, including 1 in Two Rivers, 1 in North Carolina and 3 in Kentucky."
 
 

2009-01-19

2008-01-18 19:42PST (2008-01-18 22:42EST) (2008-01-19 03:42GMT)
Ami Shah _Reuters_
State Farm terminated Satyam contract
Wall Street Journal
Karl Flinders: Computer Weekly
CNN
Chicago Tribune

2009-01-19
Charley Blaine _M$_
Auto-makers, including General Motors, Ford Motor and Toyota complain that credit tightness is the biggest problem they face

2009-01-19
Linda Wang _Chemical & Engineering News_
Chemists with PhDs teaching in high schools
index

2009-01-19 (5769 Teves 23)
Mortimer Zuckerman _Jewish World Review_
The only thing Hamas likes better than dead Israelis is dead Palestinians
"the people who are moderate are not effective and the people who are effective are not moderate."

2009-01-19 (5769 Teves 23)
Rabbi Yonason Goldson _Jewish World Review_
When prejudices become principles: The lobotomized society

2009-01-19 (5769 Teves 23)
Mark Steyn _Jewish World Review_
Our permanent state of routine emergency
 
 

2009-01-20

2009-01-20
Judy Weil _Seeking Alpha_
Should these companies be banking on Brazil?
"Brazil's economy cut 654,946 formal jobs in December, the worst loss since 1999 May and more than double the 319,414 jobs cut in 2007 December...   [In October Hasbro said] 'we have been increasing our investments in a number of new markets this year, including opening offices in Brazil, Russia, [Red China] and the Czech Republic'...   [Ituran reported] 'The geographic break-down of [vehicle] revenues in the quarter was as follows: Israel, 55%; Brazil, 34%; USA, 2%; and Argentina, 9%.'..."

2009-01-20
Michael Hudson _Scoop_
What solutions to the current global economic crisis?

2009-01-20
_Hindu_
Indians are in a dither over fate of Satyam's cross-border temps
"What will be the fate of the 900-odd [Satyam] employees working on the US-based State Farm Insurance company's project in Satyam Computer after the collapse of the 15-year-old engagement between them?...   Among the 400 on-site employees working on client's location at Bloomington, Illinois, U.S.A., 180 have H-1B Visas, sponsored by the company. The rest [220] have L-1 Visas."

2009-01-20
Martin Kelly _V Dare_
Spellman on Mandela as example for Obama

2009-01-20
Sharon Gaudin _ComputerWorld_/_IDG_
Obama admin made quick move to destroy whitehouse.gov site

2009-01-20
_Work Permit_
UK requires jobs to be advertised in UK before designating them for foreign workers
"New UK immigration policy means that employers will first need to advertise jobs within the UK before advertising abroad.   Employers will need to first advertise jobs for two weeks in the Government's Job Centre Plus network in the UK.   These changes will mainly affect applications under the Tier 2 visa scheme the replacement for the previous work permit scheme.   Indians form the largest group of foreign professionals working in Britain.   Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, has announced plans to force thousands of nursing, primary teaching, hotel management and other 'skilled migrant' jobs to be advertised in employment agencies such as Jobcentre Plus."

2009-01-20 (5769 Teves 24)
Barry Rubin _Jewish World Review_
Living next door to a serial killer

2009-01-20 (5769 Teves 24)
doctor Rabbi Asher Meir _Jewish World Review_
Painful Priorities 1

2009-01-20 (5769 Teves 24)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
Lured to Disaster: Political vs. Real Definition of "Affordable Housing"

2009-01-20

DJIA	7,949.09
S&P 500	805.22
NASDAQ	1,440.86
10-year US T-Bond	2.429%
crude oil	$38.74/barrel
gold	$855.20/ounce
silver	$11.175/ounce
platinum	$949.30/ounce
palladium	$184.55/ounce
copper	$0.09403125/ounce
natgas	$4.64/MBTU
reformulatedgasoline	$1.14/gal
heatingoil	$1.38/gal
dollarindex	86.377
yenperdollar	90.55
dollarspereuro	1.2856
dollarsperpound	1.3860
swissfranksperdollar	1.1473
indianrupeesperdollar	49.23
MorganStanleyHighTechIndex	321.30

I usually get this info from MarketWatch and the "Commodities" and "Metals" and "Currencies" columns.
 
 
 

2009-01-21

2009-01-21
Suhi Koizumi & Addie Hogan _Mondaq_
United States: US-VISIT Program Expanded to Include Lawful Permanent Residents, Federal Contractors Required to Use E-Verify System

2009-01-21
Galen Gruman _ComputerWorld_/_IDG_
High-Tech Agenda

2009-01-21 (5769 Teves 25)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
Political Speeches
"Anyone who judges any political speech by its substance -- much less by what actions follow -- is likely to be disappointed."

2009-01-21 (5769 Teves 25)
Walter E. Williams _Jewish World Review_
President Obama's Inauguration
"The recognition that slavery is a despicable institution does not require hero worship of a president who made the largest contribution to the unraveling of our Constitution.   After all when it is settled by brute force that states cannot secede, as they thought they had the right to in 1787, then the federal government can ride roughshod over states and their people's right -- in a word make meaningless the Ninth and Tenth Amendments."
 
 

2009-01-22

2009-01-22 05:30PST (08:30EST) (13:30GMT)
Scott Gibbons & Tony Sznoluch _DoL ETA_
un-employment insurance weekly claims report
current press release
"The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 768,858 in the week ending Jan. 17, a decrease of 187,905 from the previous week.   There were 415,149 initial claims in the comparable week in 2008.   The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 4.2% during the week ending Jan. 10, a decrease of 0.2 percentage point from the prior week.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 5,638,630, a decrease of 211,240 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 2.5% and the volume was 3,272,000.   Extended benefits were available in North Carolina, Oregon, and Rhode Island during the week ending Jan. 3."
graphs
more graphs

2009-01-22
Mary Jo Foley _Ziff Davis_/_CNET_
M$ to dump 5K employees
Kenneth Musante: CNN
SlashDot
John Letzing & Dan Gallagher: MarketWatch
"'M$ will eliminate up to 5K jobs in R&D, marketing, sales, finance, legal, HR, and IT over the next 18 months, including 1,400 jobs today.   These initiatives will reduce the company's annual operating expense run rate by approximately $1.5G and reduce fiscal year 2009 capital expenditures by $700M.'...   M$ also is announcing as part of its cost-cutting measures, including 'the reduction of headcount-related expenses, vendors and contingent staff, facilities, capital expenditures and marketing'...   In the past 12 months, M$'s head-count grew 14%.   The lay-off, however, would not be impacting the Indian operations.   'It's not going to impact us.   No job cuts in India.', a M$ India spokesperson said in New Delhi.   [Bill Gates testified before the US congress last month that the US needed unlimited H-1Bs, to make up for alleged severe shortages of US workers. M$ has also recently announced that they will be expanding their operations in India.]"

2009-01-22
_GMA News_
Malaysia bans foreign hiring
"The Cabinet has approved an indefinite hiring ban for the key manufacturing and services sectors, which currently employ nearly half of the 2.1M legal foreign workers in Malaysia, the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to make public statements...   More than 10K Malaysians and 3K foreigners lost their jobs between October and January because of a slowdown in Malaysia's export-dependent economy.   The government has predicted another 45K Malaysians could be out of work by the end of the year...   'Certainly what they will sacrifice first are the foreign migrants.', he said."

2009-01-22
Norm Matloff _Numbers USA_
Possible Sec. of Commerce Nominee is More of the Same When it Comes to H-1Bs

2009-01-22
Jeff Lukens _View from 1776_
A Crisis Too Great to Waste
"The rivers of red ink he proposes would make FDR and LBJ blush. This approach may have worked politically for FDR and LBJ, but neither time did it work economically for the country.   It may work politically for Obama too, but deficit spending will not work economically today either."

2009-01-22
Thomas E. Brewton & David Roche _View from 1776_
Shovel the Stables, Don't Perfume Them
"'As we saw in Japan in the 1990s, if the market is not allowed to clear, the financial crisis will be prolonged.   Although debt deflation may be avoided, the economic recession will be longer and the recovery weaker.'"

2009-01-22
Frank Shostak _Ludwig von Mises Institute_
Mere Fiscal Stimulus Cannot Revive the US Economy
"The only way fiscal stimulus could "work" is if the flow of real savings (i.e., real funding) is large enough to support (i.e., fund) government activities while still permitting a positive rate of growth in the activities of the private sector.   (Note that the overall increase in real economic activity is, in this case, erroneously attributed to the government's loose fiscal policy.)   If, however, the flow of real savings is not large enough, then, regardless of any increase in government outlays, overall real economic activity cannot be revived.   In this case the more government spends (i.e., the more it takes from wealth generators), the more it weakens prospects for a recovery."

2009-01-22
_Pacifi Gate_
You're Fired! Now, Where's My Raise?

2009-01-22
Sam Diaz _Ziff Davis_/_CNET_/_CBS_
Steve's Apple: 35K "wicked smart" people will keep things humming

2009-01-22
_National Association of Colleges and Employers_
Recruiting grows even more lax, while job seekers grow more frantic

2009-01-22 (5769 Teves 26)
Andrew Silow-Carroll _Jewish World Review_
Brother, can you spare a rhyme?
 
 

2009-01-23

2009-01-23
Ruffin Prevost _Billings MT Gazette_
Fed micromanaging healthy banks
"The Jan. 12 agreement stipulates debt and dividend restrictions designed 'to maintain the financial soundness of First Co. so that First Co. may serve as a source of strength to the Bank'.   It mandates prior approval from the Fed before First Co. may declare or pay dividends, and it directs the company to submit within 60 days details about its planned sources and uses of cash and operating expenses for 2009.   Ty Nelson, president of First Co., said the agreement is a follow-up to a September order issued to First National Bank by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a bureau of the U.S. Treasury Department and a bank regulator...   Nelson said the Jan. 12 agreement restricts future dividend payments, adding that 'we haven't paid a dividend in over a year'."

2009-01-23
_Iowa Politics_
US senator Charles Grassley works to ensure American workers are a priority, asks tech executives about guest-workers and job cuts
Kim Dixon: Reuters
Inernet News
EE Times/UBM
Washington Post
Forbes
Puget Sound WA Business Journal
FX Street
Roy Mark: eWeek
Eric Krangel: Silicon Alley Insider
SlashDot
Seattle Post Intelligencer web log
Joseph Tartakoff: Seattle Post Intelligencer web log
Patrick Thibodeau: ComputerWorld
senator Grassley's press release
"In October 2008, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services [USCIS] released an internal report that found the H-1B program has more than a 20% violation rate.   The fraud identified in the report included jobs not located where employers claimed, H-1B visa holders not being paid the prevailing wage, forged documents, fraudulent degrees, and shell businesses.   In one instance the H-1B position described by the employer was 'business development analyst'.   However, it turned out that the H-1B visa holder would be working at a laundromat doing laundry and maintaining washing machines...   'I am concerned that M$ will be retaining foreign guest workers rather than similarly qualified American employees when it implements its lay-off plan.', senator Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, said in a January 22 letter."

2009-01-23 13:18PST (16:18EST) (21:18GMT)
Michael J. Crumb _Business Week_/_AP_
M$ retaliates against senator Grassley by delaying plans for West De Moines data center
Ina Fried: CNET/Ziff Davis/CBS
"The Iowa Department of Transportation Commission approved a state grant of $3.4M in December to cover half the cost of road improvements to provide access to the site.   The city will provide local matching funds...   tax incentives...   The project calls for the creation of 75 high-paying technology jobs with an average salary of about $70K...   M$, which was founded in 1975, [misemploys] 94K people overall [around the world]."

2009-01-23
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
US Government Diving into the Shallow End of the Pool as Canada, EU Back Away from Extremist Environmental Legislation

2009-01-23,br /> Inger Eberhart _Athens GA Banner-Herald_
Illegal aliens should leave the USA

2009-01-23
Priyanka Joshi _Seattle Post-Intelligencer_
A firm the size and clout of M$, with more than $20G in the bank, chooses to not sustain the economy, chooses to not have higher management take pay cuts, chooses not to stop out-sourcing, but slashes jobs!

2009-01-23
George Russell _Fox_
Satyam stepping up business with UN even as they're barred from doing business with UN subsidiary World Bank
"According to internal U.N. procurement documents obtained by FOX News, no fewer than 4 major U.N. agencies -- the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Labor Organization (ILO), and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) -- suddenly adopted a Geneva, Switzerland-based branch of Satyam as a provisional supplier on 2008 March 3 -- the same day that the company applied for acceptance.   The extraordinary salvo of lightning-fast U.N. acceptances, at a time when Satyam itself knew it had been suspended by the World Bank, did not end there.   Same-day approval was also given to the Swiss branch of Satyam by the U.N.'s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), based in Rome, on 2008 Aug. 6, according to the same documentation from the United Nations Global Marketplace (UNGM), a central registry of U.N. suppliers based on information from the separate agencies...   And again on 2008 Oct. 3 -- after the World Bank's formal ban had taken effect -- yet another branch of Satyam, this time based in Parsippany, New Jersey, emitted a flood of requests to be accepted as a U.N. vendor, and got same-day approval from UNICEF.   The Parsippany branch's Oct. 3 request was also approved by IFAD, but at a more leisurely pace -- on 2008 Dec. 18...   a blitzkrieg effort by Satyam to install different parts of itself in the U.N. system...   each time Satyam applied for a new vendor registration, it received a new... 'UNGM Number'... which allowed it to be recorded as a separate supplier.   The different registrations allowed the respective Satyam branches to remain in the Global Marketplace as separate entries alongside the original India-based main company (UNGM Number 108808)...   Last May, for example, FOX News revealed that United Nations Development Program auditors had reported that the agency's multibillion-dollar procurement business was a shambles, rife with shoddy paper-work and faulty or non-existent bidding practices, full of 'unqualified' personnel, and with no sure way of knowing whether its vendors even had been registered with the rest of the U.N. as maintaining terrorist ties."

2009-01-23
J. Nichlas Hoover _Information Week_
Business going to Indian out-sourcing firms up because they're cheap, and so is dissatifaction (pdf)

2009-01-23 Blenn Beck _Fox_
John Stossel asks: What do you get when you pair government with fear?
"I had to watch government fail for 25 years doing consumer reporting before I really saw it because intuitively, the reaction is the problem -- 'bring government and government will make it better'.   And when we're scared... it's much worse."

2009-01-23 (5769 Teves 27)
Caroline B. Glick _Jewish World Review_
History's tragic farce

2009-01-23 (5769 Teves 27)
Caroline B. Glick _Jewish World Review_
VaEra: How and when to be stubborn
"Moses becomes the paradigm for humility just as Pharaoh is the paradigm for arrogant stubbornness.   This lesson of wise tenacity versus foolish stubbornness exists in all areas of human life and society -- family, community, national policy and personal development.   May we be tenacious enough in life to avoid foolish moments of harmful stubbornness."

2009-01-23

DJIA	8,077.56
S&P 500	831.95
NASDAQ	1,477.29
10-year US T-Bond	2.62%
crude oil	$46.47/barrel
gold	$895.80/ounce
silver	$11.94/ounce
platinum	$958.00/ounce
palladium	$197.10/ounce
copper	$0.091875/ounce
natgas	$4.52/MBTU
reformulatedgasoline	$1.18/gal
heatingoil	$1.44/gal
dollarindex	85.534
yenperdollar	88.80
dollarspereuro	1.2977
dollarsperpound	1.3797
swissfranksperdollar	1.1568
indianrupeesperdollar	49.27
MorganStanleyHighTechIndex	336.31

I usually get this info from MarketWatch and the "Commodities" and "Metals" and "Currencies" columns.
 
 
 

2009-01-28
Sue Shellenbarger & George Melloan _Wall Street Journal_
Do You Want an Internship? It'll Cost You

2009-01-28
Pankaj Mishra _Economic Times of India_
H-1B reform proposal may hit Indian body-shopping off-shoring firms
"Two US senators Dick Durbin and Chuck Grassley plan to reintroduce a stricter H-1B visa reform legislation this year, making it mandatory for out-sourcing companies such as TCS, Wipro and Infosys to hire local American workers before seeking any H1B visas for their Indian employees...   The bill will also ask these companies to pay the prevailing wages to H-1B workers...   'The Durbin-Grassley bill would require all employers seeking to hire an H-1B visa holder to pledge that they have made a good-faith effort to hire American workers first and that the H-1B visa holder will not displace an American worker.', senator Grassley's office said in a statement...   At a time when US unemployment rates are at their peak, many supporters of the bill hope that the senators would be successful this year.   'Given the current environment, they surely have much better ammunition than last year.', said a senior official at a US-head-quartered software company, who did not wish to be identified.   According to the US Labor Department, the unemployment rate in December last year rose from around 6.8% to 7.2% with almost 2M workers losing jobs between September and December...   'More than the visa-led hiring, we need to expand our US foot-print, as part of a customer-led strategy.', Mr Kumar said.   'We already have centres in Atlanta and Detroit, and we are currently evaluating a few more locations to hire local professionals.', he added.   This year, Wipro has not increased salaries for [its guest-workers outside of India] due to the on-going slow-down.   The US is not the first [country] to be mulling a stricter visa regime for immigrant workers.   In December last year, the UK's home office introduced a new point-based work permit system, reducing the number of positions available for migrants by almost 200K.   However, it's not clear if the bill will get passed even this time, and Indian companies hope that the Obama administration does not [level the tilt in the off-shoring and body-shopping playing field]."
Tata median salaries by city
Wipro median salaries by city
Infosys median salaries by city

2009-01-28
_ComputerWorld_
Ill-Begotten Monstrosities dumping 4,200+ North American employees
Jennifer Guevin: Ziff Davis/CNET/CBS
"Ok here is what happened at anthem: Anthem had a large mostly American IT staff.   They hired IBM to take over IT operations with the understanding that the employees would be hired by IBM.   IBM hired the Anthem IT staff and set them to work... TRAINING THEIR REPLACEMENTS!   One year later... no Americans."

2009-01-28
Cynthia Bowers _CBS_
Factory Ghost Towns
"The plant used to employ 2,500 people.   What happened here in 1984 happened all across Pennsylvania's Monongahela Valley...   'There were so many small plants that were connected to the steel industry that employed 100, 150 or maybe 50 people they went down also.'"

2009-01-28
Froma Harrop _Detroit News_
Don't expedite off-shoring with more work visas

2009-01-28
Donna Conroy _Bright Future Jobs_
Grassley Fired Salvo into Bill Bates's Lap

2009-01-28
Harold Meyerson _Washington Post_
2nd Thoughts as Trade Revealed as Tilted against USA
"Robert Cassidy was the chief U.S. negotiator on [Red China's] 1999 market access agreement with the United States...   'Claims were made that U.S. exports of goods to [Red China] would increase substantially', he recalled, 'creating jobs in the higher-paying export sector.'   Instead, American manufacturers shuttered factories here and opened them in [Red China], while [Red China's] under-valuation of its currency guaranteed that U.S. products would not be sold there.   Indeed, Cassidy added, U.S. exports to [Red China] 'consist primarily of raw materials' [followed by intellectual property, and capital goods] -- hardly the product of superior U.S. technology and production...   the economic relationship between the United States and [Red China] is the linch-pin of the global economy -- that is, a central cause of the global economic crisis.   [Red China] produces and we consume; [Red China] takes the proceeds from our consumption and lends it back to us, not so we can produce more -- [executives of] American multi-nationals would prefer the Chinese do that -- but so we can take on more debt and continue to consume."

2009-01-28
Alan Reynolds _Wall Street Journal_
Stimulus proposal spends where unemployment is already low: $646,214 per government job

2009-01-28
Rob Sanchez _Job Destruction News-Letter_ #1966
M$ dumping workers in USA, not in India or Red China
M$ is axing 5K people but they haven't been very forthcoming on who and where the cuts will come from.   Senator Grassley wasted no time to send an inquiry to M$ asking how many H-1Bs will be among those who lose their jobs.   In answer M$ said it is cutting a "significant number" of foreign workers as part of the lay-off of 1,400 employees last week.   How significant is anyone's guess because they didn't give any numbers.   Hopefully Grassley will get a response from MS that's more specific.
 
Patrick Thibodeau just published an article for ComputerWorld that has a quote that is such a classic globalist point of view it deserves some discussion:
 
An immigration attorney at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, said, "In fact, the law is very well designed to say that you have to treat H-1Bs the same as U.S. citizens in all regards."
 
So, at M$ your citizenship doesn't matter -- everyone is just a global unit of labor.   M$ puts no special value on its staff of US citizens so during lay-offs everyone should be expected to be treated "the same".   During mass lay-offs of this type it would be an improvement if US citizens were treated equally but they aren't.   As I have explained in many previous news-letters, US Citizens are not a protected class but H-1Bs are.   What that means in a practical sense is that companies like M$ expose themselves to less risk of civil law-suits from US citizens than they do from H-1Bs.   So, to put this in perspective, US citizens and H-1Bs aren't treated equally because H-1Bs are harder to get rid of, and since they generally earn less, employers have very little incentive to walk H-1Bs out the front door before American employees.
 
Ironically H-1Bs usually get more sympathy while the plight of U.S. workers is ignored.   Read this carefully because the implicit anti-American bias shown by M$ spokesman Lou Gellos is very common in corporate circles and it's often repeated in the main-stream media:
 
Gellos said the firm recognizes "the human impact that our work-force reduction has on every affected worker and their families".
 
"For many of the employees here on a visa, being laid off means that they have to leave the country on very short notice, in many cases uprooting families and children," Gellos said.
 
Gellos laments the fact that when H-1Bs lose their jobs they have to go back to their home country.   Too bad about their families, but H-1B is a temporary work visa.   If those foreign temp workers cared about keeping their families intact they should have come to the U.S.A. alone!   Many American contractors in the U.S.A. that work temporary assignments that require them to be in different locales and yet they don't move their family every time they get a new contract.   That's the nature of contract work, and that's all an H-1B is.
 
This is a good example why H-1B workers shouldn't be allowed to bring families to the U.S.A. because once that happens we get the bleeding heart liberals and corporate robber barons that try to appeal to everyone's sympathy.   All of this gives H-1Bs a hook to stay here permanently, and that gets even stronger if they have an anchor baby while they are here.
 
While M$ is axing people in the U.S.A. the same is not true in India and [Red China].   The Seattle Times reports that there will be very few jobs lost in [Red China], and the India Times said there will be no jobs lost there.   M$ Singapore announced that in all of East Asia less than 10 jobs will be eliminated.
 
So, that poor H-1B that everyone is sobbing about will have to leave the U.S.A. in order to work at M$ in India.   Good for the H-1B but what about the laid off American who will have to get in a soup line in order to eat?   Remember, most countries like India don't have a visa like H-1B, so Americans better not count on moving there to get a job.
 
It's worth noting that Google, Intel, IBM, TI, HP, and Nextel are doing the same thing as M$ but they are getting far less publicity and no scrutiny from law-makers.
 
IBM is an interesting case because they are under-going large lay-offs throughout the United States of America and yet their total head count is going up.   That might sound strange, but remember we have a global economy now, and as we found out these companies show no favoritism to US citizens.
 
IBM's ongoing labor adjustments have led the company to add bodies in cheaper and higher-growth parts of the world, like India.
 
In 2007, the last full year for which detailed employment numbers are available, 121K of IBM's 387K workers were in the U.S.A., down slightly from the year before.   Meanwhile, staffing in India has jumped from just 9K workers in 2003 to 74K workers in 2007.
---30---
 

2009-01-28
David Tatarowicz _Shorewood WI_
Milwaukee Tools now made in Red China

2009-01-28
James Carlini _MidWest Business Technology News_
Infrastructure Stimulus Packages part 1: Best Practices

2009-01-28 (5769 Shevat 03)
George Friedman _Jewish World Review_
Strategic Divergence: The War against the Taliban and the War against al Qaeda

2009-01-28 (5769 Shevat 03)
John Stossel _Town Hall_
The College Scam
Jewish World Review
"A recent survey asked thousands of students: Would you go to your college again?   About 40% said no.   'The bachelor's degree?   It's America's most over-rated product.', says education consultant and career counselor Dr. Marty Nemko."

2009-01-28 (5769 Shevat 03)
Walter E. Williams _Jewish World Review_
Federal Stimulus Bill: Other People's Money and Free Lunches
"Here is what my George Mason University colleague Professor Richard Wagner wrote, which was published by Office of the House Republican Leader: 'Any so-called stimulus program is a ruse.   The government can increase its spending only by reducing private spending equivalently.   Whether government finances its added spending by increasing taxes, by borrowing, or by inflating the currency, the added spending will be offset by reduced private spending.   Furthermore, private spending is generally more efficient than the government spending that would replace it because people act more carefully when they spend their own money than when they spend other people's money.'...   if Congress spends $4T we must privately spend $4T less whether it is accomplished through taxation, inflation or borrowing.   The stimulus package being discussed is politically smart but economically stupid...   Politicians love it when the victims of their policies are invisible and the beneficiaries visible.   Why?   Because the beneficiaries know for whom to vote and the victims do not know who is to blame for their plight."
 
 

2009-01-29

2009-01-29 05:30PST (08:30EST) (13:30GMT)
Scott Gibbons & Tony Sznoluch _DoL ETA_
un-employment insurance weekly claims report
current press release
"The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 617,289 in the week ending Jan. 24, a decrease of 146,776 from the previous week.   There were 369,944 initial claims in the comparable week in 2008.   The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 4.3% during the week ending Jan. 17, an increase of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 5,740,996, an increase of 89,879 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 2.4% and the volume was 3,249,574.   Extended benefits were available in North Carolina, Oregon, and Rhode Island during the week ending Jan. 10."
graphs
more graphs

2009-01-29
Thomas Claburn _Information Week_
Dumped guest-worker charged with placing malware in Fannie Mae's systems
Freeman Klopott: DC Examiner
Wired
"a malicious script designed to wipe Fannie Mae's 4K servers, was allegedly placed by Rajendrasinh Babubha Makwana, an IT contractor who worked in Fannie Mae's Urbana, MD, facility.   It was set to execute on Jan. 31.   Had it done so, Fannie Mae engineers expect it would have caused millions of dollars in damage and possibly shut down the government-sponsored mortgage lender for a week.   Makwana, 35, was indicted for unauthorized computer access Tuesday in a Maryland District Court.   Court documents indicate that he is a citizen of India who resides in the United States under a work visa...   Makwana had been terminated as a Fannie Mae contractor on Oct. 24, around 13:00 or 13:30, the affidavit says, but his network access was not terminated until late that evening.   Makwana was fired for allegedly creating a computer script earlier that month that changed server settings without the permission of his supervisor...   'On 2008 October 24, at 14:53, a successful SSH (secure shell) login from IP address 172.17.38.29, with user ID s9urbm, assigned to Makwana, gained root access to dsysadmin01, the development server.', the affidavit states.   '...IP address 172.17.38.29 was last assigned to the computer named rs12h-Lap22, which was [a Fannie Mae] lap-top assigned to Makwana...   The lap-top and Unix work-station where Makwana was able to gain root access and create the malicious script were located in his cubicle.'   Makwana is currently free on $100K bail pending trial.   He has had to surrender his passport.   Christopher C. Nieto, the public defender representing Makwana, said his client will enter a plea of not guilty on Friday, but could not comment further at this time."

2009-01-29
Michael P. Orsi _First Things_
Ira Stoll's bio of Samuel Adams, puritan founder

2009-01-29
Patrick Cloonan _PA Daily News_/_Z Wire_
Murphy amendment to encourage US hiring stripped from stimulus package: ObummerDoesn'tCare
"U.S. representative Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair, said his amendment would have required that any health information technology system bought under a $20G grant program in the stimulus package be manufactured in the United States by American workers.   'The Pittsburgh Technology Council alone has 1,422 member companies dedicated to information technology needs.', Murphy said.   'Surely we can find health IT companies in the United States that are more than capable and ready to do this important work.'   However, while the amendment received unanimous support in the House Energy and Commerce Committee, it was not included in the $825G spending package that was approved by the House Wednesday night by a 244-188 vote."

2009-01-29
Sam Diaz _Ziff Davis_/_CNET_/_CBS_
Tech lay-offs sky-rocketed in 2008 and not looking much better in 2009
"A report released today by [out-placement] firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas found that tech took a beating in 2008 (mostly in the second half), slashing nearly 187K jobs in the telecommunications, computer and electronic sectors, an increase of more than 74% compared to the previous year."
 
 

2009-01-30

2009-01-30 05:31PST (08:31EST) (13:31GMT)
Greg Robb _MarketWatch_
US 2008Q4 GDP decreased annualized 3.8%: from 2007 to 2008 grew 1.3%
BEA press release
"The price index for gross domestic purchases, which measures prices paid by U.S. residents, decreased 4.6% in the fourth quarter, in contrast to an increase of 4.5% in the third.   Excluding food and energy prices, the price index for gross domestic purchases increased 1.2% in the fourth quarter, compared with an increase of 2.8% in the third...   Equipment and software decreased 27.8%, compared with a decrease of 7.5%.   Real residential fixed investment decreased 23.6%, compared with a decrease of 16.0%.   Real exports of goods and services decreased 19.7% in the fourth quarter, in contrast to an increase of 3.0% in the third.   Real imports of goods and services decreased 15.7%, compared with a decrease of 3.5%...   Current-dollar personal income decreased $35.3G (1.2%) in the fourth quarter, in contrast to an increase of $7.2G (0.2%) in the third.   Personal current taxes increased $29.6G in the fourth quarter, compared with an increase of $122.5G in the third...   Current-dollar GDP -- the market value of the nation's output of goods and services -- decreased 4.1%, or $148.2G, in the fourth quarter to a level of $14,264.6G.   In the third quarter, current-dollar GDP increased 3.4%, or $118.3G.   Real GDP increased 1.3% in 2008 (that is, from the 2007 annual level to the 2008 annual level), compared with an increase of 2.0% in 2007...   The deceleration in real GDP primarily reflected a sharp deceleration in PCE, a down-turn in equipment and software, and decelerations in exports and in state and local government spending that were partly offset by a sharp down-turn in imports, an acceleration in federal government spending, and a smaller decrease in private inventory investment.   The price index for gross domestic purchases increased 3.2% in 2008, compared with an increase of 2.8% in 2007.   Current-dollar GDP increased 3.4%, or $473.1G, in 2008.   Current-dollar GDP increased 4.8%, or $629.2G, in 2007."

2009-01-30 08:36PST (11:36EST) (16:36GMT)
Ruth Mantell _MarketWatch_
UMich consumer sentiment index rose from 60.1 in late December to 61.2 at the end of January
Federal Reserve Board St. Louis
Federal Reserve Board St. Louis

2009-01-30
_National Association of Colleges and Employers_
Salary Offers to Class of 2009 Are Flat from the 2009 Winter Salary Survey

2009-01-30
James Carlini
Best practices fo infrastructure stimulus programs part 1

2009-01-30
Donny Ferguson _Libertarian Pary_
$3T? Obama considering tripling cost of government growth plan
Independent Political Report
"That's three trillion dollars in expanded government spending.   $3T. [$3*10^12]   $10K [$1*10^4] in new government spending for every man, woman and child in the United States -- with very little evidence it will create significant numbers of jobs or speed up inevitable economic recovery.   Voter opposition to the Obama spending plan is already rising and support has plunged to 42%."

2009-01-30
William Norman Grigg _Lew Rockwell_
Kleptocrats of the World, Unite!

2009-01-30 (5769 Shevat 05)
Mona Charen _Jewish World Review_
Palestinian Myth Machine
"In fact, in 2002 August, the United Nations and Human Rights Watch (neither very friendly to Israel) put the final fatality figures at 26 Palestinian fighters, 26 civilians and 23 Israeli soldiers.   The Israeli casualty figures were comparatively high because the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) decided to fight street by street with soldiers on foot instead of using air power or tanks precisely to minimize civilian casualties.   The houses in Jenin were booby-trapped.   The terrorists surrounded themselves with civilians."

2009-01-30 (5769 Shevat 05)
Rabbi Avraham Pam _Jewish World Review_
Time Is Life

2009-01-30 (5769 Shevat 05)
Frank J. Tipler _Real Clear Markets_
MacroEconomics "experts" apply astrology, not science

2009-01-30

DJIA	8,001.00
S&P 500	825.88
NASDAQ	1,476.00
10-year US T-Bond	2.83%
crude oil	$41.68/barrel
gold	$927.30/ounce
silver	$12.565/ounce
platinum	$991.30/ounce
palladium	$193.30/ounce
copper	$0.09178125/ounce
natgas	$4.417/MBTU
reformulatedgasoline	$1.2687/gal
heatingoil	$1.434/gal
dollarindex	85.893
yenperdollar	89.84
dollarspereuro	1.2805
dollarsperpound	1.4286
swissfranksperdollar	1.1599
indianrupeesperdollar	48.94
MorganStanleyHighTechIndex	334.68

I usually get this info from MarketWatch and the "Commodities" and "Metals" and "Currencies" columns.
 
 
 

 

2009-01-31

2009-01-31
Ruffin Prevost _Billings Gazette_
Town's fiber-optic network spurring telecomm price and quality competition
"Though Powellink was completed just days ago and has only a few dozen customers hooked up, the new city-owned telecommunications network has sparked a price war that is likely to reduce phone, TV and Internet bills across town.   Nearly 3 years after agreeing to provide telecommunications services on the network, TCT has begun serving customers and has an installation waiting list that already stretches into April...   Regional heavyweights Qwest and Bresnan Communications are both offering local specials for Powell residents in response to the launch of Powellink, a privately funded network that will be owned by the city after 20 years.   During its development, both companies opposed Powellink, calling it anti-competitive."

2009-01-31
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
Why Inventories Matter

2009-01-31
Scott Ott _ScrappleFace_
Obama plan has already boosted IRS extortion collections
"'The president's plan is simple but ingenious.', said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.   'He targets wealthy individuals who filed inaccurate tax forms, cheating the government out of tens of thousands of dollars.   Then he just nominates them for cabinet positions.   They suddenly see the error of their ways, and they cut checks for the full amount owed, plus interest.'"
 
 

"the most plausible explanation is that innovations in the financial markets increased access to mortgage finance, mainly by reducing down-payment constraints and allowing younger people to buy homes." --- Carlos Garriga, William T. Gavin & Don Schlagenhauf "Recent Trends in Home-ownership" _Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review_ 2006 September/October, 88(5), pg 410

 
 

2009 January
Gary Stix _Scientific American_
Darwin's legacy after 150 years
 
 

"As the figure shows, there was an erratic decline in the affordability index from 92% at the end of 1993 to 63% in 2005." --- Carlos Garriga, William T. Gavin & Don Schlagenhauf "Recent Trends in Home-ownership" _Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review_ 2006 September/October, 88(5), pg 405

 

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Proposed Bills 2009

Presidential candidate fund-raising, expenditures, and debt
 
 

"The federal government also supports homeownership by authorizing state and local governments to issue tax-exempt mortgage revenue bonds.   The National Council of State Housing Authorities reports that funds from such bond issues have supported an average of 100K home purchases for low-income buyers over the past two decades.   In principle, the programs are large enough to be important for homeownership rates.   There is, however, no evidence of a rise in the use of these bonds since 1995 and, although there have been few empirical studies on this issue, Benjamin and Sirmans (1987) and Government Accounting Office (1988) suggest that the subsidy is capitalized in the home price so that there is no measurable benefit to the homebuyer." --- Carlos Garriga, William T. Gavin & Don Schlagenhauf "Recent Trends in Home-ownership" _Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review_ 2006 September/October, 88(5), pg 402

Movies Coming Soon
 

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