Economy – Page 12

America 2008 = Argentine 2003

Published on December 9, 20081 Comment

Workers occupy factory after the factory’s bank refuses credit to pay them:

[…]about 250 workers have occupied their employer’s factory after the company shut its doors without any notice. They intend to stay there until severance and vacation pay due them is guaranteed.

The company is Republic Windows and Doors, and a spokesman for the company told the AP that the precipitous closure was necessary because its creditor, Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America, won’t let them pay their employees, which is rather interesting because BofA recently received $25 billion from the feds as part of that massive bailout Bernanke, Paulson, and Bush convinced Reid and Pelosi was necessary or the sky would fall and the American Way of Life would end.

For an eye witness view of the occupation, there are of course Youtube videos:

As the title says, it reminds me of what happened in Argentine at the start of the decade, when their economy collapsed. That country had opened up and “liberated” their economy, atteacting investors looking for low risk, high profit investments. When the economic miracle turned out to be not so miracleous after all, they were gone in a flash leaving a broken country behind. Like the workers at Republic Windows and Doors the people of Argentine took their fate in their own hands and occupied and re-opened hundreds if not thousands of empty factories, shops and other workplaces. I wonder if Naomi Klein ever thought the scenes she reported on five years ago would be replicated in her own country?

Capital, it fails us now

Published on December 2, 2008

This crisis has been a real eye opener, hasn’t it, in that it made visible how much of the world economy was based on credit driven overconsumption, both on a consumer level as in the more rarified air of Wall Street. Ever since “communism” was “defeated” we’ve forgotten how wasteful capitalism is. we’ve been conned into believing there was no alternative, that we could not control its dexstructive tendencies and at best we could hope to only migitate some of its worst excesses, but that ultimately we were locked in a race to the bottom that would however somehow bring us untold riches someday, if we followed the rules of the free market. The fall of the Berlin Wall spelled the death knell for the perverted version of “communism” practised in the USSR, could this recession bring the same for thriumphant capitalism?

Because one thing is certain. We do have the resources, the abibilty and the ingenuity to make everybody in the world rich without destroying the planet and without engaging in the danc eof mutal assured destruction that is free market capitalism. But it would mean the end of the priviledged classes and they’ve never given up their power without struggle. One good suggestion to start the struggle comes from Ian Welsh, on how to stop the obscene bonuses and salaries managers and CEOS have awarded themselves over the years:

The simplest thing is to just count all income equally, tax it all at the same rate, don’t allow deductions beyond a ertain level (50K or so) and tax all income above, say 1 million at 90%, 95% for all income above 5 million. Don’t allow too much income deferral and there you go. Slap on some “in kind” rules for corporations (yes, if your corporation pays for your car, that’s salary) and while there will always be loopholes, you’ll still rein in the worst excesses.

This of course presupposes a government anywhere in the western world on the side of the workers, rather than the rich, which might be a problem…

Recession blues: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt stops buying books

Published on November 25, 2008

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, one of the larger American publishers, especially of educational titles announced yesterday it would “temporarily” stop buying books:

Josef Blumenfeld, v-p of communications for HMH, confirmed that the publisher has “temporarily stopped acquiring manuscripts” across its trade and reference divisions. The directive was given verbally to a handful of executives and, according to Blumenfeld, is “not a permanent change.” Blumenfeld, who hedged on when the ban might be lifted, said that the right project could still go to the editorial review board. He also maintained that the the decision is less about taking drastic measures than conducting good business.

“In this case, it’s a symbol of doing things smarter; it’s not an indicator of the end of literature,” he said. “We have turned off the spigot, but we have a very robust pipeline.” The action by the highly leveraged HMH may also be as much about the company’s need to cut costs in a tight credit market.as about the current economic slowdown.

Schadenfreude part 2

Published on November 17, 20081 Comment

The Moustache of Understanding is frantically calling on Obama to save the economy. As is expected of Friedman what he urges Obama to do is inane –apparantely Obama needs to be a true leader and urge the American public to “go shopping” to save the economy, the idea that people without a house, car or job not quite being in a position to restart the global economy by buying more Christmas presents not yet having penetrated his thick skull — but there is an extra franctic tone to his appeal. I wonder why:

That’s because the author’s wife, Ann (née Bucksbaum), is an heir to the General Growth fortune. In the past year, the couple—who live in an 11,400-square-foot mansion in Bethesda, Maryland—have watched helplessly as General Growth stock has fallen 99 percent, from a high of $51 to a recent 35 cents a share. The assorted Bucksbaum family trusts, once worth a combined $3.6 billion, are now worth less than $25 million.

Ah.

No wonder the guru of neo-liberal globalisme, the arselicker of the new world order, is now reduced to stupid pleas for someone, anyone to save him.

The Dead go Unburied! Where’s the outrage?

Published on October 13, 2008

Says The Mail on Sunday:

With undertakers unable to extend credit, some poor families are having to wait more than two months before receiving government help paying for funerals, the weekly tabloid said.

Bereaved families can apply to the Department for Work and Pensions if they can prove they are receiving state benefit payments and cannot afford to foot the bill.

Around 27,000 people per year receive cash for funerals from the DWP’s Social Fund, totalling 46 million pounds (78 million dollars, 58 million euros).

Where’s the outrage over this national disgrace? Where is the indignation about Britain having become such a third world nation it cannot even afford timely funerals for its decenthardworkingfamilies? The tabloids are quick to predict doom and gloom whenever a strike does even so much as mildly inconvience a sub-editor, with warnings about a return to the “Winter of discontent” when “the dead were left unburied”, but this time? Not so much. You’d think waiting times of more than two months rate more than just a small article in the Mail on sunday when the largely fictitious accounts of the late seventies are still trotted out as dire warnings thirty years later, but nary a peep.

But then this doesn’t concern the comfortable middle classes, as they all have decent insurance for this. And if it doesn’t happen to the middle classes, it doesn’t exist. People who are so irresponsible as to work a job on which they can’t even afford their own funeral have only themselves to blame. They should’ve become ~~merchant bankers~~ erm ~~stock broker~~ erm ~~estate agent~~ never mind…

But still, 46 million pounds to pay for 27,000 funerals? That’s some 1700 pounds per funeral. Not exactly cheap, is it?