The following article mentions some of the 100,000 job losses/lay-offs just since the election. Obamacare is a fact of life now, and many businesses are busy cutting hours and laying off employees as a result. Business are not spending and investing. People aren’t hiring, and small businesses are closing or going bankrupt at an alarming rate. I’m glad I still have a job. Amazing, in just two weeks, 100,000 more people are now jobless, and it’s just the beginning. Welcome to the ObamaNation!
The Twinkie That Broke The Economy’s Back?
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-twinkie-that-broke-the-economys-back
Can you hear that sound? It is the sound of the air being let out of the economy. Since the election, there has been a massive tsunami of layoffs and business failures. Of course the company that is making the biggest headlines right now is Hostess. On Monday, Hostess will be in a New York bankruptcy courtroom as it begins the process of liquidating itself. Needless to say, Twinkie lovers all over America are horrified. Many are running out to grocery stores and hoarding as many as they can find, and some online sellers are already listing boxes of 10 Twinkies for as much as $10,000 on auction websites such as eBay. Well, there is really no reason to panic. It is very likely that another company will purchase the Twinkie brand and continue to produce them. In fact, it is already being rumored that a Mexican company may have the inside track. But even though the Twinkie may survive, the failure of Hostess is yet another sign of how weak the U.S. economy has become. Approximately 18,500 Hostess workers will be losing their jobs, and even if some of them are rehired by the company that takes over the Twinkie brand, the truth is that those workers will almost certainly be looking at greatly reduced pay and benefits. Sadly, we are seeing this kind of thing happen all over America. Large numbers of once thriving businesses are either shutting down or laying off workers. Overall, the failure of Hostess is not that big of a deal for the U.S. economy. But we may look back someday and remember Hostess as a symbol of the economic problems that were unleashed by the election of 2012. Since November 6th, a wave of pessimism has swept over the economy and we are now seeing some of the worst economic numbers that we have seen in more than a year. Many fear that we may have reached a tipping point and that things are only going to get worse from here.
Sadly, the reality is that Hostess is not the only iconic American company that is in a huge amount of trouble right now. Sears just announced a loss of nearly 500 million dollars in the third quarter. Sears has been bleeding money like this for a couple of years, and if they continue to do so it will just be a matter of time before Sears is headed for liquidation as well.
Can you imagine trying to explain the Sears catalog and Twinkies to future generations in a world where those things no longer exist?
Our world is changing at mind blowing speed, and the pace of change is only going to keep accelerating.
A few days after the election, I wrote an article about the huge number of layoff announcements that we saw after Barack Obama won.
Well, it has gotten even worse since then. The following is a partial list of the layoffs and job losses that have been announced since November 6th…
Abbott Labs 700
Activision 30
Adventist Health 48
Airlines SAS 6000
AMD 400
American Cotton Growers 110
ArcelorMittal 20
American Independence Museum 4
Ameridose 790
American Airlines 4400 + 800 leaving voluntarily
American Coal 54
Atlantic Lottery Corporation 16
Assc Milk Producers 130
Aveo Oncology 45
ATI 172
Bankia 5000
Bechtel Power Corp 277
Bigpoint Games 47
Boston Scientific 1200
Brake Parts LLC 75
Brattleboro Retreat 31
Bristol Myers 500
Career Education 900 + Closing 23 Campuses
Cigna 1300
Citigroup 100
Commerzbank 6000
Consol Energy in W.V. 145
Covidien 595
Crouse Hospital Syracuse NY 70
Cummins 150
CVPH 27
DEP in Tallahassee FL 15
DuPont, Co. 64
Eagle-Tribune, Andover 21
Emanuel Medical Cente 24
Energizer Holdings 1500
Ericsson 1550
Exide Tech, Laureldale 150
City of Findlay, OH 39
First Energy 400
Gameforge Berlin 20
Gamesa Energy 92
GenOn Energy Inc 33
Glen Falls Hospital 29
Groupon 80
GT Advanced Tech 165
Harris’ Broadcast 17
Hawker Beechcraft 400 + Facilities closing
Hill Rom 200
Hills Holdings 300
HMX Group 567
Hostess 627
Iberia Airlines 4500
ICM of Colwich 25
ING 2350
Judson University 21
Juniper Networks 500
Kaiser Permanente 84
Kinetic Concepts 427
Kratos Defense Security 125
Lackawanna County PA 11
Lightyear Network Solutions 12+
Lonza 500
Majestic Star Casino/hotel 80
Major Wind Company 3000
Martha Stewart Living 70
Medtronic 1000
Mills Manufacturing NC 68
Momentive, Inc. 150
Monitor Group 235
Montco Behavioral Health/Dev 58
NBC 500
Nebraska Medical Center 38
Neovia Logistics Services 52
New Energy 40
Ormet 200
Panasonic 10000
PayPal 320
Penn Refrigeration 40
Penske Logistics 50
Pepsi 4000
Philips Electronics 218
Pierce Mfg 325
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne 100
Research in Motion 200
Rheem Manufacturing 50
Sentry Foods 70
Shaw’s Supermarket 700
Shawano foundry WI 90
Smith & Nephew 770
Smithfield Packing Co. 125
Solel Solar Systems 140
Southeastern Container 15
SpaceX 100
SRA Intl Inc 222
St. Jude Medical 300
Stryker 1170
Sulake 60
Sun Media 500
TE Connectivity 620
TECO Coal Corporation 90
Texas Instruments 1700
The Providence Journal Co 23
TMX Group Ltd. 100
Turbocare 220
Turkey Point Nuclear Plant 277
Oce North America, Inc. 135
Turbocare OCE 220
UBS 10000
US Cellular 980
UtahAmerican Energy Inc 102
Volvo Trucks Pulaski County 300
Wake Forest Baptist Medical 950
Welch Allyn 275
West Ridge Mine 102
Westinghouse 50
World Media Enterprises Inc 105
WPS Health Insurance 600
Wright Patterson AFB 115
Wyodak Coal Mine 11
Xerox 2500
Sadly, the list actually keeps going. You can view the remainder of the list right here.
Even companies owned by Obama supporters are laying people off. Just check out this excerpt from a report by CitizenLink…
A corporation whose part owner gave $2 million to a group committed to re-electing President Obama announced this week that it will be forced to lay off more than 1,000 employees in lieu of the financial hardship imposed by the president’s signature health care law.
Overall, more than 100,000 job losses have been announced since the election. It is almost as if the election was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Everyone in the business community that had been hoping for something different now realizes that no change is coming.
Meanwhile, Obama continues to pour on even more rules and regulations. According to CNSNews.com, the Obama administration has posted a total of 6,125 regulations on its reguations.gov website during the past 90 days. Our politicians are clueless and they simply don’t understand what they are doing to the business community.
But of course this goes for politicians from both sides. For decades we have been consuming far more than we produce and spending far more money then we bring in, and most of our politicians seem to be under the delusion that this can continue indefinitely.
The other night my wife had me watch a documentary entitled “The Queen of Versailles” that followed the lives of time share mogul David Siegel and his wife Jackie. I found it to be a perfect metaphor for what America is going through right now. David Siegel built the greatest time share empire the world has ever seen on a mountain of easy money and cheap credit. At the beginning of the movie, David and Jackie were living the high life and were constructing the largest house in America down in Florida.
Well, things dramatically changed when the financial crisis of 2008 struck. Suddenly nobody wanted to lend to David’s company and the house of cards started to crumble. But even though they were facing massive financial problems, Jackie found it incredibly difficult to adjust her lifestyle. She just kept spending and spending and spending.
It would be easy to pass judgment on David and Jackie, but the truth is that they are a perfect example of what this entire country is going through. Thousands of businesses are failing, our economic infrastructure is being gutted, millions of jobs are being shipped overseas, our financial system has become a gigantic casino and we keep piling even more mountains of debt on top of the mountains of debt that we already have. We have been living way above our means for so long that we don’t even have any concept of what “normal” is anymore.
If you have not seen “The Queen of Versailles” yet, I encourage you to do so. Don’t watch it to laugh at the downfall of David and Jackie Siegel. They are just trying to make their way in this world like all of us are. Rather, watch for parallels between their lives and what the United States is experiencing as a whole. As I mentioned earlier, I found their story to be a perfect metaphor for what is happening to this entire country. You can find the trailer for “The Queen of Versailles” right here.
As the economy falls apart, it is going to be really easy to point fingers at one another and blame one another. But what will really be needed is more love and compassion. A lot of workers at Hostess and a lot of other good companies just lost their jobs. The unemployment epidemic in this country is going to get a lot worse. These people are going to need our love and support.
In the end, we are all in this together. The coming economic storm is not going to be averted, but we can choose how we respond to it. Hopefully the crisis that is coming will bring out the best in many of us.
Eddie says:
“Elvis is dead…and I don’t feel too good myself.”
—– Lewis Grizzard
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19th November 2012 at 6:28 pm
llpoh says:
Yep, business is evaporating. And then asshats like Krugman hark back to the 1950′s as the golden era with 90%+ margin tax rates. The world is different now. It is a global economy. Capital and talent flows to where it has the best chance of success. The US is not that place. a business own pays 40% of his company profits in tax, then pays a further 40+% on the remaining $0 when he takes it out of the business (asssuming the new tax laws take effect), leaving him only getting around 35% of the profits he generates. Te Dems call that a “big hunk” of the profits. and the Dems have sold that bullshit to the masses as being reasonable as the business owners need to pay their “fair share”. They are defining fair share as meaning that anyone that works and succeeds needs to gie it al over to those that do not work.
You simply cannot have such draconian tax rates in the current world economy. Businesses and talented people will flee – either to greener pastures, or simply into retirement. IT is too hard to run a busness, and is definitely too hard to start one up – the risks are far, far too high. Who is going to risk their capital, their houses, their marriage, etc., starting a busines when the fact is well over 95% fail within the first 5 years, taking all capital invested, and the ones that succeeed see the owners getting perhaps 35% of the profits of the company for al the risk undertaken. What bullshit. What idiocy.
To expect hard-working, talented people to pay for lazy, untalented people, and call that “fair” is simply going to lead to ruin. The talented and hard working will not take risk and toil for the others. It will not happen.
The author said ” Approximately 18,500 Hostess workers will be losing their jobs, and even if some of them are rehired by the company that takes over the Twinkie brand, the truth is that those workers will almost certainly be looking at greatly reduced pay and benefits.”
What a ridiculous statement. Who in their right mind would ever hire those cocksuckers – anywhere, anytime, anyhow? Those assholes went on strike and ended the life of a viable company. I would NEVER hire someone if I found they were an ex-Hostess union employee. NEVER. NEVER. NEVER. I would rather go broke than put trust in one of them. And I guarantee you that most employers would feel the same. Those sons of bitches better get on SSDI, as I do not like their chances of finding work.
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19th November 2012 at 6:29 pm
Stigmation says:
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
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19th November 2012 at 7:15 pm
AWD says:
Yea, Lipoh, socialism sucks. People will never learn. Time to retire!
Paul Krugman: NeoCon Sellout!
I am appalled at so-called “progressive” Paul Krugman calling for a mere 91% tax rate! It’s as if he thinks the rich should be allowed to keep anything beyond what middle class Americans make. Where did he go wrong? Simple. He doesn’t come here to this web site often enough to have his weak liberalism purged and replaced with strong communism.
Is anyone wiser than Rousseau? Of course not! Hey, Krugman, listen up to some muscular socialism from a real progressive!
“Would you give Stability™ to the state? Then bring the extremes as closely together as possible. Tolerate neither wealthy persons nor beggars.”
That’s Rousseau, and he’s way smarter than you, professor.
So, what is to be done? Like all progressives, true progressives, I deeply resent people who achieve and excel beyond the middle class American, that is, beyond me. Therefore, the tax rate for all who make more than minimum wage should be 100%! Take it all! Only then will we have Stability™ when the government of infallible and superior legislators divides up the money and redistributes it to the oppressed masses (meaning me).
I feel betrayed, punched in the stomach, gasping for air. Who could allow the rich to keep anything of what they wrung from the bleeding lips of the widows and orphans!? Who’s going to pay for my phone, my gas, my mortgage (not sure what that is, but I know I shouldn’t have to pay for it)?
I say we reeducate the sellouts! FORWARD!!
(ctr/alt/sarc)
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19th November 2012 at 7:21 pm
sangell says:
As Britain and other countries are finding raising marginal tax rates may not bring in much, if any, additional tax revenue. As much of the so called ‘growth’ in the US economy has merely been the result of huge fiscal deficits that must now be reduced Obama might want to consider that even a Chicago politician cannot extract bribes from businessmen if he has no contracts to offer nor can a University hospital keep a politician’s wife on the payroll as a $300,000 per year supernumerary when times are tight. Obama might also want to wrap his mighty mind around what effects higher tax rates and ZIRP will have on other affluent constituencies he may have some fondness for. How many $500,000 executive directors of foundations and non profit agencies might lose their jobs as endowments and contributions dry up. How many universities will be able to keep paying their basketball coach $1 million dollars per year when rich alumni aren’t so rich anymore to say nothing of some moron professor in charge of the school of ethnic studies?
While Obama may have some familiarity with the salaried ‘rich’ he may not realize that the bulk of the $250,000 plus income earners do not get $5,000 plus weekly checks from some employer. These folks have to make their income themselves. Some years they may make a lot of money and other years not so much. A football player or ghetto rapper may make a couple of million dollars per year but may only make that for a couple of years. It has to last them the rest of their life. The family of your almost son Trayvon Martin is a good example of the fickle nature of fortune.
It smiled on them this year but what about next or the year after. Might Sybrina Fulton someday need that $65,000 per year public housing job she left when her 15 minutes of fame and celebrity disappear. As an occasional black man you’d think the president might speak more kindly towards and show some compassion for those whose incomes soar briefly only to fall back to nothing and leave the the formerly rich broke and living in the gutter. It happens often to black people.
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19th November 2012 at 7:59 pm
Ron says:
If the vast majority of americans can make very little money,its good for sugary snack makin companys also.Unions have such a weird wage structure compared with most of the country,its hard to feel sorry for them or stupid companys who sign contracts that guarantee insane retirement packages.
Well theres always slave labor in mexico.
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19th November 2012 at 8:47 pm
AWD says:
US Tries To Wrest Control Of Hostess Liquidation As Management Seeks To Pay $1.75 Million In “Incentive” Bonuses
The Hostess bankruptcy liquidation, the result of a bungled negotiation between the company, its equity sponsors, its striking workers, and the labor union, over what has been defined as unsustainable benefits and pension benefits, is rapidly becoming a Ding Ding farce. The latest news in what promises to be an epic Chapter 22 fight is that the judge, pressured by various impaired stakeholders, among which none other than the US trustee, is that the bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain has ordered the company and its unions to seek private mediation to attempt averting what the company has already said is an inevitable unwind of operations. More to the point, and as we predicted on Friday, if there is an outright purchase of the company, it will be a standalone entity, without its unions: Hostess will draw strategic buyers and private-equity investors for its brands, Rayburn said, without naming potential bidders.
The company is “more attractive” to buyers without the unions, he said. In other words, if the Union had hoped that their workers would be retained by the purchasing entity, their dreams just got shattered. But while the Union may be sad, it is about to add another emotion to its arsenal: blind fury. Because it is here that things get truly surreal. As the US Trustee, a Justice Department official responsible for protecting creditors, disclosed, as part of the winddown of Hostess, wants to pay as much as $1.75 million in incentive bonuses to 19 senior managers during the liquidation.
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19th November 2012 at 9:02 pm
KaD says:
I lost my job in August 2009 and tried everything to get employed again-even Starbucks and Burger King. I finally got a job in February 2012. It’s temp but it pays well. No benefits. I’m using the money to get a degree. No student loans. I thank God every day I have a job.
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19th November 2012 at 9:08 pm
llpoh says:
Stigmation is a fucking moron. Profit is required for a business to function. End of story. I do not give a sloppy stinky shit about what people want. The question is what is the value of what they produce. Nobody will pay me for what I want. They only pay me for what I deliver and they value it affords them. Wanting has nothing to do with a damn thing.
The fact is, 2 or 3 billion Asians – hard working, educated, hungry Asians – are willing to work for a fraction of the price of Americans. And guess what – Americans can either meet the market price, get better than the fucking competition, or go broke/be unemployed.
Americans want a lot of shit. No one cares. American wages are far too high to compete with the Asians in particular. The average wage needs to fall to around $30k per year if Americans want to compete. Don’t like it? Tough fucking shit. It is what it is. Americans by and large are fat, stupid, poorly educated and addicted to debt. They cannot compete. They are in for a very painful awakening.
Stigmation is an ignorant moron. You simply cannot have an economy without businesses having a chance for a profit. And almost all chances are disappearing. Keep screaming about what you want, Stig. The Chinese, Indians, Thais, Koreans are laughing their asses off. They are winning. They will keep on winning as long as morons like Stig would rather see companies go broke than pay less than what he sees as a living wage. Ask the Asians what a living wage is. And it is coming to America soon enough.
How stupid can people be.
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19th November 2012 at 9:24 pm
llpoh says:
KaD – I hope it works out for you. Life is going to get real hard. Education is the best bet, but the days of guarantees are over. Good luck.
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19th November 2012 at 9:27 pm
Stigmation says:
I have no doubt if Mr Magic Underpants would have won, all would be right with the world… They screwed over Ron Paul to let that shitbag win the nomination. Fuck him, fuck Obama and fuck all of you people who think voting for Romney would have made a difference. I LMAO listening to jerkoffs on the radio saying that we are done as a nation since Obamney was elected. You tools, we were done when we did not listen to Perot and the vast sucking sound of jobs leaving Ameika. Wake the fuck up….
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19th November 2012 at 9:42 pm
sangell says:
I agree with stigmation that corporate salaries are too high in the US though as a practical matter it would make little difference to the wages the average employee receives if the CEO of a large company is paid $1 million or $20 million per year but it looks bad particularly if the CEO did not build the company but is just a hired manager brought in to run it. The value they add is seldom all that valuable.
Where stigmation shows a lack of understanding is that without profit no business can pay anyone anything and a well run company knows that if it is not paying competitive wages its best employees will leave. Is no different than a pro sports team. Yeah you can pay a journeyman quarterback less but if you want Drew Brees or Peyton Manning you are going to have to pay them more. I can rent a theatre and hire a good looking girl to sing Taylor Swifts songs but I won’t sell any tickets. If I want to be a successful promoter and employ people I have to hire Taylor Swift and pay her what she can command and then price the tickets high enough to cover the cost of putting on the show plus some profit for me otherwise what is the point?
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19th November 2012 at 9:51 pm
llpoh says:
Stig – well, at least you got a couple of things right in that last post. The sucking sound would have been delayed, but not prevented, if the US had listened to Perot.
Re Romney – businesses were praying for his election in the hope that Obamacare would be reversed, and that tax rates would be kept down. Obamacare will prove to be a big deal – it will force millions of Americans out of work or into part-time work. It is already happening. Re taxes, predicted a huge sucking sound if the dividend tax rate and capital gains tax rates went up. That sound is already becoming a roar, as people bail out even before they know if a compromise will be reached.
Stig – I recommend you go start a business so you can practice what you preach. Ignore profit, and make sure you give your employees what they want. Let them decide what it is they want, of course, and let them tell you what “a living wage is”. Put everything you own on the line, including your freedom, if you happen to fuck up bad enough. And make sure that you pay your employees each week, no matter what mistakes they make, no matter how little they do, and again, don’t worry about profit. Business doesn’t need that, according to you. No doubt it will work out really well for you.
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19th November 2012 at 9:53 pm
Stigmation says:
Sangell
I completely understand were you are coming from. Profit is important, but at what cost? our humanity? Corporations were formed to serve the public’s good. I think we can all agree they do far from that now. They have become psychopathic entities that destroy the public, not serve it.
Profit is good, but how much????? If you are to believe the MSM there is never enough profit, never enough money for shareholders… I cannot give the answers to the problem, but I can define it. Greed of our government and the corporations that serve them.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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19th November 2012 at 9:58 pm
llpoh says:
Sangell – the problem with the megabucks going to corporate CEOs and such is that it is no longer acompetetive situation, but rather a good ol’ boys club. No one is worth what those guys are making. At least the performance of athletes can be effectively measured, by and large, but a CEO’s performance is largely impossible to measure for a whole range of reasons. The best CEO in the world can still have his company lose money due to factors beyond his control. Some businesses are simply unsalvageable and go broke.
I believe that folks i cahrge of megacorps deserve salaries commensurate with their skill and experience and responsibility. But $20 million? No fucking way. But as Sangell said, rarely does it matter to the business or salaries, as the salary is but a very small percentage of the business’s costs.
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19th November 2012 at 9:59 pm
crazyivan says:
” I am starting to think most people on this site are just magic pants wanna bes. To be like Romney and fuck the most amount of people to make a dime.” – Stigmation
Sadly you are wrong. Magic pants are ugly and useless.
We are worse.
Big Dog Status is the brass ring around here.
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19th November 2012 at 10:02 pm
llpoh says:
Stig says “Corporations were formed to serve the public’s good”. Really? You cannot be serious.
Corps were formed to 1) make it easier to raise large sums of money via many shareholders, and 2) to remove personal liability from individual owners. The public good had nothing whatsoever to do with it.
There is no such thing as too much profit in a free market. Companies maximize, or should, their long-term profit. Too much profit only occurs when there is corruption or monopoly. The market will ensure a company does not make too much profit, otherwise. It is called competition, and it works really, really well if left alone.
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19th November 2012 at 10:03 pm
llpoh says:
CI – very funny.
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19th November 2012 at 10:04 pm
Stigmation says:
Of all the 300 million fucking Americans to run against Obama, they come up with Romney. OMG they are like clones except Obama believes in Ala and Romney believes in a dude who conned people into believing he talked to God in a hat. That was the best the GOP could come up with?
I voted for Obama because I thought he could bring us to a point were we could get so utterly discussed with the system, we would have to have a third party and a real choice. I guess not, they gave us Romney. So who does the GOP roll out with next, the other Bush from Florida, or the sell out son of Ron Paul.
I await the end times and Amerika being taken out. Russia? China? who knows, we have lost the moral high ground and are being run by degenerates. I pray for all of us, as I think that most people on this site are good Americans and true patriots. I think we all know how this end for empires and it is not going to be pretty…..
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19th November 2012 at 10:15 pm
Makati1 says:
Look at that list and accept that 2/3 to 3/4 of those companies will close over the next 10 years. Then consider what the world will be like after. There was a time when the highest percentage of people were . . . FARMERS. That is where the Us is going. Back to hard labor and retirement on your death bed. Adjust now and beat the rush. A college degree is worthless if you don’t already have connections to put it to use. Take up agriculture if you want to be ahead of the curve. Milk a cow, hitch up a plow, etc. Blacksmith, midwife, doctor/dentist/undertaker, carpenter, plumber, electrician, etc. Those are the future jobs that will be in demand. Not IT.
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19th November 2012 at 10:19 pm
Stigmation says:
So corporations as they act now, or why they were chartered in the 1700?. That is bullshit. Read history. America chartered corporations to perform specific task and then to be De-solved It is only today that they have been allowed to become the psychopathic entities they are today. .
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19th November 2012 at 10:21 pm
Stigmation says:
Magic pants are not useless and ugly
http://www.bramakeover.com/magic_pants.html
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19th November 2012 at 10:23 pm
Stigmation says:
damn I am a dumbass
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19th November 2012 at 10:24 pm
Stigmation says:
LOL a real DUMBASS
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19th November 2012 at 10:25 pm
Stigmation says:
ok I give up I cannot master the image insertion. Feel free to insult me….
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19th November 2012 at 10:26 pm
Stigmation says:
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19th November 2012 at 10:27 pm
Stigmation says:
Yea I did it….
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19th November 2012 at 10:27 pm
Stigmation says:
No that is magic underpants LMAO
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19th November 2012 at 10:29 pm
llpoh says:
Stig – Corporations were largely not used under the scenario of charters – most business was run as partnership and a propriator business. This changed when corps began to offer indemnity, roughly around mid-1800s. You cannot compare corps (modern day) to chartered corps as they were different entities entirely. Even under the charter company attribute, and the “public good” you mentioned, it was still largely meant to be profit making (think spice trade), but the activity was directed by the charter, for the most part. Totally different animals, but you get part credit. The charted companies were precursors to the corps that exist today, but were not the same. Corps sparang up for the reasons I gave.
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19th November 2012 at 10:42 pm
llpoh says:
Stig – you also get credit for stubbornly refusing to give in to WordPress.
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19th November 2012 at 10:45 pm
Stigmation says:
All you Romney voters just lean forward, it will absolutely change your perspective.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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19th November 2012 at 10:54 pm
AKAnon says:
“damn I am a dumbass”-Stigmation finally says something intelligent. How ironic.
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19th November 2012 at 10:58 pm
Stigmation says:
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19th November 2012 at 10:58 pm
llpoh says:
AKA – you have mastered the art of short and sweet. I wish I had your talent.
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19th November 2012 at 11:07 pm
Stigmation says:
Now these folks need a union without a doubt.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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19th November 2012 at 11:08 pm
Stigmation says:
Now these two guys will make some headway. From shore to shore all across this land, every employee needs to unionized. God Bless Obama and God Bless Mr Trumka
Hot debate. What do you think?
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19th November 2012 at 11:15 pm
llpoh says:
Stig – yep, those unskilled, uneducated, untalented hacks sure do need a union (they have a fucking union – and it is not getting them big money, is it?). Just what are they worth in a global economy? If they are worth so much, and are so valuable, why do they not jump out there and get some of that high paying work? Because they are unskilled, by and large, that is why.
That is the reality – they are being paid what they are worth on the open market. That they canot command a “decent” wage is unfortunate for them, but it is the way it is.
Walmart made $15 billion (under 4% of sales) with 2 million employees. That is around $7000 per employee. Just how much of that $7000 in profit should the company give to the employees? If the give say $3000, their profit would fall to unsustainable levels – after the additional payroll taxes, etc are added on, they would be down to under 2% of profit on sales – and then they would be goners sooner or later.
The real blame is not on the company, but on all the fuckwits that shop at Walmart rather than supporting their local store, and on all the fuckwits that do not buy local made product. But people will not spend the extra 5% for that stuff.
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19th November 2012 at 11:26 pm
Appalachian Trail Deblazer says:
Was in a Bi-Lo Food Store yesterday and saw kids with a grocery cart full of “Twinkies”. I remembered seeing “Merita Bread” was also made by Hostess Bakeries. I asked the store manager and he said what was on the shelves was IT (NO MORE). I went there today at noon and got the last loaf of Merita bread. The store employees had brought out all the Hostess Products and put them on the shelves where the bread had been to fill up the space. Normally Merita bread, dinner rolls, brown & serve rolls, hamburger and hotdog buns would have been there. I think you will start seeing stores that look like Russia, with EMPTY shelves, unless you happen to get there when the truck delivers. People will get scared and start hoarding, the prices will go up, etc. The store manager did not know if their other suppliers could make up for the loss of the Merita Brands. At this store Merita had whhat I guess was 60% of the shelf space.
At a local diner I asked the owner if he had another supplier available. I knew the Merita Truck delivered to him. He had no idea that Merita would not be delivering until this morning. He called the “Sunbeam Bread” distributor and was told that his diner did not use enough bread product to qualify for a truck to deliver.
Can remaining bread distributors can make up for the loss of the Merita Brand?
We will find out!
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19th November 2012 at 11:35 pm
Stigmation says:
Full union membership will absolutely solve excessive profiteering by business small and large alike.
Repeat after me, I will pay dues, I will pay dues
Hot debate. What do you think?
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19th November 2012 at 11:52 pm
llpoh says:
Stig – yep unions will eliminate profits. And the business invloved.
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19th November 2012 at 12:08 am
AKAnon says:
Hostess shutting down has closed the Sunrise Bakery-the only large-scale bakery in AK. I, for one, don’t recall ever buying their products, but it does cut out a link of (semi) local sustainability. It will be interesting to see if bread prices increase as a result.
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19th November 2012 at 12:14 am
John A says:
Stigmation,
As soon as everything is unionized, most companies will just close their doors just like Hostess. Why? Because there is no profit to remain in business and no return for the “rich pricks” who started the company and placed their capital (wealth) at risk.
“Corporations were formed to serve the public’s good.”
Wrong, Stig. Corporations are formed to produce a product or service that customers will pay for at a competitive price, so that the company’s owners/investors can pay their expenses/taxes AND make a profit. Obama and Trummy’s unions will NOT be able to compete with the hard-working and clever Asians or non-union American workers. Unionize all American companies and everything will explode upward in price to pay for it. More people will lose their jobs and more companies will go out of busniness.
Economics 101: Prices go up along with cost. The consumer will purchase what he can afford to purchase. If the price is gets too high, the consumer buys elsewhere or doesn’t buy at all. Capeesh?
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19th November 2012 at 12:52 am
IndenturedServant says:
LLPOH nailed it in in the second comment on this thread. Why would anyone hire one of those union pukes who willingly chose to bring down Hostess? Fuck them! I saw and article by the dickhead the runs that union saying he is confident that new ownership will start the company back up and hire most of his people back. I would sooner hire ex-cons who were imprisoned for poisoning peoples food!
Wanna bet that the govt numbers show the unemployment rate went down next time? Collectively, we SO deserve what is coming!
I_S
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19th November 2012 at 2:21 am
Alex says:
Stigmation is clearly what the Brits would call a wind-up merchant, pulling your chain. Nobody could be that sincerely stupid.
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19th November 2012 at 2:32 am
Alex says:
ps – a BK Judge named “Drain”…effing brilliant.
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19th November 2012 at 2:33 am
Alex says:
and…what the fuck is this retarded anti-concept, “living wage”? Who could possibly define such a thing, by who’s terms, in what context? Is a “living wage” means to have a gas-guzzling SUV and at least three giant plasma TV’s in the house, because I guarantee you many of these Hostess people on strike for a “living wage”, who’s skill set is putting on a hair net and injecting frosting into a cake, have them.
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19th November 2012 at 2:52 am
Zarathustra says:
All I will say is this. When I was hired during one summer in high school by the local Castle and Cooke cannery, I was pissed that I had to also join the teamsters union because I had to have dues deducted from my paycheck (I was a democrat then). $3.50 an hour wasn’t all that bad for a starting job for a kid back in 1974. I had the most boring job in the world, working on a slow moving cherry line. I would sing entire beatles albums in my head to pass the time. I wanted to squeegee the floor to give me something to do but was told by my supervisor that I couldn’t do that, because sanitation was a different pay bracket (union rules).
That plant has been decades gone. I liked it because although built in the 40′s, it was well laid out and had a cafeteria where you could get hot meals for lunch, if you didn’t bring your own. Last time I was in the area, the building was still there, being used as a warehouse.
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19th November 2012 at 3:14 am
ThePessimisticChemist says:
Yes I still have a job. Its 25% less than what I would have expected, and I do the job of 3 people (posting from work, waiting for another run of samples to finish /gag/ )
Still, my wife and I do ok. She’s in healthcare, and I’m in animal feed manufacture, two areas that are hiring.
We got lucky.
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19th November 2012 at 3:57 am
backwardsevolution says:
A nation of hustlers.
llpoh – “The fact is, 2 or 3 billion Asians – hard working, educated, hungry Asians – are willing to work for a fraction of the price of Americans.”
Well, ship off, llpoh. And don’t just move your operations, move yourself. All aboard!
Hot debate. What do you think?
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19th November 2012 at 4:05 am
Leobeer says:
Yahoo! POLL
Why is Hostess in so much financial trouble?
Corporate mismanagement (21756) 24%
Union problems (52488) 57%
The American anti-fat kick (7776) 8%
They make an outdated product (10354) 11%
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19th November 2012 at 5:00 am
Reverse Engineer says:
Hello. Can I suggest a few of you read Economic Undertow, if not the Diner?
The industrial economy NEVER paid its own way, it has ALWAYS been funded on debt. The debt consumes the resource base, THAT is the “Capital”, not the Funny Money produced by CBs. That maoney only serves as proxy for energy, and when the energy beome too epensive to extract, you cnnot service the old debt and cannot extend crecit to develop new sources of energy as fadt as the old ones crap out.
The whole paradigm is Waste Based, and has been so since its inception. It cannot function any longer, it produces more waste than value now, and the debt of past waste is overwhelming. Grasp this problem and stop making stupid and irrelevant arguments here.
RE
http;//doomsteaddiner.org
Hot debate. What do you think?
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19th November 2012 at 6:13 am
Nonanonymous says:
PC, animal feed, samples, gag? Those three words do not belong in the same sentence!
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19th November 2012 at 7:25 am
Nonanonymous says:
RE, you’ve erroneously introduced timelines predicting when disaster will strike more times than I can count. Why, in God’s name, would anyone want to read your analysis?
Oh, and your site redirect is not working as of the date and time of this post.
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19th November 2012 at 7:29 am
Kill Bill says:
Obomney care laws were written by lobbyists for the insurance industry….
They arent unionized. Just stickin to the facts here folks.
~~~~~~
NEW YORK — Oil prices leaped Monday as violence intensified in the Israel-Gaza conflict, sparking fresh concern about supplies from the crude-rich Middle East.
The market also found support from prospects that top oil consumer the United States will avoid the so-called “fiscal cliff” of automatic tax increases and spending cuts due in January that risks a return to recession.
New York’s main contract, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery in January, soared $2.36 from Friday to settle at $89.28 a barrel.
~~~
Really? How much oil does either of these countries produce? Also isnt it odd that the last time oil prices hit current gasoline prices oil was around 120-140 a barrel?
Israel produces about 4000 bbl a day. It imports 282k a day.
West Bank, from what I can tell produces none.
So why a 2 a barrel increase for WTI crude?
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19th November 2012 at 7:31 am
Kill Bill says:
Yes I still have a job. Its 25% less than what I would have expected, -TPC
Given the current trend of people attacking other peoples wages, union or not, you need to make 25% less than you do now so the economy rebounds.
Now, in a consumption based economy, post industrial capitalism, where do people think that going after others wages is a good thing?
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19th November 2012 at 7:36 am
Anonymous says:
Taking first from AWDs list about Abbot labs I find this:
Abbott executives indicated on a conference call Wednesday that market conditions had become more challenging in some regions–including emerging markets–than initially expected.
Costs associated with the new round of layoffs were part of the $406 million in after-tax restructuring and integration costs booked by Abbott in its third-quarter earnings report, released Wednesday. That figure also includes costs from prior restructuring actions.
In January, Abbott said it laid off about 700 workers and planned to eliminate several hundred additional positions over the course of the year.
~~~~~
Huh. So restructuring, likely due to declining sales, [well duh people cant afford to buy more]
Why, wages have been stagnant since 1985. The global financial crash started in 2008 and it continues today.
Anyone really think Abbots restructuring will result in increased sales?
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19th November 2012 at 7:43 am
Kill Bill says:
Why would anyone hire one of those union pukes who willingly chose to bring down Hostess?
~~~
The unions made concessions in 2004 to help bring Hostess out of BK. In 2009 they came out of bankruptcy. In 2012 they have a 737 million in debt. 100 million more than in 2009.
Hostess has been a dead man walking for nearly nine years.
A box of Twinkies [12] runs about 4.29.
If you are struggling to put food on the table are you going to buy this crap or a whole chicken?
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19th November 2012 at 7:48 am
Kill Bill says:
Peak cost of living.
IE the point at which wages do not keep up with the cost of living.
Result? Layoffs as sales decline.
Result? Less consumption, less sales., layoffs.
Rinse and repeat.
Toe, meet Bullet.
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19th November 2012 at 7:57 am
Kill Bill says:
As for another on AWDs list, not even an American company, SAS [scandinavian airlinesIt
SAS said the implementation of the cost-cutting program has become even more crucial this year, “due to increased economic uncertainty, increased pressure on yields in the airline industry and continued high fuel prices.”
~~~
Gee, looky there, high fuel prices and the global recession. Who would have thunk?
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19th November 2012 at 8:03 am
John A says:
@Kill Bill
“Obomney care laws were written by lobbyists for the insurance industry….
They arent unionized. Just stickin to the facts here folks.”
Yes, I agree as that thought occured to me the other night also. However, this article is not just about healthcare: It’s about many companies and company issues. I read and re-read the list of companies who started layoffs right about the election. It makes me sick and angry. Thanks for your many quality comments, KB. This is not a personal attack, big fella.
Lastly, “Nonanonymous” has this figured out with a sentence/comment under “LOOTERS ARE IN CONTROL” :
“A fundamental philosophical difference indeed, rather it’s the 1% waging war on the 99%, and this shit just about to get real, when the FSA meets austerity. The gommit can’t tax their way out of this one, only continue to loot as long as possible.”
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19th November 2012 at 8:07 am
Kill Bill says:
However, this article is not just about healthcare: It’s about many companies and company issues. I read and re-read the list of companies who started layoffs right about the election. It makes me sick and angry. Thanks for your many quality comments, KB. This is not a personal attack, big fella. -John A
I didnt take it as a personal affront. =) and I do understand its not just about Healthcare.
Many of these layoffs are not because of the sitting president but began with the global recession starting in 2008 or a few years before. I didnt look thru all of the companies listed but to infer that Obama, or Bush, or Clinton, Or GWB was the cause of these layoffs is rather…well, misleading and only works, IMO, to keep the public divided and playing the “Assiphants” game. These layoffs would have occured even if Romney were elected.
GWB said infamously when the financil implosion began, “`At first, I thought we could deal with the problem one issue at a time, The house of cards was much bigger and started to stretch beyond Wall Street. When one card started to go, we worried about the whole deck going down.”
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19th November 2012 at 9:18 am
ThePessimisticChemist says:
@Nonanonymous “PC, animal feed, samples, gag? Those three words do not belong in the same sentence!”
No no, the plant smells pretty good, and the lab in particular smells very nice. The gag is because I posted at 03:45 local time. These two days I’m putting in 16 hour days (not unheard of), but the sucky part is that 6 of those are from 9:30pm-3:30am.
So, gag. I’m f*ckin tired lol
@KB – 50% of my pay would break me. At that point my best point would be to emmigrate to another country, or go in with a few family members and buy a large enough farm to sustain all of our food needs.
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19th November 2012 at 9:22 am
KaD says:
Thanks LLPOH. I’m no stranger to hard-or hungry. I grew up with an abusive alcoholic father; the kids at school hated me and broke my face. I’m also no stranger to fencing, archery, tae kwon do, silver, a .22, .38, .40, or 12 gauge.
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19th November 2012 at 10:00 am
Dorkus Maximus says:
Stigmation – Nobody should listen to you until:
1. You start your own business – WITH EMPLOYEES
2. You and your family have to live off of the “profits” of that business (I’m guessing you want to buy food, housing, medical care, etc.) for one year.
This would hopefully resolve some of your ignorance. You write like the typical fool who’s never had to meet a payroll AND pay his own bills. You would realize that some months a business owner make ZERO profits. Some months he loses money. Some months he goes to the bank and begs for a loan to meed payroll. Would you work 90 hours a week for ZERO money all in the name of “putting people first”? Of course you wouldn’t. You expect them you ahead of their own family.
People like you are the reason this county is dying. And you’ll never be able to see it. Can’t reason with somebody this stupid.
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19th November 2012 at 10:11 am
AWD says:
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19th November 2012 at 2:12 pm
KaD says:
I think we’re comparing apples to pizza when we compare big global corporations to start-up, small and midsize businesses. Yes, small businesses are overregulated and overtaxed, to death in many cases. But companies like GE and Walmart oftentimes don’t pay any taxes, they get money back. It’s like comparing the middle class to Romney.
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19th November 2012 at 2:14 pm
Darwin says:
I work for a large biopharma and while just a few short years ago, my skills were in very high demand and I was getting great raises/headhunter calls constantly, right now, I feel like there’s a slow death at the company and while I don’t “anticipate” a layoff anytime soon, if it were to occur, let’s just say I wouldn’t be entirely shocked. I’ve chosen not to chase the money and move around the company with external offers figuring the generation before me was able to get 30 years in, but I don’t think that’s reality any more. Part of my job now involves, well, headcount reductions, so what happens when I’m done with that wave? It’s find a new role or find the door.
After the industry “backed” Obamacare with the promise of getting off with only 80 Billion in savings from industry to take costs out of the health care system (basically, accepting a lower profit margin as an industry in exchange for government not enacting price controls), now they want more. It’s so easy to just keep hitting pharmas, biotech, insurers, device makers and doctors. They’re all ‘rich’ to the Obamites, so who cares? If getting free/practically free health care means a few industries have to die and thousands of layoffs to ensue, you can guess what the constituency will favor…
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19th November 2012 at 3:34 pm
AWD says:
This guy don’t have a job anymore:
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19th November 2012 at 3:37 pm
Kill Bill says:
All this doom and gloom.
I have something to cheer you up.
The study analyzed 190,612 patients treated at trauma centers between 1995 and 2009 following traumatic injuries such as fractures, internal injuries and open wounds. Those with alcohol in their system had a lower mortality rate across the range of injuries, with burns being the only exception.
“At the higher levels of blood alcohol concentration, there was a reduction of almost 50 percent in hospital mortality rates,” explained Lee Friedman, an assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “This protective benefit persists even after taking into account injury severity and other factors known to be strongly associated with mortality following an injury.”
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19th November 2012 at 4:34 pm
Kill Bill says:
For all you old pukes and disasteroids I have this
http://www.lmnopc.com/disasteroids3d/
Its a free Asteroids game done in 3d
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19th November 2012 at 4:36 pm
Kill Bill says:
O. Almost forgetted, dont drink and smoke
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19th November 2012 at 4:37 pm
ThePessimisticChemist says:
I wonder if it makes them more resistant to infection or something.
I’ll be sure to test that the next time I get a bacterial infection.
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19th November 2012 at 4:46 pm
Llpoh says:
Looks like the Stig has found a like minded dimwit in backwardsevolution.
Backwards – believe me, businesses do not need you urging them on to leave. They are making that decision all by themselves without your advice. Are you really that stupid.? Wait, don’t answer that, it was rhetorical.
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19th November 2012 at 4:47 pm
Kill Bill says:
Dunno TPC
Here is where I found the article
http://www.thebacchus.org/2012/11/intoxicated-patients-more-likely-to-survive-traumatic-injuries-study-finds/
Seems they want to duplicate the cause of why alcoholics are more likely to survive.
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19th November 2012 at 4:52 pm
Kill Bill says:
Thanks LLPOH. I’m no stranger to hard-or hungry. I grew up with an abusive alcoholic father; the kids at school hated me and broke my face -KaD
Thats terrible, your personality is wonderful. And I mean that.
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19th November 2012 at 4:59 pm
AWD says:
God loves and protects drunks and idiots…
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19th November 2012 at 5:26 pm
ThePessimisticChemist says:
@KB – Its an interesting find, I hope they pursue it. I wish I had the time to dig through studies like that and analyze their data.
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19th November 2012 at 6:32 pm
IndenturedServant says:
KB said:
“The unions made concessions in 2004 to help bring Hostess out of BK. In 2009 they came out of bankruptcy. In 2012 they have a 737 million in debt. 100 million more than in 2009.”
“Hostess has been a dead man walking for nearly nine years.”
Exactly. And I place majority blame on ownership and management for their demise but these union idiots were AWARE of the situation for y e a r s but they stuck to their guns, drew their line in the sand and will now go on the dole or bump some lower ranking union “brother” from their position.
I have no sympathy for ownership and management either. I read today that as part of the bankruptcy deal, owners want to pay out $1.75 million dollars in bonuses to 19 executives! Fuck that! Every penny goes to debt! Period! $1.75 million is certainly not enough to continue operations but giving it to the ass-clowns that *executived* the place to fucking death is unacceptable. Do any executives make sound decisions anymore?
I replaced a few words below but I think Clark W. Griswold summed up my Christmas wish list when he said in part:
“Hey! If any of you are looking for any last-minute gift ideas for me, I have one. I’d like Wall Street executives, The President and both Houses of Congress, right here tonight. I want them brought from their happy holiday slumber over there in New York and Washington DC with all the other rich people and I want them brought right here, with big ribbons on their heads, and I want to look them straight in the eye and I want to tell them what a bunch of cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, dickless, hopeless, heartless, fat-ass, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sacks of monkey shit they are! Hallelujah! Holy shit! Where’s the Tylenol?”
I_S
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19th November 2012 at 7:57 pm
llpoh says:
The fact is, not all businesses can be saved. Some are indeed doomed, and nothing can be done about it – Hostess need not have died, at least not yet.
I know some businesses that are going broke because imported products can be brought in for less than what the local manufacturing company pays just for components and materials. In other words, even if its employees worked for free, the company would still go broke. How is it possible? Well, the sub-components that need to be sourced locally have local labor in them, while the imports have foreign labor in the sub-components. And for all intents and purposes, foreign labor is free when compared to US laor costs.
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19th November 2012 at 8:08 pm
AWD says:
Hostess Mediation Fails, Liquidation To Proceed; Furious Laid Off Workers Now Turn On Labor Union
Last week, when discussing the next steps for the company, and specifically the hope that mediation may resolve the epic animosity between management and workers, we stated that “What makes a mediation improbable is that the antagonism between the feuding sides has certainly hit a level of no return: “Several unions also objected to the company’s plans, saying they made “a mockery” of laws protecting collective bargaining agreements in bankruptcy. The Teamsters, which represents 7,900 Hostess workers, said the company’s plan would improperly cut the ability of remaining workers to use sick days and vacation.”
Sure enough, moments ago we learned that mediation has now failed and the liquidation may proceed. And since in America nobody understands that proper sequence of events involved in a bankruptcy liquidation, where the valuable parts always end up being acquired by someone, in this case the Twinkie brand and recipe, let the pointless Ebay bidding wars over twinkies continue. As for what really happens next, if indeed Bimbo is prohibited from acquiring the assets in the Stalking Horse auction due to anti-trust limitations, then the buyer will almost certainly be a “financial”, i.e., another PE firm, whose coming means the end of any hopes and dreams of preserving union status at fresh start Hostess, or whatever the new firm will be named.
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19th November 2012 at 8:52 pm
llpoh says:
Ruters says re Hostess
“The company has blamed union wages and pension costs for contributing to its unprofitably. Hostess Chief Executive Gregory Rayburn has also said the company’s labor contracts have deterred would-be bidders for the company and its assets.
Aside from its unionized workforce, analysts, bankers and restructuring experts have said that a fleet of inefficient and out-of-date factories has also eaten up costs. They have said the brand names were likely to be more valuable once they were separated from the factories and sold to non-union competitors.”
There is a lot more to the costs of doing business when a union is involved besides hourly rate. The fuckers put up road-blocks everywhere. Note the part in AWD’s post above about “cut the ability of remaining workers to use sick days and vacation”. Unions are more interested in that shit than in doing the job. Let nothing stand in the way of vacation or time off!
Note that non-union competitors will be the ones to survive, and that they want nothing to do with a unionized business. Imagine that.
I go back to my previous statement – no one in their right mind will ever hire one of those Hostess assholes again. They let a viable business go under because they they wanted to protect their days off. Fucking lunacy.
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19th November 2012 at 9:07 pm
Christopher Harrison says:
It doesn’t matter much at all whether or not the “global economy” moves to Asia or not, because the entire sucker as we currently know it is going down. For the past 500 years we’ve been plowing ahead with an economic model that should have died out back in the 1400s — except it was saved by the “discovery” of the new world by Europeans (and all of the resources waiting to be plundered there) followed by the fossil fuel age in which we burned up hundreds of millions of years worth of stored sunlight in a couple of centuries. I know that such thoughts are heresy to many of the others on this site, but the simple fact is that we cannot continue the global industrial economy in the absence of abundant, cheap, readily available liquid fuels. The longer we TRY to keep it going, the harder the fall will be in the end.
Think about it this way — renewable natural resources (sustainably harvested timber, well-stewarded agricultural land, wild pollinators, etc.) are our INCOME STREAM. Non-renewable resources (fossil fuels, metal ores, etc.) are our CAPITAL. One of the hallmarks of the industrial age is that it has enabled us to deplete our capital at breakneck pace. Now, like a lottery winner who has squandered their winnings, we feel like it’s somehow our birthright to hit the lottery a second time. That just ain’t gonna happen, no matter how hard we may wish.
Some of the trends we face in the future are as follows:
- More and more people will move back into the agricultural sector for work.
- Retirement will become an antiquated notion.
- People will fall back to non-monetary transactions to meet more and more of their needs.
- Centralized institutions (big govt., big corps, etc.) will do anything to sustain themselves, but will eventually collapse under their own weight.
- Valued skills will be about growing food and building things of real value, not figuring out ways to increase financial leverage or navigating bureaucracies.
- We’ll rediscover just how reliant we really are on each other and learn to actually work together again. Narcissists and sociopaths will be largely shunned in most communities.
What’s the way through this? It’s not about building more factories. It’s not about doubling down on empire. It’s not about goosing the stock market. It’s about transforming the way we view and interact with the world around us through the application of permaculture. At least that’s where I’m putting my money and efforts.
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19th November 2012 at 12:52 pm
AWD says:
Twinkies have bitten the dust. Score another victory for the unions.
Everyone loses:
HOSTESS JUDGE APPROVES MOTION TO WIND DOWN COMPANY
HOSTESS WINS APPROVAL TO CLOSE AND BEGIN SELLING ASSETS
Hot debate. What do you think?
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19th November 2012 at 4:07 pm
ecliptix543 says:
llpoh – Don’t you have a gulch somewhere to go to? Could’ve swore I heard that somewhere…
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19th November 2012 at 4:41 pm
llpoh says:
E – is that an insult? Kinda hard to tell. You need to be more clear. That way I could respond appropriately.
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19th November 2012 at 5:17 pm
Colma Rising says:
Wonder, Hostess, Dolly Madison, Merita, Nature’s Pride, Home Pride and Drake’s
Those are several brands under the “Hostess” (Interstate Bakeries who purchased Hostess and took the name) umbrella.
Let’s think about that for a moment, and cut the bullshit. It would seem that this was a conglomerate that sought to purchase smaller business and somehow combine the brands into a distribution network which could, in theory, more efficiently distribute more of these smaller named goodies and take advantage of economies of scale.
Now let’s look at some info and infer some generalities concerning the business model. This link is simply a report offered in the past for a fee to potential investors:
http://www.just-food.com/market-research/hostess-brands-inc-strategic-swot-analysis-review_id152749.aspx
Some key items in the table of contents are very telling:
Opportunity – Product Innovations
Opportunity – Growing Preference for Private Labels
Opportunity – Growing Demand in the Snacks and Savory Market
Threat – Highly Competitive Market
Threat – Changing Consumer Preferences
Threat – Government Regulations
Basically, an attempt at creating a Dominant firm model of oligopoly using the many lean, mean perfectly competitive firms in the world of good old fashioned, responsive small bakeries.
“In some markets there is a single firm that controls a dominant share of the market and a group of smaller firms. The dominant firm sets prices which are simply taken by the smaller firms in determining their profit maximizing levels of production. This type of market is practically a monopoly and an attached perfectly competitive market in which price is set by the dominant firm rather than the market. The demand curve for the dominant firm is determined by subtracting the supply curves of all the small firms from the industry demand curve.[8] After estimating its net demand curve (market demand less the supply curve of the small firms) the dominant firm maximizes profits by following the normal p-max rule of producing where marginal revenue equals marginal costs. The small firms maximize profits by acting as PC firms–equating price to marginal costs.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligopoly#Dominant_firm_model
Layman’s terms? A big business bought a bunch of little ones, fixed prices, attempted to fix costs with contracts, incurred debt repeatedly and tried to bilk the market just a wee bit longer to soak a little out of the only contracts they thought they could renege on. Workers called bullshit, debtors will call bullshit and everyone will move on to bigger and better things…. at least if you define b&b as reality.
The brands that can perform better as price takers from their share of the market will survive, others wont. Fatasses will be fine as Twinkies will survive as the rights to them are sold. Po folk can still eat bologna and velveeta on wunduh bread as the rights to them are sold.
Cry me a fucking river, Hostess. You did it to yourself. Nothing more to it.
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19th November 2012 at 5:57 pm
Colma Rising says:
Regarding “Do you still have a job”?
Yes, and I will have no issue being employed so long as I am healthy.
LOL
Seen the other labor that has to be competed with? Holy shit.
Fucking crybabies and lazy retards.
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19th November 2012 at 6:03 pm
Novista says:
stigmation
IIRC, Hostess employes were above their pay grade wrt the rest of the industry. Admittedly, the management gave them something of a fuck you with teh 3X rise in salaries — but, just maybe, after years of doing the hard yakka, they thought they had it coming? Just guessing …
The stereotype of the noble unionist against the eevil boss don’t quite cut it, any more.
I’ve been fucked by unions and fucked by managements — a pox on both their houses.
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19th November 2012 at 8:11 am
randy says:
LlPoo makes the same idiotic argument over and over again…Yet he doesn’t have the intellect to pull it off…
How many times do you have to spout that economic activity is all about profit?
How many times can you blame Obamacare, when you and me, and everyone else here knows that these announced layoff, and Hostess’ closure would’ve still happened regardless of who won the election…..Romney, nor Ron Paul would’ve saved the twinky…?
How many times do you have to regurgitate that you are a hard line redneck believing in the law of the jungle?
You’re the avatar of the stupidity of Americans…You know everthing, yet consider nothing…No thinking, just blind faith (in what others decide)…NO FREAKIN COMMON SENSE, OR CRITICAL THINKING…
If I worked for a blowhard like you, after I questioned why I even considered giving you an opportunity to profit from MY work, and before I made an Oscar worthy performance of spitting on your shoes and walking out of your den of pissing and moaning, I would do everthing I could to turn your customers away from you….Even if it meant telling then that you abuse chickens….sexually…
So go ahead and blame union workers…They’re the ones making stupid greedy decisions….Not management trying to talk the trustee into a couple more millions in bonuses for them…HIGHlarious…
Finally, your assinine insults with your unchanging and unlightened view of the world, America, and human beings insults my ass…
I need to wipe…
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19th November 2012 at 10:44 pm
randy says:
PS…I still have a job…
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19th November 2012 at 10:46 pm
AKAnon says:
Oh Randy, how cute. He thinks being village idiot is a real job. Now please buckle your helmet before you go out to play.
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19th November 2012 at 12:37 am
randy says:
Nice comeback…How original…
I can tell you put a lot of thought into that….Must be a college graduate…
Your mom must be proud, you pickin on developemenally challenged children…
Dad would have done a better job I bet, if he could have spent more time at home…
But he had to pay for the FSA…
I get a special bus, helmets, free drugs, cable, internet, a visitor to prepare my meals and clean my home..AND free money….they even send someone to take me for drives to the coffee shop…
And, all I have to do is yell, wave my arms around, and occasionally, slap a government supplied worker….Not very productive work, but one takes what one can get…
I bet you guys dont even get the irony in the last line…
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19th November 2012 at 1:04 am
Colma Rising says:
Randy said:
“I get a special bus, helmets, free drugs, cable, internet, a visitor to prepare my meals and clean my home..AND free money….they even send someone to take me for drives to the coffee shop…”
I’m pretty sure he’s in the blue shirt…. I can’t tell with Canadian Baby Boomers, they all look and sound the same.
Just hope that Randy doesn’t ask you to pull his finger.
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19th November 2012 at 1:14 am
Stucky says:
“Twinkies have bitten the dust. Score another victory for the unions. Everyone loses:” —AWD
AWD, how can you, of all people, comlain about Twinkies going under? You are wrong. Everybody WINS when that shit for “food” is off the market.
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19th November 2012 at 1:59 am
Zarathustra says:
As a kid, I preferred Ding Dongs to Twinkies in my lunch pail, but seriously, does anyone still buy Wonder Bread? I thought that shit was shit back in the 60′s.
Blame unions if you want, but I see it as creative destruction. There is nothing that Interstate Bakeries makes that is even remotely healthy.
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19th November 2012 at 2:12 am
Zarathustra says:
Question (for boomers only). How do you get a kid to puke during lunch?
Answer. Place him across the table from another kid chewing an egg salad sandwich on wonder bread with his mouth open.
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19th November 2012 at 2:14 am
randy says:
As I have said all along….bad management…
union workers are cogs, they dont do antyhing extra, just what their told…no matter how stupid it is…
as they say…garbage in…garbage out…
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19th November 2012 at 2:15 am
AKAnon says:
Too bad (for them, and for their employer) they were told to strike by the union bosses. Yep, they did what they were told-all the way to the unemployment line. Garbage in, garbage out.
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19th November 2012 at 2:35 am
AKAnon says:
I wonder if Randy will appreciate the irony in the last line.
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19th November 2012 at 2:36 am
Llpoh says:
Randy the imbecile chimes in, again. Talks about Romney, etc. i dont think I mentioned Romney save to point outwhy businesses wanted him to win.
By the way, Randy old buddy, last guy to spit on me is still bleeding. Fucked him up bad – doubt he will spit on anyone again. Some rich guy’s son he was. Should have kept his spittle in his mouth.
. You know nothing about me – I shit bigger than you. Spit on me? What a joke – you would piss your pants in fear at the thought. Socialist jackoffs like you are pussies. Thing about me is this – I do not give a shit what happens to me if someone fucks with me. I decided when I was thirteen never to take another backward step. And I haven’t. A lot of dicks like you have tried to make it happen. Too bad for them.
What sewer do you live in, anyway? The stench of shit follows you around.
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19th November 2012 at 4:22 am