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I hope you all have a moment for a laugh - and a cry. This article is funny and at the same time very sad as an indicator of the future of business as unions and taxes prepare to run wild. The post is an exerpt - but you must look at the three videos posted at "Reality" in tribute to the lost 18,000 jobs in america... Our perception of the insidious slide from freedom to tyranny powered by a democratic system which ignores constitutional limits can best be described as that of a slowly boiling frog. It is important...

Obama II: In the "now they tell us" file, add a vast array of reports that have come out since the election showing just how weak the economy really is. Looks like the president will need a new scapegoat soon. Here's just a sampling of what we've learned since voters decided to give Obama four more years to "experiment" with the economy.

President Obama promotes the myth that everyone must go to college. That if you don't go, your life will be ruined -- that you will end up waiting tables, or trapped in some other mundane occupation. The truth is, even with a college degree, you may still end up waiting tables, you'll just begin your "career" four or five years later, tens of thousands of dollars in debt. Here is an example of some of the plumb jobs college grads were able to land during the Obama administration. Not just liberal arts majors mind you, but graduates with degrees in...

A pair of foreign-owned solar companies that benefited from a combined $84 million in Energy Department tax credits have announced they will lay off employees. One of the companies, German-owned SolarWorld, was integral in the fight for tariffs against the importation of Chinese photovoltaic solar panels. The other, Chinese company SunTech, blamed those tariffs for its own layoffs. Both companies benefited from the Energy Department’s stimulus-funded Advanced Energy Manufacturing (48C) Tax Credit. The 48C credit is worth up to 30% of the cost of manufacturing qualifying green energy projects. SolarWorld received a credit worth $82 million, while SunTech’s was worth...

Several former workers at a Hostess Brands plant in Rocky Mount said Friday they were relieved after the company filed for bankruptcy, seeking to close its operations. The closings will mean the loss of about 18,500 jobs overall. “They’ve been holding this over our head for a long time and now it’s here,” said Lamont Phillips, an oven operator and the president of the local union. “They had to do it. “I don’t have to deal with that anymore. The things that they were trying to do to us, it wasn’t fair. “They always hold that over our heads, that...

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Employees at Los Angeles International Airport were considering plans on Friday to walk off the job ahead on what is traditionally the busiest traveling day of the year. A coalition of Southland labor and community leaders are calling for the protest of alleged violations by LAX contractor Aviation Safeguards (AVSG) after breaking their contract with the airport earlier this year. Andrew Gross-Gaitan, the director of the Southern California Airports Division of SEIU, told KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO that AVSG over 400 LAX workers without affordable family health care when it failed to comply with the city’s Living...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) - A group of Wal-Mart workers are planning to stage a walkout next week on Black Friday, arguably the biggest holiday shopping day for the world's largest retail store. The walkout builds on an October strike that started at a Wal-Mart in Los Angeles and spread to stores in 12 other cities. More than 100 workers joined in the October actions. One of the workers who plans to join next week's walkout is William Fletcher, who works at a Wal-Mart in Duarte, Calif.

A web site posting daily plant closures, layoffs, and Bank Failures. Good reference site

Exactly two years ago this week, the Obama administration announced it had issued more than 100 waivers en masse to a select group of companies, unions and other health insurance providers seeking relief from the onerous federal health care law. The Obamacare waiver winner's club now totals 2,000. Where are they now? Answer: In the same miserable boat as every other unlucky business struggling with the crushing costs and burdens of the mandate. Among the first and most prominent recipients of the Obamacare waivers for favors were large restaurant chains that provide low-wage, seasonal and part-time workers with low-cost health...

Community College of Allegheny County will trim hours for about 400 of its part-time workers to avoid having to provide them with health insurance coverage, the school's president, Alex Johnson, said Thursday. Mr. Johnson told members of Allegheny County Council that complying with the requirements of the federal Affordable Care Act, informally known as Obamacare, would have cost CCAC $6 million annually for part-timers who have been working at least 30 hours per week. Affected employees include both adjunct faculty and maintenance workers. CCAC has an annual operating budget of about $110 million and is facing reductions in county support...

President and CEO of Greater Lafayette Commerce Joe Seaman said there is a sea of manufacturing opportunities in this region of Indiana. However, with the opportunities there comes what employers call a major 'skills gap.' "The biggest challenge we've had is finding the skilled labor to fill those jobs," Seaman said...... One of the solutions to this problem has been a collaborative effort between the city of Lafayette, Tippecanoe County, WorkOne, dozens of manufacturers and Ivy Tech.

Sen. Harry Reid, in a floor speech Tuesday: Republicans "have yet to produce a single shred of evidence that the regulations they hate so much do the broad economic harms they claim. That's because there is none," said Reid, the Senate majority leader from Nevada.In a Senate speech, Reid said the Bureau of Labor Statistics has concluded "only a tiny fraction of layoffs have anything at all to do with tighter regulation.""Last year, only three-tenths of 1 percent of people who lost their jobs were let go principally because of government regulation or intervention," Reid said. "On the other hand,...

The Federal Reserve is asking 30 big banks to make sure their capital can withstand a deep recession in which the unemployment rate rises to 12%. The Fed, which first required big banks to conduct “stress tests” in 2009, laid out three scenarios lenders have to test against. The goal is to ensure that the firms have enough capital to continue operations during stressful economic times.

SMITHFIELD FOODS - 120(+400)- http://www.washingtonpost.com/../..c_story.html CUMMINS - 1,500 - http://indianapublicmedia.org/../..rkers-40137/ HARTMARX - 567 - http://www.chicagotribune.com/../..104523.story ENERGIZER - 1,500 - http://www.fool.com/investing/../..-jumped.aspx XEROX - 2,500 - http://www.ksdk.com/news/artic../..0-employees- PIERCE MANUFACTURING - 325 - http://www.bizjournals.com/tam../..-pierce.html PANASONIC - 10,000 - http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001../..n-to-health/ TEXAS INSTRUMENTS - 1,700 - http://money.cnn.com/2012/11/1../..nts-layoffs/ NBC UNIVERSAL - 500 - http://www.hollywoodreporter.c../..ersal-389572 BECHTEL POWER PLANT - 277 - http://www.bizjournals.com/sou../..-of-277.html STRYKER CORP. - 1,170 - http://www.examiner.com/articl../..-200-workers APPLEBEES -massive layoffs - http://www.examiner.com/articl../..nd-obamacare

Full time work is about to get scarcer. The reason? By hiring part-time workers who put in less than 30 hours per week, employers can avoid a mandate dictated by the new health reform law: either provide expensive health insurance or pay a fine equal to $2,000 per worker. Avoiding the mandate becomes even more attractive for low-wage employees, since they can get highly subsidized insurance in the newly created health insurance exchanges. Clearly the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) is a major factor holding back economic recovery. But it’s not alone. Other public policies enacted during the Obama administration’s first...

Initial jobless claims rose to 439,000, their highest level since May 2011. And no, it isn't due to SuperStorm Sandy. Rather, it was increases in Ohio and Pennsylvania that led the surge. Continuing jobless claims spiked as well, their highest point since March 2012. Meanwhile, the Empire State Manufacturing Survey of General Businesss Conditions improved from -6.16 in October to -5.22 in November. The Philadelphia Fed Business Outlook of General Conditions fell to -10.7 from an October reading of +5.7. Meanwhile, The Dow Jones Industrials continue their post election slide. Oogh!

As recently reported by USA Today, one third of millennials have earned four-year degrees. In my previous blog entry I discussed the financial perils facing these students, who often graduate unable to find a job in their major (unemployed or underemployed) and saddled heavily with debt. However, it looks like the job market for those with Bachelor’s degrees is creeping upward somewhat, according to a new report issued by Michigan State University (pdf). “The new college labor market inches ahead with a 3 percent gain over last year across all degrees,” it states. “Strong demand for marketing, finance, human resources,...

"President Obama; that's why people aren't buying stocks," says Todd Schoenberger, managing principal at The BlackBay Group. 1. Companies aren't going to hire with the increased expenses associated with Obamacare 2. People aren't going to have money for discretionary spending when taxes going up for the 1% 3. Small business owners won't expand 4. Higher tax rates for individuals making over $250,000 a year will result in a general lack of ambition.

10:07 am - November 15, 2012 — Updated: 10:07 am - November 15, 2012 Wake Forest Baptist Hospital to eliminate 950 jobs Associated Press WINSTON-SALEM — Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center says it will lay off 76 employees this week and cut a total of 950 jobs by the end of June. Chief executive Dr. John McConnell said Wednesday most of the cuts are administrative positions, but some faculty members could lose their jobs due to cuts in federal research funding.

By Paul McDougall InformationWeek November 15, 2012 11:37 AM Texas Instruments said it will lay off about 1,700 workers, or about 5% of its total workforce, as part of a restructuring that will see it exit the market for mobile chips that power smartphones and tablets, including Amazon's Kindle Fire. The company said it would instead focus its OMAP (Open Multimedia Applications Platform) business on embedded systems that power business tools and other products that don't evolve as rapidly as mobile gadgets.