Free Republic

Bombardier handed out pink slips Friday to aerospace employees in Montreal as part of its efforts announced in February to trim 7,000 workers over two years. The Montreal-based company declined to say how many workers were being affected by the latest layoff notices, how many cuts have already been made, or what aircraft programs are being affected. Mark Masluch, spokesman for Bombardier business jets, said the layoffs are a continuation of the “workforce optimization” plan being implemented across the company. The union representing machinists said the uncertainty about efforts to save jobs is creating frustration for workers. It warned last...

Sears, which booked a 2Q loss, says a variety of companies are interested in the floundering retailer’s familiar appliance, tool and auto brands. More Sears Holdings (NASDAQ:SHLD), which booked another loss in the second quarter, has received interest from a variety of companies eyeing the floundering retailer’s familiar appliance, tool and auto brands. The Illinois-based company has grappled with challenges at Sears and Kmart, two chains that struggling to turn things around in a tough environment for retailers. Target (NYSE:TGT), Kohl’s (NYSE:KSS) and others have recently reported weaker sales as shoppers spend more online. Sears is facing some broader issues....

I was just talking to my neighbor who has a son that works in Everett. He says the last 747 is expected to come off the line in late September, this year! In my mind, this is just about the last thing I would recommend. Take a hiatus if you need one. But don't spend all your gumption on the 787. Stick to planes that WORK! Like the 737... Thoughts?

President Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency is going after Harley-Davidson for allegedly selling motorcycles that emit more air pollution than the almighty federal government allows, and is punishing them by making them pay for people’s stoves. The federal tree-hugging watchdog complained that the motorcycle company “manufactured and sold approximately 340,000 illegal devices, known as ‘super tuners,’ that, once installed, caused motorcycles to emit higher amounts of certain air pollutants than what the company certified to EPA.” “Since January 2008, Harley-Davidson has manufactured and sold two types of tuners, which when hooked up to Harley-Davidson motorcycles, allow users to modify certain aspects...

Coal and steel in Europe - coal and lead in America: Citizens are taking a back seat to globalist ambitions by the ruling class “In the next century, nations as we know it will be obsolete; all states will recognize a single, global authority. National sovereignty wasn’t such a great idea after all.”—Strobe Talbot, Bill Clinton’s Deputy Secretary of State, Time, July 20th, 1992. Despite the recent Brexit vote on the British Isles, the European Union still maintains its stranglehold on most of the old continent, and this über-nation has overridden the wishes of the member state’s public to varying...

Struggling retailer American Apparel is eyeing a move out of its downtown Los Angeles manufacturing facility for a lower-wage part of the country, according to two sources familiar with the company. The Los Angeles clothing maker, which emerged from bankruptcy in February, is contemplating a move to a state such as Tennessee, North Carolina or South Carolina, where the minimum wage is $7.25, said one source, who requested anonymity due to pending litigation. That would be a significant savings once California’s minimum wage climbs to $15 an hour in 2020. In a statement, American Apparel said it “does not comment...

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said on Tuesday he was willing to meet with Donald Trump, months after comparing the Republican presidential candidate to Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. "Yes, I would meet with him," Pena Nieto said, referring to Trump in a pre-taped television interview broadcast on Tuesday night. "I have never met him. I can't agree with some of the things he has said, but I will be absolutely respectful and will seek to work with whomever becomes the next president of the United States." (Reporting by Anahi Rama and Alexandra Alper; Eduiting by Nick Macfie)

North American auto OEMs and their tier 2 suppliers have been in a race to move auto production across borders to low-cost countries (LCCs) for the past couple of decades as soaring wages, pension and OPEB obligations made production in the U.S. all but impossible. Supporters of minimum wage hikes could learn from the efforts of the United Auto Workers Union which did a masterful job negotiating off-market wage and benefits packages which ultimately only served to provide their members with permanent job losses. Of course, the groundwork for the shift of auto production to Mexico was laid with the...

It looks like July was another off month for Class 8 truck orders as industry analysts are predicting some of the lowest numbers since 2010, according to preliminary numbers from ACT Research and FTR. FTR is predicting Class 8 truck orders will come in at around 10,400 units while ACT Research is projecting 10,500 units for the month. Both forecasts are well below July 2015 orders and mark one of the weakest months since 2010. Compared to June, orders were down 19%, which FTR attributed to higher than normal order cancellations in the month. “Usually there are a low number...

I wrote about this in a letter late last year, but now here we are more than halfway through the year and it’s only getting worse. So much worse that the Chinese property bubble is now the catalyst that will reset markets – and will likely be one large event that cascades across the globe.- snip - I’m convinced that what finally puts an end to central banker madness and the incessant stream of QE will be the Chinese real estate bubble.- snip - China is going down. The China Beige Book (which is much more accurate) recently showed that,...

Foreign trade took a beating at both major party conventions, with speakers blaming free-trade agreements for all but wiping out U.S. manufacturing and eliminating millions of middle-class jobs. Both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have promised to renegotiate or abandon trade agreements with key U.S. trading partners such as Mexico and Canada. That would be a colossal mistake. The number of manufacturing jobs in the United States has indeed been in a long decline since the late 1970s... American factories and American workers are making a greater volume of stuff than eve... ...America’s 21st century manufacturing sector is dominated by...

https://youtu.be/PsGSe39gucI

Did you hear that U.S. manufacturing just had another big month? That output has risen about 20 percent in the past six years? That industrial capacity is actually expanding?Probably not. At most times, and especially in election season, the talk surrounding U.S. manufacturing is one of relentless decline: a loss of jobs, the shutting down of factories, increased competition from foreign countries, a global war in which the U.S. seems to be on the losing end.And of course, it’s true. At some level, manufacturing has declined dramatically — as a direct employer of American workers. According to the Bureau of...

Having followed China's biggest risk with great interest for the past year, which incidentally is not its $36 trillion in debt, nor its defaults, its zombie companies, its ponzi "wealth products", its currency, its capital outflows, its crony capitalism and corruption, nor its gargantuan capital misallocation, but the threat of a social revolution as a result of a surge in unemployment as entire zombie industries fail, that has always been true biggest risk for Beijing (something the Politburo knows very well), we found it less than surprising when last September a Chinese coal company announced it would fires 100,000. That...

It’s been almost two decades since the DVD arrived, sparking the long, slow decline of video cassette tapes. But the tape era is about to come to a final close. The last maker of VHS-compatible video cassette recorders, Japanese manufacturer Funai Electric, says its going to stop producing the devices at the end of the month due to declining sales. Sony said it would cease production of video tapes in its Betamax format last year, 13 years after it stopped making compatible recorders.

While the nation’s private sector employment grew by a solid 172,000 jobs overall in June, according to ADP, the goods-producing sector lost a staggering 36,000 jobs for the month. The Roseland-based payroll and human resources company said in its monthly National Employment Report that the services sector grew by 208,000 jobs for the month, up from the 173,000 gained in May. But the goods-producing sector followed May’s loss of 5,000 jobs in May with an even bigger loss last month. […] Among industries, manufacturing suffered the most, losing 21,000 jobs in June. Construction also lost 5,000 jobs for the month....

U.S. manufacturing expanded at the fastest pace in more than a year, according to the Institute for Supply Management on Friday. ISM's nationwide gauge rose 1.9 points to 53.2, the strongest since February 2015. Economists had expected a slight rise to 51.5. It was the fourth straight reading over 50, signaling expansion. The new orders and production subindexes showed solid gains. The employment measure rose 1.2 points to 50.4, the first positive reading of 2016. The export orders gauge rose to its best level since late 2014. A weaker dollar in much of 2016, along with a stabilizing energy sector,...

The Ohio river valley was once a foundation of the American economy, and of the Democratic party. For decades, coal- and steel-producing areas in south-east Ohio and south-west Pennsylvania voted Democrat. Union workers, supporting the party of organized labor, counted on steady and well-paid jobs. But the US coal industry has been unable to survive major shifts in the world economy and steel has been subject to mechanization. In recent years, those steady jobs have disappeared. This has turned the region into ripe territory for Donald Trump. In the Pennsylvania Republican primary, the billionaire won a crushing victory, sweeping the...

Working replicas of the Nazis' storm rifle, widely considered to be the world's first assault rifle, are now being produced in the U.S. "It's been a surprise hit with us," said Mac Steil, co-owner of Hill & Mac Gunworks in Georgia, which has taken orders for 2,000 rifles since the product launch in January. "We sold more rifles the first day than we thought we'd sell all year." Hill & Mac Gunworks, a startup in the Atlanta suburb of Alpharetta, is reproducing the STG 44 Sturmgewehr, which was developed for German soldiers in World War II. The German word "sturm"...

With the blessing of the Obama administration, Boeing Co. has negotiated the sale of a fleet of new jets to the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism. The $17.6 billion deal between the aviation giant and the Islamic Republic of Iran was made possible by the lifting of economic sanctions against Tehran in January. It is a reckless piece of business that Congress must address. Under terms of the memorandum of agreement, Boeing reportedly will supply 80 planes—including intercontinental jumbo jets—to state-owned Iran Air. The carrier, according to the U.S. Department of Treasury, has been routinely commandeered by the Islamic...