Posted on 11/08/2012 9:48:06 AM PST by Red Steel
Obamanomics grinds grimly onward, as CNBC brings word that on the day after the election, “Boeing announced a major restructuring of its defense division on Wednesday that will cut 30 percent of management jobs from 2010 levels, close facilities in California, and consolidate several business units to cut costs.” It was sweet of them to keep that under wraps until after the election, wasn’t it?
And that’s not even the dreaded “sequestration” layoffs, which Obama broke the law to convince defense contractors to keep under wraps until after the election. Those are yet to come. The upside to living in a banana Republic with Party-dominated media is that life is full of “unexpected” surprises, to use the word that has come to dominate economic news in the Obama era.
Another round of layoffs announced on Wednesday came from Hawker Beechcraft, which announced it would close facilities in Arkansas, Arizona, and Texas, resulting in 400 jobs lost, while another 170 jobs would be cut from corporate offices in Kansas and Arkansas.
Also on the day after the election, the CEO of the Papa John’s pizza restaurant chain, John Schnatter, told a small community college audience in Florida that ObamaCare would likely result in cuts to employee hours by franchise owners seeking to escape the law’s mandates by eliminating full-time positions, a move he described as “common sense” and “lose-lose.”
Schnatter also predicted ObamaCare would add between $5 million and $8 million to his business costs (which is fine, because he’s an evil rich guy who supported Mitt Romney for president, and we all know that truly patriotic job creators happily pay for increased business costs out of their own pockets) and that it would add 10 to 14 cents to the cost of his pizzas, which is a bummer, but under Obamanomics theory is totally unrelated to the process of extracting that “fair share” from idle plutocrats. Then he headed off to help out with a telethon for Hurricane Sandy victims and write the Red Cross a million-dollar check, but we all know that private charity is irrelevant, as only Big Government can save us from big storms.
The Huffington Post relays the thoughts of Fox Business Network corresponded Charlie Gasparino, who says Wall Street executives are “in mourning” after Obama’s re-election, because “they know that Wall Street is going to lay off a lot more people.” About 10,000 of them by the end of the year, in fact, if the New York state comptroller’s estimate is accurate. It’s not a big deal though, because those people are evil. Everyone knows that investment capital and consumer loans should be redistributed by selfless government agencies, not greedy bankers.
According to Gasparino, things could look up if “Republicans and Democrats happen to reach a long-term budget deal similar to Simpson-Bowles,” which could mean “the market is going to go through the roof” to “Dow 20,000, easy.” But he knows perfectly well that’s not going to happen. We’ll more likely get the usual: big tax increases right now, combined with vague promises of largely symbolic spending cuts at some indeterminate point in the future.
Once the sequestration cuts and financial industry devastation are done, the real action to watch in the job market next year will be the transition of full-time workers to part-time. That’s a very attractive option for escaping from ObamaCare and reducing payroll costs, without producing headline-grabbing mass layoffs (executives don’t like giving the impression their companies are terminally ill) or depriving operations of needed labor altogether. As a New York Times article noted in October, it’s increasingly easy for service companies (which accounted for the bulk of job creation in the last pre-election employment report) to do, using “sophisticated software that tracks the flow of customers, allowing managers to assign just enough employees to handle the anticipated demand.” It’s a trend that’s been developing for a long time, but there are now powerful incentives accelerating it.
The result “has been a bane to many workers, pushing many into poverty and forcing some onto food stamps and Medicaid. And with work schedules that change week to week, workers can find it hard to arrange child care, attend college or hold a second job.” Fortunately, there are lots of food stamps to give away here in the New Normal, and it’s likely that pleas for more extensive government-provided child care to assist America’s part-time workforce would not fall upon deaf ears.
Update: An anonymous business owner in Las Vegas told talk-radio host Kevin Wall he fired 22 of his 114 employees on the day after President Obama’s re-election because “elections have consequences” and “at the end of the day, I need to survive.” He said this was necessary to “make sure I have enough money to cover the payroll taxes and the additional health care I’m gonna have to do.”
“Well unfortunately, and most of my employees are Hispanic — I’m not gonna go into what kind of company I have, but I have mostly Hispanic employees — well unfortunately we know what happened and I can’t wait around anymore, I have to be proactive,” the businessman continued. ”I had to lay off 22 people today to make sure that my business is gonna thrive and I’m gonna be around for years to come. I have to build up that nest egg now for the taxes and regulations that are coming my way. Elections do have consequences, but so do choices. A choice you make every day has consequences and you know what, I’ve always put my employees first, but unfortunately today I have to put me and my family first, and you watch what’s gonna happen. I’m just one guy with 114 employees — well was 114 employees — watch what happens in the next six months. The Dow alone lost 314 points today. There’s a tsunami coming and if you didn’t think this election had consequences, just wait.”
The entire conversation can be heard by clicking this link.
Updated: FreedomWorks has an extensive list of even more post-election layoffs resulting directly from Obama policies. Among the bigger names: Welch-Allyn, Dana Holding Corporation, Stryker, Boston Scientific, and Medtronic. The confirmed post-election jobs death toll from this list stands at 5,263 jobs, but much more are on the way, including a 5 percent cut in the huge Stryker workforce, a probably comparable reduction of Dana’s even larger staff, and talk of jobs being sent to China. The transition to part-time labor I mentioned above is also discussed.
Spare me. Obama loves this. He can rail against the eeevil capitalists who are screwing "working families and their children" just to protect their excessive wealth, and then he can extend new benefits to laid off workers and fold the cost into the new "revenue enhancements" spineless Boehner has submitted to. Everything is going according to obama's plan so far.
Really? Which one has laid a hand on him so far?
Liberals have no idea how a business works. I know some people in healthcare who were all for obamacare so it would lower healthcare costs. They’re to stupid to understand that if the cost truly goes down, so does their salaries. All healthcare providers will end up working for the government for less pay. And they’ll do it gladly ‘cause there ain’t gonna’ be anywhere else they can work.
Operating at this location since 1947. One of the town's largest employers.
“Had Romney won, I was going to go ahead and order next year’s appointment keeper just out of enthusiasm. So an appointment keeper maker didn’t get my business this year.”
As a Ramseyite, I was living like no one else to get my house paid off. I am very close and so I started working on a list of improvements and other spending. I was going to be spending about $48K on various large projects and products/services over the next couple of years. I am revisiting it now and will be minimizing it to the max. I’m betting I could drop that down to $5,700 max.
Some may look at that as revenge, when the reality is that I have to plan for inflation degrading the value of my money, I have to plan on tax increases and I have to plan for other generally bad economic news. I can’t afford to not try to protect myself as much as is possible!
the taxes on the "rich" are going to be small business owners and doctors....maybe two teachers even though we all know how poorly the teachers,cops, firemen get paid..HA!
no....the rich do not pay taxes like the workers do...never have, never will....
bammy just wants the whole country to be more dependent...
our work ethic....that work is important, and its so important that you can actually better your circumstances by doing it....is going, going, going, as more and more people realize that its not worth it....
you can be poor working with all the taxes or you can stay home and have a nice quiet life watching football on tv and drinking beer...
which means they will never understand it....
everytime a govt cries that they have to cut their budgets, all they are doing is reducing ever so slightly the increase in the budget...
how many times have we read that a school district "lays off " teachers in June only to hire them all back by August....many times.....I think they do it so the teachers can collect unemployment too....
starve the beast.....
personally, I've never had the opportunity to vote for who I really liked....I never will....but, I've also would never vote to destroy my kids, my grandkids, my nieces and nephews chances in this world, which is what RATISM does....
I was talking about people who vote main party because to do otherwise would be different, not about people indulging in contrarian tendencies.
Your statement about principle is simply wrong; there are people that really do have lines they are not willing to cross -- indeed, I respect very much the people that thought "I can't vote for Romney" and voted 3rd party, to say that they wasted their vote or cost the GOP the election is to assert that their vote is not theirs but really the GOP's.
personally, I've never had the opportunity to vote for who I really liked....I never will....but, I've also would never vote to destroy my kids, my grandkids, my nieces and nephews chances in this world, which is what RATISM does....
And who we were offered given by the GOP was a rat in everything but the letter after his name: he's the creme of the Republican's liberal crop. -- So if you voted for Romney, then you voted to destroy your kids, grand-kids, &c.
When was the last time the Republicans tried to end handouts? (The most I recall is "reform.")
Do not forget that the bailouts were started by the Republicans: TARP and the airlines before that.
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