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.
Why of course they can queer it, because the ruler is made of silly putty.
Carter was clumsy, though. He didn’t know the art of cooling out the mark every time.
Reminds me of how his mother took him to live in a third world environment and left the step dad when he started hanging around with successful businessmen. She didn’t want that for her son, probably wanted him to learn empathy. This is what he now wants for us. Wants us to feel what it is like. Wonder how gen ipad kids are going to like it when their goodies are gone, but they are noble of spirit?
though I’m sure there out there, I don’t have links. But I do have first hand experience with regard to layoffs from these companies:
NORTHROP GRUMMAN- 2nd largest defense contractor
LOCKHEED MARTIN- Largest Defense contractor
L-3 COMMUNICATIONS - Huge company, not sure how big but they are international
I gave a damn, just not for Romney. I don't buy the argument "we need to get the socialist out of office by electing a socialist." That just doesn't make sense.
But again maybe YOU don’t want to be part of that because they might not opt for the Caviar Spoiler.
Ah, so because I reject the bucket of poison marked 'R' then it's because it's not caviar? There's one fatal flaw in your argument: Obama and Romney both are the poison that is socialist. Indeed Romney could very well have been worse: do you really expect congress to block "our guy"?
The GOP thought they could get the secondary thing, winning, by making it primary (that attribute called "electability"). In doing so, they neglected the first thing ("standing for something"), in fact the only thing, having a candidate that was truly different than the other guy.
There's a freeper with personal experience with Romney, fieldmarshaldj, ask him if he could pull the lever for Romney, and why.
Decent article today in USA Today that Bernanke’s actions in Sept wrecked Romney’s chances. Good reminder.
Who needs to work? I’ve got me my foo stams, my Obamaphone, and Obama is so kewl!
You are setting up a gaggle of strawmen that I never argued for. I only pointed out that it’s likely that if people are truly educated in generalities, they will go for the Republican because that’s the only reasonable AND viable party left. Now maybe you feel that it’s a bad thing, therefore you don’t want to be part of it. But don’t set up a lot of strawmen that I never argued in order to justify wanting to keep the Democrat voters in the dark.
It ain't just the big boys laying off.
Yep: State Budget Solutions' third annual State Debt Report shows total state debt over $4 trillion.
Market-valued unfunded public pension liabilities make up more than half of all state debt, accounting for $2.8 trillion of the total. These market-valued pension liabilities provide a realistic view of the money owed to public pension systems as a result of years of skipped payments, borrowed funds, and inaccurate discount rate assumptions.Added to this: Storms on the Horizon - Richard W. Fisher, President and CEO Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, May 28, 2008
For the existing unfunded liabilities (Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security) to be covered in the end, someone must pay $99.2 trillion more or receive $99.2 trillion less than they have been currently promised. This is a cold, hard fact.But, who's left to pay the bills: 165 Million Americans Are Dependents of the State : Is Tyranny Next?
New research from Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee Jeff Sessions (R-AL) reveals that this reality may already be here, with more than 107 million Americans on some form of means-tested government welfare.Add to that 46 million seniors collecting Medicare (subtracting out about 10 million on Supplemental Security Income, Medicaid, and other senior-eligible programs already included in Sessions’ means-tested chart) and 22 million government employees at the federal, state, and local level — and suddenly, over 165 million people, a clear majority of the 308 million Americans counted by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2010, are at least partially dependents of the state.
The 22 Hispanics laid off were undoubtedly Obama voters. How did that work out for you guys?
Isn’t it pretty obvious by now, that America must crash and burn before people will, even then, possibly come to their senses?
I was watching Judge Judy on Monday evening, and the ‘plaintiff’ was a convicted drug dealer from Ohio living in subsidized housing for $2/month. HIS RENT WAS $2! He had been receiving unemployment checks for over a year. His multiple kids were on Medicaid. He admitted not marrying his baby mama b/c then he would receive less gov’t money.
He was suing baby mama for ‘stealing’ $4,000 worth of his electronics. A 3D TV, XBox, all kinds of stuff.
Judge Judy went ballistic and asked him WHY and how he had this type of money to spend on toys when his kids were on Medicaid. As a taxpayer, she was outraged. His answer was ‘why would I not?’
She dismissed his case. The whole case was the epitome of the classic Obama voter.
If you thought the Bain Capital treatment they gave Mitt during the campaign was disgusting, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
The executives making these layoffs are going to be drawn and quartered in public for Crimes Against Humanity. You watch.
> why do you think Gary Johnson, a virtual unknown, got ~1% of the presidential vote?
Because there are ignorant boneheads voting that don’t understand how much damage the rats can do.
Between these idiots and the “principled conservative” that protested by not voting because they could not get skittles with their pony, we now have to deal with a much bigger mess.
Cowards and traitors.
Obamacare will do it to a lot of businesses.
The GOP was too restrained to actually do something effective about Obamacare, a program that still fails honest plebiscites. Now it has to deal with the consequences of that chickenness.
I don’t know what was stupider, his going before Judge Judy or her refusing to sustain the case just because he was a louse (if the evidence truly supported it, which it might not have). Justice is supposed to be impartial, to the louse and to the virtuous alike.
Don’t forget the debt and inflation. When it takes loads of dollars worth burning to pay benefits, what’s the point of them? Welfare benefits aren’t going to be of much use come soon enough.
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