Posted on 04/03/2009 2:50:06 PM PDT by Recovering_Democrat
Q What concrete items that you got out of this G20 can you tell the American people back home who are hurting, the family struggling, seeing their retirement go down, or worrying about losing their job -- what happened here today that helps that family back home in the heartland?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, as I said before, we've got a global economy, and if we're taking actions in isolation in the United States, but those actions are contradicted overseas, then we're only going to be halfway effective -- maybe not even half.
You've seen, for example, a drastic decline in U.S. exports over the last several months. You look at a company like Caterpillar, in my home state of Illinois, which up until last year was doing extraordinarily well; in fact, export growth was what had sustained it even after the recession had begun. As a consequence of the world recession, as a consequence of the contagion from the financial markets debilitating the economies elsewhere, Caterpillar is now in very bad shape. So if we want to get Caterpillar back on its feet, if we want to get all those export companies back on their feet, so that they are hiring, putting people back to work, putting money in people's pockets, we've got to make sure that the global economy as a whole is successful.
Then a couple weeks ago, Caterpillar laid off thousands of workers...Hussein is a liar.
He is incredibly stupid to bring the Caterpillar example back up, as he is a proven liar on that particular corporation.
I guess the media will call him out on that. NOT.
Got a little girl at my home tonight, her parents asked me to let her stay with my daughter because they got the pink slip today and are a bit stressed. I obliged, plus she’s a sweet girl.
Caterpillar employee for 18 years, gone.
My brother in law at the same plant, gone. Got his notice last night.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123871251471484469.html
APRIL 3, 2009 In France, the Bosses Can Become Hostages
PARIS -- Of the 22,000 workers Caterpillar Inc. plans to lay off this year, the French ones have perhaps the most radical tactic for negotiating their severance deals.
Cat actually moved up the lay off by two weeks.
The inventory in the system, due to the extremely high sales last year, would turn into a real drag at current sales rates. If the sales rate drops by 50%..in the short term..new orders go to Zero.
They last had this kind of problem in the early 80’s and to a lesser degree in the 91 and 98 timeframe.
The world, particularly Asia, has been on a long-overdue infrastructure building binge for fifteen years now, and Caterpillar, and a few Asian firms like it, have grown handily on the additional business.
A ‘recession’ in that building market was in the cards sooner or later, no matter what the ‘financial sector’ did.
Because of the ‘financial crisis’ it came sooner, which also means it slowed before many more needed products were achieved, which also means it will rebound when the capital markets are again on a more sound footing.
Caterpillar is rightly accepting the leaner size it can maintain and preserving it’s capital base so that it is ready for the next period of growth.
This is not a tragedy, in the long run.
We are all subject to change and the cycles of change and the adjustment to those cycles is more difficult at some times than others and more difficult for some of us than others; but the real producers among us adjust and survive.
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