Free Republic

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Although warnings about the crisis engulfing American manufacturing have been intensifying for months, the sector´s woes continue to be significantly underestimated – certainly by official Washington and even by many manufacturers themselves.  In fact, despite the current boost in growth fueled by deficit spending, tax cuts, mortgage re-financings, and other one-time stimuli, the decline of American manufacturing is fast nearing the point of irreversibility – at least from the standpoint of restoring a critical mass of industries producing in the United States to world leadership. The nation, in short, faces a...

Since the end of the Bretton Woods agreement in 1971, the dollar has been an irredeemable currency, no longer defined or measured in terms of gold.  Nonetheless, in an ironic twist, it has become the world’s dominant currency and the core reserve asset of central banks all over the world. It has replaced gold as an international currency.  The transformation has not happened without consequences. One of these is that the discipline imposed by the gold standard is no longer operative. Another consequence, related to the first, is the profound effect this has had on international trade. The Discipline of Gold In the...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. America's high-tech industry lost 540,000 jobs in 2002, with employment dropping to 6 million, according to a study by AeA, the nation's largest high-tech trade association. But AeA projects high-tech job losses will slow to 234,000 this year. Electronics manufacturing accounted for more than half of the high-tech jobs lost last year. But for the first time in the seven years that AeA has prepared its Cyberstates report, the software industry declined instead of grew -- cutting 150,000 jobs last year. All but three states -- the District of Columbia, Wyoming...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Mexico City, decembre 01 (FINSAT).- Transportation and Communications Secretariat (SCT) workers called a work stoppage to protest the planned firing of 4,000 of their comrades, to become effective next December 5. In an interview, the head of the SCTns operations sector, Victor Manuel Garcia Paredes, said Monday management announced the layoffs, which will include Telecom, Marina Mercante and Central Offices personnel. The union boss said the slicing of the labor contract also calls for the firing Telecom members of the unionns executive committee and he wouldnnt dismiss the possibility of the...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. It puzzles me how easily people entrust their security or large amounts of money to strangers and then cry foul when they lose it. Usually, they are victimized by their greed. The news reports how a man handed over $24,000 to a stranger who promised him a huge profit in return. It said that a stranger wanted to make a $40,000 charitable donation in another city, but didn't want to drive there. So, he promised to pay the man $10,000 if he delivered the cash for him. The catch - there...

<p>Since the Big 8 shrunk into the newly structured Big 4 over the past dozen years, U.S. businesses -- particularly big companies -- have had a much narrower choice in deciding which accounting firm will peruse their books.</p> <p>And now with the frequency some of the Big 4 get themselves into trouble over faulty audits, the investing public seems far less protected from fraud with so few major accounting firms acting as watchdogs.</p>

<p>MEXICALI VALLEY, Mexico -- Jorge Vidales and his wife, Estela, work side by side in the fields here from September through May. The couple, both 30, have been harvesting green onions for a living since they were 15.</p> <p>Most days they get up around 6, get breakfast for their seven children, then get on a truck that takes them to the fields. Their 14-year-old daughter, Alma Rosa, takes care of Gustavo, 3, and Alex, 18 months. The other children -- Hector, 8, Antonio, 10, Jorge Luis, 12, and Arturo, 13 -- attend a nearby school. Estela Valladores de Vidales is seven months pregnant with their eighth.</p>

<p>Southwestern Pennsylvania may be short of some things -- young people, sunny days -- but in one category it's in a class of its own: Local government. Allegheny County alone has 130 municipalities, and this abundance of officialdom has led to calls for a more rational consolidation of government units.</p>

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- OPEC may decide to cut production quotas at its December meeting if it decides the market is oversupplied, Venezuela's oil minister said Thursday. "In the case of oversupply, we could curb output," Rafael Ramirez told reporters. Ramirez's remarks came three days after crude futures plunged 6 percent on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The drop followed an estimate released by tanker-tracking firm Petrologistics saying that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries appeared to be overproducing its output ceiling by 1 million barrels in November. Prices rose but...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Billions of people will face severe water shortages as glaciers around the world melt unless governments take urgent action to tackle global warming, the environmental group WWF said Thursday, ahead of a UN conference on climate change. "Increasing global temperatures in the coming century will cause continued widespread melting of glaciers, which contain 70 percent of the world's fresh water reserves," it warned in a new study. "An overall rise of temperature of four degrees Celsius before the end of the century would eliminate almost all of them," it said. Average...

WASHINGTON — Neil Bush, a younger brother of President Bush, has a $400,000-a-year contract to provide business advice to a Chinese computer chip manufacturer, according to court documents. At the same time the Bush administration is promising to crack down on alleged trade abuses by the Chinese, Neil Bush has agreed to strategize with China's Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., the documents show. While there is no indication he has done anything improper, Bush's arrangement could attract attention during a presidential election cycle in which Chinese business practices have become a hot-button issue.

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.Nov. 27 (AP) — Instead of using deep discounts to lure shoppers this holiday season, Domain Home Fashions is sending design consultants to their homes for free. Bloomingdale's also plans to discount less, counting on upscale holiday decor and splashy versions of its private label merchandise to motivate shoppers. And Bergdorf Goodman is focusing on designer names that can't be found elsewhere to draw well-heeled shoppers. As holiday shopping starts in earnest Friday amid an improving economy, many of the nation's retailers -- particularly department stores and apparel merchants -- plan to...

Home  l  Broadcast  l  Market Monitor  l  Top 10  l  Storm Watch  l  Sitemap  l  About Us Today's WrapUp by Ike Iossif 11.25.2003  Mon   Tue   Wed   Thu   Fri   Archive "This Time May Be Different" This is going to be a rather short commentary because I really find only one thing that in my view is worth noting.Despite that the SP only declined about 2.8% from its 11/14 high of 1063.65, to its 11/21 low of 1031, many of the indicators we follow reached oversold levels that in the past few months have been associated with "entry points" which yielded...

Unedited! A faltering dollar, along with terrorism and trade concerns, weighed on global equity markets this week. Here at home, stocks faced only moderate selling pressure. For the week, the Dow and S&P500 declined better than 1%. The Transports dropped 3% and the Morgan Stanley Cyclical index declined 2%. The Utilities and Morgan Stanley Consumer indices lost about 1%. The small cap Russell 2000 declined 1%, with the S&P400 Midcap index declining less than 2%. The technology sector was under general selling pressure. The NASDAQ100 declined 2%, the Morgan Stanley High Tech index 3%, and the Semiconductors 1%. The Street.com...

Home  l  Broadcast  l  Market Monitor  l  Top 10  l  Storm Watch  l  Sitemap  l  About Us Today's WrapUp by Martin Goldberg 11.24.2003  Mon   Tue   Wed   Thu   Fri   Archive "NASDAQ Showing Technical Weakness" If you watch any of the financial cable TV shows that are aired during the Thanksgiving Day holiday, you are sure to be exposed to a healthy portion of bullish sentiment. The market is going to continue to go up and everyone knows it. There will be a host of reasons why the “new bull market” will continue that will be buttressed by various economic data....

<p>How would you like to earn a safe and easy 24 percent to 70 percent on your money? The answer may be simpler than you think. Stop using credit cards.</p> <p>We hate to be the bearer of bad news as the holiday season gets ready to kick into full gear, but this simple savings strategy that everyone can do came to us while having dinner recently with a friend from Sharon, Mercer County.</p>

<p>The final parts of Microsoft's mice weren't always fitting together correctly on the assembly line. An immigrant from Austria with a reputation for perfectionism, Mr. Buchmayer spent half a year making Microsoft new molds so uniform the differences were measured in increments 1/10th the width of a human hair. Microsoft's failure rates promptly plummeted. Year after year the company came to Mr. Buchmayer for new tools.</p>

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Greenville's massive Electrolux refrigerator plant isn't losing money. It just isn't raking it in fast enough. The CEO of the huge Swedish appliance maker explained that squeeze in a telephone conference with stock market analysts in Stockholm last month. On the same day, Carl Hoag and 2,700 other Electrolux employees arrived at work to hear the company's stunning announcement it may shut the 100-year-old Greenville factory in 2005 and move production to Mexico. It could save Electrolux $81 million a year. But shutting the plant would be crippling to employees and...