Free Republic

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. It is difficult to decide whether the trade figures for 2004 or the Bush Administration's reaction to them indicate the greater danger to the American economy and nation. Last year's trade deficit hit $617.7 billion -- surpassing the record 2003 deficit by 24 percent. The deficit in goods was even higher, at $666.2 billion. The imbalance increased as a share of the economy to 5.3 percent of gross domestic product, up from 4.5 percent in 2003. This is a situation usually associated with underdeveloped countries on the brink of financial collapse....

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Four hundred twenty-five jobs gone by the end of the year. That's the word Tuesday from officials who said any deal to save a furniture factory in Union County is dead. It was crushing news to Pennsylvania House workers. After three months of keeping hope alive, they went to work Tuesday morning and found their dream had been dashed. After months of sale negotiations involving local, state and federal officials, Pennsylvania House parent company La-Z-Boy said it will go through with the plant closure announced in August. Governor Ed Rendell broke...

Low wages lure Mr. Coffee to Mexico, far East Lillie Scott said goodbye to more than just workplace friends and her job of 26 years when Mr. Coffee shut the doors of its cavernous gray factory in a tidy Glenwillow industrial park. When Scott's $9-an-hour job making coffee makers four years ago was transferred to Mexico and Mississippi with 338 others, she and many workmates also bid farewell to financial security. Her sporadic jobs as a home health aide never last long enough to get benefits, and the $800 she gets in monthly unemployment between jobs doesn't cover her rent...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. MOUNTAINTOP, Pa. - A Luzerne County perfume factory is closing at the end of the year, leaving 200 people out of work. New Dana Perfumes Inc., the maker of fragrances including Tabu, English Leather and Love's Baby Soft, will close its plant in Wright Township, said Peter Schreiber of Dimeling, Schreiber & Park, the Philadelphia investment firm that bought the perfume-manufacturing operation in July 1999 Dana Classic Fragrances Inc., which holds the trademark to the names and formulas and markets and sells the perfumes, will continue to operate - but officials...

Republicans are celebrating 337,000 new jobs created in October, but a look behind the numbers shows the same discouraging trend of the past four years. The U.S. economy can only create jobs in government and in areas of domestic services that cannot be outsourced or replaced with imports. Government employment accounts for 41,000 of the new jobs. The private economy produced 296,000 jobs in October. Of these jobs, 71,000 are in construction; 36,000 are in wholesale trade, retail trade, transportation and warehousing; credit services account for 17,000 jobs; employment services (primarily temporary help) account for 55,000 jobs; school administrators and...

Anchor Glass Container Corp. closed Thursday, the same day President Bush outlined his second term's emphasis on small business and concern for American interests. Union employees received word Thursday evening. Roughly 350 of them are now out of work. The 3 to 11 shift was sent home, according to Charles Tressler, president of Union Local 149 of the Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastics and Allied Workers International Union (GMP). "The plant is closed," Tressler said. "The machines were shut down at 7:30 p.m. The reason they gave was economic. The glass industry is softer. There are fewer sales. "Once the company...

I ran into a relative at a wedding this weekend. We hadn't seen each other since the last family wedding, three years ago. I asked how her daughter was doing, and this story came pouring out. Her daughter's husband was laid off in July from a company where he had worked for 28 years. He will miss out on his pension and faces job-hunting now at age 52. His wife is working 50 hours a week and fears making any missteps at her job because she is now carrying the family's health insurance. He's depressed and is a scatterbrained substitute...

My sisters and I became ashamed when we got the news. My mother and father bought a Hyundai. My father used to be a General Motors man. Sure, he made the mistake of buying a few Fords over the years, such as the 1976 Pinto that mother wouldn't ride in for fear it would explode. And both Volkswagens were lemons, especially the Beetle that wouldn't start unless we covered the motor with a plastic diaper every night. But father only made such mistakes with our second car. Our main car was usually a GM. I still miss our 1976 Catalina...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. U.S. toolmaker Black & Decker says it will dismiss about 700 employees, shut two factories and move production offshore. The moves follow a $775 million merger with Pentair's Tools Group unit that Black & Decker bought this month, the Baltimore Sun reported Wednesday. Workers at the acquired unit will bear many of the job losses: as many as 75 sales, management, marketing and engineering employees out of 1,800, most of whom are in manufacturing and distribution, will be cut at two plants, and more than 100 sales representatives will be fired...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. If you think Pedro Martinez' numbers against the New York Yankees look bad (and they do), they're nothing compared with the government's latest monthly trade figures. Dismal as the Boston Red Sox ace's performance against the Bronx Bombers has been, he looks like a champion next to the trade numbers, which are one important measure of the U.S. economy's performance against the rest of the world. Not that the trade surplus and deficit figures tell us everything we need to know about America's competitiveness. In particular, they compare apples and oranges...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Washington, October 16 -- The United States will lose more than 400,000 jobs this year to India, Mexico, China, and other Asian nations as multinational corporations restructure operations and shift production overseas, according to a study. The number of jobs lost will be around double those three years ago, according to the study by Cornell University and the University of Massachusetts for the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission. The study came amid heated debate ahead of the November 2 presidential elections on outsourcing of jobs to India, China and other...

Google Founders on Hiring Trip to India Oct 13, 3:18 PM (ET) By S. SRINIVASAN BANGALORE, India (AP) - Google Inc. (GOOG) founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin said Wednesday that some new features on the world's top search engine and other services will come from its research center in the southern Indian city of Bangalore, where they are on a hiring spree. "One approach we are taking is that Bangalore is where we run a mirror exactly of what we have in the United States in terms of development," Brin told reporters in Bangalore, the capital of Karnataka state....

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Illinois-based toy maker Hedstrom Corp. has discontinued operations, shutting down six plants — including a rotational molding operation in Ashland, Ohio, and a swing-set factory in Bedford, Pa., that does blow molding. Hedstrom said it could file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time in four years. Meanwhile, local managers at the Ashland plant are interested in buying the rotomolding operation, said Martin Irvine, Ashland economic development director. “They´ve been in discussions with several different investment groups. Over the last week or so they have made offers to buy the...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Oct 7 - A new report found that layoffs reached an eight-month high in September, while new hiring rose only slightly. Employment consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. said companies announced 107,863 layoffs in September, 45 percent more than in August. The figure was the largest since January, when employers laid off 117,556 workers. Meanwhile, employers hired only 16,166 new workers, compared with 132,105 in August. The computer, transportation, telecommunications and consumer products industries were particularly hard hit by the cuts. "Historically, the period from September 1 through December 31...

<p>LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) --A California woman with a "sensitive palate" has filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against the J.M. Smucker Co. claiming that its familiar label is misleading since its spreadable jam is less than half fruit.</p> <p>The case was filed last week in Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of anyone who bought the Smucker premium brand in the past four years.</p>