

Companies Wringing Huge Profits From Job Cuts - petethomas
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/26/business/economy/26earnings.html

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johngalt
Profits are high during a recession, nice work companies!

Too bad the article doesn't congratulate them for doing so well during the
downturn. Someone remind the nytimes that businesses exist to make a profit,
not to hire people.

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patio11
Companies wringing huge profits from software and improved business practices.
Good - I did not spend years cranking out Enterprise Java for the sheer fun of
it.

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gaius
_benefits are mostly going to shareholders instead of the broader economy_

Interesting choice of words. You could have said "401(k)s".

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patio11
Standard applied Marxism: hedge funds are evil capitalists, university pension
funds on the other hand operate on clean-burning unicorn flatulence.

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_delirium
I don't think Marxists have that view at all--- university pension funds, as
large allocators of capital, are pretty universally condemned by Marxists (who
see them, along with endowment investment funds, as prime evidence of the
absorption of the modern university by neoliberalism). The view you're talking
about is more standard social-democratic liberalism, which likes certain kinds
of capitalism but not other kinds.

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all
"Harley’s evolution is part of longer-term shift in American manufacturing..."

This is standard operating procedure for more than American companies.
Anymore, I think it is a central part of the Acme Corporate Handbook anywhere
and everywhere to make redundant the lower tiers of staff and farm it out to
cheaper labour. This is why there is such a rise in small businesses,
consultancies in particular, in recent years. The US is certainly leading the
way, but the strategy is being deployed by companies around the globe. If they
can't get profits from their customers, they get profits by reducing their
operational costs. Before anyone slings mud at the executives, remember that
they are legally bound to do what is best for the company and necessary to
turn a profit for the shareholders. In certain jurisdictions, they can, in
fact, be convicted criminally if they do not take reasonable steps to ensure
the safety and prosperity of the investors' moneys. But they are not legally
bound to ensure the workers have a job in the process.

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sabj
'Productivity' ! = good

Jobless recovery = : (

It can be hard to tell, from earnings reports and gossip, whether cuts are
savvy efficiency gains or unsustainable drives to make good quarterly numbers
at the exchange of long term profitability, growth, and success.

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tomjen3
At some point they will have to stop firing people or they can't produce
enough to continue.

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varjag
Or they can just move production to China.

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philk
Well, the overall unemployment situation isn't good but assuming the
productivity boosts are sustainable[1] this would seem to be a piece of
positive news.

[1] This is of course assuming that the profit gains are coming from
productivity improvements and not for doing things like neglecting capital
investments or cutting R&D to the bone.

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Natsu
If they're anything like my workplace (or my brother's), they've managed
productivity increases by giving everyone twice as much work and firing
everyone who couldn't keep up.

