March 2008

Sovereign Wealth Funds: The Rise Of Corporatism

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"The first stage of fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of State and corporate power"
--Benito Mussolini

Last week Treasury Secretary Paulson had a meeting with representatives from Abu Dhabi and Singapore. The meeting involved setting up "rules" for future investments in America from their Sovereign Wealth Funds.

"SWF investment decisions should be based solely on commercial grounds, rather than to advance, directly or indirectly, the geopolitical goals of the controlling government," the agreement stated.

No one noted the obvious irony.

A sovereign wealth fund (SWF) is a state-owned fund composed of financial assets such as stocks, bonds, property or other financial instruments.

The first ironic twist of this agreement is the fact that America has spent more than half a century pushing third world nations to open their markets to unrestricted foreign investment. Refusal to comply with America's wishes all too often meant a CIA-sponsored coup.
Now we are trying to put restrictions on how former third-world nation can invest in America.

The second, and more important, ironic twist is the obvious weakness this displays. If America had a strong economy would we really care what the motivations of the SWF's were? If we weren't desperate for the money, would there even be opportunities for the SWF's to buy significant amounts of American assets?

The Word

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You might be wondering just how the BLS computes the unemployment rate. Well, from Comedy Central, Stephen Colbert in the Audacity of Hopelessness explains it all.

So, everyone get that, if you give up hope the economy improves. I would say that has been the Bush administration's overall policy for the United States middle class.

April -- H-1B -- Fools

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April -- H-1B -- Fools

The law of supply and demand still works!

The National Science Foundation has published a document entitled, "Science and Engineering Indicators 2008." One very interesting point for 2006, was that computer-related H-1B workers with a Bachelor’s degree, earned on average, $400.00 more per year than those with a Master’s degree.

2006, was the first year of the 20,000 visa H-1B exception for postgraduates of American colleges. The media made a big fuss about the base 65,000 visa running out quickly in 2006 and 2007. I suspect that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce had to do some arm-twisting to get the 20,000 postgraduate cap exhausted.

Also

Stuart Anderson's, National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) study of unfilled positions is being quoted as a reason to raise the H-1B caps. I took the liberty of looking at the size of each company in the NFAP, "30 U.S. Companies With Most Job Openings For Skilled Positions."

A Lifelong Democrat (myself) says Nader Should Be Our Candidate

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I rarely read this magazine but I had to share these excerpts from an interview with Ralph Nader conducted by Pat Buchanan:

 

June 21, 2004 issue
Copyright © 2004 The American Conservative

 

RN: ....Giant multinational corporations have no allegiance to any country or community other than to control them or abandon them. So what we have now is the merger of big business and big government to further subsidize costs or eliminate risks or guarantee profits by our government.

...

 

RN: ... As long as our foreign policy supports dictators and oligarchs, you are going to have desperate people moving north over the border.

"Jobs for Us, Jobs for Our Kids" - a Close Encounter of the Senator Cantwell Kind

You may wonder why congressmen and senators seem to be so out of touch with the reality that middle and lower class Citizens face each and every day. In fact, you may wonder why they seem to completely ignore any message you try to get to them via email, phone calls, or even smoke signals. Nothing seems to work.

From what I observe of Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), she is a recluse to the middle and lower classes. I have never seen her do a "town hall meeting" like Congressman Jay Inslee frequently does. I also find that when she visits a city within Washington State, she is more likely to be visiting with the Chamber of Commerce than a local labor council.

Treasury Secretary Calls for Regulation

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Bloomberg reports:

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is likely to call for the creation of new regulatory agencies with broad powers over lending, the securities industry and business conduct, according to the draft of a study he commissioned.

The report, which recommends more power for the Federal Reserve, also proposes combining the Office of Comptroller of the Currency -- which dates back to the Civil War -- and the Office of Thrift Supervision into a single banking overseer. In addition, the draft, which was circulated to government agencies this week and obtained by Bloomberg News, calls for the merging of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, Wall Street's biggest lobbying group, praised Paulson's proposals

Real Disposable Income per Capita Remains Lower

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Despite large bonuses for some, average real disposable income per capita in February remained lower than in March 2007 as real spending stagnates with meager savings.

Today’s BEA report on personal income and spending in February provides important context for anticipating the possible depth and length of the current recession.

 BEA reports that even with large end-of-year bonuses for a few (mostly in the debt industry that is seeking taxpayer bailouts for their looted companies,) the average real disposable income per capita rose only 0.3% in February, up only 0.3% yr/yr and still below levels reached in March 2007. All of the gain in worker compensation in February (and more than all in January) is accounted for by the large bonuses. Proprietor income fell sharply in February and is down sharply yr/yr. 

  average income per capita, feb. 2008

Job Market 2009

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And now for some sarcasm with a ring of truth, brought to you by Screaming Frog Productions:

How many job ads for highly educated professionals are permatemp and have skills requirement lists as long as your arm?

This book, White Collar Sweatshop: The Deterioriation of Work and Its Rewards in Corporate America - Jill Andresky Fraser, published in 2001, goes into great detail on the labor arbitrage of professional careers into the United States.

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