Jobs

Manufacturing Monday: Ok..things not looking so hot

(Editor's note: My sincerest apologies, I had planned to post this thing up this morning. But alas, my hard drive with the notes ended up saying it would mimic John McCain's economic plan, and collapse on me. Several hours later looking for a hard drive and attempting to reinstall Vista, I'm up and running. So this is an abbreviated version of what I had planned. Once again, sorry, rest assured I will make up for this. )

Right now, you probably have heard that Lehman Brothers is no more, and the Merrill Lynch is now a vassal of Bank of America. Well things on the manufacturing side ain't looking that great.

By the numbers

Manufacturing Monday: Strike at Boeing, Dell to sell plants, and Solar Arabia,

Greetings everyone, I hope your weekend was fantastic. Welcome to another edition of Manufacturing Monday! Some exciting and interesting stuff to cover this week. First the big time strike happening at Boeing. Then theres computer maker Dell looking to sell of ALL of it's factories, and finally could Saudi Arabia claim to be Mecca of solar energy beside crude oil??

Dreamliner turning out to be a nightmare for Boeing and it's workers

Honestly, Boeing should have seen this coming. Well, in case you weren't aware, the machinists at Boeing went on strike over the weekend. The raison d'etre for calling the move? Outsourcing of work, or basically job security was the main issue.

NEWSFLASH: Unemployment hits above 6%!!!

Today the latest figures of unemployment were released, and folks things are continuing to not look good.

Payrolls across the economy has dropped this month...again! Officially, the unemployment rate now stands at 6.1%. Consensus was the rate would be within 5.6-5.8%, north of the previous month's 5.5%. What we got was far above that.

The nitty gritty part is that we lost another 84,000 jobs for August. I say another, because the previous month the US economy jettisoned 51,000 jobs in July and 100,000 jobs in June. From manufacturing to the services sector, saw major losses. I don't have the exact figure before my, but CNN is right now saying that for the year we have lost 600,000 jobs! That, my friend is the Bush-McCain/Palin economy for you!

unemployment rate, manufacturing

Middle Class is Fearful

It is the economy, again, stupid. Working class families are fearful, but the opportunity for mis-information is high.

Senator Obama is using the Detroit Labor Day kickoff to emphasize three messages: addressing the needs of working people, the key role unions play in the election, and the role of manufacturing and the auto industry," Shaiken said. Both the Democratic presidential nominee and Republican rival Sen. John McCain are fighting for union members -- a key voting bloc in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and other swing states. Link

Obama/Biden and the populist message are on-track.

Would we truly be racist if we demanded "Made in the USA"?

Amazingly, in the past several months I've been called a racist 3 times, more than anytime in my life!  The first time was when the Jeremiah Wright thing broke out and I defended the guy, I was called bigoted against whites.  Then, just the other I was called first "pro-Black" then "racist against whites" because I favored Barack Obama over that walking museum piece from Arizona.  Now, today, the conservative economic blog site, Carpe Diem, is labeling people like me racist for demanding things be made in this country!

Democratic Convention - Energy & Healthcare, What about Manufacturing? - Open Thread

Just out of curiosity, tonight I just started watching today's DNC, missed the first hour (6pm CST).  So far I've heard a ton about healthcare, and Steny Hoyer has said something about jobs. Well, actually, right now, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, who is doing a question and answer session using a panel. She's actually specifically mentioned industrial jobs. The theme so far in the questioning is that clean energy will equal more jobs.

Tuesday proving Larry Kudlow and other Ayn Rand droogies wrong

For anyone whose read my pieces in the past, knows that I hold a certain disdain towards former Reagan White House OMB Associate Director/conservative-libertarian Ayn Rand acolyte Larry Kudlow. It's nothing personal against the guy, it's his ideas and economic policy objectives that I find fault with. For the past couple of months, he's been going on about this is the "Goldilocks economy." Essentially, that we're worrying about nothing because one bad economic indicator is being offset by a good one (mind you, he's often just used productivity as that one). Well today, despite his claims that all is almost well, we got some news that just proves Larry Kudlow wrong!

Ok, I will give him some credit. He isn't a Pollyanna and he has come out and said this or that has been bad or needs to get better. Still, his overall anthem is that things are really great and that we (he's quoted Phil Graham) should stop "whining."

Inflation is still there and going higher.

Manufacturing Monday: Price fixing, the big grain crash of '08 and speculators for hire?

Greetings ladies and gentlemen to the latest episode of Manufacturing Monday. Couple of interesting things to discus today, and some interesting numbers to watch this week. First we have what appears to be a new take on price fixing by manufacturers. Next we explore the recent collapse in the price of grains. Our last piece is a story from the Financial Times where companies and groups are hiring the very element that help drive up their costs, speculators, to well...sorta fight speculators. Kinda reminds me of those old westerns where they hire a gunfighter to take on the baddie. Finally, as mentioned, there are numbers we're watching, the Producer Price Index being released tomorrow, Jobless claims and the Philadelphia Fed Survey on Thursday.

Woe be the retailer who wants to mark down a product!

Manufacturing Monday: Numbers, Tesla, world trade reversal, and China overtakes US.

(Please note, this blog has been updated due to a recent story in the Financial Times)

Greetings folks, welcome to another edition of Manufacturing Monday. Sorry about last week, it's normally my goal to have a new edition out on the first day of the week, but sometimes life can be unpredictable and throw you a curve ball. Well, several interesting things this week ranging from manufacturing activity to California looking to gain Tesla's plants.

US Manufacturing feeling kinda "meh"

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