USA Consumer Tracking

Meego continues pwnage

2010-09-06T19:51:00.000-07:00

Even newer sceenshots leaked. This are winrar!!!!!!!!!

Clownsumers at it again. Nokia N9 Leaked AND Meego Leaked ?

2010-08-19T21:13:00.000-07:00

For those clownsumers who can't even wait for product to release and somehow mis-obtained a Nokia N9 prototype or a Meego prototype. Engadget broke this news and put some additional images in their story.

I copied one here with some edits to show some cutting edge concepts, in my interpretation, of thoughts and technologies by our industrial giants.

Related:

3,000 dropped calls

Wretched Clownsumers

2008-11-29T22:46:00.000-08:00

Just catching up with the virtual world and reading some news about the black friday and aftermath. I came across this disgusting piece about a Walmart employee who died on the job due to the American clownsumer's last hurrah.

This is horrific, ridiculous, and most of all it is downright scary. Imagine a further devolving of the fake standard of life the American clownsumer has been feeling they're entitled to having. To save a couple hundred bucks on items that are not necessary which results in manslaughter can make one think further down the line and into the face of an economy where people's needs are no longer met than their simple superficial idiotic wants. This is something that keeps me up at night and scares the heck out of me in a non-tinfoil type of manner.

Retail Implosion: Steve & Barry's Bankruptcy

2008-11-21T08:31:00.000-08:00

Steve and Barry's just can't find its way out of bankruptcy and has declared for bankruptcy again and announced liquidation of all its stores.

Around the pike are 5,000 layoffs, which is its employment count, and some woes for commercial real estate owners of properties they will vacate. Its been a while since we wrote about store closings and the impact on the commercial properties owners, but I expect to accelerate stories like that into the new year after the clownsumer holiday period.

Steve and Barry's is based in Port Washington, New York.

Related:
Rumor: Circuit City to close 150 stores within 60 days
Retail Closure and Unemployment
Kumar Would Be Upset: Harold's Files Bankruptcy
Consumer Spending Drops Most In 28 Years

Falling Oak, Up a Creek Without Paddle: Viasystems Closing Oak Creek and Layoffs

2008-11-21T08:18:00.000-08:00

Viasystems Milwaukee Group Inc., a maker of PCB and a surprise that it isn't all already shipped out to Taiwan and China, has declared the closure of their Oak Creek facility in Wisconsin, the cheese state, causing 238 layoffs.

It came as a surprise to me that this type of business is still ongoing in America. Even more surprising is that it will still be ongoing even with the recent dollar strength and shipping price reductions. Serving domestic demand with employees in middle America with lowered wages seemed to have had potential with weak dollar, high gas prices, high Baltic Dry Index freight shipping prices, and relatively low wages. Alas, most of those elements turned around.

Viasystems Milwaukee is surprisingly based in St. Louis, Missouri.

Related:
Dynamic Shared Pain: Thilmany to Reduce Work
Cut the Staff: Miller Electric Saws Off 6% in Layoff
No Walk in the Park: Park Electrochemical Lays Off

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles: Rolls-Royce on Global Purge, Layoff of 5%

2008-11-21T08:09:00.000-08:00

Rolls-Royce, who is involved in two of the three businesses listed in the title of this post with the trains excepted, has decided to globally cut 2,000 employees off their books in their announced layoff program.

Automobiles and Planes, wow, what a bad combination of businesses to be involved in at this stage of the economic cycle. Although their autos are for a different class of people, I am sure there's plenty of the fabulously wealthy blowing themselves up in hedge funds and their own malinvestments like Yahoo, their own company's stock, and oil prices. These people might think twice before purchasing a new automobile.

Additionally, the planes area is hit hard by the commoners. With reduced credit lines and no cash, many people will have no means to use the airplanes. In fact, the airliners have much less use for their existing airplanes let alone new product.

Related:
Where's Atlantis?? Oh Yeah That's Right, Underwater!
Cessna Comes Crashing Down
Down the Slope and Off a Cliff: Yellowstone Mountain Club LLC Files Bankruptcy
Thriftyness in High End

If the Key Don't Fit: KeyCorp Further Reduced Dividend

2008-11-21T08:05:00.000-08:00

KeyCorp, a bank, has slashed its dividend a second time after declaring comfort with the dividend level a month ago. It is now down to 6.25 cents a share from the prior cut at 18.75 and even more massive of a mark down from the 37.5 earlier in the year.

Some fixed income folks and mutual funds are going to be distributing less because of actions like this across the market. Banks, Shipping, and Real Estate have been some notable sectors doing heavy dividend cuts in this climate.

Related:
Dividend Cuts
Out of the Sky and Into the Ash: Ashland Trashes Dividend Almost 75%
Property, not the Place to Be: AMB Property Hit
The Rock is Chipped: Prudential Dividend Cut Nearly in Half

Malinvestment Staff Not Needed: JPMorgan to Layoff 10% of Perpetrators

2008-11-21T07:54:00.000-08:00

JPMorgan is due to layoff about 3,000 folks from the investment banking business. Will they take a page from Citi and layoff more than expected when the announcement comes surfaces?

Reportedly this company will also freeze salaries for people who Obama considers rich, in the 60k range and higher. Loss of a high paying job or a frozen salary will both put a damper on the consumption scene of New York. The city will also be impacted in reduced tax collection, so expect to begin to see expanded cost cutting measures by the city.

Investment banking was the place to be for a short time. Where else could a person go to their desk and underperform their job meanwhile collect on high 6 and into 7 figures for salary plus bonus? These jobs are now gone and there's going to be no need for them to come back in the next economical upswing. Wonder what field many of those who came under the gun will move into?

In short, their job skill consisted of following a formula set forwards by the creative Ranieri which involved packaging up trash with several neighbors trash and marketing it as a bond. Meanwhile convincing some governments and financial institutes to invest in the bond and selling insurance against defaults on the bond that they could not cover and finding another insurer without enough money to cover the bond and dumb enough to underestimate risk on the bond and making an arbitrage spread.

Related:

Rainy Days: Ranieri Co-founded Bank Franklin Bank Saves No More Pennies

Lost Golden Boys: Goldman Sachs to cut 10%

Finance sector layoffs? Predictable as the sun rise.

Massacre in City That Never Sleeps: Bank of New York Mellon Layoffs

2008-11-21T07:49:00.000-08:00

Bank of New York Mellon has introduced a fairly massive layoff by announcing a reduction in force of almost 5% of their staff eliminating 1,800 employees jobs.

The bank acquired a financial company, which quite possibly was a smoking gun for why they're having underperformance and resorting to layoffs like all their sector buddies. New York high-end excesses is going to be a ghost town over the next couple of years.

Related:
Citi Under Siege: Citigroup Announced Layoffs Larger Than Expected
Lost Golden Boys: Goldman Sachs to cut 10%
Finance sector layoffs? Predictable as the sun rise.

Last Hurrah: Harrah's Closes Office Layoffs

2008-11-21T07:44:00.000-08:00

Harrah's Entertainment Inc is scaling itself back as the American clownsumer scales itself back and has announced closure of a Tennessee office, which results in the layoff of 250 employees. Fifty adventurous ones will be moving to Las Vegas.

Obviously they did not blame the economy and just cited consolidation of corporate functions. However, if that were the only case, then management has got to be more effective. If maintain separate offices was eating up costs, why not provide a better return for the owners by making this move earlier? It certainly seems economic related especially with the other businesses in their sector outlined on this blog already being in pain.

Related:
Crippled Industry: Imperial Casino Hotel Filed Bankruptcy
You've Got to Know When to Fold Them: Ameristar Layoffs
Holes in the Vice Index = Strife?

Out of the Sky and Into the Ash: Ashland Trashes Dividend Almost 75%

2008-11-21T07:39:00.000-08:00

Ashland has reduced its dividend by almost 75% in a trend we are seeing more and more these days.

Being in chemicals, oils, and plastics just ain't what it was cracked up to be in this downturn compared to the boomtimes of the American clownsumer. It is always difficult to define a decade era that begins with the 00s. I am hereby declaring this the millenial decade of the idiot clownsumer.

Ashland is based in Covington, Kentucky.

Related:
Dividend Cuts
Terminal Solution: Solutia Closes Some Shop and Lays Off Elsewhere
Bad News In A Small Town
Cut the Staff: Miller Electric Saws Off 6% in Layoff

Front Page News: New York Times Slashes Dividend

2008-11-21T07:34:00.000-08:00

New York Times Company has majorly reduced its dividend, almost 75%. The newspaper business just isn't what it used to be. This is probably an economic sector that should have gone through its pains in the last downturn as the Internet media was waking from its bubble deflation. However, there were an endless supply of real estate professionals and banks eager to buy ads to target the less than intelligent members of our society, otherwise known as clownsumers.

Related:
Dividend Cuts
Newspapers!
Disassociated Press: AP to Cut 10% of Staff in 2009
A Googol Reasons why the Great Ad Fallback Biz Model is Full of Fail

Disassociated Press: AP to Cut 10% of Staff in 2009

2008-11-20T21:26:00.000-08:00

Preliminary reports suggest that Associated Press' Chief Executive Tom Curley has broken the bad news at a meeting to the 162 year old media company's employees that there are plans to cut around 400 workers, or 10% of their employees in 2009.

Reductions in advertising revenue no doubt contribute to AP's problems in a major way. They recently restructured their rates to make it cheaper for member publishers to contribute because so many are struggling due to a weak advertising market.

Associated Press is headquarterd in New York, NY.

Related:
A Googol Reasons why the Great Ad Fallback Biz Model is Full of Fail, Newspapers!, Difficult Times: North County Times (San Diego) Writes Off 10% of Staff, Dunder Mifflin Supplier in Pain: Boise lays off a lot

Mayer Brown: Case Closed

2008-11-20T20:02:00.000-08:00

Mayer Brown, a 127 year old law firm that advises 89 of the Fortune 100 companies and has 1,400 lawyers worldwide and around 1,000 in North America has announced the forced resignation of 33 people from offices in the US. The jobs to be cut include lawyers and support personnel.

No indication was given as to which location the jobs would be pruned from, but according to their website, they have a presence in the following US cities: Charlotte, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York and Washington D.C. You take your pick.

Citing "slowdown in economic activity," Mayer Brown becomes another tally mark on the increasingly lengthy list of companies downsizing in an attempt to better suit the post-debt bubble economy.

It is unclear where Mayer Brown is headquartered, but their original and largest office is in Chicago, Illinois.

Holy Toledo: Toledo's Govt. shuts down for 3 days

2008-11-20T19:47:00.000-08:00

A poster boy move for the New Economy, the Mayor of Toledo, Ohio has announced that the city's government there will completely shut down all nonessential operations for three days, with the intent of saving about $1 million.

Running a deficit of approximately $10m for 2008, this is a plan to help shore up the balance sheet.

The government will shut down on the following days: November 26th, December 26th and December 31st.

Related:
Yonkers Goes Bonkers, Governments can lay off too

General Discontent: GM in trouble

2008-11-20T18:43:00.000-08:00

Back in the Golden Days where everyone had 4 credit cards and a HELOC on their rapidly-appreciating home, General Motors had it good. People were lining up at the door to have the opportunity to purchase a vehicle they could not afford - on someone else's dime, at interest.

However, as you are well aware as a crafty USA Consumer Tracking reader, the Golden Days of limitless easy credit and living beyond your means are over, certainly for the foreseeable future ... and it's certainly debatable if they'll ever return.

As proof, I submit to you, the current symptoms GM is exhibiting that reveal the dire straits it is in.

Two days before Christmas this year, GM's Moraine truck assembly plant near Dayton Ohio will close its doors permanently. When things were good, nearly 5,000 people derived their bread and butter from the plant. That number has dwindled down to 1,400 at the time this was written, and all 1,400 of those people will be shown the door on December 23rd. Originally, the plan was for a temporary shutdown in December, but obviously, things have gotten so bad that they've decided the plant doesn't serve a purpose anymore.

This plant manufactured, you guessed it, SUVs that nobody is buying. The specific models include Chevy Trailblazer, GMC Envoy and some Saab SUVs. Sales on these units in September 2008 were down 40% YoY.

In addition to the GM plant closure, there is also a considerable amount of collateral damage. Take for example the Jamestown Industries Moraine plant #2. These guys used to prepare and deliver auto parts to the GM plant, and like many other small businesses in and around Dayton, the GM plant was their only customer. Formerly employing 200 people, they're now down to 64, and those people will lose their jobs the day the GM plant closes. Many other businesses in the area are going to have to think real quick about how to salvage their business model now that their customer has evaporated. This does not bode well for Dayton.

GM has cut around 34,000 hourly jobs since 2006. 1,900 other GM layoffs were announced November 10th at stamping and powertrain plants in Michigan.

Although it does not directly apply to the American consumer, it is notable that across the globe in Thailand, GM is also laying of 250 people from and temporarily closing a plant there for two months in December and January. 2,000 people will remain employed at the factory and will receive 75% of their normal pay during the temporary closure.

They're also closing a light truck assembly line in Canada where 10,000 people are employed.

Now that GM has come out in the open about their financial conundrum and asked the US Government to bail them out, their very survival is in question. Clowngress (even the most liberal of them) are asking GM to come up with a better plan than "please give us money, we're important." They want to know how GM plans to use the loan to restructure, regroup and return to viability. I personally do not think that the management at GM knows what they are doing with the company or where to go from here.

Their dividend is being suspended on common stock as well as raises for salaried workers and bonuses for executives. I will not be surprised one bit if GM files for bankruptcy in the next few months.

General Motors is headquartered in Detroit, Michigan.

Related:
General Reduction in Force, Mother Trucker! Paccar Layoffs, Bad News In A Small Town, Toilet Odor? Toyota Joins the Fray

Sicko: HealthMarkets Lays Off

2008-11-20T08:19:00.000-08:00

HealthMarkets, an insurer, has done a layoff of 220 employees out of the 1,700 that they had. This company has a laundry list of problems recently that one might venture to be of the opinion that they are terminal.

Health sector has seen some recent news in medical school and hospital layoffs. Insurers are in a money game in addition to the healthcare environment. Financials are more problematic, so expect to see insurers continued to be bailed out or cease existence.

HealthMarkets is based in North Richland Hills, Texas.

Related:
Beaumont is Sick: Beaumont Hospitals Lays off 500
Mediiiiic! UTMB Bleeds Out
Erosion at BlackRock: Jobs to be Lost

Difficult Times: North County Times (San Diego) Writes Off 10% of Staff

2008-11-20T08:13:00.001-08:00

North County Times, a Northern San Diego newspaper, has printed pink slips for 34 employees in their announced layoff. 25 of these will come from their newsroom. This comes after 10 employees were delivered their walking papers in September.

We have pontificated on newspapers and advertisements before, so allow us to bring up a different point again. Notice that this was round 2 of layoffs. Many companies learn that when doing a layoff they should do it deeply, so they only have to do it once. However, these days many companies are trying to reduce as little as possible in order to minimize the pains on their employees and wind up having to cut again as things worsen. This can hurt morale and productivity more than the single deep cut purge will do.

Related:
Newspapers!
Dunder Mifflin Supplier in Pain: Boise lays off a lot
A Googol Reasons why the Great Ad Fallback Biz Model is Full of Fail

Terminal Solution: Solutia Closes Some Shop and Lays Off Elsewhere

2008-11-20T08:07:00.001-08:00

Solutia, a plastics related business, has closed a factory in Greenwood, South Carolina and made layoffs across other sites to bring the layoff count to 500.

Continued lessened demand for all products across all categories from clownsumers of all kinds are feeding back into the cycle of depressed earnin gs or making losses and causing job cuts at producers, distributors, or retailers of said products.

Solutia is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri.

Related:
Bad Form: Insituform Technologies Drops 35 Down a Sewer
Bad News In A Small Town
Rust Belt, a Little Rustier: Eastman Chemical Co. Cuts Jobs

Jobless Claims: Still on their Upward March

2008-11-20T07:57:00.000-08:00

If you've been reading along to this blog, you will note that many of the layoff notices were not for immediate effect. As you can expect many of the prior layoffs are showing up in the numbers finally and will continue doing so for some time. This week's figures push the envelope to a high water mark from 16 years ago. The initial claims figures are at 542,000 this week which hasn't been seen since 1992.

Remember, for every one of those 542,000, a lot more spending will be impacted. Firstly, their family will be consuming less. Secondly, their coworkers who may also be nervous about their jobs will cut back. Finally, many have announced layoffs, but yet to take action. Individuals in that situation will likely scale back consumption.

Related:
Government Bloat Under Scrutiny
Retail Closure and Unemployment
Retail consolidation and more consumers in trouble

Cut the Staff: Miller Electric Saws Off 6% in Layoff

2008-11-19T23:09:00.000-08:00

Miller Electric, a company who makes heavy industrial tooling, has performed a layoff of 95 employees.

With less industry going on, especially in places that they sell in to, the layoffs is a prudent step for survival. I do not know when the industries they play in will come back, but hopefully some of the impacted workers can learn new skills and work elsewhere in the meantime.

Miller Electric is headquartered in Appleton, Wisconsin.

Related:
Rust Belt, a Little Rustier: Eastman Chemical Co. Cuts Jobs
Dynamic Shared Pain: Thilmany to Reduce Work
No Walk in the Park: Park Electrochemical Lays Off

No Economic Vaccine: Wyeth Injects Layoffs

2008-11-19T22:57:00.000-08:00

Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, a vaccine related company, will layoff 124 employees in a plant they have in Sanford, North Carolina. This is part of a broad initiative to eliminate 10% of their 50,000 current workers over the next year.

I do not know much about them, this industry, and why they'd be doing layoffs to comment on it, so I will leave it at that.

Wyeth Pharmaceuticals is headquarted in Madison, New Jersey.

Related:
Drugs and Layoffs
Beaumont is Sick: Beaumont Hospitals Lays off 500
Word Wide Wave of Repercussions
Wedgie Time: Hanesbrands to Soil Almost 400 Undies

Revenge of the Nerds: MIT Spending Cut

2008-11-19T22:50:00.000-08:00

Massachusetts Institute of Technology has caused its own kind of deflation in spending cuts. They will reduce by 15% over the next three years or $50 million next year and possible re-examination in following years.

If the really smart people are bracing themselves for a protracted crisis, the stock market seems to be pricing that in with a DJIA close below 8,000 today, then what will all these recent layoffs look like when they come out the other end of the unemployment checks period and a still weak economy? This is a shocking and scary time to be in USA.

Related:
Degree in Severance: Oral Roberts University Layoffs
Mediiiiic! UTMB Bleeds Out
KLIK KLAK Go the Shoes Down The Hall: KLA-Tencor Sends 15% on Long Walk

Crippled Industry: Imperial Casino Hotel Filed Bankruptcy

2008-11-19T22:42:00.000-08:00

Imperial Casino Hotel located in a place called Cripple Creek, Colorado has filed for bankruptcy.

If you've followed along this blog you will note the lack of surprise that a business that depends on hotel stays, people throwing away money, and located out of the way would file for bankruptcy or perform a layoff. Casino styled companies typically belong in the strife index, but this index has not been avoiding the economic wave well.

Related:
You've Got to Know When to Fold Them: Ameristar Layoffs
Now That's Logical: CryptoLogic cuts dividend
Holes in the Vice Index = Strife?

Bad Form: Insituform Technologies Drops 35 Down a Sewer

2008-11-19T22:35:00.000-08:00

Insituform Technologies, a sewer and piping repair outfit, has performed the layoff they had alluded to previously and cut 35 employees livelihood. These are spread between 50% at their headquarters in Chesterfield and the rest in shared pain elsewhere.

I wonder if Joe the Plumber is going to be affected by this type of action? Although the CEO does not blame this on the current economic condition directly, I can bet you some wagering dough that the thought of the present economy is somewhere in his head and subliminally impacted the decision whether he wants to claim it or not.

Insituform Technologies is headquartered in Chesterfield, Missouri.

Related:
Laying Down the Law: Lawson Software Terminates 200
Caught Off Guard: LaGarde Files Bankruptcy
You've Got to Know When to Fold Them: Ameristar Layoffs

What a Sham: Habersham Bancorp Suspends Dividend

2008-11-19T22:29:00.000-08:00

Habersham Bancorp, in the worst possible business right now unless you're on the golden list for taxpayer fueld government bailouts, has suspended its dividend. This is a move that will affect the income production or dividend reinvestments multiplier wealth as the stock price is depressed.

For new investments, I recommend when looking for yield, please consider the line of work that the underlying is in, their financial shape, and whether they may decide to retain more earnings to weather out the storm or just retaining them to try their best to stay solvent. I am not certified financial, tax, or investment anything, so the above is worth what the zero you had paid for it.

Related:
Dividend Cuts
Give Me Dividend or Give Me Death: Liberty Property Trust Cuts Dividend
The Rock is Chipped: Prudential Dividend Cut Nearly in Half
Fixed Income, Difficult to Come In?

That's Isn't Kosher, Dude! Sara Lee Exits Kosher Biz, Closes Plant

2008-11-19T22:23:00.000-08:00

Sara Lee, a food company, has stopped making kosher foods and will close a plant related to that business and all 185 jobs will be resulting in a layoff. This plant made mainly hot dogs and other kinds of meats in the kosher style. These layoffs will happen before the end of January 2009 timeframe.

I guess with all the Wall St. carnage in New York City, the finance sector layoffs and all, the demand for kosher hot dogs from the local hot dogs stands has plummetted and caused Sara Lee to re-evaluate this business. Their evaluation resulted in an exit, possibly because they do not see the Wall St. pigmen coming back quickly and being consumers of their tasty hot dogs.

The plant closure is in Chicago, Illinois.

Related:
Not too Yummy: Yum Brands Cooking Up Layoffs
Holes in the Vice Index = Strife?
Lost Golden Boys: Goldman Sachs to cut 10%
Finance sector layoffs? Predictable as the sun rise.

Pride Comes Before a Fall: Pilgrim's Pride Figuratively Beheads 335 Jobs

2008-11-19T22:11:00.001-08:00

Pilgrim's Pride, in the poultry biz, has sent 335 employees running around like a chicken with its head cut off. These cuts will come within this month, so it will cause a tightened spending pattern by their employees as we head into the winter season and the season formerly known as the holiday shopping season.

These cuts will not impact one particular area heavily as they are into socialistic patterns of spreading the pain across their locations that number in the 30s. They already did the major economical impact to a localised area by laying off 700 in Arkansas, the Clinton state.

In my opinion, I'd keep a watch on these guys as a future bankruptcy.

Related:
Word Wide Wave of Repercussions
Not too Yummy: Yum Brands Cooking Up Layoffs
Timber! Ponderosa falls

Toilet Odor? Toyota Joins the Fray

2008-11-19T22:04:00.000-08:00

Toyota has flushed out 120 temporary workers early and reduced production in their latest layoff. Additionally, they will be reducing overtime on the remaining employees, in effect giving them a pay cut. These are all expected to be US employees and reach many of their plants such as upstate New York.

This will affect spending across the board by those employees at Toyota. The company has to do what it can to survive while the USA clownsumer hangs on to their cars a little longer and drives them a little less.

Related:
American Clownsumer Reign of Worldwide Terror: Nissan to Cut 3,500
General Reduction in Force
Thriftyness in High End

Downward Spiral: Evraz Oregon Steel Spiral Pipe Mill Layoffs

2008-11-19T21:52:00.000-08:00

Evraz Oregon Steel Spiral Pipe Mill, a mouthful and then some and maker of Steel product, has decided to face the reality of the economic hardships and layoff 130 employees. This is about 13% of their staff and will occur starting as of this posting all based in Portland.

These poor folks will likely be spending less time running through the malls, but they may have some time to get the last little gift they can on the black Friday deals. Some part of me thinks BF will be a slowish day due to people's wallets and line-of-credit being nailed shut, but the other half thinks it could turn out chaotic, violent, stressful, and busy due to people affected by layoffs having more time than money and eager to take it as a last chance to get that Christmas gift.

We just saw a flurry of auto related demand destruction. This is the type of company that gets hit by that weakened demand. I am not sure who their suppliers are, I guess miners and recyclers? They are certainly not the root of the product chain of this sort, so you can bet their own suppliers are going to feel the ripples of this credit contraction tsunami.

One other detail that occurred to me while posting about this type of business and their place in the economy. I was under the impression that the only type of companies existing in the USA were retail workers and some tech people working on a ridiculously bad business plan awash with credit bubble provided venture capital at a company that looks like a 4 year old named it. It seems real product has been created here all along. The strong dollar is a double whammy for any of these guys who had been exporting.

Evraz Oregon Steel Spiral Pipe Mill is headquartered in Portland, Oregon.

Related:
American Clownsumer Reign of Worldwide Terror: Nissan to Cut 3,500
Wedgie Time: Hanesbrands to Soil Almost 400 Undies
Welcome to consumer track
A Googol Reasons why the Great Ad Fallback Biz Model is Full of Fail

American Clownsumer Reign of Worldwide Terror: Nissan to Cut 3,500

2008-11-19T21:44:00.000-08:00

Nissan Motoro Company, an auto maker, has decided to layoff 3,500 employees globally.

In addition to some points covered in these recent posts of their bretheren (See Related links below), this one has a bit of a wider impact than the prior two posts and has an additional notable item to cover. The wider impact comes from the global nature of the layoffs as they slash production to catch up with the slashed demand and slashed profits. The heavily impacted areas for the job losses and local economies are in USA, Spain, and Japan.

The additional note was the protesting and rioting that took place in Spain. Will that happen here in the USA? Are actions like this what the USA government expected when they started a standing army on the home soil effective August 2008? I can only hope things do not get as bad as they seem to be headed.

Related:
America Clownsumer Strikes Abroad Again: Mazda to Layoff
USA Clownsumers Impact Another Country: Isuzu Layoffs
Steel My Mind: U.S. Steel to Layoff

America Clownsumer Strikes Abroad Again: Mazda to Layoff

2008-11-19T21:41:00.000-08:00

Mazda Motor Corp, a car maker in Japan, is also feeling the pinch of the pulseless American clownsumer and has taken action to layoff 1,300 workers in Japan.

I can't really add much more to this than the last post I made, so you can take a look at the related article link below.

Related:
USA Clownsumers Impact Another Country: Isuzu Layoffs

USA Clownsumers Impact Another Country: Isuzu Layoffs

2008-11-19T21:35:00.000-08:00

Isuzu, an auto maker, has decided to layoff people who were working part-time. This is a layoff of 1,400 people.

As we knew here, the auto sector is pretty dead in USA as the clownsumers can barely afford five dollar purchases let alone big ticket items in the multi-thousands. This has been a major factor for seeing news like this out of Japan. The clownsumers can't buy their product, so they have to layoff and reduce creating that product. As part of that cycle, their demand for the raw and built materials that go into that product, like sheet steel, also go down. Additionally, the local Japanese saver or consumer either eats into their savings a bit or consumes less and impacts the local economy there. The world will need to learn how to establish trade with each other and finally decouple from the toxic, debt-ridden, idiot American clownsumer.

Related:
Automobile demand meet the cliffs of the Grand Canyon
Steel My Mind: U.S. Steel to Layoff
Car Parts Falling Apart!
Big ticket items taking big hit

Bless You! Akamai Coughs Up 110 in Layoff

2008-11-19T21:27:00.000-08:00

Akamai Technologies Inc, who mainly provides for file hosting services for businesses and web acceleration, has decided that the demand they saw with all these pre-school named Web2.0 companies might not continue as they die off in a Web2.0 Darwinian natural selection and has pulled the plug on 110 of their employees.

In a strange twist of events, they also got into the property business somewhat and sublease some of their property to some companies who have either moved out or bankrupted, since they will be taking a charge related to that on their books.

Akamai is based in Boston, MA.

Related:
A Googol Reasons why the Great Ad Fallback Biz Model is Full of Fail
More Silly Valley heartbreak
Not So Ready: AdReady Learns About Deflating Ad Bubble

Boring: Boeing to Ground 800

2008-11-19T21:22:00.000-08:00

Boeing will layoff 800 employees in Wichita equating to a bit north of 25% of the staff there. This is not so much from the commercial sector, but more from the defense sector as the USAF delayed their work.

Even the government budgets are going through scrutiny on defense. What a world of a mess we find ourselves in.

Boeing is based in Chicago, IL.

Related:
Governments can lay off too
Cessna Comes Crashing Down
I Don't Want Your Steel: AK Steel to Idle Factories

Tuned Out: TiVo to Layoff Workers

2008-11-19T00:23:00.001-08:00

TiVo, after having lost subscribers, has decided to layoff some undetermined number of staff. I don't know their business model or much about this service due to the lack of the TV Habit. If this is a consumer pays premium type of service, I can imagine people with less to do from being out of work or having more free time at home due to less capability of getting out and spendign money they don't have would look at this as a great unneeded expense.

TiVo is headquartered in Silicon Valley at San Jose, CA.

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Degree in Severance: Oral Roberts University Layoffs

2008-11-19T00:01:00.000-08:00

Oral Roberts University is laying off 100 people, or 10% of its workforce in January 2009. I wonder if those affected will be aware of it before they run up their credit card bills for the holiday season only to get their bill payment due in January and the job loss shortly thereafter.

We had one weather related university layoff discussed here in the past. This is not weather related and I think you will see a growing trend like this. As states are bankrupting themselves and looking to cut on some expenses such as faculty and staff at their state schools. Also as credit is becoming more difficult to obtain less students can enter the system and enrollments are cut, with the faculty and staffing cuts right behind that.

Oral Roberts University is based in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

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Less Digging for Metals: Stillwater Mining to Layoff Many

2008-11-18T23:44:00.000-08:00

Stillwater Mining has announced a layoff of 21% or about 370 of their workers. Due to the deflation coming in force to their primary product of Platinum and Palladium they find it less economical to keep providing product into lessened demand.

Gold generally has a safe haven store of value plus jewelry demand component. Obviously in seeing gold's swoon you can see the demand component was hit. Platinum is generally more affected by the demand portion than a store of value. It is used heavily in the auto industry which is all but dead and in jewelry. Now they got a double hit because both jewelry and autos are big ticket items that consumers are unable to afford or finance.

Stillwater Mining is based in Columbus, Montana.

Related:
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No Walk in the Park: Park Electrochemical Lays Off

2008-11-18T23:28:00.000-08:00

Park Electrochemical has taken charges for a reduction in force at their Neltec Inc. business unit. I have no idea what Electrochemical is, but it must be some hardcore stuff. Combining electricity and chemicals is some serious overlap that probably requires infinite more intelligence than taking a lame Web2.0 mashup of stupidly named product X + Google maps. I don't know what is more cool, electricity or chemistry. Either way, if you're unsure you can merge them and wind up with companies like that.

Neltec Inc. is based in Tempe, AZ.

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Beaumont is Sick: Beaumont Hospitals Lays off 500

2008-11-18T23:20:00.000-08:00

Beaumont Hospitals is taking the precision shears to a few suburban hospital branches to trim costs. They have announced layoffs of 500 employees at Royal Oak, Troy and Grosse Pointe in Michigan. Michigan is battered and due to be battered by the auto drama, but this is a fairly unique area where demand is supposed to be high. I think the staff affected will probably be okay finding replacement jobs in their sector elsewhere, somewhere in the country.

To further impact consumer spending, they will be cutting salaries of some executives and freezing or slowing work projects, which will affect a whole other set of people.

Related:
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Untrustworthy Family: Cousins Properties Reduced Dividend

2008-11-18T23:09:00.000-08:00

Cousins Properties, an REIT, lowered their dividend a bunch. People generally invest in REIT for the dividend, so some fixed income folks and funds will see their fixed income deflated. They go a little bit further and extend their share buyback program dates without increasing the buyback amount. That adds up to some need to conserve cash and less confidence in a quick economic snapback.

That seems prudent to me, the economy is unlikely to perform a sharp pullback to the crazy times we had for most of this decade even with all the irresponsible stimuli, bad loands to bad companies, and bailouts to be thrown at it.

Related:
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Laying Down the Law: Lawson Software Terminates 200

2008-11-18T22:57:00.000-08:00

Lawson Software, a company that makes products you likely don't hear of unless you're a business who buys their back-office product, has decided to reduce staffing by 10% through the first quarter of next year. The help reach that goal they have laid off 200 employees at various sites of theirs. Since they're 4,000 in size they expect the rest to come from attrition.

This example brings up a good point about the reducing staff levels by attrition. When the economy is tight and less people are hiring, workers afraid to retire due to stock market crash, and people more likely hanging on to their job for various reasons will the attrition rates go down? Will these types of strategies wind up in resulting in further layoffs? I do not know the answers, but my conviction would say that the attrition may not be enough and these companies who are near their goal may buyout older employees, cut jobs under the required announcement radar level for their state, or go forth and do another official layoff round.

Lawson Software is headquarteres in St. Paul, Missouri.

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Floating Downstream: Navios Maritime Dividend Partially Evaporates

2008-11-18T22:46:00.000-08:00

Navios Maritime Holdings Inc., a shipper whose profits have sank, cut its dividend by 33% to 6 cents instead of 9 cents. These guys are the kind of guys who are impacted by the Baltic Dry Index (BDI) crash.

At least they were still profitable. As you can see they, as a leading indicator, are not expecting any bounce back in business any time soon and has cancelled 3 ships from its fleet. They are probably expecting continued subdued clownsumers in America.

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Dynamic Shared Pain: Thilmany to Reduce Work

2008-11-18T22:32:00.000-08:00

Thilmany, a company owned by Packaging Dynamics Corp that makes paper, will be doing non-voluntary temporary factory closures which will affect a few hundred people. If these folks do not have enough vacation balance stashed away, then they will be short some funds from thier paychecks on the mandatory work stoppage. This couldn't come at a worse time if they were already living paycheck to paycheck and intending to use these checks to fund their Christmas shopping. The idled locations will be staggered in December and will be in Kaukauna and De Pere in the cheese state.

I would put this up as further fuel to the fire about why consumer confidence and the act of clownsumer spending is depressed across the United States.

Related:
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Papering Over It: International Paper to Slow Production
Newspapers!

KLIK KLAK Go the Shoes Down The Hall: KLA-Tencor Sends 15% on Long Walk

2008-11-18T22:19:00.001-08:00

KLA-Tencor, a semiconductor related corporation, has announced plans to layoff 900 employees.

Their profits dropped remarkably, so they had to take some action. Unfortunately the action resulted in 900 high paying lost jobs in a difficult environment to replace said jobs. Even harder on the individuals going through the job loss is that they may wish to ride out the Christmas season in job hunting, but the January season is unlikely to look better. I guess unemployment may spike during this season, but then when they fall out the other side and can't collect unemployment nor gain employment the stats will show a false lowering.

KLA-Tencor is headquartered in Milpitas, California.

Related:
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Dividend Sunk: Royal Caribbean Cruises Throws Dividend Overboard

2008-11-18T22:07:00.001-08:00

Royal Caribbean Cruises has eliminated their dividend, sort of like Carnival recently did. With tourism down and out and expected to stay down and out, who can blame them for conserving cash? I am sure their shareholders might be upset as some of their income or future expected income source is now reduced.

While pirate activity goes up in and around Africa, the pirates won't have much lucrative bounty, matey!, around the coast off of Florida. Even Jamaica has flipped it's GDP upside down; these are the types of places the cruisers like the former sail in to dock and let passengers spend their money.

Related:
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Drifting Away: Brunswick to Consolidate Production = Layoffs

A Little Economically Greener (Unintentionally): Louisiana-Pacific Carves Out Jobs

2008-11-18T21:55:00.000-08:00

Louisiana-Pacific has whittled away at its workforce by 14% in an announcement of layoffs that affect about 200 people. It hardly stops there, so the fixed income investors can join in on the pain they cut their dividend. Additionally, they are reducing capital expenditures, which means less love to the IT services and suppliers businesses to feed yet more vicious cycles.

In lumber and just now waking up and recognising that building has been overbuilt and pushed up ahead of demand for at least 5 years is quite a bit short-sighted. Tennessee just seems to keep getting a placement on this blog. Things must be fairly bleak out there.

Louisiana-Pacific is not headquartered in Louisiana, they are headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee.

Related:
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Wedgie Time: Hanesbrands to Soil Almost 400 Undies

2008-11-18T21:42:00.000-08:00

Hanesbrands is getting into the cost cutting mood and has announced not only layoffs, but also a closure of a factory. They intend to be skimpier by 395 employees in the layoff.

The factory closure is in China, psyche... It is in China Grove, North Carolina in the USA. That action puts 185 people out of work. The rest will come from various internal operations and management positions with the bulk of those in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

A point not made well across this blog yet is the factory closures, halts, and otherwise reduced operations can be attributed to a few different elements with different weighting for each. One of course is the tapped out clownsumer without bucks or creditbucks to spend and this is significant. Another subtlety that may be overlooked is the relative strength the US Dollar has been enjoying over other currencies as of late. While this makes a vacation more appealing out to Europe, not many people are in a position to head out and spend the kind of money a trans-Atlantic flight and accommodations would incur. The downside of the US Dollar strength is that while American Clownsumers are unable to consume, the products that are produced here become more expensive for other nation's clownsumers and consumers to purchase.

Hanesbrands is headquarted in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

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Erosion at BlackRock: Jobs to be Lost

2008-11-18T21:33:00.000-08:00

BlackRock has sent a memo to employees notifying them of impending layoffs. As the market has gone more south than Antarctica and investors have also called in for redemptions to get their money back and likely plow into US Treasuries which has been strengthening the dollar and messing up exports meanwhile keeping America happy by continued borrowing at low rates, BlackRock has less of a need of staff and more of a need to conserve money.

While the 5,500 employees there await in fear to see if they become a rolling pebble they probably are not out trailblazing in a fury out shopping their hearts out and anticipating an induction into the shopper's hall of shame. At least they won't have to wait too long and will get their pink coloured memo within a week.

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Bad News In A Small Town

2008-11-17T22:02:00.000-08:00

Leon Plastics, a company that's been making plastic parts for automobiles since the days before seat belts were required by law, has announced the closure of a plant in a small Nebraska town called Alda where 140 people used to be gainfully employed.

The closure of a plant is already bad enough, but in this small town (in 2000 there were 652 people there) it is an economic cataclysm. According to Leon, the plant will be fully closed by May 2009, with most of its operations being relocated to Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The rationale? Moving the plant closer to Detroit will reduce costs and increase profits through proximity to the customer. Not mentioned in this rationale is the fact that 5% of the plant's output will be redirected to Satilo, Mexico.

Leon cited increasing distribution and shipping costs as the driving force behind the closure, but in my opinion, it is more closely related to the mismanagement and resultant fiscal cancer that is slowly killing American auto manufacturers.

In typical American fashion, automakers such as GM and Ford tooled many of their factories to make large, expensive, gas-hogging vehicles intended for clownsumers with a HELOC or two.

Now that the credit is all dried up, so are auto sales. And, as it turns out, autos are made of auto parts. Too bad the folks in Alda are the ones taking the shaft on this one.

Leon Plastics, Inc. is headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Related:
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Give Me Dividend or Give Me Death: Liberty Property Trust Cuts Dividend

2008-11-17T21:59:00.000-08:00

Liberty Property Trust furthers our deep understanding that anything related to property in your investment portfolio is dangerous to hold and expect to hold the same value going forward. They did this by slashing their dividend payouts by 24%.

In a long line of dividend cuts coming out this season, I just presented another. This goes to show you that incomes and investment returns can be negatively affected not only by capital loss, but also by dividend cuts and suspensions.

Liberty Property Trust is headquartered in Malvern, PA.

Related:
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Not So Innocent: Virgin Mobile Shaking Off 10%

2008-11-17T21:41:00.000-08:00

Virgin Mobile USA has announced layoffs of 45 former zygotes. They will take 10% off their employee count on both coasts in California and New Jersey. The cuts largely come from their absorbtion of the failed Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) named Helio, which was a joint venture of Earthlink and SK Telecom.

Since the layoff is largely based on a coming together of two companies, I can't say whether the economic hardships forced this. They do make an attractive phone service option for the clownsumer with their cheap pre-pay cell phone services. However, the 45 people who were let go will in turn cause reduced spending for this holiday season as they collect reduced funds under unemployment while searching for a replacement paycheck.

Virgin Mobile USA is headquartered in Warren, New Jersey.

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Corrugated Woes: Georgia-Pacific Cuts 28

2008-11-17T21:32:00.000-08:00

One of the world's leaders in paper and packaging products, Georgia-Pacific is letting go the entire third shift (28 workers) at a manufacturing plant in Bradford, Pennsylvania. In 2000, according to the census, Bradford had a population of around 9,200.

According to G-P, the layoffs are due to continued weakness in the "container board and packaging" sectors. The Bradford facility is one of three establishments operated by G-P in Pennsylvania. It is unclear at this time how many workers make up the entire staff at the facility.

As the consumer appetite disappears as if it were taking amphetamines and smoking cigarettes, the demand for packaging material to box up and distribute products that are not being purchased will be lessened in turn. This of course also affects industries that make money directly or indirectly from distribution.

Georgia-Pacific is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

Related:
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Seeing the Whites of Their Eyes: Putnam Fires 47

2008-11-17T21:04:00.000-08:00

Putnam has fired 47 employees in their announced layoff. Although this is not drastic in number, it can underscore how hard it is to keep your job in finance these days. Included in these cuts are 12 fund mismanagers. The reason they get the mismangement label is due to their relative poor performance to their peers in the mutual fund world. They were lower than 70% of those said peers.

Since the focus is on the clownsumer, how does this affect him? Well, before these managers were given the boot they lost 40% of their funds value, which will reduce the clownsumers investment or 401(k) holdings. In short, it is either less consuming now or less consumign later for holders of these funds.

Putnam Investments is headquartered in Boston, MA.

Related:
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Mediiiiic! UTMB Bleeds Out

2008-11-17T20:41:00.000-08:00

As if the current economic conditions were not enough, Hurricane Ike thought he would stop by Galveston, Texas and make it even worse for the folks at University of Texas' Medical Branch.

The storm caused a reported $710 million dollars of damage to the buildings that comprise the UTMB, including the John Sealey hospital. When you carry only $100 million worth of insurance coverage, this is a very large number.

The result? The University's Medical Branch has been hemorrhaging cash; $40 million a month to be precise. Purportedly, their makeshift coagulant is to put 3,800 people, or 33% of the entire staff on the street. This reduction in staff will result in the size of the island's only hospital shrinking from around 435 beds to 200-ish.

Galveston Island has a population of only about 60,000, so this is quite a dire event for the local economy.

The layoffs are to be completed by November 24th, according to President David Callender.

Dunder Mifflin Supplier in Pain: Boise lays off a lot

2008-11-17T20:37:00.000-08:00

Boise, a paper company based in the potato state, has announced that it will layoff nearly 60% of its employees in Oregon and shut down a couple production machines. This will hit 325 of the nearly 500 workers at the site. You may see this company's logo in the TV show called 'The Office', they make paper.

With newspapers, pace of business (hard-copies), and register receipt printing slowed, their layoff can hardly come as a surprise.

Boise is headquartered in Boise, ID.

Related:
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Papering Over It: International Paper to Slow Production
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Airball, Nothing but Air: Wisair to layoff 30

2008-11-17T20:21:00.000-08:00

Wisair recognizing momentum behind pushing the bleeding edge of technology is slowed and due to slow further has decided to layoff 30 to try and wait for the market to come back to them.

It will be a neat technology once it is refined and the prices come down to be embeddable in a wide range of devices. However, the consumer is not able to buy devices in the regular upgrade cycle with their credit shut off, losing their job, or otherwise hunkering down fiscally in a marked difference from how they lived for the past two decades. This will slow technological progress and some startups who have no plan B and only products addressing future markets will die waiting. That is not to say Wisair is one of them since they seem to have a bulky amount of funding to keep them active.

Wisair has offices in Israel, the country, and Campbell, CA.

Related:
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Whoo Hoo ... I Mean D'oh!

2008-11-17T20:16:00.000-08:00

In the surprise of the decade, failed consumer bank Washington Mutual, who earlier this year filed bankruptcy to become the nation's largest bank failure ever has filed a dubious report with Washington state's Employment Security Department announcing "an undisclosed number of layoffs" to take effect January 31st, 2009. The fact that no number was given, even an approximate, leads me to believe the number is very big and was not provided in order to keep the peace.

JP Morgan, the new proud owner of the failed institution has said that employees who will be put on the street January 31st will be notified by December 1st, 2008.

As JP Morgan re-tools WaMu to better fit their business, expect hefty layoffs from the salaried executives at HQ to be replaced by their contemporaries at Chase. Highly paid executives losing their jobs in large numbers could prove to be disastrous for retail in Seattle and surrounding suburbs if it materializes.

It turns out that greedily and recklessly lending money to people with bad credit and low income on speculation of a continutation of an asset class bubble and credit bubble can lead to ruination. Who'd have thought?

Washington Mutual is headquartered in Seattle, WA.

Related:
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Go Fish: Fisher Investments Throws 50 Back to the Pond

2008-11-17T20:05:00.000-08:00

Fisher Investments, who is in a non-safe industry if you're hoping to keep your job, has decided to throw 50 people back into the job pool. This is in Canada and is additional to the estimated cut of 100 other staffers in the company.

Looks like the market has taken a toll on him and his investors, so they are likely to remain rich, but may be a little less spendy out there for the short term as they absorb these losses. As you saw in big ticket items and other areas catering to very wealthy individuals, they are seeing the recession this time too. That tells you that the recession is either deep, expected to be long lasting, or both.

This company used to manage almost $50 billion and now down to $30 billion. I would venture to say some of that would be market losses and others by redemption due to those market losses. With less money and clients to manage, layoffs were inevitable.

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Citi Under Siege: Citigroup Announced Layoffs Larger Than Expected

2008-11-17T19:54:00.000-08:00

Citigroup went on the high end of the layoffs and has decided to layoff 52,000 employees. This is equal to a small city or a good sized town.

I don't have much more to add to the prior post on the speculation for 35,000 jobs lost. Well, since we're here I may as well indulge myself. This one company alone has called for a layoff in the size of 10% of the relatively large recent initial claims data for the week ending November 8. That figure was 516,000. Amazing that one company is able to contribute so much to keep feeding this government state for many weeks to come.

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Mother Trucker! Paccar Layoffs

2008-11-17T19:47:00.000-08:00

The company that manufactures Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks, Paccar, has announced a 91% reduction in staff at a plant in Renton, WA.

The plant which, in its former glory produced 18 Kenworth trucks per day will now produce 2 trucks per day.

430 of its 496 workers will be let go on January 16, leaving a whopping 66 workers at the plant.

Suffering from a 53% reduction in truck sales in North America since 2006, Paccar is forced to cut output, and as a consequence, cut plant workers. 322,000 trucks were sold in North America in 2006, and this year the expected total number is 150,000.

Looks like as clownsumers are forced to reduce their purchasing velocity of Chinese junk, there will be a suppressed demand for trucks to drive it from the port to their local strip mall.

Paccar is headquartered in Bellevue, WA.

Bankruptcy Numbers Are In

2008-11-17T19:19:00.000-08:00

In a stark reminder of the mountain of poor decisions the average American clownsumer has buried themself under, personal bankruptcy numbers have been released, and it ain't pretty.

Culminating two straight years of increases in bankruptcy filings, these are the latest numbers:

Filings are up 8% from October to September this year.
Filings are up nearly 34% YoY.
This is the first time there has been more than 100,000 bankruptcy filings (there were 108,595) in a single month since 2005 when a new law made it more difficult and more expensive to file.
When compared to filers in 2001, people who filed for bankruptcy protection in 2007 had on average 21% more secured debt and 44% more unsecured debt, but their income had remained flat.
Places where real estate speculation ran particularly rampant were hit the hardest: YoY, California had 80% more filings, Nevada 70% and Florida 62%.

Caught Off Guard: LaGarde Files Bankruptcy

2008-11-16T22:55:00.000-08:00

LaGarde, a software shop, has filed bankruptcy and removed nearly 40% of their employees via layoff. This brings them down to 27 employees from 47.

The company also serves as a good example to show how it is not only banks that have to absorb the impact and write down of their 'assett', but this company left some employees unpaid. There's some lost buying power for feeding the holiday sales machine.

LaGarde is headquartered in Olathe, Missouri.

Related:
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Kumar Would Be Upset: Harold's Files Bankruptcy

2008-11-16T22:47:00.001-08:00

Harold's, a clothing store, has filed bankruptcy and will close all 43 of its stores which cover 19 different states.

With conservative numbers, you can say possible 400 employees will be affected. These 400 will find a difficult time in their job search as many places have already staffed up their retail seasonal hires and many had opted not to staff as many as they had during the peak mania of clownsumer spending. This also leaves a further gap in some commercial real estate's cash flows.

Harold's Stores was headquartered in Dallas, TX.

Related:
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Property, not the Place to Be: AMB Property Hit
I Thought I Saw a Pussycat: Tweeter Eaten
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Another One Bites The Dust: PCS Financial Bankrupt

2008-11-16T22:36:00.000-08:00

PCS Financial has declared bankruptcy, after a probable well-placed lien was put on their assets. This company was involved in commercial lending. Hopefully their lending practices were mostly sane rather than funding some enterprise that could only exist in a world where we had rabid clownsumers spending virtually free money that was lent out widely without risk assessment due to negative traditional rates of return in the credit bubble environment.

PCS Financial being a commercial lender deserves a little expansion in thought. Imagine that they had enterprises borrowing from them and imagine those enterprises can not find their funding soruces elsewhere. These will cause a mini chain reaction in shop closures or halted new development projects. Which in turn affect a little bit wider of a view than PCS's 60 employees spending habits.

PCS Financial is based in Chicago, IL.

Related:
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Max Pain: OfficeMax to do Its Own Layoff

I Thought I Saw a Pussycat: Tweeter Eaten

2008-11-16T22:25:00.000-08:00

Tweeter files for bankruptcy as clownsumers don't have the appetite for high end audio gear when their mind is off worrying about their employment.

This intersects commercial real estate, clownsumer spending, and the holiday season quite well. As these stores close, do you really expect some new wave of retail shops to hit these locations? With the clownsumer wallet bolted shut and the credit lines they have being reduced, eliminated, or becoming more expensive; you can be sure there's a 400 foot grinch coming to a town near you.

Related:
What's Old is New Again: Credit Lenders Getting Risk Priced to Actual Market
Rumor: Circuit City to close 150 stores within 60 days
Bankrupt: Coming Soon to Someone You Know
Down the Slope and Off a Cliff: Yellowstone Mountain Club LLC Files Bankruptcy

Torrential Downpour: BitTorrent Cuts in Half

2008-11-16T22:10:00.001-08:00

Another business emerging from peer-to-peer (p2p) piracy has hit turbulent weather. BitTorrent has cut itself in half laying off 18, hopefully it can be like a worm and survive the cut and grow itself back. Without a clear business model that may be difficult.

Their product is an interesting concept, but I do not know if they patented it and whether it has clear paths to profitable businesses or services. The 18 people let go will likely have a difficult time justifying big and little expenditures this holiday season.

Related:
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Dash and Crash
Pandora's Bawx

Scale Says, Overweight: PayScale Trims 10 Percent

2008-11-16T22:04:00.001-08:00

PayScale has reduced itself by 10% of its staff. They are in the dotcom business of measuring unique hits, which lends itself to an ad backed business model. As we have just seen a couple ad brokers doign their own kind of fat cutting, this company which would use services such as theirs or Google's has an immediate difficult time having people hanging around as revenues sour.

These layoffs are also not large in number, but when you start to add them all up you will get a different taste. As you saw with the crazy high unemployment figures coming out these days, it is making a big impact on the economy. Coupled with the worst consumer spending in a ridiculous clownsumer economy, you have a bad recipe that no one wants to eat.

Related:
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Not So Ready: AdReady Learns About Deflating Ad Bubble
Out of a Jobster: Jobster Cuts to Barebones

Not So Ready: AdReady Learns About Deflating Ad Bubble

2008-11-16T21:05:00.000-08:00

AdReady has faced reality and cut 40 employees off their roster.

These folks probably were worried about IPO and stock option riches not so long ago, now they're worrying about December 25th. The clownsumer in them will be severely impacted and they will send their own rippled waves across their hometown. With reduced outside dining, less spending on unnecessary items, and possible forceclosures it will be a bleak holiday season in anytown USA.

Lots of startups in Seattle these days and lots of layoffs at these startups. I guess this past year was not a good year to be an entrepreneur for ad supported businesses. I encourage you to see the related article googol below.

AdReady is headquartered in Seattle, WA.

Related:
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The Future is not so Brite: AdBrite cuts 40%
Out of a Jobster: Jobster Cuts to Barebones

The Future is not so Brite: AdBrite cuts 40%

2008-11-16T20:58:00.000-08:00

AdBrite, in an early awareness about the problems of the contraction of the debt bubble announced a couple weeks ago they were laying off 40% of their staff to bring them to 60 workers instead of 100.

As we have mentioned, the ability for companies with shrinking profits or realising losses to do advertising to aggregate negative savings clownsumer idiots has been sharply reduced. Luckily these guys recognised it early and cut away at the most significant cost center, namely employees. However, the cut happened in the midst of the October downturn and it made them profitable again. Things are still deteriorating. Do we sense a Round II of cuts?

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Citi Under Siege: Citigroup Keeps Knocking Them Off

2008-11-16T20:41:00.000-08:00

In a major undertaking, it seems Citigroup will cut 10% of its staff. This amounts to 35,000 people globally taken from Citi's already lightened workforce of 350k. This is an adder to the earlier cutbacks of about 20k. A dozen thousand here, a dozen thousand there, soon you're talking some real numbers!

Unrelated to the layoffs, but more related to the same item impacted, Citigroup also intends to lift the credit rates for its indebted servants. First their mega layoffs will obviously be cuting consumer spending; resulting in more layoffs in other businesses and some small local biz going under. Next the higher minimum monthly payments will give their general clownsuming public less leeway to purchase the hot Christmas gift of the season.

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Out of a Jobster: Jobster Cuts to Barebones

2008-11-16T20:23:00.000-08:00

Jobster, who had 150 employees when times were better has been cut down to 25 (from 40). Another really bad name caused by a faulty forward look to what the Internet would become when doing the spec for domain name registrations.

Seattle startups seem to be in a lot of trouble and the ignition just is not working. I guess they did not need to burn through the venture capital they received at such a pace as they were and the opportunity they thought was right around the corner is really on the other side of the recession. Will they see it through and out to the other side? Unlikely that many will, however it is not impossible.

Jobster is headquartered in Seattle, WA.

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Double Whammy Magnified: Micron Technology & Micron Personal Computers

2008-11-16T19:57:00.001-08:00

Micron has a great presence in the potato state. Should I be using past tense for the prior sentence? In what is known in these parts as a double-whammy, the potato state is going to undergo reduced payroll, property, and sales taxes from those affected by each of the Micron actions. Micron Personal computer filed Chapter 11 recently. Micron Technology had a layoff of about 1,500 people last month and has just made a mandatory time off for 12 days. Hope people had been saving their vacation days, otherwise some of these will be unpaid and will have Micron Technology receive some cost cuting benefit.

Take out a map, up and down plus left to right you will see cost reduction methods that will be impacting employees capability to take on debt, spend their negative savings, and otherwise ruin Christmas 2008.

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You've Got to Know When to Fold Them: Ameristar Layoffs

2008-11-16T19:44:00.001-08:00

Ameristar, a casino operator, has begun its layoffs and has hit Missouri with 5-6% staff reductions.

In economic hardship, where cash is king, the need to throw away money had subsided. Another hole goes into the common vice index... Or are things worse than we had anticipated that even the vice index is going down like an office elevator at lunchtime.

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The Sun is Burning Out: Sun Microsystems to do Massive Layoff

2008-11-16T19:35:00.000-08:00

Sun Microsystems, long time irrelevant, has announced it will cut 6,000 employees off their payroll in a massive layoff.

See what happens in a credit bubble? Irrelevant companies are able to continue serviving long past the time when they should. They just keep piling on cheap debt into perpetuity. This can occur since safe vehicles such as treasuries and certificates of deposits are earning negative real rates of returns after counting real inflation. Instead of a sure loss, some people make a decision to take a flyer on a fairly hopeless business. Last time we saw some really cheap credit and investors taking a leap of faith was the dot com bomb. I can tell you this was still going on from the 2004-2008 timeframe. The bill is now due and these companies are going to have to remove the bloat and compete with real and relevant products and services.

Sun Microsystems is headquartered in Sillicon Valley at Santa Clara, CA.

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Extra Point - No Good: Patriots Stadium Undergoes Layoff

2008-11-16T19:29:00.000-08:00

Gillette Stadium, the home of the Patriots football team and a venue for special events such as used car weekend sales, has seen a drop off of their customers in the need to rent out mega square footage for special events and has reduced staff by 5%, dozens of folks.

With trade at a halt, there's less demand for trade shows; which places like this host. Additionally they host other activities like: soccer games (say what?), concerts, and such.. Can you see why the demand for renting the place has lowered?

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LowFi: Fidelity Back at "It", Further Reductions

2008-11-16T19:10:00.000-08:00

Fidelity, who has just recently been shown here, has decided the very recent cut in staff would not be enough and has opted to remove 1,700 more employees off their books.

This case is a perfect example of the statements that allude to the reductions in clownsumer spending by those still employed. Just because someone had dodged a round of layoffs, they will still best be prudent since another round might be around the corner. This case it was just one week later. If you worked there and dodged both of these bullets, would you be out spending up a storm for the holidays?

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DingDingDing: Railroad Crossing, but Less Frequently

2008-11-16T19:03:00.000-08:00

Union Pacific has disclosed the economic impact on their staff. They hit upon a point made here often that the staff reductions are not the only economic impact to employees. They noted that 1,500 people have been affected by the economy in layoffs and reduction in hours. I wonder how many of those are overtime hours that carry extra incentive to the employee?

As we know, we are not in a need of shipping stuff over the seas, through a quick look at the BDI. If almost nothing arrives at the port, then almost nothing gets triaged into DHL or UP vessels. Really makes sense, in light of the fact that the clownsumer does not have the same purchasing power to perform shelf clearing manias fueled by irresponsible borrowing and irresponsible lending. How else wil these clownsumers buy the latest Sunbeam Toaster and pay for it over 30 years on an option ARM loan?

Union Pacific is headquartered in Omaha, NE.

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Rainy Days: Ranieri Co-founded Bank Franklin Bank Saves No More Pennies

2008-11-13T23:35:00.000-08:00

Franklin Bank Corp has filed Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. Ranieri was famous for being a part in creation of this derivatives mess that fueled the credit bubble fires.

Put Your Hammer to Rest: USG Corp Bangs Out Layoffs

2008-11-13T22:59:00.000-08:00

USG Corp, a maker of building materials that are used in construction of residential and commercial real estate and otherwise has no one to sell to for the considerable future, has decided to reduce expenses by layoff of 900 employees.

This can not bode well for the shopping season, which will in turn cause less commercial buildings to be built or remodelled and feed into their luscious cycle. Let's hope they were prudent in spending while the easy money was rolling in.

Back to the employees, this area has been hit with a lot of layoffs, but these are what are called white collar jobs. Those are the types of jobs that will be difficult to replace in this economic client. Poor guys are going to have to let scrooge and the grinch DVD go on rerun to condition their spawn about the harsh realities of the business cycle. I'll bet they were glad to hear the idiot Paulson and Bernanke claiming subprime is contained and not expected to ravage the whole global economic system.

USG Corp is headquarteed in Chicago, IL.

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Hark The Herald Sings: Omaha World-Herald to Cut Jobs

2008-11-13T22:22:00.000-08:00

Omaha World-Herald is cutting 51 workers in response to the slowed economy and less need for advertisements from real estate professionals and all kinds of businesses that cater to the clownsumer nation.

This is not a surprising hit for layoffs, but it has surprised me that it has come out like clockwork. That particular article is funny as in blaming the Internet solely. They fail to take into account reduced ads across the board. Why advertise to broke clownsumers who can't scrub two nickels together, let alone pony up the cash to buy the intended product to fill the gap in their self-made clownsumed identity.

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Epic Fail: Epicor Software to Layoff Workers

2008-11-13T22:13:00.001-08:00

Epicore, who makes backoffice applications, intends to layoff an unspecified number of employees that is likely to be fairly considerable given their size and aim to save $16-20 million each year.

Meanwhile this company is resisting a buyout offer that has just been reduced. Seen that foolishness anywhere else? Oh yea, Mr. Yang please step up and collect your crown of the clowns!

These layoffs are unspecified in number and in geography, but we can assume the clownsumers will be pulling back on spending after the axe falls. Additionally, what if they bought a house in the past 5 years? Quite difficult to hang on to that with a job limbo.

Epicore is headquartered in Irvine, CA.

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Box By The River: Riverside Furniture Downsizes

2008-11-13T22:03:00.000-08:00

Riverside Furniture has jumped in with several other furniture and big ticket product relatred industries in performing a layoff of their own. This company will shed 250 workers in order to manage its finances better.

Like others trying to sell big ticket items, the clownsumer can't go for it and neither can businesses. Suddenly the four year old desk looks like it can last another four. A more prudent and less wasteful style for the business and home near you!

Riverside Furniture is headquartered in Fort Smith, Arkansas.

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Parked Cars in PA: Pennsylvania Turnpike to Reduce Staff

2008-11-13T21:50:00.000-08:00

Pennsylvania Turnpike has collected less toll funds as they have seen traffic drop and in response will either perform a layoff or buyout employment for some individuals. The number of individuals is unclear, but we will get a better handle after they finish collecting signups to leave jobs on Novermber 20.

Either way, less people will be employed and collecting paychecks than before the tally is collected. It is unclear, since I never drive there, whether the reduced traffic is all of the cause of the reduced income for the turpike or whether some of it is due to people not minding spending longer durations in traffic to save the 50 cents or whatever the cost may be. Probably doesn't matter, reduced traffic is probably the primary driver in the reduced income and there's no longer the fuel charge excuses to blame. It is the economy stupid! Less people working means less need ot go out and spend their morning and evening driving around and less weekend driving to curb expenses. Less companies and less business volume also means less supplies moving around the pike.

One takeaway you need to become familiar with these days. Less is better in many of these things, anyone who says we can rescue ourselves by creating more clownsumer spending is thinking at too shallow a level and can't recognise that's part of the problem that caused this mess and will not contribute to the recovery. No bailouts!

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Drifting Away: Brunswick to Consolidate Production = Layoffs

2008-11-13T21:42:00.001-08:00

Brunswick, who makes recreational boats, has decided that people just can't go fishing with all the new found time they have in their hands since the time comes with a lack of money. In deciding this, they saw it fit to be more prudent and consolidate operations out of Maryland and into Tennessee, while sinking payroll demands of 115 jobs.

People just keep pulling back spending on high priced items as if they were the plague. This is a new phenomena, but something that was long overdue. Everyone was trying to live like someone else's lifestyle they saw on their TV and buying up things left unused, underused, or simply not wanted to make up a facade. Clownsumers built identity by shopping; a pretty sad story in my point of view.

Brunswick is headquartered in Lake Forest, IL.

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Max Pain: OfficeMax to do Its Own Layoff

2008-11-13T21:33:00.000-08:00

OfficeMax, a big box office supply store, has decided it had better lighten up its own spending as its customers all lighten up theirs. They have made the choice to layoff 245 employees, many from corporate in Chicago or out in the field.

Sending further ripples through the USA eclownomy (economy), they will slow expansion and remodels. These expansions and remodels tend to offer some employment for contractors and builders. This will not be the case for the near future until the economic cycle picks up and it makes sense to do so. In fact, one might guess store closures or further layoffs is probably the next likely event before expansion.

OfficeMax is headquartered in Naperville, IL.

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Papering Over It: International Paper to Slow Production

2008-11-13T21:23:00.000-08:00

International Paper to shut down one Virginia paper machine at it's mill. IP will be giving 50 employees a long and unexpected break over prior to the Thanksgiving holiday, since it will stop running in the week prior.

You can imagine paper products, which are used all over the place in an economy, will be down. You even see some newspaper casualties these days. One other side note, it is unlikely that only these 50 are to be affected, imagine reduced demand and reduced output. Perhaps overtime will be cut on remaining employees and how that will impact any of those who have maxed credit balances and leave little enough sliver of credit open to make it to the next paycheck. What happens when the reduction of pay comes in? The little sliver becomes smaller and consumption goes down.

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Steel My Mind: U.S. Steel to Layoff

2008-11-13T21:12:00.000-08:00

United States Steel (US Steel), another steel maker, has decided to keep up with their peers and roll out another 675 employees. USA employees will make up the bulk of that with 500 of them being flattened for the holidays.

These guys produce sheet steel used in autos, which we saw had breathtaking drops, and appliances, which also comes in the big ticket scale backs by clownsumers. With no one for their customers to sell to their customers stop buying their products. As the clownsumer is given their forced wake-upp call to reality and buying only what one can truly afford, these incidents will be forever forthcoming. At least until the process shutters away the belligerent excesses of the past couple of decades.

US Steel is headquartered in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.

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Newspaper Woes Continue: The Plain Dealer Increases Layoffs

2008-11-13T00:09:00.001-08:00

The Plain Dealer, a Cleveland newspaper, has upped its layoffs to 50 people. This is more than 15% of the staff. There's 50 more people losing paychecks and then having some dependence on the system rather than payments into it.

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Highway to Nowhere: Kansas to Delay Highway Projects

2008-11-13T00:03:00.000-08:00

Kansas has knocked some fiscal prudence into their minds by force and delays highway funding projects. This is another example of government budget cutbacks and decreased velocity of money in the system. Obviously some folks who were looking to collect overtime to make ends meet and get out to the stores to make a merry Christmas will have to re-think that plan in light of the project delays.

More government fiscal mismanagement spotlighted here. As revenues went up their expenditures went up. Pretty irresponsible, like any farmer could tell you, to not stash away cash in the good times to get you through the bad times.

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Sleep with the Fishes: Holcim Drowns Factory with Cinder Weight

2008-11-12T23:56:00.000-08:00

Holcim, who manufactures cement, has given the death sentence to a USA plant as they have come to realise everything here is overbuilt and there is nothing left to build with the backdrop of bankrupt governments who will be decreasing public works projects expenditures. Many governments are lookignt o scale back employee count and projects, which should have cementary impacts.

These employees are surely not going to be pounding pavement looking for deals this Christmas shopping season.

Holcim is headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland.

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Your Dividend Shipwrecked: Diana Shipping Suspends Dividend

2008-11-12T23:48:00.000-08:00

Diana Shipping has done a curious move. They have suspended their dividend and instead, in my opinion are mismanaging their money yet a different way by repurchasing their shares. Maybe they failed to see the chain of events underway that creates less demand for their services.

He explains levering up at the trough of the market, I agree with that much, but hopefully he is not figuring the trough of the market is soon. It is wise to hold onto cash, so why suspend the dividend and then do share buybacks which removes cash?

Shareholders here will have less income coming in.

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Now That's Logical: CryptoLogic cuts dividend

2008-11-12T23:33:00.000-08:00

CryptoLogic has slashed its dividend a whopping 75% to 3 cents per share.

This company runs online casino-like games where clownsumers can no longer wager away and lose their borrowed monies.

CryptoLogic is based in Ireland, but probably gave a considerable amount of states-side shareholders an income haircut.

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For Whom the Alarm Tolls: ADT To Close Call Center

2008-11-12T23:10:00.000-08:00

ADT will close a call center, and surprisingly it is not in India already. 380 jobs vaporized in the middle of America.

As companies are unable to be free spending or run their operations with reckless abandonment due to misallocated funds driving their profits and sales up for the better part of the decade due to unlimited credit in the hands of unlimitedly dumb people, closures and consolidations will become the new expansion and growth.

Remember this doesn't only hit ADT employees and family. It will also ripple through Papillion and surrounding local businesses.

The call center will be closing in Papillion, NE.

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National Disgrace: National Semiconductor Layoffs

2008-11-12T22:36:00.000-08:00

National Semiconductor has joined the bandwagon and decided to cut 5% of its staff, about 350 jobs lost.

National Semiconductor outcasts can now join their AMAT friends as misery loves company. AS if some sectors, areas, or otherwise products are immune to the clownsumer; this is not one of them. In response, these layoffs will put pressure on real estate in the Silicon Valley. As much as others will thinkt hat their property or their neighborhood is immune, I just say 'give it time'.

National Semiconductor is headquartered in Sillicon Valley in Santa Clara, CA.

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Unable to Hold On: Crown Holdings to Close Two Factories

2008-11-12T22:27:00.000-08:00

Crown Holdings has announced that they will close two Canadian factories and 175 jobs at those sites are at risk.

Must be less bottles of beer being consumed by clownsumers and needing less caps purchased from Crown. Craft beers are pretty expensive and the clownsumer will eye that area when cutting his budget down. That is not to discredit the vice index, there still may be some consumption, but they will shift to old time favorites like Natural Ice and other formerly college only consumables.

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Not too Yummy: Yum Brands Cooking Up Layoffs

2008-11-12T22:17:00.000-08:00

Yum Brands is cutting several hundred jobs as part of a restructuring effort.

It seems this is not likely related to the clownsumer, since fast food is where people will still get their lazy and non-self prepared food fix. Walmart, McDonalds, and other places of that caliber are the main beneficiaries of the slowed down and tapped out clownsumer. Many people were so accustomed to eating out that they still regard a prepared food in fast food as a cheaper alternative to cooking at home. Additionally, lazy and sloth are two character attributes of many clownsumers who will appreciate the lack of effort to plan, think, and act on cooking up a home cooked meal. These fast food food restaurants will be the beneficiary until things get to severe recessionary levels.

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Have and Have Nots: Haverty Furniture Cuts Dividend

2008-11-12T22:05:00.000-08:00

Haverty Furniture has announced a suspension of their dividend to conserve cash.

This should come as no surprise to the readers, since they are involved in furniture and big ticket items. We all just saw what happened to LA-Z-Boy and should be prepared to see this happening all around. Either dividend cuts, layoffs, or store closings will be the norm in this business for the foreseeable future.

For those furniture makers who are overseas, you will see reduced oceanic traffic as there are no goods created to be shipped to be stored in warehouses to be passed along to these showrooms to be non-consumed by the hung over clownsumer.

Haverty Furniture is headquartered in Atlanta, GA.

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La-Z Shoppers slow Furniture Purchases: La-Z-Boy to layoff

2008-11-12T21:57:00.001-08:00

La-Z-Boy decided to reduce their staff by 850 people to cut costs while we are mired in the murky recession and watching it pull the lever and lay back drifting into a more severe one.

As clownsumers are no longer clammoring for their own flat screen TV that will drop in price faster than a new car driven off the lot, they will have less demand for furniture to get comfy in while watching whichever TV they are presently using. Suddenly the old coach that works and is slightly messy can be taken for upholstery cleaning instead of trashed and replaced. The owner can even claim they are being green instead of facing the harsh reality that he is tapped out and can only participate in clownsumption through the reality TV garbage he is fed.

La-Z-Boy is headquartered in Monroe, MI.

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QVC: Sending People Home to Shop

2008-11-12T20:35:00.000-08:00

QVC to cut 5.8% of their staff, or sending 700 people home. These people will plop their bottoms down on their La-Z-Boy couches and channel surf and skip right on by the QVC home shop network. In fact, many other people are already doing the same!

Let's take a moment to reflect; shoping in big box stores is down, shopping in strip malls is down, shopping for luxury goods is down, shopping in malls is down, shopping in Walmart is up, shopping on the Internet is likely down, and now shopping on the phone is down! Notice a trend? Expect it to continue? I do and I do too!

QVC is headquartered in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

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