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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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