Monthly Archives: January 2012

The Credo SuperPac one to support?

Leave a reply

I say you have to fight fire with fire. That’s why you have guys like David Brock of Media Matters going around trying to form these SuperPacs too. I give CREDO Mobile credit here for creating their own SuperPac that will be able to receive unlimited financial contributions.

This progressive SuperPAC is being backed by money the company aims to raise with volunteer-driven rallies, petition drives, and door knocking, Bond noted. The SuperPAC will be able to receive unlimited donations.

What the Citizen’s United v. FEC ruling in the U.S. Supreme Court did to our campaign finance system is extremely damaging. But, you can’t unilaterally disarm, because to do so would most certainly hand the opposition victory.

This actually reminds me of 2004 when you had all these groups running around forming 527′s. You had America Coming Together on the left and the Swift Boat people on the right. It’s a shame we can’t have the campaign finance system the American people deserve. Until then you have to play the game I suppose.

FDA spying on its employees?

Leave a reply

The FDA spied on a group of scientists and doctors for two years. Why? Well, they were sort of going to go to Congress and warn them that the agency was approving risky medical devices.

Information garnered this way eventually contributed to the harassment or dismissal of all six of the FDA employees, the suit alleges. All had worked in an office responsible for reviewing devices for cancer screening and other purposes.

The group of doctors and scientists, who are basically whistle blowers, are arguing that their constitutional rights to privacy were violated–even with the FDA posting notices that no one should have a “reasonable expectation to privacy.” I have to say that this does sort of look like a Watergate-like virtual break-in by the FDA. This just goes to show you that if you are going to be a whistle blower, you’d better cover all your bases and ensure that your communications are done securely off of the premises.

Chevron on the hook for billions more

Leave a reply

As if Chevron didn’t have its hands tied in Ecuador; we now read that they face an $11 billion lawsuit for an oil spill in Brazil.

In environmental news, the oil giant Chevron is facing a possible $11 billion lawsuit in Brazil following an offshore oil spill in November. A Brazilian prosecutor has announced plans to file criminal charges against Chevron and some of its local managers within weeks. Transocean, whose rig was used in the operation, is also expected to be charged.

This is what you get when you get when you allow a corporation to run wild with little regulation. And guess what? Transocean is involved in this disaster as well!

Amazing. A bailed out bank CEO who will not take a bonus

Leave a reply

I’m actually surprised to hear this. Granted, this is in Europe and not the United States.

The Royal Bank of Scotland’s chief executive, Stephen Hester, will not accept a £1 million ($1.5 million) bonus that drew criticism from the British public and politicians, the bank said Sunday.

A representative for the bank, David Gaffney, said Mr. Hester would not receive the bonus of 3.6 million shares he was awarded last week by the bank’s board.

The British people still own 82 percent of the bank. They spent the U.S. equivalent of somewhere around $71 billion dollars bailing RBS out.

Jobs: Teens find it hard to get work

Leave a reply

Newt Gingrich wanted to create jobs by putting a mop in the hand of every poor kid in school and fire all the janitors; I wonder what he would say about this story and the reality of the dwindling employment opportunities for teenagers?

Even as the economy slowly picks up, finding a job is harder than ever for teenagers, according to a national study released on Tuesday. That’s likely because the jobs that are being “created” in recent months are being snapped up by adults—often people over age 50 who were laid off from other positions or forced out of retirement during the economic crisis.

This trend is nothing new. Back in 2006, when Barbara Ehrenreich published Bait and Switch she highlighted the story of a female executive who was laid off and found her self working at a big box store. So yes, the downward push on the labor market is affecting teenagers and their employment opportunities.

Ironically, the growing dearth of employment opportunities for youth—particularly low-income and minority youth—has come just as families most need that extra income, and as the experience the jobs provide is more important than ever for youth to get a leg up in an increasingly competitive labor market.

Even with what was mentioned above, I would say that if you can afford to not work and instead focus on your education that would be the way to go. Like many parents of teenage students would say “you can have a job so long as your studies aren’t affected.” Even in this horrible labor market I think education is more important than ever. Think of what kind of employment opportunities a teenager would have anyway—it would mostly be in the service sector. What kind of leg up is there to have from starting in those jobs early?

As a former boss of mine in retail once said “retail is for the ones who didn’t make it.” I remembered that and fought my way out of it going to college (it was a business school) at night-time for my Associate’s Degree in Multimedia Development and Management. I’m not finished with my education; I’m in debt but I do plan to go back! In the meantime I take the self-taught route via technology books. I’m also a voracious reader in general.

This story also reminds me of the news that some schools in Detroit will begin to offer classes on how to work at Wal-Mart. Now I don’t care what anyone says, retail jobs are not rocket science; so why they are wasting valuable class time teaching this as a subject is beyond me.

I understand that this is Detroit and that the unemployment rate is at 50 percent in the city, so any employment opportunities would be welcome, but this action reeks of hopelessness. Is the best a student in Detroit can hope to become is a Wal-Mart employee? We know about social mobility in this country, so don’t give me the argument that this can be viewed as an opportunity for advancement. A real opportunity would be helping these kids get a shot at college.

High turnover at Giant

Leave a reply

 

I found some interesting information from the UFCW Local 400 blog on Safeway & Giant; it pertains to the high turnover at Giant supermarkets.

According to Jason, while they cite inability to meet payroll costs, store management often cuts the work hours of employees, yet the store still manages high sales volumes.  This seems to be a big factor that contributes to increased turnover of new employees.

High turnover is always a problem in service jobs. It’s a given in retail and in retail branch banking that employees won’t stay more than a year if that. I’ve witnessed it first hand. I think some corporations actually build this in to their financial models and probably look at it as a cost of doing business; the nature of the beast if you will.

In any case I bet that for some corporations it’s probably better to have high turnover, because you won’t have to enroll your employees in benefit programs or have them qualify for unemployment insurance. The one thing that Giant has going for it is that it’s a union shop. Workers in other sectors of the service economy which are not unionized have a diminished voice; unless there’s a worker center or other form of advocacy group fighting for them in the interim to unionization.

Did Apple and book publishers illegally collude to raise prices?

Leave a reply

In the ongoing war between Amazon and book publishers; I was actually surprised to read that Apple Inc. and Macmillan Publishing are being accused of essentially conspiring against Amazon.

John Sargent, the plain-spoken chief executive of Macmillan Publishing, was the first to get on a plane to Seattle to inform Amazon of the decision and to threaten to withhold Macmillan’s books if Amazon did not agree to the new pricing model. Bezos and his colleagues reacted angrily by removing options to buy Macmillan’s books directly from Amazon. Amazon eventually relented, and e-book prices on bestsellers jumped from $9.99 to $12.99 or higher. (The publishers’ move has triggered ongoing antitrust investigations in Europe and Washington, D.C., over whether book publishers and Apple illegally colluded to raise e-book prices.)

How amazing is that? To be fair, I think that book publishers need to realize that like their music and movie brethren and sistren, the media in which people consume their content is changing. While digital books may not really be fairly priced at $9.99, they probably aren’t priced correctly at $30-$40 for the hardcover either. It’s also ridiculous to do what HarperCollins did and delay Kindle editions of highly anticipated memoirs in order to drive people to the hardcover versions.

Thought: I’m typing on a computer not a typewriter. My phone has no wires. I made the shift from paper books to a Kindle—although I will still read a paper book now and then. I also still read print magazines in addition to reading them online. The fact is I’d rather be carrying a lightweight device than a heavy tome. Technology can be disruptive, but you can’t preserve the old ways of doing everything. You can however be as fair as possible with everyone involved.