The NY Times has this great piece on cyclical vs. secular trends in an economy. During the Great Depression while the downturn was cyclical there were developments in technology that would provide positive results in the future.

“We’ve got a double-whammy effect,” says John C. Haltiwanger, an economics professor at the University of Maryland. The cyclical crisis has come on top of the secular one, and the two are now feeding off each other.

We better hope new economic engines and inventions emerge.

I got this email that I felt deserved to be re blogged from WashTech.

Microsoft laid off 872 workers locally last week, while NO Layoffs took place at Microsoft India. Outsourcing is sapping the American economy every day. Americans are training their own replacements every day.

www.washtech.org is looking for your opinions. We’re making short video recordings of people (need not be ex or present Microsoft employees) who want to share their outrage over how corporate America is draining the American middle class. Contact dang@washtech.org, or priyanka@washtech.org with “MSFT Video” in subject line. Participants’ identities will be 100% protected. We’ll walk them through the process.

Here again are the links to both stories referenced above:

https://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9126805

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News_By_Industry/Jobs/Microsoft_to_axe_5000_no_job_cuts_in_India/articleshow/4018523.cms

Looks like Vista isn’t the only thing rotten at Microsoft. These are the games we play with corporations all the time. The “economy is bad” (granted it is bad) so now Microsoft can lay off thousands even though financially they really aren’t threatened and even remain profitable.