Past dooms du jour 2/2004

Timesizing® Associates

hopes/dooms du jour,
Jan.31 + February 1-29, 2004 + Mar.1
[Commentary] ©2004 Phil Hyde, The Timesizing Wire, Box 117, Harvard Sq, Cambridge MA 02238 USA (617) 623-8080 - HOMEPAGE

2/28-3/01/2004 sat-mon (re fri biz)

- #visitors to any of our 694 files, F Sa Su: 722,467,562 - wk's daily avg: 733 -

9 TIMEsizing articles in weekend's GoogleNews = strategic glimmers of hope:

Pennsy office-supplies firm Standard Register tries 11½-hour shifts for a year, loses productivity & some good workers, returns to 7½-hour workday
DaimlerChrysler goes the opposite way from 35 to 40 hour workweek in Germany
US volunteer organizations begin realizing their self-interest in shorter-hours fight
Singapore wants cut to five (from 5½?) day workweek for more family time
US erodes its middle class, not to mention the 'American dream,' with longer hours
more agonizing about US overtime proposal
Australian worries that longer working hours mean more violence against women
Aussies have ideas on how to modify or mollify retirement with shorter-hours work
workaholic reporter at least provides the 6 points in the EU Working Time Directive

& indexing today's Wall St Journal (j) and NY Times (t) = random glimmers:

armies of consumers: 1776's secret weapon? - a revolution built more on shopping & boycotts than on ideals (2/28 t.page A.15)
open letter to voters of Massachusetts from Dennis Kucinich - single-payer health care, repeal 'patriot' act, work thru UN, move from military to social investment, sign international treaties for disarmament & environment, full public funding for state & federal campaigns, instant runoff voting (3/01 boston globe.A10)
state & federal bills vs. outsourcing - require gov't contract work be done in USA, prohibit offshoring of work involving confidential info, require call-center workers to disclose their location to consumers, prevent bidders for gov't work from moving offshore, restrict number of foreign workers firms can bring into US to replace Americans (3/01 j.A10)
iconoclast tells big oil it's fading fast - Amory Lovins of Rocky Mtn Inst. (2/28 t.B1)

vs. doom du jour tm for lack of timesizing - in today's WSJ (j) and NYT (t):

1 DOWNsizing, totaling 900 lost jobs reported in Wall Street Journal (j) or NY Times (t):

Tyson Foods to close Mississippi chicken plant and cut 900 jobs (2/28 t.B4)

DOWNsizing overviews:

biz coalition battles outsourcing backlash - big lobbyists, companies aim at a blizzard of bills meant to keep jobs at home (3/01 j.A1) - 'they're slowing our gutting of America!' - but here's some dramatic 'progress'...
nearly half of black men in NYC are jobless (2/28 t.B15) - yet even with data like this...
economists who champion outsourcing insist better jobs will replace the ones lost (if only 'insistence' paid wages & health insurance!) - mais voilà: new logistics profession appears (3/01 j.A1) - but 3000 better jobs at MIT etc. will not replace 3,000,000 lost ones
Microsoft, amid dwindling interest, talks up computing as a career (3/01 t.C1) - for whom, India?
jobs, from Bangor to Bangalore - US firms are doing well from outsourcing but their success no longer trickles down - 30 yrs ago US highschool grads could get jobs & be self-supporting; not any more - more training or education is no solution when you can't go back to college and support your family (2/29 t.4:12) - & will education in India stand still while we're in college?

DOWNsizing results = 2 eroding-retirement stories:

Social Security promise not yet kept - surplus meant to ensure benefits was diverted - & Greenspan is complicit in this shell game (3/01 g.A15) - but Dems started raiding SocSec fund under LBJ (2/29 t.4:5) - & dismantling graduated income tax under JFK (& opening floodgates to unprecedented immigration numbers under Clinton - now just try & get your teenager a job! {3/04 g.A1})
New York Life pays $16m to settle claims that it failed to provide fair pension benefits to 1000s of sales agents (2/28 t.B4)

DOWNsizing results = 1 homelessness story:

60-person Dignity Village (tents) to be given long-term lease for 1-acre corner of leaf-composting center it currently occupies in Portland, Ore. (2/28 t.A12)

headlines from hell (tm) from Wall Street Journal (j) & New York Times (t) & Boston Globe (g):

Bush & Cheney sooo badly wanted excuse to invade oil-rich Iraq that nobody followed up - not even on first name & fone #, that CIA had been sitting on for 2½ yrs, of 9/11 terrorist who crashed United 175 into south tower - 'Germans didn't give us a last name' (2/29 t.4:13) - weak
spendy - consumers spending but if job mkt doesn't pick up, they can't keep up pace (3/01 j.C1)
WHERE IS EQUAL COVERAGE of Kucinich & Sharpton???

weekend roll-up -
5 issues/wk - wk's avg homepage hits/issue: 83
hope of the weektm from the WSJ & the NYT:
• 19 TIMEsizing items (36+ new or saved jobs) + clouded hope: • 7 makework items (3000+ new 'jobs')
vs. doom of the weektm from the WSJ & the NYT:
• 4 DOWNsizings, over 8700 jobcuts • 1 eroding-retirement story
• 5 bankruptcies • 1 homelessness story
{{ ytd: 173 timsizngs (636+ new or sav'd jobs) + 15 upsizngs (36000 new jobs) + 78 makwrk (34503+ 'jobs') =
total: 71139 = 50% of cuts VS. 136 downsz (143183+ cuts) + 39 bnkrpt ($350m+) +5 homlss +9 prsn +5 suic }}

2/27/2004 friday
all 694 textfiles: # visitors 2/26/thu: 782 excluding spiders (2/27/2003/thu: 862 including spiders)
2 TIMEsizing articles in yesterday's GoogleNews = strategic glimmers of hope:

UK's Rail Maritime & Transport union to strike next weekend for 35-hr workweek
Iowa nurses lobby Des Moines state house for elimination of mandatory overtime

& indexing today's Wall St Journal (j) and NY Times (t) = random glimmers:

global warming reports are urged - pension-fund mgrs representing public employees in CT, ME, NY & NYC called on 10 Can-Am oil firms to produce their plans to deal with potential impact of global warming on their businesses (t.pages C1,3) - ie: are they moving out of polluting fossil fuels into clean sustainable energy?!
Senate votes to require safety locks on guns (t.A14) - but Bush now tries to kill assault weapon ban & keep loophole that lets shady dealers slip weapons to buyers at gun shows (t.A24)
San Francisco appeals court allows medicinal use of marijuana (t.A19)

vs. doom du jour tm for lack of timesizing - in today's WSJ (j) and NYT (t):

2 PUFFsizing items = makework rampant, creating 3000 +?? new ‘jobs’:

3000 new 'jobs' as Vought Aircraft Industries, Dallas, plane parts, sucks up $35m grant from Texas for in-state expansion (t.C4)
Cheney's Halliburton Co. says team of company managers & auditors found deficiencies in its cost-control system for work in Iraq (j.A1) - no kidding

1 DOWNsizing, totaling 3000 up-in-the-air jobs reported in Wall Street Journal (j) or NY Times (t):

strikes in MI & NY 'force' GM to halt production at 3000-worker Fort Wayne IN truck plant till further notice (j.B2)

DOWNsizing overview:

Senate Democrats failed, despite having 12 GOP votes, in bid to extend unemployment benefits by attaching rider to bill on gun liability (j.A1)

DOWNsizing appetizers = 2 takeovers, alias M&As (mergers & acquisitions):

Genzyme agrees to buy Ilex Oncology for $1B (t.C4)
First Data, world's largest processor of creditcard payments, purchased Concord EFS, owner of Star ATMs, for $7B (t.C4)
and one chunk of good takeover news = Justice Dept. sued to block Oracle's $9.4B hostile bid for PeopleSoft, saying takeover would choke competition in mkt for biz-apps software (j.A1)

DOWNsizing results = 1 new-to-us bankruptcy in WSJ (j) and/or NYT (t):

Joel A. Adler in Chapter 11 (t.C3)

headlines from hell (tm) from Wall Street Journal (j) & New York Times (t) & Boston Globe (g):

Bush's Ag.Dpt. resists madcow cleanup proposal from Creekstone Farms of Kan. which wants to rapid-test all its cattle so can resume exports to Japan (t.C1,A14)
orders drop for durable goods due to fewer orders for commercial & military planes (t.A19) - geez, when ya can't even git more warplane orders from waging optional wars!
ex-aide to Blair says Brits spied on Annan at the UN (t.A1,10) - when will Labor Party dump Blair? when will Parl't vote no confidence? not till we impeach Bush?
in search of the pResident's missing years - why hasn't the press learned more about Bush's past? A: he's come up with new set of 'complete' documents every election cycle (t.A25)
House makes it separate offense to harm fetus in violent crime (t.A15) - thus splitting pregnant women in two
new US land mines to pose less long-term danger cuz they go inert within days (t.A12) - like NYC's walk buttons? -
for exercise in NYC futility, push 77% of walk buttons (2500/3250) at intersections = mechanical placebos (t.A1) - gov't dupes taxpayers while wasting their money (t.A1)
Senate panel presses Bush on prewar Iraq intelligence - executive privilege vs. possible subpoena by Congress (t.A10) - King George harks back to Charles I's divine right of kings

2/26/2004 thursday
all 694 textfiles: # visitors 2/25/wed: 801 excluding spiders (2/26/2003/wed: 1055 including spiders)
5 TIMEsizing articles in yesterday's GoogleNews = strategic glimmers of hope:

English furniture firm Deeside Cabinets negotiates three-day, 24-hour workweek with union till end of March to avoid further round of layoffs

W.Va. outlaws forced overtime for nurses

official warns that, with Australian women working 76% more hours than in 1980s & men doing more overtime, family life is sinking & obesity is rising (sound familiar?)

British workers are givin' it away - 5m do unpaid overtime - longest hours in Europe & low productivity - 35-hr week France is 32% more productive, Germany 16%

back in 'death star' DC, Bush is forging ahead with plans to gut overtime regardless of short & long term economic impacts

& indexing today's Wall St Journal (j) and NY Times (t) = random glimmers:

job losses pit CNN's Lou Dobbs against old CEO pals - in campaign he calls 'Exporting America', famed Republican financial journalist rails nightly against offshore outsourcing - recently called for Bush to fire Mankiw (j.page B1, cf. 3/05 j.A14, cf. Howard Stern 3/17 g.D1)

vs. doom du jour tm for lack of timesizing - in today's WSJ (j) and NYT (t):

2 DOWNsizings, totaling 4800 lost jobs reported in Wall Street Journal (j) or NY Times (t):

AT&T Corp. - wireless-bundle deal, 4600 jobcuts, debt repurchase are planned (j.B3)
Schering-Plough says it will eliminate 200 jobs in USA & freeze hiring to slash costs (t.C4)

DOWNsizing overview noted in Boston Globe (g):

record number, 760,000, of long-term jobless losing aid - may exceed 1m by midyear (g.E3)

DOWNsizing appetizers = 2 takeovers, alias mergers & acquisitions:

Silver Acquisition is buying Gold Banc for $672m (t.C4)
France's Michel David-Weill announced a $1.85B merger of 2 Lazard holding companies, Eurazeo & Rue Imperiale (j.A1,C5)

DOWNsizing results = 1 new bankruptcy: Telecarrier Services in Ch.11 (j.C8)

DOWNsizing results = 2 eroding-retirement stories:

Greenspan: 'trim Social Security' (g.E2, t.A1) = Greenspan voted opposition to tax increases [esp. increases for rich?] to contain deficit & proposed scaling back SocSec & Medicare (j.A1) - cuz, hell, he don't need 'em!
US Steel slashes retiree healthcare obligations by $450m for 2003, largely due to Medicare drug bill (j.R3)

headlines from hell (tm) from Wall Street Journal (j) & New York Times (t) & Boston Globe (g):

study finds most healthcare workers do not get flu vaccines (t.A19) - spread! that! flu! - great US healthcare sys strikes again
decline seen in science applications from overseas - concerns raised over US as educational destination (t.A16) - who wants to go where they teach creation 'science'?!

2/25/2004 wednesday
all 693 textfiles: # visitors 2/24/tue: 891 excluding spiders (2/25/2003/tue: 992 including spiders)
1 TIMEsizing item in yesterday's GoogleNews = strategic glimmers of hope:

Hartford prof gets a lot deeper than most commentators but withholds best option (worksharing) too long & develops it too little

& indexing today's Wall St Journal (j) and NY Times (t) = random glimmers:

affluence rises for Asian-Americans - now account for 5% of US wealthy investors (j.D8) - but what about Blacks? what about still-no-casino Native Americans?
US court rejects mandatory levy on dairy farmers for Nat'l Dairy Board's Got Milk? ads (j.D8,t.C2)
WTO says EU can retaliate vs. US & its antidumping laws (j.A12) - US-style free trade again? - cf: EU & S.Korea ban US poultry (j.A12) - 2 US cases of bird flu corelate to 'efficiency'? eg: feedin’em their own poop makes ’em fatter faster?

vs. doom du jour in today's Wall St Journal (j) and NY Times (t):

2 PUFFsizing items = makework rampant, creating unspecified new ‘jobs’:

rapid growth of Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac is a risk to taxpayers, Greenspan warns (t.C8) - why is government in mortgage business at all?
Canada sponsorship flap leads to suspensions of 3 execs of crown corps. - had funneled $75m to Liberal-linked ad agencies (j.A12) - but why was all that dough in a fund to 'boost national unity' in 1st place? Stephen Leacock: 90% of economy is makework (proved by diversion of 90% of GNP to war effort in World War I)

DOWNsizing overviews noted in WSJ (j) &/or NYT (t):

consumer confidence slumps on worries about jobs, finances (j.A8, t.C5)
voters' job jitters raise anxiety level for Bush campaign (j.A4) - trade & jobs at center stage as Dems court Ohio vote (t.A1)

DOWNsizing appetizers = takeovers, alias mergers & acquisitions:

specific - remainder (51%) of Great Eastern to be bought for $1.71B by Oversea-Chinese Banking (j.C14)
general - with a 'recovering' economy, the day of the big deal is back [- the more big deals, the slower the economic 'recovery'] (t.A1) - as memories of past debacles dim, new billions are in a frenetic kind of play [- for the moment anyway] (t.C8)

DOWNsizing results = 2 new bankruptcies:

US units of Parmalat seek bankruptcy (t.C4)
bankruptcies - notice of public sale - Belgium's KBC Bank NV, NY branch (j.C7)

headlines from hell (tm) :

consumer confidence slumps on worries about jobs, finances (j.page A8)
NASD disciplines firms, individuals (j.C6A,6B) = 2/3 page of small print
NASDAQ ends at low for year (2005.44) as stocks' decline goes on (j.C1)
U.S. youths are getting sexual diseases at high rates (j.D8)

2/24/2004 tuesday’s index to top US papers
all 693 textfiles: # visitors 2/23/mon: 905 excluding spiders (2/24/2003/mon: 987 including spiders)

headlines from hell(tm) from Wall Street Journal (j) & New York Times (t) & Boston Globe (g):

UN study shows widening wealth gap between & within countries
- globalization is failing (t.page C1)

general takeover story:

if mergers are back, antitrust monitoring should return too (j.A4) - but what antitrust monitoring did we have before??!

national DOWNsizing noted in WSJ (j) &/or NYT (t):

jobs expected to continue to lag economy [ie: temporarily marketable GDP increments] - new employment isn't keeping up with workforce growth, a Fed bank survey says (t.C11)
letters - lightning rod issue: when the jobs here move there - where's this 'let them eat cake' mentality come from? - human labor is in vastly greater supply [@ 40 hrs/person/week] in China & India than here in USA [& it's already in over-supply here] - economist Bhagwati claims our big problem is automation, not cheap imports (t.A26) - we agree

1 new bankruptcy mentioned in WSJ (j) &/or NYT (t):

150-year-old Oglebay Norton Co., industrial minerals, in Ch.11 (t.C4)

3 PUFFsizing items = makework rampant creating unspecified new ‘jobs’:

Pentagon says it plans to kill Comanche copter program - after $8B for no copters, the U.S. says 'no more' (t.A1,A12)
Pentagon opens criminal inquiry of Halliburton[-Cheney] pricing (t.A6)
Europe learns our litigious ways - in trend toward US-style lawsuits, French union of jobless sues gov't unemployment agency for breach of contract now that benefits abruptly cut off (j.A16) - maybe we'll eventually narrow the income gap by much more 'suing the deep pocket'

vs. glimmers of hope = headlines from heaven
2 TIMEsizing items in the news = strategic glimmers of hope in today's GoogleNews:
• Swisscom's 20% hours reduction has saved 36 jobs
• Seattle Times cites 84-hour workweeks, but where?
+ random glimmers of intelligence in Wall St Journal (j) or NY Times (t) or Boston Globe (g):
• Britain joins others in Europe in limiting immigrant workers (t.A5)

2/21-23/2004 sat-mon (re fri biz) index
- #visitors to any of our 693 files, F Sa Su: 769,536,600 - wk's daily avg: 751 -

weekend headlines from hell(tm) cited in Wall Street Journal (j) &/or New York Times (t):
• total poverty awareness - when will US policies recognize that people stay poor for many reasons?
- 35m Americans below poverty line (2/21 t.page A29)
• Adelphia is next in parade of fraud trials (2/23 t.C1) - after Martha Stewart, Tyco, Enron...

2 bank takeovers = setups for downsizing: • Citigroup buys S.Korea's Koram Bk for $2.73B (2/23 j.C6)
• Bank One's CEO Jamie Dimon (only 'earned' $12m in 2003) wants at least 90% of what J.P. Morgan
Chase's CEO Wm.Harrison ($20m in 2003) gets once they do their $58B merger (2/23 j.C6)

3 DOWNsizings, totaling 3,150 +?? lost jobs cited in WSJ (j) &/or NYT (t):
• 3000 layoffs as American Hospitality Concepts closes 59 Ground Round etc. restaurants (2/21 t.B4)
• 150 layoffs in Wichita & Seattle as Boeing slows air-tanker program (2/23 j.A12)
• unspecified cuts as Shell plans to shut Bakersfield CA refinery (2/23 j.A3) - click for archives

2 bankruptcies reported in Wall Street Journal &/or NY Times: • Rouge Industries in Ch.11 (2/23 j.B6)
• American Hospitality Concepts in Ch.11 (2/21 t.B4) - click for archives

1 eroding-retirement story cited in WSJ (j) or NYT (t):
• judge to investigate retiree cuts at United - airline misled employees re health insurance (2/21 t.B2)
• to work or not to work - two very different answers for today's retirees (2/23 j.R3) - in short, damned if you do & damned if you don't

1 PUFFsizing = makework rampant involving ?? new 'jobs' reported in WSJ (j) &/or NYT (t):
• in season of campaigns, Halliburton joins in, running commercials assuring viewers company
got those billion$ in contract cuz of 'what we know, not who we know,' ie: Cheney (2/23 t.A17)
vs. hope du jourtm
TIMEsizing = strategic hope - the only thing we haven't tried lately:
• NYT finally makes tribute to achievement of shorter workweeks, now vanishing
• British unions declare Friday "Work Your Proper Hours Day"
• 2/3 of business leaders are working 45 hours or more a week
• 26m Americans spend 49 or more hours a week on the job
• Illinois continues fight against federal overtime changes
• overtime overhaul worries workers
+ random hope reported in Boston Globe (g) &/or NY Times (t):
• 1 general UPsizing story - unspecified new jobs as foreign firms also outsource...to U.S.
(2/23 j.A2) - but not as many
• France creates French BBC (2/23 j.B1) & UK creates British Le Monde (2/23 t.C5)

weekend roll-up -
5 issues/wk - wk's avg homepage hits/issue: 81
doom of the weektm from the WSJ & the NYT:
• 10 DOWNsizings, over 29,076 jobcuts • 2 eroding-retirement stories
• 10 bankruptcies • 1 homelessness story • 1 prison story • 1 work-linked suicide story
vs. hope of the weektm from the WSJ & the NYT:
• 17 TIMEsizing items • 5 UPsizings (1000+ new jobs) • 4 makework items
{{ ytd: 154 timsizngs (600+ new or sav'd jobs) + 15 upsizngs (36000 new jobs) + 71 makwrk (31503+ 'jobs') =
total: 68103 = 51% of cuts VS. 132 downsz (134483+ cuts) + 34 bnkrpt ($350m+) +4 homlss +9 prsn +5 suic }}

2/20/2004 friday’s index to top US papers
all 693 textfiles: # visitors 2/19/thu: 855 excluding spiders (2/20/2003/thu: 855 including spiders)

headlines from hell(tm) from Wall Street Journal (j) & New York Times (t) & Boston Globe (g):

in the new economics, Bush boosts mfg jobs by calling McDonalds a 'factory' (t.page C2)
Molly Ivins: globalization begets corporate giantism & kills competition - & capitalism (g.A13)
Japan drops farmers' protections (j.A10) so poised to lose rural consumer base & plunge deeper

4 DOWNsizings, totaling 8,426 lost jobs reported in Wall Street Journal (j) or NY Times (t):

10% workforce cut (8000 jobs lost) as Zurich Financial Services cuts costs (& markets), instead of just trimming its workweek 10% (48 minutes a day for whole firm, including top executives), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training&hiring and keeping everyone together working, earning, confident & buying at least 90% as much insurance as before (j.A8)
350 jobcuts (26% of NJ plant) as GM shifts production to Louisiana (t.C3)
76 cuts as Northwest Airlines closes 25 ticket offices (t.C3)
56 cuts (28x2) as Furniture Brands Int'l tells workers imports will be good for remaining employees (j.A1>6)
(?? jobs lost as Women's Industrial Union closes its 127-yr-old gift shop in Boston {g.B1} )

national DOWNsizing noted in WSJ (j) &/or NYT (t):

initial jobless claims fall by 24,000 (j.A2, t.C6) - but many discouraged jobhunters 'externalize' selves into underlying barter system as automation (dba 'productivity') rolls on
dark side of free trade - anxiety grows as good jobs disappear (t.A27)

3 new bankruptcies mentioned in WSJ (j) &/or NYT (t):

Alphastar Insurance Group in Ch.11 (j.C13, t.C4)
Suncos Corp. in Ch.11 (j.C13)
Altheimer & Gray changed to Ch.11 (j.C13)

vs. glimmers of hope = headlines from heaven
4 TIMEsizing items in the news = strategic glimmers of hope in today's GoogleNews:
• Furniture Brands Intl's N.C. plant uses 4-day workweeks to fight top-mgmt's disinterest in American workforce or consumer base
• Canadian Union of Public Employees advances priority of shorter workweeks & overtime limits
• S.Korea plans reductions in working hours to curtail layoffs & help achieve 2 million new jobs
• China demoes hell with 12- to 18-hour workdays for millions
+ random glimmers of intelligence in Wall St Journal (j) or NY Times (t) or Boston Globe (g):
• 1 UPsizing - unspecified new jobs as new hires climb aboard revitalized US freight trains (g.A3)
• impeach Bush ad (t.A22) - Bush hit hard in primary season: Pew poll (g.A20)
- rebellion in ranks of GOP governors vs party line on taxcuts for rich (j.A1,A4)
• New Mexico - sales tax on food is repealed (t.A22) - want recovery? tax the rich, not sales

2/19/2004 thur’s index to top US papers
all 693 textfiles: # visitors 2/18/wed: 847 excluding spiders (2/19/2003/wed: 826 including spiders)

headlines from hell(tm) from Wall Street Journal (j) &/or New York Times (t):

Harvard study found million-dollar homes now no rarity, & 31% paid for in cash (j.page A1)
- thousands more millionaires, millions more poor
dismal report card - US companies got walloped with worst image assessment in Harris Poll history - eg: 'not good' & 'terrible' (j.A1)
the federal debt has passed the $7 trillion mark, the Treasury said, confronting Congress with the necessity of raising the ceiling again soon (j.A1)
Senator Grassley says report chronicling misconduct by FBI agents is a 'list of horrors' - includes rape, embezzlement & extortion (j.A1, t.A16)
Bush administration accused in Union of Concerned Scientists report of suppressing research data that run counter to its policies (j.A1) & unprecedentedly distorting science (bos globe.A6)
traffic bottlenecks have increased 40% since 1997 (j.A1) - time to discuss population limits?

national DOWNsizing: White House backs away from rosy jobs forecast (t.C1) = another reversal?

1 new bankruptcy mentioned in WSJ (j) &/or NYT (t): Southwest Recreational Industries Inc (j.C9)

1 eroding-retirement story, slightly uneroded: judge says IBM owes older workers for shorting them when it shifted from fixed-benefits to cash-balance pension plan in '90s (t.C10)

1 homelessness story: China's [& America's] mean streets - problem of homeless children amid rural poverty & frayed safety nets grew by 50% in past decade to 150k official, 600k actual - worse in USA where up from 327k in '91 to 930k in 2000 (j.A1>11) - see archives

1 PUFFsizing item = makework rampant creating unspecified new ‘jobs’: Russia seen achieving anti-missile system evasion - Pentagon downplayed announcement, saying Putin could already defeat its $30.2B Star Wars program (boston globe.A9) - so Star Wars is pure dysfunctional makework

vs. glimmers of hope = headlines from heaven
2 TIMEsizing items in the news = strategic glimmers of hope in today's GoogleNews:
• Ontario Liberals are going after medieval labor laws of Conservatives, eg: 60-hour workweek
• symbiotic jobshare in Oregon between two schoolteacher-moms
+ random glimmers of intelligence in Wall Street Journal (j) or NY Times (t):
• 3 UPsizings, 1000+?? new jobs
- Bank of America finalized plans to employ 1,000 back-office people in Bangalore, India (j.B9)
- Ford said to be planning assembly plant in Nanjing, China as part of $1B investment (t.W1)
- emerging-market Wall Street jobs grow quietly, contrast late 90s when many laid off (j.B7B)

2/18/2004 wed’s index to top US papers
all 693 textfiles: # visitors 2/17/tue: 886 excluding spiders (2/18/2003/tue: 903 including spiders)

headlines from hell(tm) from Wall Street Journal (j) &/or New York Times (t):

board games - Recurrent Crisis in Corporate Governance, by Paul MacAvoy & Ira Millstein
- CEO often heads group that's supposed to monitor his performance = problem (j.page D4)

2 banking + 3 regular takeovers = appetizers for DOWNsizing:

National City of Cleveland will buy Provident Financial of Cincinnati for $2.1B (j.A1 & t.C3)
Sun Bancorp to acquire Community Bancorp of NJ for $83.2m (t.C3) - click for roundup
$41b offer by Cingular Wireless takes AT&T Wireless (j&t.A1)
Disney acquired much of Henson's muppetworks which family just bought back for $73m (j.A1)
Owens-Illinois to buy Euro glassmaker BSN for .625+.835= $1.46B (j.A1)

economywide takeovers: ahead of tape - recovery spawns M&A revival (j.C1) - which will kill it

1 DOWNsizing, totaling unspecified lost jobs: Huffy Corp. staff to be reduced by 20% (j.A12)

economywide DOWNsizing noted in WSJ (j) &/or NYT (t):

take this job & be thankful (for $6.80 an hour) - The Working Poor: Invisible in America by David Shipler (t.B8) - re Wal-Mart lady in NH: if she hadn't been poor, she wouldn't have lost her teeth, & if she hadn't lost her teeth, she would have got promotions & not been poor
2 Bush officials cautious on job-growth forecast of 2.6m new jobs = Treasury's Snow & Commerce's Don Evans (t.A17), plus Mankiw's now claiming he was misinterpreted (t.A16)

2 new bankruptcies mentioned in WSJ (j) &/or NYT (t): o RCN Corp. plans Chap.11 (j.A12 & t.C3)
o EliteAgents Mortgage Services Inc. & Milestone Capital Inc. in consolidated Chap.11 (j.C12)

1 'work'-linked suicide in Boston Globe (g): target in probe of law grants is a suicide in Georgia
- Richard St. Louis, law enforcement consultant & former Mass. state public safety official (g.A1)

1 PUFFsizing item = makework rampant creating unspecified new ‘jobs’: downtown Philadelphia roiled by proposed subsidy - should a Comcast skyscraper be eligible for tax abatements? (t.C4)

vs. glimmers of hope = headlines from heaven
2 TIMEsizing items in the news = strategic glimmers of hope in today's GoogleNews:
• flexible working hours a distraction from real goal = reduced working hours
• flexible working hours do not lead automatically to reduced working hours
+ random glimmers of intelligence in Wall Street Journal (j) or NY Times (t):
• 1 UPsizing - tribe finds ways to create unspecified new jobs
- bucking trends, Winnebago Indians of Nebraska build new businesses (j.A4)
• customer satisfaction at 9-year high due to restrained pricing & better product quality (j.D1)
• Dutch lower house votes to expel 26,000 denied political asylum, accept 2,300 (t.A3)

2/17/2004 tuesday’s index to top US papers
all 693 textfiles: # visitors 2/16/mon: 762 excluding spiders (2/17/2003/mon: 745 including spiders)

headlines from hell(tm) in the Wall Street Journal (j) &/or New York Times (t):

consumer confidence slid in early Feb., especially among lower-income households (j.page A1)
health of nations (t.A23) - 43m Americans lacked health insurance 4¼ years ago (11/20/2000 )
- why not every 5 yrs lower Medicare eligibility by 5 yrs of age?! - NY's Harold Locker (t.A22)
4,450 priests accused of abuse (t.A14) = 4% of US priests (boston globe.A1) = job perk?
Japanese capital and jobs flowing to China (t.C1)

1 big bank takeover = appetizer for DOWNsizing:

North Fork Bancorp to acquire GreenPoint Financial for $6.3B (t.C2) - click for roundup

2 DOWNsizings, totaling 17,500 lost jobs reported in NY Times (t) or Boston Globe (g):

Siemens to shift 15,000 jobs from US & W.Europe to India, China & E.Europe (g.C2)
2500 flight attendants took early retirement last summer, pushed by United (t.C2) - cf. 2/15/2003

economywide DOWNsizing noted in WSJ (j) &/or NYT (t):

more Americans are leaving the work force (j.B1) - goodbye consumer base & 1st-world status
'despite the outcry, Mankiw was right about outsourcing' - it's economists vs. everybody else (j.A4) proving Joan Robinson's view that economics is a branch of theology (Econ.Philosophy)

2 new bankruptcies mentioned in WSJ (j) &/or NYT (t):

Logan Medical Foundation dba Logan General Hospital in Chap.11 (t.C2)
EliteAgents Mortgage Services Inc. & Milestone Capital Inc. in consolidated Chap.11 (j.C12)

1 prison item:

Denmark: prison riot over dumbbell ban - at Nyborg, 90-min protest over removal of weights from workout rooms & crackdown on steroids - inmates were becoming 'monster men' (t.A7)

1 PUFFsizing item = makework rampant creating unspecified new ‘jobs’:

White House & Citigroup are proposing $200m plan to finance Iraqi imports, with oil sales guaranteeing bank revenue (j.A1) - 'oh what a tangled web we weave'

vs. glimmers of hope = headlines from heaven
3 TIMEsizing items in the news = strategic glimmers of hope in today's GoogleNews:
• 1000 Indonesian candy workers strike for cut to 5-day, 40-hour workweek
• job sharing under a microscope in North Carolina
• outsourcing (& uncontrolled immigration & tech disemployment) is bringing 80-hour workweeks from Third World back to America, eg: Walmart
+ random glimmers of intelligence in Wall Street Journal (j) or NY Times (t):
• why our immigration laws must be enforced (j.A21)
• leaders on Cyprus accept deal on bridging island's Greek-Turkish divide (j.A1) - potentially ending 40-yr conflict (2/14 t.A1)
• good times roll on for developing world, for now (t.C1) - never mind wipeout of globe-serving consumer base in US-Japan-Europe

2/14-16/2004 sat-mon (re fri biz) index
- #visitors to any of our 692 files, F Sa Su: 647,400,496 - wk's daily avg: 683 -

weekend headlines from hell(tm) cited in Wall Street Journal (j) &/or New York Times (t):
   America in decline - 4 alarming editorials (2/14 t.page A28):
   • privacy in peril - Ashcroft's subpoenaing 6 hospitals to destroy women's reproductive rights
   • triumph for sugar lobby - more free-trade-when-it-suits-us in exemption from deal with Australia
   • kith & kin inc. - 28 Congressmen have relatives working as paid lobbyists or gov't consultants
   • snowmobiles unleashed - Yellowstone phase-out halted so instant jump from 490 to 700 a day

2 DOWNsizings, totaling 200 +?? lost jobs cited in WSJ (j) &/or NYT (t):
• 200 jobcuts (0.07%) as Home Depot closes Seattle support ctr & spends more on cptrs (2/14 t.B4)
• unspecified cuts as CKE Restaurants closes 28 Hardee's (2/14 t.B4) - click for archives

1 new bankruptcy reported in Wall Street Journal &/or NY Times: • Delaco (2/14 t.B4)

1 homelessness story: • amid Manhattan's wealthiest, Richie Spagnole slept in tenement boiler rooms but found open hearts for 10 yrs on Upper East Side - then got job & new life from fish mkt (2/14 t.A1)

1 PUFFsizing = makework rampant involving ?? new 'jobs' reported in WSJ (j) &/or NYT (t):
• Cheney-linked Halliburton Co. likely to be campaign issue this fall as its troubles grow (2/14 t.A12)
vs. hope du jourtm
TIMEsizing = strategic hope - the only thing we haven't tried lately:
• Australian train engineers refuse to be lured into looser overtime rules by higher pay
• New Zealand gov't has campaign to combat citizens' workaholic culture
+ random hope reported in Boston Globe (g) &/or NY Times (t):
• 2 UPsizings - 35,000 new jobs as Home Depot plans 175 stores (2/14 t.B4) - compare 1/19
- ?? news jobs as gypsum maker BPB plans $100m plant in Roxboro NC (2/14 t.B4)

weekend roll-up -
5 issues/wk - wk's avg homepage hits/issue: 61
doom of the weektm from the WSJ & the NYT:
• 11 DOWNsizings, over 1,710 jobcuts • 1 eroding-retirement story
• 4 bankruptcies • 1 homelessness story • 1 work-linked suicide story
vs. hope of the weektm from the WSJ & the NYT:
• 23 TIMEsizing items • 2-1 prev.counted = 1 UPsizing (35000 new jobs) • 4 makework items
{{ ytd: 137 timsizngs (600+ new or sav'd jobs) + 10 upsizngs (35000 new jobs) + 67 makwrk (31503+ 'jobs') =
total: 67103 = 64% of cuts VERSUS 122 downsz (105407+ cuts) + 24 bnkrpt ($350m+) +3 homlss +8 prsn +4 suicid }}

2/13/2004 friday’s index to top US papers
all 692 textfiles: # visitors 2/12/thu: 760 excluding spiders (2/13/2003/thu: 796 including spiders)

headlines from hell(tm) from Wall Street Journal (j) &/or New York Times (t):

media knots tightening with Comcast bid for Disney - 'arms race' of mergers (t.page A1)
- less diversity, more downsizing
Cuba detentions may last years (t.A1) - no more 'justice for all'
enemy of environment - Bush has record of putting lobbyists in influential jobs in executive branch, now an anti-environment one, Wm.Myers, in a judgeship (t.A28)
Bush distances self from his economist's praise for outsourcing jobs (j.A4) - another reversal
Mexico demands US & UK answer Chile's charge that they spied on UN delegates in last year's frantic hunt for war resolution votes (j.A1)
weak European & Japanese consumer spending render recovery vulnerable (j.A1)
Israel boycotts international hearings in The Hague on its fence around Palestinian areas (j.A1)
Russia's healthcare is crumbling (j.A9) - & so is USA's

3 DOWNsizings, totaling 50 +?? lost jobs reported in Wall Street Journal (j) or NY Times (t):

50 laid off as Scalamandré fabric mill moves from Queens NY to S.C. (t.A27)
unspecified jobs lost as 2 more historic NYC restaurants close - 125-yr-old Gage & Tollner, and
45-year-old La Côte Basque (t.A26)

economywide DOWNsizing noted in WSJ (j) &/or NYT (t):

retail sales mixed; jobs weak - Labor Dept. said wk's initial jobless claims rose 6000 to 363k (t.C3)
H-P chief on outsourcing - Carly Fiorina, 'no job is America's God-given right any more' (j.A1) - never was, tariffs made it so; 'solution is innovation' - not if CEOs keep following it downsizing rather than timesizing

vs. glimmers of hope = headlines from heaven
4 TIMEsizing items in the news = strategic glimmers of hope in today's GoogleNews:
• fatal disaster on Staten Island Ferry evokes report recommending less overtime
• American Residential & AmNet reduced layoffs by eliminating overtime
• big German union IG Metall preserves 35-hour workweek, barely
• the opposite of timesizing is slavery, e.g., today, in Brazil

2/12/2004 thur’s index to top US papers
all 691 textfiles: # visitors 2/11/wed: 824 excluding spiders (2/12/2003/wed: 875 including spiders)

headlines from hell(tm) from Wall Street Journal (j) &/or New York Times (t):

chief Bush economist Mankiw says outsourcing jobs helps economy, some Dems echo (j.A4)
fashion - hemlines higher in 2 fotos, lower in 5 (t.A28)
- colleague Kate: in well-known co-relation, economy follows hemlines
Maureen Dowd rakes the neo-Khan artists

2 takeover rebuffs (good news):

judge rules in favor of opponents of MONY takeover by AXA (t.C5)
the mouse besieged - federal regulators should make Comcast work harder to win them over on this $54B deal than Disney shareholders (t.A32)

2 DOWNsizings, totaling 50 +?? lost jobs reported in Wall Street Journal (j) or NY Times (t):

12% workforce cut last year (50 jobs lost) as Lycos focuses on subscription-based services, instead of just trimming its workweek 12% (to five 7hr2min days for whole firm, including top executives), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training&hiring and keeping everyone working, earning, confident & buying at least 88% as many toys as before (t.C8)
unspecified cuts as Travelocity.com closes a customer-service center in Virginia & outsources some work in San Antonio (t.C8)

1 'work'-linked suicide: healthy student Traci Johnson, 19, in paid trial of new Eli Lilly 'antidepressant' duloxetine aka Cymbalta, became this drug's 5th suicide (t.A22) - how many does Lilly need? followup - many patients quit a medical trial of new antidepressant after participant killed herself (2/13 j.A1)

1 PUFFsizing item = makework rampant creating unspecified new ‘jobs’: tax questions for US military contractors - 27,000 (1 in 9) are evading taxes yet continuing to win new gov't business (t.C3)

vs. glimmers of hope = headlines from heaven
5 TIMEsizing items in the news = strategic glimmers of hope in today's GoogleNews:
• NZ's biggest union is focusing on shortening workweek to 37½ hours (from 40?)
• Euro opposition to UK's over-48-hour workweek mounts
• short-sighted S.Korean 'research' institute fights workweek reduction
• company-level slippage on workweek length in Germany
• baggage workers in South Africa fight company's attempt to increase 40-hr workweek to 45
+ random glimmers of hope in Wall Street Journal (j) or NY Times (t):
• what dollar's decline means: time to wean foreigners from dependence on US consumers (j.A1)
• Mr. Greenspan weighs in vs. Bush - contradicts Bush line that deficits 'insignificant' (t.A32)
• FBI vs. Bush - anxiety takes hold of pResidential aides in inquiry over CIA ID leak (t.A24)
• Hastert vs. Bush - house GOP leaders, under pressure, weigh cutting Bush's budget (t.A24)

2/11/2004 wed’s index to top US papers
all 690 textfiles: # visitors 2/10/tue: 814 excluding spiders (2/11/2003/tue: 910 including spiders)

3 DOWNsizings, totaling 550 +?? lost jobs reported in Wall Street Journal (j) or NY Times (t):

500 US jobs destroyed as DaimlerChrysler shifts work from Tower Automotive to Mexico (t.C4)
50 mainly equity salespeople cut as Goldman Sachs offsets shrinking stock-unit profits (j.C4)
unspecified cuts as premier NYC French restaurant Lutèce closes after 43 years (t.A1>D1)

1 new bankruptcy mentioned in WSJ (j) &/or NYT (t):

Atrium Plaza Health Care Center Inc. in Chap.11 (j.C17)

headlines from hell(tm) from Wall Street Journal (j) &/or New York Times (t):

bird flu is HERE - mild form in Delaware thwarts hopes of fast gain in sales to Asia (j.B2)
broadband fiasco - US trails Canada, Italy, S.Korea in high-speed Internet use (j.A18)
French bid to cut 20% dining tax fails but US still trails France in popularity with tourists (j.A16)
US revenue springs a leak - costs of healthcare, pensions might explain shortfall (j.A4)
- couldn't be taxcuts for rich & more uncounted jobless, oh no!

vs. glimmers of hope = headlines from heaven
4 TIMEsizing items in the news = strategic hope in today's GoogleNews:
• big German union finally gets first things first = worktime issue
• engineers union in New Zealand pushes for cut to 37½-hour workweek
• in 'Sweatshop China,' seven 20½-hour days = 143.5-hour workweeks
+ random glimmers of hope, in Wall Street Journal (j) or NY Times (t):
• 1 UPsizing - 4000 new Cognizant jobs in India pay 20% of US as profit rises 94% (t.C13)
• Finland fines according to ability to pay - sausage heir fined $216,000 for speeding (t.A10)
• without US, EU pursues effort to regulate credit-rating firms (j.C5) - two can play 'go it alone'
• Kerry's quest for focus = let US hook up with old friends, unhook from oil addiction (j.A4)

2/10/2004 tuesday’s index to top US papers
all 690 textfiles: # visitors 2/09/mon: 840 excluding spiders (2/10/2003/mon: 931 including spiders)

headlines from hell(tm) from Wall Street Journal (j) &/or New York Times (t):

Mr. Bush's revisionism - hasn't vetoed a single spending bill so far (t.A26)
9/11 panel threatens to issue subpoena for Bush's briefings (t.page A16) - what's he scared of?
followup - White House backed down in latest battle with 9.11 commission - subpoena threat led it to offer intelligence summary briefings (2/11 j.A1)
White House backs away from Bush '02 nuke-terror warning (j.A4) = another Bush reversal?
Iraq 'pacification' has replaced Iraq 'reconstruction' & 'democracy' or 'nation building' (j.A1)
antiwar forum in Iowa elicits federal subpoenas (t.12) - another Bushy intimidation mistake?
followup - subpoenas on antiwar protest are dropped - US attorney reverses course on university peace demonstration (2/11 t.A16)
Dems suggest inquiry points to wider spying by GOP - Dem strategy memos somehow got into hands of GOP staffers (t.A17) - GOP still doesn't ‘get’ Watergate?
tough accountability rules hit bottom lines, CEOs say (j.A1) - want all accountable but selves?
minority apps at U.Mich. 23% below last year when High Court hit its affirmative action (j.A1)
G7's seemingly tougher stance on dollar's fall yields to impression of same-ol', same-ol' (j.C2)
ATVs (all-terrain...) take off in sales, fall into regulatory void, & deaths, injuries mount (j.A1)

2 big takeovers = appetizers for DOWNsizing:

Juniper Networks to acquire NetScreen Technologies in deal for $3.63B (j.A3)
Singapore's ST Assembly Test Services nears deal to buy Calif.'s ChipPac for $1.5B takeover in stock (j.A9) - on good side, PeopleSoft's board rejects Oracle's sweetened takeover bid (j.A1) & Justice lawyers advise against deal (2/11 j.A3)

1 DOWNsizing, totaling 860 lost jobs reported in Wall Street Journal (j) or NY Times (t):

860 jobcuts as Circuit City closes 19 money-losing superstores across 15 states (t.C4)

economywide DOWNsizing noted in the WSJ (j) &/or the NYT (t):

jobs, jobs, jobs - why is Bush so cheerful? (t.C4)

2 new bankruptcies mentioned in WSJ (j) &/or NYT (t):

big music retailer Tower Records & its parent MTS Inc. files for Ch.11 (t.C1)
PDC Milford Power LLC, Milford Power Co. LLC, et al. - fine print cloaks liquidation? (j.C13)

1 eroding-retirement story in NYT (t) or WSJ (j):

political money said to sway pension investments - racketeering suit asserts conflicts of interest in Pa.'s Luzerne County pension fund, another case of possible tainting by campaign contribs when elected officials sit on gov't pension boards (t.A1,C1)

2 PUFFsizing items = makework rampant creating unspecified new ‘jobs’:

Bush spanks Fannie...Mae (j.A16) - but will he stanch this potentially lethal leak in gov't budget & overall financial system?
Iraq pacification garnished with Kuwait's wanting own Halliburton inquiry (j.A1)

vs. glimmers of hope = headlines from heaven
4 TIMEsizing items in the news:
• big S.Korean union starts work-sharing campaign by reducing overtime hours
• the human side of the workweek reduction in S.Korea coming up on July 1
• the other side - OxFam monitors longer hours pushed on world's women workers
• Euro Parliament votes today on enforcing 48-hour workweek cap on Britain, no 'opt-outs'
+ random glimmers of intelligence, in Wall Street Journal (j) or NY Times (t):
• the Right begins backing Bush a bit less - ranks in conservative press start to sway (t.A21)
• Howard Dean now says loss in Wisconsin wouldn't end his campaign (t.A18)
• German resistance to US-style management consulting ('downsize!') grows (j.A14)
• inflation could narrow China wage gap (j.A14) - but not if CEOs keep grabbing more & more
• condoms at Carnival in Brazil - 10 million handed out free vs. spread of AIDS (t.A8)

2/07-09/2004 sat-mon (re fri biz) index
- #visitors to any of our 691 files, F Sa Su: 750,463,591 - wk's daily avg: 728 -

weekend headlines from hell(tm) cited in Wall Street Journal (j) &/or New York Times (t):
• survey finds profit pressure is leading to poor decisions - a conclusion that the short term often
eclipses the long term (2/07 t.page B3) - but hey, Short-Term Capitalists 'R' Us

3 DOWNsizings, totaling 3070 +?? lost jobs cited in WSJ (j) &/or NYT (t):
• 3000 jobcuts (9%) as Cigna cites drop in policyholders (2/07 t.B2)
• 70 cuts as Alberto-Culver sells Illinois plant (2/07 t.B4)
• unspecified cuts as Archer Daniels Midland of Decatur IL, world's largest grain processor,
plans to close plant in Leer, Germany (2/07 t.B4)

2 general DOWNsizing stories in WSJ &/or NYT:
• job growth (112k) picks up in Jan. but misses forecasts (175k) & even 150k
= new-entrant absorption level (2/07 t.B1)
• jobless rate unchanged at 7.4% in Canada (2/07 t.B1)

1 PUFFsizing = makework rampant involving ?? new 'jobs' reported in WSJ (j) &/or NYT (t):
• Halliburton Co. subsidiary is part of consortium alleged to pay $180m in bribes
   to land natural-gas contract in Nigeria (2/09 j.B5)
vs. hope du jourtm
TIMEsizing = strategic hope - the only thing we haven't tried lately:
• Australian electrical union votes for statewide campaign
   to win 36-hour workweek of four 9-hour days
• Israeli cabinet sets team to explore cutting workweek to 5 days (from 5&189;? or 6?)
   - and 4 other worktime news items
+ random hope reported in WSJ (j) &/or NYT (t):
• Bush finds party faithful in an ugly mood - activists see conservative agenda
   threatened by growing doubts about grassroots base (2/09 j.A4)
• administration's message on war in Iraq now strikes discordant tones - are
   pResident's ranks still uniform, or is it every warrior for himself? (2/07 t.A8)

weekend roll-up -
5 issues/wk - wk's avg homepage hits/issue: 70
doom of the weektm from the WSJ & the NYT:
• 21 DOWNsizings, over 9,241 jobcuts
• 2 bankruptcies • 5 eroding-retirement stories • 2 prison stories
vs. hope of the weektm from the WSJ & the NYT:
• 18 TIMEsizing items • 4 UPsizings + clouded hope: • 15 makework items
{{ ytd: 114 timsizngs (600+ new or sav'd jobs) + 9 upsizngs (?? new jobs) + 63 makwrk (31503+ 'jobs') =
total: 32103 = 31% of cuts VERSUS 111 downsz (103769+ cuts) + 20 bnkrpt ($350m+) +2 homlss +8 prsn +3 suicid }}

2/06/2004 friday’s index to top US papers
all 691 textfiles: # visitors 2/05/thu: 816 excluding spiders (2/06/2003/thu: 913 including spiders)

headlines from hell(tm) from Wall Street Journal (j) &/or New York Times (t):

hazards for investors get ignored year after year - corporate board minutes get altered; judgements in arbitration go unpaid (j.page A1)
Wash. state governor proposes higher sales tax (t.A20) - want sales? cut sales tax & hike graduated income taxes on superhoarders, instead of -
help grandparents of rich kids now - deal with real problems later (t.C1)

4 DOWNsizings, totaling 290 +?? lost jobs reported in Wall Street Journal (j) or NY Times (t):

240 jobcuts as Swiss Re takes over life insurance part of CNA Financial for $690m (t.C3)
50 +?? cuts as Canadian ad agency Wolf Group Integrated Communications closes all but 1 of its offices, including NYC (t.C10)
unspecified cuts - by Covisint LLC as Compuware Corp. acquires it (j.B5) and
- by Manhattan as other NYC boroughs weather recession better (t.C11)

1 new bankruptcy mentioned in WSJ (j) &/or NYT (t):

Parmalat Finanziaria SpA's Brazilian dairy unit (j.B4)

1 PUFFsizing item = makework rampant creating 89,000 new federal civilian ‘jobs’:

Uncle Sam expands - Clinton cut federal civilian staff by 300k to 1778k by 2000 but Bush increased them by 89k back to 1867k by 2003 - at 153,000, Homeland Security is now bigger than all cabinet depts. except Defense & Vets Affairs (j.A16)

vs. glimmers of hope = headlines from heaven
TIMEsizing consciousness in the news:
• Snap-On Tools in Iowa cuts to 3-day workweek to limit jobcuts to four
• standard economists have come up with another smokescreen to put off timesizing imperative
• Minn. healthcare workers diss Bush overtime plan but some are unsustainably addicted to OT
• Atlanta women lawyers push for easier & better part-time option
+ random glimmers of intelligence, in Wall Street Journal (j) or NY Times (t):
• 1 UPsizing: unspecified new jobs as AARP recruits & trains workers over 55 to help fill jobs at Home Depot (t.C4) - whoopeedoo
• most retailers sold more in Jan. - but customers lured by record cold & clearance sales (t.C5)
• citing arms (or lack thereof), Tory leader Michael Howard says Blair should quit (t.A12)
• Churope - China & Europe are growing ever closer, both diplomatically & economically (j.A1) - when last superpower goes nuts, subpowers of the world unite to cast off its change

2/05/2004 thur’s index to top US papers
all 691 textfiles: # visitors 2/05/wed: 823 excluding spiders (2/05/2003/wed: 859 including spiders)

headlines from hell(tm) from Wall Street Journal (j) &/or New York Times (t):

U.S. image will take years to repair, says Tutweiler, State's new chief of public diplomacy (t.A5)
factory orders & services index show economy growing, spending 'a little stronger' (t.C8)
= pathos spun as growth despite millions of deactivated consumers - jobless, homeless, jailed...
as G7 gathers, Europe 'looks like an outsider' (t.C1) - how can majority of G7 be 'outsiders'?
geeks alert the unsavvy: learn basics else virus - never open unknown email attachment (t.A1)
the 'quorum after' - why is Congress still not prepared to weather an attack? (t.A31)
- cuz they're distracted by costly terrorism-irrelevant war based on spectral evidence like Salem?
the 'animals we are' - kids competing for Growth & excess wealth, wiping out resources (t.A30)
clarity on Clean Air Act- a year since Bush promised to overhaul & nothing's happened (t.A30)
Haiti's descent - Aristide, once hailed as democracy's champion, morphs into despot (t.A30)

2 DOWNsizings, totaling 1786 lost jobs reported in Wall Street Journal (j) or NY Times (t):

1300 public diplomats cut 1991-2003 as US image abroad tanks (t.A5) - Bush: who cares?
486 jobcuts (1086-250-350) as State Farm closes La. office & moves to Ok. & Mo. (t.C4)

1 eroding-retirement story in NYT (t) or WSJ (j):

Swedes privatized their Social Security in 2000:
too many fund choices make default fund far frontrunner, but fell 30% in first 3 yrs (t.C2)

4 PUFFsizing items = makework rampant creating unspecified new temp ‘jobs’:

the temps of war: blue-collar workers ship out for Iraq - Halliburton jobs pay well,
if you don't mind the danger - camping...with mortars (j.A1)
misspending military dollars - if Bush serious, budget would have reflected real costs of Iraq, cut cold-war-era holdovers & focused on real 21st-century military needs (t.A30)
a federal scientific panel called Bush's $1.7B hydrogen-car plan 'unrealistically aggressive' (j.A1) = the story of W's life?
India announces $5.5B to modernize armed forces (t.A6)

vs. glimmers of hope = headlines from heaven
TIMEsizing consciousness in the news:
• British truckdrivers' push for EU's 48-hour workweek maximum
• US truckdrivers squawk about safer shorter hours, one plants Ricin
• more on Australian electricians' push for 36-hour workweek, four 9-hour days, 3-day weekend
• Miami Herald - 'our time bind is all in our mind' - never mind the data
+ random glimmers of intelligence, in Wall Street Journal (j) or NY Times (t):
• FDA may ask drug advertisers to display side-effects info more prominently (t.C5)
• ban urged on animal feed for cows, else 1 mad per month (t.A16) = back to vegetarian nature
• judges back scientific study of 9000-yr-old Kennewick man vs. NW tribes' attempt to claim
as untouchable ancestor (t.A16)

2/04/2004 wed’s index to top US papers
all 691 textfiles: # visitors 2/03/tue: 840 excluding spiders (2/04/2003/tue: 929 including spiders)

headlines from hell(tm) from Wall Street Journal (j) &/or New York Times (t):

unemployment/Latin America: • Argentina 16.3% • Venezuela 15.4% • Colombia 13.3%
• Brazil 10.9% • Peru 9.7% • Chile 7.4% • Mexico 3.0%

6 DOWNsizings, totaling 2413 +?? lost jobs reported in Wall Street Journal (j) &/or NY Times (t):

1500 jobcuts as Gadzooks women's apparel chain goes bankrupt (t.C4)
4% workforce cut last year (333 jobs lost) as Lego wages battle of children's building-block makers, instead of just trimming its workweek 4% (19 minutes a day for whole firm, including top executives), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training&hiring and keeping everyone working, earning, confident & buying at least 96% as many toys as before (j.B1)
300 jobcuts as Boeing overreacts to Air Force maintenance cutbacks in San Antonio (t.C4)
200 cuts as Varco International responds suicidally to poor sales (t.C4)
80 as Visteon autoparts eliminates costs - and markets (t.C4)
unspecified cuts as Ciba Specialty Chemicals cuts 2% of its workforce (t.W1)

1 new bankruptcy mentioned in WSJ (j) &/or NYT (t):

Gadzooks files for Chapter 11 in Texas (t.C4, j.B4)

1 eroding-retirement story:

HHS opens $9.5m ad campaign vs. Dems' criticism of drug benefits as threat to Medicare (j.A1)

1 prison item:

last spring, girlfriends make 3 tries to spring 2 SingSing inmates, but foiled by panic attack, hasty timing, fake badge & left-behind ID (t.C13)

4 PUFFsizing items = makework rampant creating ?? ‘jobs’:

Bush's budget reported by analysts to contain wide wallpapered-over cracks (j.A1) - Bush's credibility becomes problem, mostly self-inflicted (j.A4)
seeing future in Bush's budget, why not apply $27m from Halliburton meal overcharge & $6m from KB&R kickbacks to meals for poor kids in US (t.A24)
Halliburton admits it also overbilled Pentagon at 4 other dining sites in mideast (j.A1>2)
hey, big spenders: spending limit law could stop you (j.A16) - but just rehashes Prop.2½?

vs. glimmers of hope = headlines from heaven
TIMEsizing consciousness in the news:
• Airbus saves 1200 jobs at Broughton, Flints. plant in England by introducing a 35-hr workweek
• electricians in Australia's power industry push for permanent 36-hr workweek & long weekend
• Hartwick College in Oneonta NY allow married microbio professors to jobshare
+ random glimmers of intelligence, in Wall Street Journal (j) or NY Times (t):
• 1 UPsizing: unspecified new jobs as MGM Mirage plans to build hotel & casino in UK (t.C4)

2/03/2004 tuesday’s index to top US papers
- all 691 textfiles: # visitors yesterday 2/2/mon: 812 excl.spiders (2/03/2003/mon: 890 incl.spiders) -

3 headlines from hell(tm) from Wall Street Journal (j) &/or New York Times (t):

mixed (read 'weak') economic signals leave markets in flux, ie: unstable (t.page C7)
- contrast '3 reports show economy continues to recover' (t.C3)
tax package offered to replace WTO-outlawed export taxbreak (j.A10) = 'free trade' à la Bush
sweet sabotage of deal with 'down under' (j.A14) = sugar growers hold up push for 'free trade' (j.A13) - oh wait, that's GOOD!

6 DOWNsizings, totaling 1682 +?? lost jobs reported in Wall Street Journal (j) &/or NY Times (t):

1300 jobcuts as Carrier Corp. to close factory in central Tennessee (t.C6)
57% workforce cut (257 jobs lost) as Incyte drug discovery closes Palo Alto ctr, instead of just trimming its workweek 57% (to four 4hr,18min days for whole firm, including top executives), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training&hiring and keeping everyone working, earning, & buying at least 43% as many drugs as before (t.C6)
125 jobcuts as Phelps Dodge copper plans to close magnet-wire plant in El Paso (t.C6)
unspecified cuts by Entergy (w.A12) and
Humana (w.A12),
and by Somalia as it shuts 11 orphanages (j.A1)

1 industrywide DOWNsizing story noted in the WSJ (j) &/or the NYT (t):

speeding flight check-in at self-service kiosks lets airlines cut labor costs (t.C4)

2 economy-level bankruptcy stories reported in WSJ (j) &/or NYT (t):

federal judge Alfred Wolin - despite advisers with conflicts of interest - refuses to step aside in 5 cases of bankrupt firms being sued for exposing people to asbestos (t.C7)
largest US bankruptcy last yr ($11.4B), Mirant, reveals new risks for lenders to ailing firms (j.C1)

3 eroding retirement stories:

United Air battles flight attendants union to cut medical benefits of its 35,000 retirees (j.D5)
cutbacks in retiree health benefits at Lucent, Alcatel & others in last 2 years (t.C1>A1)
Treasury Dept. plans new 'cash balance' pension rules - to further coddle firms (t.C2, j.A11)

1 prison item:

New Hampshire had 337 inmates in 1981; 2,438 end of 2003 @ $22k cost to taxpayers (t.A21)

5 PUFFsizing items = makework rampant creating ?? ‘jobs’:

Bush unveils 'budget' package of $2.4 TRILLION excluding future Iraq costs (j.A1)
- compare tomorrow, 'sex, lies & Bush tapes - those spend-&-spend conservatives' (t.A25) &
- 'seeing the future in Bush's budget' with $50B for Iraq kept quiet till after election (t.A24)
in complex world, even lawyers need lawyers (t.C1) - see makework area #3
effectiveness & spending don't necessarily add up - Bush proposes spending 3% more on drug-abuse programs (j.A10)
healing the wounds at the 'bloody crossroads' of politics & art? - Bush recently proposed largest boost in 20 yrs for NEA (j.D8)
Halliburton will repay est. $27.4m overcharges for US troops' meals (t.A9) - contrast 'army study of Iraq war details a "morass" of supply shortages' (t.A1)

vs. glimmers of hope = headlines from heaven
TIMEsizing consciousness in the news = strategic glimmers ignored since Pearl Harbor:
• German unions struggle to hold onto 35-hour workweek despite employer attempts to re-expand it (& give themselves bigger unemployment and crime bills)
+ random glimmers of intelligence, in Wall Street Journal (j) or NY Times (t):
• 2 UPsizings: ?? new jobs as - SEC to hire staff, investigate & hedge mutual funds (j.A10) &
- Brazil steel plant planned by Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, Baosteel & Arcelor (t.W1)

1/31-2/02/2004 sat-mon (re fri biz) index

4 weekend headlines from hell(tm):
• debt-heavy economy jittery about rates - since 1999, household debt rose from 70 to 83% of GDP (1/31 t.B1)
• Democrats assail, & tap, 'special interests' (1/31 t.A1) - critical problem for progressives
• Europe snorts at 'no WNDs' report - already figured Bushies lied to own citizens, Europe & selves (1/31 t.A5)
• reporter Andrew Gilligan at center of BBC Iraq dispute resigns, following 2 top officials (1/31 t.A5) - BBC's independence sacrificed to save Blair's butt

4 DOWNsizings, totaling 1900 +?? lost jobs cited in Wall Street Journal (j) &/or NY Times (t):
• 1000 jobcuts as Ford cuts 1 shift at Hazelwood MO plant (1/31 t.B4)
• 600 cuts by Wella haircare, & we don't mean hair cuts (1/31 t.B4)
• 300 as Ormet Corp. shuts part of its Hannibal OH operation (1/31 t.B4)
• unspecified cuts as Blockbuster, pressed by piracy, closes all 24 Hong Kong stores by 2005 (2/2 j.B3) - CEOs: 'if we lost $, you get laid off; if we make $, we get bonuses' (tails you lose, heads we win)

1 general DOWNsizing story in WSJ &/or NYT or Boston Globe: • globalism minus jobs equals campaign issue - consensus of candidates grow that trade accords must be re-examined (1/31 t.A8)

1 bankruptcy-related outrage reported in Wall Street Journal &/or New York Times: • US attorneys contest bankrupt FAO Inc's plan to pay out bonus & severance to executives in FAO's 3d bankruptcy in 3 yrs (2/2 j.C4)

1 eroding-retirement story cited in WSJ (j) or NYT (t): • another pension bailout, or just Bush handout, for airlines & steel (2/2 j.A18)

2 PUFFsizings = makework rampant involving ?? new 'jobs' reported in WSJ (j) &/or NYT (t):
• Bush to introduce today a budget jammed with military spending but a squeeze on social services (2/2 j.A1)
• Halliburton hits another billing snafu - $16m overcharge for meals - & now Bush is outsourcing law&order work abroad, including Iraq (2/2 j.A1)
vs. hope du jourtm
TIMEsizing = strategic hope - the only thing we haven't tried lately:
• in 1965 sociologists predicted that by 2000 increased automation would result in 15-hour workweek
• Australian employers' study predicts doom if shorten workweek, never mind cutting it from 80 to 40 hours 1800-1940
• union 'take' on proposed US overtime changes
• US productivity miracle is based on 'progress' toward Third World = longer hours for less pay
+ random hope reported in Boston Globe (g):
• the myth of runaway taxes - in 2004, our state & local tax burden is about what it was in 1964 (2/01 g.G1)

weekend roll-up -
5 issues/wk - wk's avg homepage hits/issue: 67 again
doom of the weektm from the WSJ & the NYT:
• 13 DOWNsizings, over 18,070 jobcuts • 1 work-linked suicide story
• 3 bankruptcies owing over c.US$350m (C$396m) • 3 eroding-retirement stories
vs. hope of the the weektm from the WSJ & the NYT:
• 19 TIMEsizing items (?? new or saved jobs) • 2 UPsizings (?? new jobs) + clouded hope: • 11 makework items (30000+ new 'jobs')
{{ ytd: 96 timsizngs (600+ new or sav'd jobs) + 5 upsizngs (?? new jobs) + 48 makwrk (31503+ 'jobs') =
total: 32103 = 34% of cuts VERSUS 69 downsizgs (94,528+ cuts) + 18 bankrupt ($350m+) +2 homelessness +6 prison +3 suicid }}

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For more details, see our laypersons' guide Timesizing, Not Downsizing, which is available online from *Amazon.com and at bookstores in Harvard and Porter Squares, Cambridge, Mass.

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