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The Nation's Pulse
On the Jobs Front
The good, the bad, and the ugly.
Efforts to create new American jobs and make the nation more secure seem to involve one step forward, one step (sometimes, two) back. Consider one week’s news on this front:
The Good. Because the high yen makes exporting unprofitable and because of interrupted supplies from Japan’s tsunami and Thailand’s floods, Honda has announced a major expansion of its manufacturing in North America. It will increase manufacturing in five U.S. and one Canadian and Mexican plant each (plus building a second in Mexico) by as much as 40 percent, from 1.29 million vehicles a year to more than two million. Not only that, Honda will then export up to 300,000 vehicles from North America to other parts of the world, up from 35,000 currently.
A Honda plant that assembles its Civic model in Greensburg, Indiana, will double its capacity from 100,000 to 200,000 vehicles a year. This will involve hiring an additional 1,000 workers. Work has already begin to expand a Lincoln, Alabama plant that makes SUVs and minivans. When the expansion is in full force, Honda’s exports from Japan will drop from as much as 40 percent of total production to as little as 10 percent.
The Bad. For decades General Electric was considered a star of the American manufacturing scene. That star was recently tarnished when GE announced it would move its 115-year-old X-ray division from Waukesha, Wisconsin to Beijing, China. In the process, GE will invest $2 billion in China, train five dozen Chinese engineers and create six research centers. The stated reason? To greatly increase GE’s share of the China market. Could it have shipped equipment from Wisconsin to China instead? Yes, unless the China insisted that market access would depend upon the company making a deep investment in that country. This has been a common Chinese approach with other companies.
GE has already moved the Healthcare unit’s top executives to China and estimates that over the next three years it expects that as much as 25 percent of its X-ray products will be produced there. What of the 120 employees in Waukesha? GE claims the move will not result in the loss of any U.S. jobs. We shall see.
Since January, Jeffrey Immelt, GE’s CEO, has been the chairman of President Obama’s Jobs and Competitiveness Council. Like so much else in the upside-down world of the Obama Administration, this is the new way to create job and make the U.S. more competitive.
The Ugly. Speaking of China, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has announced a large-scale hacking of its computers and some 300 Internet addresses by Chinese sources. This occurred between November 2009 and May 2010. The FBI alerted the Chamber to the invasion. It then launched a detailed investigation and took new security measures to prevent further hacking. The investigation found that four Chamber executives who worked on Asia policy issues were particular targets of the hackers. The hackers also gained access to the Chamber’s membership lists and data about members. Chamber chief information officer Stan Harrell, told the Wall Street Journal, “This is a different level of intrusion…. This is much more sophisticated.”
As they usually do, the Chinese authorities stoutly denied any involvement. Nevertheless, the sophistication and extent of the hacking operation could not have been possible (nor had a motivation) without tacit approval from the Beijing government. Time and again over the years, Beijing in its dealings with foreign business interests has always put Number One — itself — above all else.
“Number One” has a nice ring to. Maybe we should try it.
About the Author
Peter Hannaford was closely associated for a number of years with the late President Reagan, beginning in the California Governor’s office. His latest book is Presidential Retreats.
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Doctor_X| 12.27.11 @ 7:02AM
I'm sure my GE job will go to India shortly. When Jeff I took over GE it's stock was at $64 a share, now it at $16. my health insruance has gone up 169% now that GE has taken over my company. What is GE doing? They are not helping the US and they are cettianly not helping shareholder value!
Oh well they are going to outsoure our IT people so i won't be working for them much longer!
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 12.27.11 @ 7:07AM
America's job picture may not have much left of the "Good" you describe.
Search many local newspapers and you will discover that thousands of jobs will be gone by February as power plants shut down in the face of new EPA regulations.
Once again, it's a theme played out inside the beltway many times. The EPA claims they are not job killers, the politicians, including Obama, put out memos stating the EPA must ensure that regulations do not kill jobs, but the jobs will be gone none the less.
It's ironic that 17,000 elitists at the EPA are allowed to march on with little interference from the Congress. Obama's plaintive protests are just for show and hundreds of thousand of more jobs are at risk as the EPA marches on.
The job market in the USA will continue to implode as jobs are moved overseas and I honestly don't blame GE for doing what they are doing. In fact, maybe the idiots running this country will begin to get a glimmer of a clue that Washington, D.C. Incorporated is destroying jobs by the millions as evidenced by the last decade, as more companies take a cue from GE and move thousands of more jobs overseas.
The liability of hiring an $8 an hour employee could turn into a million dollar lawsuit if the employee is a protected species, i.e., a woman or a minority.
Wal-Mart "won" a portion of a recent suit as thousands of female employees, many with high school educations, claimed they were discriminated against and should have had manager positions. However, Wal-Mart spent millions in legal fees with more to come.
Can anyone blame anyone for moving jobs overseas? Not if you're honest.
Maddox| 12.27.11 @ 8:18AM
Sadly, the majority of the public hear only the Democrat talking points and blame the big, bad corporations and CEOs.
Millionaires, billionaires, and big corporations didn't kill our economy, politicians did.
L. Ross| 12.27.11 @ 9:02AM
Sadly, we can thank a Republican (RINO actually) named Richard Nixon for the creation of the EPA. Does anyone in government have the guts to gut that department, or just shut it down?
Kurt| 12.27.11 @ 10:08AM
Ron Paul!!!
Buck Ofama| 12.27.11 @ 12:18PM
Newt!
Brubaker| 12.27.11 @ 3:14PM
With respects to Kurt and Buck, I doubt that anyone, including Ron Paul or Gingrich, would be able to make any significant dent in the EPA.
Government programs rarely get smaller, and they almost never go away. There just are too many rice bowls involved -- and every one is being jealously guarded.
TrueBlue| 12.28.11 @ 1:43PM
Well, since it was an executive order in 1958 by New York Mayor Robert Wagner, Jr. (surprise surprise, NYC...) that allowed Government workers in the city to unionize, then in '59 Wisconsin Governor Gaylord Nelson signed a collective bargaining law for Wisconsin state employees. In 1960 JFK issued Executive Order 10988 allowing federal government employees to unionize.
Thankfully, since it's an Executive Order any president can rescind it (I don't believe there are any actual laws on the books for federal employees), so it'd just take the balls and likely political suicide to rescind that order. Then they could reduce federal employee paychecks to be more inline with the private sector; you'd see a lot of them ditch to the private sector for the better paychecks.
I have no issues with unions in general, having a large entity to protect workers' from exploitation is fine. But I dislike the public sector unions being able to bargain for their salary's since they are being paid by citizens. Increased pay for government employees means more taxes to the public. If they want a raise it should go to a vote on the ballot in the state they are employed.
Private sector unions, like the Autoworkers Union, need to grow a bleeding brain though. They keep pushing for more from companies and either they don't care that it means their breadbasket will go out of business, or that their own union members will get laid off so the company can remain in business. There is a middle ground, but unions generally do not want to discuss it, they go after what they want and to hell with the consequences.
TrueBlue| 12.28.11 @ 2:49PM
Dang, I obviously should have had more coffee before I tried to type that up. Typos and bad grammar galore.
JohnC| 12.27.11 @ 8:15AM
What has the EPA have to do with GE moving their X-Ray plant and other hi-tech industry over to communist China? I do agree that we need to crack down on the overreaching EPA, other onerous regulations, discrimination suits, and high taxes. But none of this will stop the multi-national Jeffrey Immelts of the world from selling out America for cheap labor – in fact these liberal ruling class CEOs look down on middle class America.
And to boot the open-border, cheap-labor wing of the GOP and Dubai Ports El-Rushbo and his talking-head clones support these globalist and anti-American free trade sellouts. Economic globalism is economic suicide and moving factories over to China is not even trade.
I hope a pro-American presidential candidate like Trump runs instead of the one world pro-China candidates of both Parties.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 12.27.11 @ 9:02AM
It's not just the EPA. They are simply the easiest to pinpoint as jobs disappear.
There is a myriad of agencies and all combine to destroy jobs in many ways.
China is preferable simply because they have fewer protected species there and less bureaucracy to get in the way.
JohnC| 12.27.11 @ 9:26AM
I am in sympathy with you on your concerns but communist China has no rule of law and their cities are full of smog – why are we giving them our national treasure?
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 12.27.11 @ 10:30AM
I don't need your sympathy and that's not the point.
We are not giving them our national treasure.
We are forcing it upon them and I explained that.
Buck Ofama| 12.27.11 @ 12:19PM
Because our politicians and business leaders are either stupid, or more likely, whoring c0cksuckers.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 12.27.11 @ 3:20PM
The truth is often brutal.
VonMisesJr| 12.27.11 @ 8:19AM
This is how Keynesian economics works. It destroys currencies through inflation, destroys jobs through central planning and ships them to a more efficient market.
Who would have predicted the day when a Japanese 21 year experiment with socialism would make Mexico look good, and 3 years of Obama ploicy would make China look good by comparison. But sadly, China has a 10% advantage with 25% corproate tax compared to the U.S. 35%, and China has adopted property rights while the Obama regime destroys private ownership through taxation and regulation.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 12.27.11 @ 9:00AM
Beautiful!
VonMisesJr| 12.27.11 @ 9:51AM
Thank you for your kind word. It is fascinating and frustrating that most people will not accept the obvious. I guess that where the saying "can't see the forest for the trees" came from.
DTOM| 12.27.11 @ 10:31AM
And inflation also kills private capital andprivate property....
Don't Tread On Me!
VonMisesJr| 12.27.11 @ 11:10AM
Actually, inflation transfers wealth from the middle class that has income and savings (in cash equivalents) to the wealthy that own land, buildings and commodities.
The purchasing value of your middle class income plummets, your retirement savings insufficient; while the price of land and hard assets explodes upwards over time. Hence the middle class falls toward serfdom and the wealthy become like hereditary nobles.
Boar Hunter| 12.27.11 @ 12:45PM
Why is that the smartest men in the world disagree with the the logical facts you provide in your last two posts?
Is it possible they actually intend to create the effects that are occurring and they are lying about it?
VonMisesJr| 12.27.11 @ 2:59PM
Bingo, Boar Hunter. If they tell us we are to be serfs, we may revolt.
And they think that they have enough "Useful Idiots" who want to feel that they matter to fall for the feel-good emotional ploy. But if you can explain it, you can help save allot of people a sorry realization after they have been duped.
DRed| 12.27.11 @ 5:24PM
Where's that runaway inflation you Austrian school people have been claiming was right about to start for the last 3 years? Remember-America was going to be like Zimbabwe by now. Let me guess-it's right about to start.
VonMisesJr| 12.27.11 @ 5:40PM
Look up "Core Inflation." Then go buy milk and ask your wife what she paid last year? Gas is up from $1.80 to over $3 since 2009. Not figured in the statistics we recieve.
DRed| 12.27.11 @ 5:51PM
http://gasbuddy.com/gb_retail_price_chart.aspx
http://ycharts.com/indicators/.....rical_data
Try again. Where's runaway inflation?
Nick| 12.27.11 @ 8:19PM
DRed,
The Fed has kept interest rates at near zero since President Downgrade has been office. This is why there hasn't been runaway inflation, yet.
Just wait until the Fed starts raising the rate at the discount window. Then you will see hyper-inflation, a la 'Peanut Brain' Carter.
VonMisesJr| 12.28.11 @ 8:06AM
DRed,
Do you know how to talk, or did your handlers simply help you point to some propaganda websites?
I would point you to some of your own like NYT authors of "Reckless Endangerment" or smart Democrats like Zuckerman and Koch who paint a grimm economic picture. But you would have to read it and understand it for the information to be of any value to you and the puppets.
VMJr.
DRed| 12.28.11 @ 11:28AM
Where's the inflation? It's not in the CPI. It's not reflected in the price of gas. It's not reflected in the price of milk. It's a simple question, VMJ.
Nick| 12.28.11 @ 3:06PM
DRed,
"It's not reflected in the price of milk."
Inflation has been reflected in all food prices, thanks in large part to ethanol mandates, which have raised the price of corn. Needlessly, I might add.
Another brilliant idea brought to us by bleeding heart liberals.
Thanks a lot!
DRed| 12.28.11 @ 4:39PM
Nick, if you look up the legislative history of any bills requiring ethanol in domestic gasoline, you'll see massive bipartisan support for them. Look up the Energy Policy Act of 1992 or 2005, for example. It's not all my fault.
Hope you had a Merry Christmas.
Nick| 12.28.11 @ 7:59PM
DRed,
Yes, my Christmas was wonderful. Hope your's was as well.
You are aware that there are liberal Republicans, aren't you? We conservatives call them RINOs.
Some of the worst policies ever enacted had bipartisan support. But, not conservative support.
Foxfier | 12.30.11 @ 12:15AM
Been a while since you bought milk, has it? I use to get it for a bit over a buck fifty; I'm now delighted if I can get it for TWO fifty.
TrueBlue| 12.28.11 @ 1:54PM
Also the price of milk is fixed by the federal government, so they can adjust it as they want to make things appear better than they are. Kind of like the released unemployment numbers.
JP| 12.27.11 @ 8:22AM
The Obama Administration will not rest until it brings Chinese, Candadian, and European unemployment down below 5%.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 12.27.11 @ 3:22PM
Humorous but tragic.
JohnC| 12.27.11 @ 8:49AM
Liberals Clinton /Gore started the outsourcing big time -- remember NAFTA. Bush and now Obama are also Outsourcers-in-Chief.
Alas, both Parties are bought off by the liberal, multi-national corporations who have absolutely no loyalty to America or its people-- and the irony is these globalist sellout policies are labeled conservative, whereas protectionism (of our country’s sovereignty and independence) is considered liberal.
Bring on a huge import tax and then reduce domestic taxes including the onerous federal income tax.
DTOM| 12.27.11 @ 10:35AM
John C.
You won't like the huge depression that will follow. We need to increase productivity - through capital investment. We do not need to suppress business activity through taxes paid by consumers, which is what tariffs are. They are a nice gift to organized labor and Democrat politicians, though!
Please, wise up, willya!
Don't Tread On Me!
JohnC| 12.27.11 @ 11:56AM
The Founders were for tariffs, not the onerous income taxes and the myriads of other taxes. Tariffs will bring back our vital manufacturing base so we can go in Wal-Mart and buy something made in America.
Who cares about growth in China and sending our engineering there-- how does building up that dictatorship help grow a thriving American middle class?
Liberals Jeffrey Immelt, Bill Gates and company are the same internationalists, with the blessing of a corrupt congress and White House, that are now saying we need to bring in more hi-tech H1-B Visas because American engineers are too dumb to fill these slots-- yeah, right.
Yes we are going into a depression because of Judas CEOs and a Fed-gone-wild now rescuing socialist Europe. Meanwhile, the phony patriots in talk say virtually nothing about the crony Wall Street capitalists that are selling out America. .
Harry the Horrible| 12.27.11 @ 9:22AM
I wonder if those idiots at GE realize that those Chinese "engineers" will swipe their designs and trade secrets, give them to a Chinese firm, then quit. Shortly thereafter, GE will find its X-Ray machines being built by the Chinese and sold for a much lower price.
Timothy L. Pennell| 12.27.11 @ 9:41AM
The problem with getting American Businesses to Hire people, is made exponentially more difficult, when the people who are in Charge of the Federal Government have decided that the OPPOSITE, is what they prefer.
I don't know how many times I've written this, or if you've read it on Peter Ferrara Blog (as he likes to do a Joe Biden on me, from time to time) but; This Bunch is out to KILL the Middle Class.
Dictatorship 101: Kill the Middle Class. Show me a functioning Middle Class in one of the World's Burgeoning Worker's Paradises. Cuba. Venezuela. Zimbabwe. North Korea. It doesn't have to be a Worker's Paradise. It can be one of your Run of the Mill Banana Republics, South of the Border. They don't exist.
Dictatorships like ti DICTATE things. They like to tell you what to eat, what to drive, how many kids you can have, where they can go to school, what kind of light bulbs you can buy, and how much money you can make. (They're working on the last one, as we speak.)
They like to CONTROL things. Who gets a WEAPON. Who doesn't. What WORDS are permitted. What words are not. Where BOEING can build a Plant. Where they cannot.
Over the Centuries, the Dictator has learned that TOTAL CONTROL is impossible. You just can't Control Everyone by yourself. You need help. You need Partners. People that HAVE something, that they will do anything to hang on to. Or, those who have NOTHING, and will be your friend if you give them things. Let's see. Who fits those descriptions?
The RICH. The Rich have LOTS of things. Some of them have spent their lives, EARNING what they have. Others were To the Manor Born. Doesn't matter. They want to hang on to what is theirs. Who can blame them. See how they shower their MORTAL ENEMY with Campaign Contributions. He calls them The Evil Rich. A bunch of FAT CATS. He picks up the phone, to Dick Trumpka and Andy Stern, and the Buses, filled with Obama's UNION ARMY, start rolling, to the HOMES of the Rich, for the purposes of TERRORIZING their Families.
SIEG HEIL!
So, they go along. Not entirely. They go along until they can find suitable Housing, for their Companies, in some other Country.
Then, there's the opposite side of the equation. The people who have NOTHING. For 60 Years, the Black Community has given their Votes to the Party of the KLAN. They have thrown their Support behind the Party of BULL CONNER. Of Fire Hoses, and Police Dogs. They have supported the Party of Segregated EVERYTHING, a Noose, hanging from a Tree Branch, and a BOMB thrown in to a Black Church. And for what? Because they feed them. It's like the Love one gets, from a DOG. You can treat that Dog like GARBAGE, and he'll continue to wag his tail, so long as you give him food.
That only leaves the MIDDLE. The ones who can fend for themselves. The ones with CHOICES. The Rich can't just do whatever they want. They can't go wherever they want. They're too rich. They might be Robbed, or Kidnapped. Their Children are always Targets for Kidnapping. And, the Poor can't afford many choices. The Middle Class can make choices. And therein lies the danger, for the Dictator. For, if they can choose? They may choose someone else. So, they must be eliminated.
The EPA. The NLRB. Total Support for the Unions. Obamacare. Dodd/Frank. BOEING. Open Borders. Fast and Furious. Solyndra. Stimulus/Slush Fund. Suing American States in conjunction with a Foreign Country. Keystone XL Pipeline. Drilling Moratoriums. Coal Mining Closings. On and on and on. NO JOBS.
For a Guy who's been "Focused like a Laser Beam" on Jobs, for the last 3 YEARS, he hasn't got much to show for it. But, then....That's if you're assuming that he actually WANTS people having a job.
I haven't seen any evidence of that.
Have YOU?
Ken (Old Texican)| 12.27.11 @ 10:54AM
Timothy,
once again you have saved me a lot of typing. Well said!
Wayne| 12.27.11 @ 11:40AM
I had to explain to my wife that Obama does not care about the economy or jobs. He only cares about his jobs and the crony jobs that surround him. He no more cares about the economic welfare of individuals than Castro does or Lenin did.
Wayne| 12.27.11 @ 11:37AM
Instead of complaining about jobs we need ideas on how to compete. We need to hear about INSOURCING. I am introducing the concept to my company.
We can take 80 percent of the work developing large scale computer projects and train LIBERAL ARTS graduates with a decent grasp of logic and semantics. They actually would excel over computer science graduates who have been trained to think procedurally rather than declaratively.
The new analysts can locate in small towns across america and will work for relatively modest wages. INFOSYS is now charging 125 dollars an hour for programmers in INDIA. We can INSOURCE for half that price. I already have a friend doing just that in Bimidji Minnesota.
The politicians don't get it, but the market place will win in the end and with a little imagination we can compete.
Buck Ofama| 12.27.11 @ 12:21PM
I detest all these greasy conniving chink bastards, and detest Ovomit the clown "president" even more.
We must rid the white house of the vermin infestation at all costs.
Ron| 12.27.11 @ 12:25PM
Breaking news: It appears that Sears and KMart are going to close an additional 100 stores...I guess those big, evil corporations are being shown whose boss...(sarcastic comment 0ff now.)
There go more jobs...
JohnC| 12.27.11 @ 12:40PM
They are closing because there are little good-paying American jobs left to buy their goods; perhaps they will open those stores in China. Without a thriving manufacturing base a country is near worthless and unlike most recessions we will not be able to bounce back because of this.
Just recently Obama, the Dems, and GOP signed on to another free-trade (Korea, etc.) sweetheart deal that will result in further hemorrhaging of what is left of our vital industry and jobs.
Meanwhile Limbaugh, Hannity, and Levin were silent as another NAFTA-like bipartisan sellout was passed by Obama.
shipley130| 12.27.11 @ 1:33PM
I don't understand why we keep pointing the finger at only one entity. An economic disaster has many different causes, so let's start pointing fingers at all of them and do something about it. For example, purchasing and voting. Stop purchasing crap from companies such as GE and stop voting for the corrupt politicians.
POST American| 12.27.11 @ 9:59PM
----Putting aside Jeff I-Melt-down's
de facto culpability, as head of Globalist
GE, in the world nuclear disaster and
budding depop op in FUKISHIMA
------and laying to one side the breaking
news that the TSA will now be on ALLL
highways and in EVERY city nationwide
CUT TO THE CHASE
----------------the Globalist RED China----------------
-----------world TREASON and EUGENICS---------
-----------------------------OP-----------------------------
This IS the BOTTOM LINE.
NOW ------------------------DEAL WITH IT.