text:
Ten weeks before the Tet Offensive fatally undermined American support for the Vietnam War, General William Westmoreland embarked on a publicity tour to "sell" the ongoing military campaign. In a televised news conference, Westmoreland famously declared that he could see "the light at the end of the tunnel." In the same sense, GM's executives continue to express their faith in the automaker's "turnaround." This much is to be expected– especially when The General is lobbying for tens of billions of dollars in public funds. But the mainstream automotive media's complicity is unconscionable.
For decades, the American automotive press has suckled on General Motors' bounteous teats. Last year alone, before GM's cash burn mandated some serious back-of the-sofa scrounging, the automaker spent over $2b on advertising. That kind of money buys you a lot of friends. In fact, The General's formerly free-flowing ad bucks have supported a lifestyle to which automotive journalists became accustomed.
So it's not surprising to see these jobbing journos share GM execs' reluctance to face the grim fact that the artist formerly known as the world's largest automaker is terminally ill. The scribes and suits adhere to the same delusional notion that all new cars are wonderful, but Detroit's latest are the most wonderful of all. If not now, then soon. One day. Some day.
Of course, the 50 and 60-something white men who have watched The General's descent from dominance to disaster share a cultural heritage with the men (and a few women) sailing this increasingly strange ship of fools onto the shoals of bankruptcy. This doesn't excuse these journalists from their duty to serve the public trust. Clinging to the profound, unspoken belief that "what's good for General Motors is good for America" is a disservice to the consumer and, ultimately, ironically, General Motors.
Mark my words: in these internet-savvy times, the mainstream automotive press' failure to fully disclose the denial, hypocrisy and greed surrounding the planned GM et al. bailout– cravenly camouflaged as a green initiative– will be the final nail in both lovers' coffins. To wit, this from Automotive News:
"General Motors' employee pricing program helped the automaker sell more vehicles in August than in any month of 2008. But sales still were 20.3 percent below the level of August 2007. GM sold 307,285 cars and light trucks in August, up 31.3 percent from July. Trucks and SUVs delivered a big surprise for GM. Although still down from August 2007, GM's pickups and big SUVs turned in their best sales performances of the year. In August, GM delivered more than 80,000 full-sized Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups."
Silverado sales? Off 24.8 percent from last August. Sierra? Down 17.1 percent. Incentives? Automotive News mentions the profit-killers, but Edmunds estimates them, at $3965 per GM vehicle. And guess which vehicles have the most cash on the hood ('cause GM ain't sayin' nothin')?
As one of those 50-something white guys (well, 49, but who's counting), Automotive News' article is a frightening reminder of the "body count" battle reports from Vietnam, which invariably painted any and all conflicts as a [relative] U.S. rout. As we all know, the military operation may have been a success, but the South Vietnamese government (and many of our supporters in the region) died. And what's that bit about history repeating itself?
"'We're not indicating or pretending in any way that the truck market is snapping back' [vice president of GM North America sales, service and marketing Mark] LaNeve said, but the numbers indicate that pickup sales have perhaps bottomed out. LaNeve also said that he thinks overall industry sales may have hit bottom in June or July.
'I think we saw the bottom and are going to start scratching our way up to numbers that are improving.'"
"Up to numbers that are improving?" On what? When? By how much? Is GM really a publicly-traded company? The automaker's stunning lack of accountability continues apace. For now. One way or another, there will be a David Halberstram-predicted reckoning.
At the very least, our elected representatives will demand an explanation for the situation that has led GM to call on federal tax money for its survival. Given the prospect of publicly acknowledging their epic mismanagement and personal greed, I wouldn't be surprised if Rick Wagoner and his mob drift away on the golden parachutes before the show starts. Nor would I be surprised if they don't; their hubris seems to know no bounds.
Either way, like General Westmoreland, Wagoner, Lutz, Henderson and their obscenely compensated brethren will eventually claim that their stunning defeat was actually a victory in disguise: the unavoidable economic "catharsis" American industry needed. Even worse, many media members will affirm this absurd notion. Rest assured that I, and the new legions of uncorrupted commentators, will not be amongst them.
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58 Comments on "General Motors Death Watch 195: The Oncoming Train..."
AdubSeptember 3rd, 2008 at 10:36 pm
The local Hummer/Saturn dealer closed up the Hummer side. I noticed the sign down on my way into work. Certainly not a good sign.
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jurisbSeptember 3rd, 2008 at 11:04 pm
Guten Tag! Wir, ze germans sind einfach very happY, that your general motors is going for ze bailout. Uns haben more possibilities to keeep engineeren jobs in Deutschland, un sellen euch more unsere Opel floorpans und motoren. Got sein dank that GM spent 2milliarden dollaren on advertising, but not on real hardware. for diesem money you could haben built zwei neu platformen oder 2 motorwerke.Now wir haben more jobs in Germany! Kinda skilled, and higly paid in Euros! Unsere freunde Koreans are sehr happy too, I can`t verstehen them, they said they are going to be rich when GM goes bailout and later fishbelly up!
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Steven LangSeptember 3rd, 2008 at 11:21 pm
Saab, Pontiac, Buick, GMC, Saturn, and (cough! cough!) Hummer.
The first three have virtually no identity, the fourth is Chevy in drag, and the final two are worth more in real estate than for their actual products.
So far as I'm concerned, the best thing GM could be given the Congressional/Judicial green light for is phasing out these brands and making Chevy and Cadillac their focus.
It wouldn't be the elixir that cures all ills. But it would be a good start.
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September 3rd, 2008 at 11:38 pm
jurisb :
September 3rd, 2008 at 11:04 pm
Guten Tag! Wir, ze germans sind einfach very happY, that your general motors is going for ze bailout. Uns haben more possibilities to keeep engineeren jobs in Deutschland, un sellen euch more unsere Opel floorpans und motoren. Got sein dank that GM spent 2milliarden dollaren on advertising, but not on real hardware. for diesem money you could haben built zwei neu platformen oder 2 motorwerke.Now wir haben more jobs in Germany! Kinda skilled, and higly paid in Euros! Unsere freunde Koreans are sehr happy too, I can`t verstehen them, they said they are going to be rich when GM goes bailout and later fishbelly up!
Ahahaha. I laughed.
I should have cried. But I laughed.
Still hoping for that Chevy Colorado. Maybe the government will honor the warranty when the company that makes it falls apart.
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blueconSeptember 4th, 2008 at 12:27 am
How ironic.
Most people do not realize that South Vietnam fell when the Democrat Congress cut off all US government funding of the South Vietnamese and left them defenseless. The result was the deaths of of millions and a huge embarassment for the USA.
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LenSSeptember 4th, 2008 at 1:06 am
The Tet Offensive isn't really a good analogy. Militarily, it was a crushing defeat for the communists. The Viet Cong never recovered from their losses during it. From that point forward, the North had to rely on regular NVA units to continue the fight. And the NVA took massive casualties during the Tet Offensive while they tried to repeat Dien Bien Phu at Khe Sanh. It was only in the American press that it turned into a defeat over time, mainly because the scale of the initial attacks was a surprise to the American public. From this point on, the only way the North could win the war was by convincing the US to give up. Fortunately for them, the post-Watergate Congress was quite willing to betray our allies in the South and refuse to honor our prior agreements.
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eggsaladSeptember 4th, 2008 at 2:51 am
The sole Hummer dealer here in Las Vegas has announced its closing.
Las Vegas… the city that invented (or at least perfected) wanton displays of excess and gluttony… won't buy enough Hummers to keep a single dealer in existence.
I'd say Hummer is in the coffin, waiting for the lid to be closed.
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MoreaSeptember 4th, 2008 at 7:44 am
At the very least, our elected representatives will demand an explanation for the situation that has led GM to call on federal tax money for its survival.
They will? Don't be so sure. If Detroit can make it feel like a national crisis few questions will be asked.
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friedclamsSeptember 4th, 2008 at 8:29 am
"For decades, the American automotive press has suckled on General Motors' bounteous breasts."
I would have used the word "teats" instead of breasts. I don't know why, really.
I do know why: "teats" evokes the image of piglets on a sow.
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September 4th, 2008 at 8:40 am
I would have used the word "teats" instead of breasts. I don't know why, really.
Tits– I mean, text amended.
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friedclamsSeptember 4th, 2008 at 8:47 am
Clearly, we are playing with fire.
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AdamatariSeptember 4th, 2008 at 9:14 am
bluecon, LenS:
I suggest you guys read a book called "The Sorrow of War".
Beyond that, the North Vietnamese fought in more or less constant wars from the end of WWII (when they started kicking out the French) to long after the end of the Vietnam war, in wars with both Cambodia (cleaning up the mess Pol Pot made of the place) and with China (briefly). Literally millions of Vietnamese died in these wars. In particular, in the Vietnam War, the US won nearly every battle but could not go on fighting forever, which the North Vietnamese were fully intending to do. That is why there was no "light at the end of the tunnel". Victory was never on its way.
In this same way, the PR spinmeisters at the no longer big 3 continue to claim things will turn around, when there isn't a lot to suggest that. They claim that with just a bit more money, they could make it work. It's not working, it hasn't been working, and they don't look like they are going to make it work anytime soon.
However, with GM, there is probably more hope. It doesn't have enemies relentlessly working finish it off, only competitors relentlessly working to put out the best product. Perhaps with different management, some drastic measures, and some luck, GM could at least stop the slide. But the cheerleaders need to go.
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mel23September 4th, 2008 at 9:18 am
Most people do not realize that South Vietnam fell when the Democrat Congress cut off all US government funding of the South Vietnamese and left them defenseless. The result was the deaths of of millions and a huge embarassment for the USA.
Correct. However a little more detail is important. France did their colonial thing starting in the mid 1800s. As our own revolutionary war indicates, people don't like being screwed over by another country, especially one thousands of miles away. People don't like having their resources plundered etc. The Japanese took real control during WWII, while the Germans were 'distracting' the French back home. After the Japanese were defeated, Eisenhower allowed the French to retake control of Vietnam. So much for our democratic ideals. And the US supplied arms to the French in order to suppress the bad old communists per the domino theory. The US gradually took France's position as French public support waned. Finally the US public had enough and, yes, the Democratic congress reflected this popular sentiment in cutting off funding. But of course as our follies in Iraq show, we have learned zilch, and, like Rome, it'll be our undoing. Learn from mistakes or repeat them until you hit the rocks. Kinda like GM.
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KatiePuckrikSeptember 4th, 2008 at 9:18 am
It's kind of funny (in a collapse of an American industry, sort of way) that GM seem to have given up on making a car which will turn its fortunes around (with the exception of the Volt), given up on squeezing their suppliers for cost reductions (that well got tapped out a long time ago) or trying to make meaningful cost reductions within the company. They seem to be focusing all its resources to secure this bailout. Is this going to be documented in the history books of GM? Or will this just be a footnote? I can see the text now:
"During the early part of the 21st century, GM hit upon a few problems and found it necessary to close plants and reduce the headcount in order to save money. Sadly, this didn't seem to work. More people started turning away from GM cars to imports. Then, magically they found $50billion and all was well after that!"
It'll be like a badly edited film!
If GM don't get this bailout, I wonder what their strategy will be, then? Like, Mr Farago reported yesterday, their already giving incentives on 2009 cars and the Volt isn't going to be the panacea they want, so what's next?
Maybe that's the point in the history book of GM where you skip chapters 2 to 6 and go straight to chapter 7…….
P.S. "sailing this increasingly strange ship of fools straight onto the shoals of bankruptcy."
Shouldn't that be shores of bankruptcy? Shoals are what fish stay in.
P.P.S For the record, I hate the "sucking of teats/breasts" analogies. And I mean REALLY hate.
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KrohmDohmSeptember 4th, 2008 at 9:28 am
When will the Automotive News and their cronies wake up and realize the number of cars sold doesn't matter if no money is made on the transaction? Of course, the board of directors and GM's major shareholders haven't grasped that concept yet so why should we expect a journalist to do so?
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toxicroachSeptember 4th, 2008 at 9:37 am
A shoal is also a sandbar.
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psarhjinianSeptember 4th, 2008 at 9:57 am
P.P.S For the record, I hate the "sucking of teats/breasts" analogies. And I mean REALLY hate.
How about "Gorging at the trough", then? I think it's more fitting, what with the metaphorical slop-bucket standing in for the press-release-and-junket brigade?
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mennoSeptember 4th, 2008 at 10:11 am
The teat thing is used by writers to infer total dependence.
As in welfare dependency (folks who would have been chicken theives in the US or poachers in the UK in the 1800's), or corporate welfare dependency in this case.
Gorging at the trough simply implies greed. That goes without saying, re: corporate management in most cases…
It's not a reference to the beautiful function of a human mom nursing a helpless babe in arms, Katie.
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gfenSeptember 4th, 2008 at 10:17 am
No, fish are in schools that oftentimes hang out around shoals to forage for food.
A shoal is basically akin to a sandbar.
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BostonTeaPartySeptember 4th, 2008 at 10:49 am
he says she says, you're both right. shoal is a sand bar and a grouping of fish.
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kurtamaxxguySeptember 4th, 2008 at 11:00 am
OK, the General's apparently toast. Now moving on….
TTAC, how about an article about which mainstream auto companies you think are the _best_ run, with great managers and foresight, and which deserve our patronage? And hopefully one of these will have a decent dealer and service network!
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friedclamsSeptember 4th, 2008 at 11:10 am
The Teat Offensive?
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monkeyboySeptember 4th, 2008 at 11:47 am
I'm a boob man so keep it going.
I get the analogy with no nausea.
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Edward NiedermeyerSeptember 4th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Teat Offensive!
I'm dying here, friedclams. Game over.
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John HornerSeptember 4th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
I kind of like kurtamaxxguy's idea. How about a poll for the all-around best run automotive company along the lines of the 10-best competition?
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200k-minSeptember 4th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
TTAC, how about an article about which mainstream auto companies you think are the _best_ run, with great managers and foresight…
They could do that but my guess is you couldn't afford the car.
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50mercSeptember 4th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
When I saw that reference to Vietnam I knew it would set sparks. After all, many Americans are still arguing about a Civil War that ended 143 years ago. Actually, bluecon and LenS are right, and Adamatari and mel23 are mostly right about Vietnam's history up through the mid-60's. But it should be noted that most in the South didn't want to live under a Communist regime, as proven by the exodus after Saigon fell. The populace of the North had no opportunity to express their preference. The "bad old Communists" were just that: bad. In fact, as horrible as it gets.
Our involvement in Vietnam was far more complex and noble than the story promoted by Cronkite, Kerry and their admirers. But now they're "invested in defeat" and its rationale. They can't admit South Vietnam had acquired by 1973 the ability to defend itself if provided adequate assistance, because that would mean we forfeited what was at hand. They can't admit the Communist takeover meant death, brutality, poverty and oppression for millions, because that contradicts their own left-wing belief system. And so to this day, terrorists such as Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn are respected figures in Democratic circles.
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ihatetreesSeptember 4th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
The "bad old Communists" were just that: bad. In fact, as horrible as it gets.
+1. It was horrific.
But democratic societies don't do long wars and sacrifice very well. Also, as an ex-infantryman, it pains me to say this: most Americans place little value on the concept of 'national honor'.
In the end, had Nixon not been such an a**hole and had to resign, Vietnam would be similar to Korea today…
That said, Vietnam era sacrifices were not totally in vain. Thailand, Singapore, and Indonesia are (flawed but) relatively free nations today.
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netrunSeptember 4th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Robert, you mention the 50-60 yr olds who have watched GM's decline. I work with one. He has over 10k in GM stock. That he bought at $50. Plus the rights to buy another 1-2k in GM stock at $45. He doesn't think he'll ever need to cash in his stock options.
His big regret? Not selling the stock when it was at $80.
Just on his terms alone, GM's decline has cost him over $400,000 so far and he's just one of thousands of line workers who are in the same boat.
It's criminal that the heads of GM are lying and deceiving everyone while mis-managing the company into the ground. But I agree with you 100% that it's just as criminal that the people charged with reporting on their "turnaround progress" are so eager to agree with the lies they are given.
This perpetuates the falsehoods until the truth is covered with so much shit no one can stand the stink to find it.
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50mercSeptember 4th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
netrun: "GM's [stock value] decline has cost [this employee]over $400,000 so far and he's just one of thousands of line workers who are in the same boat." It's tragic. Often, employees get shares as part of the employer's contribution to 401K plans. Many employees think buying shares is a way to show loyalty. But usually the result is dangerous concentration of investment funds in a single firm.
In the event of Chapter 11 (let alone 7!), expect the lawsuits to fly. The chief defendants will be GM management and board members, of course. But mutual fund managers and fiduciaries of all kinds will also be under fire for allowing investors, beneficiaries and clients to participate in the GM debacle. Long ago it ceased being a "widows and orphans" holding, and became one for speculators.
Presumably, those line workers are UAW members. Did no one at Solidarity House feel obliged to warn their members that it isn't wise to hold stock in a company that they're already dependent upon for their pension?
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Bill WadeSeptember 4th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Did no one at Solidarity House feel obliged to warn their members that it isn't wise to hold stock in a company that they're already dependent upon for their pension?
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friedclamsSeptember 4th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
Edward Niedermeyer: Sorry.
I want to address something ihatetrees said:
"But democratic societies don't do long wars and sacrifice very well." To that I say: WWII and the Civil War. Concerning the latter, despite some undemocratic developments such as Lincoln's suspension of habeus corpus, a free election was still held in 1864 and the Civil War was continued.
What does this have to do with GM? Lincoln kept the popular mandate in 1864 because he was a gifted, articulate leader who could explain why the terrible sacrifices were necessary and contextualize them into an idea of the national identity. Also, he was lucky to have some well-timed military victories.
Does GM today have that kind of leadership — or luck?
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ihatetreesSeptember 4th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
Bill Wade:
Yeah, Enron. I recall the bleating in the press about poor Enron employees who "lost" their retirement (that had been growing at 80+ percent annually). Not a word about diversification (and stupid investing).
"But democratic societies don't do long wars and sacrifice very well." To that I say: WWII and the Civil War
We're kinda way OT here. But you make good points. The twin tools of censorship and declared total war make things easier. We've lacked those post 1945…
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brushSeptember 4th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
Perhaps the GM executives need to be apprenticed to their overseas exec's. I have just read that Holden (source of the G8) is about to export a large RWD luxury sedan to Korea, to be flogged by Holden Daewoo http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24298098-12377,00.html
Maybe they might learn to embrace outside ideas on how to make money?
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brushSeptember 4th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
And then on the other hand, Holden have just anounce a "fuel price cap" on every Holden sold before 31 October 2008. The will give you a debit card linked to a nominated bank account, so when you buy fuel (which at the moment is between ($AUS1.47 and $AUS1.67 a litre) you will only pay $AUS 0.99 a litre for two years or 20,000 km. So on an average of about 9l/100km for a v6 Commodore (G8) that will work out to about 1800 litres at a cost to the buyer of $AUS1782.00 and to the general between $AUS864.00 and $AUS1224 per Commodore, cheaper than a cash discount and looks more helpful to the hip-pocket nerve every week
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RixSeptember 5th, 2008 at 8:05 am
Two issues.
1. NEVER NEVER NEVER hold much of your assets in the stock of the company you work for. Even better, avoid stock in the industry you work for. Because if your company or industry tanks, you are gonna need to tap that investment account. If it's not there, you will end up in a refrigerator box under the bridge instead of living large.
2. At this point, the only person I can think of who is probably qualified to even try to dig out GM is Sergio Marchionne from FIAT. Mulally is taken.
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geeberSeptember 5th, 2008 at 11:34 am
friedclams: To that I say: WWII and the Civil War. Concerning the latter, despite some undemocratic developments such as Lincoln's suspension of habeus corpus, a free election was still held in 1864 and the Civil War was continued.
The Civil War wasn't universally popular in the North, especially in New York City, which was wracked by anti-draft riots in 1863.
Well into the summer of 1864, Lincoln actually expected to lose that year's election, but some well-timed Northern victories strengthened his case, and he was re-elected.
ihatetrees: Yeah, Enron. I recall the bleating in the press about poor Enron employees who "lost" their retirement (that had been growing at 80+ percent annually). Not a word about diversification (and stupid investing).
I agree about the need for diversifying one's portfolio, but, as I recall, weren't Enron executives touting the stock to employees even as they were dumping it themselves, and weren't employees forbidden from selling during crucial periods while executives weren't?
Those were the biggest points of controversy during the whole mess.
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jurisbSeptember 5th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Just a little bit off topic. Imagine US had to pay her external debt in 1 dollar banknotes. I just calculated the total area of surface it would occupy, considering they would be laid one by one next to each other, they would also occupy oceans and mountains. The total area comes to about that of 3 total earth surfaces. Your task is to calculate what would be the debt surface area of GM ` debt and what country size her debt would occupy, naming a country.Thank you!
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RedbarchettaSeptember 5th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
jurisb Finding the US debt is easy does anyone know what the exact debt load for GM is.
We couldn't pay off the US debt in dollars even if you don't consider the fact it's lost most of it's value, there is only about a trillion dollars in circulation, 1/10th what we owe.
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tonycdSeptember 5th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Good Lord. I've said it before, and I'll say it again:
What is it about automotive enthusiasm that its adherents apparently skew right-wing?
Between Bedard, Yates and the Bushies who come out of the woodwork here… and don't even get me started on the flat-out wingnuts who monopolize that big auto site's non-automotive topics forum.
I like cars AND I dislike America's military interventions in both Vietnam and Iraq. There, I said it.
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Honda_LoverSeptember 5th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
Madness? THIS IS SPARTA!!!
tonycd – I object to your term "Bushies". It's uncalled for.
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jurisbSeptember 5th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
redbarchetta- if `they` can`t get debt back in dollars they will regain it by repossessing assets.Or you wil pay interest on servicing so far that it will choke your all fiscal budget just to service it. Servicing debt today takes already more than the whole allotment to The department of Education. Nice guys, isn`t it? What is the biggest achievement of Asian tiger? Quiet simple. Us annual increase of external debt approaches 1tn $, while servicing the debt approaches 400bn a year, meaning , almost 50 per cent of asian credit they receive back annually, while the total aggregate of the debt doesn`t even shrink! Without a single Minuteman missile!
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cheezeweggieSeptember 5th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
With all these bailouts, I'm glad those who whined about big government interference and regulation are enjoying their crow. Funny how even the mighty go crawling on their hands and knees to the government for help. What the hell, just print up more money.
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50mercSeptember 5th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
Redbarchetta: "We couldn't pay off the US debt in dollars even if you don't consider the fact it's lost most of it's value, there is only about a trillion dollars in circulation, 1/10th what we owe."
Sure we could. We'd just have to print a single One-Trillion-Dollar Note. Luckily for us, our debt is denominated in dollars (not Euros, Yen, gold or whatever.) Actually, we wouldn't even have to crank up the printing press. The Treasury would just write a check on the Federal Reserve. You know, this is how most money comes into existence. (Currency is a small part of the money supply.) A borrower executes a note payable to the bank (which becomes part of the bank's assets), and the bank credits his checking account (which becomes part of the bank's liabilities.) Presto! The borrower now has money that didn't exist before.
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jurisbSeptember 5th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
50merc- if that was so why would US even bother to borrow abroad?
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AnalogKidSeptember 6th, 2008 at 2:39 am
Not to beat the Vietnam thing to death, but…
50merc: "They can't admit South Vietnam had acquired by 1973 the ability to defend itself if provided adequate assistance"
"Adequate assistance?" Which means that the South Vietnamese could not defend themselves, unless we were willing to keep troops and dollars there for another ten years, like Bush said we should have.
The South Vietnamese Government was a corrupt, undemocratic regime that treated their people almost as badly as the communists. Is it any wonder that a large majority of the American people had enough?
Ironic, though, that not even the Bushies want to be called Bushies anymore.
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folkdancerSeptember 6th, 2008 at 2:55 am
How ironic.
Most people do not realize that South Vietnam fell when the Democrat Congress cut off all US government funding of the South Vietnamese and left them defenseless. The result was the deaths of of millions and a huge embarassment for the USA.
You're right. It is our duty as taxpayers to fund stupid wars, police the world, treat foreigners like lower life forms, and get our soldiers killed so we can listen to speeches telling us how patriotic we are because we support our troops.
Lisa Ling for President.
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ttacgregSeptember 6th, 2008 at 7:22 am
Hey netrun, your statement "It's criminal that the heads of GM are lying and deceiving everyone while mis-managing the company into the ground." I think very accurately describes the current leadership of the USA and the USA itself.
It is criminal that the leaders of the nation are lying and deceiving everyone while mis-leading the nation into the ground.
And both parties deserve equal blame, the Republicans for being the who they are, and the Democrats for capitulating utterly to them.
The USA is truly fucked. I don't think either side taking actions that would turn the USA around. I do see one side running us into the ground much faster however.
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ttacgregSeptember 6th, 2008 at 7:41 am
GM put all its eggs in the monster vehicle basket yet again after the oil shocks of the 70's & 80's, the changing global atmospheric chemistry, and other self evident unsustainable trends. They successfully lobbied the government to stay lax on fuel economy standards. GM deserves to die.
The Volt is not going to save GM either. Look, just what percentage of Toyota's sales are hybrids?.
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geeberSeptember 6th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Anyone who thinks that only the right-wing supports an interventionist foreign policy apparently hasn't studied too much history.
In World War I, it was the politicians who branded themselves as "progressives" who agitated for American intervention – Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt. The conservatives wanted no part of it (although neither did many who were socialists).
Prior to World War II, it was the isolationists, who were either Republicans or conservative Democrats, who did not support U.S. involvement until Pearl Harbor made U.S. neutrality impossible to maintain. The true "flip-floppers" were the left-wingers. They wanted no part of the conflict until Germany attacked their darling, the Soviet Union.
The Vietnam conflict was ardently supported by President Kennedy (who also supported an invasion of Cuba to overthrow Castro – google "Bay of Pigs") and escalated by Lyndon Johnson. Last time I checked, President Kennedy and President Johnson were hardly right-wingers.
During the 1990s, President Clinton led the intervention in Bosnia, and later apologized for the U.S. not doing anything to stop the genocide in Rwanda. Those of us with at least a passing knowledge of history realize that "doing something" to stop this type of conflict means intervening with our military.
(Generally, third-world dictators aren't deterred from doing bad things to their own people just because George Clooney says mean things about them on Entertainment Tonight. They also aren't quaking in their boots over the thought of being the subject of unflattering conversations at dinner parties held in Manhattan penthouses or Georgetown townhouses. Stopping them will inevitably involve either shooting them and their supporters, or threatening to shoot them and their supporters, and to be credible such threats must be backed up by a military presence, either in said country or nearby, where it can be rapidly deployed. I know that this is hard for left-wingers to accept – especially those based in Hollywood and Manhattan – but the truth must be spoken.)
People also forget that, in the run-up to this war, many Democrats were saying, "right war, wrong president." They wanted Saddam out, but they didn't want the effort led by George Bush.
I'm certainly sympathetic to those who don't want an interventionist foreign policy, but to suggest that this will end by replacing the present occupant of the White House with a Democrat could charitably be described as "naive."
And, no, the South Vietnamese government was nearly as bad as the North Vietnamese government, and to suggest otherwise is just plain wrong.
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AdonisSeptember 6th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
The Democrat and Republican representatives in Congress are two sides of the same coin. on 90% of the issues, they agree. They talk like this disagree vehemently on television, then join in to give their big company contributors handouts. Case in point: the Detroit 2.8 auto industry, which will soon get itself billions of taxpayer dollars, from your paycheck. Don't kid yourself.
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friedclamsSeptember 6th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
No one asked my opinion, but I'll give it… I like when comments go way OT like this (I was a history major). TTAC readers are generally knowledgeable, opinionated, and respectful, which is rare on the internets. It makes for good reading, and somehow gives me hope…
OK, as you were.
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Mark MacInnisSeptember 7th, 2008 at 10:43 am
great post, for the most part. One small correction, though.
As an amateur historian, and a huge student (although not necessarily an admirer) of JFK, I can state with high assurance that, for the last two years of his life, he was most certainly NOT an ardent supporter of the Vietnam conflict. AAMOF, Kennedy kept looking for a way to get out of Vietnam, even though Diem had been a friend of the Family since the mid-50's. Had JFK lived, it is an open question whether he would have been able to extricate the US from the Vietnam conflict, but he most certainly was not a gung-ho supporter of US involvement.
Also, it was a previous poster who said that Eisenhower gave up Korea to the French. Sorry, that was Truman.
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elvis_by_another_nameSeptember 7th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
jurisb :
September 5th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
50merc- if that was so why would US even bother to borrow abroad?
As interesting as this political thread is (no–Really!!) I'm dying to see some response to jurisb's question. Anyone?
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jcp2September 7th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
My guess is that money, in general, stands as an easily exchanged proxy for value, when what we really want and need are physical goods and services.
Unfortunately, a barter based economy is relatively inefficient, but currencies work only if everybody has confidence in the currency itself. Borrowing from some outside source (not necessarily abroad) and paying back the obligations with regularity and minimal hassle gives lenders confidence that the government is a reliable borrower and will repay debts. That, in turn, leads to confidence in U.S. currency and it is this psychological phenomenon that allows the economy to operate on the basis of dollars.
If the U.S. started to print out money recklessly, we would end up with rapid diminution of the value of the dollar with subsequent hyperinflation (Zimbabwe, anyone?). That's my try at answering jurisb's question.
I'm not an economist, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express (well, actually Townehome Suites by Marriott).
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ZoomZoomSeptember 8th, 2008 at 2:57 am
As long as we need oil and are not willing to go get it from our own lands and our own waters, there will be a need to intervene in other parts of the world.
Either decrease our demand, or increase our supply.
In a way, as boring as that is to me, it goes to the muscle car topic from a few days ago.
Not muscle cars per se, but the bigger thing that they stand for (or against, depending on how you look at it):
An unwillingness to adapt. An unwillingness to drill more. Or deeper. An unwillingness to design our cities, suburbs, and communities in such a way as to reduce our need for oil.
And an unwillingness to make carpooling, the train, bus, bicycle, or sneakernet more appealing.
On any given trip that I take, I see most other cars also with ONLY ONE PERSON IN EACH. Yes, from my all-seeing perch behind the wheel in my own car. I was going to mention it to my passenger the other day when I realized that I too, was a single solitary human in my single solitary vehicle.
Well, at least it's a Prius, and at least the gas engine was off at that moment. I was at a red light…
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barberouxSeptember 8th, 2008 at 8:53 am
I'm with tonycd. I like cars and car blogs and I like comments that stay on topic. I can read political crap on hundreds of other blogs but I come hear to read about cars.
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jl1280September 8th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
It's great to learn that we actually won the Vietnam war! Good going boys! And for all these years I thought we had lost. Just where have I been? Oh yeah I now remember. I helped us win that other war, where we tried to catch Osama, bombed the hell out of some rocks, and helped them create the largest narco state in the history of the world. I guess what I saw there was victory too. Pardon me while I put on my rose colored shades. Or is it so assbackwards that I should take them off?
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Slain Principal Still a Driving Spirit; A Year Later, Patrick Daly's School Survives and Thrives
By JOE SEXTON
Published: December 19, 1993
The first thing they did a year ago at Public School 15, upon hearing word that the principal had been shot dead, was shut the doors. The killing of Patrick Daly was enough violation for the school in Red Hook, Brooklyn. The Sullivan Street entrance was first, then the exits on Wolcott and Van Brunt and Richards, the four corners of a tiny universe in peril.
No television cameras were allowed in to seek sound bites of heartbreak. The damage would be limited. What was alive and vital inside would be preserved.
"We were worried about the integrity of the building," said Mary Manti, the assistant principal, who has since succeeded Mr. Daly. The doors opened the next day, and 12 months after a senseless killing that threatened the worlds of nearly 1,000 children, that integrity remains intact.
One can still walk in any direction from the faded bloodstain on Center Mall in the Red Hook Houses and trace the lines of devastation. Madeline Daly still won't talk publicly about her husband's death. Florence Russell, the mother of one of the three young men sentenced to long prison terms for the killing, replays the events with as much anguish as anyone else. Many children are still haunted by the memory.
But perhaps the greatest truth a year later is that P.S. 15 has endured, and however cruel and heartbreaking the loss of the man, the legacy he left seems much bigger.
"The unthinkable happened: a meteor hit our school," Ms. Manti said. "And who could believe a school would have to face that?"
"The school is not the same," she said. "No school could or should be. Schools change. It's what they do. But I believe we have had a miraculous year. And we have changed in a very wonderful way."
That growth, with its aches and revelations, passed a milestone on Friday as a memorial Mass was held at Visitation Roman Catholic Church in Red Hook to commemorate the anniversary of Mr. Daly's last day. The 48-year-old principal was killed in a gunfight between teen-agers as he searched the neighborhood for a 9-year-old who had left the building that morning.
"If fear isn't the right word, then there certainly was apprehension after Pat's death," said William Casey, the superintendent for District 15. "It was impossible for any of us to know the toll it would take. But one of the spectacular things about the man and what he accomplished was that there was such direction to his plans. When he was killed, no one had to stop and ask where we went from here."
And so an ambitious program of integrating special-education students into general-education classes is in its inaugural year. And a conflict-resolution effort, teaching children to resolve disputes without violence, has been rethought and expanded, the children asked to carry its principles to their homes.
Paintings by third graders, the dividends of a hard-fought struggle to have a Studio in the School program financed for the first time, hang with an unpolished magnificence in the art room. The community programs run out of the school's basement -- job training, after-school care -- conduct themselves in intimate and affectionate coordination with P.S. 15.
Reading and math scores at the predominantly minority school went up last year. The hallways are spotless and hushed, the classrooms warmed by the soft electric hum of children at work.
As a result of a Dinkins administration initiative, P.S. 15 was designated one of the city's beacon schools and serves as a six-day-a-week, 12-hour-a-day community headquarters. Health workers, Girl Scouts, parents and organizers all swing through its doors. 'Simply Too Precious'
"There is a lot of anger still about the media coverage of Mr. Daly's death," said JoEllen Lynch, the director of the Red Hook Community Center. And the atmosphere "is pretty emotionally fragile," she said.
"The focus was on drugs and violence and another maligning of Red Hook. Our kids, the school's kids, again had to deal with this great perception that their community, their lives, were worthless. And the kids are simply too precious to have to deal with that. They are trying so very hard to grow up."
Mickey Correa, 11, still lives the pain of the process. Like other children and teachers and administrators, he sees a man round a corner and feels his heart race. He sees someone standing or leaning a certain way, that peculiar way the kinetic Mr. Daly did, and he begins to sprint. He stops, of course. But the sixth grader said he doesn't cry so much. Mickey, after all, read his own poem, "Time to Move On," on May 27, the day that P.S. 15 was officially renamed the Patrick F. Daly School.
"In the world right now there is nothing, but he wanted kids to keep struggling," Mickey said in a hallway last week. "He didn't want us to leave education."
Malik Jones, a sixth grader, was tempted to take a break from school this year. He said he didn't have homework when he did. He told his mother that school didn't feel the same. Malik, whose apartment in the Red Hook Houses overlooks the spot where Mr. Daly fell, watched yet another television program with film clips of urban violence and end with his principal's death.

subset: commoncrawl


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College of Liberal Arts
B.A. Degree
Minimum Requirements for Degree: 120 credits
Downloadable PDF (51K)
The justice discipline represents a melding of theoretical and applied concepts, and the B.A. degree in justice, as well as the M.A. degree in administration of justice, reflects that dichotomy. Consequently, students explore theoretical models associated with different aspects of the criminal justice system, but also study the structure and administration of the criminal justice system.
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text:
Heidi Klum and her three children, Leni, 4, Henry, 3, and Johan, 2, along with her mother Erna Klum and numerous nannies made their way through LAX in Los Angeles, CA.
In a recent interview, the 35-year-old German supermodel said, "I don't have the hard everyday life that so many working mothers face." She went on to gush about her Grammy-winning hubby: "I have the best husband in the world. He's very involved."


text:
406 Highland Avenue
A location in City of Orange
Commute to Downtown East Orange
Most errands can be accomplished on foot.
About your score
406 Highland Avenue has a Walk Score of 73 out of 100. This location is Very Walkable so most errands can be accomplished on foot.
406 Highland Avenue is a five minute walk from the Gladstone Branch and the Morris & Essex Line at the HIGHLAND AVENUE stop.
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Does Tim McGraw Have a 'Secret Son?'
Has TIM MCGRAW been hiding a 'secret son' from wife FAITH HILL? According to 'The National Enquirer,' 23-year-old Tyler Zarbo is NOT Tim's biological child, he's actually the son of Tim's former fiancée, Kristine Donahue.
Tim has been supporting Tyler, although it's not clear how, but he hasn't told ANYONE about it, including his wife FAITH HILL. Tim LEFT Kristine FOR Faith back in the mid '90s. Faith and Tim were married in 1996.
For some reason, the 'Enquirer' is also painting Faith as insanely jealous. A source said
'Every time Tim glances at another woman, Faith jumps all over him. She's never forgotten Tim broke up with another woman to be with her, and she's worried that he could do it again . . . to her.'
Apparently, back when they got married, Tim promised Faith he would never lie to her, and he doesn't. Instead, he just withholds the truth. (–Which is still lying.) The source said, '[Tim] doesn't tell her everything. He keeps some secrets to keep the peace.'
At least the 'Enquirer' did talk to Tyler. He said,
'Tim McGraw was like a father to me when I was growing up. He saw me as the son he never had, and we've stayed in contact. I wish he could have remained as my substitute dad, but it just wasn't meant to be.'
As you'd expect, as soon as this story got out, Tim's people issued a statement to People Magazine:
'The 'National Enquirer' story is full of inaccuracies and misrepresentations about Tim and Faith. We aren't going to comment on false statements that appear to have been sensationalized for the purpose of selling tabloid magazines.'
The rep isn't denying Tim's relationship with Tyler. It sounds to me like the 'inaccuracies' and 'misrepresentation' are the parts that show Faith in a bad light.
Sourcce: National Enquirer, People


text:
There are 7 days until Black Friday 2011 and we're counting them down with money saving and holiday shopping tips.
Today's Tip:
Store Hours for Black Friday
I've created a resource for you here on FatWallet for your Black Friday 2011 shopping trip! It's a blog post with all the stores who have leaked ads in our Black Friday Deal Finder. It includes the hours they'll be opening up on Thanksgiving Night or Black Friday, what the hours of their doorbuster sales are, as well as if they're a FatWallet merchant that offers cash back on online shopping.
It's a fantastic guide to all that's happening on Black Friday.
Check it out here: Black Friday Store Hours & Doorbuster Deals
6 Tips to Go! 🙂 Please feel free to share any black Friday countdown ideas you have and any topics you'd like me to touch upon in the comments below.
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Silvio Berlusconi - My Spoof Diary
This is the spoof journal of Silvio Berlusconi. It is purely a parody of what we imagine a diary made by Silvio Berlusconi would be like and hope you find the fake diary as funny.
Currently showing entries from: 2012 | 2010 | 2009
« Choose a different celebrity
September 2012
Wednesday 12 September 1212
You can all now have a Tour of my underwater lair, luxurious at my Sardinian Villa Certosa - where I hosted my notorious bunga bunga parties, and...
Tuesday 11 September 1212
The press have revealed: A Cave at former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's Sardinia villa revealed for first time ever. Like a charact...
Monday 10 September 1212
There seems to be a long line of people queuing up to give the funeral soliloquy for my once great AC Milan. In some quarters, the decline of I Rosso...
Sunday 09 September 1212
AC Milan have experienced the most tumultuous of mercato and thus results on the pitch may be a difficult thing for Massimiliano Allegri to come by.
Saturday 08 September 1212
I was questioned by a court as a witness in a case dating back to the 1970s when I was allegedly blackmailed by the mafia, paid Marcello Dell'Utri mor...
Friday 07 September 1212
AC Milano news: The rumour mill is running concerning Alexandre Pato's future with AC Milan after news that he has split was his girlfriend. Whi...
Thursday 06 September 1212
So I'm going back to my roots - as a cruise ship entertainer. I will be the special guest onboard the newest ship in MSC's fleet, Divina, on a week...
Wednesday 05 September 1212
I am due to join a cruise from Venice this month in what many are seeing as an attempt to relaunch my political career. Cabaret dancers are what cr...
NBC Offers to Renew 'The Apprentice' If Trump Will Resign As PresidentThis was in response to a petition signed by practically everybody in the U.S. and most of Canada.
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Home :: World
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VietnamPlus English
- 85 month(s) ago
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Vietnam always attaches importance to boosting ties with other nations, said State President Nguyen Minh Triet.
The State leader made the remark while receiving newly accredited ambassadors to Vietnam , who presented their credentials in Hanoi on Mar. 2.
The guests were ambassadors from Thailand , Qatar , Belarus , Ghana , Paraguay and Portugal .
Host and guests exchanged views on bilateral relations and potential to boost comprehensive cooperation between Vietnam and those countries, for common development as well as for peace, stability and prosperity in the region and the world.
President Triet asked the ambassadors to actively coordinate with Vietnamese agencies to accelerate the exchange of visits, share information on potential and strengths for cooperation and promote mutual understanding.
President Triet affirmed that the Vietnamese State would create favourable conditions for the ambassadors to fulfill their tasks, contributing to expanding relations between Vietnam and Thailand , Qatar , Belarus , Ghana , Paraguay and Portugal .
Thai Ambassador Anuson Chivanno said that on the basis of the close relations between the two countries, Thailand focused on boosting economic cooperation with Vietnam . He pledged to encourage Thai businesses to invest in the country.
For his part, Qatar Ambassador Mohamed Bin Jaber Abdullah Alsulaiti said that during his term of office in Vietnam , he would focus his task on developing economic relations between the two countries as that was the interest of Qatar 's King in boosting relations with Vietnam .
On the Belarus-Vietnam relations, Belarusian Ambassador Valeriy E. Sadoho said that last year's visit to Belarus by President Triet brought marked results, especially in two-way trade, which saw an increase of over 30 percent. He said he would pay much attention to boosting economic and production cooperation between the two countries.
Expressing admiration at the socio-economic development of Vietnam , the Ghanaian Ambassador said that Ghana wish to boost economic and investment cooperation with Vietnam , especially in rice cultivation and aquaculture. He also mentioned the potential in oil and gas industry as Ghana became an exporter of crude oil late last year.
Meanwhile, Paraguayan concurrent Ambassador to Vietnam Naoyuki Toyotoshi expressed his hope that the upcoming visit to Vietnam by President Fernando Lugo Mendez would be an opportunity for the two sides to work out measures to boost cooperative ties.
Portuguese concurrent Ambassador to Vietnam Jorge Ryder Torres Pereira said that Portugal wished to strengthen cooperation with Vietnam as well as with the Southeast Asian region. He said that the development of relations between the two countries had not matched the potential and aspiration of the two peoples, so Portugal was making preparations to open consulates in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City./.
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DEATH ANGEL guitarist Rob Cavestany has issued the following update:"Just finished an awesome mastering session with Ken Lee at his studio in Oakland. He is a master masterer for damn sure! The disc sounds great! Scheduled for release on September 4, 2007. I'll keep ya posted as the date draws near. For now, let me interest you with this... "The full-length CD includes 10 songs and will be initially released as a limited-edition digipack for the first 1,000 units. The record features my bros Andy Galeon on drums and Gus Pepa on guitar. Just us vibing out and getting deep. Here is the track listing: 01. Heal In Time
02. Bittersweet
03. Lines On The Road
04. This Life
05. Slip Away
06. Winter Welcome
07. Stuck On a Stepping Stone
08. Comet
09. Won't Stop
10. Naturally "I posted five of them for your listening pleasure but something is screwed up and they are not loading correctly as of now. Hopefully by the time you read this they are up and running and making their way into your lives. "By the way, DEATH ANGEL is in the thick of pre production for our upcoming record and we will be in the studio laying down tracks very soon!" Rob Cavestany will perform at a private-invitation-only party for STUF-TV cable show "Robb's MetalWorks" on Sunday, August 26 at the Cabo Grille in San Antonio. Rob will play material from his upcoming solo disc and will be joined on second guitar by DEATH ANGEL's Ted Aguilar. Rob's performance at the party, coupled with an interview, will be taped for a future episode of "Robb's MetalWorks". This promises to be a special event as attendees (limited to 76) will receive commemorative shirts, koozies and giveaways throughout the night. Support will come from Paloma recording artists and San Antonio break-outs MAN OF SORROWS. DEATH ANGEL's latest CD, "The Art of Dying", was released in May 2004 through Nuclear Blast Records. The group's first studio album since 1990's "Act III" was recorded at SF Soundworks studios in San Francisco, California with producer Brian Joseph Dobbs (VOIVOD, MANMADEGOD).


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Capitalism in Korea: A Model for the New Millennium
Op-ed in the series "Insight into Korea," sponsored by the Korea Herald
© Korea Herald
Korean economic performance over the last four decades has been nothing short of spectacular. During this period the country experienced only two years of negative growth-1980 in the wake of the second oil shock and the assassination of President Park Chung-hee and 1998 in the midst of the Asian financial crisis. Between the initiation of a wide-ranging economic reform program by Park in 1963 and the financial crisis in 1997, purchasing power-adjusted per capita income growth averaged more than six percent annually, and per capita income stood at more than eight times its level when reforms began. At the start of that period the country's income level was lower than that of Bolivia and Mozambique; by the end it was higher than that of Greece and Portugal.
Problems began to arise as the country approached the international technological frontier and opportunities for easy technological catch-up began to erode. The disappearance of straightforward paths for industrial upgrading based on imitating the prior trajectories of more advanced economies put a heightened premium on the ability of corporate managements and their financiers to discern emerging profit opportunities. The crisis of 1997-98 proved that the old state-led development strategy was inadequate, but in the intervening decade, devising a model for the new millennium has presented Korea with a considerable challenge.
Economists normally locate the long-run sources of growth in the availability of the basic inputs to production such as labor and capital, together with productivity growth. In the case of Korea, during its high growth period it benefited from a rapid expansion of the labor force and a relatively low number of dependents per worker, combined with a significant increase in the educational level of the workforce. However, looking forward, those favorable demographic factors may go into reverse: Korea will face a rapidly aging population and a growing legion of nonworking dependents. Under current trends, within the next decade Korea's dependency ratio will begin rising, and by 2030 population size will begin to decline, falling below its current level by 2040.
Nothing is certain and changes in underlying behavior could frustrate these projections. Yet if these forecasts prove broadly correct, they imply increases in health and pension burdens which will in turn necessitate adjustments in Korean policies and practices, such as increasing the retirement age, improving the efficiency of delivery of health care and retirement services, and using female labor, especially educated women, more efficiently. These developments will undoubtedly impact Korean family life. Korea, which among the members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the club of rich industrial democracies, has some of the most restrictive immigration policies, may have to reconsider those as well in response to changing demographics. Korea's demographic bonus could turn into a demographic onus.
Korean investment has not returned to levels existing prior to the 1997-98 crisis, though in this respect Korea is not alone: Investment in other crisis affected Asian economies has never fully recovered either. This pattern may reflect overinvestment during the 1990s boom, secularly falling profitability as capital is accumulated, and political developments over the past decade. The rise of progressive political forces following the financial crisis, their contentious relationship with the corporate sector, and greater willingness to side with the unions in labor disputes may have contributed to a reduction in business confidence and a consequent attenuation by the business sector to engage in irreversible commitments, which, after all, is what investment represents. Labor market regulations, which make it difficult to fire permanent workers once they are hired, further reinforces caution with respect to expansions of capacity which may be effectively irreversible in the payroll dimension as well. Direct foreign investment flows into Korea are relatively sluggish; in a recent United Nations survey, Korea placed 114th out of 141 countries with respect to foreign investment flows, and outward investment is rising. The undeniable impression is that Korea is losing its luster as a location for production.
Under such circumstances, squeezing the maximum productivity out of labor and capital inputs is essential to maintain growth. Korea faces important competitive challenges posed by the country's intermediate position between its neighbors, low-wage China and high-technology Japan. A pproaching the technological frontier, Korea faces significant challenges in stimulating productivity growth. It is tempting to think of spurring productivity increases in terms of technological upgrading, and indeed, Korea's technological progress, particularly in information technology, has been phenomenal. But increasing productivity involves more than just technological change; indeed, technology, narrowly defined, may not even be among the most important drivers. Financial sector reform, for example, could have a considerable impact on the availability of capital to underwrite the commercialization of innovative activity. Changes in labor market regulations could have an equivalent impact with respect to the efficient utilization of labor.
One can conceptualize the process of productivity advance as encouraging innovation in emerging sectors or activities, while at the same time terminating practices that discourage productivity increases in existing activities. Where Korea falls badly behind is in the heavily regulated service sector, and it is here that the greatest opportunities for productivity increase lie.
In terms of productivity, the Korean service sector lags the industrial sector, and this divergence is far larger in Korea than it is in most other OECD countries. In fact, estimates by the International Monetary Fund indicate that while total factor productivity growth, a concept that measures productivity increase taking the application of both labor and capital into account, has been rising at a rate of 3-4 percent a year outside the service sector over the last quarter century, productivity in the service sector has actually declined. According to these calculations, Koreans are actually getting less output in the service sector, once inputs of labor are taken into account, than they were in the 1970s. Whatever the specifics, considerable evidence suggests that Korea faces a real problem with respect to service sector productivity-and the importance of this problem is growing. China's rise means that manufacturing is likely to play a smaller role in the Korean economy in the future, a trend that will be reinforced domestically by the growth of Korea's elderly population who tend to consume relatively more services than the population as a whole.
Technological upgrading could increase service sector productivity, but the lack of use of cutting edge technology appears to be less of the cause than a symptom of the sector's woes, which are more closely associated with institutional policies and practices which impede competition, particularly by facilitating barriers to entry by new competitors and stifling the potential impetus to competition generated by the growth of existing small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Fortunately, financial sector development is a current government priority and could both increase productivity in that important sector, as well as encourage increased aggregate saving and investment, increase the allocative efficiency of investment, improve access to capital to SMEs, and, by extension, stimulate the degree of competition in the economy more generally. What is likely to prove difficult is balancing the need to increase the degree of financial integration between Korean corporations and their foreign counterparts with the sensitivity of Korea, located between the large economies of China and Japan, to impede this process to preserve national corporate autonomy. In the future, the development of large sovereign wealth funds is likely to enhance the salience of these concerns, raising the specter of foreign government affiliated entities taking over Korean firms. Recent comments by Korean government officials and proposed legislation in the National Assembly suggest that concerns about rising xenophobia with respect to foreign ownership of Korean assets are not misplaced.
Such developments are particularly unfortunate in the context of the perennial challenges posed by Korea's industrial structure which is dominated by a small number of large chaebol, or family-dominated conglomerates. Foreign corporate competitors and private investors are one potential source of market discipline, which can be imposed on the chaebol without resorting to direct regulation, and a potentially positive and constructive force. The foreigners and the emerging good governance movement represented by organizations such as the Center for Good Corporate Governance and the Korea Corporate Governance Fund are natural allies in promoting more fair and transparent practices in the Korean corporate sector.
Beyond the financial sector, the nature of Korean labor market regulation has long encouraged segmentation where there is a small cadre of relatively secure and legally protected employees, who are mainly employed by chaebol or public enterprises, and a much larger group of part-timers and workers employed by SMEs, who labor under far less secure conditions. The result is a dualistic system which is rigid in some respects and flexible in others, and confers considerable protection to some workers, but few safeguards to others, and encourages confrontational behavior by Korea's unions. When Korea was confronted with the specter of mass unemployment during the 1997-98 crisis, it was forced to expand the existing social safety net, yet the provision of social insurance still lags comparators in the OECD. The crisis likewise encouraged reform of some of Korea's most debilitating labor practices. Looking forward Korea could gain from further diminishing the degree of labor market dualism and segmentation, continuing to rein in highly restrictive regulations (with respect to issues such as hiring and firing, for example) which hamper Korea in international competition, while building on recently passed legislation protecting the interests of nonregular workers and encouraging the smooth deployment of labor to its most productive uses.
Beyond these generic improvements in the functioning of capital and labor markets, there is scope for more narrow reforms to the innovation system. As Korea approaches the technological frontier, there are fewer opportunities for imitation and reverse engineering, while at the same time foreign firms are likely to be increasingly reluctant to transfer technology to potential Korean competitors. The OECD has identified a number of areas of potential improvement. Korea's innovative activities are concentrated in a limited number of sectors, and research and development activity in services is low. Considerable scope exists for improving the integration of innovative activities occurring in the universities and other public sector institutions and the private sector within Korea, as well as the degree of cross-border integration between researchers in Korea and those located elsewhere. As in the case of financial and labor market reforms, the government of Korea is making efforts in this direction, though more remains to be done.
A final challenge confronting Korea is growing income and wealth inequality. Again, Korea is not alone in this regard: technological change and globalization have resulted in increased inequality in many countries, and Korea is far, far from the worst. Yet the rise of inequality has been particularly pronounced in Korea, and unsurprisingly it is an enormously sensitive issue. As Korea grapples with inequality going forward, the key issue is to use public policy in a constructive way, by addressing lingering dualism in the labor market, for example. The risk is that inadequate or ineffective public policies in the face of the widening gap could provoke a political reaction that could damage the fundamental drivers of Korean success. This concern is made more acute by the imperative to maximize productivity growth created by Korea's looming demographic challenge and the predicament created by its economic and geographic placement between Japan and China.
These are daunting challenges, indeed. Yet two generations ago few would have predicted Korea's stunning rise. One can only hope that the strengths that the country has exhibited in achieving its extraordinary past accomplishments will be equally evident as it addresses its future challenges.


text:
November 15, 2016
Paleo Cocoa and Coconut Whipped Cream
You all voted so here is you Paleo-elect Cocoa and Whipped Cream recipes! Let's be real, we could all use a giant mug of cocoa after this supremely stressful election season. Or wine. But for the sake of this post, let's just say cocoa. Paleo Hot Cocoa // Serves 1 1 1/2 cups unsweetened almond… Read more
June 30, 2016
What veggie can I not get enough of right now?
By: Leanne Ely It's time for Tricks, Tips and a Recipe! And in honor of this most ultimate summer squash, today we're giving it the attention it deserves. Sound good? Zucchinis are packed with beta-carotene, potassium and B vitamins. They also provide fiber and a bit of Vitamin C, but a large zucchini contains only… Read more
April 26, 2016
Tea or smoothies? (special herb for both)
By: Leanne Ely Fresh mint is a common sight in the summertime and today you're going to get a tip, a trick and a recipe featuring this pretty little leaf! I have mint growing in my garden and let me tell you, when you plant mint, you have mint for life! Really. Mint can… Read more
February 23, 2016
Perfect Poaching
By: Leanne Ely It's time once again for Tricks, Tips and a Recipe. Today you'll learn a tip, a trick and you'll get a great recipe to try it out with. Neat, huh? Today's focus is on: POACHING Poaching is method of cooking that is perfect for bringing out the best in delicate foods… Read more
February 16, 2016
Go ape for bananas!
By: Leanne Ely It's time once again for Tricks, Tips and a Recipe. Today you'll learn a trick, a tip and you'll get a great recipe to try it out with. Neat, huh? Today's focus is on: BANANAS You'd have a difficult time finding a home in North America without a bunch of bananas… Read more
February 15, 2016
Focus on what you CAN have
By: Leanne Ely When people first hear about Paleo, they almost always say the same thing: Oh I know this Paleo diet is supposed to be healthy, but I could never give up [bread/potatoes/pasta/corn/dairy/etc.]. Why is everyone so focused on what you can't have? I like to twist that negative around and talk about what… Read more
January 26, 2016
Top tips for kale chips
By: Leanne Ely There is a topic that keeps coming across my radar, both on Facebook, my email inbox, and even at the market when my fellow shoppers wonder what I'm doing with all of that kale (when my own crop has been harvested for the season, of course!): kale chips. And, today, we're… Read more
January 4, 2016
Raise the barre for weight loss
By: Leanne Ely Before I even start with today's blog post, thank you to each and every one of you who has commented on my new silhouette. It has taken lots of work, but I feel wonderful. Your compliments and words of encouragement really do mean a great deal to me. And because you've… Read more
November 24, 2015
Scrumptious Roast Turkey Soup
By: Leanne Ely Hands up if you plan to have a turkey in the oven at some point over the next couple of days. I know you're probably not thinking about what to do with that leftover turkey yet, but I want to catch you before you toss out that beautiful turkey carcass in… Read more
November 20, 2015
Mix & Mash these Potatoes
By: Leanne Ely Once upon a time, the only potato option on the Thanksgiving Dinner table was your standard white mashed potatoes. But today, we know that white potatoes aren't the be all and end all in a starchy mash. There are several options in potatoes (and non-potatoes) for us to explore, so let's… Read more


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"To experience October in NH is to witness transition," writes Sunapee artist Susan Parmenter. "Daylight seems suddenly shorter. The smell of wood smoke in the air calls me to come inside and be warm. Vegetables sit on a windowsill, saved from the frost. My garden looks wilted and tired and ready to be tucked in…" This comes to you via Susan's new blog and her recent post An October Landscape.
To learn learn more about Susan's work, visit ParmenterArt.com. And if you're in Keene stop by the Monadnock Fine Art Gallery on Main Street, or if you're in the Upper Valley, visit the Red Roof Gallery in Enfield, where her paintings are also on display.
SunapeeNews.com has added a new Category: Home Grown. Let us know about your home grown business in and around the Sunapee area.
Filed under: Creative Community, Home Grown, Nature & Outdoors, On-Line, Sunapee, NH 03782 | Tagged: Art, Creative Community, Gardens, Home, Home Grown, Sunapee NH, Susan Parmenter |


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Marvin Miller is often credited with revolutionizing Major League Baseball in particular and professional sports in general. This characterization works if you accept as revolutionary the idea that with regard to the determination of wages, the marketplace should be allowed to function without interference.
In 1966, when Marvin Miller began representing MLB players, he expressed dismay at the document known as the "Uniform Player Contract." He said, "I had seen some documents in my life, but none like that."
It took nearly a decade and significant sacrifice on the part of various players, most notably Curt Flood, for Miller to achieve the overthrow of the reserve clause, the part of the player's contract that deprived pro baseball's workers of the right to sell their labor for what the market would bear.
When Mr. Miller took over the leadership of the MLB Players' Association, the owners announced that they would no longer contribute to the players' pension fund. That wasn't much of threat, since the previous largesse of the owners had resulted in a fund balance of $5,400, total. In 1966, the salary line on a major league player's first contract read: $7,000. Miller's first task was to convince the players that as the best in the world at what they did, they deserved more, especially as the owners were profiting magnificently from their labor under circumstances by which each owner could tell a player who didn't want to accept the salary he was offered to go find a job in a mine or on a farm. The owners claimed that without the reserve clause, their business would be unsustainable. Miller taught his clients, the courts, and the public at large to see through that lie. Years later he said, "the best thing I had going for me was the owner propaganda."
Marvin Miller's efforts helped make numbers of today's pro athletes wealthy, in part because the owners had to bid against each other for the workers they deemed most desirable. But his more significant contribution to pro athletes in particular and workers in general was to promote the value of organizing and the necessity of solidarity.
There are vast differences between the circumstances of those who play Major League Baseball and those who guide airplanes toward runways or work as cashiers in big box stores. But as the champion of a class of workers who'd been at the mercy of business owners operating a rigged game for almost a century, Miller's legacy is the example he provided of the energy and determination necessary to—pardon the sports metaphor—level the playing field.


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8月 20, 2014 合計視聴数:: 4900 今日は: 2 ★★★★
Hotel Santai Resort Hangzhou, The luxurious Santai Resort is located in Santai Yunshui tourist spot, just beside the scenic West Lake. Surrounded by lush greenery, it features traditional Chinese architecture, an indoor pool and a tennis court. Offering views of West Lake and Hangzhou city, Santai Resort is a 7-minute drive from Leifeng Pagoda and a 15-minute drive from Linyin Temple. The historic Hefang Street is a 13-minute drive away. The resort offers a medical centre, pool tables and karaoke facilities. Guests can also relax in the games room, laze in the sauna, or enjoy pampering massage treatments. 無料のWi-Fiは公共エリアで利用可能です. Featuring free wired internet, all rooms come with Oriental-inspired décor, a coffee machine and a minibar. Both bathtub and shower facilities can be found in the ample bathroom. 無料のトイレタリー, hairdryers and slippers are also included. Baiheting restaurant serves delicious local Hangzhou cuisine. (Hotel Santai Resort Hangzhou hotels 予約).


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While those dedicated to protecting the climate see carbon dioxide as da damaging greenhouse gas, for chemists it is a potential raw material.
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While those dedicated to protecting the climate see CO2 as a damaging greenhouse gas, for chemists it is a potential raw material. The carbon atom in CO2 could be used to form new molecules. Theoretically at any rate. In practice, CO2 has low reactivity, so breaking it down into its chemical constituents requires a large amount of energy. And that is neither economical nor environment-friendly.
Consequently, this greenhouse gas can only be used as a raw material if the energy required for synthesis reactions is lower than at present. To achieve this, customized catalysts and high-energy reaction partners are needed. And, of course, they need to be produced without any detrimental impact on the climate. Evonik is researching this in collaboration with three German universities—Aachen, Dortmund and Bochum—as part of the H2ECO2 project. This three-year project is funded by the Ministry for Innovation, Science, Research and Technology of the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia and co-financed by the European Union. Total funding is around €7 million and Dr. Daniela Kruse, project manager at Evonik's strategic research and development organization, Creavis Technologies & Innovation, says that the goal for Evonik and its partners is "to produce new processes for polymers and specialty chemicals that use CO2 as a starting product, and thus offer economic and ecological benefits. The aim is to use hydrogen obtained from water with the aid of sunlight as the high-energy reaction partner."
While the universities are driving forward development of catalysts for eco-friendly conversion of CO2 and the production of hydrogen, Evonik is responsible for the economic, ecological and technical aspects of the project. At its heart is the Eco2 Scienceto- Business Center run by Creavis, which has been working on ten publicly funded research projects focused on resource efficiency and climate protection for the past two years. In the H2ECO2 project Creavis defines target molecules for which CO2 could be used as a cost-effective raw material. Life cycle assessments are used to check whether the new pathway is more sustainable than the conventional synthesis process.
The close, open and interdisciplinary collaboration is already starting to show significant results. While Evonik rejected target molecules that were not feasible, the universities had to learn that not everything that is viable in the laboratory can be scaled up for economical and sustainable use by industry. Nevertheless a good year on many promising results have been obtained. Examples are catalysts whose ecological and economic benefits now have to be optimized. This initial scientific success has been made possible by the equality of all partners working towards the ambitious goal of returning CO2 to the value chain and thus making a contribution to climate protection.


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|84 Sherman St.
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|MedTouch is an award-winning online strategy and technology company headquartered in Cambridge, MA. Focusing exclusively on hospitals, health plans and physician groups, MedTouch combines creative and technical expertise to ensure our clients achieve results that matter. Our services and solutions include healthcare specific content management solutions, user experience design, results driven search marketing, content strategy services, consumer facing websites, employee oriented intranets and more. We are a fast-paced, innovative company and we take pride in the quality of our people as well as our work. Although we are growing steadily, we strive to retain a relationship based, people focused environment. We are committed to creating a welcoming and rewarding workplace for clients and employees alike.
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One Of My Favorite LBT Songs Goes Back To The 2nd Album
I would have to say that Little Big Town has to be right up in my top 3 for favorite country artist. With the success of their latest album, "Tornado," and the single "Pontoon," the release of the title track is anxiously awaited.
As good as "Tornado" is, I think their 2nd album "The Road to Here" was an amazing album with big hits and Platinum boasting rights but it was "A little more you" that surprised me when it didn't hit a top #10 spot.
I still stay it's all about timing and just way too many variables that have to be in motion for something to go beyond the best it can be.
Love the song so I thought I'd pull it out of the LBT archive.
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EPA Plans to Listen to Scientists Again
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced it will increase the influence of scientists and the level of transparency in setting standards for common air pollutants, a reversal of a Bush administration policy that politicized scientific analyses. Clean air advocates are welcoming the policy reversal as a restoration of the role of science in crafting policies that impact environmental and public health.
In a letter to an independent science advisory group, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson described the new process for reviewing the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) and stated her belief that the process "will ensure the timeliness, scientific integrity, and transparency of the NAAQS review process." The new process restores the use of a key document that assessed the scientific foundation for air quality policy options.
Every five years, the EPA is required to review the standards for emissions of six common pollutants, including those that contribute to acid precipitation and smog, as well as the science undergirding the standards. The agency most often fails to meet this deadline. Advising the EPA is a panel of non-EPA scientists know as the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC).
In prior years, EPA scientists produced a "staff paper" during the NAAQS reviews that analyzed the scientific basis for policy options that considered whether to raise or lower a standard or leave it unchanged. In a purported effort to streamline the review process, in 2006, the Bush EPA made several changes, including replacing the staff paper with a policy assessment that reflected the views of EPA senior management and was published as an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR). An ANPR usually announces the beginning of a rulemaking process. However, the 2006 change placed it at the end of a comprehensive public review process, creating more delay and possibly undermining the work of the scientists.
Many clean air advocates criticized the change and sought to restore the influence of staff scientists and undo the added bureaucracy of the ANPR. Significantly, the CASAC strongly objected to the change, decrying the marginalization of scientists in the review process and the increased influence of political appointees. The CASAC claimed that in practice, the document that replaced the staff paper was "both unsuitable and inadequate as a basis for rulemaking" and served to "undermine the scientific foundation of the NAAQS reviews" (emphasis in the original).
The newly announced review process for air quality standards will once again include the staff paper. The use of the ANPR policy assessment will cease. The staff paper (also referred to as the "policy assessment") will serve to "bridge the gap" between the science and the policy options available to the administrator. The draft document will be available for public comment.
The EPA administrator will not jettison all of the Bush-era changes to the NAAQS review process. The process as described by Jackson will retain parts of the prior administration's changes and will add new features. Every phase of the review process prior to the interagency review will include public comment and participation by the CASAC.
The NAAQS review process for each pollutant will kick off with a public workshop to create a strategic plan for the review that will identify the purpose and approach the agency will use. The draft review plan will be open for public comment.
When creating an assessment of the relevant science, and during the assessment of human health risks, Jackson has instructed EPA scientists to reach out to other federal scientists, such as at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), for their input. It is not clear whether comments from federal scientists will be disclosed to the public during the review process. Allowing the public to evaluate disagreements and discussions among federal scientists is a crucial aspect of government transparency.
Concerns also remain over the role of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) during the interagency review process. OMB has previously been criticized for interfering with science-based policy decisions, including during the review of standards for ozone.
Additionally, Jackson will continue to pursue the development of an electronic database to identify and prioritize scientific studies, known as Health and Environmental Research Online (HERO). It is not clear to what degree such a database would be accessible to the public.
Overall, Jackson's air quality review process provides a respectable level of public participation and transparency at important stages of the process – that is, before policy decisions have already been made. If the review process is implemented in accordance with the Obama administration's recent rhetoric upholding the value of scientific integrity, then the EPA will once again be assessing the best available science in a transparent manner when setting standards for air quality.


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HBO Boxing: Alexander vs. Bradley Look Ahead
An inside look at the upcoming World Championship Boxing telecast, Devon Alexander vs. Timothy Bradley.
Alexander vs. Bradley: Fighters Face Off
Devon Alexander and Timothy Bradley meet face-to-face outside of the ring for this special interview with Max Kellerman.
HBO Boxing: Alexander and Bradley Greatest Hits
A look at the best moments in the young careers of Devon Alexander and Timothy Bradley.
HBO Boxing: Interview with Alexander and Bradley
Alexander and Bradley talk about the importance of fighting each other and discuss their preparation for the fight.
HBO Boxing: Ring Life – Devon Alexander
Ring Life takes an intimate look inside the life of Devon Alexander.
HBO Boxing: Ring Life – Timothy Bradley
What inspires Timothy Bradley in and out of the ring?
Alexander vs. Bradley happens live Saturday, Jan. 29 at 10:00pm ET/7:00pm PT, only on HBO