straws in the wind

[jk]

here's a link to a column in the ny times by ben stein:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/09/bu...756&ei=5087%0A

stein, a former speechwriter for richard nixon, columnist for the american spectator, guest on fox news business shows, professor at pepperdine university - these are not the hallmarks of a left wing radical. yet in this column he lambastes the obscene "compensation" of american ceo's, asking: "Is this America, where far too many of the rich endlessly loot their stockholders and kick the employees in the teeth, the America that our soldiers in Ramadi and Kirkuk and Anbar Province and Afghanistan are fighting for? Is this America, where we will end up so far behind the financial eight ball we won't be able to see because of mismanagement by both parties, the America that our men and women are losing limbs for, coming home in boxes for?"

if a conservative like stein is saying this, what must we have in store, poliically and socially?

it might be worth having a thread dedicated to sightings like these: media moments giving early flashes of what [we think] lies ahead. thus the thread title: "straws in the wind."

[jk]

straw ii - nyc hqs

from paul krugman's column on "the surprising resurgence of Manhattan as a site for corporate headquarters."
in the past "in order to keep their top executives in Manhattan, companies also had to pay the rent on large office buildings and fill those buildings with thousands of lower-level employees, paying those employees wages high enough to compensate for New York's high cost of living. Many companies decided that the benefits of a New York headquarters weren't worth the cost. Now, however, it's possible for many of the people who would formerly have worked at corporate headquarters to work somewhere else instead, communicating with management electronically. And that makes it worthwhile to move top executives back to the center of things."

the conclusion:
"... what seems to be happening is that only relatively low-paid finance jobs are moving out of New York, while highly paid jobs are actually moving in. The Fed study shows that New York's share of U.S. financial industry earnings, as opposed to employment, is actually higher now than it was in 1970. And it's a good guess that financial firms, like corporate headquarters, find it easier to put their top people in New York now that the back-office work can be carried out someplace cheaper.


"The story of the New York economy isn't entirely a happy one. The city has essentially lost all of its manufacturing, and it's now in the process of outsourcing both routine office work and many middle-management functions to other parts of the country.


"What's left is an urban economy that offers a mix of very highly paid financial jobs and low-wage service jobs, with relatively little in the middle. Economic disparities in New York, as in the United States as a whole, are wider than they have been since the 1920's."

bill gross wrote a piece in may titled "as gm goes, so goes the nation." maybe we should add "as nyc goes, so goes the nation."

[Jim Nickerson]

Re: straws in the windumb Boomers--All spend, few save.

Paul Farrell, Market Watch, rehashes the idiocy of ~ 67% of Americans. I think the number is actually larger.

"America's savings hoax exposed
Politicians, bankers and CEOs all want you to spend, not save."

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Stor...o&dist=myyahoo

[Jim Nickerson]

Re: straws in the wind: Case for rising dollar

Author Michael Nystrom considers arguments wherein the US$ could rise.

Part 1.
http://www.bullnotbull.com/archive/dollar-1.html

Part 2.

http://www.bullnotbull.com/archive/dollar-2.html

Part 3. Due 7/12/06

[Jim Nickerson]

Re: straws in the wind: Its all about greed and fear

Constock partners offered a chilling perspective on Wedneday, 7/12.

It is worth reading.

http://www.comstockfunds.com/index.c...menugroup=Home

[Jim Nickerson]

Re: straws in the wind: Rising US$ part III.

Nystrom's last arguments supporting a rising dollar.

http://www.bullnotbull.com/archive/dollar-3.html