Let's hope corporations rightsize themselves completely out of existence.
Or investors could maybe, y'know, learn to live without fat dividends during a recession.

Will the last looter to leave corporate America please shoot out the lights?

They don't have assets? Funny, what happens when you shift you contract out your production.

Sell, Mortimer, sell!

b2theory: FTFA: "U.S. companies are dialing back their quarterly profit forecasts at the highest rate since early 2009, driven by unnerving European headlines along with rising commodity and energy costs."

No! Profits are not driven by headlines any more than hiring is driven by the marginal tax rate.

You clearly need know nothing about business and economics in order to write about it.

If you write for the Wall Street Journal, such knowledge is actually counter-productive.

Corporations have sold off their assets and are now making money by firing employees? When they run out of employees and go broke I'm sure it will be the fault of unions and over regulation. Yet wingnuts are still saying "If only we could run the government like a business."

Bullshiat, plain and simple.

yep, I smell bullshiat too...

By doing this, business has chosen to cause the unemployment problem.

/When someone promotes business friendliness, reach for your gun and do not hesitate to use it to stop the robbery by business.

Anybody, including subby, bother to read the article? It says the opposite of the headline.

"companies may have hit a limit on cost cutting, which became rampant during the financial crisis and recession"

This, if true, is good news for labor as it means companies have cut to the bone and can't cut anymore. This is the point in business cycles where employment really starts to improve.

/or is this a "that's the joke" moment that I'm missing?

Debeo Summa Credo: Anybody, including subby, bother to read the article? It says the opposite of the headline.


The title seems to have absolutely nothing to do with the article. The subby is straight out fearcasting.

KarmicDisaster: What they need is some more tax cuts to boost profits even further. They can put all the money in a big pile.

oops

Debeo Summa Credo: Anybody, including subby, bother to read the article? It says the opposite of the headline.

"companies may have hit a limit on cost cutting, which became rampant during the financial crisis and recession"

This, if true, is good news for labor as it means companies have cut to the bone and can't cut anymore. This is the point in business cycles where employment really starts to improve.

/or is this a "that's the joke" moment that I'm missing?

I seriously doubt that companies have cut to the bone yet. They have certainly slimmed down some, but I don't think they've gone full gastric bypass surgery yet.

It's like a pirate joke.

Except instead of: "The beatings will continue until morale improves."
It's "The layoffs will continue until the economy improves."

Can someone please explain to me the rationale behind executive thinking that if the economy grows at x% per year and inflation is y%, that their company is entitles to both profit growth of 2x and a reduction in labor costs of 0.5-1y?

I think the crux of the talent pipeline problem relates to how companies have historically dealt with recessions. When revenue is down, you cut back on non-essential operations such as marketing, human resource development, hiring new talent, and conducting research and development; the company reduces its internal investments in response to how much fixed overhead it has on its sheets.
The problem is that this is a short term solution to an increasingly prolonged and devastating recession. This "efficiency" business strategy worked in the past b/c markets bounced back and grew. Companies then reinstated spending on internal investments. As our problems are becoming long term, the strategy loses its efficacy b/c the organization starves from a lack of internal investment.

The lemon has been squeezed dry. Corporate efficiency has doomed the American market.

b2theory: FTFA: "U.S. companies are dialing back their quarterly profit forecasts at the highest rate since early 2009, driven by unnerving European headlines along with rising commodity and energy costs."

No! Profits are not driven by headlines any more than hiring is driven by the marginal tax rate.

You clearly need know nothing about business and economics in order to write about it.

But a Murdoch owned rag would never report doom and gloom for the economy in an election year to get their team in power.