Monday, August 8, 2011

Kicking California to the Curb

"State Street Rehired by Calpers After Being Likened to ‘Thugs’

California Governor Jerry Brown sued State Street Corp. in 2009, when he was attorney general, for “unconscionable fraud” against pension funds over foreign- exchange pricing. That didn’t stop the largest of the funds from striking a new three-year deal with the firm....

(Blog editor simply snorts)

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Related: State Street Stealers

And while they are MAKING BILLIONS in PROFIT and COLLECTING a $885 MILLION-DOLLAR, TAXPAYER GIFT:

"State Street cutting 850 technology jobs, most of them in Bay State" July 20, 2011|By Beth Healy, Globe Staff

State Street Corp. said yesterday it will cut 850 jobs, including 558 in Massachusetts, as it launches a second major round of layoffs in less than a year. 

The Boston financial services giant said all the affected workers are in information technology and described the cuts as part of an “IT transformation,’’ where transactions and data can be processed in less costly ways. State Street manages investments and handles record keeping on trillions of dollars for pensions and other investors; it depends heavily on technology in its business....

Gerard Cassidy, a banking analyst with RBC Capital Markets in Portland, Maine, said “It’s the evolution of the business.’’

The cuts come as State Street reported yesterday an 18 percent surge in its second-quarter earnings from a year ago, to $502 million....

Operating expenses, however, also soared, jumping 20 percent to $1.8 billion, due to increases in salaries and benefits, the company said.

They are not even ashamed of the criminal greed.

Yesterday’s job cut news was the latest in a series of expense-saving moves by State Street, one of the largest employers in Massachusetts....

In the latest round of job cuts, State Street said it will eliminate 530 positions over the next 18 to 20 months. It will also shift 320 jobs to IBM Corp. and Wipro Technologies, companies to which it already outsources technology work. All of the jobs are in North America, the company said.

State Street spokeswoman Arlene Roberts said the company’s headcount had expanded by nearly 25 percent in the state as a result of corporate acquisitions over the past five years. Despite efforts to scale that back and move its technology toward remote “cloud computing,’’ she said, “We remain committed to Massachusetts as our headquarters state.’’  

Lies come as easy as looting.

The company has a history of rolling out layoffs even when its finances appear strong. In late 2008, as it accepted a $2 billion capital infusion from the federal government during the financial crisis, State Street announced plans to cut 1,800 jobs. 

That's a fancy way of saying they were bailed out.

The company repaid the funds in 2009 and went on to post a $1.6 billion profit in 2010, as markets rebounded.

Even with that success, State Street filed for an $885 million federal tax refund for 2010, after taking a loss on billions of dollars in risky mortgage investments the prior year....  

Which they can WRITE OFF for years insuring they PAY NO TAXES!

And TAXPAYERS COVERED THOSE LOSSES (yeah, we got paid back, sure).

Investors reacted negatively to management’s explanation of expenses, and continued to show concern about economic woes in Europe, where State Street garners significant business.

Cassidy, the banking analyst, said State Street executives predicted they would be able to charge more for services in the core custody business - accounting and record keeping of assets - in the wake of a scandal over alleged overcharging for foreign exchange trading as well as securities lending.  

That has been kept awfully quiet, and apparently all the banks were in on it.  

Related: Massachusetts Lays a Mellon

Whadda ya mean they are GETTING a TAX GIFT?!

Both are areas where State Street and other giant banks have been accused of padding their prices, to make up for low commodity pricing in custody.  

What a F***ING RACKET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And GUESS WHO is PICKING UP the BILL, taxpayers!

 “Now that those products aren’t as profitable, they have to draw the line in the sand on pricing,’’ Cassidy said. 

Time to draw it in blood:



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Related: Tech sector proves torchbearer for Mass.

Get a line going for the lying media, too, will ya? 

"In high-tech, another kind of job crunch; Vital Mass. sector faces worker shortage" July 28, 2011|By Katie Johnston, Globe Staff

Massachusetts has developed a technology labor shortage, one that could undermine a vital sector that helped pull the state from the last recession and is driving its recovery. Demand for high-tech talent is so great that workers are turning down six-figure salaries and companies are offering five-figure cash bounties for successful referrals - a stark contrast to lackluster hiring that has created a large pool of long-term unemployed and kept the state jobless rate at historically high levels.  

And a stark contrast to the steady stream of business bullshit from the Boston Globe, arrrrrgggghh!!!!!!!!!

Even though the industry is thriving in Massachusetts, the shortage of new talent means that companies are less likely to spring up or stick around if there aren’t enough people to do the work.

What happened to our grate ejerkashun sistum?

Keeping the technology industry in Massachusetts is especially important because of its high salaries and extensive exports, which help generate activity across a variety of other sectors, from retail to construction to finance. The technology industry now employs nearly one of every 10 workers in the state....

A college degree is no guarantee of success....

No kidding.

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Looks like Massachusetts is getting kicked around pretty good, too.

Time to go on vacation:

"Woman falls, dies at Yosemite’s Half Dome" August 03, 2011|Associated Press

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. - A California woman slipped to her death Sunday while descending Half Dome in the rain, the latest accident at Yosemite National Park in a year that is the deadliest in recent history.

Fourteen people have died so far this year, including three who were swept over Vernal Fall two weeks ago....

One factor in the high number of deaths is a record snowfall that has created treacherous snowmelt, swelling streams and rivers at a time of year when nature in Yosemite is supposed to be relatively tranquil....

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"Rangers find body of waterfall victim

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK - The body of a California man who died after being swept into a waterfall at Yosemite National Park nearly three weeks ago has been found, rangers said yesterday. Hormiz David of Modesto, Calif., and two others members of his church group crossed the safety barricade at the top of Vernal Fall to pose for photos and were swept in on July 20.

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Related: Yosemite rangers search for hikers feared to have been swept over waterfall

Also see: Quick Stop in California

Let me keep you updated

"‘Spam King’ faces Facebook charges

SAN FRANCISCO - A Las Vegas man accused of sending more than 27 million spam messages to Facebook users faces federal fraud and computer tampering charges that could send him to prison for more than 40 years, according to a grand jury indictment. Sanford Wallace, the self-proclaimed “Spam King,’’ pleaded not guilty during an initial court appearance Thursday after being indicted July 6 on six counts of electronic mail fraud, three counts of intentional damage to a protected computer, and two counts of criminal contempt. The indictment filed in San Jose federal court said Wallace compromised about 500,000 Facebook accounts between November 2008 and March 2009 by sending massive amounts of spam through the company’s servers. Wallace is free after posting $100,000 bond.

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"Facebook stalker gets 4 years for cyber offenses" July 23, 2011|Associated Press

SACRAMENTO - A California man who trolled women’s Facebook pages searching for clues that allowed him to take over their e-mail accounts was sentenced yesterday to more than four years in state prison after a judge rejected a plea for a lighter sentence and likened the man to a peeping Tom.

Once he took over women’s e-mail accounts, George Bronk searched their folders for nude or seminude photographs or videos sent to their husbands or boyfriends and distributed the images to their contact list, prosecutors said.

The e-mails went to families, friends, and co-workers. Women in 17 states, the District of Columbia, and England were victimized.

“This case serves as a stark example of what occurs in so-called cyberspace. It has very real consequences,’’ Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Lawrence Brown said. “The intrusion of one’s profile is no different than intruding one’s home.’’

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Related: Suit against Zuckerberg, Facebook is dismissed

Facebook, Twitter obligations persist during vacations