That means Obama's economy was a mirage.
Time to start adding again:
Employees of the Boston startup Jobble, a marketplace for temporary positions, led by CEO Zack Smith (front, left) and senior marketing manager Julia Ryder (center).
"Hiring is still happening, but it’s hardly business as usual" by Scott Kirsner Contributor, April 17, 2020
The Layoff List sounds like exactly the sort of roster you don’t want to be on right now, but the list is an effort by Cambridge-based Drafted to help the recently unemployed find new opportunities. It’s one of several unusual dynamics that are rippling through a job market that went from red hot to stone cold in a matter of weeks, when the coronavirus reached the United States.
First, job openings do still exist — both full-time and temporary “gig” labor, but some employers have never hired a candidate without meeting them face-to-face, which is making them hesitate when it comes to sending out offer letters, and candidates worry that a position being advertised one day may simply vanish the next.
This is the rapture that was prophesied!
Alignable, a Boston startup that helps small businesses refer customers to one another, has seven jobs posted on its website, but CEO Eric Groves says that “we’re not willing to commit to a hire until we meet them in person, so that has delayed the process for sure.” Why the reticence? In a small company, he says, sussing out whether a candidate fits with the company culture “is everything.”
They need to test you to see if you will be a good drone.
Sridhar Iyengar, the CEO of Elemental Machines, a Cambridge startup, says his company has three open engineering jobs, but Elemental has not yet hired a full-timer without meeting them in person, but Iyengar has done so at previous startups when hiring employees in Asia, and he says that he’d “unequivocally” do it now for the right candidate. Elemental sells a system that enables scientists to remotely monitor lab equipment and experiments when they aren’t there.
The meat delivery company ButcherBox, in Brighton, is hiring for a handful of roles in project management and customer support, and CEO Michael Salguero says that he has hired people without meeting them: “Kind of have to in these conditions,” he says via e-mail. “We are certainly being opportunistic with our hiring at this point, because we are thriving while other businesses are not.”
They will not be for much longer if you keep reading this post.
ButcherBox offers subscription plans that include boxes of grass-feed beef, organic chicken, and pork — but demand for the service is so high that there is a wait list for new members.
Klaviyo, a Boston startup that sells marketing software, says that 14 new employees started earlier this month in Boston and London, some of whom were hired based only on video interviews.
At TripAdvisor, the travel-planning site based in Needham, there were just seven jobs listed at the company’s headquarters as of last week.....
A travel company has jobs on its website, huh?
Not for much longer, I pre$ume. They will likely vanish along with the entire indu$try.
Is that what you guys bargained for when you went along with this fraud?
So that's about, what, 36 jobs he mentioned up until then?
All in $tart-ups?
Yeah, that will help soak up some of the tens of millions non-e$$entials who are newly unemployed.
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$lick $ales job anyway:
"Oil extended its slide in Asia, trading near two-decade lows after agreed-upon cuts by the biggest producers were seen barely making a dent in the lack of demand wrought by COVID-19 and on increasing concerns that traders are quickly running out of room to store crude. Futures in New York dropped as much as 5.5 percent to the lowest since November 2001, following a 20 percent slump last week. China reported its first economic contraction in decades Friday, a sign of how bad things could get in Europe and North America, which have yet to emerge from their virus lockdowns. Near-term prices for West Texas Intermediate crude are trading at huge discounts to later-dated contracts on concern the storage hub of Cushing, Okla., will fill to capacity. That has seen prices disconnect from Brent futures in London. Still, there were at least grounds for cautious optimism. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the state may be past the high point of coronavirus deaths, and fewer daily deaths were reported in Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Hedge funds were again caught out by crude’s descent, increasing their net-bullish position by 13 percent in the week ended April 14. It was the second straight week money managers boosted their net-long position in the face of 20 percent price drops in both weeks. Oil explorers shut down 13 percent of the US drilling fleet last week as the swelling worldwide glut of crude spurred drastic cost-cutting and project cancellations."
Until the next day, which will covered further below.
"Neiman Marcus Group is preparing to seek bankruptcy protection as soon as this week, Reuters reported on Sunday, citing unidentified people familiar. The department store operator is in the final stages of negotiating a loan that would amount to hundreds of millions of dollars and help bankroll some of its operations during the process. A bankruptcy filing could come within days; however, the timing could change, Reuters said. Neiman Marcus and owner Ares Management declined to comment to Reuters; its other owner, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment. Bloomberg reported late last month that the retailer had held initial talks with lenders about a potential bankruptcy loan that would keep the company running while it works out a recovery plan. It was already struggling before the pandemic forced it to shut its stores. Creditor Marble Ridge said April 16 in a letter to the Neiman Marcus board that it had failed to make a $5.7 million bond payment, triggering a 30-day grace period for Neiman before a formal default takes effect."
That's a richer chain, so WTF?
Going to have to choke it down to clear the next hurdle.
That means no baseball at Fenway for the first time in 108 years.
Remember the massacre in 1914, the full moon in 1972, or the shootout in 1999?
Then, in 2010, BOOM:
"An explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform, leased by BP, killed 11 workers and caused a blow-out that began spewing an estimated 200 million gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico. (The well was finally capped nearly three months later.)."
Just another piece of the Obama legacy built upon illusion shattering in your face.
"Stocks reel, with Dow losing 595 points, amid a historic collapse in oil prices" by Jacob Bogage and Thomas Heath Washington Post, April 20, 2020
The article came at the top of page C4 when it should have been placed on page A1.
WASHINGTON — US stocks were shaken deeply into the red Monday after oil traders desperate to unload near-term contracts for their vital commodity sold at a loss. The Dow Jones industrial average closed down more than 595 points.
Investors expect volatility like Monday’s to continue in coming days as Wall Street heads into the thick of the earnings season, with closely watched big names such as Coca-Cola, Lockheed Martin, AT&T, Eli Lilly, American Express, and Verizon reporting earnings this week.
Most companies are expected to report disappointing first-quarter earnings due to the coronavirus lockdown, but oil was the story of the day as a record drop in price — to the point where traders were paying to have someone take oil contracts — reflected the dire straits of a sector that is crucial to the global economy.
It's one of the “pillars of the global economy.”
With many businesses shuttered by coronavirus public health orders and travel almost totally scrapped, crude inventories continue to far outpace demand, even after the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Russia agreed to siphon 10 million barrels of oil per day out of the market in the coming months. Still, that cannot make up for the quantity of crude already sitting in refineries with no place to go.
‘‘The whole US oil system is physically backing up from pipelines to refineries because of a lack of demand and no oil storage space,’’ said Frank Verrastro of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. ‘‘The concern in the broader stock market is that the lack of demand shows we aren’t going to come out of this downturn like a V. It’s going to be a global recession.’’
Then we are permanently $talled and all this talk of reopening is the carrot that will be forever dangled in front of you until the stormtroopers come with the needles.
US refineries have cut their intake because few people are driving cars and flying. That has created a glut, leading to a sell-off that drives down prices. Saudi Arabian crude arriving in the United States cannot be unloaded from tankers — there is no place to put it.
Then WHY was it sent here?
So it could go BOOM in a HARBOR and we could be told Iran did it?
Another WAR sure would suck up a LOT of OIL, huh?
Monday’s pullback followed two big weeks of gains for stocks on optimism that governments and scientists were making gains against the coronavirus. Analysts said the pause was not unexpected as people sort out where the global economy goes from here.
The Dow gained 700 points Friday as governments worldwide, along with confederations of US governors, began discussing plans to reopen parts of the economy. All 11 stock-market sectors were up, with energy and financials leading.
What is with the word choice, WaCompo?
As if they were somehow connected to those long ago rebels?
Going to have to be taken down like General Lee, huh?
The rally came after three weeks of dismal economic numbers showing the pandemic has erased all US job gains from the past decade.....
Think of that for just one minute.
Trump and Obama and entirety of great economy we have been told ad nauseam about the last ten years has collapsed into dust like a WTC tower!
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Carpenters union ends walkout over coronavirus safety
No meat in the lunch bucket?
"Outbreak at Minnesota pork plant triggers another meat industry closure" by Rachel Siegel Washington Post, April 20, 2020
The spread of coronavirus is continuing to force closures at major meat processing facilities, raising alarms about worker safety and further jostling the nation’s meat supply chains.
It sure does, because this is exactly the scenario sketched out in the Rockefeller study from 10 years ago. PLANNED FOOD SHORTAGES!
JBS — the US subsidiary of the world’s largest processor of fresh beef and pork — said Monday it is indefinitely closing its pork production plant in Worthington, Minn. The facility, which employs more than 2,000 people and processes 20,000 hogs a day, is the third JBS plant to suspend operations following spikes in COVID-19 infections. It shut down its Greeley, Colo., beef facility last week and another in Souderton, Pa., which has since reopened.
CBS affiliate WCCO, citing the Minnesota Department of Health, reported Saturday that there were 56 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Nobles County — and 20 of them worked at the Worthington plant, and another 5 who were related to the workers. The pork plant will wind down operations in the next two days, JBS said, and continue to pay employees during the closure.
‘‘We don’t make this decision lightly,’’ said Bob Krebs, president of JBS USA Pork. ‘‘We recognize JBS Worthington is critical to local hog producers, the US food supply and the many businesses that support the facility each and every day.’’
A growing number of processing facilities that prop up the American meat supply have themselves become outbreak hotspots.
Looks like MEAT is on the way out of your diet, Americans. The richer will still have access to it for the buffets; however, you will be exclusively vegan now as the National Guard drops off your government-approved gruel on your doorstep.
Then we will be weak from lack of protein and easy to vaccinate and kill!
The outlook is even more precarious given that US meat processing is largely handled at a few enormous plants. At the same time, restaurants are drastically cutting orders of more expensive cuts, like tenderloins and sirloin, that don’t draw supermarket customers.
With the supply chain so off-kilter, experts are worried that meat could become the next item wiped clean from grocery store shelves as customers start to hoard.
It is already being rationed around here, and we are two weeks into this thing and ALREADY the supply chain is breaking down! That does not bode well for the future at all.
On Friday, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 663 called on JBS to slow production speeds at the Worthington plant and allow for more social distancing. The union, which represents more than 1,850 workers at the facility, said that a delayed response could come ‘‘too late for too many people.’’
Earlier this month, Smithfield Foods said that its Sioux Falls, S.D., plant would shutter indefinitely. The Argus Leader reported Friday that there were nearly 800 confirmed coronavirus cases linked to the plant, which is one of the country’s largest pork processing facilities and represents 4 to 5 percent of US pork production, according to Smithfield.
Where, then, will the Chinese get their pork?
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It is important to note that most of the workers in the meat plants are of the undocumented and illegal variety, thus another captive population whose situation is precarious. That alone will keep them from speaking out.
Also see:
"Facebook Inc. said it would crack down on posts that encourage people to break rules about social distancing to protest government lockdowns, while allowing information about gatherings that stick to local government guidelines. If someone said social distancing is ineffective, said chief executive Mark Zuckerberg in an interview on ABC’s Good Morning America, “we do classify that as harmful misinformation and we take that down. At the same time it’s important that people can debate policies, can basically give their opinions on different things, so there’s a line on this,” he said. “More than normal political discourse I think a lot of stuff that people are saying that is false around a health emergency like this can be classified as harmful misinformation that has a risk of leading to imminent danger, and we’ll take that content down.” A few hours after Zuckerberg spoke, the company provided a statement that attempted to clarify its policy. “Unless government prohibits the event during this time, we allow it to be organized on Facebook. For this same reason, events that defy government’s guidance on social distancing aren’t allowed on Facebook,” a company spokesperson said. Facebook explained that as long as protesters didn’t say they plan to defy government-ordered social distancing rules they could promote their protests on the social network."
"The Australian government said Monday that Google and Facebook would have to pay media outlets for news content in the country, part of an emerging global effort to rescue local publishers by moving to compel tech giants to share their advertising revenue. The decision to mandate compensation for news articles displayed on Facebook pages or in Google search results — important drivers of traffic for those platforms — comes as the coronavirus pandemic accelerates years of advertising losses at media outlets large and small. In the United States, regional publishers have cut staffs that were already diminished, and newspapers as large as The Los Angeles Times have announced furloughs and pay cuts. In Australia, as in America, dozens of smaller publishers have suspended printing or shuttered completely in recent weeks."
Nice going Facebook!
Ban the truth-tellers and subsidize the propagandists!
Look which billionaire needs a bailout for his airline:
"British billionaire Richard Branson said his airlines in the UK and Australia won’t survive the coronavirus crisis without state support, and that his Virgin Group lacks the resources to see them through the pandemic. Branson said Monday he’s doing everything possible to keep Crawley, England-based Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. going, but that it needs a UK-backed loan to ride out the crisis. Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd. is meanwhile “fighting to survive,” he said in a letter to staff Monday posted online. The entrepreneur is struggling to convince governments to rescue his brands given his own highly visible wealth and long-time residency in the West Indies, which has led him to be viewed as a tax exile. He told staff Monday that he plans to use his private island as collateral to raise money."
OMG!
I wonder if Epstein has been staying there as the super-rich fake illness to jet-set (thanks for helping out with climate change, you evil hypocritical a$$holes).
Related:
America’s ‘Big Three’ airlines prepare for a difficult fall season
They just got billions in bailout loot!
"Germany’s auto industry and senior politicians are stepping up calls for another ‘‘cash for clunkers’’ program to revive demand after the coronavirus crisis as Volkswagen and Daimler gradually restart output in European factories this week. Germany’s export-driven car sector has been severely hit by shutdowns across the globe to prevent the coronavirus from spreading. Across Europe, car sales dropped the most on record in March as showrooms closed to help limit the coronavirus outbreak and production was halted globally."
Another Obama failure, and others are also looking to the future:
Trudeau promises gun control legislation after deadliest shooting in Canadian history
Of course.
Who didn't see that coming?
Volvo restarts plant in Sweden
Toyota to restart factory in northern France on Tuesday
Time to go nuclear:
"Nuclear power plants can now implement longer shifts for workers and delay some inspections, raising concerns that as the coronavirus pandemic upends basic operations the industry may bending the rules too far. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is already allowing six US power plants to extend workers’ shifts, to as long as 12 hours a day for two weeks, and more may be coming. That’s up significantly from current standards that require people to get two-to-three days off a week when pulling shifts that long. Employees can also work as many as 86 hours in a week now, up from 72 hours. The new rules come as at least 42 construction workers have tested positive for the coronavirus at a nuclear plant in Georgia where Southern Co. is building two new reactors. Last week, the utility and its partners announced they would reduce the 9,000-person workforce by 20 percent to slow the spread of the virus."
Isn't that going to be a safety risk?
Also see: Independent contractors, the self-employed, and ‘gig’ workers can now apply for state unemployment benefits
That's what the Globe's Fine Print said, as things get more Progre$$ive by the day:
"Progressive Leasing will pay $175 million to settle FTC charges that it misled consumers" by Abha Bhattarai Washington Post, April 20, 2020
FTC Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter said the latest settlement did not go far enough in addressing the company’s ‘‘pernicious’’ practices or providing relief to consumers who have paid Progressive Leasing more than $1 billion in extra fees and charges.
‘‘The conduct here is so egregious and its cumulative impact on families so corrosive that I do not believe the complaint and order are sufficient,’’ she wrote in a dissenting statement. ‘‘$175 million falls far short of the injury Progressive inflicted upon consumers.’’
It was a $lap on the wri$t, and at least $ome things are still normal!
Progressive Leasing has come under fire in recent months for what critics say amounts to preying on the country’s most financially vulnerable consumers. The program is offered at more than 30,000 stores by some of the nation’s largest retailers, including Lowe’s, Big Lots, and Kay Jewelers.
Is Progressive Leasing part of Progressive Insurance?
I mean, they have so many funny commercials with Flo and Jaime and the rest, they couldn't be connected to them!
The FTC also took issue with the way Progressive Leasing instructs retail workers to pitch the program to consumers in widely distributed training materials. If a customer asked, for example, about the program’s interest rates, sales staff were told to simply say, ‘‘There actually isn’t an interest rate, because it’s not a loan,’’ without informing them of additional charges or fees, the complaint alleges.
Terms of the program vary by retailer, but the basics are the same: Applicants must pay a one-time fee, typically $79, and allow Progressive Leasing access to their checking accounts for payments — which are automatically withdrawn and timed to the frequency of their paychecks — for 12 months. By the end of the year, consumers would have paid more than double the purchase price, which means an Acer Chromebook that sells for $199 at Best Buy would end up costing $495 over 12 months with Progressive Leasing.
Looks like GRAND LARCENY to ME!
The program is often pitched as an alternative to other financing options. At Best Buy, for example, employees are instructed to offer Progressive Leasing to consumers who don’t qualify for the company’s store credit card. ‘‘It’s great for our brand. It’s great for our customers,’’ chief executive Corie Barry said in an earnings call last year.
Best Buy spokesman Matt Furman told The Post that the program provides a valuable service to shoppers who couldn’t otherwise afford items like laptops, mobile phones, and appliances, but some employees say they are increasingly polarized over the program, which they say preys on the chain’s most financially vulnerable shoppers. ‘‘It can help some people but it’s very misleading for others,’’ Joshua Howard, a former employee at a Best Buy store in Memphis told The Post in February. ‘‘Very few people actually benefit from this.’’
Oh, I wouldn't worry about that much longer if I were you. No one will be buying that crap anymore.
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