Financial topics
Re: Financial topics
How long can this bear market last?..... another prediction of the end, made last fall, with several cycles converging, that today was the top.
http://www.financialsense.com/contribut ... ry-23-2012
http://www.financialsense.com/contribut ... ry-23-2012
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Re: Financial topics
Great post, OLD. I didn't quote all of it, but every bit of it is spot on and important in my opinion.OLD1953 wrote:At times I've gotten some real laughs out of job postings on some of the various career sites.
Very likely they'll fill that with three people from India with the requested skills, then whine to Congress about how Americans don't want to work and aren't properly trained.
You'll have to excuse me this morning, I'm a bit irritable over a very weird article discussing some of Steve Job's statements about Apple production methods.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/busin ... wanted=all
That's well worth reading from an employee POV, Jobs apparently had some weird ideas about the ideal employee.
A few curious quotes:
“What U.S. plant can find 3,000 people overnight and convince them to live in dorms?”
One of the problems in hiring today is today's corporate managements, generally, don't know anything about the job they are filling, don't know how to train, etc.
An on the ground example similar to what John brought up. This took place maybe 6 months ago. I know a guy who is an expert in CAD structural engineering work with decades of experience. He was told that people with his skills were in demand in a certain city his wife wanted to move to so they sold the house and moved there. He couldn't find any work because he was familiar with version let's say 4 of the program whereas the employers were demanding knowledge of version 6. I can't remember the exact numbers. So eventually he talked to Nucor (in another city, which he had to move to for the job) and they were most interested in hiring this guy. They had a training program in house that got him up to speed in a month. The problem here was not the potential employee; it was the bozo managements who think they are so high and mighty that they need everything served to them on a silver platter.
Which brings me to Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs is/was a idiot and an asshole and I for one am glad he's dead. Anybody who would stand in front of a crowd at Stanford and talk about how dropping out of college and taking calligraphy classes or whatever trips your trigger is a great thing but you can't know how great it will be until you look back on it doesn't deserve to live. This guy has no perspective and no ability to discern reality. Anyone who follows this type of advice 99 times out of 100 will end up in the gutter. Why didn't they bring a wino from Skid Row into Stanford for commencement to talk about what happened when he dropped out of college?
While the periphery breaks down rather slowly at first, the capital cities of the hegemon should collapse suddenly and violently.
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Re: Financial topics
I saw this article. One I came up with for today was to count from the July 19, 2007 high down to the August 16, 2007 low, then up to the October 11, 2007 high. That pattern counts exactly the same as from the October 27, 2011 high down to the November 25, 2011 low, up to today. There are other uncanny similarities in these patterns too numerous to mention. Problem is, I've seen at least a dozen analogs that all appear to fit and I suppose if you took a group of 100 people and they all picked something out, one of them would be right. Today sure looks and feels like it could be the end of it, though.jcsok wrote:How long can this bear market last?..... another prediction of the end, made last fall, with several cycles converging, that today was the top.
http://www.financialsense.com/contribut ... ry-23-2012
While the periphery breaks down rather slowly at first, the capital cities of the hegemon should collapse suddenly and violently.
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Re: Financial topics
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/arc ... hy/249136/
I hadn't realized that it's become mainstream to think of Steve Jobs as an asshole and to actually call him an asshole. I had thought I was going out on a limb and saying something a bit controversial and original. Sorry for the redundancy of thought.
I hadn't realized that it's become mainstream to think of Steve Jobs as an asshole and to actually call him an asshole. I had thought I was going out on a limb and saying something a bit controversial and original. Sorry for the redundancy of thought.
Wow, we must be entering the Fourth Turning. People are starting to get their heads out of the sand and call it like it is. But still, until I hear someone call a Jew, a Black, or a female an asshole it'll be hard to believe people are serious about calling a spade a spade.Steve Jobs was a visionary, a brilliant innovator who reshaped entire industries by the force of his will, a genius at giving consumers not only what they wanted, but what they didn't yet know they wanted.
He was also a world-class asshole.
While the periphery breaks down rather slowly at first, the capital cities of the hegemon should collapse suddenly and violently.
Re: Financial topics
He was also honest about being an asshole, which I'll give him. Jobs had quite a few boomer characteristics, including all the new-age stuff, which sadly contributed to his death.
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Re: Financial topics
For the younger people, I will talk about how hiring worked when the Silents were in charge and young people had no work experience. At least, how it worked for me.
In 1981, I had not quite completed two years of college. I got a call from a recruiter at Kodak. They wanted to hire me for a Summer job in engineering. I specifically remember telling him that they may have made a mistake because I would have only completed two years by then. He said you're qualified. The pay was $343 per week if I remember right.
The next year, 1982, I got a call in my dorm room from an old guy from Chevron. I told him I didn't have time to talk to him that day. He said OK, come over to my hotel room tonight. We had a good conversation and he said how would you like to come out to California this Summer and work for us. I said sure. The pay was $1800 per month and the day I showed up he said your pay will be $1900 per month because the cost of living is going up.
The next year, 1983, I got a call from a recruiter at Monsanto. He said they were going to fill some jobs in their new biotech area. He said if you'd be interested I'll send you a list of jobs we want to fill and you can pick out the one you want and call me back. So he did and I picked one out and called him back, then headed out to St Louis for the Summer. If I remember right, the pay was somewhere around $1750 per month. That's $4000 per month in today's dollars. The nice thing there was the company rented some apartments and put 2 Summer hires in each apartment.
In none of those cases did I contact the employers first. And the economy wasn't really all that great in those years.
But the main point I want to convey: When the Silents had work they wanted done, they knew exactly what they wanted done, where to find a person they thought could get it done, and if there was something you didn't know that didn't matter because they knew or had people on hand to direct. Experience, qualifications, resumes, references, etc., were not involved in any of these hiring processes. There may have been like an, oh, by the way, fill out this application after I was already hired.
In 1981, I had not quite completed two years of college. I got a call from a recruiter at Kodak. They wanted to hire me for a Summer job in engineering. I specifically remember telling him that they may have made a mistake because I would have only completed two years by then. He said you're qualified. The pay was $343 per week if I remember right.
The next year, 1982, I got a call in my dorm room from an old guy from Chevron. I told him I didn't have time to talk to him that day. He said OK, come over to my hotel room tonight. We had a good conversation and he said how would you like to come out to California this Summer and work for us. I said sure. The pay was $1800 per month and the day I showed up he said your pay will be $1900 per month because the cost of living is going up.
The next year, 1983, I got a call from a recruiter at Monsanto. He said they were going to fill some jobs in their new biotech area. He said if you'd be interested I'll send you a list of jobs we want to fill and you can pick out the one you want and call me back. So he did and I picked one out and called him back, then headed out to St Louis for the Summer. If I remember right, the pay was somewhere around $1750 per month. That's $4000 per month in today's dollars. The nice thing there was the company rented some apartments and put 2 Summer hires in each apartment.
In none of those cases did I contact the employers first. And the economy wasn't really all that great in those years.
But the main point I want to convey: When the Silents had work they wanted done, they knew exactly what they wanted done, where to find a person they thought could get it done, and if there was something you didn't know that didn't matter because they knew or had people on hand to direct. Experience, qualifications, resumes, references, etc., were not involved in any of these hiring processes. There may have been like an, oh, by the way, fill out this application after I was already hired.
While the periphery breaks down rather slowly at first, the capital cities of the hegemon should collapse suddenly and violently.
Re: Financial topics
Not too shabby...although I bet that you had a nice grade-point average from a not-too-shabby school, even after just a few semesters thereHiggenbotham wrote:For the younger people, I will talk about how hiring worked when the Silents were in charge and young people had no work experience. At least, how it worked for me.
In 1981, I had not quite completed two years of college. I got a call from a recruiter at Kodak. They wanted to hire me for a Summer job in engineering. I specifically remember telling him that they may have made a mistake because I would have only completed two years by then. He said you're qualified. The pay was $343 per week if I remember right.
The next year, 1982, I got a call in my dorm room from an old guy from Chevron. I told him I didn't have time to talk to him that day. He said OK, come over to my hotel room tonight. We had a good conversation and he said how would you like to come out to California this Summer and work for us. I said sure. The pay was $1800 per month and the day I showed up he said your pay will be $1900 per month because the cost of living is going up.
The next year, 1983, I got a call from a recruiter at Monsanto. He said they were going to fill some jobs in their new biotech area. He said if you'd be interested I'll send you a list of jobs we want to fill and you can pick out the one you want and call me back. So he did and I picked one out and called him back, then headed out to St Louis for the Summer. If I remember right, the pay was somewhere around $1750 per month. That's $4000 per month in today's dollars. The nice thing there was the company rented some apartments and put 2 Summer hires in each apartment.
In none of those cases did I contact the employers first. And the economy wasn't really all that great in those years.
But the main point I want to convey: When the Silents had work they wanted done, they knew exactly what they wanted done, where to find a person they thought could get it done, and if there was something you didn't know that didn't matter because they knew or had people on hand to direct. Experience, qualifications, resumes, references, etc., were not involved in any of these hiring processes.

Re: Financial topics
That's putting it mildly. Unemployment for people under 30 is 17 percent right now, and those are just the official numbers. What's irritating is that some like to say that this is because young people have a sense of entitlement, essentially blowing off any concerns about it.Not too shabby...although I bet that you had a nice grade-point average from a not-too-shabby school, even after just a few semesters there(Still, those experiential-education opportunities sound like nirvana compared to what's generally offered today to college students, especially to those who have only hit the halfway mark to graduation or maybe a bit short of that....) —Best regards, Marc
Re: Financial topics
I totally hear you. Let the critics go pick tomatoes in the hot sun or flip burgers at McDonald's after gaining that applied-science or business or whatever degree. Even something that's somewhat better than that would not provide a living wage; and unless an American student stays in school or performs approved community service post-graduation, he/she will have to start paying on any student loans that he/she has. —Best regards, MarcTrevor wrote:That's putting it mildly. Unemployment for people under 30 is 17 percent right now, and those are just the official numbers. What's irritating is that some like to say that this is because young people have a sense of entitlement, essentially blowing off any concerns about it.
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Re: Financial topics
I would think so, and would also imagine the process of getting such a job, even if it did exist, couldn't possibly work that way today. I would add that we were given a list of the Summer college hires Kodak brought in and, while it's been a long time, there must have been at least 200. There were a couple dozen at Chevron, but that was a small area of Chevron. And probably 20 at Monsanto, again in a small area of the company.Marc wrote:(Still, those experiential-education opportunities sound like nirvana compared to what's generally offered today to college students, especially to those who have only hit the halfway mark to graduation or maybe a bit short of that....) —Best regards, Marc
I never had any awareness of feeling that I was NOT entitled to some sort of place in society. When a society works, people just assume they will find a place if they do what they are supposed to do, so the concept of entitlement was not an issue in those times.Trevor wrote:What's irritating is that some like to say that this is because young people have a sense of entitlement, essentially blowing off any concerns about it.
I've also described my first full time job to some younger people and they find it shocking, especially the aspect of the benefits that were received. Here's how it worked. Every employee got a set dollar amount to purchase benefits. It was required that you elect the Blue Cross Blue Shield medical plan that allowed you to see any doctor and had a small deductible. From there, you had maybe $100 per month left over. With that, you could purchase, accident insurance, life insurance, or just keep the extra money. So the new hires got a very solid medical plan from the company (which essentially does not exist today), plus more.
While the periphery breaks down rather slowly at first, the capital cities of the hegemon should collapse suddenly and violently.
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