Keith D. Milby :: blog

Great article from Michael Barone: The
Wal-Mart Model

Wal-Mart has been much more skilled at adapting to market conditions. Its computers
keep it instantly apprised of sales, and its distribution system keeps stores stocked
with items consumers want. Someone making a 3-ton car cannot adapt so quickly, but
even so it still takes GM years to get new models on the market — and often they’re
not what consumers turn out to want.

Then there are employment costs. Yes, Wal-Mart does not pay high wages or provide
healthcare benefits to all employees. But not all workers today want full-time jobs
(they may want to be home when kids return from school) or health insurance (many
are covered by a spouse’s policy or Medicare). And Wal-Mart promotes from within:
You can work your way up from the store floor to management ranks. GM and the UAW,
in contrast, insist on a sharp line between labor and management, with all employees
working full-time and getting full benefits. That made sense when almost all workers
were men supporting families. But it is a poor fit with a labor market in which many
workers are women, teenagers or retirees seeking extra income.

He does a great job in illustrating how companies like General Motors being strapped
to labor unions have been forced into a corner. The years of being able to pass high
labor costs on to consumers are coming to an end because of competition in the market
place. By contrast Wal-Mart is not strapped to labor unions. It can hire and fire
as it sees fits and does not have to pay employees more than the market demands.

Then there are employment costs. Yes, Wal-Mart does not pay high wages or provide
healthcare benefits to all employees. But not all workers today want full-time jobs
(they may want to be home when kids return from school) or health insurance (many
are covered by a spouse’s policy or Medicare). And Wal-Mart promotes from within:
You can work your way up from the store floor to management ranks. GM and the UAW,
in contrast, insist on a sharp line between labor and management, with all employees
working full-time and getting full benefits. That made sense when almost all workers
were men supporting families. But it is a poor fit with a labor market in which many
workers are women, teenagers or retirees seeking extra income.

He also made this point:

Wal-Mart has been much more skilled at adapting to market conditions. Its computers
keep it instantly apprised of sales, and its distribution system keeps stores stocked
with items consumers want. Someone making a 3-ton car cannot adapt so quickly, but
even so it still takes GM years to get new models on the market — and often they’re
not what consumers turn out to want.

Read the whole thing.

From the AP: Post-Christmas
Sales Keep Shoppers Buying

DEARBORN, Mich. — Shoppers armed with newly obtained gift cards and poorly greeted
presents returned to malls and stores in search of returns, post-Christmas discounts
and fresh merchandise.

The day after Christmas offered merchants another shot at getting consumers to
open their wallets, with retailers hoping customers would be lured by sales and come
to spend their gift cards, which are recorded as sales only after they are redeemed.

Then we have this from SF Chronicle: Amazon
reports record holiday sales Online shoppers boost retailers’ numbers by 24%

Online retailers are enjoying a
cheerful holiday season, with industry leader Amazon.com reporting record sales during
the period. Through Dec. 22, sales for the industry were up 24 percent from the previous year
to $17.5 billion, according to ComScore Networks Inc. By the end of the month, Internet
sales are expected to reach $19 billion.

Analysts had forecast strong growth in online retailing during the holidays, driven
by an increase in the number of shoppers seeking convenience, free shipping, and ways
to avoid sales taxes and high gasoline prices.

>

I bet if this wasn’t such good news,
we would be hearing more about it. It would be front page news on The New York/DNC
Times I am sure.

UPDATE: Wizbang has a nice
array of links from the media.

In a whole lot of words in his
Washington Post article, Gene Sperling, head of the National Economic Council
under President Bill Clinton, basically advocates turning back the tax cuts and calls
for fattening up the scial welfare systems that have failed time and time again.

It is precisely because we lack a road map that it is so crucial to strengthen
public investments in research and education, which have traditionally laid the foundation
for discovering and exploiting previously unimaginable jobs and industries. The United
States is entering a 20-year period in which there will be no net growth in our native-born
workforce. At the same time, there are five times as many graduates of engineering
programs in China and India together as there are in the United States. And those
nations are doubling their support for research as a percentage of gross domestic
product (GDP).

Our call to meet this challenge doesn’t have to be couched in the jargon of policy.
It should echo earlier calls for Sputnik-level initiatives to expand basic research,
improve problem-solving skills in our classrooms, and massively increasing the incentives,
grants and pay we need to inspire a new generation of scientists. It should recognize
that if our workforce isn’t growing, we need to inspire and better employ those on
the margins of our economy, while helping the poorest children to get to society’s
starting line.

Funding such efforts, while restoring fiscal discipline, would require a bipartisan
fiscal deal that would both repeal tax cuts for the most fortunate and slow entitlement
growth. Neither the undoing of trade agreements nor further cutting of the capital
gains tax rate will ensure that we remain a nation able to fulfill its unwritten economic
compact, and where all boats, not just the yachts, rise with the tide.

If you would like perfect examples where Mr. Sperling’s ideas are at work,
just take a look at France and Germany.

Hey, don’t take my word for anything. I am just a die hard capitalist that beleives
in the American spirit of independence. The one that perfers less government and more
independence to determine his/her own way in the world.

The President delivered a great speech today on the economy and tax relief.

From GOP.com

Government does not create wealth.  American and businesses and workers and
farmers and entrepreneurs create the wealth for this country. And so the role of the
government is to create an environment where the small businesses can grow into a
big business, where the entrepreneur can flourish, where people who dream about owning
a home are able to own a home.  In our economy, our most precious resource is
the talent of the American worker — and there is no limit to what we can do when
people have the freedom to make a better life for themselves and their family. 

Ours is a confident and optimistic nation — and our trust in the American people
has brought us through some pretty tough times.  In the past five years, our
economy has endured a stock market collapse, a recession, terrorist attacks, corporate
scandals, high energy costs, and devastating natural disasters.  These were all
shocks to our economy, which I felt required decisive action.  I believe that
economy grows when people are allowed to keep more of their own money, to be able
to save and to spend. 

And so I called on the United States Congress to let the people keep more of their
own money, to cut their taxes, and Congress responded.  We lowered your taxes
and gave you an opportunity to keep more of what you earn — and let you decide the
best way to spend your own money.  We cut taxes on families by lowering the tax
rates, and by doubling the child credit, and reducing the marriage penalty. 
I felt we shouldn’t penalize marriage; I thought we ought to reward marriage in the
tax code.

I certainly hope he keeps this up. The President has plenty to brag about and should
continue to do so. He should also continue calling democrats on the carpet for
all of the lies and untruths.

If
you only read the headlines about GM’s restructuring you would have taken away the
idea that GM is putting 30,000 employees out of work. Firing them, letting them go,
saying screw you, get the hell out of here. If you read well in to the article, you
may or may not find the real story.
In this
article on Yahoo News, you have to down to the 11^th graph to get to
this:
Wagoner
said the job cuts will come primarily through attrition and early-retirement packages
to mitigate the impact on workers. GM has an annual attrition rate of about 7 percent,
Wagoner said. The average hourly worker is around 49 years old, he said.

 
Some
workers who don’t choose to retire could go into jobs banks, which pay laid-off workers
their salary and benefits. Wagoner said details about layoffs and early-retirement
packages still need to be worked out with the UAW, the     Canadian
Auto Workers and other unions.
Therefore,
the cuts will come primarily in early retirement packages and through a natural attrition
of employees. Moreover, this is going to take place over the next two years. Therefore,
they are not exactly just putting 30,000 employees out on the streets.
See folks
this is why you have to read the news to get to the real story that is almost always
buried, so as not to detract from the headline.
One
other thing, this is capitalism everybody. Things like this have been happening for
many years and we recover and carry on. If you want the government to be responsible
for taken care of you and you want to live off the tit of mother government, you should
really consider moving to

According to this report on FOX News: Economy Grows at Brisk 3.8 Percent in Third Quarter

Economic activity expanded at an energetic 3.8 percent annual rate in the third quarter, providing vivid evidence of the economy’s stamina even as it coped with the destructive forces of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

The latest snapshot of the country’s economic performance, released by the Commerce Department on Friday, even marked an improvement from the solid 3.3 percent pace of growth registered in the second quarter.

This is great news that barely gets a yawn in the main stream media. Let it of course show a down turn and all you would hear is, the sky is falling, we are going to hell in a hand basket and of course it is all Bush’s fault.

This always makes me laugh:

The expansion in gross domestic product in the July-to-September quarter, the strongest since the beginning of the year, also exceeded many analysts’ expectations.

That’s right, exceeded many analysts expectations. Who are these guys? How can I get their job? I am sure I could do as lousy a job as they do predicting what the economy is going to do. No offense to those of you that make your living making these predictions of course.

I am going to make a prediction. These same guys are going to be wrong next time as well. So their is no since in putting any stock into what these guys are saying. If you do, I would bet against them. You will probably come out better.

Maybe they are a bunch of liberals. Betting against America and losing big time.

Hey this is just my opinion. I could be wrong. I will bet that I am probably not right.

Linked to Don Surber and Wizbang and Stop the ACLU and Random Numbers and Basil’s Blog and Florida Masochist and Publius Rendezvous and My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy and Everyman Chronicles and Point Five and bRight & Early.

Home Sales Rise, the media gives
it a whisper.

Sales of existing U.S. homes rose 2 percent in August to the second highest level
on record, a trade group said on Monday.

Sales of previously owned homes increased to a seasonally adjusted 7.29 million
unit annual rate last month from July’s downwardly revised 7.15 million unit pace,
the National Association of Realtors said. That figure includes both single-family
homes and condominiums.

Does the economy improve if the media does not report it?

Yes it does! Whether they like it or not.

Let me explain. The media seems to shout from the roof tops, ‘the sky is falling,
the sky is falling’, especially if it is bad for George Bush. But they hardly give
a sound bite or the front page treatment when it turns out the sky is not
falling.

This happened even against the expert analysis of the expert analysts. Who are these
expert analysts? They have not been doing a very good job at doing their job of late.