Mood:
don't askTopic: "Say Cheese"(7)
The past three years have witnessed the closing of 68 banks in the State of Georgia, more than any other. Since states such as New York, California, Texas, and Florida are among those which are far larger than Georgia, academic questions are just as important as those which bear legal standing. The resultant loss of jobs in Georgia is somewhat greater than 5400. The fiscal loss to taxpayers, in fairness, is lessened by the fact that the FDIC is a self-insurance tool financed by banks themselves.
At its zenith, the company founded in Rochester, New York, by a man named George Eastman, employed 145,000 people in the manufacture of chemicals and film products. Today, Eastman Kodak employs but 19,000 people, and the stock sells for less than a roll of film. Most of the retirees will suffer significant reductions to the health and wellness benefits they earned through years of service. Major facilities in places like Tennessee and Texas have already been sold off, or re-structured. Bankruptcy is imminent.
This "restructuring" brings Frodo to his point. Not unimportant it is that closing 68 companies in Georgia loses 5400 jobs, while closing just one in New York nets losses of about 126,000. However, it is important to note that some of these losses are mandated by stupidity, rather than by technology.
Remember the name, dear reader, "RJR Nabisco"? The result of huge merger and acquisition activity by corporate management and investment bankers (shudder), this "cigarette company," needed capital in order to develop a nictoine-free cigarette. The easiest route to obtain enough capital was to buy another company, fix it up (as one might do with a foreclosed house these days), and sell it. The way one "fixes up" an acquired company is to get rid of all the employees, and sell the assets to somebody who will re-staff the company with cheaper, if not foreign, labor. That explains why a "cigarette company" bought a "cookie company," that is, to get cash, and to hell with the workers (and the cookies).
Frodo thinks it is important for people to know that one Willard Romney was such a performer during his years at Bain & Company (an investment bank). He amassed net worth of approximately $157 million, making him the wealthiest single individual to ever run for the American Presidency.
Note that nobody ever produced a nicotineless cigarette. Thousands of people lost jobs, and Willard got rich, "working in the real world."
For once in his life Newt Gingrich is right. Romney is a liar, and worse.
