Comments on: The LA Times: “Rightsizing” the Public Trust

By: Michael Crosby

Michael Crosby — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 23:16:39 +0000

Whenever a mid-level executive remarks that people were fired in a fit of “rightsizing”, I gag a little. Not that “downsizing” was much better. Rightsizing, to the Human Resources “professinals” means “they haven’t fired me yet.”

Not only is there no heart permitted in the corporate world, there is no shame.

By: Woody

Woody — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 18:43:44 +0000

For rlc: http://www.johnrocker.net/headlines.htm

By: Woody

Woody — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 18:25:34 +0000

Atlanta joined L.A. today with more major cuts at the paper and within the newsroom. They just need to fire the lefties on the editorial board to dramatically increase subscriptions.

By: richard locicero

richard locicero — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 18:06:07 +0000

Well Rocker is wrong as usual.
And people who tried ”
Flipping” houses have come acropper or hasn’t that news reached Georgia yet? See www//Irvinehousingblog.com for some of the grim details!

By: Woody

Woody — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 02:21:21 +0000

Sadam Hussien [sic] Says: I am voting for McCain !!!

Wrong. Dead people historically vote for Democrats.

- – -

rlc: Maybe its capitalism to some when LBO con men like Zell used Other PeopleÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s money to take a company private and then strip the assets to pay for it and dress up the balance sheet for a quick sale.

I bet you hate to watch “Flip This House.” The nerve of people buying something and turning around to sell it for more.

- – -

I’m watching the Allstar game. I hope the NL beats the AL in Yankee Stadium. John Rocker agrees with me.

By: richard locicero

richard locicero — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 01:36:29 +0000

WBC the trouble with a FIRE economy is that all economic activity is reduced to one question – does it increase “Shareholder Value?” And these “Shareholders” turn out to be twenty-something traders in the great banking houses of Wall Street and the City. Such a capitalism is not sustainable. It leads to the current situtation where wages are stagnent over a generation while productivity – and profits – have skyrocketed. In the end economies are about producing goods and services and “Shareholder value” is only a small part of the picture.

By: WBC

WBC — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 01:27:16 +0000

The Times’ LA Now Online section bids adieu to Jesus Sanchez, who’d co-edited that section with the remaining Veronique de Tourenne; Gustavo Arrelano has an entry that’s right on: Jesus was born and raised in L A and showed that a Latino doesn’t have to be concerned with his own ethnic group to be a good example to other aspiring young Latinos — amen to that. That’s assimilation “old school,” and what a shame Sanchez will be gone.

Shows a “memorial” in the halls of the Times to all those being let go, since it feels like a funeral of sorts. With all due respect to Woody and other commenters here, the Times, one of the oldest continuously operating papers in the country which has achieved a national reputation, is more than an SUV tire factory which now has to suddenly retool. It’s been part of the fabric and ID of this city and, as noted earlier, it’s Gravedancer Zell’s method of Leveraged Buyout that made this result pre-ordained.

While I’m not as ready to blame capitalism per se or trust government intervention as ric is, I think that we SHOULD have a special category for oversight of deals involved companies involving national security, which include media as the most effective forms of mind control, as much as airlines and the ports. In this case, the potential enemy isn’t foreign, unless you can call Chicago foreign to L A; but he’s done more harm than any foreigners ever could. I’m not sure HOW this should have been regulated, other than to review the whole legality of Leveraged Buyouts like this, just as banks’ loan practices are being belatedly reviewed.

By: richard locicero

richard locicero — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 23:06:29 +0000

Twenty-five years ago Lester Thurow of MIT (and former Dean of the Sloan School of Mgmt) noted that every country has a “Comparative Advantage” – ours is the ability to go out of business fast. Maybe its capitalism to some when LBO con men like Zell used Other People’s money to take a company private and then strip the assets to pay for it and dress up the balance sheet for a quick sale. It has happened all over the place and the results are not pretty – Sunbeam, Enron, Chrysler, Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel and, practically, the whole airline industry.

FIRE(Finance, Insurance, Real Estate) Capitalism is ruining the country and ensuring our fealty to the Chinese (and maybe the Brazilians – see the new boss of Anheuser Busch) as we engage in an orgy of selling off and stripping assets. Sure worked for the Brits! Now the Germans make the Rolls-Royce and Bentley Marques. And the British car industry is an assembly line where foreign kits are put together. Wait for it here.

And, yes, the media biz couldn’t care less when the layoffs where in “South Succotash” at the local factory. What goes around and all that. Meanwhile stay in school – see if you can guess a profession that can’t be outsourced!

By: Sadam Hussien

Sadam Hussien — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 20:50:13 +0000

I am voting for McCain !!!

By: Adam C.

Adam C. — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 20:30:01 +0000

Fair enough Celeste. I don’t, however, think the Obama cover convinced a single person to vote for McCain.