A B C D E F G H I J K L
  ELITES, JOBS, AND RICH-POOR INCOME GAP NEWS: 1-JAN-12 - 9-APR-12    
From 01-Jan-12 Copyright © 2011-2012 by Macroknow Inc. All Rights Reserved.
To 09-Apr-12  
Days 100  
News Items 292
Date Event Category Authors Title X Event Source URL Item
2-Jan-12 DEBT GOLD JOBS Niki Kitsantonis In Greece’s Sour Economy, Some Shops Are Thriving Greece: pawnshops and gold dealers are thriving while Greece's economy is shrinking, employees are being laid off en masse, and 1-in-4 small businesses are closing; some gold dealers buy gold teeth; some 80% of pawnshops and gold dealers were found guilty of tax evasion NYT 1
3-Jan-12 JOBS Dominic Laurie European Grads Target China Job Market for Employment European graduates are seeking jobs in China. Jobless rates for 16-25-year-olds by country: UK, 1 in 5; Spain, 2 in 5 VOA News 2
5-Jan-12 BANK JOBS Mark Scott European Banks Prepare More Job Cuts Planned job cuts: Société Générale, ~880 “voluntary departures” and 700 layoffs; Royal Bank of Scotland, 2,000 jobs; Crédit Agricole, 2,350 jobs; BNP Paribas, 1,400 layoffs; Credit Suisse, 3,500 jobs; UBS, 3,500 jobs NYT-DealBook 3
12-Jan-12 BANK FIN JOBS RBS group announces strategic and organisational changes in its investment banking/wholesale business Royal Bank of Scotland to cut ~3,500 over 3 years (in addition to a ~2,000 reduction in staff in RBS Global Banking & Markets (GBM) in 2011H2) Royal Bank of Scotland 4
12-Jan-12 BUS MAN JOBS Supplier Responsibility at Apple Apple Supplier Responsibility: 2012 Progress Report: Apple's Supplier Responsibility team conducted 229 audits in 2011 (up 80% YOY): overall practice in compliance statistic: 74% (working hours, 38%; wages and benefits, 69%) Apple 5
14-Jan-12 ELITE ECON FIN Shaila Dewan; Robert Gebeloff Among the Wealthiest 1 Percent, Many Variations U.S.: the top 1% of earners receives almost 20% of America's pretax income, about double their share 30 years ago; they pay just over 25% of all federal taxes [source: Tax Policy Center]; they received 22% of their income from capital gains (vs. 2% for everybody else) NYT 6
17-Jan-12 BUS FOOD JOBS Kraft Foods Takes Steps To Position Company For Successful Spinoff Kraft Foods to terminate 1,600 positions in North America throughout 2012 Kraft Foods 7
20-Jan-12 BANK JOBS Fabio Benedetti-Valentini; Frank Connelly (ed.) Paris Banking Job Cuts Reflect Wilting Ambitions France: top 3 corporate-and-investment banking (CIB) units – BNP Paribas SA, Societe Generale, and Credit Agricole – to cut 1,800 jobs at home Bloomberg 8
23-Jan-12 ELITE ECON POL Samantha Tonkin Majority of Global Experts Now Fear Looming Geopolitical Disruption as World Leaders Head to Davos Davos-Klosters, Switzerland: World Economic Forum’s 3rd Global Confidence Index: "54% of global experts expect a major geopolitical disruption over the next 12 months, up from 36% last quarter. . . A consistent 60% of respondents said they lacked confidence in the state of global governance, signalling little trust in political leadership to deal with global risks" World Economic Forum 9
23-Jan-12 ELITE POL The Great Transformation – Shaping New Models 25-29 January 2012: World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting 2012: "The Great Transformation: Shaping New Models" World Economic Forum 10
25-Jan-12 ELITE FIN Adrian Monck To Serve Society Better, Capitalism Needs a Redesign World Economic Forum’s 42nd Annual Meeting in Davos-Klosters: leaders agreed "Capitalism needs to serve society better" World Economic Forum 11
26-Jan-12 ELITE FIN HEAL Foundation Commits $750 Million to Global Fund The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation gave $750 million through a promissory note to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria (annoucement made at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland) Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation 12
1-Feb-12 BUS JET JOBS David Koenig American Airlines aims to cut 13,000 jobs American Airlines to cut ~13,000 jobs (15% of its workforce) Fox News: AP 13
1-Feb-12 BUS TECH JOBS Steven D. Jones Microsoft Cuts 200 Marketing Jobs Microsoft cut ~200 marketing jobs; Microsoft reportedly has ~6,000 marketing employees WSJ 14
6-Feb-12 GOV DEBT JOBS Niki Kitsantonis; David Jolly Greece to Eliminate 15,000 Government Jobs Greece to cut 15,000 government jobs in 2012; Greece needs €130 billion ($170.5 billion) in new bailout funds to avoid default in Mar-2012 NYT 15
6-Feb-12 ELITE MON Maria Di Mento; Caroline Preston. Contributor: Caroline Bermudez Most-Generous Donors Gave More in 2011 but Still Lag Their Pre-Recession Pace The Chronicle of Philanthropy: the top 50 wealthy donors in America gave a total of $10.4-billion in 2011 (up from $3.3-billion in 2010); the median gift from donors was $61 million (down from $74.7 million in 2007). The top 5 donors in 2011 and the total amounts they committed are: 1. Margaret A. Cargill, $6 billion; 2. William S. Dietrich II, $5 billion; 3. Paul G. Allen, $372.6 million; 4. George Soros, $335 million; 5. Michael R. Bloomberg, $311.276 million. The Chronicle of Philanthropy 16
9-Feb-12 PRO GOV JOBS General strike enters second day in Israel 8-9-Feb-2012: Israel: general strike involving ~500,000 people to force the government to hire workers and provide good working conditions Al Jazeera: Agencies 17
13-Feb-12 BANK JOBS ANZ announces changes in Australia to respond to emerging business environment ANZ to reduce employment in Australia by ~1,000 permanent employees (ANZ employs ~24,000 staff in Australia and 49,000 world-wide). ANZ CEO Australia Philip Chronican: “A different and very difficult environment is now emerging for banks globally. . . we are also having to adapt our business to the new conditions and become leaner, more agile and more customer-focused so we ensure the bank remains strong and can grow and invest for the future. At the same time, we know we have to keep working hard to become a better bank. . ." Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited 18
14-Feb-12 BUS JOBS MetLife Says Derivatives Lifted Its Quarterly Profit MetLife to shut and eliminate most of the 4,300 jobs in its mortgage origination business NYT: Bloomberg News 19
15-Feb-12 ELITE BANK VIO Margaret Kimberley Freedom Rider: Greece: Your Money or Your Life Margaret Kimberley: "Greece’s plight proves the Lords of Capital have no more use for democratic facades. The Greeks will be forced to surrender to “the free movement of capital” and take no actions that would “influence the management or control of companies.” For the people’s purposes, the Greek state has ceased to exist. “The sad truth is that citizens of supposedly democratic countries live in dictatorships of, for, and by the rich."" Black Agenda Report 20
17-Feb-12 ELITE ECON JOBS Edward Cody Spain faces unemployment pain after embracing austerity in European crisis Spain: a consequence of austerity measures imposed by creditors on Spain: unemployment rates in 2012: total, 21.6%; 24 or younder, 46.4% [source: Eurostat] Washington Post 21
25-Feb-12 ELITE BANK JOBS Mark Scott Lloyds Posts $4.4 Billion Loss for 2011 Lloyds Banking Group (largest bank in Britain; 41%-owned by taxpayers): lost £2.8 billion ($4.4 billion) in 2011 (down from a £320 million loss in 2010); paid £375 million in bonuses; and plans to terminate 15,000 jobs by 2014 (including 3,700 jobs terminated in 2010) NYT-DealBook 22
25-Feb-12 GOV POL ELITE Noam Chomsky The imperial way: US decline in perspective Noam Chomsky on the decline of the U.S.: "In the years of conscious, self-inflicted decline at home, "losses" continued to mount elsewhere. In the past decade, for the first time in 500 years, South America has taken successful steps to free itself from western domination, another serious loss. The region has moved towards integration, and has begun to address some of the terrible internal problems of societies ruled by mostly Europeanised elites, tiny islands of extreme wealth in a sea of misery. They have also rid themselves of all US military bases and of IMF controls. A newly formed organisation, CELAC, includes all countries of the hemisphere apart from the US and Canada. If it actually functions, that would be another step in US decline . . . The Arab Spring, another development of historic importance, might portend at least a partial "loss" of MENA. . ." Al Jazeera 23
27-Feb-12 ELITE POL Memorandum: From: George Friedman; Date: Sat, 20 Feb 2010 09:41:03 -0600; To: Secure List;  Subject: Insight--for internal use only--On pain of agony; Internal use only. [See also on Twitter, 26-Feb-2012: WikiLeaks: "Kissinger believes that the Israelis are in a panic and will attack Iran" http://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/5509401_re-insight-for-internal-use-only-on-pain-of-agony-.html #iran #israel #gifiles.] George Friedman, Founder and CEO of Stratfor, on the "crisis of the elites": "One sense I'm getting here is that the American elite, along  with Europe's, China's and just about everyone but Russia's [h]is suffering from three problems: First, none are really aware of the political pressures on other elites. Second, they completely misunderstand the alienation of the publics, three, except for Volcker, they think this can be handled by the elites among themselves. We have a crisis of the elites, in my view."
 WikiLeaks-The Global Intelligence Files 24
27-Feb-12 BANK JOBS Julia Werdigier HSBC Profit Rises on Demand From Emerging Markets HSBC plans to cut cost by yearend 2013, in part by terminating 30,000 jobs NYT-DealBook 25
1-Mar-12 ELITE MON Mary Alice Salinas. Contributors: Leo Keyen (Hausa Service chief); Ibrahim Abdulaziz; Medina Dauda; Muhammed Salisu Rabiu; Zainab Babaji; Nasiru Batsari More Nigerians Slip Into Poverty, Particularly in North Nigeria: The National Bureau of Statistics on poverty in Nigeria: 97.6 million people (61% of Nigerians) earned <$1/day in 2010 (up 10% from 2004) VOA News 26
4-Mar-12 ELITE FIN Matthew G. Miller; Peter Newcomb; Matthew G. Miller (ed.) Slim Tops Gates in Debut of Daily Billionaire Ranking 2-Mar-12: Bloomberg Billionaires Index, "a daily ranking of the world’s 20 wealthiest individuals": 1. Carlos Slim, $68.5 billion (telecommunications, Mexico); 2. Bill Gates, $62.4 billion (Microsoft Corp.); 3. Warren Buffet, $43.8 billion (Berkshire Hathaway Inc.). The total net worth of the 20 richest people is $676.8 billion. Bloomberg 27
8-Mar-12 ELITE MON Forbes Staff The World's Billionaires Forbes: the wold's 1,226 billionaires are worth a record $4.6 trillion. Net worth of the top 5 billionaires: 1. Carlos Slim Helou and family, $69 billion; 2. Bill Gates, $61 billion; 3. Warren Buffett, $44 billion; 4. Bernard Arnault, $41 billion; 5. Amancio Ortega, $37.5 billion. Forbes 28
12-Mar-12 ELITE TECH MON Rob Cox The Ruthless Overlords Of Silicon Valley Rob Cox, on "the Overlords of Silicon Valley": "Though Silicon Valley’s newest billionaires may anoint themselves the saints of American capitalism, they’re beginning to resemble something else entirely: robber barons. Behind the hoodies and flip-flops lurk businesspeople as rapacious as the black-suited and top-hatted industrialists of the late-19th century." The Daily Beast 29
14-Mar-12 BANK JOBS Lloyds, RBS Announce 1,900 Job Cuts UK: Lloyds to cut 1,600 positions (part of a plan to cut 15,000 jobs); RBS to cut ~300 jobs NYT: Reuters 30
14-Mar-12 BANK ELITE PRO Greg Smith Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs Greg Smith resigned as a Goldman Sachs executive director and head of the firm’s U.S. equity derivatives business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa: "TODAY is my last day at Goldman Sachs. . .  I can honestly say that the environment now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it. . . When the history books are written about Goldman Sachs, they may reflect that the current chief executive officer, Lloyd C. Blankfein, and the president, Gary D. Cohn, lost hold of the firm’s culture on their watch. I truly believe that this decline in the firm’s moral fiber represents the single most serious threat to its long-run survival. . . Today, if you make enough money for the firm (and are not currently an ax murderer) you will be promoted into a position of influence. . . It astounds me how little senior management gets a basic truth: If clients don’t trust you they will eventually stop doing business with you. It doesn’t matter how smart you are." NYT-Op Ed 31
19-Mar-12 BANK FIN JOBS Lauren Tara LaCapra; Alwyn Scott (ed.); Steve Orlofsky (ed.) Goldman Sachs cuts staff in annual review process Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to cut staff ($1.4 billion in annual cost savings were targeted in 2011). Goldman 2011 productivity statistics: revenue per employee, $865,195 (down 25% from 2005); profit per employee, $75,375 (down 71% from 2005). Reuters 32
20-Mar-12 BANK JOBS Dawn Kopecki; David Scheer (ed.) JPMorgan’s Gulya Said to Leave as Equities Staff Shrinks JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut ~5% of its equities trading desk jobs; the bank's treasury and securities services division cut <1% of its staff (~100 jobs) in Jan-2012 Bloomberg 33
25-Mar-12 ELITE RPIG ECON Steven Rattner The Rich Get Even Richer Steven Rattner, on income inequality: "The bottom 99 percent received a microscopic $80 increase in pay per person in 2010, after adjusting for inflation. The top 1 percent, whose average income is $1,019,089, had an 11.6 percent increase in income." NYT-Op Ed 34
28-Mar-12 RES GOV ELITE Dan Hind [author of "The Threat to Reason and The Return of the Public" and "Occupy movement and deliberative politics, Common Sense: Occupation, Assembly and the Future of Liberty"] The third British Empire – London is considered the "capital of capitalism" allowing foreign billionaires to stash tax free income offshore. Dan Hind, on the 3 British Empires, the first 2 being "deeply criminal projects . . . they relied heavily on profits from slavery and the sale of narcotics": Empire 1. "an Atlantic empire built on North American colonies and Caribbean possessions"; Empire 2. "an Asian empire, built on control of India and coercive trade with China"; Empire 3. "organised around the country's offshore financial infrastructure and its substantial diplomatic, intelligence and communications resources" Al Jazeera 35
29-Mar-12 PRO LAW JOBS Lauren Frayer. Contributor: Henry Chu In Spain, millions join strike to protest labor reforms Spain: millions of Spaniards protested against new labor laws favoring companies [dismantling of collective bargaining; low wages; job cuts] and other austerity measures imposed by lenders; violence against financial institutions was reported; ~25% of the Spanish workforce and almost 50% of people under 25 are unemployed Los Angeles Times 36
29-Mar-12 BUS JOBS Best Buy Reports Fiscal Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2012 Results Best Buy: (1) to close 50 U.S. big box stores in FY2013; (2) to open 50 new Five Star stores in China also in FY2013; (3) to cut $800 million in planned cost by FY2015; and (4) to cut ~400 positions in corporate and support areas Best Buy 37
29-Mar-12 ELITE FIN MON Julie Creswell; Azam Ahmed Large Hedge Funds Fared Well in 2011 U'S.: top hedge fund managers earned $14.4 billion in 2011. Top 3 hedge managers: 1. Raymond Dalio, Bridgewater Associates, $3.9 billion; 2. Carl Icahn, Icahn Capital Management, $2.5 billion; 3. James Simons, Renaissance Technologies Corp, $2.1 billion [source: Stephen Taub, "The Rich List," AR Magazine, 29-Mar-2012, http://www.absolutereturn-alpha.com/Article/3001821/The-Rich-List.html] NYT-DealBook 38
1-Apr-12 JOBS ECON Liz Alderman, Contributor: Maïa de le Baume Ranks of Working Poor Grow in Europe Poverty is spreading in Europe: "hundreds of thousands of people are living in campgrounds, vehicles and cheap hotel rooms. Millions more are sharing space with relatives, unable to afford the basic costs of living." In 2010: ~8.2% of workers in the EU lived at below the poverty level of ~$13,500; according to Eurostat, temporary jobs accounted for 50% of all job openings NYT 39
4-Apr-12 BUS WWW JOBS Yahoo! Statement Yahoo! to eliminate ~2,000 jobs; employee transitions are expected to realize ~$375 million in savings per year Yahoo! 40
4-Apr-12 GOV MEDIA JOBS CBC to cut 650 jobs over next 3 years Canada: CBC/Radio-Canada to lose $115 million in funding over 3 years and to eliminate 650 jobs over the same period CBC News 41
4-Apr-12 BUS FIN JOBS EBX Group and IBM Announce Strategic Agreement Brazil: EBX to invest $15.5 billion during 2011-2012 in Brazil, and to generate 20,000 jobs EBX 42
7-Apr-12 ELITE MON RPIG Natasha Singer In Executive Pay, a Rich Game of Thrones Data on 100 top-paid CEO's in 2011: median salary, $14.4 million (more than 318 times the average American salary); the aggregate salary of the 100 top-paid CEO's, $2.1 billion [source: Equilar]. According to a study by Emmanuel Saez (University of California, Berkeley): "In 2010, average real income per family grew by 2.3% but the gains were very uneven. Top 1% incomes grew by 11.6% while bottom 99% incomes grew only by 0.2%. Hence, the top 1% captured 93% of the income gains in the first year of recovery. Such an uneven recovery can help explain the recent public demonstrations against inequality" [see Emmanuel Saez, "Striking it Richer: The Evolution of Top Incomes in the United States (Updated with 2009 and 2010 estimates)", 2-Mar-2012, http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~saez/saez-UStopincomes-2010.pdf]. NYT 43
9-Apr-12 BUS TECH JOBS Tiffany Hsu Sony Corp. to cut 10,000 jobs, or 6% of global workforce Sony Corporation to cut 10,000 jobs (~6% of its global workforce) [Sony's net loss in 2011Q4 was $2.038 billion; sales and operating revenue was down 17.4%; see http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/IR/financial/fr/11q3_sony.pdf] Los Angeles Times 44