conservation of Euros

So there's still hope for Michael A. Terrell - not a lot, but some.

-- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

The same as they took. Another useless lump of clay.

[...]

He must have gone to one of the tea parties and woken up :-)

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.

That's good, not many people do that.

Ok, model year 1995 for the Toyota, the Mits is two years younger. You win that one :-)

Yeah. How many miles on it? The Toyota is somewhere around 45k, the Mits is 67k or so.

You mean the hand-to-mouth guy? I could show you dozens. In fact, that seems to be the MO for most people.

It doesn't have to be and one can do something about it. That's why I would squarely oppose such a shift. And I sure would know a lot of retirees who'd march to Washington if that ever were to happen.

Right. And we can't let that happen. I remember when Sweden "fixed" the problems caused by wanton spending, by socking it to the retired.

What I am saying is that it'll multiply. Big time. You would see jobs over here shrivel up at a pace never heard before.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

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Ah, now you are beginning to get it. You wrote above, quote "The EU - as a whole - is underwriting the Greek borrowing". Which is wrong. For example if Greece fails to service the debt it now has in Germany the EU won't pay the Germans back. Their own taxpayers will. And those are rather pissed right now and for good reason.

Check the facts. Greece has no industry to write home about, tourism is declining because countries like Turkey are cheaper, and they can't print Euros. Did I forget anything? Guess not.

We have an industry. Greece doesn't. HUGE difference. Open your PC or whatever else electronic and see how many components in there are from Greek companies. Open the hood of your car and do same. In fact, open just about anything.

But torching the bank buildings isn't going to achieve that.

And your alternative would be?

Obviously that will be much better than what they did so far, and what got them into this mess in the first place.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

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Use another domain or send PM.

Their option is to carry on as before, and let the Germans pay for this round. Reform after this shot of money runs out, and party for a few more years.

Sloman doesn't approve of stupid prescriptions, like producing as much as you consume.

John

My business spends a tad over 50% of revenues on salaries, retirement funds, benefits, and insurance/other worker-related fees. 22 to 24% is parts. Most of the rest is rent, professional services, utilities, subcontracting, things like that. Then there's the heap of fees and taxes. We're small enough that we can expense capital equipment purchases, so we do.

In a good year, that leaves a few per cent for profit, the return on capital.

Where's my 50:50 split?

John

China's costs are increasing, as Japan's and Korea's did. Capital moves in to poor countries for the cheap labor. After a generation or two, the locals have learned the technology and bootstrapped their education and skills; they are no longer cheap labor but competitors. So the capital (including the new capital from the formerly cheap countries!) moves on, looking for more cheap labor.

It's sort of foreign aid that actually works. It's a natural propagation mode of technology. It's wonderful.

But your "investment in manufacturing automation has been on hold " statement is entirely bogus.

I'm working now with British, Irish, and German companies. All seem terribly slow to me, as compared to working with American ones. It takes them forever to make decisions, and they sort of disappear for weeks and months at a time, then return in a panic to get stuff out.

John

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To the contrary--anti-trust should apply to labor, too. E.g. government unions.

(Normally unions destroy their own jobs; government prevents that (since government jobs never die, only multiply as their productivity plummets).)

-- Cheers, James Arthur

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Agreed; all unions. But what ever happened to Jimmy Hoffa?

John

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Sure. A union is nothing more than an attempt to monopolize labor.

-- Cheers, James Arthur

You praised Marx and Engels. Are you not an outright Marxist, Sloman?

At age 65 a cash megabuck is certainly livable. Dave Ramsey, though I'm not convinced, claims that 12% isn't difficult over the long haul. Your plumber will likely not have any problems in retirement, except for the ones government throws down in front of him. BTW, I knew a hotdog vendor who had well over $100K, cash, in his home safe. Amazing what you can do with a cash business.

dagmar > I think the buzzword is "GRA" or something dagmar > like that. =A0Guaranteed return annuity. dagmar >=A0Basically, give Obama your IRA today, dagmar > and he'll gladly pay you back Tuesday dagmar > with interest.

"I'll gladly pay you TUESDAY for a hamburger today!" - Wimpy

In how many Popeye cartoons did Wimpy say this?

seen grinding meat or eating burgers almost the entire time =96 however, he is usually too cheap to pay for them himself. A recurring joke involves Wimpy's attempts to con other patrons of the diner into buying his meal for him. His best-known catchphrase started in 1931 as "Cook me up a hamburger. I'll pay you Thursday." In 1932, this then became the famous "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today". [4] This phrase is now commonly used to illustrate fiscal irresponsibility[5][6][7] and still appears in modern comedies such as The Drew Carey Show and The Office.

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Somewhere past 120,000.

Most of what i am seeing is debt to mouth instead.

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Maybe, i've been working for quite a few years now. Saw the piece of the company where i worked go through some 15 consecutive RIFs during about

10 years before i got hit in 1992. Lots of unemployed engineers at the time.