Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Another image of labor’s broken back: $48,887 in profit per employee!

This article via Yahoo news caught my attention: Five years into recovery, Dow Companies squeeze workers as investors thrive I think this picture spells it out rather well.   “As the chart shows, the 30 huge companies that comprise the Dow Jones Industrial Average have barely nudged their employee ranks higher…” But this is even […]

Wages driven down, now relative to market you’re over paid!

Update: spelling corrected in title. I heard and then went to look see that Caterpillar is working hard to control it’s costs. “Despite earning a record $4.9 billion profit last year and projecting even better results for 2012, the company is insisting on a six-year wage freeze and a pension freeze for most of the […]

Paying better wages and profit sharing another way to success?

Higher Wages, Profit Sharing and Greater Flexibility Benefit All Employees — And the Company Bottom Line Too(link repaired) Costco is so certain that its policy is sound that it has kept paying better wages than rivals, even as Wall Street has pressured the company to conform to industry standards. As the economy slowly recovers, it’s […]

Productivity Growth

By Spencer, Third quarter nonfarm productivity rose at a 9.5% annual rate as output rose 4.0% and hours worked fell at a 5.0% rate. Historically, productivity has been a very good leading indicator of real GDP growth lagged two quarters. Productivity is also highly cyclical and the first year of a recovery typically experiences the […]