hopes/dooms du jour, March/2003
[Commentary] ©2003 Phil Hyde, The Timesizing Wire, Box 117, Harvard Sq, Cambridge MA 02238 USA (617) 623-8080 - HOMEPAGE

3/29-31/2003 sat-mon (re fri biz)
- readers pls. mail $25/yr subscrptn check to Timesizing.com, Box 622, Cambridge, MA 02140 -
$80 buys new Time Trilogy (# different visitors F Sa Su, any page: 701 480 548, wk's avg 702)
strategic hope = TIMEsizing consciousness in the news:
• Boston Globe runs Take Back Your Time Day mention &
website link ahead of 70th anniversary of 30-hr workweek bill
• US Air's 5% paycut would work better as a 5% hours&pay cut
+ random hope: • Howard Dean, the only antiwar presidential candidate,
not a longshot any more, and 10 other headlines from heaven
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing  
eroding retirement: • CalPERS comes out with worst-companies list  
• now Mass. Gov. Romney is going to gut state employees' pensions
+ 4 DOWNsizings, totaling 208 +?? lost jobs cited in Wall Street Journal (WSJ) &/or New York Times (NYT):
• 12% workforce cut (175 lost jobs) as Instinet e-trading slims staff (& clients), instead of just trimming its workweek 12% (to five 7hr2min days for the whole company including top executives), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training, & keeping everyone together confident, working, earning & buying 88% as many stocks as before
• 33 board cuts by Toyota   • unspecified cuts as Qantas shrinks & • Australian Orient Express closes
+ 4 bankruptcies mentioned in WSJ &/or NYT: • Olympic Pipe Line   • Republic Technologies International  
• Horizon Natural Resources   • Healthcare Integrated Services Inc. and HIS Imaging jointly
+ homelessness in the news: • Seattle parking meters
modified to collect change for the homeless spark controversy
+ 1 joblessness-related suicide story: • 4,000 people from 23 Arab
countries volunteer for suicide bombings against American forces
+ headlines from hell_tm • the number of the Beast (666) and 13 other ominous items
weekend roll-up from the WSJ & the NYT
** 5 issues/wk - avg homepage hits per issue this week: 75 **
hope of the weektm
• 8 TIMEsizing items (?? jobs saved)  
vs.  doom of the weektm
• 13 DOWNsizings, over 8761 jobcuts   • 1 eroded-retirement item  
• 5 bankruptcies   • 2 homelessness stories   • 2 work-linked suicide stories
{{ Year-To-Date: 85 timesizings (1400+ new or sav'd jobs) + 16 upsizings (7519+ new jobs) + 4 makwrk (14000+ "jobs")
total 22919 = 8% of dnsz VERSUS 206 dnsz (293709+ cuts)+ 74 bankrp ($17.7B+) + 9 homlss + 14 prisn + 17 killngs}}

3/28/2003 fri
keep hope-vs-doom comin' with $25/yr subscrptn check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’,
Box 622, Cambridge MA 02140 USA  - # visitors yesterday, all 581 files/pp: 820(dec 415, sep 773) -
strategic hope = TIMEsizing consciousness in the news:
• exhaustive analysis of overtime proposals with glimmers of insight at last
+ random hope - headlines from heaven: • lawmakers shrink Bush faith initiative
• anti-war protests in Spain   • France plans its own TV network to spread its pro-peace views
• new Belgian law promotes human rights & prosecutes crimes against humanity committed anywhere   • Japan's joblessness falls from 5.5 to 5.2%
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing  
takeover news: • Europe beats U.S. in mergers   • Canada suspends bank mergers till they can guarantee equal post-merger credit accessibility (dream on!)   • Enel may reverse its costly takeover of Wind Infostrada
+ 4 DOWNsizings, totaling 3415 lost jobs, mentioned in Wall Street Journal and/or New York Times:
• 2000 addition'l jobcuts by the HVB Group née HypoVereinsBank, the second largest bank in Germany
• 10% workforce cut (1000 lost jobs) as Sony Music Entertainment helps its balance sheet by hurting its markets, instead of just trimming its workweek by 10% (48 minutes a day for the whole company including top execs), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training, & keeping everyone working, earning & buying 90% as much music as usual
• 315 jobcuts as Marsellus Casket closes   • 100 by Robert Mondavi wines
+ homelessness in the news: • NYC homeless census comes up with figure of 1,780 on Manhattan streets
+ headlines from hell_tm • US productivity sinks   • SEIU union shafts its own employees   • tip of iceberg - war profiteer flushed out of Pentagon advisory board

3/27/2003 thu
keep hope-vs-doom comin' with $25/yr subscrptn check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’,
Box 622, Cambridge MA 02140 USA  - # visitors yesterday, all 581 files/pp: 781(dec 294, sep 756) -
strategic hope = TIMEsizing consciousness in the news:
• WSJ touts vacations!  • sleep deprivation in Iraq  • finally, figures on overtime proposals
+ random hope - headlines from heaven - female heroes: • Maine GOP Sen. Olympia Snowe voted to cut Bush taxcuts from $725B to $350B   • Hungarian figure-skating judge Judit Furst-Tombor helps found World Skating Federation to clean up rampant corruption of World Skating Federation, & gets fired from judging while judges previously convicted of corruption kept on
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing  
4 DOWNsizings, totaling 4838 lost jobs, mentioned in Wall Street Journal and/or New York Times:
• 15% workforce cut (4300 lost jobs) as Royal Dutch/Shell Oil restructures for the sake of restructuring, thereby strengthening recessionary pressures, instead of just trimming its workweek by 15% (to five 6¾-hour days for whole company including top executives), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training, & keeping everyone working, earning & buying 85% as much gas & oil as usual, or paying them for a 40-hour week regardless & keeping them buying 100% or more-than as much gas & oil as usual
• 300 jobcuts by Random House   • 190 by R. H. Donnelley   • 48 by United Airlines
+ headlines from hell_tm • early signs of war-weakened economy   • evermore anger at U.S. abroad

3/26/2003 wed
keep hope-vs-doom comin' with $25/yr subscrptn check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’,
Box 622, Cambridge MA 02140 USA  - # visitors yesterday, all 578 files/pp: 788(dec 308, sep 696) -
strategic hope = TIMEsizing consciousness in the news:
• (3/07) Rep. Biggert does a big non-favor for employees
+ random hope - headlines from heaven: • Senate halves Bush taxcuts   • Canada diverges from USA, moves beyond religion   • BGB bids too low to takeover Bankgesellschaft Berlin
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing  
1 DOWNsizing, totaling 300 lost jobs, mentioned in Wall Street Journal and/or New York Times:
• 5.1% workforce cut (300 lost jobs) as Foamex furniture foam spooks over 2d quarterly loss, instead of just trimming its workweek by 5.1% (24 minutes a day for whole firm including top execs), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training, & keeping everyone together working, earning & buying 94.9% as much furniture as usual
+ headlines from hell_tm • Bush keeps documents classified another 3 years  
• NYSE bars 2 Arab reporters   • web hacking is up   • Israelis bag 2 Palestinian children

3/25/2003 tue
- late edition -
keep hope-vs-doom comin' with $25/yr subscrptn check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’,
Box 622, Cambridge MA 02140 USA  - # visitors yesterday, all 578 files/pp: 794(dec 446, sep 770) -
strategic hope = primitive TIMEsizing in the news:
• (3/21) Lufthansa, Germany's largest airline, is surfing the
Bush-war travel upset by kicking around its working hours, not its employees
+ random hope - headlines from heaven: • skepticism returns to war reporting  
• al Jazeera launches English website   • ex?-CIA expert warns against big gov't database
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing  
1 big takeover: • Deutsche Post buys Airborne's ground operations for $1B
+ 1 bankruptcy mentioned in Wall St Journal &/or NY Times: • Niagara Frontier Hockey
+ work-related murder: • Dutch nurse gets life for terminating 4 'flawed'
patients where there was proof, out of 100 where there wasn't
+ headlines from hell_tm • Bush wants $75B for just first part of war  
• Dow falls 300 pts = worst in 6 months   • media consolidation is already homogenizing
Americans into illusion of virtue despite destruction of another, distant country at peace

3/22-24/2003 sat-mon (re fri biz)
- readers pls. mail $25/yr subscrptn check to Timesizing.com, Box 622, Cambridge, MA 02140 -
$50 buys new Time Trilogy (# different visitors F Sa Su, any page: 618 470 540, wk's avg 724;
website costs: $109/mon excl. labor; wks since 1st $ appeal: 23; rec'd so far: still $50)
strategic hope = TIMEsizing consciousness in the news:
• Boston Sunday Globe rakes sneak attack on overtime pay
+ random hope/headlines from heaven: • Moore at Oscars  • wargame damped  • profs graded
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing  
2 big takeovers, the 1st embedded in story re war's delaying M&As:
• P&G buys Wella for $5½B   • De Agostini buys Toro Assicurazioni for $2½B
+ eroding retirement: • pilots' union agrees to replacement pension plan so US Airways can emerge from bankrupcy - but no details made public   • judge says Enron employees must cover own pension fees   • so many retirees online on KaZaA that AARP advertises its mag there, complete with story on death with dignity
+ 3 DOWNsizings, totaling 8370 lost jobs cited in Wall Street Journal (WSJ) &/or New York Times (NYT):
• 11% workforce cut (4900 lost jobs) as Northwest Airlines trims service schedules but also chops jobs, consumer confidence & its own markets, instead of just trimming its corporate workweek-equivalent by a corresponding 11% (to five 7hr7min days for the whole company including top executives), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training, & keeping everyone together confident, working, earning & flying 89% as much as before   • 3400 jobcuts by United Airlines   • 70 more cuts by Micron Technology
+ 3 bankruptcies mentioned in WSJ &/or NYT: • Hawaiian Airlines, owing $100m  
• SonicBlue music players & digital TV recorders   • Avianca, Colombia's biggest airline
+ 1 work-related murder: • 'fratricide' by US soldier, a convert to Islam, kills 1, wounds 15 in Kuwait
+ headlines from hell_tm • no jobs   • investors bet on no-dough consumers   • downturn deeper than 9/11, scandals, or war   • Sharon really asks for it   • Bush ignores him, starts a war, & the world pushes back
weekend roll-up from the WSJ & the NYT
** 5 issues/wk - avg homepage hits per issue this week: 76 **
hope of the weektm
• 5 TIMEsizing items (?? jobs saved)   • 3 UPsizings (700 new jobs)  
vs.  doom of the weektm
• 18 DOWNsizings, over 33,676 jobcuts   • 5 eroded-retirement items
• 8 bankruptcies, owing over $1.1B   • 1 prison story   • 3 work-linked suicide stories
{{ Year-To-Date: 77 timesizings (1400+ new or sav'd jobs) + 16 upsizings (7519+ new jobs) + 4 makwrk (14000+ "jobs")
total 22919 = 8% of dnsz VERSUS 193 dnsz (284948+ cuts) + 69 bankrp ($17.7B+) + 7 homlss + 14 prisn + 15 killngs}}

3/21/2003 fri
- late edition -
keep hope-vs-doom comin' with $25/yr subscrptn check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’,
Box 622, Cambridge MA 02140 USA  - # visitors yesterday, all 573 files/pp: 743(dec 609, sep 704) -
strategic hope = primitive TIMEsizing in the news:
• Cessna extends 1-wk June furlough to 7 wks for 6000
of its 11,000 employees to keep layoffs down to 1200
+ random hope - headlines from heaven: • global war protests  
• CEOs for peace   • Jews against war   • Bush 'coalition' inflated
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing  
8 DOWNsizings, totaling 17,984 +?? lost jobs, mentioned in Wall Street Journal and/or New York Times:
• 16% workforce cut (1200 lost jobs) as Solectron electronics over-reacts to losses & cuts employment & consumption, instead of just trimming its workweek by 16% (to five 6¾-hour days for whole firm including top execs), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training, & keeping everyone together working, earning & buying 84% as much electronics as usual
• 3600 jobcuts by Air Canada   • 1200 by Textron at Cessna   • 930 by NYC's Mt. Sinai Medical Center   • 150 by Smith & Nephew   • 104 by Timken   • unspecified jobcuts by Ito-Yokado & • Singapore Airlines
+ 1 bankruptcy mentioned in Wall St Journal &/or NY Times: • JPS Co. of Delaware
+ 1 prison item:   • Gideon v. Wainwright in 1983 ruled that poor defendants
have a constitutional right to a lawyer, but the reality is less ideal
+ headlines from hell_tm • distracted employees, lower productivity   • war for democratic Iraq??  
• war's international costs   • 'collateral damage' unmonitored   • reckless friendly firers scot-free  
• more classified documents   • more on budget disaster   • Philippine overpop thanx to pope

3/20/2003 thu
keep hope-vs-doom comin’ with $25/yr subscrptn check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’, Box 622, Cambridge MA 02140 USA  - # visitors yesterday, all 587 files/pp: 863(dec 667, sep 748) -
strategic hope = primitive TIMEsizing in the news:
• Hilton Hotels foresees trimming hours for restaurant staff to jobcuts
• paradoxical juxtaposition of more overwork amidst less work explained
• new novel The Price by ex-workaholic Joan Johnston explores work-family tradeoffs
+ random hope - headlines from heaven:
• 2 UPsizings - 400 new jobs at Hwashin carparts in So. Korea & - ?? at Family Dollar Stores in U.S.   • no time for cowboys?   • Byrd attacks attack   • war jeopardizes globalization   • critics call war illegal   • Turkey limits help to US
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing  
2 DOWNsizings, totaling 1340 lost jobs, mentioned in Wall Street Journal and/or New York Times:
• 2.5% workforce cut (1200 lost jobs) as Continental Airlines cuts expenses, employees & associated air travellers, instead of just trimming its workweek by 2.5% (12 minutes a days for whole firm including top execs), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training, & keeping everyone together working, earning & flying 97.5% as much as usual
• 140 jobcuts by Rohm & Haas' Shipley unit  
+ 1 bankruptcy mentioned in Wall St Journal &/or NY Times: • Rocky Mountain Securities & Investments
+ headlines from hell_tm • war as just more violence on TV   • war as backward, not forward   • swirling postwar complexities   • Afghanistan not yet done   • Bush still mum on $ estimate   • California discomfort   • unilateralism may cost the economy   • EU finds 5 offices bugged   • Gulf oil disrupted   • Enron still around   • ethics expert goes bad   • Argentina's GDP really tanks   • Ferrari tanks, execs get $22m bonus

3/19/2003 wed
- late edition -
keep hope-vs-doom comin’ with $25/yr subscrptn check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’, Box 622, Cambridge MA 02140 USA  - # visitors yesterday, all 587 files/pp: 933(dec 665, sep 725) -
strategic hope = primitive TIMEsizing in the news:
• Winnebago Industries schedules temporary 4-day work
weeks to avoid layoffs as consumer confidence sinks
+ random hope - headlines from heaven:
• the war Osama would love   • Chirac appeals for sanity   • at last, a call for impeachment   • the 1 GOP senate dissident   • Germans resist toxic economic medicine   • microloan success   • new sport - baiting webscammers
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing  
3 DOWNsizings, totaling 2082 +?? lost jobs, mentioned in Wall Street Journal and/or New York Times:
• 1.4% workforce cut (1077 lost jobs) as BellSouth phone co. tries to reduce costs by reducing customer-consumers, instead of just trimming its workweek by 1.4% (7 mins. a days for whole co. including top execs), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training, & keeping everyone together working, earning & buying 98.6% as many phone services as usual
• 1005 jobcuts by BAE Systems   • unspecified jobcuts at Tenet Healthcare
+ 1 bankruptcy mentioned in Wall St Journal &/or NY Times: • DirecTV Latin America
+ work-related suicide & violence: • tobacco farmer claims to have bomb, moves tractor into pond near White House to protest end of gov't subsidies   • Yemeni oil-firm carpenter kills 3, then self, at US oil rig
+ headlines from hell_tm • war sows dissension   • Republicans still fixed on taxcuts regardless of everything   • housing plummets   • 41% in survey plan to spend less   • banks set hurdles before borrowers   • Iceland plans to stress its fragile environment with big smelter

3/18/2003 tue
keep hope-vs-doom comin’ with $25/yr subscrptn check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’, Box 622, Cambridge MA 02140 USA  - # visitors yesterday, all 587 files/pp: 900 (dec 742, sep 765) -
strategic hope = TIMEsizing consciousness in the news:
• (2/15) Econ Policy Institute clarifies destructiveness of Bush's proposed changes in overtime law
+ random hope - headlines from heaven:
• cabinet minister resigns vs. Blair's OK on war   • Lawyers Alliance for World Security (LAWS) of Massachusetts runs halfpage ad vs. war   • Alaska wildlife refuge may be spared from oil drilling   • Thai economy grew last year   • 1 UPsizing, 300 new jobs at Mitsubishi Motors in Illinois
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing  
2 DOWNsizings, totaling 3900 lost jobs, mentioned in Wall Street Journal and/or New York Times:
• 14% workforce cut (2000 lost jobs) as Applied Materials chip-making equipment responds to dwindling demand by dwindling it further, instead of just trimming its workweek by 14% (to five 6h53m days for whole firm including top execs), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training, & keeping everyone together working, earning & buying 86% as many PCs as usual
• 1900 jobcuts by Gateway Inc.
+ eroding retirement: • equities did not stay equal
• outliving nestegg a growing problem for retirees   • retired, but still on the job
+ 1 bankruptcy mentioned in Wall St Journal &/or NY Times: • Spiegel Group Inc.
+ headlines from hell_tm • war fever   • household debt   • Medicare bankruptcy   • longer wait for new job   • another Microsoft security bug   • 'democratic' Spain bans Basque political party

3/15-17/2003 sat-mon (re fri biz)
- readers pls. mail $25/yr subscrptn check to Timesizing.com, Box 622, Cambridge, MA 02140 -
$50 buys new Time Trilogy (# different visitors F Sa Su, any page: 801 473 563, wk's avg 924;
website costs: $109/mon excl. labor; wks since 1st $ appeal: 22; rec'd so far: still $50)
strategic hope = TIMEsizing consciousness in the news:
• (2/21) survey finds American CEOs spend 20% of their worktime doing crisis management, so if they quit creating crises to manage, they could work 20% less = a 32-hour workweek
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing  
1 DOWNsizing, totaling 100 lost jobs mentioned in Wall Street Journal (WSJ) &/or New York Times (NYT):
• 10% mgmt workforce cut (100 lost jobs) as Terayon Communication broadband systems over-reacts to $44m loss last year, instead of just trimming its workweek by 10% (48 mins/day for the whole company including top executives), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training, & keeping everyone together working, earning & buying 90% as much broadband as before
+ 1 bankruptcy mentioned in WSJ &/or NYT: • TW Inc. d/b/a the Wiz
+ headlines from hell_tm • Cheney's War  • lethal alliance: sociopathic businessmen manipulate religious fundamentalists (on both sides!)   • flation suffers   • US brands suffer   • complex JIT supply system suffers   • healthcare at home keeps suffering   • while new plague revs up  • & Ashcroft 'plague' spreads  • & not even Germany takes effective economic approach
weekend roll-up from the WSJ & the NYT
** 5 issues/wk - avg homepage hits per issue this week: 98 **
**  we offer free consulting to novelists or playwrights interested in
spinning tales in timesizing or beyond-timesizing future-worlds**
hope of the weektm
• 6 TIMEsizing items (?? jobs saved)
• 1 UPsizing (650 new jobs)   • 2 makework cases (4000+ new 'jobs')
vs.  doom of the weektm
• 9 DOWNsizings, over 7313 jobcuts   • 5 eroded-retirement items
• 5 bankruptcies, owing over $14.4B   • 1 prison story   • 1 work-linked suicide story
{{ Year-To-Date: 72 timesizings (1400+ new or sav'd jobs) + 13 upsizings (6819+ new jobs) + 4 makwrk (14000+ "jobs")
total 22219 = 9% of dnsz VERSUS 175 dnsz (251272+ cuts) + 61 bankrp ($16.6B+) + 7 homlss + 13 prisn + 12 suicid }}

3/14/2003 fri
keep hope-vs-doom comin’ with $25/yr subscrptn check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’, Box 622, Cambridge MA 02140 USA  - # visitors yesterday, all 586 files/pp: 1434 (dec 778, sep 664) -
strategic hope = TIMEsizing consciousness in the news:
• Pepsi Bottling fined $8m & charged $17m restitution for ignoring 'time & a half' pay for overtime
• Brazil mounts big new initiative against completely unlimited (& unpaid) workweeks, ie: slavery
+ random hope - headlines from heaven: • anti-first-strike sentiments abound  
• cap way too low but at least cap on malpractice lawsuit awards moves ahead
• 1 UPsizing, 650 new jobs as Brazil hires people to inspect backcountry ranches for slavery
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing  
makework rampant: • 4000 new SEC jobs to check our crooked CEOs   • ?? new jobs at our military suppliers
+ 1 banking takeover: • Mercantile Bankshares Corp. buys F&M Bancorp of Frederick MD for $½B
+ 1 DOWNsizing, totaling 185 lost jobs, mentioned in Wall Street Journal and/or New York Times:
• 7% workforce cut (185 lost jobs) as J. M. Smucker jams & peeniebruckle tries to improve productivity by cutting its best markets, instead of just trimming its workweek 7% (34 minutes a day for whole firm including top execs), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training, & keeping everyone together working, earning & buying 93% as much peanutbutter&jelly as usual
+ eroding retirement: • Germany's pension system in crisis
• Schwab, Goodyear, GN Paper, Tech Data, El Paso, CMS Energy quit contribs to 401Ks
+ 1 bankruptcy mentioned in Wall St Journal &/or NY Times: • Rowecom in Chapter11 liquidation
+ 1 prison item:   • new government to reform Kenya's crowded & violent prisons
+ headlines from hell_tm • financial omens  • martial 'music'  • stock op stalling
• cheating the taxpayer  • pushing strugglers from self-support to parasitism

3/13/2003 thu
keep hope-vs-doom comin’ with $25/yr subscrptn check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’, Box 622, Cambridge MA 02140 USA  - # visitors yesterday, all 586 files/pp: 1474! (dec 751, sep 716) -
strategic hope = TIMEsizing consciousness in the news:
• flight attendants protest once-idyllic Southwest Airlines’ current
process of ‘killing the golden goose’ with demands for 13-hour workdays
+ random hope - headlines from heaven:
• French find beautiful comet-planet  • readers roast French friers
• living together spreads  • fuel efficiency spreads  • India's economy spreads
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing  
1 huge Euro banking takeover: • Credit Agricole to buy Credit Lyonnais for $21½B
+ 3 DOWNsizings, totaling 2665 lost jobs, mentioned in Wall Street Journal and/or New York Times:
• 5% workforce cut (1600 lost jobs) as Philips Electronics over-reacts to global chip slump by spurring consumer drop instead of just trimming its workweek 5% (24 minutes a day for whole company including top execs), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training, & keeping everyone working, earning & buying 95% as much electronics as usual
• 760 Irish jobcuts by Accenture   • 305 by Canal Plus
+ headlines from hell_tm • financial omens  • martial 'music'  • stock op stalling
• cheating the taxpayer  • pushing more strugglers from self-support to parasitism

3/12/2003 wed
keep timesizing comin’ with $25/yr subscrptn check to Timesizing.com, Box 622, Cambridge, MA 02140
$50 gets new 'time trilogy' - # visitors yesterday, all 586 files/pp: 895 (dec 806, sep 750)
strategic hope = TIMEsizing consciousness in the news:
• Qantas does path-breaking research on pilot fatigue - will hopefully cut shifts & workweek
+ random hope - headlines from heaven:
• Brit dissent over Iraq imperils Blare's future, 2 more diplomats quit  • wholesale inventories shrink  • more airlines to waive rebooking penalties  • ammo vs. pop-ups & telemarketers
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing  
2 DOWNsizings, totaling 3663 lost jobs, mentioned in WSJ and/or NYT:
• 20% workforce cut (3600 lost jobs) as Japan Airlines System reacts exacerbatingly to downturn in air travel instead of just trimming its workweek 20% (to four 8-hour days for whole company including top execs), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training, & keeping everyone together working, earning & flying 80% as much as before
• 63 Irish jobcuts by Honeywell
+ eroding retirement: • proposal to block firms' switch from fixed-benefits - from bankrupt Bush pension agency
• annuities to lose 3% rate floor   • FASB considers overhauling pension acctg but no guarantee
• Judge Rehnquist's little girl withholds damaging pension info till after election
+ 3 bankruptcies, with debt totaling $14.4B +?? mentioned in Wall St Journal &/or NY Times: 
• Asia Pulp & Paper owing $13.9B   • Magellan Health Services owing $0.5B   • Ameripol Synpol
+ work-related suicide & violence: • workaholic 18-yr old Czech student doused self with gas & burnt to death
+ headlines from hell_tm • Wall St.'s bigger bets  • cheesy health insurance  • vigilante Senate  • wildlife drilling  • 'damn' World Court  • eboling for gorillas  • down with tree sitters  • Billy Bulger bites back

3/11/2003 tue
keep timesizing comin’ with $25/yr subscrptn check to Timesizing.com, Box 622, Cambridge, MA 02140
$50 gets new 'time trilogy' - # visitors yesterday, all 586 files/pp: 825 (dec 876, sep 681)
strategic hope = primitive TIMEsizing in the news:
• (3/04) South Korean Pres. Roh vows to practice the 40-hour workweek he preaches
+ random hope - headlines from heaven:
• Lilly's chairman took $1 salary last year   • Mitch Kapor dumped Groove board for selling out to Pentagon surveillance   • U.S. voices rise pro-France - 'friends don't let friends start wars' - 14000 U.S. intellectuals vs. war   • OMB to 'cost out' tougher security regs in lost time, privacy & liberty
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing  
2 DOWNsizings, totaling 700 +?? lost jobs, mentioned in WSJ and/or NYT:
• 3% workforce cut (700 lost jobs) as Boise Cascade forest products cuts costs (& markets) instead of just cutting its workweek by 3% (14 minutes a day for the whole corporation including top executives), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training, & keeping everyone together working, earning & buying 97% as much paper & lumber as before
• unspecified job loss at Novellus Systems
+ eroding retirement: • with 3 yrs of falling stocks, employees are bailing out of 401ks
+ headlines from hell_tm • Bush-wah & -war still bashing stocks, • boosting energy prices, & • bustin' up families
• plus it's 'official' - WSJ recognizes futility of welfare 'reform' with no jobs

3/08-10/2003 sat-mon (re fri biz)
- readers pls. mail $25/yr subscrptn check to Timesizing.com, Box 622, Cambridge, MA 02140 -
$50 buys new Time Trilogy (# different visitors F Sa Su, any page: 731 459 562, wk's avg 796;
website costs: $99/mon excl. labor; wks since 1st $ appeal: 21; rec'd so far: still just $50)
strategic hope = primitive TIMEsizing in the news:
• (3/3) Quipp Inc. uses 4-day workweek to contain layoffs, Haworth 3-day, while Greggs in UK enjoys temporary boom in sausage-roll sales due to local workaholics eating at their desks
+ random hope = headlines from heaven: • NAACP goes after gun mfrs for just sitting on mtns of data about which distributers supply criminals
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing  
eroding retirement: • gov't forced to take over yet another underfunded private-sector pension plan, WHX's
+ headlines from hell_tm • 308,000 jobs lost in Feb, most since 9/11/01, extending to every major industry = biz conditions deteriorating   • immigrants continue to rush in, legal & illegal   • Bush, denied 9 vital UN votes for war, pesters 60 nations to expel Iraqi envoys   • oil and gas industry exempt from new clean water rules  
weekend roll-up from the WSJ & the NYT
** 5 issues/wk - avg homepage hits per issue this week: 89 **
**  we offer free consulting to novelists or playwrights interested in
spinning tales in timesizing or beyond-timesizing future-worlds**
hope of the weektm
• 8 TIMEsizing stories (?? jobs saved)   • 3 UPsizings (1520+ new jobs)
vs.  doom of the weektm
• 14 DOWNsizings, over 9402 jobcuts  
• 2 eroded-retirement items   • 4 bankruptcies   • 1 prison story  
{{ Year-To-Date: 66 timesizings (1400+ new or sav'd jobs) + 12 upsizings (6169+ new jobs) + 2 makwrk (10000+ "jobs")
total 17569 = 7% of dnsz VERSUS 166 dnsz (243959+ cuts) + 56 bankrp ($2.2B+) + 7 homlss + 12 prisn + 11 suicid }}

3/07/2003 fri
keep timesizing comin’ with $25/yr subscrptn check to Timesizing.com, Box 622, Cambridge, MA 02140
$50 gets new 'time trilogy' - # visitors yesterday, all 586 files/pp: 872 (dec 767, sep 715)
strategic hope = primitive TIMEsizing in the news:
• another mention of South Korean labor cluelessness on shorter workweek, but -
• sunscreen firms look forward to rising markets in Asia due to shorter hours & more leisure
• HR agency in U.S. pushes for more OT-compensating time for salaried employees, regardless of exempt status
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing  
3 DOWNsizings, totaling 165 +?? lost jobs, mentioned in WSJ and/or NYT:
• 100 pilot jobs ended or suspended by UPS   • 65 jobs to end as Half.com plans to close next year  
• unspecified job loss at National Semiconductor
+ 1 new bankruptcy noticed today in the Wall St Journal (WSJ): Park South Securities
+ headlines from hell_tm • global warming is giving NE USA extremer extremes   • now even nice Canucks are steamed at the U.S. - how about just pumping million$ into hiring 1000s of Iraq arms inspectors instead of billion$ on death?  

3/06/2003 thu
keep timesizing comin’ with $25/yr subscrptn check to Timesizing.com, Box 622, Cambridge, MA 02140
$50 gets new 'time trilogy' - # visitors yesterday, all 586 files/pp: 995 (dec 835, sep 727)
strategic hope = primitive TIMEsizing in the news:
• new Worktime Reduction Committee of Indiana calls for 30-hour workweek
+ random hope - headlines from heaven:
• 1 UPsizing, 1500 new jobs as Alcoa puts Can.$1B into expanding Que. plant
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing  
5 DOWNsizings, totaling 3232 +?? lost jobs, mentioned in WSJ and/or NYT:
• 10% workforce cut (3000 lost jobs) as Bombardier aerospace continues its downward spiral, instead of just cutting its workweek by 10% (to four 8½-hour days for the whole company including top executives), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training, & keeping everyone together working, earning & flying 90% as much as as before  
• 232 jobcuts by BMC Software   • unspecified jobcuts by Staples, • Visteon, • Gateway
+ 1 bankruptcy cited in Wall St Journal (WSJ) &/or NY Times (NYT):  • Today's Man clothing in Ch.11  
+ 1 prison item:   • high court upholds California's costly 3-strikes law

3/05/2003 wed
keep timesizing comin’ with $25/yr subscrptn check to Timesizing.com, Box 622, Cambridge, MA 02140
$50 gets new 'time trilogy' - # visitors yesterday, all 585 files/pp: 997 (dec 886, sep 761)
strategic hope = primitive TIMEsizing in the news:
• Steelcase Inc. uses 4-day workweek & 1-wk shutdown to postpone & limit layoffs
+ random hope - headlines from heaven:
• 2 UPsizings, 20 +?? new jobs as Deutsche Bank & Morgan Chase throw $$ at China
• 1 takeover blocked!: • FTC stops Nestle from swallowing Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing  
2 DOWNsizings, totaling 4085 lost jobs, cited in WSJ and/or NYT: • 4000 jobcuts by Degussa   • 85 by OMM
+ eroding retirement: • one Journal article wants us to believe in 2 contradictory scenarios   • another wants us
to weep for a guy who "has to" work cuz he's only getting $2000/mon. from his retirement plan
+ 1 bankruptcy cited in Wall St Journal (WSJ) &/or NY Times (NYT):  • Ntelos Inc.  
+ headlines from hell_tm • WAR regardless of anything   • stocks at 5-mon. low   • a 3rd of Americans without Medicare lacked health insurance last 2 yrs, 90% for over 3 mons.   • fed budget deficit estimated 15% higher than just 5 wks ago - Ore. state budget strips mental patients of medications   • U.S. unpopular in 19 (70%) of 27 countries   • plaguewatch - ebola outbreak in Congo Republic, 88 cadavers

3/04/2003 tue
keep timesizing comin’ with $25/yr subscrptn check to Timesizing.com, Box 622, Cambridge, MA 02140
$50 gets new 'time trilogy' - # visitors yesterday, all 585 files/pp: 953 (dec 913, sep 502)
- late edition -
strategic hope = primitive TIMEsizing in the news:
• timesizing Nucor Steel is now calling the shots in its industry
• GM & Ford are going to start primitive timesizing again next month
+ random hope - headlines from heaven:
• Harvard prof urges more balance in econ 101 taught by taxcut maniac   • biggest-fund manager comes out against war, ditto Putin, ditto Pinter, ditto worldwide readings of Lysistrata   • billionaire Buffett calls derivatives 'financial weapons of mass destruction'   • war against smoking gains traction even in tobacco country
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing  
4 DOWNsizings, totaling 1,920 lost jobs, cited in Wall St Journal (WSJ) &/or NY Times (NYT):
• 20% workforce cut (1000 lost jobs) as BAE Systems shipyard self-mutilates in response to lagging markets, instead of just cutting its workweek by 20% (to four 8-hour days for the whole company including top executives), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training, & keeping everyone together working, earning & spending 80% as much as as before
• 450 jobcuts by Celestica   • 250 by Weyerhaeuser   • 220 by Berlin Opera
+ eroding retirement: • retired Yale law grad, 66, now seeks job to recoup stock losses
+ 1 bankruptcy reported in WSJ & NYT:  • Korea Thrunet chooses bankruptcy rather than takeover  
+ headlines from hell_tm • first consumer confidence down, now consumer spending   • why this slump is different   • no feedback system when no pain reaches overpaid top   • more downsizing in services as scan-it-yourself spreads thru retail   • even without latest Net security flaw, 'spyware' is passing costs onto consumers & raising pressure for more efficient mechanisms of common interest for integrating modern societies

3/01-03/2003 sat-mon (re fri biz)
- readers pls. mail $25/yr subscrptn check to Timesizing.com, Box 622, Cambridge, MA 02140 -
$50 buys new Time Trilogy (# different visitors F Sa Su, any page: 824 619 661, wk's avg 857;
website costs: $99/mon excl. labor; wks since 1st $ appeal: 20; rec'd so far: still just $50)
strategic hope = TIMEsizing awareness in the news:
• NYT mag has big article against '24/7,' arguing that we bring back
the 1-day weekend because 'even the most secular need a day of rest'
+ random hope = headlines from heaven: • Pakistan catches 9/11 planner   • antiwar protest invades Milan's fashion world & Karachi's streets   • a glimpse back at the 1950s, when the economy still basked in the glorious goriest afterglow of the War's labor ‘shortage’
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing  
3 DOWNsizings, totaling 291 lost jobs, reported in Wall Street Journal (WSJ) &/or New York Times (NYT):
• 250 jobcuts by Palm & Palmsource   • 31 as Red Herring magazine closes
• 5% mgmt workforce cut (10 lost jobs) as Mattel toys eliminates duplication in a way that also eliminates markets, instead of just trimming its workweek by 5% (24 mins/day for the whole mgmt team including top executives), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training, & keeping everyone together working, earning & buying 95% as many toys as before
+ eroding retirement: • more retirees forced to return to work   • Allstate promised much, then killed agents' commissions & benefits - ensuing lawsuit may benefit, e.g: • US Air pilots whose pensions a judge just zapped
+ 4 bankruptcies in WSJ &/or NYT: • Biotransplant   • Datavon   • Capital Insurance   • PCH Holding
+ homelessness in the news: • NYC advocate argues unwittingly for hiring homeless to do homeless census,
& to gain their cooperation, getting explicit about why census needed & what vision of the city it fits into
+ headlines from hell_tm • 'new economy' over in NW (but McDonalds is slippin!)   • the enemy at home
• Iraq-jealous North Korea warns Saddam-obsessed Dubya against triggering nuclear holocaust
• economy so bad, Argentines move to cities to scavenge dumps
weekend roll-up from the WSJ & the NYT
** 5 issues/wk - avg homepage hits per issue this week: 83 **
**  we offer free consulting to novelists or playwrights interested in
spinning tales in timesizing or beyond-timesizing future-worlds**
hope of the weektm
• 6 TIMEsizing stories (?? jobs saved)   • 1 UPsizing (24+ new jobs)
vs.  doom of the weektm
• 19 DOWNsizings, over 27257 jobcuts   • 5 eroded-retirement items  
• 10 bankruptcies, owing over $1.8B   • 2 homelessness stories   • 1 prison story   • 2 workplace-suicide stories
{{ Year-To-Date: 58 timesizings (1400+ new or saved jobs) + 9 upsizings (4649+ new jobs) + 2 makwrk (10000+ "jobs")
total 16049 = 7% of dnsz VERSUS 152 dnsz (234557+ cuts) + 52 bankrp ($2.2B+) + 7 homlss + 11 prisn + 11 suicid }}

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