hopes/dooms du jour, May 1-30, 2003
[Commentary] ©2003 Phil Hyde, The Timesizing Wire, Box 117, Harvard Sq, Cambridge MA 02238 USA (617) 623-8080 - HOMEPAGE

5/30/2003 fri
- keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $25/yr subscrptn check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’,
Box 622, Cambridge MA 02140 USA  - # visitors yesterday,all 603 files/pp: 818 (2/27/Þ 1055,11/28/Þ 469) -
worktime consciousness in the news = strategic hope:
• WestPark Direct marketing beefs up part-time benefits
• employees sue Detroit Edison for Wal-Mart style OT abuses
• Japan's workforce gradually changing from 'full'-time to 'part'-time
+ headlines from heaven = random hope:
• Organization for Rights of American Workers targets special visas for cheap high-tech labor
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing
1 big merger: • Hometown America is buying Chateau Communities for $1B
+ 5 DOWNsizings, totaling 2248 +?? lost jobs, mentioned in Wall Street Journal and/or New York Times:
• 21% flight-attendant cut (1750 lost jobs) as Air Canada overreacts to wider Q1 loss, instead of just trimming its workweek by 21% (to 31.6 hours a week for all flight attendants, less if include whole workforce, much less if include top execs), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training, & keeping everyone together working, earning, confident, & flying 79% as much as usual     • 374 jobcuts by Intermet  
• 84 cuts by Enron   • 40 by North Carolina Zoo   • unspecified cuts by Zoo Montana
+ 3 bankruptcies: • 3DO Co., owing $8.3m   • Pittsburgh-Canfield Corp.   • Zenith Industrial Corp.

5/29/2003 thu
- keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $25/yr subscrptn check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’,
Box 622, Cambridge MA 02140 USA  - # visitors yesterday,all 603 files/pp: 883 (2/26/w 992, 11/27/w 691) -
primitive timesizing in the news = strategic hope:
• Hooker Furniture was working short, 35-hr weeks for 2½ yrs to keep all plants open, (but...)
• strikes for three-hour workweek reduction in east Germany to start next week
• financial firm asks 'why do we work?' & answers itself...without imagination
+ headlines from heaven = random hope:
• 1 UPsizing, with unspecified new jobs, as Bechtel builds $4.3B petrochemicals plant in China
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing
3 DOWNsizings, totaling 1100 lost jobs, mentioned in Wall Street Journal and/or New York Times:
• 3% workforce cut (400 lost jobs) as Arrow Electronics increases efficiencies & decreases markets, instead of just trimming its workweek by 3% (15 mins. a day for whole firm, including top execs), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training, & keeping everyone together working, earning, confident, & buying 97% as many computers etc. as usual     • 400 jobcuts by Scholastic Corp.   • 300 cuts by A.O. Smith Corp.
+ headlines from hell_tm • WSJ frontpage-article admission:
US experiencing most protracted job-market downturn since Great Depression
• 'G7' faces concerns about commitment to globalization   • Amnesty International calls world less safe
• companies cry 'security' to get breaks from gov't

5/28/2003 wed
- keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $25/yr subscrptn check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’,
Box 622, Cambridge MA 02140 USA  - # visitors yesterday, all 603 files/pp: 929 (2/25/t 992, 11/26/t 861) -
worktime consciousness in the news:
• Supreme Court overrules Nev. in support of employees' right to time off for family emergencies
• Michigan workers can't afford avg. 2-bedroom apt. on 40-hours/week at min. wage
• bogus sick days cost UK $19B/yr, reducible with flextime
+ random hope - headlines from heaven:
• 2 UPsizings with unspecified new jobs as - Brewster Highlands shopping
center expands in Southeast, NY & - Raytheon builds 2 coal-fired plants in Russia  
• liberals & conservatives unite against FCC's attempt to allow further media consolidation
• Canada decriminalizes possession of marijuana   • euro climbs to record $1.1932
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing
2 DOWNsizings, totaling 3750 lost jobs, mentioned in Wall Street Journal and/or New York Times:
• 26.5% post-takeover workforce cut (3500 lost jobs) as Breed Technologies auto airbags reduces costs (& markets), instead of just trimming its corporate workweek by 26.5% (to five 5hr53min days for whole company, including top execs), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training, & keeping everyone together working, earning, confident, & buying 73.5% as many cars as usual
• 250 jobcuts by Tower Automotive
+ 2 bankruptcies mentioned in WSJ &/or NYT:
• United Standard Insurance Co. Ltd.   • Jomed NV
+ 1 work-linked murder: • NY Police hit wrong apt, toss in concussion grenade, handcuff
long-service city employee in Harlem - she dies of stress & fear - med examiner rules homicide
+ headlines from hell_tm • Bush removes another fence between church & state   • Bushies prep Iran as next Iraq

5/27/2003 tue
- keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $25/yr subscrptn check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’,
Box 622, Cambridge MA 02140 USA  - # visitors yesterday, all 603 files/pp: 1+616 (feb 987, nov 932) -
primitive TIMEsizing in the news:
• Lufthansa begins cutting workweek from 36 to 35 hours for 16000 ground crew to avoid layoffs
• 83% of east German steelworkers in first of 2 regions vote to strike for 35-hr workweek parity
• Portuguese president checks constitutionality of new labor laws that dilute workweek regulations
+ random hope - headlines from heaven:
• British stockholders squawk re off-the-scale executive pay
• reader discusses problems of fighting deflation by printing money
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing
1 banking merger: • Hokuriku Bank to merge with Hakkaido Bank for ¥??
+ 2 DOWNsizings, totaling 8300 lost jobs, mentioned in Wall Street Journal and/or New York Times:
• 17.6% workforce cut (6400 lost jobs) as Air Canada deals with reduced travel by reducing it further, instead of just trimming its corporate workweek by 17.6% (to a 33-hour week for the whole firm, including top execs), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training, & keeping everyone together working, earning, confident, & flying 82.4% as much as before
• 1900 jobcuts by TeliaSonera in Sweden & Finland
+ 2 work-linked suicides: • manhunt crosses US from Milwaukee to Mexico City & ends
when ex-priest charged with child molestation leaps from balcony of surrounded resort hotel
• most of May 16 suicide bombers came from a sprawling slum in 20% unemployed, 51% illiterate Morocco
+ headlines from hell_tm • Financial Times says of White House, 'lunatics now running the asylum'  
• reader on Medicare gets dropped by doctor & has trouble getting picked back up
• Pentagon gives Boeing $16B in corporate welfare/Medicare to lease air tankers
• full-page ad envisioning Murdoch owning all big-4 networks

5/24-26/2003 sat-mon (re fri biz)
- host-switch month, note changeover figures, eg: 8+516 -
- 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 of our 603 pp/files: 5+718,8+516,4+533, wk's daily avg 793;
website costs: from $109/mon at Channel1.com to $5.95/mon at AffordableHost.com)
strategic hope = TIMEsizing in the news:
• GM cuts 3 weeks off workyear, est. 78 jobs saved  
• Cooper Tire chops 1 wk off its workyear due to excess inventory  
• budget-crunched Oregon county chops 3 wks off school year to avoid layoffs  
• east German union members vote to strike for 35-hour week = parity with west  
• 3 versions of the Big Question that timesizing answers - Schell, Krugman, Leonhardt
+ random hope/headlines from heaven: • Bush lets up on tobacco pact   • deep trend from taxes to fees-for-service   • old progress-blocking myths beginning to be questioned   • straight talk re illegal immigration   • to stop spammers, nail sponsors   • American theater tries political relevance
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing  
eroding retirement: • 100,000s of employees hit the Paris streets yesterday to protest pension 'reform'
+ 2 DOWNsizings, totaling 25 lost jobs cited in WSJ &/or NYT:
• 20% workforce cut (17 lost jobs) as Hudson Technologies reduces costs (& markets), instead of just trimming its workweek 20% (to four 8-hour days for the whole company, including top execs), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training, & keeping everyone together confident, working, earning & buying 80% as many fridges & A/Cs as usual   • 8 jobcuts as Citigroup's Smith Barney unit reduces costs (& markets)
+ 1 homelessness item: • homelessness anticipated by businessmen in Joe Martin's Mr. Boffo cartoon
+ headlines from hell_tm • Congress approves $350B taxcut for richest   • dollar plunges against euro  
• job spoofing & privacy invasion on career websites  
weekend roll-up
5 issues/wk - avg homepage hits this week: 64
hope of the weektm  from the WSJ & the NYT:
• 17 TIMEsizing items (78+ jobs saved)   • 4 UPsizings (1500+ new jobs)  
vs.  doom of the weektm  from the WSJ & the NYT:
• 13 DOWNsizings, over 111,432 jobcuts   • 2 homelessness stories  
• 4 bankruptcies, owing over $755.5m   • 2 eroded-retirement items   • 3 prison stories  
{{Year-To-Date: 163 timsizngs (11630+ new or sav'd jobs) + 27 upsizngs (11169+ new jobs) + 6 makwrk (14000+ 'jobs')
total 36799 = 7% of dnsz VERSUS 327 dnsz (502039+ cuts) + 109 bnkrp ($18.9B+) + 15 homlss + 34 prisn + 18 kills}}

5/23/2003 fri
- keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $25/yr subscrptn check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’,
Box 622, Cambridge MA 02140 USA  - # visitors yesterday, all 603 files/pp: 1+901 (feb 855, nov 861) -
TIMEsizing consciousness in the news:
• strong participation in east German vote on whether to strike for 3-hr cut in workweek  
• Royal Mail bribes employees to take longer shifts with money & 5-day workweek
• child labor laws in Penn. allow people to work kids 6.5 eight-hr days/wk
• Japan is following Holland in bulking up part-time bennies
+ random hope - headlines from heaven:
• 1 UPsizing - unspecified new jobs as Williams-Sonoma adds 62 stores  
• overall Bush approval damped by 16% jump (to 38%) in those who say US on wrong track
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing
2 DOWNsizings, totaling 400 +?? lost jobs, mentioned in Wall Street Journal and/or New York Times:
• 10% workforce cut (400 lost jobs) as Silicon Graphics stems losses (& markets), instead of just paring its companywide workweek by 10% (48 minutes a day for whole firm including top execs), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training, & keeping everyone together working, earning, confident, & shopping 90% as much as before
• unspecified jobs lost as Walt Disney Co. sells stores
+ 1 bankruptcy mentioned in Wall Street Journal &/or NY Times: • Frisby Technologies  

5/22/2003 thu
- keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $25/yr subscrptn check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’,
Box 622, Cambridge MA 02140 USA  - # visitors yesterday, all 602 files/pp: 7+953 (feb 826, nov 963) -
TIMEsizing consciousness in the news:
• union calls vote in east Germany on whether to strike for 3-hr reduction in workweek  
• huge rise in high-tech workplace sabotage raises urgency for implementation of worksharing
+ random hope - headlines from heaven: • 3 resignations - Christie Todd Whitman from EPA  
• Ari Fleischer as press secretary   • Rosario Marin as US Treasurer
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing
2 DOWNsizings, totaling 437 lost jobs, mentioned in Wall Street Journal and/or New York Times:
• 3.7% workforce cut (340 lost jobs) as National Semiconductor closes its cellular-baseband line, instead of just paring its companywide workweek 3.7% (18 minutes a day for whole firm including top execs), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training, & keeping everyone working, earning, confident, & buying 96.3% as many cellfones as before
• 97 jobcuts by Legato Systems data-storage software
+ 1 bankruptcy mentioned in Wall Street Journal &/or NY Times: • Princeton Video Image  
+ prison item: • federal judge orders Mississippi Corrections Dept. to clean up prison at Parchman
+ homelessness in the news: • 20% of New Yorkers (1.6m) forced to go to food pantries & soup kitchens

5/21/2003 wed
- keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $25/yr subscrptn check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’,
Box 622, Cambridge MA 02140 USA  - # visitors yesterday, all 602 files/pp: 7+987 (feb 903, nov 1014) -
TIMEsizing consciousness in the news:
• 35-hr workweek France is still growing while Germany & Italy are contracting
• talks so far fail to cut east German workweek from 38 to 35 hours like west's
• investors in Romania still clueless re necessity of workweek cap for their own survival
• protestors in Hong Kong press gov't to keep promise that would establish workweek cap
• US firm in France remains clueless complainer re 35-hr workweek despite added markets
+ random hope - headlines from heaven: • 3 UPsizings - 1500 new French & Brit jobs at Toyota
• unspecified new U.S. & Japan jobs as Apple Computer opens 20 more stores  
• unspecified new jobs as Starbucks Coffee Japan opens 110 more stores
• Sen. Robert Byrd speaks out against administration insanity
• FedEx to switch 30,000 trucks to hybrids
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing
1 banking merger: • Washington Federal to buy United S&L for $65m
+ 3 DOWNsizings, totaling 214 +?? lost jobs, mentioned in Wall Street Journal and/or New York Times:
• 140 jobcuts as Kerr-McGee closes a chemical plant in Mobile, Alabama that supplies pigment feedstock
• 7.4% workforce cut (74 lost jobs) as Doner ad agency closes Baltimore office, instead of just paring its companywide workweek by 20% (to four 8-hour days for the whole firm including top execs), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training, & keeping everyone together working, earning, secure, & shopping 80% as much as before
• unspecified jobs lost as U.S. closes embassy & 2 consulates in Saudi Arabia
+ 1 bankruptcy mentioned in Wall Street Journal &/or NY Times: • Carlson Group  
+ headlines from hell_tm • taxcuts at any cost are weakening US Treasury   • House GOP leaders agree to eliminate dividend tax   • House vote supports thinning of trees on federal land   • Bush makes effort to steer Medicare toward the private arena   • Senate votes to lift ban on producing nuclear arms

5/20/2003 tue
- keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $25/yr subscrptn check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’,
Box 622, Cambridge MA 02140 USA  - # visitors yesterday, all 601 files/pp: 4+910 (feb 745, nov 958) -
TIMEsizing consciousness in the news:
• (10/04) simple-minded reviewer covers 2 books on leisure
+ random hope - headlines from heaven:
• Swiss exercise their advanced system of direct democracy once again
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing
1 big banking merger & 1 merger putdown:
• Wells Fargo to buy Pacific N/W Bancorp for $623m   • EDS CEO says corporate life isn't just about mergers
+ eroding retirement: • bad news - UAW prez strains to rationalize buckling to employer encroachment on money cushion of defined-benefit pension plans   • good news - more shareholder-retirees, aided by retired execs in their ranks, go after inflated pensions & other perks of current execs
+ 4 DOWNsizings, totaling 110,356 +?? lost jobs, mentioned in Wall Street Journal and/or New York Times:
• 110,000 military ‘jobs’ to be cut as, at voters' behest, Swiss gov't cuts active servicemen from 350k to 220k
• 5% workforce cut (300 Swiss jobcuts) as Lonza chemicals improves efficiency while shrinking markets, instead of just paring its workweek 5% (24 minutes a day for whole firm including top execs), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training, & keeping everyone together working, earning, & buying 95% as many chemicals as before
• 56 jobcuts by Mullen ad agency • unspecified pre-merger cuts by U.S. Steel & National Steel
+ 1 bankruptcy mentioned in Wall Street Journal &/or NY Times: • Weirton Steel. owing net $755.5m  
+ 2 prison items: • now the Supreme Court & rightwing lawyers are beginning an attack on Miranda
• meanwhile in Central America, a prison riot is greeted with a massacre of 67-68 unarmed prisoners
by guards, an army unit & national police incuding special ops

5/17-19/2003 sat-mon (re fri biz)
- host-switch week, note changeover figures, eg: 1+515 -
- 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: 8+848 1+115 2+609, wk's daily avg 878;
website costs: from $109/mon at Channel1.com to $5.95/mon at AffordableHost.com)
strategic hope = TIMEsizing in the news:
• the good news - 96 higher-paid officers in the Boston police trim their
worklife with early retirement so 170 lower-paid officers can avoid layoff
• the bad news - SARS cancellations are forcing many flight attendants,
eg: at United Airlines, to work longer hours for far less pay
+ random hope/headlines from heaven: • 1 UPsizing - 1200 new US jobs at Boeing
• reader suggests ways to reverse loss of American jobs (but tariffs simpler)   • biodata becomes freely available   • Linux ascends   • Canada aims for drug treatment, not drug punishment
• retirement news (good for a change) - Bush drops his retirement-savings proposals
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing  
1 DOWNsizing cited in WSJ &/or NYT: • 3000 jobcuts by NYC
+ 1 bankruptcy mentioned in WSJ &/or NYT: • Troll Communications
+ 1 homelessness story: • obit - Jeremy Sandford, whose 1967 TV play
"Cathy Come Home" started national debate re homelessness in UK
+ headlines from hell_tm • investors position selves for next bubble • Bob Reich thinks grads should go for job despite lousy job mkt - or volunteerism   • '02 grad thinks '03 grads should cut cockeyed optimism & fight for change - or seek greener pastures overseas   • then there's soaring student debt   • meanwhile outside the U.S., Putin outlines bleak vision of a Russia mired in poverty   • Japan finds something else to spend zillions of public funds on besides public works - or maybe its big bank(rupt)s are becoming 'public works'
weekend roll-up
5 issues/wk - avg homepage hits this week: 81
hope of the weektm  from the WSJ & the NYT:
• 8 TIMEsizing items (170-96= 74 jobs saved)   • 2 UPsizings (1200 new jobs)  
vs.  doom of the weektm  from the WSJ & the NYT:
• 14 DOWNsizings, over 11,603 jobcuts   • 1 homelessness story
• 4 bankruptcies, owing over $449m      • 1 eroded-retirement item
{{ Year-To-Date: 146 timsizngs (11552+ new or sav'd jobs) + 23 upsizngs (9669+ new jobs) + 6 makwrk (14000+ "jobs")
total 35221 = 9% of dnsz VERSUS 314 dnsz (390607+ cuts) + 105 bnkrp ($18.1B+) + 13 homlss + 31 prisn + 18 kills}}

5/16/2003 fri
- keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $25/yr subscrptn check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’,
Box 622, Cambridge MA 02140 USA  - # visitors yesterday, all 599 files/pp: 9+935 (feb 796, nov 829) -
primitive TIMEsizing in the news:
• (5/15) 35-hr/wk Daimler workers dominate S/W German town
of Sindelfingen, get 32 vacation days a year & naturally don't want 'reforms'
+ random hope - headlines from heaven:
• portable, inflatable church invented in England   • broadening definition of liability
• glimmer of intelligence - citizen adapts Declaration of Independence to the moment
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing
2 DOWNsizings, totaling 2123 lost jobs, mentioned in Wall Street Journal and/or New York Times:
• 1123 more flight-attendant jobcuts as American Airlines copes with sagging demand due to war & SARS
• 2% workforce cut (1000 more jobcuts) as HealthSouth continues paring its employee-consumers, instead of just paring its workweek by 2% (10 minutes a day for whole company including top executives), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training, & keeping everyone together working, earning, & buying 98% as much healthcare as usual
+ headlines from hell_tm • deflation, Depression's major symptom, returns   • 3 Euro economies contract (not timesizing France) & the whole EU is mezzo-mezzo   • Bush ain't doing so good against terrorism or WMDs = the 'for-public-consumption' excuses for breaking the no-1st-strike rule in the 'exceptional' case of Iraq

5/15/2003 thu
- keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $25/yr subscrptn check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’,
Box 622, Cambridge MA 02140 USA  - # visitors yesterday, all 597 files/pp: 7+1031 (feb 875, nov 925) -
primitive TIMEsizing in the news:
• Lufthansa has been trimming hours (but not jobs) for
ground personnel & flight attendants & is working on including pilots
• WSJ thinks you're a shirking slacker if you're not working thru nights & vacations
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing
1 slight merger blowback: • FCC finally gets nervous about
Clear Channel's 60% stranglehold on radio in America, but only in 'certain markets'
+ 2 uncounted bankruptcies mentioned in Wall Street Journal &/or NY Times:
• Jinro distillery owing $449m   • Kellstrom Industries now known as KI-1

5/14/2003 wed
- keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $25/yr subscrptn check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’,
Box 622, Cambridge MA 02140 USA  - # visitors yesterday, all 597 files/pp: 12+987 (feb 910, nov 926) -
primitive TIMEsizing in the news:
• Houston Symphony Orchestra turns to mandatory unpaid furloughs to limit & defer downsizing
• French strike vs. proposed erosion of their pensions, not realizing their 35-hour workweek gives them a bigger slice of retirement every workday & every weekend than anywhere else in world
+ random hope - headlines from heaven:
• anti-fraud crusade splits research from banking
• resistance mounts against push to further concentrate media
• glimmer of intelligence - US bought a world of aggravation in trying to turn Iraq into democracy
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing
eroding retirement: • a million people in 100 French cities & towns strike against pension erosion, sans realizing they need to push their 35-hr week down further & ... retire every weekend throughout their lives, as do we all
+ 9 DOWNsizings, totaling 4950 +?? lost jobs, mentioned in Wall Street Journal and/or New York Times:
• 14% workforce cut (4250 lost jobs in Mexico) as Alcoa Fujikura Ltd. Automotive (autoparts) speeds market slowdown in a misguided attempt to remain competitive in the slowing market, instead of just trimming its corporate workweek by 14% (to five 6hr53min days for the whole company including top executives), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training, & keeping everyone together working, earning, & buying 86% as many vehicles & vehicle parts as usual
• est. 100 lost jobs as Florida Philharmonic Orchestra 'temporarily' suspends operations  
• est. 100 lost when San Jose Symphony shut down in Nov.   • est. 100 as Tulsa Philharmonic shuts down  
• 100 as Colorado Springs Symphony vanishes   • 100 as San Antonio Symphony ditto   • 100 as Savannah Symphony cancels rest of season   • 100 Louisville Orchestra musicians hit unemployment office in tuxes   • unspecified cuts as Houston Symphony cancels 10 concerts
+ 1 new, definite bankruptcy mentioned in WSJ &/or NYT: • Allied Products Corp.
+ headlines from hell_tm • Wisconsin supports half the welfare families at twice the cost   • disadvantaged kids try learn ways to make a living while • college grads can't even get a job this year

5/13/2003 tue
- keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $25/yr subscrptn check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’,
Box 622, Cambridge MA 02140 USA  - # visitors yesterday, all 597 files/pp: 58+1128 (feb 931, nov 880) -
TIMEsizing consciousness in the news:
• French protests nationwide vs. longer worklife, delayed retirement
+ random hope - headlines from heaven: • 1 UPsizing - ?? new Krispy Kreme jobs in Mexico
• Europe won't be fooled again - & a 2nd Brit cabinet minister resigns over war
• groundswell vs. CEO pay?   • while Bush sidelines economists in favor of biz-
men, successful & un-, 2 economists write 'Saving Capitalism from Capitalists'
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing
2 DOWNsizings, totaling 1530 lost jobs, mentioned in Wall Street Journal and/or New York Times:
• 5% workforce cut (1500 lost jobs) as Hartford Financial insurance sacrifices employees (& mkts!) to asbestos litigation, instead of just trimming its corporate workweek by 5% (24 minutes a day for whole company including top executives), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training, & keeping everyone together working, earning, & buying 95% as much insurance as usual
• 30 Colo. jobcuts by Denver RC Archdiocese  
+ headlines from hell_tm • currency traders position for continued descent   • tracking stocks slammed   • at $20B, Mizuho Financial has largest shortfall in Japan's corporate history   • 60 million Americans had gaps in their health insurance coverage for part or all of 1998   • poison fruits of media consolidation spread in America

5/10-12/2003 sat-mon (re fri biz)
- host-switch weekend, note changeover figures, eg: 563+50 -
- 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: 805+0 563+50 147+626, wk's avg 825;
website costs: from $109/mon at Channel1.com to $5.95/mon at AffordableHost.com)
strategic hope = TIMEsizing in the news:
• Cathay Pacific Airlines saves est. 1078 jobs with 4-wk special leave
• WSJ - Lufthansa to trim pilots' work hours to save $$ & avoid layoffs
• Air Canada pilots have been worksharing for 16 mos. to save $$ for company
• New York Times debates comp time bill again   • Boston Globe on why hours increasing
+ random hope/headlines from heaven: • reader run-through of Dubya's toxic track record
• top-exec turnover rising (so maybe easier to dump Dubya)
• indications of actually enforcing our immigration laws
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing  
eroding retirement: • big steel (except Nucor!) guts pensions to save its own miserable skin
+ 2 prison-related items: • if you're exonerated, why isn't your police record expunged?
• weekend jobs workshop in NYC for the nation's exonerated - 34 of the 127 take part
+ headlines from hell_tm • giant sucking sound: CEOs move service-sector jobs to India
• taxbreak for Americans working abroad???   • Canada's jobless up to 7.5%
weekend roll-up
5 issues/wk - avg homepage hits this week: 70
hope of the weektm  from the WSJ & the NYT:
• 10 TIMEsizing items (est.1078 jobs saved)  
vs.  doom of the weektm  from the WSJ & the NYT:
• 4 DOWNsizings, over 2,065 jobcuts   • 3 bankruptcies   • 4 eroded-retirement items   • 5 prison stories  
{{ Year-To-Date: 138 timsizngs (11478+ new or sav'd jobs) + 21 upsizngs (8469+ new jobs) + 6 makwrk (14000+ "jobs")
total 33947 = 9% of dnsz VERSUS 300 dnsz (379004+ cuts) + 101 bnkrp ($17.7B+) + 12 homlss + 31 prisn + 18 kills}}

5/09/2003 fri
- switch time - difficulty reaching us this weekend? try http://charon.affordablehost.com/~timesize -
- keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $25/yr subscrptn check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’,
Box 622, Cambridge MA 02140 USA  - # visitors yesterday, all 597 files/pp: 873 (feb 913, nov 874) -
TIMEsizing in the news:
• Agfa-Gevaert cuts work hours at film division to hold jobcuts to 200
• big IG Metall union holds short strikes to win shorter workweek in east Germany
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing
1 big banking takeover: • Barclays to buy Banco Zaragozano for $1.14B
+ eroding retirement: • France aligns its public & private sector pensions
but continues unnecessary government intervention in the economy
+ 1 DOWNsizing, totaling 800 lost jobs, mentioned in Wall Street Journal and/or New York Times:
• 6.8% workforce cut (800 lost jobs) as Fleming wholesale groceries stampedes into cost (& mkt) cutting & bankruptcy after loss of biggest client, Kmart, instead of just trimming its corporate workweek by 6.8% (33 minutes a day for whole company including top executives), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training, & keeping everyone together working, earning, & buying 93.2% as many groceries as usual
+ 2 prison-related items: • no matter how long you've been wrongly locked up in America,
if & when you get out, you get nothing, & only 15 states allow you to collect damages
• meanwhile in the "dark" world of Islam, Morocco frees 9,000 inmates & Algeria 5,000

5/08/2003 thu
- switch time - difficulty reaching us this weekend? try http://charon.affordablehost.com/~timesize -
- keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $25/yr subscrptn check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’,
Box 622, Cambridge MA 02140 USA  - # visitors yesterday, all 595 files/pp: 892 (feb 859, nov 898) -
TIMEsizing in the news:
• (4/13/2002) a whole new workweek reduction initiative began last spring in Hungary
+ random hope - headlines from heaven: • Major Charmaine Means, new heroine (& martyr), stands up for Iraqis' freedom of speech (& gets ejected from our "army of liberation")
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing
2 DOWNsizings, totaling 690 +?? lost jobs, mentioned in Wall Street Journal and/or New York Times:
• 1% workforce cut (690 lost jobs) as Goodyear spooks over losses of $1.3B in last 2 yrs, instead of just trimming its corporate workweek by 1% (5 minutes a day for whole company including top executives), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training, & keeping everyone together working, earning, & buying 99% as many new tires as usual
• unspecified cuts by Daisytek International
+ 3 bankruptcies mentioned in WSJ &/or NYT: • Daisytek, Arlington Industries, Digital Storage Inc. & Tape Co
• Randall's Island Family Golf Centers   • Marconi
+ headlines from hell_tm • SARS hits plane manufacturers as well as airlines   • tax 'cuts' are really just tax 'shifts' off the wealthy & onto their sustaining markets   • how come simultaneous lower prices (deflation) & higher prices (inflation)? - makework vs. working capitalism   • charitable conflicts of interest with no money centrifuge - hoarding & charity vs. sharing & self-support

5/07/2003 wed
- keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $25/yr subscrptn check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’,
Box 622, Cambridge MA 02140 USA  - # visitors yesterday, all 595 files/pp: 914 (feb 929, nov 977) -
TIMEsizing in the news:
• Hyundai employees are set to negotiate for better working hours this month in South Korea
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing
1 DOWNsizing, totaling 575 lost jobs, mentioned in Wall Street Journal and/or New York Times:
• 1% workforce cut (575 lost jobs) as Sprint over-reacts to 9 quarters of sales decline, instead of just trimming its corporate workweek by 1% (5 minutes a day for whole company including top executives), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training, & keeping everyone together working, earning, & buying 99% as many phone services as usual
+ headlines from hell_tm • on the trail of the Buffalo Spammer - it all comes down to jobs

5/06/2003 tue
- this will be the millennium that gets beyond progress-braking acquisitiveness -
- keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $25/yr subscrptn check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’,
Box 622, Cambridge MA 02140 USA  - # visitors yesterday, all 595 files/pp: 902 (feb 890, nov 911) -
TIMEsizing in the news:
• 6,000 east Germans strike for 3-hr workweek reduction
to line up with 35-hour workweek in unionized part of west Germany
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing
eroding retirement: • CEOs discover another way to save money (for themselves) at employees' (& markets')
expense = lower company funding for unionized employees' pensions cuz 'blue-collars' don't live as long  
• airlines seek right to delay catch-up pension contributions for 5 yrs
+ 1 prison-related item: • Supreme Court issues scathing response
to Texas court's rubberstamp of Nazi-like warrantless midnight "arrest"
+ headlines from hell_tm • slogging thru MBA & graduating with debt but no job
• more evidence of dysfunction in American feedback system - executive pay
• evidence of growing pettiness on part of this administration - the Canada case

5/03-5/2003 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: 714 473 578, wk's avg 745)
strategic hope = TIMEsizing consciousness in the news:
• current perversely negative view in fall of average workweek
• erosion of family time (& values) surveyed by Japanese Labor Ministry
+ random hope/headlines from heaven: • 1 UPsizing - 300 new jobs at Samsung
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing  
1 big takeover: • Berkshire Hathaway buys McLane for $1.45B
+ 1 bankruptcy mentioned in WSJ &/or NYT: • Kriton Medical
+ headlines from hell_tm• 3rd month of jobcuts   • jobless rate back up to 6%  
• feedback-lags cruelly bolster desperate cheerleaders, & • • • • other amusements
weekend roll-up from the WSJ & the NYT
** 5 issues/wk - avg homepage hits per issue this week: 57 **
hope of the weektm
• 10 TIMEsizing items (est.3000 jobs saved)   • 2 UPsizings (450 new jobs)  
vs.  doom of the weektm
• 19 DOWNsizings, over 25,877 jobcuts   • 3 bankruptcies   • 1 prison story  
{{ Year-To-Date: 128 timsizngs (10400+ new or sav'd jobs) + 21 upsizngs (8469+ new jobs) + 6 makwrk (14000+ "jobs")
total 32869 = 9% of dnsz VERSUS 296 dnsz (376939+ cuts) + 98 bnkrp ($17.7B+) + 12 homlss + 26 prisn + 18 killngs}}

5/02/2003 fri
- keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $25/yr subscrptn check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’,
Box 622, Cambridge MA 02140 USA  - # visitors yesterday, all 594 files/pp: 847 (jan 806, oct 722) -
TIMEsizing in the news:
• Gulfstream Aerospace saves 1000 jobs via 4-wk plant shutdown 6/30-7/27
• 20,000 South Koreans march in Seoul for workweek reduction from 6 to 5 days
+ random hope - headlines from heaven: • 1 UPsizing - 150 new jobs at Yamanouchi
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing
2 DOWNsizings, totaling 1167 lost jobs, mentioned in Wall Street Journal and/or New York Times:
• 2% workforce cut (700 lost jobs) as Imperial Chemical Industries over-reacts to rising raw-materials costs, instead of just trimming its workweek by 2% (10 minutes a day for whole company including top executives), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training, & keeping everyone together working, earning, & buying 98% as much as before
• 467 jobcuts by Nestlé  
+ 1 prison-related item: • Danish security firm bails out of big stake in Wackenhut Corrections Corp. in U.S.
+ headlines from hell_tm • letter writer sounds alarm about a threat we must not discuss - illegal immigrants

5/01/2003 thu
- keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $25/yr subscrptn check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’,
Box 622, Cambridge MA 02140 USA  - # visitors yesterday, all 594 files/pp: 835 (jan 852, oct 896) -
TIMEsizing in the news:
• Reuters fronts Lufthansa & its timesizing strategy in a long list of companies impacted by SARS
• district court allows class action vs. RadioShack to proceed in Pa. due to overtime abuse
vs.  doom du jourtm - for lack of timesizing
eroding retirement: • employers shatter 401k dream by cutting
or suspending contributions   • yet lobby Congress for power to shatter further
+ 3 DOWNsizings, totaling 6,080 +?? lost jobs, mentioned in Wall Street Journal and/or New York Times:
• 11% workforce cut (7000 lost jobs) as the Transportation Security Administration slashes number of airport screeners corresponding to amount of air travel they have discouraged, instead of just trimming its workweek by 11% (to five 7hr7min days for whole agency including top executives), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training, & keeping everyone together working, earning, & flying 89% as much as before
• 80 jobcuts by US Castings   • unspecified cuts by BearingPoint
+ 1 bankruptcy mentioned in WSJ &/or NYT: • New American
Healthcare, NAHC (Financial), Memorial Hospital of Adel, et al.

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