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

10/31/2003 fri
keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $8/mon subscription check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’, Box 622,
Cambridge Ma 02140 USA  - all 662 files, # visitors yesterday 10/30/thu: 894 (10/31/2002/thu: 722) -
3 DOWNsizings, totaling 2072 +?? lost jobs reported in Wall Street Journal (WSJ) or NY Times (NYT):
• 8% workforce cut (2,000 jobs lost) as Duke Energy flips out over a 1-quarter drop in earnings, instead of just trimming its workweek 8% (to five 7-hr 22-min days for everyone, including top execs), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training&hiring & keeping everyone together working, earning, confident & buying 92% as much juice as usual     • 72 jobcuts by Biopure   • unspecified cuts by Waste Management
+ 1 bankruptcy reported in Wall Street Journal & NY Times: • Bob's Stores  
+ 1 compound PUFFsizing = makework rampant:  • Bush got $500,000 from companies
that got contracts out of Iraq 'reconstruction' (ie: feeding frenzy for Bush's fat friends)
vs.  glimmers of hope
TIMEsizing on the newswires = strategic hope ignored since Pearl Harbor -
• Four Seasons runs WSJ ad touting time to relax
• Deutsche Telekom & Opel plan to cut hours to cut layoffs,
Energie Baden-Württemberg warms to idea • plus 5 more worktime-linked stories
+ headlines from heaven in WSJ or NYT = random glimmers of hope:
• economy records speediest GDP growth since mid-80s (est. 7.2%) but
despite growth, jobs shrank & consumer spending can't go on outpacing consumer income

10/30/2003 thu
keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $8/mon subscription check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’, Box 622,
Cambridge Ma 02140 USA  - all 662 files, # visitors yesterday 10/29/wed: 1021 (10/30/2002/wed: 896) -
Headlines from Hell (tm)  • foreign language classes vanish as US school districts downsize curriculum
• thanks to Bush deficits, USA no longer #1 in competitiveness - ousted by Finland
+ 2 DOWNsizings reported in WSJ &/or NY Times: • 2500 more jobcuts by EDS  • 230 by PolyOne 
+ 3 bankruptcies reported in Wall Street Journal & NY Times: • Channel Master   • First Interregional Advisors   • Varco Pruden (VP) International/Buildings/Graham, United Panel, LTV Blanking/Walbridge/Steel de Mexico
+ 1 work-linked pre-Hallowe'en corpse-launch story: • undertaker falls asleep at wheel,
flips hearse near Duesseldorf, coffin busts & corpse goes 'airborne' onto autobahn
+ 5 PUFFsizings = makework rampant:  • Cheney-Halliburton's net rose 39% on Iraq work
• law-breakers, oops, -makers flush another near-$20 billion of our dough into Bush's toilet 'for Iraq'  
• Pentagon spending flips Northrop into profit & boosts Boeing's stock 7% - "Proud to be an American"(?)
• drug makers suddenly dump free trade when it comes to people buying cheap imports from Canada
• corporate lobbyists scrum for 'me first' taxbreaks as Congress mulls replacing export subsidy
vs.  glimmers of hope
TIMEsizing on the newswires = strategic hope ignored since Pearl Harbor -
• 71% of Australians would take paycut for flextime or reduced hours
• state employees in Australia's Victoria State are striking for a 3-hour
workweek cut - to 35 hrs   • plus 5 more worktime-linked stories
+ headlines from heaven in WSJ or NYT = random glimmers of hope: • France intensifies
commitment to EU   • Israeli chief of staff calls Sharon's policies a security threat  
• Wall Street Journal columnist calls Bush policies a security threat

10/29/2003 wed
keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $8/mon subscription check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’, Box 622,
Cambridge Ma 02140 USA  - all 660 files, # visitors yesterday 10/28/tue: 1063 (10/29/2002/tue: 887) -
Headlines from Hell (tm)  • unions were 32% of workforce in 1980, now only 14% (services, only 6%)
+ 1 more big banking takeover = appetizer for downsizing: • HSBC buys Bank of Bermuda for $1.3B
+ 3 DOWNsizings, totaling 24,550 lost jobs reported in Wall Street Journal (WSJ) or NY Times (NYT):
• 13% workforce cut (20,000 jobs lost) as Sony tries to reduce fixed costs by reducing consumers, instead of just trimming its workweek 13% (to five 7-hour days for everyone, including top execs), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training&hiring & keeping everyone together working, earning, confident & buying 87% as many TVs & VCRs as usual     • 4200 jobcuts by U.S. Steel   • 350 by Mirant  
+ 1 bankruptcy reported in Wall Street Journal & NY Times: • Gruppo Antica f/k/a Trend Holdings  
+ 1 prison item: • 8 Tennessee cons escape by crawling thru duct & driving thru fence - only 1 recaptured
+ 1 attempted PUFFsizing = makework rampant:  • Pataki tries & fails to save 1200 Carrier Cp. jobs in Syracuse
vs.  glimmers of hope
TIMEsizing on the newswires = strategic hope ignored since Pearl Harbor -
• Deutsche Telekom plans cut hours&pay 10% to avoid layoffs (but union balks)
• Philly mayoral candidate wants shorter hours to spread work   • 4 more worktime-linked stories
+ headlines from heaven in WSJ or NYT = random glimmers of hope: • 68.4% own homes
• Kenya plans to restore 16,000 jobs for foreigners to some of 2,000,000 jobless Kenyans

10/28/2003 tue
keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $8/mon subscription check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’, Box 622,
Cambridge Ma 02140 USA  - all 660 files, # visitors yesterday 10/27/mon: 1033 (10/28/2002/mon: 874) -
Headlines from Hell (tm)  • GOP taxcut-Santa vs. Dem spending-Santa
has turned democracy into a race to see who can be more irresponsible  
• Bush & Lay protect their privacy   • while Homeland Security invades everyone else's
+ 5 big takeovers = appetizers for downsizing: • 3 in non-banking and • 2 in banking
+ 3 DOWNsizings, totaling 7400 lost jobs reported in Wall Street Journal (WSJ) or NY Times (NYT):
• 10% workforce cut (5500 jobs lost) as Cadbury Schweppes tries to increase sales by cutting consumers, instead of just trimming its workweek 10% (to four 9-hour days for everyone, including top execs), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training&hiring & keeping everyone together working, earning, confident & buying 90% as many Caramilks & ginger ales as usual    
• 1000 jobcuts by J.P. Morgan   • 900 by Coca-Cola  
+ 3 bankruptcies reported in Wall Street Journal & NY Times:
• NRG McClain   • Trenwick America   • Quin-T - New Hampshire
+ 1 largely work-linked suicide story: • 29,000 Americans kill themselves every year
+ 1 PUFFsizing = makework rampant:  • GOP supports big taxbreak for Bechtel, Halliburton, Exxon Mobil...
vs.  glimmers of hope
TIMEsizing on the newswires = strategic hope ignored since Pearl Harbor -
• Kuhn & Wittenborn Advertising gets most ethical award for trimming hours to avoid layoffs
• Ashley Tellis, Indian American from Bombay quits Bush administration over long hours
• if 10-hour workday is typical at many American companies, we're back in 1900
• Mich. prison union goes for 'banked leave time' instead of 37½-hour workweek
• and 4 more worktime stories

10/25-27/2003 sat-mon (re fri biz)
(# diff. visitors to any of our 660 files, F Sa Su: 928,611,714 - wk's daily avg 887
2 bankruptcies in WSJ/NYT:  • Orbital Imaging   • TriTeal
+ 1 DOWNsizing, totaling 475 lost jobs cited in WSJ &/or NYT:  • 475 cuts by AK Steel  
+ 1 big banking takeover: • Australia & NZ Banking Group to buy National Bank of NZ for $3.4B
+ eroding retirement: • in America, people are gradually having the retirement concept pried from their hands
+ homelessness in the news: • homeless may spoil Parisian-style public toilet-kiosks that are coming to NYC
+ headlines from hell (tm)  • Orrin Hatch, corporate donors & India trade groups are pushing to get more cheap foreign high-techies into America, regardless of zillions of downsized American nerds already here
• how deregulation added push to US economy's trip from boom to gloom in 1 dizzying decade
• reader fears Bush years may mark start of US downfall
+ 1 FLUFFsizing = makework rampant: • international corporate feeding frenzy in Iraq - on our tab
• Ryanair gets 2 French towns fighting/bidding over which to land its London flight at
vs.  hope du jourtm - the only thing we haven't tried lately =  
TIMEsizing = strategic hope in the weekend news:
• wage increases cancelled out by household worktime&pay cuts = timesizing the wrong way
• 'Halloween Economics': 'skeleton staffs' cut 'to bone', long hours raise urgency for Timesizing
• nationwide strike involving 100,000s shuts down Italy over PM's proposal to lengthen worktime
• EPI in DC says Americans logged 10% more hours in 2000 than in 1980
• 2 more Time Day stories and • 1 more NZ item
weekend roll-up -
5 issues/wk - wk's avg homepage hits/issue: 96
doom of the weektm from the WSJ & the NYT:
• 17 DOWNsizings, over 8330 jobcuts  • 16 bankruptcies  
• 3 eroding-retirement stories  • 1 homelessness story  • 5 prison stories  • 3 work-linked killings
vs.  hope of the weektm from the WSJ & the NYT:
• 28 TIMEsizing items (?? jobs saved)   • 2 UPsizings     + clouded hope: • 9 makework cases (7200+ new 'jobs')
{{ ytd: 631 timsizngs (20270+ new or sav'd jobs) + 87 upsizngs (54445+ new jobs) + 73 makwrk (203600+ 'jobs') =
total 278321 = 24% of cuts VERSUS 595 dnsz (1178229+ cuts) + 266 bkrp ($23.1B+) +24 homlss +76 prisn +43 kills }}

10/24/2003 fri
- Happy *Take Back Your Time Day! - America's First -
- all 659 files, # visitors yesterday 10/23/thu: 928 (10/24/2002/thu: 760) -
1 DOWNsizing, totaling 380 lost jobs reported in WSJ or NY Times:
• 21% IT workforce cut (380 jobs lost) as Level 3 Communications over-reacts to 17% revenue drop, instead of just trimming its workweek 21% (four 7.9-hour days for everyone, including top execs), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training&hiring & keeping everyone together working, earning, confident & buying 79% as many Internet services as usual    
+ 1 prison item: • Missouri pen lets 3 murderers work together alone with icepicks & when one gets
stabbed to death, gee, they can't find other 2 in pen's 47 acres, 25 buildings & multiple tunnels
vs.  glimmers of hope
TIMEsizing on the newswires = strategic hope ignored since Pearl Harbor -
• 2 Boston Globe articles on Take Back Your Time Day
• 1 article on timesizing-not-downsizing Nucor, • 2 on Germany, • 1 on EU, • 4 on New Zealand
+ headlines from heaven in WSJ or NYT = random glimmers of hope:
• 1 UPsizing, ?? new jobs - JetBlue Airways plans expansion
• Thailand escapes yoke of IMF's 'Free Trade' gospel
• buried in WSJ book review, Bush called a moron
• heir to J&J fortune breaks silence around being born rich
- the 'other side of the story' a key to defining real progress?

10/23/2003 thu
- keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $8/mon subscription check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’, Box 622,
Cambridge Ma 02140 USA  - all 659 files, # visitors yesterday 10/22/wed: 1048 (10/23/2002/wed: 805) -
Headlines from Hell (tm)  • Harvard Politics thinks Bush still has 61% approval among college students
• household debt higher than reported   • illegal immigration is skewing congressional-seat allocation
+ 3 DOWNsizings, totaling 4775 +?? lost jobs reported in WSJ or NY Times:
• 4400 jobcuts by Merck   • 375 by Crompton   • unspecified cuts by Flextronics
+ 1 bankruptcy reported in WSJ/NYT:  • Plainwell and Plainwell Holding in Chapter 11  
+ 1 prison item: • federal judge accuses Congress & Ashcroft of trying to scare judges into harsher sentencing
+ 2 work-linked murder stories: • farmer shoots another over 315 acres in Iowa   • mass poisoning in rural China
+ 2 PUFFsizings = makework rampant:  • candidate Clark calls for $100B for job creation
• amid ruins of Iraqi oilwells, investors see riches - whose industries are next?
• UN is manufacturing jobs in return for weapons in Afghanistan
vs.  glimmers of hope
TIMEsizing on the newswires = strategic hope ignored since Pearl Harbor -
• German union leaders need to cut the rhetoric & focus on shorter hours
• rife layoffs are killing 'power napping', regardless of scientific support
• more on erosion of work/life balance including job sharing, as
frozen-workweek + more-technology = deeper-labor-surplus
• worktime consulting firm aids in competition to lengthen shifts
+ headlines from heaven in WSJ or NYT = random glimmers of intelligence:
• 1 UPsizing, ?? new jobs - Spain pushes $54m into beefing up its Civil Guard
• water shortage gradually triggers spreading accountability via water bills
• finally, a glimmer of realization that productivity isn't everything

10/22/2003 wed
- keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $8/mon subscription check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’, Box 622,
Cambridge Ma 02140 USA  - all 659 files, # visitors yesterday 10/21/tue: 990! (10/22/2002/tue: 925) -
1 DOWNsizing reported in WSJ or NY Times: • 2700 jobcuts by Electrolux  
+ 2 bankruptcy equivs. reported in WSJ/NYT:  • Met-Coil Systems   • Flag Telecom/Atlantic Holdings
+ 3 prison stories: • 1 in 5 federal inmates &   • 1 in 4 NY State solitary confinements are mentally ill  
• N.Korean inmates get hard labor & starvation rations
+ 1 work-linked suicide story: • younger brother in recently
closed family business attempts suicide over Niagara Falls
+ 2 PUFFsizings = makework rampant:  • est. 7200 new 'jobs' as Pentagon plans more call-ups
• extra 'jobs' (or at least cash) for Bush-Cheney buds as Halliburton overcharges U.S. for fuel in Iraq
vs.  glimmers of hope
TIMEsizing on the newswires = strategic hope ignored since Pearl Harbor -
• rising robot sales raise pressure for timesizing, not downsizing, to save markets
• Wall Street Journal mentions short hours in headline - for last time in whole article
• job sharing is getting clobbered along with other benefits as labor surplus deepens
• Chirac 'does the flip' & quits trying to dilute 35-hour week as his poll numbers drop

10/21/2003 tue
- keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $8/mon subscription check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’, Box 622,
Cambridge Ma 02140 USA  - all 659 files, # visitors yesterday 10/20/mon: 990 (10/21/2002/mon: 771) -
Headlines from Hell (tm)  • US deficit more than doubled to $374B   • leading indicators fall for 1st time in 6 mos
• Bush's secret re-election weapon? - FDA to expand approved uses of stimulant, Provigil  
• air-security guards took 5 weeks to find box cutters student hid in airline loos  
• North Atlantic cod are 'commercially extinct'
+ 1 DOWNsizing reported in WSJ or NY Times: • unspecified cuts by CNR
+ 1 bankruptcy reported in Wall Street Journal (WSJ) or New York Times (NYT): • DDI Corp.  
+ eroding retirement: • gov't differs with US Air over health of pilots' pension   • former sports announcer
gets job contract till he's 95 with option till 105, 115 - situation we all may need as pensions looted
+ 2 PUFFsizings = makework rampant:  • wilderness firefighter convicted of arson "to drum up work"
• Microsoft's treadmill of upgrades requires more & more advertising
vs.  glimmers of hope
timesizing on the newswires = strategic hope ignored since Pearl Harbor -
• timesizing Sanyo is doin' pretty good these days
•50 years ago we thought we'd have 35-hour workweeks by 2000
(70 yrs ago we thot we'd have 30-hr wks by 1934 = falling expectations?)
• 'Stralians gettin' restive over sleep deprivation - compare Scots & Yanks

10/18-20/2003 sat-mon (re fri biz)
(# diff. visitors to any of our 657 files, F Sa Su: 782,562,626 - wk's daily avg 829
2 DOWNsizings, totaling 4570 lost jobs cited in Wall Street Journal or New York Times:
• 7% workforce cut (4000 jobs lost) as HSBC Holdings further weakens an already weak UK economy, instead of trimming its workweek 7% (34 minutes a day for whole company, including top executives), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training, & keeping everyone working, earning, confident & banking 93% as much as usual (& more later when labor shortage raises pay & benefits)   • 570 jobcuts by Visteon  
+ 1 bankruptcy + 1 liquidation in WSJ/NYT: • County Seat Ltd Ptshp in Ch. 11   • Horizon Ins. in liquidation
+ 1 prison story: • disease rates high in Massachusetts prisons - HIV infections seventh-highest in nation
+ headlines from hell (tm)  • factory jobs are disappearing world-wide - WSJ   • Bush's plans founder - to pose as freetrader while getting other countries to do self-tariffing currency mangles   • NC gov. says NAFTA has halved his textile jobs - to 140k   • German Parl't rushes to follow our simplistic welfare & tax gut
+ 1 FLUFFsizing = makework rampant: • Congress swallows Bush's $87,000,000,000 bill, hook
line & sinker - unspecified jobs & riches for Bush buds  
vs.  hope du jourtm - the only thing we haven't tried lately =  
TIMEsizing = strategic hope in the weekend news:
• WSJ touts work for work's (& CEOs' & investors') sake regardless of 'labor-saving machinery'
• design details of gradual implementation of 4-hour workweek reduction from South Korea  
• Time Day stories from Seattle & Cleveland, plus 6 more including 'Wal-Mart economy'
+ random hope/headlines from heaven/glimmers of intelligence:
• Doonesbury tries to penetrate skulls of 69% of Americans with
large-print rant that there's NO evidence of link between Saddam & 9/11
weekend roll-up -
5 issues/wk - wk's avg homepage hits/issue: 64
doom of the weektm from the WSJ & the NYT:
• 10 DOWNsizings, over 40,580 jobcuts  • 10 bankruptcies
• 2 eroding-retirement stories  • 1 homelessness story  • 1 prison story  • 1 work-linked suicide
vs.  hope of the weektm from the WSJ & the NYT:
• 33 TIMEsizing items (?? jobs saved)   • 3 UPsizings (15000+ new jobs)     + clouded hope: • 4 makework cases
{{ ytd: 603 timsizngs (20270+ new or sav'd jobs) + 85 upsizngs (54445+ new jobs) + 64 makwrk (196400+ 'jobs') =
total 271121 = 23% of cuts VERSUS 588 dnsz (1169899+ cuts) + 260 bkrp ($23.1B+) +23 homlss +71 prisn +40 suic }}

10/17/2003 fri
- keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $8/mon subscription check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’, Box 622,
Cambridge Ma 02140 USA  - all 657 files, # visitors yesterday 10/16/thu: 969 (10/17/2002/thu: 772) -
headlines from hell (tm)  • Powell & Negroponte sucker UN into endorsing Bush Iraq 'plan'   • US still subsidizes money in politics   • "What we have here is a form of looting," says Nobel laureate of Bush's budget 'policies'  
• banker draws $2200/mon. in German welfare while living in Miami  
+ 4 DOWNsizings, totaling 9810 lost jobs reported in WSJ or NY Times:
• 4.5% workforce cut (8500 jobs lost) as Delphi autoparts over-reacts to net loss & worsens it by sacrificing employee-consumers, instead of just trimming its workweek 4.5% (22 minutes a day for everyone, including top execs), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training&hiring & keeping everyone together working, earning, confident & buying 95.5% as many autos & parts as usual     • 1150 jobcuts by Bombardier   • 160 by Goodyear   • unspecified cuts by Boeing
+ 6 bankruptcies reported in WSJ/NYT:  • Orange Plastics   • Livent (US)   • Irwin Toy  
• Coram Resource Network/Independent Practice   • Clearing Services of America   • Aero Lloyd  
+ 2 PUFFsizings = makework rampant:  • major whitewash of Halliburton by its CEO, Dave Lesar
• Transportation Security Administration blows most of its $75m for bomb-detection on salaries
vs.  glimmers of hope
timesizing on the newswires = strategic hope ignored since Pearl Harbor -
• BTU International cuts its workweek, not its workforce
• entire meat-packing industry out west appears to practice timesizing, not downsizing
• bus company in England will cut workweek from 39 to 38 hours next year to attract drivers
• qualified admiration for shorter hours in Germany from a guilt-prone 'good worker' from Britain?
+ headlines from heaven in WSJ or NYT = random glimmers of intelligence:
• 1 UPsizing? - Safeway hires 14,000 strike breakers   • Japan-Mexico free trade talks falter  
• no place for Wall Street execs on NYSE board   • Bush's exchange-rate politics could backfire

10/16/2003 thu
- keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $8/mon subscription check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’, Box 622,
Cambridge Ma 02140 USA  - all 656 files, # visitors yesterday 10/15/wed: 920 (10/16/2002/wed: 868) -
2 DOWNsizings, totaling 1300 lost jobs reported in WSJ or NY Times:
• 11% workforce cut (800 jobs lost) as Universal Music tries to save money by sacrificing employee-consumers, instead of just trimming its workweek 11% (to five 7-hour 7-minute days for everyone, including top execs), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training&hiring & keeping everyone together working, earning, confident & buying 89% as many music services as before    
• 500 jobcuts by Sony Pictures Entertainment  
+ eroding retirement: • Medicare recipients to pay 13.5% more in premiums for doctor visits in 2004
+ 1 work-linked suicide story: • river pilot unaccountably lets Staten Is. ferry crash into
jetty, killing 10, then flees & attempts 3-way suicide
vs.  glimmers of hope
timesizing on the newswires = strategic hope ignored since Pearl Harbor -
• big Time Day article in The Oregonian, & • 7 other worktime-linked stories
+ headlines from heaven in WSJ or NYT: = random glimmers of intelligence:
• American public gettin' restive over Iraq 'aid' &so, • tax-cut fever cools in Congress

10/15/2003 wed
- keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $8/mon subscription check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’, Box 622,
Cambridge Ma 02140 USA  - all 655 files, # visitors yesterday 10/14/tue: 999 (10/15/2002/tue: 862) -
1 DOWNsizing reported in WSJ or NY Times: • 24900 jobcuts in 3½ years by Merrill Lynch  
+ eroding retirement: • United Airlines' parent, UAL, to try for postponing pension payments  
• deficit widens to $9B, 244% in one year, for US pension agency, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.
+ homelessness in the news: • Journal letters clash on whether there's homelessness in Norway
vs.  glimmers of hope
Phil Hyde, Barb Brandt & Juliet Schor to speak out on Take Back Your Time Day
on Thu, Oct. 24 at Faneuil Hall, downtown Boston at 12 noon (12-2pm)
timesizing on the newswires = strategic hope ignored since Pearl Harbor -
• Peugeot trims worktime to avoid layoffs   • Texas sheriff reins in runaway OT
• 36-hr week is standard in electrical contracting 'down under', plus 5 other stories

10/14/2003 tue
- keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $8/mon subscription check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’, Box 622,
Cambridge Ma 02140 USA  - all 655 files, # visitors yesterday 10/13/mon: 948 (10/14/2002/mon: 686) -
headlines from hell (tm)  • 1 in 5 Americans now obese   • nobody wants to run for Congress
+ 1 DOWNsizing reported in WSJ or NY Times: • unspecified cuts by Liberate Technologies
+ 2 bankruptcies reported in WSJ/NYT:  • Cone Mills goes Chapter 11   • ditto Budget Rent-a-Car  
+ 1 PUFFsizing = makework rampant:  • new Pentagon-run 'Project Management
Office' is set up in Baghdad to wine&dine Bush's buds at taxpayer expense
vs.  glimmers of hope
Phil Hyde, Barb Brandt & Juliet Schor to speak out on Take Back Your Time Day
on Thu, Oct. 24 at Faneuil Hall, downtown Boston at 12 noon (12-2pm)
timesizing on the newswires = strategic hope ignored since Pearl Harbor -
• workweek, not workforce, manipulation is common in U.S. factories  
• Germany's fourth largest utility mulls four-day workweek to avoid layoffs  
• 2 silly articles bashing Europe, deep in worksaving technology, for shorter worktime
+ headlines from heaven in WSJ or NYT: = random glimmers of intelligence: • 2 UPsizings - Ford & Mazda's Auto Alliance to create 1000 new Thai jobs   • NTT DoCoMo to create ?? Brit jobs

10/11-13/2003 sat-mon (re fri biz)
# diff. visitors to any of our 655 files, F Sa Su: 791,599,658 - wk's daily avg 856
3 DOWNsizings, totaling 8235 lost jobs cited in Wall Street Journal or New York Times:
• 20% workforce cut (5200 jobs lost) as US Steel merges & cuts overlap (& mkts), instead of trimming its workweek 20% (to five 6-hour days for whole company, including top executives), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training, & keeping everyone together working, earning, confident & spending 80% as much as before   • 2000 jobcuts by Lufthansa   • 1035 by Penn Traffic  
+ 1 bankruptcy cited in WSJ or NYT: • Chevys Inc in Chapter 11  
+ 1 prison story: • Dennis Maher of Mass. is 127th inmate exonerated by DNA - after nearly 20 wasted years
+ headlines from hell (tm)  • • 2 Journal articles say 'don’t worry, be happy'  • Cranston Print Works - object lesson in raising profits, proliferating technology, cutting workforce, & thereby cutting customer base
+ 1 FLUFFsizing = makework rampant: • easing land rules for private-profit mining industry
= unspecified new potential 'jobs' in latest Bush attack on our kids & our future  
vs.  hope du jourtm - the only thing we haven't tried lately =  
TIMEsizing = strategic hope in the weekend news:
• Seattle Times outlines workweek history  • Australian official warns of long hours & fatigue
+ random hope/headlines from heaven/glimmers of intelligence:
• 1 UPsizing - American Airlines to recall 390 furloughed flight attendants   • New Yorker cover has cowboy Dubya galloping blindered thru Monument Valley - titled 'The Vision Thing' • South Korean president has modesty & sense enow to offer chance for 'vote of no confidence' by referendum  
weekend roll-up -
5 issues/wk - wk's avg homepage hits/issue: 99
doom of the weektm from the WSJ & the NYT:
• 13 DOWNsizings, over 22022 jobcuts  • 1 prison story 
• 10 bankruptcies owing over $26m  • 5 eroding-retirement stories  
vs.  hope of the weektm from the WSJ & the NYT:
• 65 TIMEsizing items (?? jobs saved)   • 6 UPsizings (2462+ new jobs)     + clouded hope: • 6 makework cases
{{ ytd: 570 timsizngs (20270+ new or sav'd jobs) + 82 upsizngs (39445+ new jobs) + 60 makwrk (196400+ 'jobs') =
total 256121 = 23% of cuts VERSUS 578 dnsz (1129319+ cuts) + 250 bkrp ($23.1B+) +22 homlss +70 prisn +39 suic }}

10/10/2003 fri
- keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $8/mon subscription check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’, Box 622,
Cambridge Ma 02140 USA  - all 654 files, # visitors yesterday 10/09/thu: 916 (10/10/2002/thu: 714) -
headlines from hell (tm)  • tighter border controls sometimes backfire • whistling in the dark of US job market
+ 1 DOWNsizing, totaling 6300 lost jobs reported in Wall Street Journal (WSJ) or New York Times (NYT):
• 25% workforce cut (6300 jobs lost) as Telefonica/LatAm tries to counter slowing growth/upsizing by layoffs/downsizing, instead of just trimming its workweek 25% (to five 6-hour days for everyone, including top executives), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training&hiring & keeping everyone together working, earning, confident & buying 75% as many phone services as before    
+ 1 bankruptcy reported in WSJ/NYT:  • O-Cedar Holdings goes Chapter 11 
+ eroding retirement: • UAL to try for postponing pension payments
• a 2nd US stock exchange head under fire for ripoff retirement pay
vs.  glimmers of hope
Phil Hyde, Barb Brandt & Juliet Schor to speak out on Take Back Your Time Day
on Thu, Oct. 24 at Faneuil Hall, downtown Boston at 12 noon (12-2pm)
timesizing on the newswires = strategic hope ignored since Pearl Harbor -
• Wall Street Journal editorial joins gangbang vs French 35-hour workweek - Phil Hyde rebuts  
• job sharing to shun layoffs has helped tourist-starved hotels survive in post-bombing Bali  
• excerpts from 4 other worktime stories via GoogleNews
+ headlines from heaven in WSJ or NYT: = random glimmers of intelligence: & • produce it here & contribute your employee-consumers to US markets or you don't get to sell to these markets

10/09/2003 thu
- keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $25/yr subscrptn check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’, Box 622,
Cambridge Ma 02140 USA  - all 653 files, # visitors yesterday 10/08/wed: 1043 (10/09/2002/wed: 776) -
headlines from hell (tm)  • outing an undercover agent endangers not only her life,
but her family's lives & the lives of every one of her contacts over entire length of her service,
& that's worse than some terrorism & it condemns the cooperating journalist as well as the source
+ 3 DOWNsizings, totaling 100+?? lost jobs reported in Wall St Journal (WSJ) or NY Times (NYT): • 100 jobcuts by Sonoco Products   • unspecified cuts by Verizon and  • Option Care
+ 7 bankruptcies reported in WSJ/NYT:  • Chi-Chi's, owing est. $26m  • Koo Koo Roo  • Prandium 
• Hitachi Seiki USA  • Data Transmission Network  • Arig Insurance  • Hampton Re Holdings
+ eroding retirement: • House backs pension-donation cut, lets businesses contribute $26B less
over next 2 years   • 2 remaining top NYSE execs due for retirement pay totaling $30m
vs.  glimmers of hope
Phil Hyde, Barb Brandt & Juliet Schor to speak out on Take Back Your Time Day
on Thu, Oct. 24 at Faneuil Hall, downtown Boston at 12n (12-2pm)
timesizing on the newswires = strategic hope ignored since Pearl Harbor -
• 2 articles on Time Day, positive & negative, one 'lump'-related 
• excerpts from 18 other worktime stories via GoogleNews

10/08/2003 wed
- keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $25/yr subscrptn check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’, Box 622,
Cambridge Ma 02140 USA  - all 653 files, # visitors yesterday 10/07/tue: 1017 (10/08/2002/tue: 779) -
headlines from hell (tm)  • US consumer debt rises $8B in Aug. (0.4% = 5% p.a.) to $1,960,000,000,000  
• global survey cites creeping corruption   • Bush suggests leaker of CIA agent's identity may remain elusive
+ 4 DOWNsizings, totaling 5087 lost jobs reported in Wall Street Journal (WSJ) or New York Times (NYT):
• 20% workforce cut (4000 jobs lost) as VW/Brazil reacts perversely to excess capacity, instead of just trimming their workweek by 20% (to four 8-hour days for whole firm, including top execs), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training&hiring & keeping everyone together working, earning, confident & buying 80% as many cars as usual     • 950 jobcuts by Weirton Steel   • 125 by Borland Software   • 12 by H.J. Heinz  
+ a general economywide bankruptcy story in WSJ or NYT:  • despite women's lib, single mothers are less secure than they were 25 years ago & more likely to file for bankruptcy than any other group
+ eroding retirement: • Weirton Steel seeks to end pension plan for retirees
+ 2 PUFFsizings = makework rampant:  • Congress likely to re-subsidize small mfrs  
• Congress plans $10m walkway under street to Library of Congress
vs.  glimmers of hope
Phil Hyde, Barb Brandt & Juliet Schor to speak out on Take Back Your Time Day
on Thu, Oct. 24 at Faneuil Hall, downtown Boston at 12n (12-2pm)
timesizing on the newswires = strategic hope ignored since Pearl Harbor -
• House reverses approval of OT pay dilutions  • Malta ferry cuts hrs & not pay
• excerpts from 19 other worktime stories via GoogleNews
+ headlines from heaven in WSJ or NYT: = random glimmers of hope: • 3 UPsizings, totaling est. 72 new jobs +unspecified as J.P. Morgan & • Morgan Stanley to hire a few doz. researchers apiece in Bombay, and • Sears Roebuck plans 600 temporary KB Toy stores for Xmas hols

10/07/2003 tue
- keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $25/yr subscrptn check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’, Box 622,
Cambridge Ma 02140 USA  - all 652 files, # visitors yesterday 10/06/mon: 971 (10/07/2002/mon: 793) -
headlines from hell (tm)  • after airstrikes vs. Syria, Israel egged on by Bush  
• 10 years after NAFTA, uppity Mexico refuses to cooperate in ruining its own agribiz
+ 2 DOWNsizings, totaling 2300 lost jobs reported in Wall St Journal (WSJ) or NY Times (NYT):
• 43% workforce cut (1200 jobs lost) as Carrier Corp. execs are 'forced by simple biz realities' to gut their hometown (Syracuse NY) & move jobs to Dixie & China, instead of just trimming their workweek by 43% (to four 5¾-hour days for whole firm, including CEO), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training&hiring & keeping everyone together working, earning, minimally unconfident & spending 57% as much as usual     • 1100 jobcuts by Goodyear 
+ 1 compound foreign bankruptcy in WSJ or NYT:  • Marlon & Nat'l Insurance (UK), Riverstone Ins. (Sweden)
+ 1 prison story: • excon testifies that restricting prison food is smart only if you're trying to trigger prison riots
+ 3-in-1 PUFFsizings = makework rampant:  • 1 Egyptian & 2 Kuwait firms get Iraq cellfone contracts, not Iraqis
vs.  glimmers of hope
Juliet Schor, worktime economist & sociologist, speaks at Time Day event on Tue, Oct. 14
at Coolidge Corner Branch Library, 31 Pleasant St. at 7 pm (7-8:30) in Brookline, Mass.
timesizing on the newswires = strategic hope ignored since Pearl Harbor -  
• Brits are having “It’s About Time” campaign this week to end the UK’s long hours culture
• excerpts from 15 other worktime stories on the wires
+ headlines from heaven in WSJ or NYT: = random gleams of intelligence:
• 2 UPsizings, totaling 2000+?? new jobs as Ford/Mexico expands & • Speaking Female opens
• World Bank survey finds least regulation fosters strongest economies (but not NO regulation?)

10/04-06/2003 sat-mon (re fri biz)
# diff. visitors to any of our 652 files, F Sa Su: 803,565,586 - wk's daily avg 803
4 DOWNsizings, totaling 1070 +?? lost jobs cited in Wall Street Journal or New York Times:
• 4% workforce cut (600 jobs lost) as Eastman Chemical overreacts to lower earnings by nicking its own best markets, instead of trimming its workweek 4% (19 minutes/day for whole company, including top execs), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training, & keeping everyone together working, earning, confident & banking 96% as much as before   • 370 jobcuts by Tellabs   • 100 by Steinway   • ?? cuts by Agco
+ 2 bankruptcy/liquidations cited in WSJ or NYT: • Ogden NY Services, Ch.11   • Whiting Nat'l Ins., liquidation
eroding retirement: • Catbert switches employees from 401k to 401A, where A = 'afterlife'
+ 1 prison story: • 4 guards at Rikers Island steal drawing Dali dedicated to inmates
+ 1 work-linked suicide: • disemployed woman in Atlanta shoots pastor, mother, self
+ headlines from hell (tm)  • US budget deficit averaging $440-550 billion a year  
• 15% without healthcare make perfect epidemic incubator   • Japan women pessimistic - Americans next?
+ 1 actual, 1 potential, FLUFFsizing = makework rampant: • unspecified new 'jobs' as Bush administration misspends millions in awarding contracts in Iraq   • may misspend millions more on PR in Arab world
vs.  hope du jourtm - the only thing we haven't tried lately =  
TIMEsizing = strategic hope in the weekend news:
• Michigan offers no-layoff guarantee & holds 37½-hr week in reserve
• Chrysler will idle the 6000 employees at its biggest Canadian plant for 2 weeks, no layoffs
• Pa. library cuts workweek to 32 hrs   • Guam Public Health Dept. had 32-hr week Feb-Aug
• shortsighted biz knocks Hyundai & Kia in S.Korea for cutting from 44 to 40 hrs with no paycut
• multiple stories re French govt's attempts to re-lengthen the 35-hour workweek
+ random hope/headlines from heaven/glimmers of intelligence:
• 1 UPsizing - end of draft in Spain opens 12,000 military jobs   • Medicare plan raises cost for affluent   • doctor hilites epidemic danger from continued lack of universal health insurance   • US life expectancy rose to high of 77.2 yrs in 2001   • Israeli airstrike in Syria triggers wide criticism
weekend roll-up -
5 issues/wk - wk's avg homepage hits/issue: 96
doom of the weektm from the WSJ & the NYT:
• 19 DOWNsizings, over 97602 jobcuts  • 4 prison stories 
• 6 bankruptcies owing over $126m  • 2 work-linked suicides
vs.  hope of the weektm from the WSJ & the NYT:
• 30 TIMEsizing items (?? jobs saved)   • 1 UPsizing (12000+ new jobs)     + clouded hope: • 3 makework cases
{{ ytd: 505 timsizngs (20270+ new or sav'd jobs) + 76 upsizngs (36983+ new jobs) + 54 makwrk (196400+ 'jobs') =
total 253659 = 23% of cuts VERSUS 565 dnsz (1107297+ cuts) + 244 bkrp ($23.1B+) +22 homlss +69 prisn +39 suic }}

10/03/2003 fri
- keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $25/yr subscrptn check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’, Box 622,
Cambridge Ma 02140 USA  - all 651 files, # visitors yesterday 10/02/thu: 901 (10/03/2002/thu: 670) -
headlines from hell (tm)  • having spent tax rebate, now what will consumers do?  
• executive pay rising despite outcry   • list of primary corporate scandals numbering, aptly, 13
+ 3 DOWNsizings, totaling 76,700 lost jobs reported in Wall St Journal (WSJ) or NY Times (NYT):
• 19% workforce cut (75,000 jobs lost) as Germany chops its army & its civilian backup, instead of just trimming their workweek by 19% (four 7.1-hour days for whole corps, including top brass), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training&hiring & keeping everyone together working, earning, confident & spending 71% as much as usual     • 1200 more jobcuts by Pillowtex   • 500 by Delphi  
+ 2 prison stories: • U.S. appeals panel struck down law requiring federal prisoners & parolees to
give blood samples for FBI's DNA database   • with 31,000 inmates, Arizona is 4,000 over capacity
vs.  glimmers of hope
Phil Hyde, economic designer & Timesizing.com news guy, speaks at Time Day event on Thu, Oct. 9
in Davis Square at Somerville Library/West Branch, 40 College Ave at 7 pm (7-8:30) in Somerville, Mass.
timesizing in the news = strategic hope ignored since Pearl Harbor -  
• Boston area: local paper announces Phil Hyde's talk this coming Thursday
• DC: House rebuffs the White House over rules to limit overtime pay
• Illinois: casinos are cutting hours to cut costs & maintain bottom line
• Illinois: teachers object to lengthening workweek from 38 to 40 hours
• Missouri: free healthcare clinics, in tuff budget crunch, scale back hours
• Texas: attorney gets hours expanded to 30 while already working 50-60
• Utah: small pharmacies cannot compete with shorter hours of big pharmacies
• Washington, DC: e-surfer asks why managers overwork people instead of hiring
• Washington, Pennsylvania: budget-crunched Humane Society will limit hours of operation
• England: truck drivers wonder if they can earn a decent wage in a 35-hour workweek
• Germany: journalist complains about short working hours & not being in race to the bottom
• Australia: Geelong Wool Combing closes cuz employees reject cut from 7 to 5 day workweek
+ headlines from heaven in Wall Street Journal & New York Times = random gleams of intelligence: • poll shows drop in confidence in Bush - majority feel country on wrong track

10/02/2003 thu
- keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $25/yr subscrptn check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’, Box 622,
Cambridge Ma 02140 USA  - all 650 files, # visitors yesterday 10/01/wed: 931 (10/02/2002/wed: 765) -
headlines from hell (tm)  • avg credit-card debt carried by senior citizens rose 16% over past decade
+ 4 DOWNsizings, totaling 1212 +?? lost jobs reported in Wall St Journal (WSJ) or NY Times (NYT):
• 7% of salaried workforce cut (700 jobs lost) as giant Ashland oil refining & chemicals sacrifices long-term markets to puff short-term profits, instead of just trimming workweek by 7% (34 mins/day for whole mgt corps, including top executives), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training&hiring & keeping everyone together working, earning, confident & spending 93% as much as usual  
• 700 more jobcuts by IBM   • 12 by Prudential Securities   • unspecified cuts by Citigroup's C2it unit
+ 1 compound bankruptcy in WSJ or NYT:  • Mosaic Group, Mosaic Sales Solutions/Mktg
& Technology Solutions (II)/Investments, Field Energy Services, Medium One Productions
+ 1 prison story: • Congress plans to bill Bush for $1B in aid to states for DNA testing in murders & rapes
+ 1 PUFFsizing = makework rampant:  • Senate talks stall on ending
Depression-era price-supports for now-agrobiz tobacco farmers
vs.  glimmers of hope
Phil Hyde, economic designer & Timesizing.com news guy, speaks at Time Day event on Thu, Oct. 9
in Davis Square at Somerville Library/West Branch, 40 College Ave at 7 pm (7-8:30) in Somerville, Mass.
timesizing in the news = strategic hope ignored since Pearl Harbor -
• Cross Country TravCorps in Fla. offers compressed workweeks & job sharing
• both sexes work longer hours than in 1970 but women average 40 hrs/wk while men avg. 46
• update on truckers' working hours   • socialist candidate for Calif. guv wants 30-hr workweek
• Mich. state employees spring for banked-leave-time plan
• Cape Cod library affords pay raises by cutting hours of operation
• budget cuts are forcing some Minn. libraries to cut hours or weeks
• Guam parks employees had 32-hr workweek for part of last fiscal year
+ headlines from heaven in Wall Street Journal & New York Times = random wisdom:
• ruling lets Enron workers sue ex-CEO over lost retirement savings

10/01/2003 wed
- keep hope-vs-doom acomin' with $25/yr subscrptn check to ‘ Timesizing.com with Phil Hyde’, Box 622,
Cambridge Ma 02140 USA  - all 650 files, # visitors yesterday 9/30/tue: 928 (10/01/2002/tue: 739) -
headlines from hell (tm)  • renewed doubts include dollar, strength of
'recovery', interest rates, stock values, consumer confidence, jobs....
+ 3 DOWNsizings, totaling 13,610 lost jobs reported in Wall St Journal (WSJ) or NY Times (NYT):
• 3% of workforce cut (10,300 jobs lost) as Ford continues death spiral, instead of just trimming workweek by 3% (14 mins/day for whole division, including executives), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training&hiring & keeping everyone working, earning, confident & buying 97% as many cars as usual  
• est. 3000 jobcuts by Chrysler   • 310 cuts by Wolverine Tube  
+ 1 work-linked murder-suicide story: • 3-yr-jobless Wall Streeter kills little son, then walks onto RR tracks
vs.  glimmers of hope
Phil Hyde, economic designer & Timesizing.com news guy, speaks at Time Day event on Thu, Oct. 9
in Davis Square at Somerville Library/West Branch, 40 College Ave at 7 pm (7-8:30) in Somerville, Mass.
timesizing in the news = strategic hope ignored since Pearl Harbor -
• Calif. Dems try to raise false fears about Arnold's views on worktime
• DC Q&A columnist gets question from employee who's experiencing
ambient timesizing AND rather than OR downsizing