Cheney's Halliburton Co. posted a loss as revenue from gov't work in Iraq began to ebb & $809m in charges hurt profits (7/26 j.A1>B3) - how clueless & corrupt do you have to be to post a loss when you've got your siphon into US taxpayers' tank?

1. Thomas H. Lee Partners buys Nortek Holdings for $1.75B (j.A10, t.C3)

24 layoffs as GE- & Vivendi-owned Universal Studios acknowledges delays on theme park in Shanghai (j.A6)

1. the "recovery's" knotty underside: being forced to move for your job (j.D1)
2. Britain: official jobless rate is '4.8%' in Feb-Mar fiscal third (t.W1)

Ken Lay's 'vision' helped create the mess - what tenet of free-market capitalism justifies paying CEO such treasure for leadership that was at best incompetent & at worse, criminal? - he transformed it from a boring but reliable pipeline operator into a glitzy commodities trader that used hype & a soaring stock market to hide fact it's real business was a mess: Venkates Swaminathan of Oakland (j.A11) = there's a lot to be said for 'boring'

1. real estate portfolio acquired by Fortress Investment Group of U.S. from German govt's retirement agency - analysts said the sale would give only passing relief to Germany's pension system - in Nov., the gov't passed legislation to freeze pension payments in 2004 in a bid to cap labor costs & plug holes in funding (j.A6) = more suicidal gov't "eating its seed corn" = sacrifice of long-term sustainability to short-term convenience
2. as Japan ages, concerns shift to retirees, debt - questioned in June re failing to pay premiums into national pension system 40 yrs ago even tho law didn't force him to, Koizumi said, 'Takes all sorts; why do I have to apologize?' - so now voters rebuke him at the polls (j.A10)

Jillian's Entertainment Holdings Inc. et al. file Chapter 11 jointly (j.C11)

1. the Tom DeLay inquiry needs an independent counsel because 4 of 5 'ethics panel' Republicans got money from his PAC, watchdog groups said (j.A1)
2. Iraq's Allawi proposed an elite security unit to 'annihilate' insurgents (j.A1) - now we're back to Saddam-era secret police
3. in Iraq, the most coveted item now is a passport (t.A1) - 'I want to get out; I want my children to live in a peaceful place': Zeinab Heart, seeking a passport to leave Iraq (t.A2)

7/15/2004 thursday - ‘hope isn't a plan’, but we have a plan
- want the Timesizing ‘take’ on some issue or event? email us -
- we have 715 textfiles: # visitors yesterday 7/14/wed: 827 (7/16/2003/wed: 830)
TIMEsizing awareness in yesterday's GoogleNews:

1. 32% of surveyed US employers offer jobsharing arrangements
2. concentration of income in top brackets becomes so intense as to suction markets away from its own current & potential investments - market-oriented solution is to dynamize training, decrement workweek, spread work around till all potential consumers are activated
3. to dynamize training, use automatic overtime-to-training conversion
4. plus 12 other articles

1. two more high rollers to merge - Harrah's Entertainment to buy casino rival Caesars Entertainment for (5.28+3.97debt=) $9.25B (j.A1, t.C1)
2. Affiliated Managers Group to buy Fremont Investment Advisors' mutual fund biz for $?? (t.C4)

3.3% workforce cut (100 jobs lost) as Applera Corp.'s Applied Biosystems Group quadrisects itself (& pares its customers' customers), instead of just trimming 3.3% of its workweek (16 minutes a day for everyone, including top executives), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training&hiring and keeping everyone together working, earning and shopping at least 96.7% as much as before (j.B2)

1. the "recovery's" knotty underside: being forced to move for your job (j.D1)
2. Britain: official jobless rate is '4.8%' in Feb-Mar fiscal third (t.W1)

Ken Lay's "vision" helped create the mess - what tenet of free-market capitalism justifies paying CEO such treasure for leadership that was at best incompetent & at worse, criminal? - he transformed it from a boring but reliable pipeline operator into a glitzy commodities trader that used hype & a soaring stock market to hide fact it's real business was a mess: Venkates Swaminathan of Oakland (j.A11) = there's a lot to be said for 'boring'

1. United Airlines (UAL) delays $72.4m in payments to its employee pension funds (j.B2, t.C1)
2. retirees from Qwest Communications Int'l are suing Bush's Labor Dept. to get audit details of Qwest pension fund that had $6B in losses over 3-year period (j.B6)

1. Breuners Home Furnishings in Lancaster PA, owner of Huffman Koos and Good's Furniture, files for liquidation (t.C4)
2. Japan: corporate bankruptcies decline from 6/03 19.5% to 1,126 cases in 6/04, 18th consecutive month of decline (t.W1) - so either things are a bit better or there's no more firms left to file

1. workers' pay hikes still small - 'improving' economy not yet reflected in paychecks (g.E1) - don't hold your breath
2. retail sales fell a larger-than-expected 1.1% in June 'as high energy prices & bad weather curbed consumer spending' (j.A1) - how about cumulative downsizing & the hyper-concentration of the national income?
3. Bush's science record faces challenge from scientists - administration is criticized for bending research to his own political purposes (j.A4) = lying about data, again, all over the place - 'attitude is no substitute for judgment & a cheerleader is not always a leader' (g.A11)

7/14/2004 wed. - ‘hope isn't a plan’, but we have a plan
- want the Timesizing ‘take’ on some issue or event? email us -
- we have 715 textfiles: # visitors yesterday 7/13/tue: 883 (7/15/2003/tue: 896)
TIMEsizing awareness in yesterday's GoogleNews:

1. South Koreans fretting over possible pay penalties need to start fighting for an automatic adjustment of the workweek vs. unemployment
2. Kerzner International cuts middle managers from 6- to 5-day week at same pay
3. national 'tsunami'-scale shortage of air traffic controllers, traceable to Reagan's 1981 meddling, has already brought 6-day workweeks in Vegas & calls for hiring
4. plus 4 other articles

1. Bank of America to acquire National Processing Inc. in $1.4B in cash deal (j.C4)

online today, work in progress - an Indian outsourcing firm that gets 1,500 job applications a day, and more in our Web log (j.A1)

new Bush Medicare drug law is seen leading to cuts in retiree plans - employers are expected to reduce or eliminate Rx benefits for 3.8m retirees in '06 (t.A1)

Safescript Pharmacies Inc. et al. (j.C13)

1. Bush & CIA won't release prewar paper - senators seeking only ONE-page summary (t.A1) - spread of secret gov't in America - USA replaces USSR as 'evil empire'
2. onward GOP soldiers - Bush-Cheney campaign is buttonholing Christian churches nationwide to serve as virtual party precincts in Repub re-election drive (t.A26) - more UNseparation of church & state
3. no Kerry news on campaign pages (t.A18-19) despite Bush campaign story on frontpage: 'in Bush's war room, the gloves are always off' (t.A1)

7/13/2004 tuesday - ‘hope isn't a plan’, but we have a plan
- want the Timesizing ‘take’ on some issue or event? email us -
- we have 715 textfiles: # visitors yesterday 7/12/mon: 872 (7/14/2003/mon: 881)
TIMEsizing awareness in yesterday's GoogleNews:

1. 10 articles

buyout firms wheel & deal in small world - inexpensive borrowings finance a raft of serial acquisitions (j.C1)

17% workforce cut (100 Israeli jobs lost) as TTI Team Telecom International Ltd. pares employment & markets, instead of just trimming 17% of its workweek (to five 6hr-38min days for everyone, including top executives), re-investing overtime savings in overtime-targeted training&hiring and keeping everyone together working, earning and buying at least 83% as much telecom industry software as before (j.B2)

the Foster affair - if subverting informed decision-making were illegal, Thomas Scully, Bush's former top Medicare official, would be in trouble - Scully threatened Foster's job if he disclosed to Congress that Medicare bill would cost as much as 50% more than Bush had let on (t.A18)

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission finds fault in Lockheed actions at '03 shooting site - allowed a 'racially charged atmosphere' - Doug Williams harassed black workers from Dec/2001 to July 8, 2003 when he shot 14, 12 were black & 6 died, whereupon he shot himself (j.B9)

1. machine at work - if Tom DeLay's brand of conservatism is so unpopular it must be closeted during the GOP convention, how can he really run the GOP? A: DeLay is the 'chief enforcer of company contributions to Republicans' (t.A19)
2. report finds ethical conflicts in journals - 4 medical & scientific journals recently published studies that failed to disclose the authors' financial conflicts of interest (t.A16)

7/10-12/2004 sat-mon (re fri biz)
- keep hope-vs-doom comin' with $5/mon. check to Timesizing.com, Box 622, Cambridge Ma 02140 -
- #visitors to any of our 714 files, F Sa Su: 727,535,524 - wk's daily avg: 690 -
TIMEsizing awareness = strategic glimmers of hope in weekend's GoogleNews:

1. East Cleveland OH implements four-day 32-hour workweek in budget crunch
2. South Korea starts its new, shorter 40-hour workweek
3. and immediately sees benefits in the travel industry
4. some places are going backward, like the 12-hour shifts in the aluminum industry in Canada
5. or the pressure to go back from 35 hours to 40 in German engineering
6. plus seven more stories of timesizing and worktime debate

1. Cypress Group to acquire Automotive Aftermarket Group from Dana Corp. for $1.1B (7/12 j.A14)
2. Japan's watchdog trade agency to issue warning vs. Microsoft for antimonopoly violations (7/12 j.A14) - good news for a change but 'largely symbolic' only

1. 1600 jobcuts as Mitsubishi Motors plans closure of Okazaki plant (7/12 j.A14)
2. 155 (190-35) net jobcuts as Corus Group prepares to shut Sankey Laminations electric-steel factory in Bilston, England by March 2005 (7/10 t.B3)

Canada added 24,700 jobs in June but official unemployment went up 0.1% to 7.3% because 39,100 people restarted jobhunt (7/10 t.B3)

1. Ken Lay's defense: call me ignorant - give Lay a choice: take responsibility or give up all the salary, bonuses, perks & stock options he received for shouldering the responsibility he now wants to shed: David Hawkins of Brooklyn (7/10 t.A28)
2. MCI sues ex-CEO over loans (7/12 j.B2)

Cognistar Corp. in Chapter 11 (7/12 j.B6)

prison scandal burdens Army recruiters - efforts to enlist soldiers in 372d Military Police hampered by Iraq war (7/11 g.A10)

1. a 'recovery' trying to keep its legs suddenly feels woozy - So far this month, 32 technology companies have issued warnings about their earnings (7/12 t.C1>4)
2. is administration crying wolf? - constant false alarms from Bush to distract from Kerry news are disservice to actual national security: David White-Lief of Westwood MA (7/10 g.A10)
3. Bush was right that Cheney was ready to take over on Day One, and he did, and he has been ever since: Kerry in Cleveland (7/10 g.A11)
4. CIA deleted large sections, 20%, of Senate's intelligence report (7/10 t.A9) - compare key sections of Bush's military records 'accidentally' destroyed
5. admitting intelligence flaws, Bush stands by need for Iraq war (7/10 t.A8) = his own holy Oil War, regardless of ties to 9/11 or WNDs - what else can he say after 1000 Americans killed & 10,000s of Iraqis for nothing?
6. Doonesbury (7/11 g.cartoons 3) -
   • when Geo.W.Bush first ran for president, he promised to be a uniter, not a divider
   • 3 short years later, he's delivered! today, Muslims everywhere stand united in their anger toward America!
   • by invading Iraq, Bush has created an incubator for a whole generation of holy warriors!
   • moveover, by so carelessly squandering America's moral authority ... he's done incalculable damage to her standing and interests around the world for years to come!
   • may he be re-elected, Allah willing!
   • I'm Osama bin Laden, and I approve this message
7. Los Alamos missing secret data (7/10 t.A13) - again? - with 'homeland security' like this, who needs Al Qaeda?
8. Bush to skip national convention of 500,000-member National Assoc. for Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), largest civil-rights group in nation (7/10 t.A15) - first president since Hoover to diss NAACP like this in first term - that plus Jeb's exclusion of 1000s of black voters in Fla. in 2000 adds up to a Bush family feud against black Americans, Colin & Condi notwithstanding - oh yeah, AND gays ...
9. Bush urges passage of gay marriage ban (7/11 g.A1)
10. Fla. list for purge of voters is [still!] flawed (7/10 t.A12)
11. Vatican now focus in clergy sex abuse - 2 former monks Richard Sipe & Patrick Wall + Rev. Thomas Doyle compiled 300-page document asserting Vatican officials have known about sex abuse by priests back to 4th Century but have consistently hushed it up (7/12 g.A14)

1. an ousted CEO and his money aren't soon parted - e.g., Enron creditors' suit to regain $70m from Ken Lay still pending, Stephen Hilbert owes Conseco $240m, Bernie Ebbers owes WorldCom-MCI $408m... (j.B2<1)
2. by European standards, he is Mr. Greedy: Sainbury's Peter Davis & his $4.4m stock award (t.C1)

the US disowned 3 American terrorist hunters arrested in the Afghan capital at a jail where officials found captives hanging by their feet (j.A1)

1. Ridge drowned out campaigning with an election terror warning, offering no specifics & declining to raise alert level (j.A1) - Bushies desperately cry 'wolf', again & again
2. meddling screw-up, Rupert Murdoch - said to be source of NY Post's now infamously inaccurate 'exclusive' that Gephardt would be Kerry's running mate (t.C1>A14) - 'power corrupts'
3. effort to curb scope of antiterrorism law falls short - House narrowly (210-210) upholds Bush 'Justice' Dept.'s right to get library & bookdealer records - just to get to that point, Repubs had to keep tally open extra 20 minutes to 'educate' members as Dems chanted 'shame' - independent Rep. Barnie Sanders had sponsored amendment to stop neo-cons from walking into our libraries without probable cause & monitor people's reading habits (t.A16, j.A2) - Bush makes progress in his goal of turning America into a police state
4. Enron's former CEO, Ken Lay, in unusual press conference, blamed ex-CFO Fastow (j.A1) - with Reagan & Bush as examples, today's CEOs have no responsibility, become expert finger-pointers - forget Dem Pres. Truman's "buck stops here"

7/08/2004 thursday - ‘hope isn't a plan’, but we have a plan
- want the Timesizing ‘take’ on some issue or event? email us -
- we have 713 textfiles: # visitors yesterday 7/7/wed: 817 (7/09/2003/wed: 814)
TIMEsizing awareness from GoogleNews:

1. avg. Canadian workyear shrank from 1785 hours in 1979 to 1718 hours in 2003
2. job-sharing in the Silicon Valley - at Zoomerang
3. WSJ tries to twist OECD data into pre-technology formula of longer hours, more money, never mind productivity
4. more chatter about 50-hour workweeks in Germany, regardless of employment concentration & less money for people who buy the output
5. Germany tries to force people off long-term unemployment by cutting it, without bothering to share the vanishing employment

1. Brookline Bancorp to acquire Mystic Financial for $65.1m (t.C4)
2. Yahoo's quarterly earnings double but disappoint investors because merely due to series of acquisitions (t.C5) = bogus growth
3. Kohlberg Kravis readies the loss-laced banale finale to greatest leverage buyout on Wall St, that of RJR Nabisco in 1989 for $25B - deal goes down in history as showing how hard it is to get out of huge deal that goes badly, & perils of putting too many egg$ in one basket (t.C7)

1. 220 jobcuts as Providian Financial closes a San Antonio customer-service site (t.C4)
2. unspecified cuts as Royal Dutch/Shell closes Calif. refinery (T.C4, j.A1>3)

still made in the USA - as rivals move production to Asia, Hutchinson Technology Inc. stays competitive in Hutchinson, Minn. (j.B1) - the exception that proves the rule, & there's another little problem: 'extensive automation has held down cost of labor [& jobs] at Hutchinson (j.B4) - still say 'technology creates more jobs than it takes over'?

as CEOs miss bonus goals, goalposts move closer - companies adjust target levels, keeping their executives happy [& their stockholders & employees unhappy] - IRS pay-curb incentives ignored (j.C1) - it's pretty hard to discipline management with anything but market forces, & that takes a perceived labor shortage - Timesizing is the smart way to get one, especially compared to current methods like war & AIDS