Replies to post #47686 on Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[federal reserves]

Qwave> Can we cost cut our way to prosperity?

Is this the new theme for the new economy, as played out in the HPQ results, and the after hours reaction to such. The great new economy consolidation? We could be heading into a mass period of consolidations and mergers; the cost cutting and resultant blood letting could be the largest in US history. IBM and SUN. DELL/CSC. INTC/BRCM vs AMD/TXN. If this theme then let it play. Slash and Burn! Layoff's! Reverse IPO's.

I'm interesting in looking at the claims tommorrow and the reaction to that.

[Lane Hall-Witt]

In recent days, news has crossed that BA is cutting 5,000 more jobs; A, 2,500; XRX, 2,400; MWD, 2,200; ING, 1,000; BAC, 900 IT jobs; LEH, 500; GM Saab division, "hundreds" of jobs; UBS Warburg, Houston energy trading division. Also, the City of New York is looking to trim 8,000 jobs; UAL has submitted a restructuring plan to the government calling for 9,000 job cuts; and in Europe Swiss-Swedish engineering conglomerate ABB is looking to cut 50,000 jobs over the next three years.

These are just a few that I jotted down in my notes the past few days, coming on top of the recent cutbacks at firms like AMD, PCS, ITWO, SUNW--.

And we have to bear in mind that we're about 10 months away from the Big Kahuna: cutbacks at the Big Three auto makers when the current UAW contract expires. There's widespread talk of tens of thousands of cutbacks, with a corresponding "ripple-effect multiplier" that says four or five auto-industry jobs are lost for every one job cut by a Big Three firm.

Not that today is the day to worry about any of this: the market has a big breakout going, volume across the tape is huge, and even laggards like BRCD and VECO are shooting the moon!