Thanks to the merger of a certain 120 year old investment firm here in St. Louis, that would sum up at least 1000+ of the 5000 lost jobs. If America don’t quit outsourcing and giving, giving, giving to foreign countries, there won’t be anything left to worry about. When are we gonna start taking care of our own workers??????

In response to the preceding comment:

(1) Assuming that he is referring to the buyout of A.G. Edwards by Wachovia, since when is North Carolina (where Wachovia has its headquarters) a foreign country?

(2) If we were “giving” to foreign countries (as we gave food and other goods to Europe under the Marshall Plan) we would be creating jobs, but losing real wealth. That’s NOT what we are doing (except by subsidizing agricultural exports, which are an amazingly small part of the U.S. economy, considering the political clout of agricultural communities).

What we ARE doing is buying more goods and services from foreign countries than they are buying from us, and to do that we are becoming indebted to them (through their ownership of U.S. Treasury bonds and other securities). That reduces present U.S. employment somewhat, although U.S. unemployment is still far below that of most other industrialized countries. When those foreigners who hold our debt start cashing in on it by purchasing U.S. goods, there will be higher employment, but a lower standard of living because many of those goods will be going abroad rather than being available for use by Americans.

That’s the reality, whether you like it or not.

Ted44.

You’re correct, North Carolina is not a foreign country, however that doesn’t do much for the thousands of the employees at AGE that are losing our jobs…

What about the jobs lost at Olin Matheson in East Alton, Illinois?

One of my colleagues, Christopher Boyce, reported recently that Olin is laying off 87 people at its ammunition plant, starting next month. Those job losses should show up in the June or July statistics.

To Ted44
Uh, the REAL reality is that Wachovia outsources TONS of jobs to other countries. That is what I meant by America outsourcing. And in reality, by giving everything but our tails to foreign aid, it does reduce our standard of living and costs americans more. I’m just sick and tired of America footing the bill for seemingly everything.

It’s understandably hard to recognize this when you have lost a job with a financial services firm, but the U.S. has far too many people employed by such firms, essentially competing with each other to convince investors that they can deliver the highest investment returns for them. If the U.S. is going to maintain its standard of living in the future in a world where there is ever-increasing competition for real goods, we are going to need more people producing real consumer goods like automobiles and synthetic fuel and elder care services, and fewer doing sales and paper-shuffling (or its electronic equivalent) as they do with financial service firms, insurance companies, advertising agencies, and the like.

The financial services industry provides a vital function of allocating capital, but it has far too many people in it to do so efficiently. A major reason for this is that it has a “winner take all” type of pay structure, whereby many people are attracted to the industry by the dream of becoming one of the relative few who make mega-salaries. Unfortunately — as demonstrated by the recent collapses of many “big name” financial firms — many of these mega-salaries are based on hype and luck rather than genuine financial expertise of the type possessed by, say, Warren Buffet. Most other financial big-shots are overly-compensated parasites on the economy whose greed, conspicuous consumption, and whining about the taxes that they pay gives American capitalism a black eye.

My question is, should companies care about creating jobs for people? As a shareholder, I would want that company to generate the highest profit as possible. If outsourcing is the only way to cut cost then be it. Just like you and me, we look for the best deal when we shop. Why can’t a company do that when they are shopping for human resource?