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To: CommanderCricket who wrote (82576)	4/5/2007 4:08:21 PM
From: Broken_Clock	Respond to of 206326

To: mishedlo who wrote (65017) 4/5/2007 2:54:41 PM From: Crimson Ghost of 65021 Memo To The Media: How To Cover The Debt Crisis by Danny Schechter \| Apr 5 2007 - 8:45am Well over a year ago, I wrote an article for Harvard's journalism journal Nieman Reports complaining about deeply flawed media coverage of credit and debt issues in America. "There is a credit divide in America that fuels our economic divide," I wrote, warning of a potential economic implosion because so many Americans are squeezed by a debt squeeze. I was not alone in projecting a crisis, although my focus was more on the failure of many media outlets to track the problem and ask deeper questions. "Ours has become a nation in which the carrot of instant affluence is quickly menaced by the harsh stick of bill collectors, lawsuits, and foreclosures," I argued. "And yet, this bubble can burst: The slickest of our bankers and the savviest of our marketers have been able to undo the law of gravity, that what goes up must come down." One didn't have to be an expert to see the warning signs which have since led to a massive market meltdown, a collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market, bankruptcies by leading financial lenders, billions of dollars in losses by top banks and financial lenders, and predictions of more pain to come with nearly two million Americas facing a foreclosures. When I started making a film on the subject, In Debt We Trust, colleagues warned me that the issue might be too obscure to rate media coverage. "No one likes to talk about money," said a producer friend. "This could be such a downer." Now what are they saying? It doesn't feel good to be right when so many people are being wronged. At the time I called on media outlets to take some steps to beef up their reporting. Most didn't, but it's never too late. Here's what I proposed then, and repeat now: * Report more regularly on these credit issues; billions of dollars are involved, not to mention millions of lives. * Identify the key corporate institutions and contrast the compensation of their executives with the financial circumstances of their customers. Look into the process of "financialization" that is transferring more wealth from the bottom to the top of society. * Shine a spotlight on how special interests and lobbyists for financial institutions contribute to members of Congress and other politicians, across party lines, to ensure their desired policies and lack of regulations. * Expose political influence driven by campaign contributions. Some reporting about this took place during the bankruptcy debate, but there has been little follow-up. * Examine the influence credit card companies have on media coverage through their extensive and expensive advertising. * Take a hard look at the predatory practices in poor neighborhoods - and crimes committed against poor people, who are least able to defend themselves. Legal service lawyers tell me that they are overwhelmed by the scale of mortgage scams involving homes whose value have been artificially inflated. * Focus attention on what consumers can do to fight back. Robert Manning, author of "Credit Card Nation," explains: "If ten percent of American credit cardholders withheld their monthly payments, it would bring the financial services industry to a standstill. At a larger issue, what we have to do is to get people involved at the state level, get their state attorney generals involved, aggressively filing class action lawsuits and then putting pressure on key legislators to say, 'This is unacceptable that they're not representing and balancing the issues of commerce with consumers. The balance is tilted dramatically against the average American.'" * Report on initiatives like Americans For Debt Relief Now that are setting up community, church and grass roots house party screenings of the IN DEBT WE TRUST. We need to educate the public about the deeper forces at work and the need for structural changes, urgent reforms and regulations and new consumer protections. We need to stop restating problems and start exploring solutions. The globalization of our economy is about more than outsourcing of jobs. There is a deeper shift underway from a society based around production, with the factory as the symbol of American economic prowess, to a culture driven by consumption, with the mall as its new dominant icon. Class struggle today is assuming a new form in the conflict between creditors and lenders that reaches into many Americans' homes, where each month bills are juggled and rejuggled with today's credit card bills paid by tomorrow's new card. Meanwhile, with interest compounding at usurious rates, indebtness grows and people sink even deeper into debts they cannot manage. No wonder we are becoming a nation of scammers with consumers using every trick they can think of against banks that hide their predatory practices in legalese. In this conflict, financial institutions function as well-organized machines while individual borrowers are forced to react as individuals. Many are browbeaten with lectures about "personal responsibility" by corporations that only pay lip service to any form of social responsibility while paying their own executives obscenely high salaries. Centuries ago, we had debtors prisons. Today, many of our homes are similar kinds of prisons, where debtors struggle for survival with personal finance pressures. Who is really responsible for this? Few of us seem to know. And fewer appear to know what can be done about it. "They're never going to be repaid," says economic historian Michael Hudson who for many years worked at Chase Bank. "Adam Smith said that no government had ever repaid its debts and the same can be said of the private sector. The U.S. government does not intend to repay its trillion dollar debt to foreign central banks and, even if it did intend to, there's no way in which it could. Most of the corporations now are avoiding paying their pension fund debts and their health care debts." Yes, these can be complicated issues that lead to tune-out, what TV producers call the 'Mego Effect" -- "my eyes glaze over." Yet because so many people are involved, it is urgent that our media push these issues from the business pages to the front pages and humanize them so we can try to wrestle our lives back from the ravages of a relentless debt machine. _______

To: CommanderCricket who wrote (82576)	4/5/2007 9:41:38 PM
From: Cogito Ergo Sum	Respond to of 206326

Not the end of the world... but wealth will be shared now with China and India... but they add consumers to the pool also.. so not so bleak.. The Chinese government will find a way to make sure Chinese don't just stuff their savings into their mattresses... or China is cooked.. Losing jobs to America :O) Not a labour issue though... 680news.com Ceramic Protection pulls up Canadian roots, moving headquarters to Florida April 3, 2007 - 16:45 By: DINA O?MEARA CALGARY (CP) - Armour manufacturer Ceramic Protection Corp. (TSX:CEP) said Tuesday it will be pulling out of its headquarters in Calgary to set up its corporate base in the United States, which is its biggest market. The company, with roots in the oil and gas industry, sells armour plating and body armour to military and police customers. Its head office will move later this year to Sunrise, Fla., where it has a manufacturing plant. The move follows the US$35-million corporate combination last May with Florida-based Protection Products International Corp., a maker of soft armour products. Ceramic Protection CEO Steven Giordanella, formerly chief executive of Protection Products International, said in a conference call the company will be relocating to his original base in Florida. "We'd be listed as a U.S. company, as opposed to a Canadian company," he said. The writing had been on the wall since Giordanella stepped in to run the company, analyst Philip Tulk of Pacific International Securities said from Vancouver. "The vast bulk of their customers and manufacturing is in the U.S.," he said. "And to some degree the kind of customers they sell to want a U.S.-made product, and they want to buy from a U.S. company. So, this makes some sense." Ceramic Protection began in Calgary making ceramic liners, nozzles and inverters for petroleum-industry equipment. The company went public in 1996, expanding into industrial personnel protection systems and ballistic armour, and taking a Canadian lead in increasingly high-tech flack jackets and lightweight vehicle armour. Ceramic Protection now is a supplier of high-density ballistic ceramics for U.S. military vehicles, as well as the Department of Homeland Security and police services across North America. However, a drop in demand for boron carbide hard armour, which made up 86 per cent of Ceramic Protection's first-quarter revenues last year, took its toll in 2006. Sales of hard armour have recently dropped to a negligible portion of company revenues. Soft armour, Giordanella's speciality, provided some protection, but offers softer margins and harsher competition than Ceramic Protection's former business. The company reported a $1.4-million net loss in the fourth quarter, including a $1.9-million impairment charge to write down the ceramic wear product book value to zero after no buyer could be found. Fourth-quarter revenue increased 17 per cent to $16.7 million, with annual sales up 40 per cent to $76.9 million thanks to the inclusion of soft armour sales. Ceramic Protection shares closed Tuesday at $14.25 on the TSX, off 25 cents on the day, with a 52-week range between $25.65 and $13.40. These types of jobs are going though.. 680news.com T-shirt maker Gildan completes shrinkage of North American manufacturing March 27, 2007 - 16:56 By: CLAUDE FOURNIER President and CEO of Gildan Activewear Glenn Chamandy.(CPimages/Ryan Remiorz) MONTREAL (CP) - T-shirt maker Gildan Activewear Inc. (TSX:GIL) will cut more than 1,800 jobs in North America as it moves the last of its manufacturing to Central America and the Caribbean to challenge Asian competitors. The company's stock gained about two per cent to an all-time high after Gildan said it will shut down its two remaining textile plants in Montreal as well as a cutting facility in Bombay, N.Y., and two sewing factories in Mexico. "We need to have a low cost base in order to be cost-effective with the Asian competitors," company vice-president Cam Gentile said Tuesday. Gentile pointed to intense price competition from countries like Bangladesh, and said it costs $3 more to make a dozen T-shirts in North America than in Central America. Before Tuesday's announcement, more than 90 per cent of Gildan's underwear, sock, activewear and finishing production was already done in countries such as Honduras and the Dominican Republic, where the company has invested in state-of-the-art technology. The company expects the latest moves to save US$45 million in annual manufacturing, freight and duty costs. The Montreal-based company said 390 employees in Canada, 75 in the United States and 1,365 in Mexico will lose their jobs as it finishes shrinking its North American operations. Last September, Gildan announced 550 job cuts in the Montreal area and in the United States, where it has a plant in Bombay, N.Y. A Gildan spokeswoman said the company remains committed to keeping its head office in Montreal, although the personnel will move to another location. The corporate head office has resources that will be used to support the local management teams in the countries where Gildan has manufacturing operations, said Genevieve Gosselin. Gentile said Gildan has studied the global market in depth and had no choice but to close North American operations that are "being attacked by imports coming from Asia and other global producers." The company promised severance packages to employees, along with retraining and help to look for other jobs. "They're upset," said Nanthakumar Pirani, a father of three who has worked for Gildan in Montreal for 15 years. "Everybody has to look for a job," he said, adding he was nervous about telling his family he will be unemployed. The Montreal and New York state plants will close this summer; the Mexican plants are being shut down immediately. As it abandons its Montreal knitting facility, Gildan will move its head office from that building to leased space elsewhere in the Montreal area. Gildan, the market-share leader in wholesale T-shirts, is now moving into the retail market, selling its own brand of socks and underwear in some U.S. and Canadian regional markets. It wants to take on Fruit of the Loom and Hanes with a full product line soled through a major retailer such as Wal-Mart (TSX:WMT). The operational changes announced Tuesday entail charges of US$21.5 million or 35 cents per share. This includes 29 cents per share for severance and other cash items, and six cents per share in non-cash writedowns. Management expects to realize US$15 million from the sale of buildings and surplus equipment. Earnings per share for the financial year ending in September now are projected at US$2.20 on sales of $975 million. Gildan shares gained $1.21 to close at $67.03 on the Toronto Stock Exchange after trading as high as $67.61 on Tuesday's news.