Tech layoffs and share prices don't add up: Cutting costs at financial peaks?

[DonquixoteIII]

Just know that terms like "diversity hires" or "DEI" are supremacist dog whistles. I'm referring to the two comments above. This is how supremacists explain to themselves why there might be brown and female faces within a sector or in positions of power/high visibility.



There's actually an answer to this. Companies will just keep globalizing their customer base even further, turning increasingly to other markets outside domestic ones to keep afloat. For example, if you look at Hollywood, you'll see that our movies are no longer made for American audiences but foreign ones and are even being bankrolled by foreign companies.



All Americans have to do is lobby to get them broken up or stop giving them so much spending power. Instead of boycotting and lobbying, we're handing all of our money to these companies and, to make matters worse, letting them get away with murder (tax fraud, bailouts, etc.).

OOhhh... I am now a "supremacist dog whistle". Always wanted to be one of those....

 

[rhdevries]

Microsoft hired 221,000 people in 2023 according to their 10K filing. That's an average of 4,250 per week. They announced 1900 layoffs in the last 2 weeks according to this article. It's nothing. Simple fact is that the media is drawn to layoffs but the relentless process of hiring tens of thousands of people per month doesn't make the same headlines.

 

[Endymio]

OOhhh... I am now a "supremacist dog whistle". Always wanted to be one of those....

The phrase "dog whistle" is itself a dog whistle for vapid pseudo-intellectuals; it allows them to convert what you actually said into whatever they wish.

 

[VaRmeNsI]

So you agree your initial contention that "centralized fiat currency" was responsible for the "megacorp" of the East India Trading Company was incorrect?

My initial contention was that fiat money will end with megacorps, before fiat money government sanction was usually the only way to achieve such a status.

 

[Endymio]

My initial contention was that fiat money will end with megacorps, before fiat money government sanction was usually the only way to achieve such a status.

A fallacious viewpoint contradicted endlessly by historical fact. As just one counter-example, I give you Standard Oil, which at one point controlled more than 80% of the world (not the US) oil supply, long before the US had fiat currency. Nor did Standard Oil have any "government sanction" to implement its monopoly, rather it did so by sheer efficiency-of-scale. In the 1880s, Standard Oil was managing to pull oil from the ground from deep, expensive US wells, ship it halfway around the world in slow-moving sailing ships, and sell it cheaper than local competitors, right on the banks of the Caspian Basin, where oil was literally oozing out of the ground.

 

[wiyosaya]

It makes complete sense. Anticipation of a rather large downturn in the economy. Inflation takes it's toll. All of the Wall Street big wigs are not very excited about 2024.

I guess you have not been paying attention to the fact that inflation is, and has been, easing. Either that, or you are simply being sarcastic without any indication of sarcasm.

 

[atomicgirl]

The phrase "dog whistle" is itself a dog whistle for vapid pseudo-intellectuals; it allows them to convert what you actually said into whatever they wish.

A lot of pseudo-intellectuals who have no idea what intellectualism or pseudo-intellectualism mean think that calling the ones who use it pseudo-intellectuals makes them intellectual.

That's the problem with the internet. People using terms correctly and as they're meant to be used are now on an equal playing field with the ones who picked them off from social media and Reddit and casually toss them around like a beanbag in a game of hacky sack.

 

[WhoCaresAnymore]

I guess you have not been paying attention to the fact that inflation is, and has been, easing. Either that, or you are simply being sarcastic without any indication of sarcasm.

No sarcasm. Inflation can stop, but we would then be stuck with prices of everything well exceeding any raises of income. Groceries are around 30-40% higher, electricity and utilities (In my state) have applied again for another raise coming this year. You can say inflation is easing, but it won't undo the damage. Damage is done.

 

[Endymio]

I guess you have not been paying attention to the fact that inflation is, and has been, easing.

Inflation rose in December's CPI report, up slightly from the previous month. And while annualized overall inflation rate is 3.6%, the inflation rate for services and energy is 5.4%, a measure which impacts businesses far more than the price of eggs. (whose price drop in recent months sharply reduced the *consumer* price index).

Furthermore, from a business perspective, the primary damage for high inflation isn't prices themselves, but the crushingly high interest rates they generate. At the beginning of 2022, the Fed's benchmark interest rate was 0.25%. Today it stands at 5.5% -- more than twenty times higher. Corporations operate off capital, and high interest rates make capital exorbitantly expensive.

 

[Endymio]

A lot of pseudo-intellectuals who have no idea what intellectualism or pseudo-intellectualism mean think that calling the ones who use it pseudo-intellectuals makes them intellectual.

It seems I struck a nerve. Rather than offering you some word salad dressing, I'll simply ask if you feel that "white supremists" were the ones using the DEI phrase in the following article:

" Effective diversity, equity, and inclusion practices (Canadian College of Health Leaders)
... For successful [patient treatment] transformation to take place, strategies should focus on “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” (DEI) versus “diversity” alone and on creating inclusive team environments for positive staff experiences/engagement....."

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0840470418773785

 

[atomicgirl]

OOhhh... I am now a "supremacist dog whistle". Always wanted to be one of those....

Yes, you are using it. The concept of "diversity hires" and such goes back to the 1980s, when supremacists would automatically deem any minority or female hire as only being hired to fill a quota, even if the person had credentials a mile long and had rightfully earned their position. If they had credentials, then quotas and Affirmative Action could explain how they were able to get highly specialized degrees.

This concept was invented back then to explain to disgruntled white workers why, under Reagan Conservatism, they were losing their jobs. They were losing their jobs because Neoliberals completely deregulated business and gave companies a greenlight to outsource, automate and mass layoff jobs left and right. To keep those whites in the dark, the supremacists went, "It's not that your own people exported your jobs to Third World countries, closing factories and mass laying off millions of people to give CEOs bonuses. See all the brown people and women who are entering your jobs? They were all diversity and quota hires."

Big Tech and multinational monopolies doing the same thing that Reagan Conservatives aka Neoliberals did back then, except trying to gaslight whites as to why they're now losing so many jobs or economic ground. It's not due to automation, AI, monopolies destroying millions of jobs or the Gig Economy. It's "diversity hires", etc. How do you know? Just seeing a black face or female is proof enough.

Point is, your usage of certain terms is rooted in decades of this thinly veiled racist nonsense, some much older than you. Instead of responding with sarcasm in response to someone calling you out, try to find out the history behind the language you are using.

 

[atomicgirl]

" Effective diversity, equity, and inclusion practices (Canadian College of Health Leaders)
... For successful [patient treatment] transformation to take place, strategies should focus on “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” (DEI) versus “diversity” alone and on creating inclusive team environments for positive staff experiences/engagement....."

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0840470418773785

Canadian?

But we're talking about American tech companies. Not Canadian companies. What does a Canadian concept have to do with the United States?

 

[Endymio]

Canadian?

But we're talking about American tech companies. Not Canadian companies. What does a Canadian concept have to do with the United States?

LOL, this is your rebuttal? NY State and California both have official DEI government offices now. California's specifically has as one goal to require all state agencies to enforce DEI practices not just internally, but to the businesses and communities they oversee.

Forbes Magazine article: "The Future Of Diversity And Inclusion In Corporate America" states that DEI programs are now commonplace in US firms -- the author laments only the fact that they believe such programs are often directed more at simply avoiding lawsuits, rather than actually "building empathy".

The New York Times writes how the "OneTen" DEI initiative -- founded by AT&T, Delta, Cisco, Nike, Bank of America, and many other US corporations -- is now "struggling" in an environment that increasingly pushes back against DEI efforts.

NEO Legal Firm primer: "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Nonprofit Bylaws": "Commitment to DEI may be demonstrated through leadership, governance policies, recruitment, power-sharing, and importantly, accountability. From a corporate law perspective, one way to lock DEI in as a core value of an organization is to include DEI principles and language into an organization’s Bylaws. As a manual for the Directors and officers in governing the organization, Bylaws that include DEI provisions function as a sign that the organization will devote meaningful resources to those values."