Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Efficiency and Market Disciplines Apply Only to Individual Workers, Not to Oligarchic, Bloated, and Risky Corporations



Sometimes the spatial arrangement of news articles in the newspaper reveals "deep politics," as illustrated below from this photo of the front page from the Wall Street Journal Monday August 22, 2016.

The first article addresses corporate welfare by central banks:
Christopher Whittall (8/22/2016). Stimulus Efforts Get Weirder." The Wall Street Journal Monday August 22, 2016. A1.
 The second article explores the ultra-lean workplace where every employee is under duress to demonstrate how they add value:
Lauren Weber (8/22/2016). Nowhere to for 'Dead Wood' Workers. The Wall Street Journal Monday August 22, 2016. A1.

 

In the case of the first article, "Stimulus Efforts Get Weirder", the European Central Bank is doling out corporate welfare to under-peforming companies in the form of a corporate-bond buying program that is so lucrative for companies that some "are creating new debt especially for the central bank to buy." The process has been expedited so that in some cases the ECB has bought directly from companies (sans auction).

In the second article, "Nowhere to Hide," we see that companies are actively seeking out and eliminating "under-performing" workers, cast as "dead wood." Big data tools are employed to track employee performance.

In the first article, we see government bailing out under-performing companies, in a manner seen as excessive even by the pro-business Wall Street Journal.

In the second article, we see a different standard of treatment for workers, who are increasingly disposable as new technology and automation replace their labor.

Efficiency and market disciplines only seem to apply to individual workers not to large companies.

The merger of the state and corporate sector has a name.

 

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for this. IG Farben have shown the way. Elisabeth

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  2. Who is going to tear down the rickety old reactors? Who is going to have to go in when they fail?. There are so many things humans can do now. It is actually worst than the last great depression. Real unemployment of 23% by 1950s labor department standards. Millions homeless in jails and prisons. Just a crying shame things got tangled up this badly. Read Jim kunstlers latest. It goes far explaining some things.

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