Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Joe's News Picks -- October 18, 2011

1 New York Times on the US Postal Union turning to Wall Street Journal for advice on its future. Can Ron Bloom, the restructuring expert who helped shore up the automobile and steel industries in the United States, save the ailing United States Postal Service? The labor union representing more than 280,000 current and retired letter carriers is counting on him. The union’s announcement comes as the postal service, facing a deficit of nearly $10 billion this fiscal year, is confronting critical problems in both revenue and expenses. With nearly 600,000 employees, the agency has huge labor costs even as first-class mail, a major source of revenue, has been declining because of consumers’ increasing use of e-mail. The postal service also must comply with a law requiring a $5.5 billion annual payment to finance the health coverage of future employees — an obligation shared by no other public agency or private company. The postal service says it has overpaid into the federal pension plan and proposes to recover billions of dollars from the government to meet the health payments.

The post office operates 32,000 retail outlets and delivers mail to some 150 million addresses, including businesses, residences and post office boxes. To deliver mail six days a week to those households and businesses, the agency employed about 5,84,000 people last year. Labor costs now account for 80 percent of the agency’s expenses while the United Parcel Service, for example, devotes only 53 percent of expenses to labor costs. Meanwhile, over the last five years, mail volume has declined by more than 43 billion pieces. In that time, the volume of first-class mail declined 25 percent, including a 36 percent decline in individual letters — the kind that use stamps rather than meters.

2 San Francisco Chronicle on a hit-and-run in China sparking outrage. A video showing a toddler being struck twice by vans and then ignored by passers-by is sparking outrage in China and prompting soul-searching over why people didn't help the child. The 2-year-old girl, identified as Wang Yue, is in a coma in critical condition in Guangzhou following Thursday's acciden. The Guangzhou Daily quoted the hospital's head of neurosurgery as saying the girl is likely to remain in a vegetative state if she survives. A closed-circuit television video obtained by state media shows the toddler wandering along a narrow market street in the city of Foshan when she is struck by a van. As several people walk or cycle by, the child lies in a pool of blood and is then hit by another van. All told local media count 18 people passing by before a trash collector finally picks up the child and gives her to a woman identified as her mother. The case is the latest heavily publicized example of Chinese in distress being ignored by fellow citizens in a phenomenon seen as illustrating the corrosive effect China's headlong pursuit of economic growth has had on public ethics.

3 Guardian on scientists advising women to freeze their eggs while they are young, for better fertility. Single women who have their eggs frozen so they can put off having a family till later in life may be delaying the procedure too long, fertility specialists warn. Freezing offers women the chance to store their eggs while they are still in good condition, but many wait until their late-30s, when the quality of their eggs has started to decline, scientists found. (If this is what girls are planning to do, my condolences to young men around the world.)

4 Guardian report that Philips’ job cuts heralds a cold winter for Europe. Philips, the Dutch electronics group, has underscored the harsh prospects for European industry by cutting 4,500 jobs as part of an €800m) savings programme. Philips remains Europe's largest consumer electronics firm and a global leader in lighting but it reported an 85% decline in third quarter net profit to €74m, from €524m a year earlier. Sales were down 1.3% to €5.39bn.

5 Matthew Good writing in Guardian, ‘Don’t occupy Wall Street, surround the Pentagon’. What I want to know is why there aren't throngs of people currently surrounding the Pentagon? Yes, the people of the United States bailed out the villains on Wall Street to the tune of $700bn dollars. That said, why isn't anyone just as disgusted – or far more disgusted – with the fact that the defence budget for the fiscal year 2012 is more than a trillion dollars (supplemental costs included)? That, friends, is approximately one 14th of the entire national deficit of the US and roughly what the US owes China, its largest foreign debtor. And that's not the sum total of a bailout because of financial mismanagement. That's a single, fiscal year's budget all on its own.

6 BBC on Israel swapping over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners to get one of its soldiers released. Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is due to be freed from five years' captivity on Tuesday in return for the release of more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. Sgt Shalit was seized in 2006 by Hamas militants who tunnelled into Israel. The first of 477 Palestinian prisoners due to be freed on Tuesday have now started leaving their jails. The remaining 550 are scheduled to be released next month. "I understand the difficulty in accepting that the vile people who committed the heinous crimes against your loved ones will not pay the full price they deserve," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote in a letter, released by his office, to bereaved Israeli families.

7. BBC on China’s economy slowing. China's economic expansion slowed during the third quarter of the year as government measures to control inflation hurt growth. China's economy grew by 9.1% in the three months to the end of September from a year earlier, down from 9.5% in the previous quarter. The data comes amid fears that a slowdown in the US and Europe's debt crisis may also hurt China's growth. China is the world's second-largest economy.

8 Johannesburg Times on South Africa’s problem in issuing a visa to Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama is to apply for a South African visa for the third time in two years - IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi has invited him to attend a prayer meeting on Human Rights Day next year. The fresh application will be yet another headache for President Jacob Zuma, who was accused of ducking the issue as controversy swirled around the government's stonewalling of the Tibetan spiritual leader's visa bid earlier this month. Recently the government had snubbed a visa application by the Dalai Lama, reinforcing the impression that Zuma was kowtowing to China - South Africa's biggest trading partner - and sparking protests countrywide.

9 Straits Times on Richard Branson opening a spaceport. British billionaire Richard Branson on Monday opened the world's first-ever commercial spaceport in the New Mexico desert, the new home for his company, Virgin Galactic. 'Spaceport America,' as the site is called, will serve 'as the operating hub for Virgin Galactic and is expected to house up to two WhiteKnightTwos and five SpaceShipTwos, in addition to all of Virgin's astronaut preparation facilities and mission control,' said the company. About 150 people already booked for travel on the first flights to orbit attended the event. Among attendees was famed US astronaut - and second human being to step on the moon - Buzz Aldrin.

10 Straits Times on Chinese activists saving 1,000 dogs from slaughter. Animal rights activists brought together through an online campaign have rescued nearly 1,000 dogs on their way to slaughterhouses in south-west China. Around 200 activists stopped three trucks crammed with the dogs on Saturday after a web user calling himself 'Mosquito' called for the rescue on a social media site. The dogs were being taken to be slaughtered for meat, but were freed after two local animal protection groups bought the animals for 80,000 yuan (S$15,969).

11 Wall Street Journal wondering whether the Diwali bonus should be scrapped. With Diwali just around the corner, many employees look forward to a Diwali bonus from their companies. But this universe has been shrinking over the years as companies increasingly have veered away from Diwali bonuses, especially for managers. “Over the last 10 years…the nature of managerial compensation has changed,” says Santrupt Misra, director of human resources at the Aditya Birla Group. “A lot of productivity and performance-linked incentives have come in, which were almost non-existent earlier” thereby making the Diwali bonus less relevant. The “concept of Diwali bonus is more prevalent in ‘Old Economy’ companies like manufacturing and consumer goods,” says Kris Lakshmikanth, chief executive officer of recruitment firm The Head Hunters India Pvt. There, too, companies often restrict the Diwali bonus to their blue-collar workers, in line with regulations. In this globally competitive age, performance-based bonuses best help motivate employees as they are “earned and not just given out,” says Babuji Abraham who heads human resources at information technology firm MindTree Ltd.

12 Abheek Barman in The Economic Times about what Maruti Suzuki must learn. Work practices at Maruti seem to resemble China’s punishing regimes, not Japan’s famed workfloor discipline. Maruti’s contract workers are not contract workers as you and I know, but contractor workers as they used to be on plantations during the colonial era. The job of hiring these workers is given to contractors, who take a cut in the money they get from the company and pass the rest to workers. Maruti must understand today’s workers are tomorrow’s consumers.

13 PK Krishnakumar in The Economic Times on tyre majors scouting for rubber estates abroad as costlier rubber is hiking input prices.

14 AP photo in The Hindu’s Young World, showing baby tortoises chilling out on their mother’s shell.

15 Deccan Chronicle on mobile phone recharge outlets selling mobile phone numbers of their girl customers to unscrupulous people. Mobile recharge shop employees in Kerala apparently write down the approximate ages of the girls when they come to recharge their phones. They then sell a set of 20 numbers to young men, especially college students, for a large amount of money.

16 Mint story on Kingfisher Airlines telling employees that a looming capital crunch and gloomy economic environment are making it difficult to pay salaries on time.

17 Mint story on Amazon cutting out the book publisher and reaching out direct to authors. (Are you planning a book?)

18 Mint stating in ‘OurView’ that it is important that elected, and unelected institutions (like the CAG) respect the boundaries demarcated for them under the constitutional framework. It is time prime minister Manmohan Singh woke up and put an end to the chaos. As a former civil servant he can appreciate the dangers inherent in the civil service acquiring a politicized outlook.

No comments:

Post a Comment