Its only taken a generation for ATMs to start producing the staffing efficiencies they promised.

The cuts represent 20% of the 45,000 staff employed in the bank's "group manufacturing" division, which includes back office operations, purchasing, IT and property management.

45,000 back office staff? Why not cut 70% of them and see where you actually notice the change?

45,000 back office staff? Why not cut 70% of them and see where you actually notice the change?

Don't worry. This is just the warmup

totally agree... 1/3 the cost of a Real car? shut GM down Today. they're FOS idiots.

It looks fun! Like it would make a great go kart. I would completely tear around in one. Just give it to me for free.

But if I want to tool around on sunny summer days, I can get a scooter than runs forever on a gallon of gas, with about a zillion less moving parts, and it won't have built in GPS and electronics that spy on me for the police, and it'll cost 1/4 what they want to charge for the PUMA. And I can park it in my basement over the winter, because I sure hope nobody thinks I'm going to ride that thing in the snow.

But it'll have a breathalyzer that arrests you and drives you to jail if someone drunk walks by, so it will be proclaimed the most advanced and safest vehicle ever produced.

It might make an interesting rental vehicle in the zipcar style, but it would have to be pretty cheap, like 20/day, it doesn't seem to offer much.

Anonymous wrote on Tue, 04/07/2009 - 8:34am.
'--Like it or not, there will be an Exurban Nation--'
Wow - since when did back to the land types start posting here?

Since 2006. Exurban is not the same a rural. It means a post cenurban built environment. For back to the land you'd have to ask Blackstar Ranch as most of the rest who are "prepared" don't talk about it much.

1,434,839 views

The GM/Segway egg reminds me of this: The 2012 Pelosi Sport
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAqPMJFaEdY

That's just precious.

Re: IMF's Special Drawing Rights

Just what currency will these be denomination in? Just another fiat conduit until it is a tradeable currency.

Dawg - they might no even have to print them... just digits on a computer to represent the transfer of $US or Euros.

IMF is the new black hole.

Individually, these job losses are a tragedy. But collectively they are progress!

"New York Insurance Commissioner Eric Dinallo, the most vocal advocate for regulating credit-default swaps, told Congress on Oct. 18 that regulators were working in a vacuum.

"Because the credit default swap market is not regulated, we do not have valid data on the number of swaps outstanding," he said."

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/65609.html

---

what? huh?

i thought in a systemic emergency the treasury and fed rsrv had all this power and authority

how about, "fed to bankstas report now or be disolved"

GS needs to hurry up and finish that capital raise, otherwise my puts will never pay off. Seriously, how greedy are those btards? $118?

I'm expecting a secondary offering at $100-$110 "to help pay down TARP funds".

That is a level of staffing that exists only to accommodate the meetings-to-plan-meetings world of people who are expected to spend more time monitoring their schedules and email boxes than doing their jobs.

Nice.

I copied and pasted that BR - sent it to a couple buddies engaged in war with IB funded PE firms - hope you don't mind. They will get it immediately.

BTW it's not 'bloat' it's 'stimulus'.

[/snark]

"The Charge off of the Light Brigade

Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Debt, RBS:
Wrote off the nine thousand.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!
"Charge off and be gone!" he said:
Into the valley of Debt
Rode the nine thousand."

A lovely topical parody. Congratulations.

"What we have created now is a situation where the banks who will be able to earn their way out of a hole, but by doing that, they are going to weigh on the economy. Instead of stimulating the economy, they will draw the lifeblood, so to speak, of profits away from the real economy in order to keep themselves alive."

george soros

http://www.reuters.com/article/wtUSInvestingNews/idUSTRE53537D20090406?s...

"U.S. consumer spending has to fall to 60 percent of gross domestic product, compared two-thirds now, he continued."

"The recovery will look like "an inverted square root sign," Soros said: "You hit bottom and you automatically rebound some, but then you don't come out of it in a V-shape recovery or anything like that. You settle down -- step down."

(In the fourth quarter, the U.S. economy contracted at a 6.3 percent annualized rate, and economists think the first quarter's slide will be at least as severe, if not worse. from article, not a quote)

from up thread post,,,,, "market value and fair price are not the same thing"

i think thats what karl marx said too, and maybe sometimes thats right (or left)

test

"We are creating or saving 4 MILLION jobs. YES. WE. CAN. "

Oh GS is up on a Moody's downgrade. I get it now.

Wow - since when did back to the land types start posting here?

It just isn't going to happen - cities aren't going to go away.

People misread Rob Dawg - it isn't that cities will go away... its that the current myth of 'density' is equally unsustainable as the moonscape we call 'The Inland Empire'. If you doubt that - consider how all the inputs [food, water, energy & 'consumables'] get into a super high density central city like say Manhattan and how the waste [sewage, garbage & disposed of consumables] get's out. The higher the density the bigger the problem the greater the 'waste' supporting the system.

In math we would refer to ultra low density and ultra high density as undefined boundary conditions... they won't apply to reality. The in betweens will be where most of us live... modestly dense cities to modestly sparse ex-urbia and a lot in between.

But considering that isn't as much fun as knee jerk extremes either side of the issue.

Now back to your regularly scheduled doom and gloom.

We in Manhattan spend less per capita on waste management.

P E R C A P I T A

We in Manhattan spend less per capita on waste management.

Because you dump it either in the ocean or in Pennsylvania [or put on a ship to the third world]... I live in a town nearby where they 'process' waste from the Twin Cities an hour drive - not even close to as dense or large as compared to Manhattan and it is a nightmare - garbage all over the roads... pollution of all kinds everywhere. I can only imagine the 'short cuts' they use to keep it cheap for New Yorkers.
.
Of course the city people don't see that. Make them pre-process their own shit LOCALLY and a lot of the allure of density goes away. Instead somebody else gets stuck with that monstrous flow... and if we complain we are 'NIMBYs'.
.
Same with inputs - you should see the mass of logistics located outside cenurbs just so fresh veggies can get into the city while they are still 'fresh.' Be a lot easier if city people just agreed to eat freeze dried food - like on a space station.
.
Like I suggested above - the optimum isn't on the 'extremes'.
.

And where exactly does our density come from?

They're not born here like me. Our birth rate is much lower than yours, but not our homeless shelter programs.

"cenurbists"

This stumped even google. Def?

btw, does this mean blooming of a thousand hedgefunds?? (assumption that nine staff per would be about right)

"Where's the refresh button on the comments? "

F5 in Firefox and Explorer.