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July 18th could be a significant day for the economy. Prepare accordingly.

99.5% of all the employees at the major rail companies have voted to go on strike that day. So far Congress hasn't done anything yet to stop it, but they do still have time. Also, it's not really being picked up by the MSM yet.

Working conditions have gotten horrific at these companies, and it has been intentional. The prevailing theory is they're trying to drive enough workers away so they can go to Congress and claim they no longer can find workers to staff the required "2 men per engine". This would save them money. They've been cutting costs everywhere possible, despite being profitable, and it has been a part of what is plaguing the overall economy. This has even led to people testifying before Congress recently.

Anyone want to take a guess on why these corporations would be fucking over their staff and risking the entire country's economy just to scrap together a little more in savings every quarter?

If the railroads are shut down for even a day, shit's going to hit the fan.

Railroad buddy confirms, CSX has been making life shittier for them for years.

AND.... They have hiring fairs, and will pick a whole bunch of people for the training program, and then never call them.

Railroad buddy gave me all this news too.

Somewhere I predicted a robot McDonald's by the end of this year (or next year?).

McD's says no, they're focusing on mobile ordering. Unless I'm reading this wrong it looks like they're investing a billion dollars into their app.

https://thestack.technology/mcdonalds-r ... alization/

Where

In

The

Fuck can that kind of money possibly be going? Not counting a few servers that can handle a hundred transactions per second, it can't cost $50k to write a mimic for what McD's app does. $10k max on hardware for each store to process the mobile orders, and how many McD's don't have that tech already installed? If I were a big investor I'd be questioning how they're spending a billion a year on technology.

Hell you can create an entire website to buy health insurance for a billion dollars.

I think they should do their best to automate away a few jobs, if they think they still need to have some kitchen staff. It doesn't help to have a working mobile ordering system if your store is closed for lack of workers.

But I guess Chipotle is going for it:

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/robot ... 1658775070

There's an organization that calls recessions. If you are not that organization, you are not making the call. The end.

Sounds like it's Michael Scott who has to stand up and shout, "I DECLARE BANKRUPTCYRECESSION! instead of it being a fixed, objective set of conditions that don't care about politics.

Last quarter, it's like the economy went from a measure of 100, to 99.8. So we made 0.2 fewer widgets in a quarter. Which, a very good argument could be made, is basically noise.

2 consecutive negative quarters of GDP growth is a rule of thumb, but it hardly feels like a recession with unemployment so low, etc. So it's a bit grey. Especially because the GDP drop was so small.

It sounds like the COVID argument. Some people saying, ".01% mortality is nothing, ignore it" and others saying, "But that's like a million people, shut everything down!" Depending on which side of the argument you've chosen to make.

Recessions have meaning. Unlike a million dead people.

TheCatt wrote: ↑Fri Jul 29, 2022 4:36 am 2 consecutive negative quarters of GDP growth is a rule of thumb, but it hardly feels like a recession with unemployment so low, etc.

Just interesting how the definition, or at least according to folks on both sides, changes based on who is in office.

The same folks claiming a recession now would be the same folks saying this isn't a recession if a red tie was in office, and obviously vice versa. (See Ben White's quote above.)

W was getting slammed when he had a good economy and 5.5% unemployment (even though, as we're told when a D is in office, a president has no control over the economy). "Yeah unemployment is low, but they aren't good jobs!"

And now we're in the age of "gig labor" and no one is saying shit about them not being good jobs.

New jobs report was really good, but there's still some red flags.

In great news for employees, there are still more job openings than workers.

Finally back to pre-pandemic employment numbers.

Or one could say Trump numbers.

"These people trying to have work/life balance are bullshit. Fire them and get more desperate people in here we can push around better."

GORDON wrote: ↑Wed Aug 10, 2022 3:20 pm "These people trying to have work/life balance are bullshit. Fire them and get more desperate people in here we can push around better."

There's lots of people coasting at those companies.