A Real Morale Booster

Reuters is reporting HP to slash workforce by about 10 pct

"They've gotten themselves in fighting shape here," said Caris & Co. analyst Mark Stahlman, adding that it dispels uncertainty, which had been frustrating for some in HP's engineering culture. "I think this is going to give a big boost to morale internally," he said.

Enquiring minds might be asking some of the following questions:

1. When was the last time firing 14,500 people boosted morale?
2. Would firing 20,000 have boosted morale even more?
3. Is there a "Laffer Curve" on firing people to boost morale?

Perhaps HP was jealous of the big morale boost at IBM and Sanyo.
IBM is cutting about 14,000 jobs, mainly in Europe.
Sanyo announced layoffs of 14,000 jobs earlier this month.
Is 14,000 the magic number?

Reports like these are bound to be good news good news for Walmart.

1. There are another 14,500 potential Walmart Greeters searching for jobs.
2. This will keep up the price pressures on Walmart wages.
3. Some of those fired engineers will start shopping at Walmart instead of The Sharper Image.

Seriously, mergers outsourcing and other consolidations are costing the US hundreds of thousands of jobs. Massive amounts of announced layoffs in the banking and telecom industries will start kicking in the second half of the year. Eventually this will spill over and affect housing just as it has in the UK and Australia.

The question I am pondering right now is this:
How much more "morale boosting" can this economy take?

Mike Shedlock / Mish
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/