I’ve whined about this before, but I believe if you’re going to have whine, have lots of it – never too much whine or cheese to go with it, I say! So ask yourself this one: How can productivity increase when the number of jobs is going down? Well, the answer (this is an ugly one) is automation. In other words if 100% of everything was made by machines, then productivity could reach close to 100%, less whatever the breakdown rate of the machines is and whatever eddies and back currents might be left to be wrung out in distribution and inventory turns.
With that are foreplay, here’s the latest edition of factory owner wet-dream economics:
“Nonfarm business sector labor productivity increased at a 9.5 percent annual rate during the third quarter of 2009, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. This was the largest gain in productivity since the third quarter of 2003, when it rose 9.7 percent. Labor productivity, or output per hour, is calculated by dividing an index of real output by an index of hours of all persons, including employees, proprietors, and unpaid family workers. Output increased 4.0 percent and hours worked decreased 5.0 percent in the third quarter of 2009 (All quarterly percent changes in this release are seasonally adjusted annual rates).
From the third quarter of 2008 to the third quarter of 2009, nonfarm business output fell 3.5 percent and hours worked fell faster, 7.5 percent, resulting in a productivity increase of 4.3 percent (tables A and 2). The four-quarter decline in hours was the largest in the series, which begins in 1948. Nonfarm business productivity rose 1.8 percent in 2008, and 2.6 percent per year on average during the 2001-2007 period corresponding to the last complete business cycle.
Unit labor costs in nonfarm businesses fell 5.2 percent in the third quarter of 2009; the increase in productivity outpaced the increase in hourly compensation. Unit labor costs declined 3.6 percent over the last four quarters–the largest decrease since the series began in 1948 (tables A and 2). BLS defines unit labor costs as the ratio of hourly compensation to labor productivity; increases in hourly compensation tend to increase unit labor costs and increases in output per hour tend to reduce them.
Productivity increased 9.8 percent in the business sector in the third quarter of 2009. This was the largest increase in the series since the second quarter of 1972. Unit labor costs decreased 5.1 percent during the third quarter of 2009
Best I can tell, we should have started crashing the economy years ago. Just think how high productivity could have been? Why, there’s no limit except 100%, is there? Fire everyone!
Ooops! Forgot: we’re already doing that…
Victims of Productivity
14-week extension of unemployment benefits was passed by the Senate Wednesday. Green shoots! Green shoots!
Lorem Ipsum Fedum
I suppose the FOMC statement is not exactly ‘lorem ipsum’ text – used by page layout people (and graphic artistas) as dummy text to see roughly how a page would look, but it’s close if you compare the following:
“In these circumstances, the Federal Reserve will continue to employ a wide range of tools to promote economic recovery and to preserve price stability. The Committee will maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 1/4 percent and continues to anticipate that economic conditions, including low rates of resource utilization, subdued inflation trends, and stable inflation expectations, are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate for an extended period. .
Which looks to my eye remarkably like:
“Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Sed ut perspiciatis, unde omnis iste natus error sit”
See? Makes about as much sense to me, honestly, or near enough to pass for honesty inside the Beltway.
Free Money Department
The Banksters of England are getting another $40-billion worth of easy money to spur economic growth. Unsaid: That if the economy was recovering nice and strongly they wouldn’t need to keep going through quantative easings, would they? Don’t know why I was compelled to point out the obvious. Maybe I should just shut up.
Money In the Air
Here’s something for travel agents and airline yield management types: If you take the report that “Orbitz Swings to Profit” in the Wall St. Journal’s fine online edition, you can see they have revenue of $187-million expected on $2.57 billion in sales which pencils out to airlines, hotels, and car outfits paying booking commissions of 7.28% roughly. Interesting number, huh?
Return of Reasonable
Earlier this morning the Dow futures were showing down a tad. Gold was still within striking distance of the $1,100 mark, although Kitco was showing the high was $1,095.20 at their end of things….
Good News For Mice
Zeus the cat – our once wild feline male until he visited Dr. Snippet in town – was shocked by the headline, but there it was: “World first as swine flu found in US cat…“
I’ve always suspected there was something wrong with Zeus – his piggish ways at the food bowl – maybe this is it?
A while back Zeus asked me about ordering some D-Conn and was stumped as to why his search for D-Conn led him to (among other places) representative Christopher Dodd of Connecticut.
“Zeus,” I explained pulling up the Google results “You’re looking for d-CONN for mice, not the D-Conn as in rat…see how case-changes changes things in specified searches?” Dumb cat.
Zeus claims to have a doctor’s exemption letter, but I’ve informed him that there would be no exemptions issued by here Ranchland Security. As things have worked out, I’ve got him doing extra chores around the place (detailing cars and such) and he’s living in mortal fear of a mandatory shot screwing up his fine sense of smell, night vision, taste buds, and what have you.
“Zeus, these are things we have to do for America.”
How Many Satellites?
How much junk is circling the earth now? Nearly 20,000 if you count spent rocket stages and such, and there are plans to throw another 500 up between now and the end of the year according to this report.
Weasel Words & Government Department
The headline in the NY Times that “E.U. Leaders Bolster Internet Access Protections” comes atop a very revealing story which anyone interested in ‘net freedom’ and ‘net neutrality’ ought to read.
Underlying all this is digital copyright law and how it’s going to be applied.
Ever since I started up UrbanSurvival, I’ve made it a point to cite sources with links and I never use more than very short extracts because I respect the intellectual property of others. As changes in copyright laws come down the pike, it will likely put a lot of sites – especially the so-called ‘forums’ where people have this nasty habit of posting entire articles and claim that it’s their right to do so. Posting an entire article is not defensible, in my view, but other’s don’t seem to understand what short extract as – parts of a larger discussion means.
The problem is that there has to be a line drawn somewhere – between the “wild westers’ who want no restrictions at all and some governments which would like to be able to shut down and seize servers and such without due process.
Keep an eye on this one – could be a biggie since what happens there is likely, in some form or another, to happen here, too.
How Many Downloads?
Within weeks of crossing the 2-billion downloads mark – that’s some kinda bandwidth, huh? – Apple’s App Store out with word that they have 100,000 Aps to choose from.
If things are really boring in your life, you might consider buying an iPhone just so you can access this huge shopping time sink. Wonder how long it would take to read the product descriptions alone?
Obama Kinder
Bad as talking to my cat is, it makes more sense that the report from Big Hollywood titled “ELEMENTARY EPIDEMIC: 11 Uncovered Videos Show School Children Performing Praises to Obama.”
40 Somethings
Speaking of kids and such: Sesame Street is about to turn 40.
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Know what’s weird about America? I never realized until this morning but we may live in a land where there are more iPhone aps than intelligence and spirit raising television programs to watch. Just sayin…oh….you know…unintended consequences…over powered by monkey mind…the whole lot of it…