Forbes predictions begin coming true. 1st Big Chain shutting down.

[DMark]

Car and Driver Magazine ..........

 

I have had a subscription to C&D for over 30 years.  In the past couple of years the magazine has become unreadable.  Its almost like they are trying to make the printed page appear tablet like - - - its indecipherable.  :yuck:

 

I had already made the decision not to renew when my subscription ends in May. 

 

Wonder if there will still be anyone at the magazine to notice.

[DMark]

.... If we the people had organized to protect our jobs like we did for the Great 2013 Gun Scare, we would be sending food today to starving China-men, instead of our jobs.   Our country could have levied great duties on anything imported that was already made here.  Would we made some countries angry, yes, but who cares.  This is our home, our jobs...... 

 

Clinton pushed Congress to permanently normalize trade relations with Beijing, helping to ease China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO).  Every member of Congress who voted for that in 1999 and which Clinton signed into law in 2000 should have a pox upon them and their households.

 

In a letter to the house pushing for the change in trade with China, Clinton wrote, "China with more than a billion people is home to the largest potential market in the world.  If Congress makes the right decision, our companies will be able to sell and distribute products in China made by American workers on American soil, without being forced to relocate manufacturing to China.  We will be able to export products without exporting jobs."

 

So how is that going Mr. Clinton?

[tartanphantom]

Apparently, Darden is denying claims that Red Lobster will "close"... but a spinoff sale seems to be in the making.

 

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/false-alarm-red-lobster-closing/story?id=21351799

[bart305]

You got to love a free market.  These companies could have changed or adapted their business model to include internet sales.  They lack vision.  They once had the necessary capital to put any start up internet company out of business.  Cudos to the new entrepreneurs that created Amazon, Ebay, Newegg, TigerDirect, Optics Planet, Midway, etc.  How did Walmart destroy Kmart and Sears, a vision and determination. 

 

But I still contend that a strong U.S. economy with an attitude of protectionism, and likely these companies would not be threatened.

 

I'll pass on the protectionism. The jobs you would protect would cost us all in ways we cannot imagine. These are businesses which are failing, not industries. Restaurants and retailers will still be around long after we are gone, only the names will change. As for manufacturing, as a percentage of the workforce it has been on a slow decline for decades, not just here but around the world. Just as farming which occupied 80+% of the workforce in the 1800s is less than what, 3% now, automation allows more to be made by fewer every year. In many ways we are living in the best of times. If only I could find some .22lr.