Labor

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

Employers have no choice: it's innovate/automate or die.

Automation--networked robotics, software and processes--has already had a major impact on jobs. As this chart from my colleague Gordon T. Long illustrates, the rise of Internet technologies is reflected in the steady, long-term decline of the labor force participation rate-- the percentage of the populace that is actively in the labor market.

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

GE has the largest pension shortfall in the S&P 500. It’s a $31 Billion Balance Sheet Hole That Keeps Growing.

At $31 billion, GE’s pension shortfall is the biggest among S&P 500 companies and 50 percent greater than any other corporation in the U.S. It’s a deficit that has swelled in recent years as Immelt spent more than $45 billion on share buybacks to win over Wall Street and pacify activists like Nelson Peltz.

 

Brazil's landmark labor reform bill, intended to relax the country's restrictive labor laws and a main plank of embattled President Michel Temer's efforts to bolster investment and pull the economy out of its worst recession ever and widely seen as the country's second most important reform agenda after the Pension bill, was unexpectedly rejected by a special committee in Brazil's senate, with 10 votes against it, 9 in favor and 1 abstention. 

Authored by Wolf Richter via WolfStreet.com,

Commercial and residential real estate bubbles choke the economy. The upper bounds of hype and craziness have been reached.

Via The Daily Bell

What if everyone declared bankruptcy, would that solve all financial woes? Or rather, would it be the ultimate debt bubble burst? Bankruptcy is a “solution” that would become disastrous if everyone were to use it. So can it truly be considered a solution at all? It just shifts the financial burden to someone else.