#department of trade and industry

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But of course I do the all MOTHER for the apple theme guys

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*personal

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n185_w1150 by Biodiversity Heritage Library Via Flickr: J. Steckler Seed Co., Ltd. garden manual 1900 :. New Orleans, La. :Steckler,1900.. biodiversitylibrary.org/page/43933736

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"LABOR GROUP PLANS CONTINUED PROTEST TO CITY AND OTTAWA," Toronto Globe. August 4, 1933. Page 9. --- Labor Representative's Inclusion on Relief Commission Urged -- RAIL WORKERS BACKED --- At last night's meeting of the Toronto District Trades and Labor Council in the Labor Temple, the delegates decided unanimously "to continue to protest" alike to Mayor Stewart and the City Council "at the non-inclusion of a representative of organized labor on the Civic Commission inquiring into relief and welfare work in Toronto," and also to the Federal Minister of Railways and Labor in Ottawa "in regard to railway workers being asked to bear an undue proportion of the load arising out of the shrinking transportation revenues on Canadian railways." Described as "Deadwood." In the latter connecton, Delegate A. Evans, Ontario Lodge, 619, Brotherhood of Railway Carmen of America, drew attention to the fact that "during the depression years there have been over 23, railway workers put out of service, and the wages of those retained reduced by 1 per cent., many of whom are working part-time. A recent newspaper cartoon dealing with that situation intimated that the systems were getting rid of that much 'dead-wood." Apparently the welfare of those workers takes second place to that of the bond holders and the preferred shares. These economies may or may not have been effective, but certainly they have reduced the purchasing power of the people."

Vice-President Dan Noble supplemented that statement and declared: "The position of rail shopmen today is something like that of certain firms in Toronto, to whom Mayor Stewart referred recently, when he pointed cut that the wage-levels were deplorable that, if not raised, the Control Board might have to name them, in the light of the fact that the Welfare Department felt compelled to permit certain employees to continue to draw relief supplies, in addition to their wages. "If care is not taken," concluded delegate Noble, "the railway mechanics will be in a similar plight."

Musical Group to March. John Sutherland, of the Demon--- on the forthcoming annual Labor Day Parade, intimating that a fifty-piece band of the Musical Protective Association will march this year. In same connection, delegate Charles Bal stated: "It should be distinctly understood that this annual parade is conducted by the international trade unions of this city; that the marchers are headed by the Mayor and the civic authorities: and that we will tolerate no contact of any kind what-ever with Communist or near-Communist groups that are not native to nor will they thrive on Canadian soil."

Applause greeted this latter assertion.

Three delegates to the forthcoming Labor Congress of Canada (Windsor) are to represent the Trades Council.

The pre-delegate expenses must not exceed an aggregate of $100, and the representatives will be chosen next meeting from the following nominees: W. Genovese, J. W. Buckley,J. Noble, D. W. Kennedy, C. Locks,C. Ball. W. Dunn, J. Jenkinson, and E. E. Woollen.

[todayworldnews2k21]

Hundreds of Southwest Airlines flights are delayed after FAA lifts nationwide ground stop | CNN

CNN  —  Hundreds of Southwest Airlines flights were delayed after technical issues that prompted the airline to temporarily halt its operations on Tuesday morning. Southwest said the flight delays were the result of “data connection issues resulting from a firewall failure,” a problem that led to a brief ground stop. The Federal Aviation Administration initiated the ground stop at the…

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When a Missouri veteran wrote his local paper about U.S. “meddling” in the Anglo-Iranian oil dispute, he got a direct reply from the British Consul in St. Louis.

The Mossadegh Project

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A darling of US conservatives, Iran's top opposition group may face an uncertain future

Editor’s Note: A version of this story appears in CNN’s Meanwhile in the Middle East newsletter, a three-times-a-week look inside the region’s biggest stories. Sign up here. CNN  —  Its annual conferences have attracted the who’s-who of right-wing and hawkish, conservative politicians from the West, including former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former United States National Security…

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US defense chief jabs at Netanyahu's plan to weaken courts as protesters block Israeli airport | CNN

Tel Aviv, Israel CNN  —  US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin took a swipe at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to weaken Israel’s judicial system as protesters paralyzed two of Tel Aviv’s main travel arteries on Thursday, intensifying a nationwide movement against the controversial proposals. A CNN team at Ben Gurion Airport saw people walking towards Terminal 3 with suitcases because of…

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Senate votes to overturn Biden administration retirement investment rule Republicans decry as 'woke' | CNN Politics

CNN  —  The Senate passed a politically charged resolution on Wednesday to overturn a Biden administration retirement investment rule that allows managers of retirement funds to consider the impact of climate change and other environmental, social and governance factors when picking investments. Republicans complain the rule is “woke” policy that pushes a liberal agenda on Americans and will…

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pompy

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Who’s to Blame for Out-Of-Control Corporate Power?    

One man is especially to blame for why corporate power is out of control. And I knew him! He was my professor, then my boss. His name… Robert Bork.

Robert Bork was a notorious conservative who believed the only legitimate purpose of antitrust — that is, anti-monopoly — law is to lower prices for consumers, no matter how big corporations get. His philosophy came to dominate the federal courts and conservative economics.

I met him in 1971, when I took his antitrust class at Yale Law School. He was a large, imposing man, with a red beard and a perpetual scowl. He seemed impatient and bored with me and my classmates, who included Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham, as we challenged him repeatedly on his antitrust views.

We argued with Bork that ever-expanding corporations had too much power. Not only could they undercut rivals with lower prices and suppress wages, but they were using their spoils to influence our politics with campaign contributions. Wasn’t this cause for greater antitrust enforcement?

He had a retort for everything. Undercutting rival businesses with lower prices was a good thing because consumers like lower prices. Suppressing wages didn’t matter because employees are always free to find better jobs. He argued that courts could not possibly measure political power, so why should that matter?

Even in my mid-20s, I knew this was hogwash.

But Bork’s ideology began to spread. A few years after I took his class, he wrote a book called The Antitrust Paradox summarizing his ideas. The book heavily influenced Ronald Reagan and later helped form a basic tenet of Reaganomics — the bogus theory that says government should get out of the way and allow corporations to do as they please, including growing as big and powerful as they want.

Despite our law school sparring, Bork later gave me a job in the Department of Justice when he was solicitor general for Gerald Ford. Even though we didn’t agree on much, I enjoyed his wry sense of humor. I respected his intellect. Hell, I even came to like him.

Once President Reagan appointed Bork as an appeals court judge, his rulings further dismantled antitrust. And while his later Supreme Court nomination failed, his influence over the courts continued to grow.  

Bork’s legacy is the enormous corporate power we see today, whether it’s Ticketmaster and Live Nation consolidating control over live performances, Kroger and Albertsons dominating the grocery market, or Amazon, Google, and Meta taking over the tech world.

It’s not just these high-profile companies either: in most industries, a handful of companies now control more of their markets than they did twenty years ago.

This corporate concentration costs the typical American household an estimated extra $5,000 per year. Companies have been able to jack up prices without losing customers to competitors because there is often no meaningful competition.

And huge corporations also have the power to suppress wages because workers have fewer employers from whom to get better jobs.

And how can we forget the massive flow of money these corporate giants are funneling into politics, rigging our democracy in their favor?

But the tide is beginning to turn under the Biden Administration. The Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission are fighting the monopolization of America in court, and proposing new merger guidelines to protect consumers, workers, and society.

It’s the implementation of the view that I and my law school classmates argued for back in the 1970s — one that sees corporate concentration as a problem that outweighs any theoretical benefits Bork claimed might exist.

Robert Bork would likely regard the Biden administration’s antitrust efforts with the same disdain he had for my arguments in his class all those years ago. But instead of a few outspoken law students, Bork’s philosophy is now being challenged by the full force of the federal government.

The public is waking up to the outsized power corporations wield over our economy and democracy. It’s about time.

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n49_w1150 by Biodiversity Heritage Library Via Flickr: Beautify your homes :. Springfield, Ohio :Baines,[1918]. biodiversitylibrary.org/page/41878674

[todayworldnews2k21]

FTC chair Lina Khan warns AI could ‘turbocharge’ fraud and scams | CNN Business

Washington CNN  —  Artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT could lead to a “turbocharging” of consumer harms including fraud and scams, and the US government has substantial authority to crack down on AI-driven consumer harms under existing law, members of the Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday. Addressing House lawmakers, FTC chair Lina Khan said the “turbocharging of fraud and scams…

[fans4wga]

Writers Guild West Official: Era of Hollywood Mergers Hastened the Strike

August 10, 2023

Laura Blum-Smith, the Writers Guild of America West’s director of research and public policy, considers the strike a result of a tsunami of Hollywood mergers that has handed studios and streamers the power to its exploit workers.

“Harmful mergers and attempts to monopolize markets are a recurring theme in the history of media and entertainment, and they are a key part of what led 11,500 writers to go on strike more than 100 days ago against their employers,” Blum-Smith said on Thursday at an event with the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice over new merger guidelines unveiled in July.

She pointed to Disney, Amazon and Netflix as companies that “gained power through anticompetitive consolidation and vertical integration,” allowing them to impose “more and more precarious working conditions, increasingly short term employment and lower pay for writers and other workers across the industry.” But she sees revisions to the merger guidelines that address labor concerns a key part of the solution to prevent further mergers in the entertainment industry moving forward.

“The FTC and DOJ’s new draft merger guidelines are part of a deeply necessary effort to revive antitrust enforcement,” she added. “Compared with earlier guidelines, the new ones are much more skeptical of the idea that mergers are the natural way for companies to grow. And they focus more on the various ways mergers hurt competition, including how mergers impact workers.”

In July, the FTC and DOJ jointly released a new road map for regulatory review of mergers. They require companies to consider the impact of proposed transactions on labor, signaling that the agencies intend to review whether mergers could negatively impact wages and working conditions. FTC commissioner Alvaro Bedoya, who was joined by agency chair Lina Khan, said in a statement about the guidelines that “a merger that may substantially lessen competition for workers will not be immunized by a prediction that predicted savings from a merger will be passed on to consumers.” Historically, transactions have been considered mostly through the lens of benefits to consumers.

The guidelines lack the force of law but influence the way in which judges consider lawsuits to block proposed transactions. They also tell the public how competition enforcers will assess the potential for a merger’s harm to competition.

Antitrust enforcers have steadily been taking notice of negative impacts to labor as a result of industry consolidation. “We’ve heard concerns that a handful of companies may now again be controlling the bulk of the entertainment supply chain from content creation to distribution,” Khan said last year during a listening forum over revisions to the guidelines, in a nod to anticompetitive conduct by studios that led to the Paramount Decrees. “We’ve heard concerns that this type of consolidation and integration can enable firms to exert market power over creators and workers alike.”

Adam Conover, writer and WGA board member, said in that April 2022 forum that his show Adam Ruins Everything was killed by AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner in 2018 when TruTV’s parent company forced the network to cut costs. He stressed that a handful of companies “now control the production and distribution of almost all entertainment content available to the American public,” allowing them to “more easily hold down our wages and set onerous terms for our employment.” It’s not just writers that are impacted by an overly consolidated Hollywood either, he explained. After Disney acquired 21st Century Fox in 2019, he said that the studios pushed the industry into ending backend participation and trapping actors in exclusive contracts preventing them from pursuing other work.

Blum-Smith said that aggressive competition enforcement is necessary as “Wall Street continues to push for more consolidation among our employers despite the industry’s history of mergers that failed to deliver any of the consumer benefits they’ve claimed that left writers and audiences worse off with less diversity of content and fewer choices.”

“More mergers will leave writers with even fewer places to sell their work and tell their stories and the remaining companies will have even more power to lower pay and worsen working conditions,” she warned. “Strong enforcement against mergers is essential to protect workers in media and workers across the country and these guidelines are an important step in the right direction.”

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Philippine exports of goods and services surpassed $100 billion in 2023

For the year 2023, Philippine exports of good and services reached over $100 billion based on the balance of payments (BOP) from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), according to a Philippine News Agency (PNA). By comparison, less than $100 billion was achieved in 2022. To put things in perspective, posted below is an excerpt from the PNA news article. Some parts in boldface… Despite global…