davidw

About

Username
davidw
Joined
Visits
187
Last Active
Roles
member
Points
4,773
Badges
1
Posts
2,205

Reactions

2.4KLike49Dislike470Informative

  • Amazon layoffs much worse than expected, will hit 18,000

    davidwdavidw
    davidw said:
    The downward spiral began when this administration put too much spending money in the hands of the consumers to combat the affect of the pandemic had on the economy. To the tune of $5T in less than 2 years. 
    Less than $1 trillion went to consumers. The top five areas that consumers spent the stimulus $$ was food, utilities, household/personal care products, debt and rent (in that order). That doesn't appear to be a frivolous spending spree, right? And the reality is that over 50% of what was being termed "inflation" in the media was really just profit taking by corporations. In other words, it was price increases unrelated to cost increases. Corporations just used the pandemic as a cover for price gouging. These are the same corporations that got a significant percentage of the $2 trillion tax cut in 2017. The corporate tax rate was dropped from 35% to 21%. Fast forward a few years and they're sticking it to consumers during a national health emergency. 

    And remember, GDP dropped by 29% in Q2 2020 before going up by 35% in Q3 2020. That was followed by 5 straight positive growth quarters and then two negative growth quarters (-1.6%, -0.6%) and most recently a positive growth quarter of 3.2%. How does someone look at that and come to the conclusion that stimulus spending was too high?
    No one said anything about frivolous spending. The fact that they were spending money that the government printed out of thin air, will eventually add to inflation. Consider this, if most of the consumers were spending their government money on survival essentials, then how did all these alleged greedy corporations make their massive profits that caused most of today's high inflation?

    And that was just the stimulus checks. What about the added unemployment payments. The extension of unemployment payments. Loans that didn't need to be paid back to businesses to help keep paying their employees, even if they were closed down. There were unemployed workers that were making more money being unemployed than when they were working. Government workers still being paid their full salaries for not having to come to work. Here in the Bay Area, not one BART employee lost a penny in salary when ridership dropped by nearly 90% during the Pandemic and were no longer needed. Like most government workers during the pandemic.  Government is the largest employer and all government employees qualified for the stimulus checks (providing they met income requirements). Even though most received their full salary during the pandemic. All retire consumers that were already out of the work force, could qualify for the stimulus checks. The "stimulus" check is called that because the government wanted consumers to spend the money to stimulate the economy and it did. Quite well in fact. Only now, we are paying the price for it with high inflation. 



    Let's not forget the renters were no longer obligated to pay the rent as landlords were not allowed to evict them during the pandemic. Plus States like CA had a relief program to help renters pay for rent and utilities.


    And then there was a relief program for landlords that lost income from renters that couldn't pay.




    Here's couple of good read about all this. Much better than the theory Sen. B. Sanders is spreading about corporate greed. Sen. Sanders is a Socialist or as he refer to himself, a Democratic Socialist. He is against of anything that is capitalism. Worse than Progressives like Sen. E. Warren.  And that's saying a lot.

    This one explains the delay in inflation caused by each stimulus check.


    This one explains the corporate profits


    >University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers says corporate greed is a red herring and companies are not the source of inflation.

    "My friend and economist Jason Furman says, 'Blaming inflation on greed is like blaming a plane crash on gravity,'" says Wolfers. "It is technically correct, but it entirely misses the point."<

     
    Here's an article about Sen. Sanders and his views on capitalism. According to him, any profit made by any corporation, is greed.












    williamlondon

  • Amazon layoffs much worse than expected, will hit 18,000

    davidwdavidw
    hmlongco said:

    My problem with it is that it's largely a self-fulfilling prophecy.

    Instead on cutting other costs or--heaven forbid--taking a minor short-term hit on profitability, at the first hint of trouble hundreds of companies rush to fire thousands to tens-of-thousands of employees who now, of course, aren't making an income, which means that they in turn cut their spending, which ends up cutting into company revenues...

    And so the downward spiral perpetuates...


    In case you haven't been following Worldwide current events, most companies have already taken a hit on short-term profitability (for the most part of last year.). What these companies are trying to do is to prevent a long-term hit on profitability going into this year or the chance of being non profitable. You don't think all the stock markets are down because investors are concern about employees being laid off, do you? The chances of the government corrections to combat high inflation leading to a  recession, is still high. And the government is not through correcting.

    Consumers are already cutting their spending because of the higher prices and interest rate. Less consumer spending led to a hit on companies profitability. Which eventually leads to laying off of employees. Which leads to higher unemployment and even less consumer spending. But also allow companies to remain profitable even after lowering prices to maintain or increase sales. Which leads to reducing inflation. And reducing inflation is the government goal when they try to correct for high inflation by raising interest rates. The government goal is not to maintain high employment. But over-correcting might lead to a recession. A recession is not the cure for inflation, that governments wants to see happen. 

    The downward spiral began when this administration put too much spending money in the hands of the consumers to combat the affect of the pandemic had on the economy. To the tune of $5T in less than 2 years.
    williamlondon

  • 'Fortnite' will return to iPhone in 2023, says Epic CEO

    davidwdavidw
    Sweeney don't just want Fortnite back in iOS, Sweeney wants Fortnite back in iOS by way of the Apple App Store, without having to pay Apple a commission on their IAP sales or at least anywhere near a 30% commission.

    Remember, Sweeney claim is that Apple have a monopoly with their Apple App Store, not with iOS. And he is claiming that Apple App Store 30% commission is an abuse of that monopoly. If he thought being able to open an Epic Games App Store in iOS or being able to side load would lead to more profits for Epic Games apps, he would by now have an Android Epic Games App Store and every Epic Games would be available for side loading on Android and none of them in the Google Play Store. But he don't. He don't because he knows Epic Games will makes more profit from being in the Google Play Store, than if he were to open his own Android Epic app store and with side loading. Even after paying Google a 30% commission. He knows this because he did it with Fortnite when he removed it from the Google Play Store and made it available only by side loading, only to put it back in the Play Store for lack users wanting to side load. And as delusional as he seems to be, he has no delusion that it would be any different on iOS.

    Epic Games violated their Apple App Store policy when they provided a link to their own payment system inside their iOS app, solely for the purpose of getting banned from the Apple App Store and the PR it brought. Being able to provide a link to their own payment system is not what Sweeney is after when he sued Apple. He wants the courts to rule that Apple have a monopoly or at least monopoly power, with the Apple App Store and therefore charging a 30% commission, along with other App Store policies, are anti-competitive.

    Sweeney wants Apple to open up the Apple App Store, not iOS. Sweeney would much rather have an Epic Game App store running inside the Apple App Store, rather than run his own app store inside iOS. That's because he knows over 90% on iOS users will only get their apps from the Apple App Store. Just like how over 90% of Android users gets their apps only from the Google Play Store, even though there are over a dozen app stores and side loading, with Android.     
    muthuk_vanalingamdavn2itivguymark fearing

  • Netflix to end password sharing in early 2023

    davidwdavidw
    Madbum said:
    So I cannot use my account in my office or when I travel? If they are going to base it on home IP? How stupid is this?
    You can steam your Netflix account on a device like an tablet, laptop or mobile phone or even a computer and it won't matter what IP address you're using. But I think you only get SD quality, no matter what type of account you have. Plus this is the reason why Netflix do not support Airplay. You can not use AirPlay to go from your iPhone or iPad to an Apple TV (or any TV that supports AirPlay), to watch the movie you're streaming on a TV. But you can use "mirror" to mirror what's on your iPhone or iPad on to a TV with an Apple TV or a cable with the right adapter. (Which would even be worse.) I think that Netflix also know that you are streaming on a laptop, so if you hook the laptop to a TV with HDMI adapter, you still only get SD quality. Which would be noticeable on a TV but not so much on a laptop or mobile device screen. 
    ronn

  • Epic CEO will fight Apple to the bitter end over App Store control

    davidwdavidw
    derekmorr said:
    davidw said:

    On the other hand, Sweeney have no problem paying the 30% commission on Microsoft Xbox because Microsoft claim that they make very little profit selling Xbox hardware. So he thinks Microsoft is entitled to charge a 30% commission of Xbox game apps, in order to support and profit from their Xbox platform. Even though Microsoft have the same "monopoly" with their Xbox platform, as Apple have with iOS.
    Dude, literally 30 seconds of Internet searching found that Sweeney has been critical of Xbox in the past: https://www.onmsft.com/news/epic-games-tim-sweeney-still-concerned-xbox-game-distribution-monopoly. There are lots of of anti-competitive behavior from tech giants. 

    And where in your link does it state that Sweeney have a problem with paying Microsoft their 30% commission? Sure Sweeney would like to cut into that 30% commission on every platform. Buy why only Apple and Google being sued by Epic Games for their 30% commission?

    Here are the numbers for just Fortnite.

    Percent of total revenue generated from 2018 to 2020

    from PlayStation - 46.8%

    from Xbox- 27.5%

    from PC - 9.6%

    from Switch- 8.4%

    from iOS- 7%


    Epic paid in commission ...

    $237M to Apple from 2017 to2020 (that's for 3 years worth of sales)

    $246M to Microsoft for 2020 alone

    $451M to Sony for 2020 alone

    Epic generated $700M in Fortnite revenue from iOS, before they were banned.


    So why haven't Epic sued Microsoft and Sony for their 30% commission? Xbox and PlayStation game consoles account for over 70% of Fortnite revenue. Mobile platforms, less than 10%. Could it be that Sweeney is OK with paying Microsoft and Sony the same 30% he's bitching about paying Apple?







    williamlondonzeus423ravnorodomstrongy