re: W Does Cisco"It is only a matter of willpower, since America is much more self-sufficient than a country such as China and can live comfortably (not as much as now) without any globalism." __________________________________________________
As a neutral observer, sympathetic to the cause of American engineers, let me point out - you don't want to go down that path. Look at India and China - their economies wallowed in the pits as long as these countries remained completely protectionist.
And BTW, I do not agree that China or India cannot be self-sufficient. Large internal markets and substantial resources - both these countries have what it would take to be self sufficient.
re: W Does CiscoVery well put Tera. Right on the nail!
No amount of management will get you there if the engineering base is not sound. For some reason Wallstreet and the VCs want to keep rewarding the Management. This is not to say that the Management is not important, but rather that the management is the enabler. Think of it as a coach of a football team with no talent in its ranks.
-RJS
"" I sometimes think that managers and business leaders think that the reason that the US is so strong is because of their superior mangement capabilities. Engineers are a dime a dozen. Why should we 'protect' and 'subsidize' the labor market?
They have a deaf ear to any concept of intellectual property--the idea that technical people like Edison, Ford, Bell created something unique and extremely valueable, without which no amount of management would have made this country strong.
And they just give it away without even realizing what they are doing. ""
re: W Does Cisco"It is only a matter of willpower, since America is much more self-sufficient than a country such as China and can live comfortably (not as much as now) without any globalism. i.e. they need us more than we need them. Protectionism may be the only way to tell these countries we mean business."
Perhaps we should ask Google to limit the content available to people in the US...?
re: W Does Cisco"It is only a matter of willpower, since America is much more self-sufficient than a country such as China and can live comfortably (not as much as now) without any globalism."
Who do you think is the biggest holder of ADRs??? Sorry to bring you into reallity, but in case you don't know, it's China!
re: W Does Ciscof it's true that we can't afford to become protectionists for your stated reasons, it's only because the US gave away everything for far too cheap long ago to stuff the coffers of executives and wall streeters alike ... and we all must now must suffer the consequences.
I don't understand it. What do you mean by that? I don't believe that anybody gave anything away. . Should we blame the chinese that they gave away the gun powder ?
What consequences? As far as I know EE (or communication engineers) ar paid around 100k++ , companies like Microsoft , Google , Cisco , Juniper are hiring (provided that you have the right skills).
Is the 'gold rush' over ? Probably. Years ago was a poster in Cisco , something like that " come to work , check the stock price , drink a coffe ,check the stock price , go to restroom , check the stock price , write a little bit of code , check the stock price..."
I had an engineer back then telling me during the interview that he doesn't care how much money he will receive as salary , it is interested only in stock options. Of course I didn't hire him.
Image that you are on the surgery table in the middle of an operation and suddently the doctor check his pager and says: " damm , the stock is down two $$ . I am out of here..."
Is nothing wrong with engineering proffesion , it is a decent well paid proffesion with a lot of satifaction and I'll encourage my kids to go for it if they like it.
Lots of engineers can become CEOs (start companies) or work on Wall Street. If anybody things that is easy and have the appropiate skills they can try...
re: W Does CiscoWall Street results do guide fairly short term & cost reduction oriented goals for executive managements.
However, we too have had a big stake in this, again perhaps unwittingly. WallStreet responds to it's investors and a sizeable chunk of those investors are...
People like us, with our 401Ks & mutual finds that we want to see quarter-to-quarter returns on.
re: W Does Cisco"Then the Bible belters decided they cared more about abortion and immigration than eating...and the Neos suckered them in."
For a further explanation of this quote read the book "Don't Think Of An Elephant". It's a small book and can easily be read in a day. It exposes the thinking process of how the bible belters and other "Dumb Republicans" (the ones with no money) have been conned. Conservatives boggle them with the "Strong Father" mentality. Daddy (Dick Cheney) goes out and kicks ass in the world making Joe Sixpack "feel" secure while Mommy (Dubya) keeps the children distracted with the guns, gays and God toys. Fortunately, it appears the kids are getting bored with these toys and are starting to hear about the bad things Daddy has been doing around the world trying to bring home the bacon.
Another conservative philosophy: Take care of your own and screw everybody else. (This applies to the family and not to the country or to humanity in general.)
re: W Does CiscoWhy, some people think the US baby boomers will need large Asian investments into the US markets in order to support their lifestyles during retirement. (Also, an ADR isn't an IOU which a US president controls but rather it represents equity in foreign companies which are traded in US exchanges.)
Future Shock As Boomers Retire, a Debate: Will Stock Prices Get Crushed?
Prof. Siegel Says Only Asia Can Stop a U.S. Meltdown; Dr. Brooks Isn't Worried Filling a $123 Trillion Gap By E.S. BROWNING Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL May 5, 2005; Page A1
For tens of millions of baby boomers and younger workers, the basic long-range financial plan is simple: accumulate stocks and bonds while working, then slowly sell them off to keep up a comfortable lifestyle in retirement.
Not so fast, says Jeremy Siegel, the Wharton School finance professor well-known until now for recommending stocks as a long-term investment. In speeches and a new book, he is warning that a flood of boomer retirees with trillions of dollars of assets to sell over the next 20 to 40 years threatens to crush stock and bond prices. He says it will take a massive investment in U.S. stocks by people in India, China and other developing countries to prevent a market meltdown.
Robin Brooks, an economist at the International Monetary Fund, scoffs at the warning. He thinks the wealthy individuals who own a large percentage of U.S. stock won't need to sell, and companies may boost dividends so retiree investors can hang on to their shares.
As politicians debate Social Security, economists are debating the future of another plank of Americans' retirement plans: the stock market. The ratio of working-age people to retirees will decline over the next 30 years to an estimated 2.6 to 1 from 4.9 to 1 today. Simple supply-and-demand economics suggests that as retirees dump their holdings into a thin market, stock prices could plummet.
But will they? Prof. Siegel says it's possible to take some common-sense assumptions -- for example, that people will continue trying to retire in their early 60s -- and show in an economic model that stocks are in for trouble. "God knows, I want to be an optimist," he says. "But I don't think there will be enough assets from U.S. sources going forward to pay for people's retirement."
Dr. Brooks contends that even if demographic trends do hit elderly people's pocketbooks, those without savings who depend on government assistance will bear the brunt. History shows, he says, that it's impossible to predict big macroeconomic changes decades in advance -- the global economy simply has too many moving parts.
"Whether we will see some sort of crash or slow crumble over the next decade or so, I don't know," says Andrew Abel, another finance professor from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. "But it is certainly likely enough that it has got to enter into people's planning."
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As a neutral observer, sympathetic to the cause of American engineers, let me point out - you don't want to go down that path. Look at India and China - their economies wallowed in the pits as long as these countries remained completely protectionist.
And BTW, I do not agree that China or India cannot be self-sufficient. Large internal markets and substantial resources - both these countries have what it would take to be self sufficient.