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So much for efficiency : Hundreds of federal employees who lost their jobs in Elon Musk’s cost-cutting blitz are being asked to return to work. The General Services Administration has given the employees — who managed government workspaces — until the end of the week to accept or decline reinstatement, according to an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press. Those who accept must report for duty on Oct. 6 after what amounts to a seven-month paid vacation, during which time the GSA in some cases racked up high costs — passed along to taxpayers — to stay in dozens of properties whose leases it had slated for termination or were allowed to expire. “Ultimately, the outcome was the agency was left broken and understaffed,” said Chad Becker, a former GSA real estate official. “They didn’t have the people they needed to carry out basic functions.” Becker, who represents owners with government leases at Arco Real Estate Solutions, said GSA has been in a “triage mode” for months. He said...

 

 Professor Wolff responds:

 Well...

 

 

  So many people predicted that those who supported the Democratic primary challengers would shift to Biden once it became clear he would be the nominee (due in no small part to the DNC essentially ignoring the existence of challengers). In that sense, this isn't that surprising. What's sad is that Krystal Ball (and those like her) will do this again and again every presidential cycle, while simultaneously fretting about what Democrats aren't doing for voters and pushing pseudo-populism.  Anyway, here's another look at the true unemployment rate for what it's worth.

 This tale of unemployment irony involves ZipRecruiter : Fewer employers looking for workers means 270 employees at job search site ZipRecruiter will soon be out of a job. The company is cutting 20% of its staff by the end of this month, the company disclosed in a filing late Wednesday. “This action was taken in response to current market conditions and after reducing other discretionary expenses, with a view toward driving long-term efficiency,” according to the filing. [SNIP] About half of the 270 employees losing their job are in the sales and customer support teams. The company will take a charge of between $7 million to $9 million to cover severance costs. It expects to still make the same level of profits, excluding special items such as severance, as in its earlier guidance.

 Why else would CNN have this article: From Dallas and Minneapolis to New York and Los Angeles, offices sit vacant or underused, showing the staying power of the work-from-home era. But clear desks and quiet break rooms aren’t just a headache for bosses eager to gather teams in person. Investors and regulators, on high alert for signs of trouble in the financial system following recent bank failures, are now homing in on the downturn in the $20 trillion US commercial real estate market. Just as lenders to the sector grapple with turmoil triggered by rapidly rising interest rates, the value of buildings such as offices is crashing. That could add to pain for banks and raises concerns about damaging ripple effects. “Although this is not yet a systemic problem for the banking sector, there are legitimate concerns about contagion,” said Eswar Prasad, an economics professor at Cornell University. In the worst-case scenario, anxiety about bank lending to commercial real estate could spir...

 The very politically influential company is hurting, and it's taking it out on their employees : Goldman Sachs will lay off as many as 3,200 employees this week as an uncertain economic and market climate pushes the bank to hunt for cost savings, according to a person familiar with the matter. More than a third of the job cuts are expected to be from the firm’s trading and banking units, the person said. Like its Wall Street rivals, Goldman Sachs has been hit by a slump in global dealmaking activity as fewer companies merge or seek to raise capital. Hiring for roles in other areas will continue and the new analyst class will start later this year as planned, the person added added. News of the layoffs was first reported by Bloomberg. The bank declined to comment. Goldman Sachs (GS) had 49,100 employees at the end of the third quarter. It added thousands of jobs to its headcount during the pandemic recovery as markets and investment banking boomed. And what caused this? But the mo...

 

Citing redundancy , newly crowned King Charles ushers in a staffing cut involving 100 employees.  No word yet if the Crown has decided to cut their own personal, extravagant lifestyle to help the country out. 

 Did you know that unemployment was essentially a byproduct of capitalism? Now you do.

When the government gives money to rich people, they usually don't ask for it back . Considering that the US was one of the few industrialized nations to not pay workers during the COVID-19 lockdown, would it hurt so much to let people keep the money?