Jan. 31, 2006 - 18:13 MST

UNANSWERED

Latest is that Ford is cutting back, others have prececeded them. Enron and all the other creative book-keepers have gone down the tubes, or at least those of their employees who were figuring on having retirement money were flushed down said grody tubes. United is is in the process of getting Untied with their employees giving up an arm and sometimes a leg too.

Then in this morning's Rocky Mountain News is an article by Mike Collins of the Associated Press which puts one more company on the list of troubled employers. In full:

KRAFT CUTTING 8,000 JOBS

Restructuring effort also includes closing up to 20 factories

CHICAGO -- "Kraft Foods Inc., the nation's largest food manufacturer, said Monday it would eliminate 8,000 jobs, or about 8 percent of its work force, and close up to 20 production plants as it broadens an ongoing restructuring effort."

"Kraft said the cuts would save an additional $700 million in annual costs, atop a targeted $450 million in savings it already had hoped to achieve through a restructurinmg that began in January 2004."

"Northfield, Ill.-based Kraft already had announced closures of 19 production facilities and the elmination of 5,500 jobs. Kraft said Monday that those efforts are on track, but said it is expanding the restructuring plans to include more cuts."

"The company said it intends to close plants in Broadmeadows, Victoria, in Australia and Hoover, Ala., but did not announce the other facilities it plans to close. Kraft also said it would trim 10 percent of its brand portfolio."

"Kraft said the additional cuts would cost the company $2.5 billion, bringing the total cost of its overall restructuring to $3.7 billion."

"Kraft announced the moves Monday while reporting fourth-quarter earnings results that fell short of analysts expectations."

"Earnings for the October-December period totaled $773 million, or 46 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose to $9.66 billion from $8.78 billion a year ago."

"Wall Street had expected a profit of 53 cents a share, based on the consensus estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Financial."

"When the maker of Kraft cheese, Nabisco crackers, Oscar Mayer meats and Post cereals announced its 2004 restructuring, there had just beern a shake-up at top management that followed more than a year of disappointing sales and earnings."

"At the time, Kraft executives blamed the poor results on American consumers' increased health concerns, which had put the entire packaged food industry under severe pressure to change quickly. The company's troubles cost marketing expert Betsy Holden her job of co-CEO and head of North American operations in December 2003. That left Roger Deromedi solely in charge."

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Thinking of all the things that have happened in recent years, most of which were bad for us as a nation, I cannot see where the unbridled optomism that Mr. Bush is trying to project is coming from. We keep hearing that there are more jobs in our country, but see no facts or figures on how much lower the wages are of those working now than they were getting before. Businesses keep going overseas and south of the border, "guest workers" from south of our borders are something that is again being tried for. The "new improved" Braceros perhaps that never seemed to stop the flow of illegals anyhow.

Maybe we all have to tighten our belts for our country to survive, but "no bid" contracts, fraud and other skulduggery should have no place in the necessary operations to make us a comptent society to my way of thinking.

I firmly believe that the "State Of The Union" address will be more smoke and mirrors, leaving many of the biggest questions UNANSWERED . . . . . . . . .

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