It seems that difficult economic times will see many companies dumping jobs at home and moving them overseas sooner rather than later.
This past week brought news that Pacific Brands, in Australia, is dumping all 1,850 jobs in its factories and closing the lot. All production will be moved to China. The execs who made the decision gave themselves a big pay rise and Pacific Brands also stands to win millions in federal grants in aid of business innovation.
Not hard to imagine what the Aussie reaction was to that combo...and richly justified. Google it and see for yourself. No shortage of vitriolic editorials and commentary.
At least Telecom NZ, ANZ Bank and others haven't had the gall to ask for subsidies from government to aid destroying jobs in New Zealand as Pacific Brands appears to have done in Australia.
In the bigger picture, if anyone who makes anything non-perishable outside China adopts a similar strategy, this downturn won't just get worse, it will be catastrophic. The evidence so far is that the trend is toward precisely that.
Underlying all this is philosophy that says all markets must be open. It will be hard to argue against protecting industries while events like this occur. At some point, the issue of sovereignty comes into focus.
Disinformation from TPM
2 hours ago
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