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BANK OF AMERICA MEMO, REVEALED: “WE HOPE” CONDITIONS FOR AMERICAN WORKERS WILL GET WORSE

Dec 31, 2014
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BANK OF AMERICA MEMO, REVEALED: “WE HOPE” CONDITIONS FOR AMERICAN WORKERS WILL GET WORSE​


A BANK OF AMERICA executive stated that “we hope” working Americans will lose leverage in the labor market in a recent private memo obtained by The Intercept. Making predictions for clients about the U.S. economy over the next several years, the memo also noted that changes in the percentage of Americans seeking jobs “should help push up the unemployment rate.”

The memo, a “Mid-year review” from June 17, was written by Ethan Harris, the head of global economics research for the corporation’s investment banking arm, Bank of America Securities. Its specific aspiration: “By the end of next year, we hope the ratio of job openings to unemployed is down to the more normal highs of the last business cycle.”

 
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"This is especially remarkable given the role that corporate profits have played in the recent increase in inflation. After-tax corporate profits stood at 8.1 percent of the economy at the beginning of 2020 but have since shot up to as high as 11.8 percent of the GDP. In an economy the size of the U.S., that equals an increase of more than $700 billion in profits per year. These higher corporate profits have been the cause of over 50 percent of recent price increases"

I know some on this board think this is capitalism at its finest:oops:

Sounds like the great reset in its infancy.
 

BANK OF AMERICA MEMO, REVEALED: “WE HOPE” CONDITIONS FOR AMERICAN WORKERS WILL GET WORSE​


A BANK OF AMERICA executive stated that “we hope” working Americans will lose leverage in the labor market in a recent private memo obtained by The Intercept. Making predictions for clients about the U.S. economy over the next several years, the memo also noted that changes in the percentage of Americans seeking jobs “should help push up the unemployment rate.”

The memo, a “Mid-year review” from June 17, was written by Ethan Harris, the head of global economics research for the corporation’s investment banking arm, Bank of America Securities. Its specific aspiration: “By the end of next year, we hope the ratio of job openings to unemployed is down to the more normal highs of the last business cycle.”

He’ll be getting his wish.
Finance companies and banks will be slashing heads the next 6 months.
 
I’ve come to the conclusion that American business can go flip themselves. They are about abusing workers with absolutely no care as to the long term effect.

My wife works for a healthcare agency. They’ve lost one fourth of their workforce. They refuse to open or advertise the position. They just make the others work longer hours for no additional pay. This is no shit. On Monday they put out an email that all vacation requests through Christmas would be denied. On Thursday put out an email that they were changing the pto policy to use it by December 31st or lose it.

Read this on here today. Capitalism is great. Unchecked capitalism is evil.
 
A recession would obviously turn the labor market strongly in favor of employers.

Are the "corporate overlords" not allowed to consider such things as part of their overall business strategy?

MY ENTIRE JOB involves thinking about things like this.
Lol, no. Your job is about filling out forms to make firing staff easier for real managers. You’re as loathed at work as you are here.
 
I’ve come to the conclusion that American business can go flip themselves. They are about abusing workers with absolutely no care as to the long term effect.

My wife works for a healthcare agency. They’ve lost one fourth of their workforce. They refuse to open or advertise the position. They just make the others work longer hours for no additional pay. This is no shit. On Monday they put out an email that all vacation requests through Christmas would be denied. On Thursday put out an email that they were changing the pto policy to use it by December 31st or lose it.

Read this on here today. Capitalism is great. Unchecked capitalism is evil.
Ok comrade.
Your system should sustain us for centuries to come.
 
How else does the unemployment rate rise if not an increase of job seekers who can’t find work?

There are currently too many jobs and too few workers to fill them. This is obviously a BIG problem.

See: Supply chains.

A good old-fashioned recession could reset the ball game, and business can proceed in a much more-certain environment.
 
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There are currently too many jobs and too few workers to fill them. This is obviously a BIG problem.

See: Supply chains.

A good old-fashioned recession could reset the ball game, and business can proceed in a much more-certain environment.
It took until only 4 hours remained today before we had our "dumbest post of the day" award winner.

You stupid SOB.
 
A recession would obviously turn the labor market strongly in favor of employers.

The job market had been employer friendly for so long that a lot of companies forgot that the their employees are people and not just replaceable cogs in the machine. Now that the labor market has started to slide in the workers direction they are hoping for a recession so they can go back to having dozens of desperate people willing to work for peanuts. The fact that BOA admitted it shows how amoral Capitalism truly is.
 
The job market had been employer friendly for so long that a lot of companies forgot that the their employees are people and not just replaceable cogs in the machine. Now that the labor market has started to slide in the workers direction they are hoping for a recession so they can go back to having dozens of desperate people willing to work for peanuts. The fact that BOA admitted it shows how amoral Capitalism truly is.
It’s amazing how many people in so many areas are totally fine saying the quiet parts out loud.
 
The job market had been employer friendly for so long that a lot of companies forgot that the their employees are people and not just replaceable cogs in the machine. Now that the labor market has started to slide in the workers direction they are hoping for a recession so they can go back to having dozens of desperate people willing to work for peanuts. The fact that BOA admitted it shows how amoral Capitalism truly is.
This. For about the third time in my life workers are doing well as far as pay and mobility, and that freaks out a lot of execs and politicians.
 
A recession would obviously turn the labor market strongly in favor of employers.

Are the "corporate overlords" not allowed to consider such things as part of their overall business strategy?

MY ENTIRE JOB involves thinking about things like this.
I seriously cannot tell if you are truly this stupid or if playing the role of an aloof piece of shit is just your preferred HROT persona.
 
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It’s quite rich to hear corporations like this whine about how nobody “wants to work” rather than taking an honest look at why they struggle to hire and retain people. Most large businesses like BOA only care about their employees insofar as they’re able to exploit and squeeze every ounce of production out of each peon. Once the cow no longer produces enough milk it’s taken behind the barn and dispensed.
 
A recession would obviously turn the labor market strongly in favor of employers.

Are the "corporate overlords" not allowed to consider such things as part of their overall business strategy?

MY ENTIRE JOB involves thinking about things like this.
And that is why you are who you are.
 
There are currently too many jobs and too few workers to fill them. This is obviously a BIG problem.

See: Supply chains.

A good old-fashioned recession could reset the ball game, and business can proceed in a much more-certain environment.
Your posts remind me of what an HR person would say if it were a character on the simpsons. Over the top parody of what everyone thinks an hr person really is like.
 
I’ve come to the conclusion that American business can go flip themselves. They are about abusing workers with absolutely no care as to the long term effect.

My wife works for a healthcare agency. They’ve lost one fourth of their workforce. They refuse to open or advertise the position. They just make the others work longer hours for no additional pay. This is no shit. On Monday they put out an email that all vacation requests through Christmas would be denied. On Thursday put out an email that they were changing the pto policy to use it by December 31st or lose it.

Read this on here today. Capitalism is great. Unchecked capitalism is evil.
This is what happens when you destroy all the unions. Sounds like those employees need to look into this.
 
I don’t know. Paraphrasing the email says that it’s do to short staffing. Meanwhile they refuse to open any position to have it filled. Basically they eliminated 25% of the staffing by burning out the rest.
My wife works for a large company which has been doing this crap for the past 6-7 years. They improve profitability through attrition and forced retirements, then spread the work among the remaining employees.
 
Ummm...they're ALL like this. This one just got caught saying the quiet part out loud. Of all the great hoodwinks that have been pulled on the American people, the idea that unions are the enemy of the working class has to be one of the greatest.

Nah, people fuel this by operating their businesses, savings, and transactions through banks like BoA. All of this country's banks and credit unions, large or small, are operating on the same vendor systems. The overwhelming bulk don't view their customers as disposable while creating miserable work environments for their employees
 
The people that desire a recession for political reasons or hope for economic downturns to bring the job market down back into line with actual job openings are truly scum.

There was some clown on Fox Business Channel that said the major reason the unemployment percentage is so low is because many people were forced to get second jobs. He really think anyone believes that ridiculous statement?
 
My former employer has been advertising for a staff level position in my old department for almost 2 years and can’t fill it. It’s a great company to work for, too. Good pay and benefits.

They have called me out of retirement, and I work part time to help them catch up.

But I’ll only do this until end of year. I’m retired, dagnabbit.
 
Why Execs of large institutions think it’s a good idea to put out memos like this and think it won’t get out is beyond me. A memo like this doesn’t make its way down the chain. So at the very least someone at the upper echelons of BoA doesn’t like this attitude.

BoA should be working to retain the talent that they currently have at the same time trying to figure out a way to attract talent from other banks. A memo like this kills the chance you are able to do both. It’s stupid.

The memo isn’t wrong because that’s what normally happens in a recession. But it doesn’t need to be put out in a memo. It goes without saying. Employers and employees are always fighting for leverage in the market. It’s how it should work. For a short period Employees have all the leverage and for another short period employers have the leverage. Then there’s a general “meeting in the middle” that lasts a while and the cycle starts all over again.

It’s the great thing about capitalism. Where I think this “economist” is wrong is that I don’t believe this recession should be compared to the last one. Like it or not, this one is more employee driven than in the past along with other factors. The changing workforce is playing a part and I don’t think this “economist” is giving it any consideration.

A portion of the workforce won’t be returning to work. I believe one positive thing that came out of the pandemic is that double income family households figured out a way to make it work with just one source of income. My wife who is also a VP in HR talks about this a bit. Hell, we considered it but because our employers have moved to a flexible WFH schedule, the benefits of both of us working far outweigh the negatives now. We can both be home for our children most of the time. Yes, I realize we are lucky in that regard.

But there are a lot smaller financial service companies offering full time remote work right now and there is a shift to those companies. Yes it’s anecdotal, but I’ve seen it and I’ve seen it often enough that it shouldn’t be ignored. These smaller companies are snatching talent from larger institutions that resist adapting to the changing workforce.
 
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