urbanSTL

I think you're niggling. The point isn't whether we are experiencing this now or not, but to what extent will we experience it?



I like this article that talks about the relationships between GDP, inflation and unemployment. http://www.investopedia.com/articles/06 ... ?viewall=1. Increasingly low unemployment will cause inflation, but so will increasing demand in commodities from emerging markets. This is exacerbated by the falling dollar which is being weakened by our credit crises.



The Labor Department said wholesale inflation, driven by skyrocketing gas and food costs, rose by 9.2 percent for the 12 months ending in June -- the fastest pace since the summer of 1981, during another energy crunch.



According to the article below, this is what we should be on the lookout for:



"The first sign that a situation more akin to the U.S. stagflation of the 1970s and early 1980s was taking hold would be a move of the 10-year Treasury note yield above 5.5 percent; the upper end of its range over about the past six years, Lin said.



Real interest rates are already negative with the 10-year yield at 3.90 percent, below the U.S. consumer price index, currently at 4.2 percent. If that gap should widen substantially at the same time the dollar falls steeply, this could herald a more intense stagflation problem."

http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUSN1456888520080714?sp=true wrote:"The old world is in stagflation because the new world is in inflation." said Jan Loeys, head of global asset allocation with JPMorgan in London.



Developed countries such as the United States are already suffering from stagflation, albeit not as extreme as three decades ago, he said. Meanwhile, China, India and other emerging economies are driving global inflation pressures.



"The new world is booming and competing for the resources by bidding up the price, while the old world has its problems with ageing populations and falling productivity which is depressing growth," Loeys said.



The closest comparison is the 1970s, he said.

migueltejada wrote:
Yeah, every company has foreign investers, whatever, I don't care about that - it's the principle ownership that matters to me (and any union worker if you ask them about what car they buy)



...



I'm still proud to be an American, but it's getting really f*cking tough.

I dont quite understand your thought. Looks like you will gladly recieve but never give.



Why does it matter who the principle owner is? Would you rather have

1. Company X being owned by a foriegn entity but 98% of the products/jobs are in the US.

or

2. Or Company Y who is based in the US, but does most of its busness international therefore most jobs/products are else where.

zink wrote:Looks like you will gladly receive but never give.

I hate people like that.

Bud can still be the Great American Lager, just not the Great American Owned Lager.

i believe Brito met with Mayor Slay today. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall in that room.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

In New York

Printer-Friendly Version | Forward to a Friend (Mayorslay.com)



Fortunate timing.



I arrived in New York yesterday to take part in some of the festivities of Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game, including today’s “passing of the ball” from Yankee Stadium (this year’s host ballpark) to Busch Stadium (next year’s host). While I was traveling, my office got a call from Bloomberg TV asking me to comment on the impending sale of A-B. Since I was staying only a fifteen minute walk from their studio, I agreed to do the interview there.



Here’s what I told them:



My own brand loyalty is to St. Louis.



Budweiser beer and the city have been closely and cordially associated together for 150 years. The beer’s earliest motto and its most recent TV ad both said St. Louis. Brewers in twelve other breweries add or subtract things from the water to make their brewing water taste like St. Louis tap water. Thousands of St. Louisans work for AB – most of them in the big brewery on Pestalozzi Street. Tens of thousands of other St. Louisans are from brewery families, residents whose parents, grandparents, and great grandparents worked at the brewery and most of them own its stock. Two of my own siblings work at the brewery. AB treats its employees very, very well.



That history and all those connections make most St. Louisans, including me, face this merger with mixed feelings.



We do not yet know what impact the inevitable cuts at A-B will have on the employees, on their retirements, on A-B’s corporate philanthropy. Having the top decision makers live across the world instead of across the street is going to change things. Obviously, one of my first goals will be to try to convince InBev, which loves to cut costs, to move to St. Louis where pretty much everything is cheaper than in Belgium.



On the other hand, $70 cash a share for A-B stock is going to mean a tremendous transfer of wealth into St. Louis – which I expect will mean an up-tick in the purchase and sale of St. Louis real estate, automobiles, and a lot of other things.



I am very committed to working with both companies to make sure that the merged company remains a great corporate citizen and a great employer for thousands of St. Louisans.



It doesn’t matter what I believe about any promises made by InBev (or A-B). What matters is what they end up doing.



I will tell you more about All-Star Week later.

Brewers in twelve other breweries add or subtract things from the water to make their brewing water taste like St. Louis tap water.

I had no idea other brewers did this.



Does St. Louis really have a chance of landing the headquarters? would be great. dreams...

JCity wrote:Does St. Louis really have a chance of landing the headquarters? would be great. dreams...

Yes. A chance...somewhere between 0 and 5%.

That history and all those connections make most St. Louisans, including me, face this merger with mixed feelings.



We do not yet know what impact the inevitable cuts at A-B will have on the employees, on their retirements, on A-B’s corporate philanthropy. Having the top decision makers live across the world instead of across the street is going to change things. Obviously, one of my first goals will be to try to convince InBev, which loves to cut costs, to move to St. Louis where pretty much everything is cheaper than in Belgium.



On the other hand, $70 cash a share for A-B stock is going to mean a tremendous transfer of wealth into St. Louis – which I expect will mean an up-tick in the purchase and sale of St. Louis real estate, automobiles, and a lot of other things.



I am very committed to working with both companies to make sure that the merged company remains a great corporate citizen and a great employer for thousands of St. Louisans.

I think I might have bolded the sentence above instead. Tens of thousands of St. Louis families own AB stock. Lots of it. Arguably, this could be the largest injection of private cash into the region in years? decades? centuries?

Shimmy wrote:

MattnSTL wrote:Bud can still be the Great American Lager, just not the Great American Owned Lager.

No it can't. A lot of Toyota cars are made in America, but no one would identify Toyota as being "The Great American Car Company" when you have GM and Ford (eventhough, for example, the Ford Fusion is assembled in Mexico using only 40% American/Canadian parts).

Isn't an American Lager a type of lager?

publiceye wrote:

That history and all those connections make most St. Louisans, including me, face this merger with mixed feelings.



We do not yet know what impact the inevitable cuts at A-B will have on the employees, on their retirements, on A-B’s corporate philanthropy. Having the top decision makers live across the world instead of across the street is going to change things. Obviously, one of my first goals will be to try to convince InBev, which loves to cut costs, to move to St. Louis where pretty much everything is cheaper than in Belgium.



On the other hand, $70 cash a share for A-B stock is going to mean a tremendous transfer of wealth into St. Louis – which I expect will mean an up-tick in the purchase and sale of St. Louis real estate, automobiles, and a lot of other things.



I am very committed to working with both companies to make sure that the merged company remains a great corporate citizen and a great employer for thousands of St. Louisans.

I think I might have bolded the sentence above instead. Tens of thousands of St. Louis families own AB stock. Lots of it. Arguably, this could be the largest injection of private cash into the region in years? decades? centuries?

Thats assuming that they spend they investment money into the city or the county. They could say screw St. Louis and move to Florida or move into a big mansion out in the country.

ChrisInDownTown wrote:

Shimmy wrote:

MattnSTL wrote:Bud can still be the Great American Lager, just not the Great American Owned Lager.

No it can't. A lot of Toyota cars are made in America, but no one would identify Toyota as being "The Great American Car Company" when you have GM and Ford (eventhough, for example, the Ford Fusion is assembled in Mexico using only 40% American/Canadian parts).

Isn't an American Lager a type of lager?

Yes, therefore my statement.

Regarding twisting InBev's arm to move chunks of their empire to stl:

We don't have to lure the whole headquarters - but if we could somehow arrange it so that St. Louis actually GAINS jobs and influence we could still make this deal a plus for the region. It woudl be wise for InBev as well ... as they could then win over St. Louis ....

I wonder if it could be done. Consolidate all of Inbev's western hemisphere marketing in St. Louis. Consolidate all of their shipping - payroll - whatever. If St. Louis could rule In Bev's western hemisphere then we would be in a good spot. I realize that Brazil is a big part of In Bev but Bud has real expertise in marketing/brand creation etc ... just a thought.

St. Louis Journal

Anger and Dismay at the Sale of a City Treasure



By DIRK JOHNSON

Published: July 16, 2008



ST. LOUIS — With the shades inside a tavern on Pestalozzi Street drawn to block the early morning sun, Dave Liszewski, a third-shift worker at Anheuser-Busch, nursed a bottle of Bud Light and a hollowed sense of pride.



“It took everybody by surprise,” Dave Liszewski, a 30-year employee who operates a machine that puts labels on bottles, said of the takeover deal. “They promised us this wouldn’t happen.”



“We were betrayed,” said Mr. Liszewski, who was still not sure he could believe the news that the company had agreed to be sold. “The good Lord was sold out for 30 pieces of silver. We were sold out for $70 a share.”

Mr. Liszewski, who operates a machine that puts labels on bottles of Bud Light, earns $27 an hour.

Are you f-ing kidding me?



Link

You should see how much the guys who drive the beer trucks make - they make more than most lawyers.

^ Holy cow, no wonder the workers are all up in arms! Oh well, that's just ridiculous. If that's the way it is then I don't feel much sympathy for them and I hope A-B-I plays hardball with the unions.

^It is beyond me why many union members have such a sense of entitlement. They truly believe they should be guaranteed 70k a year to sweep floors or stick labels onto bottles. In todays global economy, they can forget about this nonsense continuing much longer.

^ Well are the floors of A-B made with gold? No wonder the stock price hasn't gone anywhere in 5 years. Too many $70,000 a year janitors. I think the market rate for a janitor is a bit less, eh. Way to go A-B leadership -- this is one of the big reasons why you just got bought the f out (smokey.)

Urban Elitist wrote:^It is beyond me why many union members have such a sense of entitlement. They truly believe they should be guaranteed 70k a year to sweep floors or stick labels onto bottles. In todays global economy, they can forget about this nonsense continuing much longer.

And when you factor in things like overtime, their pensions (while the rest of us actually have to put our own money into our retirement plans) and other benefits, the total package is pretty impressive.