Harley: Job Losses

Harley-Davidson 105th Anniversary, Downtown Milwaukee, August 30, 2008

Obama is nuts to suggest that his disastrous stimulus is working.

Was this part of the plan?

President Barack Obama on Tuesday declined to predict how high unemployment will climb but made clear he expects it to keep worsening for a while as hiring lags behind other signs of economic recovery.

"How employment numbers are going to respond is not year clear," the president said on a day when he was headed to Michigan, home of a particularly battered economy. "My expectation is that we will probably continue to see unemployment tick up for several months."

The unemployment rate stands at 9.5 percent, the highest in 26 years.

...More than 2 million jobs have been lost since Congress passed Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus package. Without that government intervention, Obama said, states like Michigan would be even worse shape because they would have had to lay off more teachers, firefighters and other workers.

The White House has been criticized for being overly rosy about employment projections. Just 10 days before taking office, Obama's top economic advisers released a report predicting unemployment would remain at 8 percent or below through this year if an economic stimulus plan won congressional approval.

Instead, it is headed toward double digits.

What a load!

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Nearly half of the 1,000 job cuts announced by Harley-Davidson Inc. on Thursday will come from Wisconsin, the company says.

Of the 1,000 jobs to be eliminated, about 480 will come from Wisconsin, including the elimination of 300 hourly production positions.

About 180 salaried employees will lose their jobs here, mostly at the company headquarters.

The production of Harley-Davidson Sportster engines in Wauwatosa will be shut down for about 14 weeks late this year, including the company's entire fourth quarter.

The news comes as Harley-Davidson said its second-quarter profit fell 91%.

Harley said Thursday its earnings for the quarter ended June 28 fell to $19.8 million, or 8 cents per share, from $222.8 million, or 95 cents per share, in the same quarter in 2008.

Revenue declined 27% to $1.15 billion.

The results included two non-cash charges related to the company's motorcycle financing division. Harley did not provide results excluding those charges, but Deutsche Bank analyst Rod Lache said adjusted earnings came to 27 cents per share.

In a news release Thursday, the company said it will implement an employee reduction this year of approximately 700 positions in the hourly production workforce and will reduce its non-production workforce, primarily salaried employees, by 300 additional positions.

Read Harley's press release here.

Obama's plans to spread the wealth around have had catastrophic consequences.

You don't tax your way out of a recession. His moves have deepened the economic woes. He owns this economy. It's his.

Obama is killing Harley because he's killing the free market.

These job losses are of Obama's making. He didn't inherit this mess. He made it.

It makes me sick.