Donald Trump Keeps Taking Credit For Tech Sector Jobs He Had Absolutely Nothing To Do With

from the taking-credit-for-the-sunrise dept

Last week, buried under the fracas surrounding the failed update to the Affordable Care Act, the Trump administration conducted an adorable little stage play few actually noticed. The Administration invited Charter CEO Tom Rutledge to the Oval Office, where the CEO -- alongside Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Energy Secretary Rick Perry, repeatedly implied that Trump's policies were somehow to thank for the creation of 20,000 jobs and $25 billion in investment at the cable giant. Press Secretary Sean Spicer was quick to applaud the "new" jobs on Twitter.

At the same time Charter issued a statement expressing "confidence in the deregulatory policies of the Administration," the President's office rushed to release a video patting itself on the back for the "landmark deal":

The FCC also quickly issued a statement by new FCC boss Ajit Pai in which he claimed FCC policies were to thank for the jobs:

I’m pleased to see that our investment-friendly policies, along with the Administration’s overall regulatory approach, are already producing results.

And Pai Chief of Staff Matthew Berry also lent a hand to help the FCC pat itself on the back for a job well done:

The problem: neither the job creation nor the investment promises are new. And neither Donald Trump nor the FCC had absolutely anything to do with them.

The 20,000 jobs in question were actually announced more than a year ago by Charter. The jobs, purportedly to be created by eliminating off-shored labor, were part of the sales pitch for its massive, $79 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. Like most megamerger promises, there was no real timeline affixed to the jobs, which may or may not ever actually get created. Job losses are far more common in such M&As due to the elimination of redundant positions, but holding companies accountable for false merger promises simply isn't fashionable for either major political party.

The $25 billion investment (to be made over four years) isn't new either. In fact, if you look at Charter SEC filings (page 221) from August 18, 2015, you'll note that the $25 billion is in line with what Charter pretty consistently spends over any four-year span. Some journalists on Twitter were also quick to point out that the $25 billion is actually down a bit from what Charter would have normally spent during the same period (ironic for a company that whined about net neutrality's impact on investment):

Granted, taking credit for jobs and investment he had nothing to do with has sort of become Trump's MO in his first few months in office. Sprint owner Softbank has also been letting the President take credit for job creation and investment he had nothing to do with in order to curry regulatory approval of a pending T-Moble, Sprint merger. Charter, which is rumored to be considering a possible megamerger with Verizon or T-Mobile, clearly hopes that buttering Trump up will pave the way for its own M&As.

It's a win for the companies and the administration alike: companies get to get their names in bright lights as job creators (whether it's true or not doesn't matter), and Trump gets more credit with a base that derides any contradictory evidence as fake news. The real losers remain American consumers. The deal, approved under the Obama administration, has already resulted in higher rates and even worse customer support than ever -- no small feat for an industry already ranked last in terms of customer satisfaction and support. Synergies, indeed.

Just so we're clear: the previous administration approved a deal that has already proven horrible for consumers; and the current administration is falsely taking credit for the stale and bogus job creation claims used to prop that bad deal up.

There's additional irony in that Trump ran his election based on killing megamergers of this type, promising to not only block AT&T's proposed acquisition of Time Warner, but to break up Comcast's already completed 2011 acquisition of NBC Universal. Most analysts expect neither to happen. In fact, the most likely outcome is that Trump and AT&T (the king of bogus telecom merger claims) will use the Time Warner deal to create a supernova of bogus job and investment promises the likes we've never seen before.

And while that's bad news for consumers, if you're the type that likes it when governments and companies use flimsy promises and half-cooked data to prop up bad tech policy and hollow partisan rhetoric -- you may soon find yourself in hog heaven.

Filed Under: ajit pai, donald trump, fcc, jobs
Companies: charter

Here Come The AIs To Make Office Workers Superfluous

from the are-you-next? dept

Stories about robots and their impressive capabilities are starting to crop up fairly often these days. It's no secret that they will soon be capable of replacing humans for many manual jobs, as they already do in some manufacturing industries. But so far, artificial intelligence (AI) has been viewed as more of a blue-sky area -- fascinating and exciting, but still the realm of research rather than the real world. Although AI certainly raises important questions for the future, not least philosophical and ethical ones, its impact on job security has not been at the forefront of concerns. But a recent decision by a Japanese insurance company to replace several dozen of its employees with an AI system suggests maybe it should be:

Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance believes [its move] will increase productivity by 30% and see a return on its investment in less than two years. The firm said it would save about 140m yen (£1m) a year after the 200m yen (£1.4m) AI system is installed this month. Maintaining it will cost about 15m yen (£100k) a year.

The Guardian article quoted above gives a few more details:

The system is based on IBM's Watson Explorer, which, according to the tech firm, possesses "cognitive technology that can think like a human”, enabling it to “analyse and interpret all of your data, including unstructured text, images, audio and video".

The technology will be able to read tens of thousands of medical certificates and factor in the length of hospital stays, medical histories and any surgical procedures before calculating payouts

It's noteworthy that IBM's Watson Explorer is being used by the insurance company in this way barely a year after the head of the Watson project stated flatly that his system wouldn't be replacing humans any time soon. That's a reflection of just how fast this sector is moving. Now would be a good time to check whether your job might be next.

Follow me @glynmoody on Twitter or identi.ca, and +glynmoody on Google+

Filed Under: ai, future of work, japan, jobs, robots, watson, white collar workers

Trump Still Falsely Taking Credit For Sprint Jobs He Had Nothing To Do With

from the magic-man dept

"We are excited to work with President-Elect Trump and his Administration to do our part to drive economic growth and create jobs in the U.S.,” said Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure. "We believe it is critical for business and government to partner together to create more job opportunities in the U.S. and ensure prosperity for all Americans."

"I was just called by the head people at Sprint, and they are going to be bringing 5,000 jobs back to the United States," Mr. Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. "They have taken them from other countries. They are bringing them back to the United States."

...Although Mr. Trump claimed credit for SoftBank’s $50 billion investment in the United States, those plans predated the election, and Mr. Son has owned a controlling stake in Sprint, among other companies, for several years.

Filed Under: credit, donald trump, jobs, marcelo claure, masayhoshi son, pr, propaganda
Companies: sprint, t-mobile

China's Richest Man Tells MPAA's Chris Dodd To Tell Donald Trump To Be Nice To China... Or Else

from the strange-bedfellows dept

Wang, who is China’s richest man, is a former commander in the People’s Liberation Army, and a current delegate to the Chinese People’s National Congress, as well as a member of an advisory board to the Communist Party. Some of his current and former businesses are closely linked to the family of current president Xi Jinping, the New York Times noted last year.

Yesterday, I met with the president of Motion Picture Association of America who said he wants to meet with Mr. Trump and asked me what message I would like delivered. I told him to tell Mr. Trump that I have $10 billion of investments in the United States and more than 20,000 employees there who wouldn’t have anything to eat should things be handled poorly, and nothing else mattered. At least in the film and television industry, you must understand that the growth of English films depends on the Chinese market.

Filed Under: china, chriss dodd, copyright, donald trump, jobs, movies, wang jianlin
Companies: mpaa

Trump Takes Undeserved Credit For Softbank Investment & Job Promises, As Company Sells Him On A T-Mobile Sprint Merger

from the Sad! dept

"There’s a key figure who will determine if Son makes another run at T-Mobile: the yet-to-be named new head of the FCC. If Son feels that person is more amenable to a combination to take on market leaders AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc., he will probably try again, said the people, who asked to not be identified because the matter is private."

"...The contours of the deal Trump announced Tuesday appear in line with the company’s previous investment plans. In October, SoftBank announced it would create a $100 billion fund – with the backing of Saudi Arabia – in a bid to become the “biggest investor in the technology sector,” Son said at the time.

Son on Tuesday did not say whether the new investment pledge was a result of Trump's victory, but he did say he was celebrating Trump's White House win.

"I just came to celebrate his new job,” Son said. “I said, ‘This is great, the U.S. will become great again.’"

Filed Under: donald trump, investment, jobs, layoffs, masayoshi son, mergers, telcos
Companies: sprint, t-mobile

DailyDirt: Minimizing Pointy-Haired Bosses

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

• Zappos issued a kind of ultimatum to its employees -- accept its experimental new management system or take a severance package. Over 200 employees (about 14% of the workforce) chose to leave the company, which doesn't necessarily mean that all of these former employees didn't like "Holacracy" -- but it suggests that self-management policies aren't for everyone, either. [url]
• Google experimented with a flat organization circa 2002, but it ended after a few months when a flood of mundane managerial details overwhelmed the few people with obvious authority at the company. Since then, Google has continued with a data-driven culture to help develop its management techniques and policies -- finding that engineers hate technical micromanagement, but really like to be closely managed when it comes to career guidance. [url]
• If a company's org chart is flat, there's presumably no promotions for many employees, so how can flat organizations keep employees happy? Okay, a growing company can still offer expanded roles with more responsibilities, but a large, stable company may need to design stock option plans and bonuses to keep people around. But if money isn't a great motivator.... [url]

Filed Under: careers, employment, holacracy, hr, human resources, jobs, management, motivation, organizational behavior, reviews, stack ranking, tony hsieh, work
Companies: google, zappos

Throwing Tax Breaks At AT&T And Verizon Shockingly Not Creating Promised Jobs, Investment

from the we-don't-appear-to-be-learning-anything dept

"But that isn’t how it has worked, at least at AT&T and Verizon, whose vast networks of towers and cables make them two of the country’s biggest investors in infrastructure. AT&T estimated its federal tax bill last year at $3 billion, down from about $5.9 billion in 2007, before the tax relief was enacted. Verizon estimated that it would get $197 million back last year, compared with a 2007 bill of $2.6 billion. Meanwhile, the companies have kept their capital spending relatively flat since the stimulus was adopted, and their employee count has dropped by more than 100,000 people, a fifth of their combined work forces."

Filed Under: broadband, investment, jobs, shovel ready, stimulus, telcos
Companies: at&t, verizon

DailyDirt: Herding Cats For Profit

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

• What's it like working at a company where everyone's salary is known to everyone else at the company? Apparently, it can lead to some difficult discussions when employees change roles or take on new responsibilities, but it's not as crazy a policy as it might sound. [url]
• The annual performance review may not be as effective as encouraging managers to have more frequent "check-ins" for more informal coaching and feedback. Adobe seems to be experimenting with this strategy, but replacing a formal system with an informal system may simply hide the problems behind closed-door discussions. [url]
• There are lots of pitfalls to managing a new venture at a large company. Far more than six mistakes, but careless staffing and picking the wrong metrics to assess performance should definitely be on the short list of things to avoid. [url]

Filed Under: employment, hawthorne effect, human resources, jobs, management, organizational behavior, performance reviews, salary, stack ranking, work
Companies: adobe

Bogus Comparison Between Detroit In 1990 And Silicon Valley In 2012

from the apples-and-tomatoes dept

Filed Under: detroit, innovation, jobs, silicon valley