My Investing Muse (17Feb2025)
Layoffs & Closure news
Denny’s, known for its signature breakfast skillets and specialty pancakes, told its investors that it will be shuttering 70-90 underperforming restaurants by the end of the year. - SF Gate
Bay Area tech company once worth $1.2B shuts down service, lays off almost entire US staff Getaround will continue operating in Europe - SF Gate
CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in an employee memo last month (as reported by Bloomberg) that he planned to cut around 3,600 positions—or about 5% of the workforce in said performance-based layoffs. But many of the employees affected by the move are speaking out on social media, stating that they have no prior history of not meeting company expectations. - Fortune
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TRUMP ORDERS MASS FIRING OF NEW FEDERAL HIRES WITHIN 48 HOURS Administration directs immediate termination of most probationary employees, impacting up to 220,000 workers hired in past two years. Agencies began layoffs Thursday through pre-recorded videos and group calls. Partnership for Public Service CEO Max Stier: "It's stripping out a whole new generation of talent for our government, who are targeted not because of evidence of poor performance but because they are easier to get rid of" Some workers given 30 minutes to leave premises as DOGE accelerates federal workforce reduction. National security and law enforcement positions exempted. Source: Washington Post. X user Mario NawfalThe conversation would be different if we are the ones who were released. There needs to be a correction towards better fiscal accountability but the impact to economy would be painful. Is this a lesser of 2 evils?
KPMG shut its 30-strong law division last year, while PwC has shrunk its standalone legal practice within the firm. “This week we communicated that EY is proposing to restructure our Oceania law business,” said Mr Larocca, adding that the firm would continue to provide legal services across “strategic areas” of the firm. - AFR
Roughly 275,000 federal workers lost their jobs this week. That's over 10% of the federal workforce. ~75,000 took the "buyout" ~200,000 probationary workers were let go (the WH has not confirmed the total, but this is how many were on probationary status) That's a lot of lives upended. And many gov't services will be impacted. While most organizations can survive a 10% cut, keep in mind these cuts were not even across the gov't. Many agencies hit hard in Trump's first term are being decimated now. - X user Heather Long
The cuts would result in more than 9,000 layoffs based on Chevron’s 2023 headcount. - CNBC
LAY OFFS to accelerate. Trump to eliminate 65000 jobs. Even oil companies laying off thousands of workers because the economy is contracting. Car companies such as Nissan and Volkswagen laying thousands of workers. It’s not going to be a soft landing. STOP DREAMING. Prepare for a market crash, possible depression, and war. Best to “prepare” than to spend your life “pretending”….believing in the tooth fairy. The best way to prepare for the crash is to stop listening to government officials who promise a “soft landing.” Time to get back to real life. Good luck - Robert Kiyosaki
The above are some snippets of news about layoffs, and closures in the past week.
Can Singapore maintain its growth in 2025?
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Singapore’s annual GDP expands at fastest pace since 2021, lifted by trade, finance and manufacturing sectors - CNBC
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At some point, it is better for the Singapore SME to walk away and close shop. Are there no other ways?
Both articles seem to be contradicting each other. Is it possible for both to take place concurrently? Should we be optimistically cautious in our approach?
DOGE and federal spending
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DOD PAID REUTERS $9M FOR "SOCIAL ENGINEERING" PROGRAM DOGE investigations reveal mysterious Defense Department payments to Reuters for "large scale social deception" project between 2018-2022. While DARPA claims it was for cyber defense, questions swirl about why a news agency received millions for "social engineering."
Is this turning out to be true - X user Liz Churchill
Several articles in the past week have pointed to “wasteful” spending by the Federal government. DOGE continues to uncover questionable expenses and is addressing these. This would lead to “reduced” spending in the economy and the layoffs would lead to reduced spending power.
My final thoughts
Charlie Munger's Four Life Lessons: 'Consume Less Than You Accumulate, Invest Judiciously, Persistently Learn, and Uphold Discipline' Good reminders - Benzinga (India)
There are more articles with concerns about bubbles in the market. Some articles speak with a strong bullish sentiment with companies like Palantir dominating the market with a stellar price increase. Both good and bad news can co-exist. It is possible that both signals can happen but both can manifest separately at different timeframes.
Let us research before investing. Here is wishing you all a great week ahead.
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