News From All Over -- Including More "I Can't Make This Stuff Up"

This starts with the story that Fidelity Investments will move its Massachusetts employees to Rhode Island and New Hampshire to better serve clients across all time zones.

In the category of "I Can't Make This Stuff Up," from The Boston Globe today, in the front page story with equal billing to the Japanese nuclear reactor story (print edition), it is being reported that Fidelity Investments will close its office in Marlborough, Massachusetts, and move almost all of the 1,000 jobs there out of state.

The financial services giant, based in Boston since it was founded in 1946, has steadily slashed its Massachusetts workforce in the past five years. Fidelity will probably have about 7,300 workers left in Massachusetts, just over half of the 13,000 it had in 2006. 

Most of those Marlborough jobs will be relocated in Merrimack, New Hampshire, and Smithfield, Rhode Island.

[According to a Fidelity spokesman], by reducing its concentration here [in Massachusetts], Fidelity hopes to better serve customers across multiple time zones and attract enough talented employees.

Last time I checked, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts were all in the same time zones. I knew the elementary, middle and high schools were in tough shape in Massachusetts but I would not think that would affect the "talented employees" workforce.

Independent analysts know what is really going on: Fidelity is moving employees and operations to states with better tax breaks, or where it believes it can cut operational costs.

In 1996, after Fidelity announced plans to build up operations in neighboring states, the state granted a permanent tax cut to mutual fund companies that added Massachusetts jobs in the following five years. With close to 10,000 employed in Massachusetts at the time, Fidelity reported that it added sufficient jobs to receive the tax break, and still does.

But Fidelity says they are moving their employees from Massachusetts to New Hampshire and Rhode Island to "better serve customers across multiple time zones."

As noted, I cannot make this stuff up.

[Update, March 19, 2011: the governor's back in town, and he is not happy.]

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From the AP:

Almost everyone who voted, 88 percent, voted to recall the previously very-popular mayor of Miami-Dade, Florida, after property taxes were raised at the very same time county employees were given a raise.

The recall makes "Miami-Dade the most populous area ever to recall a local official.

The area has a 12 percent unemployment rate and one of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation.

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On MSNBC's "Morning Joe" this a.m., one of the regulars equated the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico with the Japanese nuclear reactor story. The pundit is an apologist for the Obama administration, an administration that wants to destroy the domestic oil industry and favors nuclear energy. Right now the news coming out of Japan is "apocalyptic" according to some, but not to the pundit on "Morning Joe." The Japanese nuclear story was not apocalyptic to that pundit even as demand for private jets to fly bankers out of Tokyo outstripped supply. Commercial airlines have canceled flights into Tokyo despite the fact that there is minimal earthquake damage in Tokyo, and airports are open. Some folks must think it's apocalyptic. And to compare one oil spill in the Gulf with what is going on in Japan speaks volumes about "fair and balanced news" or rational thinking.

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In light of the high price of oil, and the likelihood that the price of oil will continue to rise, some folks suggesting as must as $150/barrel with $5 gasoline, the Obama administration is contemplating tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (75 days worth of US consumption) and halting any further building of the Keystone XL pipeline that would bring oil from Canada to the US. I can't make this stuff up.

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Did "we" just witness a "Cronkite moment"? As some folks may remember, the Cronkite moment refers to the evening that the most respected newsman in American finally spoke out against the Vietnam War being waged by President Lyndon Johnson. That newscast, some say, marked the end/sealed the fate of America's involvement in Vietnam, and President Johnson's decision not to run for re-election.

Perhaps not on the same scale, but when I heard an MSNBC anchor on "Morning Joe" question the energy policies of the Obama administration in light of $100 oil and the Japanese nuclear disaster, the "Cronkite moment" flashed across my mind.

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I wonder when they do the post-mortem on the Japanese reactors, if it will be determined that the disaster was compounded and events ended the way they did when the decision was made early on to try saving the reactor rather than the nation.

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ESPN: The president makes his "March Madness" picks and advises Americans to send aid to Japan via USAID.gov.