Dear Sir or Madame-
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In this September 23, 2009 Publication:
Leading Economic Indicators Rise For Fifth Straight
Month In August
Magna Starts Talks With Opel Labor Leaders
Baucus Bill's Text Said To Belie Obama Statement
On Healthcare Tax
Control of Plunger Clearance Can Simplify Plunger
Lubrication
One Month Until NADCA Courses Begin
DCE Wants Your Advice on Magnesium
Leading Economic Indicators Rise For Fifth Straight Month In August
The
AP
(9/22, Arbel) reports that the Conference Board's leading economic indicators all
rose in August for the fifth month in a row, calling this "the latest sign the
recession has ended. The Conference Board's leading indicators point to an economy
on solid ground early next year, though some analysts caution that a rising
unemployment rate will restrain growth." In a report Monday, the organization said
that its index of indicators rose 0.6% last month, and the AP adds that these
results "support many analysts' projections that the economy started growing again
in the current July-September quarter and will continue to gain in the fourth
quarter."
Stocks Wither On Strong Dollar, "Jittery" Investors. The AP (9/22, Lepro,
Paradis) reports that as "investors grew jittery about the market's six-month rally"
Monday, and as a strong dollar depressed futures, the Down Jones ended 41 points
down, rallying somewhat from a fall of 94 points in the morning. "Gains in health
stocks helped support the market, and Dell Inc.'s plans to buy
information-technology company Perot Systems Corp. for $3.9 billion drove some
buying in tech stocks. Analysts have been calling for a retreat in the market after
stocks surged powerfully off of 12-year lows in early March, lifting the benchmark
Standard & Poor's 500 index 57.4 percent."
Magna Starts Talks With Opel Labor Leaders
Bloomberg News (9/21, Reiter, Mellor) reported, "Magna
International Inc., the Canadian car-parts maker leading a group to buy General
Motors Co.'s Adam Opel GmbH unit, started talks with labor leaders on job cuts as
part of the 5 billion-euro ($7.3 billion) deal." Magna has proposed eliminating
"10,500 positions, or about 20 percent of the unit's workforce," in suburban
Frankfurt, with negotiations between management and worker representatives already
underway. "Unions, which are seeking to preserve jobs and prevent factory closures,
plan a protest rally on Sept. 23 at Opel's Antwerp, Belgium, plant, according to the
European Metalworkers' Federation." Magna officials say "the factory, where Opel
employs about 2,600 people and builds the Astra compact, may be shuttered as part of
a drive to cut spending on labor by more than $1 billion."
Baucus Bill's Text Said To Belie Obama Statement On Healthcare Tax
The AP
reports that while
President Obama "insisted this weekend on national television that requiring people
to carry health insurance -- and fining them if they don't -- isn't the same thing
as a tax increase. But the language of Democratic bills to revamp the nation's
health care system doesn't quibble. Both the House bill and the Senate Finance
Committee proposal clearly state that the fines would be a tax."
Politico
also reports that "the rest of the bill is clear that
the Finance Committee does, in fact, consider it a tax." Baucus' bill "requires
every American, with few exceptions, to carry health insurance" ant to "enforce this
individual mandate," the Senate Finance Committee "created the excise tax as a
penalty for people who don't have insurance -- and it can run as much as $3,800 a
year per family." Politico adds that the House bill "also refers to the penalties
for not carrying insurance as a tax."
Bill O'Reilly, on Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, also noted that the President said
that "forcing all Americans to buy health insurance, and making them pay a penalty
if they don't, is not a tax as some believe." According to O'Reilly, "He is right on
that. It's not a tax. It's a fine. And I think it might be unconstitutional."
Control of Plunger Clearance Can Simplify Plunger Lubrication
This article is looking at how plunger lubrication could be a much simpler situation
if the plunger-to-sleeve clearance were to be controlled, and the article also
explores the mechanisms that cause the plunger-to-sleeve clearance to change and the
existing control technologies that must be implemented to control it. To read the
full article in the September issue of Die Casting Engineer,
click here.
One Month Until NADCA Courses Begin
NADCA's 2009 Fall courses begin in October. The schedule is as follows:
EC-515 Die Casting Defects - Oct 20-21 - Udvardy
EC-506 Engineering Die Casting Dies - Oct 27-28 - Kirkman
EC-606 Product Design - Oct 29 - Meyer
EC-406 Machine Maintenance: Hydraulics - Nov 2-4 - Paluchniak
EC-407 Machine Maintenance: Mechanics - Nov 5-6 - Cnossen
EC-514 Gating Design - Nov 10-11 - Meyer
EC-700 PQ2 - Nov 12 - Meyer
EC-205 Quick Die Change (SMED) - Nov 17 - Udvardy
EC-430 Process Monitoring - Nov 18 - Meyer
TTT - Train the Trainer - Dec 1-3 - Meyer
Click here for registration information.
DCE Wants Your Advice on Magnesium
In every issue of Die Casting Engineer, readers report on tips they use to improve,
implement or sustain a process. The tips are then compiled into a list and printed
in the magazine for the benefit of all the readers.
Here is this month’s question: “What are some applicable magnesium technologies or
advancements that can make magnesium die casting more cost-effective?”
If you have some insight on this topic,
click here to share your advice.
