hwstar: I believe you are right. Historians studying our civilization 100 years from now will conclude that our society was brought down by greed. Wall Street has all this power because of greed: the only thing important is money.

Wall Street tells Qualcomm to slash employment, and it does so. Wall Street tells the company to split into two parts, and -- mark my words -- it will do so. Operational efficiencies aren't considered in such a decision. If the two stocks will go up, (as Wall Street believes), it will be done. (Don't be so sure a split-up will result in higher stock valuations.)

As I have said many times, greed hasn't always been so deeply inculcated in our culture. Fifty years ago, companies made such split-up decisions for a variety of reasons, mostly related to operational efficiencies. Best, Don Bauder

ImJustABill: Is Moorhead a securities analyst or a psychoanalyst? He sounds like the latter, and the psychoanalyst view is correct. You can see what is going on this morning: yesterday, Qualcomm didn't bow to Wall Street's demand to break the company apart. So Wall Street is bombing the stock today. Best, Don Bauder

I think he's a high tech industry analysis but probably more from the technical side than the financial side.

ImJustABill: Stock market technicians follow charts and grafs of the market's progress or lack thereof, and many apply such techniques to a single stock.

This guy's comment sounds more like he is a fundamentalist (one who follows the basics of the company's business) and not a technician. Best, Don Bauder

I don't mean technical from the Wall Street definition of technical (which I think is basically some hocus pocus pattern searching) I mean he looks at the science and technical and business aspects of what the company is doing. What technologies does the company have and what could they move into to make money?

ImJustABill: OK. He is an analyst that follows the tech sector -- not one who specializes in technical analysis. His view may be right. Best, Don Bauder

Yes. They will attempt to move Design engineering to Texas or Mississippi, or even India. Look what happened to Websense and Omnitracs recently and you see the writing on the wall. The electronics industry is under immense pressure to drive down costs from these finance guys. Hail to the almighty dollar!

By the way, if you think the Engineering job market is bad right now in San Diego, just wait until these Qualcomm layoffs hit! I was employed for 25 years as an Electronics Engineer until November of last year. The job market is awful right now, but it will get much worse before it gets better. There are very few companies hiring and if they are they want someone young who will work for $50K/yr and do 60+ hour weeks. Fortunately for me, I have investments and passive income to live off of, and am semi-retired. I won't have to work for anyone in the future unless the Republicans repeal the Affordable Care Act.

It's really sad that it has come to this. I would like to continue working in Electrical Engineering, as it is fun, and I beleive that I can still contribute much to a company even though I'm in my mid 50's. Oh well... I have my own engineering lab, and keep myself challenged with projects of my own choosing. I guess this is what freedom is after all...

hwstar: Very interesting. I have heard this from others. The situation is unusual. The one part of the U.S. economy that is doing well is high tech, although it's possible that it is riding a bubble. Yet engineers have to scratch for jobs, and get inadequate pay, for the reasons that we have been talking about on this blog. Best, Don Bauder

The semiconductor industry faces many challenges now

1. For the last ~50 years the semiconductor industry (as well as many other industries) have benefitted from consistent scaling of transistors on integrated circuits. But Moore's law is coming to an end (or at least slowing down). Foundaries (TSMC) won't be able to keep producing smaller and smaller transistors for less and less money.

2. New chips are more and more expensive to produce and design. The most advanced chips now cost 10's or even hundreds of millions of dollars to design, prototype, and bring to production. This pretty much shuts out startups from doing a lot of things and even limits what big companies can do.

3. There is no apparent "next big thing" to follow PC business and smartphone business. Maybe bio-med, internet-of-things ? Maybe not. To be successful the industry needs an end product for which there is big demand for high performance, lower power, new chips. It's not clear right now where that demand is going to come from.

4. The Chinese gov't has invested highly in Chinese semiconductor companies to compete with American and multi-national semiconductor companies.

5. Huge smartphone companies (Apple and Samsung) are increasingly vertically integrated and will be able to produce their own chipsets.

ImJustABill: As I mentioned yesterday, Qualcomm customers, such as Apple, are asking Qualcomm to cut its prices. Demand is soft in several areas of semiconductors. The royalty business is going gangbusters, but softening semiconductor demand is one reason Wall Street wants the company to divide itself. Best, Don Bauder

How about drones, robots and 3D printing?

They're buzzwords because what they omit the words "short term" before the word "value" - "short term value" is what people usually really mean when they say those words.

I would argue that a company has responsibilities to shareholders, employees, customers, and society as a whole. I don't think their sole responsibility is to shareholders.

ImJustABill: I agree with you 100 percent. Best, Don Bauder

jnojr: That is the conventional wisdom now. But it hasn't always been true. Fifty years ago, corporations realized they had responsibilities to their employees, communities, their country, vendors and others, and shareholders were just one of their constituencies.

Today's mentality is one of the reasons for the horrible distribution of income and wealth that is destroying the middle class. And the middle class, remember, is the basic market for consumer-oriented companies. Consumption is 71 percent of the economy.

I can remember when Milton Friedman championed the view that you expressed. It was out of the mainstream then. Now it is a religion among modern executives who have forgotten that Friedman also said that a strong middle class was essential to a functioning economy. Best, Don Bauder

swell: No question: R&D is essential for a technical company. Qualcomm yesterday vowed to keep up its R&D. Best, Don Bauder

Twister: Maybe he or she wants to get the emails first, and then sort through them and ask certain people to come in and interview. Best, Don Bauder

Provided she/he is not pfishing. Not even a website? Why not? It could be anybody. I guess I come from the generation that thought one should introduce oneself before requesting information from others. Maybe it's on the level; maybe it's bs.

Twister: Phishing is possible in this case. Best, Don Bauder

Twister: Were those Churchill's words? They are full of wisdom, and apparently uttered before Americans shopped at Wal-Mart. Best, Don Bauder

Are they open all night? I've gotta get right down there and save, save, SAVE!

Let us pray . . .

Twister: As discussed many times on this blog, shoppers don't save that much at Walmart stores. That's because the company pays its employees so little that they have to go on various kinds of welfare. As taxpayers, shoppers pay for that welfare. Best, Don Bauder

don bauder Yes, you have made that claim about Walmart many times. But doesn't it also apply to ANY business that under pays it's employees? In the last couple of years during this great debate on minimum wages, I have read stories of employees on many, many other companies having to do the same thing, such as auto parts stores, fast food workers, retail workers, fulfillment center workers, restaurant employees. The list goes on and on of workers talking about needing public assistance because of the low wages and lack of hours. So while Walmart is part of the problem, they are far from the only company contributing to the issue. And as far as the taxpayer footing the bill, yes we do. But there is no "Walmart employee welfare tax". My taxes are the same regardless of where I shop. and so are yours.

danfogel: Yes, other companies also pay extremely low wages, and block their employees' ability to get part-time jobs in addition to their regular jobs.

It all adds up to a good argument for the minimum wage, in my view. Best, Don Bauder

We gotta ironic this out!

Twister: I looked up that trenchant comment. I think it is best to credit Oscar Wilde with it. Best, Don Bauder

THANK you! I'd much prefer to credit Wilde than that, that, ENGLISHMAN!

As Wilde once said of fox hunters, ". . . the unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable."

A beautiful 25-year-old recently turned me on to Wilde's "De Profundis" as the one read that changed her life. How and why I never read it, or, for that matter, ALL of Wilde's work after reading "The Picture of Dorian Grey," is an indictment of my intellect. "Out of the mouths of babes." (Who said that?)

Twister: Or The Importance of Being Earnest -- also delightful Wilde. Best, Don Bauder

The devil's in the details. That's the short-term and the long-term of it.

Twister: Don't go long or short until you have checked those diabolical details. Best, Don Bauder

I claim that he said it. If he didn't, somebody should have.

Here's a true story:

At a Chataqua party at the Algonquin Hotel, Sir James Agate waddled up to a group that included John Mason Brown. "Tell me Brown," said Agate, "how is it that you Americans, delightful individually, taken collectively, add up to a bunch of twerps?"

"Tell me Agate," said Brown, "how is it that with you British, the converse is the case?"

Twister: Classic. Best, Don Bauder

Realizing your scholarly instincts far surpass mine, I decided to "Google" a string from my own story (which I gleaned from memory--often faulty--from an Atlantic story, from, I believe, the '60's) and came up with this version: http://thetrad.blogspot.com/2010/11/are-we-going-to-wear-it-or-is-it-going.html

I'd like to get to the bottom, and to know the facts, but hey, oft I find the embellished, the distilled, the incorrect, the adulterated story to have more of a ring of truth than the original.

Perhaps you can tell me the origin of the phrases:

"It's a helluva lot easier to find a million suckers with a buck than one sucker with a million." (I long attributed it to Barnum, but now cite it as "Author unknown.")

"You don't take percentages to the bank; you take MONEY to the bank."

Best, Twister

PS: I have been known to mess up quotes and aphorisms, but always attribute the the author as the source of the essence (e.g., Josh Billings' "The worst kinda ignerance ain't s' much not knowin' as 'tis knowin' s' much that ain't so.") And variations . . .

Twister: Both are percipient comments, but I don't know who uttered them first. Best, Don Bauder

Twister: Yes, but if you didn't want money, why did you go into business? Best, Don Bauder

It's not that I didn't want money; it's that I put the work first instead of the money. I would like to have "made" more, but I got enough. Get the distinction?

Twister: Yes, I get it. In fact, it is my philosophy, too. Best, Don Bauder

Yes, Don, but you're a mensch. You deserve every penny you've got. A regular Village Smithy of a man. (I had to recite that in Mrs. Henderson's elocution class.

Twister: The village smithy has bulging muscles. I don't qualify. Best, Don Bauder

Twister: That's not a twisted view. That's truth. Best, Don Bauder

Even Henry Ford realized that he could screw his employees even more if he gave them a raise . . .

Twister: You mean because, with more money in their pockets, they would buy Ford autos? That was his reason for the generous pay he gave employees. Best, Don Bauder

Yep. I think it was five dollars a day if I remember (my history) correctly.

Best, Twister

Twister: Yes, it was $5 a day -- a princely sum then. Later, Ford had a bitter battle with the autoworkers labor union. Best, Don Bauder

Twister: We have discussed it on this blog: paying your employees well, and treating them decently, does indeed lead to less turnover, less theft, etc.

Five dollars a day in those days, adjusted for inflation, would not make one rich today. But five bucks a day then was a helluva lot more than other workers were making back then. Best, Don Bauder