red onion

What with unemployment up in the labor market, I was really beginning to fret for the fortunes of Halliburton. I needn't fear any longer. Our friends at Halliburton will be more than employed, because their role in Iraq is much larger than initially thought. Makes sense, because this company produced a vice-president of the U.S. of A. goddammit, and they deserve the recognition that their expanded role will bring them, (or the v.p. produced them, hard to decide what came first). Perhaps their expanded role in Iraq will help the company to pay for the asbestos suit, no pun intended, and $80 million, to be exact, awarded against them, involving the Highlands Insurance Company, spun off from Halliburton in 1986, and, well, its too damn complicated (the New York Times, dated May 7, explains it quite well, and no I won't include their links, because they are too damn long; scroll down to underneath the main story concerning Halliburton, in the Business section, and there are a list of articles concerning Halliburton beneath). But rest assured, Halliburton's future is secure, despite a recent 21% decline in its revenue from engineering and construction (Again, May 7, NYT.) Whew, thank God for the government's rescue, I mean hiring (oops) of Halliburton. I was worried about those guys. Looks like I'll have far fewer of them to worry about, as they are going to lay-off a bunch of people soon, 5,250 people, to be exact (courtesy of, you guessed, the NYT, May 7, those guys are busy at that newspaper):

"The Halliburton Company said yesterday that it would eliminate about 5,250 jobs and close about 400 offices worldwide as part of its plan to save about $250 million a year from its acquisition of Dresser Industries and to reduce expenses as lower oil prices cut into its business. The job cuts are in addition to about 2,000 workers the company has already eliminated because of low oil prices. The cuts reduce the work force of the Dallas-based company by about 7 percent."

Halliburton knows how to take care of its own. I wonder if they are taking applications, cause I can sure serve a good cup of coffee, and they are going to need plenty of the brown brew, because they are busy, busy, busy.