Another article from Business Week on offshoring.  This basically about the fact that pure play offshoring is starting to have issues with competition.  When the only people playing at offshoring were Indian companies  things were great for the pure-plays.  Then IBM and Accenture bought a couple companies and started growing.  Over at  "I, Cringely" Bob Cringely wrote about IBM going heavy offshore first on May 4th, then on May 11th. The plan according to Bob, and I think his  numbers are too high,  is for IBM to push 100,000+ North American and European jobs to India.  Are they going to offshore through other companies? No, they bought companies and made them over to what amounts to IBM India.  IBM India uses US managerial techniques and culture.  It isn't trying to mate the two. So what's the response from the India pure-plays?  Well Business Week's article spells it out simply.  Buying US consulting companies and running them as Wipro US more or less.  The ultimate problem I see there is that the Indian management process sucks.  It's top down, very hierarchical, with no disent.  It rewards those who do what  top management dictates.  It's very suited for the 1950s and not suited for the US.  US companies that get bought by Indians are going to have issues.   Serious issues.  Likely they'll flounder, especially as the formerly pure-plays get squeezed by IBM and Accenture, and a host of others that you hardly ever think of in terms of technical consulting.  Offshoring is going to be around for a long time, even though the rupie is gaining traction on the dollar, but these pure-plays and their attempts to get into the US competitive market is going to cause them issues  they can't see.  Top down works in India because of the culture.  Top down does not work in the US for the same reason.  A friend of mine made a comment  recently, "if you're ever running a meeting and everyone agrees with you all the time, it's time to replace people." Dissent is good, it gives you a chance to hear another voice that isn't inside your head.  Ultimately, the Indians will learn this, but I expect it's going to be at their expense,  and not as something they embrace.

With all that  written, that pretty much  sums up my experience with having been fired.  The company I worked for got bought by an Indian company.  It's very possible that the previous corporate masters would  have fired  me for my comments about  offshoring, but it's also
likely they would have simply written me up with a warning and left it at that.  With the Indians in charge I pretty much knew that my time would be up.  I didn't match what they wanted and by the end of this year I would have been laid off anyway. 

There's an older article over on Asia Times that I just read.  "The US, debtor nation".  It  was a very good commentary about the US trade deficit.

Here's an article on the newest height of political discourse  in the US.

Interesting statistics on productivity from Economist.com.  I wonder if they did something the US doesn't do.  I wonder if  they took out  labor done in other countries, but paid for by American corporations.  One of the things I've learned about government  economic statistics is that they tend to game the system by including offshore labor. 

In personal news it looks like I'm getting an interview at a company in downtown Boston sometime in the next couple days.  It's  a contract to  perm position.  I should  hear back from the staffing company tomorrow.