A day before the release of the 4th quarter financial results of outsourcing company Convergys Corporation (NYSE:CVG), they announced plans to lay off many of its employees, without disclosing how many and which locations would be affected.

The company calls it a “fine-tuning” of its business, as a form of global restructuring to align the company’s costs with its revenues. This news was imparted to its employees in preparation for the move on Monday, Jan 25. Little did Convergys’ employees know, however, that a very different announcement was being given in another part of the world.

A press conference was held, also on Monday in the Philippines wherein the Convergys country manager announced the company’s plans – not to lay off workers, but actually, to hire 6000 more people to

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Now that the primaries for both US political parties are over, it is time for investors to begin to evaluate the likely tax change scenarios under the new government that will soon be installed.

All signs are that taxes will rise, but how much and in what ways will differ depending on who is president and which party controls the House and the Senate.

None of the changes are likely to be favorable to investors in general.  Accordingly, there will probably be shifts in what is more or less attractive to investors, with resulting changes in money flow and returns for types of investments.  Company behavior may change as well.

For example, dividends are a case in point.  After the tax laws changed to reduce taxes on dividends, equity income became more popular, several high-yield funds were launched, and companies increased dividend payouts.

If dividends taxes are increased, there may be a shift toward

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1 word comes to mind of late - complacency. Today's medium sized sell off had me thinking of the last time the market sold off in a meaningful way. The fact I could not remember is a case in point. It looks like we had 1 day back there on April 11th but other than that since the quarter turned on April 1, it's been all good. Despite almost all bad on the economic front. No wonder everyone berates us with "it's all priced in", and "all up from here". If you review this week's postings you see 1 theme - selling and building cash. I'm back to nearly 20% in cash, and about 18% short exposure which is a very hedged exposure. I still am aghast this market does not treat $120+ crude more seriously - as I wrote ...