What type of engineering is most susceptible to outsourcing?

[BCEagle91]

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<p>carmakers are going to raise prices to maintain marketshare? I
thought that no one is buying new cars today even at the current
prices? If they raise them , wdn’t that just make it harder to sell
units?</p>

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<p>[CPI</a> Tame in September - Zacks.com](<a href=“Zacks Investment Research: Stock Research, Analysis, & Recommendations”>Zacks Investment Research: Stock Research, Analysis, & Recommendations)</p>

<p>The other noteworthy area of inflation is in car prices, particularly
used car prices. That finally changed for the better in September, as
they fell 0.7%. On the other hand, in August, the price of a used car
rose 0.7%, and that is on the heels of a 0.8% increase in July and a
0.9% increase in June. Hey, the trend is in the right
direction. Still, we are talking about a 12.9% rise over the last
year.</p>

<p>In contrast, the price of new cars rose just 0.1% in September, down
from a 0.3% rise in August and after back-to-back increases of 0.1% in
June and July. Year over year, new car prices are up 2.1%. While that
is still more than the overall rate of inflation, which indicates more
pricing power on the part of Ford (F - Analyst Report) than the
average company has, it pales in comparison to the jump in used car
prices. The differential seems obviously unsustainable to me, but yet
it persists month after month. That is probably good news for the big
used car dealers like CarMax (KMX - Analyst Report).</p>

<p>However, if it were to continue for a few more years, a 1999 Ford
Escort would cost more than a new Ford Focus. Somehow I don’t see that
happening, and the September drop probably signals the end of this
sharp rise in used car prices. What we are probably seeing is a large
“inferior good” effect. In other words, in tough times people
gravitate to buying the cheaper product, even if is of inferior
quality. Used cars relative to new cars meet that description.</p>

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<p>ford’s stock is up . Are units sold up commensurately?</p>

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<p>I have no idea. I do technical and fundamental analysis. In the case of
the automakers, I’ve been mainly using technical analysis to make money
on Ford. It’s an abstract approach.</p>

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<p>as far as food and gas goes: they are not discretionary commodities
such as a car ( mine 215k and going still; knock wood); also . gas
is crazy since a bunch of unstable shieks control THAT. isnt a lot
of our food produced right here in the US of A? Aside - yes, I heard
that ag is one of the better industries nowadays. maybe i s/ lose
the IT gig and head back to the farm (after my grandparents on both
sides left it at the turn of the last century). oops, I probably
could not get a job THERE since I’d be competing with people south
of the border.</p>

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<p>[St</a>. Louis companies cash in as Missouri’s exports to China top $1 billion | St. Louis Business Journal](<a href=“http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2008/04/21/story2.html]St”>http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2008/04/21/story2.html)</p>

<p>Wallach Trading is among several Missouri companies, both large and
small, that have grown their business in China significantly in recent
years. In 2007, Missouri’s exports to China broke the $1 billion mark,
up nearly 32 percent from $769 million in 2006 and double the $500
million in 2005, according to the World Trade Center St. Louis.</p>

<p>The increase equals about 40 percent of the $600 million rise in
Missouri’s total exports last year when the state sent $13.4 billion
worth of goods to more than 200 countries.</p>

<p>Canada remains Missouri’s largest foreign market, taking in $4.96
billion worth of goods last year. But China is quickly gaining on the
next two trade partners – Mexico ($1.35 billion) and Korea ($1.2
billion) – and very well could surpass them by the end of the decade.</p>

<p>China last year imported $48 million worth of copper waste and scrap
from Missouri, compared to $20.6 million in 2005. Logan’s company,
which buys significant …</p>

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<p>Note to mod: this might SEEM off topic to the outsourcing subject of
the thread, but eagle thought that valuation of the USD might be
important when considering whether a foriegn service such as
outsourcing might be cost efficient and therefore used - I
think. eagle, please clarify the connection to outsourcing. if
foriegn labor gets too costly, then the US corporations might go
back using (now newly) poor U S of A people?</p>

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<p>Asia has controlled their currency for decades to win global jobs.
I should think that this is obvious to anyone paying even the
slightest attention to world economic news.</p>