A123 Systems lays off 125 workers at Michigan battery plants

[Jason27]

A123 is also getting ripped off by cheap Chinese knockoffs on eBay and Ali baba.

The Obama admin refuses to label china a currency manipulator. I wonder why?

[liveforphysics]

The Obama admin refuses to label china a currency manipulator. I wonder why?

Did you miss the reality check on that?

It's clear as a bell. The USA has devalued it's currency MORE than China, AKA, China is making less incentive to buy from them VS what our own country has done to weaken the USD's buying power.

http://www.google.com/finance?source=an ... CCMQ5QYwAA

[Gordo]

http://www.google.com/finance?source=an ... CCMQ5QYwAA

Gee Luke, when are you going to quit confusing Jason with facts

[Jason27]

Luke I don't agree with you.

Why then did the united states senate pass a bipartisan anti currency manipulation bill?

[VoKuS]

Dillholes... I mean really if they would just sell those damm 20AH pouches to the public they would be having to hire ppl, not be laying them off. They would rather lay people off than to sell to the public that wants to buy.

I doubt selling to individuals would reach the required quantities to keep that many people employed.
On the plus side if they sold to individuals they would probably have to hire a huge number of lawyers .

I do however wish that we could buy the cells.

This is so wrong and backwards.. "On the plus side if they sold to individuals they would probably have to hire a huge number of lawyers"...

I hate people like that, they screwup and sue the company...

[miro13car]

they would not offer their cells to the public and now they lay off workers?

[Kin]

The devaluation of the U.S dollar is related to the "monetary easing." So, yeah, in that sense we manipulate currency by printing more currency. But it also has to do with the fact that markets are less crazed. It was overvalued as was (?still is? I dont pay attention) gold because people relatively trust gold.

I guess a direct comparison is funky is all that I'm saying. China's currency is manipulated in so far as exports:imports are kept high, and they limit outside currency transfers (e.g, me buying 50 million yuan/) For what its worth, they did recently let to go up in part to combat inflation and/or bolster. It's just a number of variables, I'm saying. People argue that U.S is more hands-off, just primarily affecting interest rates, while complaining china's method is very hands-on. Economics are absurd :p, though.

More on topic:
I'm really surprised that a plant in Korea with 125 workers could actually produce 1 million cells a week. Lets say there are 10 human steps involved in the process... That's 10 million steps. 10 million / 125 / 7 /10hr = 1143 steps/hr. If each step takes only half a second, thats still too slow. I'm not trying to question LFPs numbers, I'm just trying to grasp how incredibly automated everything must be. I am shocked it doesnt take 125 people simply to maintain the machines that I would imagine are involved in making 1 million cells /weak.