Sony Sorrow

And you thought our economy was in the doldrums - consider Japan. I heard on the radio today that Sony plans to eliminate up to 20,000 jobs, mostly Japanese jobs. The company also plans to stop domestic production of cathode-ray television tubes to concentrate on flat-panel TV sets.

Sony has been struggling amid tough competition and the global ecomonic downturn, and the continuing recession in Japan itself can't be helping any. The company plans to announce a major "restructuring" on October 28.

Looks like the heyday of Sony, like the swagger of its late founder Akio "Pat" (:-D) Morita, who became infamous for his controversial pro-Japanese book critical of the American economy, The Japan That Can Say No, is long since gone.