Wells was one of our clients at a place I worked. I suspect that their outsourcing won't last long -- they want security that they won't get with Indian resources. Just wait until someone starts screwing with their customers.

"I find it hard to believe there is a 'shortage of qualified technical talent' in the US."

In New York, Boston, Research Triangle, Silicon Valley, etc., this is absolutely true. But, for example, here in East Texas, the talent just isn't here. I say that because we try to find local developers to do projects, and there are relatively few to be had. We've been trying for a year now to fill a PC technician position. Interview after interview has been fruitless. One girl could not identify the CPU, motherboard, power supply, or tell the difference between an ISA and a PCI slot. And she was one of the better candidates!

As far as software development goes, we outsource most of it not out of a desire to do so, but out of necessity. We just don't have the human resources to fill in-house development positions. The downside is that the contractors are often themselves incompetent. One guy wrote an update script to a SQL database that dropped all of the tables containing production data. Another sent us compiled code that contained MsgBoxes galore as error-testing code. So when the binaries were placed in production, every database transaction (about 500/hr) returned a MsgBox. The above examples are typical of today's dynamic.

The bottom line for me is this. I don't care where the talent is, as long as it produces positive results.

“Wells Fargo this year leaped ahead of Orange-based Ameriquest Mortgage Co., Irvine-based New Century Financial Corp. and other rivals to become the biggest funder of so-called sub-prime mortgages. Such loans go to customers who can't qualify for the best terms because of imperfect credit, heavy debts or other reasons.”

Many people have been very concerned about the fact that lenders are trying to get more people into these subprime loans without fully educating the borrower on what exactly they are signing in to.

But, we must also keep in mind that it is up to the borrower to understand their loan as well. Wells Fargo has a plan to combat those who say borrowers need more mortgage education." (link...)

And minorities have been their target:

BALTIMORE | - Black neighborhoods in Baltimore were disproportionately affected by the subprime mortgage fallout, according to a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday by the city, which is attempting to recoup the costs of maintaining neighborhoods wracked by foreclosures....

The lawsuit alleges that San Francisco-based Wells Fargo targeted black neighborhoods by using reverse redlining, which is prohibited under the federal Fair Housing Act. For example, it claims that mortgages for homes worth $75,000 or less -- most of which are in black neighborhoods -- had higher rates and were laden with fees and surcharges."
(link...)

Did you guys know the next jobs to be outsourced to telemarketing center are the poor employee working the drive thru in your local hamburger joint... yes it is true the burger flipper have found out it is cheap to outsource the driver thru order takers job...

You will notice that the hamburger joints are putting in multiple lanes to the drive thru... this is done to utilize the telemarketing of order taking...

McDonald’s started and now Wendy's is following along...