Baker tells me he can make a sock core just as cheaply as anyone in China or Honduras - the machine costs the same, so does the yarn, there's hardly any labor.

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Earlier this year Granite set up an Internet site and bought a cheque-scanning machine to cut processing costs and help with marketing.

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Production has been outsourced to China in a bid to keep costs of the bare-bones machine in check.

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Mitek's technology increases convenience for the consumer by eliminating the need to go to the bank branch or automated teller machine, and dramatically reduces processing and customer acquisition costs while increasing customer retention.

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Pressure from both machine-stitching (as quality improves) and thermal-sealing (as technology costs fall) will squeeze an entire segment of this lucrative industry right off the map.

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The deal GE (nyse: GE - news - people ) reached with the International Union of Electronic Workers-Communication Workers of America (IUE-CWA) and the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) covers wages and pensions--but what to do about rapidly rising health costs was always the thorniest issue, as it is an issue with workers, unionized and nonunionized, across the economy.

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