microsoft made 16 BILLION NET PROFIT in 2008 fiscal year.

These layoffs were NOT NECESSARY to maintain profitability....unlike the 16,000 sony fired

I know plenty of people at MS. With the free movement policy MS has for people to move around it is clear to most of the MS people I know and outsiders that MS is using the economy as reason to cut the fat. They cut 3000 people worldwide. Yet in the US alone they have over 600 current jobs available. I know 2 people that recently took positions at MS. The people they are letting go are poor performers that they dont want to move elsewhere in the company.

They are also cutting entire groups that are not headed toward something useful or are duplicating things delivered elsewhere in the company.  At the same time they offer most people who are cut a 6-week period with full access to internal resources to find another job.  The idea is "we have to cut group x, but we want to keep the good people.  If we literally pick off the poor performers and move the good ones elsewhere we will get sued - so we cut the whole group, and then people go to interview for the (fairly plentiful) available positions.  Pass the interview for the new group you are in, don't find another group that wants you, you are out.

They are doing something that they should have done all along (recession or not) - for many years it has been all but impossible to get fired at Microsoft because they felt it was more cost effective to keep paying you than it was to risk being sued.  By using wholesale layoffs they can elimiate duplicate groups and eliminate poor performers without much legal risk.  Poor performers aren't just more money spend on salaries - they are also downright distracting, hard to manage, and can genuinely create risk in products.

Bush should be punished for how he left the U.S.