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The operators of another Michigan electric car battery plant, A123 Systems, will receive a $100 million cash subsidy from the state for a 75-acre facility the company has leased in Romulus. The subsidy will be in the form of cash because the plant has been granted "renaissance zone" status by the Michigan Economic Development Corp. Declaring the facility a renaissance zone has the effect of converting a previously authorized $100 million "refundable" tax credit for the firm into an outright cash subsidy (rather than some-subsidy and some-tax break). The legislation authorizing the conversion was signed by Gov. Jennifer Granholm in...

After getting frustrated out of the lemons his problems gave him, David Miller made his own corporate lemonade. Due to the frustration of always having to call technical support to solve his own frequent hardware problems, he started taking the initiative to educate himself.

To qualify for an award the nominee must be government run, backed or financed, and fail a "Yellow Book" test, meaning that if a private company found in the Yellow Pages can do the work, the government should get out. The nominees are, in reverse order: Veterans Hospitals, Post Office, General Motors, Public Schools and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac For an explanation of why, please click to read.

Two brothers sign up for very long walk against corporate personhoodThe Times-Standard Posted: 05/16/2010 01:21:11 AM PDT Brothers George “Laird” Monahan, 69, and Robin Monahan, 67, have a long walk ahead of them. After a visit in Humboldt County last week, the pair is setting off from San Francisco's Golden Gate Park today to walk across the country, expecting to arrive at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. sometime before Election Day. But this is far from a casual stroll, as the brothers are walking across the country to bring attention to the recent controversial U.S. Supreme Court ruling in...

Corporate America is gambling on the minority in its political giving this year, assuming that Republicans will win big in the November midterm elections, an analysis of campaign finance reports shows. The pattern represents a distinct change from a year ago, when Barack Obama was sworn into office and Democrats took control of Congress. Back then, corporate political action committees made a shift to the Democrats, giving 58 percent of their donations to the party. So far this year, only 48 percent of the contributions from big business are going to the Democrats. The shift in political giving represents a...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democratic lawmakers on Thursday introduced legislation to blunt the impact of a recent Supreme Court ruling that allows corporations, unions and other groups to spend unlimited funds on political campaigns. Unveiled by Senator Charles Schumer on the steps of the court, the White House-backed initiative calls for the unprecedented disclosure of money in politics three months after the court ruled 5-4 that long-standing campaign finance limits violated the free speech rights of corporations. The court ruling is expected to unleash a flood of money from the traditionally pro-Republican business community to campaigns designed to favor or oppose...

Ford finance arm to cut 200 jobs in Franklin

In the banking industry in 2009, the rich got richer -- which has, of course, infuriated much of the nation. But that same basic idea, mostly minus the public infuriation factor, is playing out across the business world. The Great Recession has killed untold numbers of small firms, many of which were unable to line up financing to keep their operations afloat. But money is no problem at all for corporate America. And the biggest businesses don't need banks, at least not for loans. As the credit crisis has eased, they've been able to turn to the welcoming arms of...

Ross DeVol of the Milken Institute on the best ways to create long-term job growth.

U.S. Cannot Encourage Job Creation with Second-Highest Corporate Tax Rate Among Industrialized Nations, Scott Hodge Says...

The repatriation of the Timbit was held up by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Tim Hortons executives Wednesday as a shining example of low corporate tax rates luring business to Canada. The homegrown coffee giant has not technically been a Canadian company for years, but Tim Hortons Inc. is reorganizing as a Canadian public company after 99 per cent of shareholders voted Tuesday in favour of bringing the iconic coffee company back home from the U.S. The chain so ubiquitous north of the border had been registered in Delaware for nearly 15 years as a result of its purchase by...

Wichita Suffers From Bizjet Downturn AVIATION WEEK Joseph C. Anselmo janselmo@aviationweek.com William Garvey william_garvey@aviationweek.com Wichita, Kan. A severe downturn in the aviation industry has led to the loss of 30,000 jobs in Wichita as the impact from mass layoffs at companies such as Cessna, Hawker Beechcraft and Bombardier Learjet has rippled through small suppliers and the economy, according to Mayor Carl Brewer. Unemployment in this aviation-dependent city of 364,000 has hit 9.7% as business jet and general aviation manufacturers have throttled back on production after mass cancellations of existing orders and a dramatic reduction in new orders. "That type of...

Tax receipts decline as U.S. deficit to set recordPublished: Tuesday, August 4, 2009 Associated Press WASHINGTON — The recession is starving the government of tax revenue, just as the president and Congress are piling a major expansion of health care and other programs on the nation’s plate and struggling to find money to pay the tab. The numbers could hardly be more stark: Tax receipts are on pace to drop 18 percent this year, the biggest single-year decline since the Great Depression, while the federal deficit balloons to a record $1.8 trillion. Other figures in an Associated Press analysis underscore...

A look at some of the most luxurious executive perks Economic downturn might make some of these doozies obsolete Sunday, May 24, 2009 3:42 AM By Alistair Barr Running big public companies is hard work, so many executives get a little help to keep their noses to the grindstone. Use of company jets, cars and drivers, free home security, free financial-planning advice and country-club memberships are some of the common rewards. Some of these perks keep coming after retirement. Even in death, the money keeps flowing in the form of so-called golden coffins. In the midst of the worst global...

The recent recession is somewhat unique in that the credit markets have been dragged through the mud with the equity markets. Bondholders, generally considered to be in a safer position than stockholders, aren’t feeling so at ease. Over the past year bonds across the risk spectrum have declined in price amidst speculation that default rates could skyrocket in 2009 and 2010 to levels unseen since the Depression. As a result, investors with a few years on their time horizon may have a real opportunity right now if they pick and choose their investments carefully. Bond prices are down overall and...

RIDICULED by politicians, attacked by the media and reeling from the economic slowdown, US corporate jet owners are doing it tough. Attacks have been particularly savage since three Detroit executives used private jets to go to Washington last year to beg for a taxpayer-backed $US25billion ($39billion) bailout. The car makers' clanger sparked a wave of outrage and many companies reacted by cancelling orders or dumping corporate jets on a market that was already oversupplied because of the economic downturn. The result, say US aircraft brokers, is that resale values have slumped by 30 to 40 per cent. "A year ago,...

President Obama's recent town hall meeting brought visions of a classic movie. It felt like with great anticipation many followed the Green Brick road to Obama's Emerald City town hall give-a-way singing, “We're off to see Obama, the Wonderful Wizard of US....because, because, because, because, because...because of the wonderful things he does!” The straw woman asked for “a kitchen and a car. The cowardly kitty student asked for “more benefits”. This disturbing entitlement mindset is a far cry from JFK's, “Ask NOT what your country can do for you, but what you can do for you country”. From corporate tin...

Is it my imagination or does a disturbing number of Americans believe they're entitled to reap the benefits of hard work by others? An entitlement mindset is the foundation of the modern democrat party. However, offenders in both parties exploit the sin of “Class Envy”. Skillfully, manipulative politicians make you hate anyone who has more than you. They allege, “You don't have because those SOB's are stealing it all”. So while rich CEOs flying their private jets has nothing to do with the price of gas or effecting your life in anyway, you're thrilled when politicians vow to 'get them'....

The two largest offshore drilling companies, one of the largest oilfield service companies, and other major firms have announced plans to relocate their corporate offices to Switzerland: “Noble Corp. today became the latest in a recent string of Houston oil and gas firms to announce plans to move their corporate headquarters to Switzerland, a change experts said is cheifly for tax purposes. The world’s second largest offshore drilling contractor, now incorporated in the Cayman Islands and run from Sugar Land [Texas], said its board has approved the change, and now will put the proposal to shareholders and the Cayman courts....

In "Uncle Shariah" in the Washington Times, December 16, Frank Gaffney details why AIG's nationalization is so worrisome: The insurance giant AIG has lately become the poster child for corporate risk-taking, mismanagement and greed. Its unimaginably large losses, rooted in insurance it extended to financial companies engaged in subprime mortgage-backed transactions, have destroyed both AIG's corporate reputation and balance sheet. Indeed, but for the fact that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson - who during his days running Goldman Sachs had extensive ties to AIG - deemed the insurance firm "too large to fail," the company would surely have gone under by...