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President Trump’s tax reform has delivered more than a trillion dollars of stimulus to the American economy through corporations repatriating profits held overseas in order to avoid penalties that the tax law had imposed on bringing home the funds earned abroad. Bloomberg reports: Corporations have brought back more than $1 trillion of overseas profits to the U.S. since Congress overhauled the international tax system and prodded companies to repatriate offshore funds, a report showed Thursday. (snip) Investment banks and think tanks have estimated that American corporations held $1.5 trillion to $2.5 trillion in offshore cash at the time the law was enacted. Before the overhaul,...

Development of a proposed hyperloop transportation system linking Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Chicago would not only be a boon to communities along the travel corridors but also would be a strong business investment. That’s the conclusion of a 157-page feasibility study released Monday in Cleveland by the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency and Hyperloop Transportation Technologies Inc., a California-based company developing the technology to move passengers and freight at more than 500 mph through low-pressure tubes. Consultant Transportation Economics and Management Systems performed the $1.3 million study of the proposed Great Lakes Hyperloop System. For the first time, the study estimated...

"Our view was always, 'Let's just run a business.'" Today, former Walmart CEO Bill Simon would be in the minority. As more companies pick sides in the cultural debate, he -- like a lot of executives -- is having a hard time understanding which business these CEOs are in: advancing left-wing advocacy or their company's brand? Things have changed a lot over Bill Simon's career. In the retail business, he remembers, it used to be simple. "We'll sell to anybody. We'll try to stay out of the public eye on issues that can be confrontational." Fast-forward to today, when everything...

The Senate Judiciary Committee sent a letter today to the FBI and the Department of Justice formally referring for criminal prosecution four of the biggest Planned Parenthood affiliates, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and three of their closest business partners in the harvesting and sale of aborted baby body parts. The Senate Judiciary Committee’s report confirms that Planned Parenthood and companies like StemExpress partnered in a years-long criminal conspiracy to sell the body parts of aborted children for profit. When Planned Parenthood national became aware that their affiliates were operating their baby body part programs in violation of Planned Parenthood’s...

A bruising stock selloff continued, erasing more than 650 points from the Dow Jones Industrial Average as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin tried to instill calm into a jittery market. Coming off the stock market’s worst week since the 2008 financial crisis, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite fell for a fourth straight session Monday as investors continued to weigh the impact of rising interest rates, slowing U.S. growth, and the ramifications of a government shutdown extending into January. With the selloff showing little signs of slowing, Mr. Mnuchin attempted to reassure investors, saying he had spoken...

They said it wouldn't happen, but it did: The money companies stashed overseas to protect them from high U.S. corporate tax rates is flooding back in, boosting growth, jobs and confidence in the economy. Thank the Trump tax cuts. All told, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported, some $305.6 billion returned to the U.S. from overseas accounts. That's a $1.2 trillion annual rate, and far more than the $35 billion one year before. The BEA's analysts explain why this happened: "The large magnitudes (of inward capital flows) ... reflect the repatriation of accumulated earnings by foreign affiliates of U.S....

1st Quarter 2018 Results are just starting to be reported for US companies and expectations are that because of President Trump’s economic measures, the ‘bottom line’ or net profits for these companies will be the best 1st Quarter results ever! 2017 was a very good year for the Dow, S&P 500 and all the major US stock indices. The Dow set numerous records such as having 70 all- time highs by year’s end.  President Trump’s first year in office was arguably the best year ever for the Dow. (See our summary of year-end results including the Dow).As a result of...

Cumulative profits since introduction of iPhone

LONDON — The rest of the planet bears a warning for President Trump’s plan to lean heavily on private business in conjuring a trillion dollars’ worth of American infrastructure: Handing profit-making companies responsibility for public works can produce trouble. In India, politically connected firms have captured contracts on the strength of relationships with officialdom, yielding defective engineering at bloated prices. When Britain handed control to private companies to upgrade London’s subway system more than a decade ago, the result was substandard, budget-busting work, prompting the government to step back in. Canada has suffered a string of excessive costs on public...

A Look Into the Opaque Crystal Ball for Infrastructure Initiatives in the First 100 Days of the Trump Administration President Donald J. Trump's "America's Infrastructure First" plan is one of the Trump Administration's priorities during his first 100 days in office. Throughout the campaign, President Trump heralded his plan to build and restore highways, tunnels, airports, bridges, and water systems across America and promised a $1 trillion investment in the infrastructure sector over a 10-year period. Leaders from both parties acknowledge the nation's deteriorating infrastructure, and there have been expressions of support from both sides of the aisle for some...

The fossil fuel divestment boom has turned into a serious bust. Most recently we saw this at the University of Denver where the administration determined that the future health of their endowment was worth far more than any political points scored through satisfying the demands of some environmentalist students. We’ve seen this in a number of other schools but the trend is continuing in areas outside the academic realm. Even state governments have been forced by activists to take a look at the possibility of divestment. This most recently happened in Vermont where the state pension plan was considering similar...

Spinal Tap has reunited — this time in a Los Angeles court to challenge the French studio Vivendi S.A. for millions in profits from the mockumentary “This Is Spinal Tap.” Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Rob Reiner on Tuesday joined a federal lawsuit filed last year by bandmate and Spinal Tap co-creator Harry Shearer. Shearer, who also voices numerous characters on “The Simpsons,” sued Vivendi S.A. and its subsidiary StudioCanal in October alleging that the companies fraudulently withheld profits from the 1984 film. …

Mylan’s EpiPen Pretax Profits 60% Higher Than Number Told to CongressCompany applied 37.5% tax rate onto the profits it revealed to a House committee hearing last weekMylan CEO Heather Bresch takes her seat on Capitol Hill in Washington on Wednesday prior to testifying before the House Oversight Committee hearing on EpiPen price increases. Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Associated Press "> Mylan NV on Monday clarified the profit it said it made from its lifesaving EpiPen drug, days after House members badgered the company’s chief executive to justify the device’s steep price increases. Testifying before a congressional committee last week, CEO...

Are you tempted by nice dividends such as BP’s 7.53 percent and Shell’s 7.31 percent? Long-term investors are. They’re lapping up the oil majors on dips to cash in on their impressive dividend yields in hopes that the massive rally in crude oil from the lows of $27.10 per barrel is an indication that crude has bottomed out and higher prices are around the corner. The large investors are pursuing the oil majors for their stability and safety, which has boosted their prices, but even after the rise, prices remain below their 2015 highs. The oil majors are expected to...

Germany’s flag carrier Lufthansa posted a 55-percent jump in profits for 2015, benefiting from low oil prices. The result comes despite protracted industrial action by pilots and flight attendants throughout last year. Adjusted EBIT jumped by 55 percent to €1.8 billion ($2 billion) for the full year. Net profit came in at €1.7 billion, 30 times higher than in 2014. …

Wal-Mart's second profit warning in two months should be a wake-up call for the political left. If America's largest private employer is struggling with its own pay increases, how will other businesses cope with even larger minimum-wage hikes? Long the scourge of progressives for its relatively low wages, Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) announced early this year that it would unilaterally boost its own base wage, first to $9 an hour this past April and to $10 by February 2016. "People have known that $10 was coming for a while," Wal-Mart CEO Doug McMillon told CNBC's Jim Cramer on Wednesday. "This news today...

While Saint Patrick’s Day gives people all over the world a reason to be Irish for a day, it might be better for the United States to move permanently ‘Irish’ when it comes to corporate income tax rates. The United States currently has the highest corporate income tax rate in the developed world at 35 percent federally, and reaches almost 40 percent once the average state corporate income tax rate is included. By contrast, Ireland maintains a top statutory rate of just 12.5 percent, less than a third of the top U.S. rate. This competitive, pro-growth corporate income tax rate...

The biggest obstacle for Coca-Cola and Pepsi these days isn’t tied to taste tests, the declining popularity of sugary drinks or even their century-long rivalry. It’s the surging U.S. dollar. The two soda giants rely on overseas customers for roughly half of their revenue. When they turned in their quarterly results last week, both reported a drop in sales. The strong dollar made all the difference: strip it out and shrinking sales suddenly rise. The dollar has been a source of constant complaint this earnings season. Global corporations from Avon Products to Yum Brands have said their quarterly results would...

My report Sunday on the lucrative deal Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s husband has to sell 56 post office buildings barely scratched the surface of her conflicts of interest. The California Democrat’s financier husband, Richard C. Blum, is estimated to be a billionaire from his shrewd investments in companies that profit from federal policies. “For at least 15 years, Feinstein has appeared to support government contracts that push federal funds toward companies co-owned or governed by her powerful, billionaire husband, Richard C. Blum,” Breitbart News reported.

Bloomberg-funded Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America has launched an online store where they are selling gun control t-shirts for Christmas. The t-shirts--which are also affiliated with Bloomberg-funded Everytown for Gun Safety--have a likeness of an American flag and the caption: "Americans are 20 times more likely to be murdered with a gun than people in other developed countries." According to the online store index, the "20x more likely" shirt is $30, and this can be complimented with a "Future Gun Sense Voter" baby onesee for $24 or a classic white "Moms Demand Action" t-shirt for $26.