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"The worst crime against working people," so said Samuel Gompers, "is a company which fails to operate at a profit." Gompers, of course, is known by the history books as the father of the labor union movement in America. He was founder of the American Federation of Labor. It may seem incongruous for such an important labor figure to say such a thing about profit, but Gompers appreciated something back then that perhaps a few of today's labor leaders don't. An economy without profit is an economy in deep, deep depression. Profit and the self-interest motive behind it were under...

NEW: Prop. 23 Foe Profits From ‘Dirty Coal’ OCT. 28, 2010 By WAYNE LUSVARDI - CALWATCHDOG.COM EXCERPT NO on 23 backer and Democrat Tom Steyer’s Farallon Capital Management Company holds stock in “dirty coal,” nuclear, and oil and gas companies, and in a Chinese solar panel supply company that potentially would rob jobs from Californians, even as the NO on 23 campaign blasts Prop. 23 backers for similar investments.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – October 14, 2010 - Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2010. "Google had an excellent quarter," said Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google. "Our core business grew very well, and our newer businesses -- particularly display and mobile -- continued to show significant momentum. Going forward, we remain committed to aggressive investment in both our people and our products as we pursue an innovation agenda." Q3 Financial Summary Google reported revenues of $7.29 billion for the quarter ended September 30, 2010, an increase of 23% compared to the third...

NEW YORK (AFP) – US computer chip giant Intel posted a quarterly net profit of nearly three billion dollars on Tuesday and record revenue of more than 11 billion dollars. The Santa Clara, California-based technology bellwether reported third-quarter revenue of 2.95 billion dollars, up from 1.85 billion dollars during the same period a year ago. Earnings per share of 52 cents were slightly better than the 50 cents expected by Wall Street analysts.

Shares of Ford got a boost Thursday from CNBC's Jim Cramer, but they certainly didn't need it. Cramer mentioned them as worthy of being a buy candidate, but this is nothing new. Ford's stock has been nothing short of remarkable, since December 2008 when it was under $1 per share. Shares are currently over $12, a remarkable run for a company that many though would need to go into bankruptcy or need government help. Since dropping to under $1, Ford has done everything right. From cutting its massive debt load, getting products out to market, to making the company more...

In Ludwig Von Mises' 1922 book Socialism, the Austrian School economist noted that it offered happiness and enjoyment "to the losers in life's game" and "humiliation of all who are stronger and better than the multitude." His words still ring true today. To watch what is happening in Washington right now is to witness a sickening scenario where the productive are the enemy, and the weak are good. To put it more simply, the political class is engaging in a peculiar assault on corporate profits. This is strange and unsettling at first glance, given the basic truth about business success....

A possible preview of what is to come from Obamacare was observed in Massachusetts this past week. The state’s mandatory health insurance law (dubbed Romneycare, in honor of the former governor who championed it, by many) ran into a snag when insurers halted writing new policies. The refusal to write new policies followed the state government’s rejection of proposed rate increases. Insurance Commissioner Joseph Murphy denounced the industry’s response saying that “they are putting profits ahead of the public interest. The state government has declared that everyone must be insured. It is the duty of every company, every individual to...

Now that health care reform in the shabby disguise of ObamaCare has been crammed through Congress, a peek at the president's precariously stacked dominoes confirms that sooner than you may suppose, there won't be any private companies selling health insurance in America. Consider: There are approximately 1,300 insurance companies in America today. Beginning January 1, 2011, these companies will be required to pay out 85% of all premiums collected as direct medical care, leaving 15% of corporate income to fund operations and yield any potential profit. The health care industry has a profit margin of about 3%. Most American businesses...

We turn to the Wall Street Journal for the math on what it will cost to raise taxes on corporations’ retiree prescription drug coverage. This is the provision that has caused several corporations to take markdowns recently. The bottom line: by closing this “loophole” — which was originally created to dissuade companies from dumping retirees’ prescription costs into Medicare Part D — the government could lose more than five times what it brings in. The Employee Benefit Research Institute calculates that the 28% subsidy on average will run taxpayers $665 in 2011 and that the tax dispensation is worth $233....

Henry Waxman is peeved. He expects corporate America to swallow health-care reform without a peep of protest -- and, apparently, without revealing new costs to shareholders or the Securities and Exchange Commission. Last week, AT&T announced it will take an immediate $1 billion write-down thanks to a new tax in the health bill that will cause Caterpillar ($100 million) and Deere & Co. ($150 million), among other large employers, to do the same. The benefits consultancy Towers Watson estimates that the change may reduce corporate profits by as much as $14 billion over time. That's real money. For comparison: It's...

Regardless of whether His Majesty, King Hussein Obama the First’s healthcare destruction bill passes, you can be sure that liberals everywhere will continue to attack our nation’s health insurance companies. In fact, if this bill passes, those attacks will probably increase in intensity since the King’s bill will probably be beneficial to the insurance companies. As many friends and foes of this bill have already noted, including myself in a previous post, The Voice of Experience ,since this bill provides subsidies to purchase insurance for those people who couldn’t previously afford it and mandates coverage of those people who have...

WASHINGTON — Americans can't take weekends off from worrying about health care and the Senate shouldn't either, Majority Leader Harry Reid said today as he opened a rare weekend session to debate President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. With Democrats preparing to vote on an amendment targeting tax breaks for insurance executives' pay, Reid lashed out at "greedy health insurance companies" that he said make profits by neglecting consumers' health needs. Reid, D-Nev., called the weekend session as he races the clock to complete action on the 2,000-page remake of the nation's health care system by Christmas. With both sides...

As 60 Minutes reported last week, Medicare fraud is rampant and has now replaced the cocaine (ahem) business as the major criminal activity in South Florida. Both 60 Minutes and the Washington Post report that Medicare fraud now costs American taxpayers roughly $60 billion a year. That may sound like a lot of money, but surely it pales next to the extraordinary profits of private insurance companies, right? Well, let's see.... Last year, the profits of the ten largest insurance companies in America were just over $8 billion -- combined. No single insurance company made even five percent of what...

“Profit” and the “profit motive” have successfully been reclassified by the American political Left as a dirty word...

With less than half the doses estimated to be needed likely to actually be available, the government has set rules aimed at directing short supplies to those deemed most vulnerable. As expected, children and pregnant women top the publicized priority list. Unexpectedly, though, it has been disclosed that Wall Street bankers and brokers have also been allocated a share of the scarce supply. U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner explained that “ordinary people can’t be expected to understand the strategic need for us to keep Wall Street up and running. Missing a single day’s trading because of the flu could cost...

WASHINGTON – In the health care debate, Democrats and their allies have gone after insurance companies as rapacious profiteers making "immoral" and "obscene" returns while "the bodies pile up." But in pillorying insurers over profits, the critics are on shaky ground. Ledgers tell a different reality. Health insurance profit margins typically run about 6 percent, give or take a point or two. That's anemic compared with other forms of insurance and a broad array of industries, even some beleaguered ones. Profits barely exceeded 2 percent of revenues in the latest annual measure. This partly explains why the credit ratings of...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Quick quiz: What do these enterprises have in common? Farm and construction machinery, Tupperware, the railroads, Hershey sweets, Yum food brands and Yahoo? Answer: They're all more profitable than the health insurance industry. In the health care debate, Democrats and their allies have gone after insurance companies as rapacious profiteers making "immoral" and "obscene" returns while "the bodies pile up." Ledgers tell a different reality. Health insurance profit margins typically run about 6 percent, give or take a point or two. That's anemic compared with other forms of insurance and a broad array of industries, even some...

WHY is Congress so eager to cut $160 billion-plus from Medicare Advantage? The program does things that President Obama and other liberals normally praise. Is the cut simply the price charged by AARP (the American Association of Retired Persons) for overlooking the rest of the $500 billion in Medicare cuts meant to finance "health-care reform"? Medicare Advantage offers a range of benefits beyond basic Medicare. It combines many elements Obama and other liberals like -- such as subsidized premiums for low-income elderly, "pooling" of insurees to provide bargaining power and managed care that emphasizes prevention, treatment of chronic conditions and...

Obama-linked consultants cash in$24 million spent on pro-health overhaul ads By Sharon Theimer ASSOCIATED PRESS Tuesday, August 25, 2009 President Obama's push for a national health care overhaul is providing a financial windfall in the election off-season to Democratic consulting firms that are closely connected to the president and two top advisers. **SNIP** There is no evidence that Mr. Axelrod directly profited from the group's ads. Mr. Axelrod took steps to separate himself from AKPD when he joined the Obama White House. AKPD owes him $2 million from his stock sale and will make preset payments over four years, starting...

What a difference a year makes. In 2008, we were treated night after night to video clips of the obscene spectacle of Congresspersons berating oil company executives because Big Oil was making a profit. There was talk of Excess Profits Taxes, and endless posturing punctuated with faux indignity. Okay, fast forward to now, and try to pick out the phony headline . . .