Posted on 05/31/2011 7:05:20 PM PDT by khnyny
To gaze upon the world of American corporations is to see a sunny place of terrific profits and princely bonuses. American businesses reported that third-quarter profits in 2010 rose at an annual rate of $1.659 trillion, the steepest annual surge since officials began tracking such matters 60 years ago. It was the seventh consecutive quarter in which corporate profits climbed.
Staring at such balance sheets, you might almost forget that much of the nation lives under slate-gray fiscal skies, a place of 9.4 percent unemployment and record levels of foreclosures and indebtedness.
And therein lies the enduring mystery of this Great Recession and Not So Great Recovery: Why have corporate profits (and that market thermometer, the Dow) spiked even as 15 million Americans remain mired in unemployment, a number without precedent since the Great Depression? Employment tends to lag a touch behind profit growth, but history offers few parallels to what is happening today.
“Usually the business cycle is a rising-and-falling, all-boats-together phenomenon,” noted J. Bradford DeLong, an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and a deputy assistant secretary for economic policy in the Clinton Treasury Department. “It’s quite a puzzle when you have this disjunction between profits on the one hand and unemployment.”
A search for answers leads in several directions. The bulls’ explanation, heard with more frequency these days, has the virtue of being straightforward: corporate profits are the economy’s pressure cooker, building and building toward an explosive burst that will lead to much hiring next year.
The December jobs numbers suggest that that moment has yet to arrive, as the nation added just 103,000 jobs, or less than the number needed to keep pace with population growth. The leisure industry and hospitals accounted for 83,000 jobs; large corporations added a tiny fraction.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
If you had been on FR long enough, you would.
When China finally flexes her nascent muscles and makes military moves towards Taiwan, will the US stand up to them? And if we do manage to hang tough and China retaliates by placing sanctions on US assets in China(factories .etc) and nationalizes them without compensation should I FEEL sorry for these sellout corps then? Well should I?
They have the right to put import tariffs on goods. Our founding fathers initially relied almost exclusively on import tariffs to fund the Federal government.
It means what you are describing is a fascist economy not one under freedom. Are you that dense and clueless?
You should read the thread before embarrassing yourself further.
———Because there is no need for the jobs-——
Further and damning to the hope for recovery, the jobs were not only not needed but were responsible for lower profits. bureaucratic pyramid building added unnecessary workers, increased costs and and lowered profits.
LOL! Fascism is the corporate/government rule over citizens.
“free trade” is the destroyer of individual rights and liberties, and it abhors the US constitution and the rights the Constitution conveys to INDIVIDUAL citizens.
Now I wonder if you’re a ‘global citizen’ too!You’re for interdependence, like the Bush,Clinton,Bush, Obama administrations, if you are against individual rights and INDEPENDENCE.
We have a fascist economy now! That is why there are no jobs in the US but plenty where slave labor abounds, and profits are up!
Ha!
Not only ignorant, but highly opinionated. When did I say that tariffs were the “Only” constitutional tax? I didn’t. I said it was an apportioned tax, from which you could opt out, meaning if you don’t purchase the taxed product, or perform the taxed action, you aren’t subject to it.
Wow, if you can’t even read a simple statement, please don’t think I’m going to read the rest of your drivel.
P.S. While I know little of Ron Paul, your silly attempt to guilt me by association, doesn’t yield anything. I don’t care what your opinion is, is obviously immature in any respect (You aptly named yourself in your handle). I’m sure someone else is willing to engage you, so have a nice day.
Some of us get it, some don’t. Glad you two understand what’s really at stake here!
Wall Street exists in their own world, far removed from the realities of Main Street. The next financial crash could very likely happen prior to the end of 2011, but you won’t hear that from commission-based stock brokers.
Tax the profits for social security avoided.
American companies who import products made by workers in other countries when Americans are unemployed should have to pay employee and employer social security amounts. There used to be 15 employees supporting each retiree - there still is, only 12 are in other countries.
That is true; they have an interest in maximizing the return to their shareholders (as they should). The owner of the resources will require maximum return on those resources from the managers/stewards entrusted with those resources.
See the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30. (While Marx and Obama and hillary favor the "from each according to his ability and to each according to his need" economic philosophy, we see that Jesus described the Kingdom of Heaven as one in which the LORD apportiones "to each according to his ability".)
As long as businesses are sqeezed by unions on the left and government regulations on the other left and higher taxes on the other left, jobs will be squeezed more and more out of the picture.
“Big corporations have no interest in helping the USA economy”
And when did they?
The Boards of Directors of corporations have Singluar responsibility: Enhance and Increase Shareholder Investments. That means profits.
They are not social workers.
They are not government agents.
They are not obligated to hire YOU.
They are not obligated to make their products here.
They are not obligated to do anything except make a profit and pay taxes.
The rest is pretty much a crap shoot.
Its called free enterprise. And it works great.
12 years of continuous violation of the terms of the cease-fire agreement, among other things.
What an ignorant cop out. A) No standing military was intended for the U.S. B) Federal Government should be shrunk in size to a miniscule operation C) An apportioned opt out tax (Tarriff) is the only constitutiional tax (The 16th ammendment was never ruled to have the authority to tax individuals, which is why it is touted as “voluntary”). D) Trade with foreign countries AT ALL is optional. E) Free trade is neither “Free” nor maximizes freedom. ...Ok, so technically you didn't say it was the only constitutional tax; you said it was the "only constitutiional tax".
Huh?? Please explain the policies and practices of the Bush administration that funneled extremely large amounts of money into the stock market.
Hmmm, creating a fictitious tax base upon which to levy a bogus new tax. Are you a registered democrat? Or do you just impersonate one here on FR?
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