To do such a comparison and ignore the effect of hurricanes Gustav and Ike leaves out a lot of information.
Posted on 12/12/2008 5:41:13 PM PST by Kaslin
Energy: Another day, another oil company fleeing the country. No, this isn't Ecuador, the banana republic that just defaulted on its debt after chasing out investors. It's the United States, and what we're seeing is self-defense.
In a political atmosphere of blaming corporations, it's no wonder. Halliburton fled to Dubai in 2007. Tyco International, Foster Wheeler and Transocean International all went to Switzerland. As a pattern emerges, America's global standing diminishes, in part because it's based on the willingness of companies to invest. It's an especially bad sign when domestic companies flee.
"The U.S. is an important market," Weatherford CEO Bernard J. Duroc-Danner told the Houston Chronicle Thursday. But, "it's just a market. It's not the primary market."
How does that sound for a loss of global leadership? If that's not clear enough, try this: "In the hierarchical pecking order, (Houston's) not going to be Rome anymore."
What accounts for this vote of no confidence in the U.S.?
Start with the demonization of oil companies. Executives have been hauled before Congressional star chambers, held up to abuse and ridicule, and then blamed for high oil prices as if they wanted to kill their markets. Rising global demand, nationalizations and Congress' failure to open the country to drilling go ignored.
(Excerpt) Read more at ibdeditorials.com ...
You seem to be confused, they can rip off the swiss for their services, I don't think we need them. They are free to go, no walls here and I'm not about to feel sorry for them. There will always be someone that will do their job better and cheaper.
Sorry, That showed my ignorance of the shorthand.
Had not caught that yet. Have lurked for about 8 years before I ever posted anything. It is a little different than being silent observer.
The other night I noticed quite a few what I thought were out of place posts. Some commented about large number of trolls aboard. Oddly they had old registration dates.
Best regards,
Texas Fossil
IBD is not a very reliable source. While IBD does acknowledge that the Houston Chronicle did the interview of Weatherford, IBD leaves out that Weatherford's headquarters are actually in Bermuda, not Houston.
Like the taxpayer footing the bill for the military that has protected their assets and trading corridors?
The solution is to renounce the socialist US citizenship.
:-(
Sorry, but I did take you for a newbie, but not a troll. Glad to have you around.
You seem to be confused, they can rip off the swiss for their services,
You think the Swiss will be net losers? LOL!
There will always be someone that will do their job better and cheaper.
They'll continue to do the exact same job for the exact same people, cheaper, because they'll pay less tax. Only now, they'll have Swiss employees in their HQ and pay taxes to the Swiss government.
Yeah, we showed them.
Paying taxes to the Swiss will work for this outfit. And for the Swiss.
The whole story is a little bit of truth and a whole lot of spin?? And not very well written.
Yes. Weatherford is an Oilfield Service Company...not an OIL company.
The auto companies are next. Ford and GM aren’t doing too bad overseas. They can compete overseas, and they don’t have to deal with the idiots on Capitol Hill.
Looks like the american socialist dream of building a post industrial america is coming to fruition. Who will be the peasant class I wonder?
Its incorporation is in Bermuda, its head office is in Houston.
Here’s the link to the Houston Chronicle article:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/biz/6160806.html
Please note the following:
“On Wednesday, Weatherford said its board of directors voted to move the company’s place of incorporation from Bermuda to Switzerland.
In addition to putting the company closer to key growth markets, the move will give the firm access to a corporate-friendly Swiss tax structure that will only tax its domestic income, rather than its worldwide income, Duroc-Danner said.
Multinational U.S. oil field services firms have long complained that while much of their income is earned overseas, it is taxed as if it were earned in the U.S. Bermuda is a tax haven, but lacks the same tax treaties the U.S. has with Switzerland, and Congress is considering tightening restrictions on companies headquartered in such countries.”
I guess this approves, yet again:
Money goes where it is treated best.
The Swiss will not tax Transocean on their earnings outside Switerland..so they will enjoy a much lower overall tax rate than in the US. Since a vast majortiy of their contracts are not in the US or Switzerland and they also don’t want most of their rigs registered in the US..this is a great move. I have been invested in RIG for a long time, but when the oil market went down..I bailed and will invest in them again. They were a great customer when I worked and a great investment.
For all who want to solve our problems by raising taxes on the wealthy.
Just in case you are not completely clear on this issue, I hope the following will help.
Please read it carefully.
Let's put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand.
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for dinner and the bill for all ten comes to $100.
If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that's what they decided to do.
The ten men ate dinner in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve.
“Since you are all such good customers,” he said, “I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20.”
Dinner for the ten now cost just $80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected.
They would still eat for free.
But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his ‘fair share?’
They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33.
But if they subtracted that from everybody’s share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to eat their meal.
So, the restaurant owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.
And so:
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings).
The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28% savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).
Each of the six was better off than before.
And the first four continued to eat for free.
But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.
“I only got a dollar out of the $20,” declared the sixth man.
He pointed to the tenth man,” but he got $10!”
“Yeah, that's right,” exclaimed the fifth man.
“I only saved a dollar, too.
It's unfair that he got ten times more than me!”
“That's true!!” shouted the seventh man.
“Why should he get $10 back when I got only two?
The wealthy get all the breaks!”
“Wait a minute,” yelled the first four men in unison.
“We didn't get anything at all.
The system exploits the poor!”
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
The next night the tenth man didn't show up for dinner, so the nine sat down and ate without him.
But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important.
They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works.
The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction.
Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore.
In fact, they might start eating overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.
To do such a comparison and ignore the effect of hurricanes Gustav and Ike leaves out a lot of information.
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