I’m sure that Wall Street is doing OK. As a group, they have the muscle and the capital & know-how to survive. But you’re going to have to work harder than that to show me that Main Street capitalists aren’t suffering dearly.
This author needs to look at the official definition of the word “socialism” and not put up some false straw man definition.
Simple answer; the double dip is here and it’s all about Deflation.
He's just a smartass with glib figures. Why bother being serious with a "financial writer" who advocates walking away from your mortgage as if it would never catch up with you down the road.
If you could report a profit this year and pay half the tax on your profit that you would pay after January 1, 2011 would you declare your profit this year?
One more douche bag who hasn’t got the faintest idea about the real world.
“Numbers published by the Federal Reserve a few weeks ago show that corporate profit margins have just hit record levels. Indeed. Andrew Smithers, the well-regarded financial consultant and author of “Wall Street Revalued,” calculates from the Fed’s latest Flow of Funds report that corporate profit margins rocketed to 36% in the first quarter.”
Individuals and corporations are taking profits this year in anticipation of higher taxes next year. Businesses are shedding workers to realize greater profits and because of uncertainty with health care, carbon taxes and genuine concern over a double dip recession.
Hehehe.. Now that’s funny! This guy Brett Arends is a flaming liberal, and not a particularily savvy economist. I know, he’s not an economist, but his article history suggests he thinks he is. On the contrary, this article above, which, as it happens, is a perfect textbook example of propaganda, and the appeal to authority fallacy, is inconsistent with his opinion on economic matters just this month alone.
So Brett, you can’t have ti both ways. Is the economy good, or is it gooder? :)
Tim-
Not a deep thinker.
He’s right about unemployment, its worse than anyone knows or admits. Probably half of the people of working age are not working, which makes it pretty hard to say who’s unemployed and who is simply not working. If you haven’t worked for over a year you’re no longer unemployed. If you don’t apply for unemployment checks you aren’t unemployed, statistically speaking.
But the markets aren’t worried about inflation? Really? Right now we are being whipsawed between a collapsing economy and a collapsing dollar. The collapsing dollar is inflating but fewer people have fewer of them which forces prices downward. The dollar holds strong against the euro which is also in free fall, so who can tell. If deflation and inflation are occurring together at the same time, it may look like everything is perfectly balanced until you hit the wall.
And socialism? He has no clue. How could it be socialism if we’re all making money? He says, forgetting he just told us unemployment is twice at least what we’ve been told. And forgetting that the bank he works for is getting its orders from DC now days. And getting its accounts backed up by DC.
No, but conservatives DO want to cut $750 bllion-plus we spend on Wall Street Money-is-God Goldman Sachs-AIG. Does Mr. Arends worship Wall Street too?
This article is so full of BS there is not enough time in the day to address it.
But it is an irrefutable law that a Leftist will rationalize what he wants to see.
Chinese capitalism is in great shave too you dink.
This guy would be better served by buying magic beans and watchin’ ‘em grow...
We know there is profit taking in 2010 because of what is to come in 2011. The stack market today is NOT where our focus should be. Jobs, business investment (other than green jobs), energy, inventories etc, are better indicators of what is and what is to come.
Have at it? Just consider the source and forget it......Could be worse tho, GOOGLE!
The thing about people who have written these articles is that they have never run a business.
The reason profits are up is that expenses are way, way down. The most expensive part of an operation is the people. Cut ten percent of your staff and you cut a multiple of your expense costs in salaries, benefits, taxes, and 401k contributions, etc.
Pay down your debt and your profit will increase.
If your sales are down less than an equal percent, your bottom line will look good.
But, it certainly does not mean you are growing. In fact, you are simply doing what you must do to stay alive. When the market turns, you might be caught flat footed and scrambling for resources that are scarce. That turns into inflation.
There is no recession. I went to Panama on vacation this summer.
You little people are just too stupid to understand.
Every month I get my Cox bill (phone, internet, cable) some tax or another has been increased on it.
U.S. capitalism seems to be in astonishingly robust shape.
I think the author has very little understanding of the relationship of capitalism to the different forms of government. How robust the capitalism is not the measure. The measure is who owns the capital, or more correctly who controls the capital.
Is the system monopolistic state-controlled capitalism or is it competitive free enterprise capitalism? It is between these two opposing economic system that a battle has always waged.
A free market is a self regulating system in which all parties are completely free to transact with one another. Where force, fraud, or injury damages one party the government’s only role is to punish those who commit such offenses and to vindicate the rights of the other party. This protects the integrity of the free market or free enterprise system without intervening in it.
Four aspects of ownership are necessary in order for the ownership of property to be full and complete. These four are title, control, use, and the ability to dispose of what a person owns. In a free market economy, these aspects are unrestrained so long as the owner does not infringe on the legitimate rights and claims of others. True ownership of property and freedom go hand in hand. They always have.
Now let’s compare the two systems of capitalism, monopolistic state-controlled capitalism and competitive free enterprise capitalism.
Private ownership and control of capital exist in the competitive free enterprise system. In the monopolistic system, private or state title of ownership to the capital exists but more importantly, the state or the elite few who control the state control all the capital.
Socialism is where government officials acquire possession of major industries such as transportation, communications, and utilities in order to leverage control over the entire economy. Through ownership of these vital segments of industry and by creating government regulatory agencies socialist gain control over virtually everything else.
Now let’s combine political and economic systems because ultimately one never exists without the other.
We see again that there are only two ultimate choices, a competitive free enterprise system in a Republic, or a monopolistic state controlled system under an Oligarchy.
The latter appears to be Obama’s agenda as evidenced by his deeds but not his words.
Where’s the barf alert ?
When the goobermint takes over the running of private businesses, it can either be socialism or facism - it clearly is NOT capitalism !