corporations

The Corporations versus the American People Battleground is the Fiscal Cliff

corporate politiciansWe have lobbyists controlling the fiscal cliff debate and the messaging:

By posing as populists hostile to “government social engineering,” the Right succeeded in duping large numbers of middle-class Americans into seeing their own interests – and their “freedom” – as in line with corporate titans.

Corporations are literally posing as grassroots activists with media appearances, twitter accounts, social media, major articles and dedicated websites, all in an effort to hoodwink the American people into signing onto having their social security cut along with their health benefits.

Pundits and Lobbyists all make huge riches ranting and prattling on how someone is stealing food stamps or how Grandma should have her social security benefits cut and denied health care. Corporate controlled financial press puts biased choices for their 1% audience. Those still ethical and objective cannot type fast enough to confront all of the lies on the fiscal cliff. We are being barraged with corporate money funded digital bitstream lies on an minute by minute basis.

Rethinking the Political Economy

One of the most misused and abused terms in language today is "free market".
The definition of a free market is business governed by supply and demand, and not restrained by government regulation or subsidy.
This definition is often used in conjunction with environmental regulation and minimum wage laws, but almost never with trade between firms and corporations. Which is the problem, because without government protections this "free market" wouldn't exist.

$2.5 Trillion in Sales, Uncle Sam Gets Zero

Corporations. $2.5 trillion in sales. Tax liability, zero

brought to you by your tax code at work

Sounds like a slogan to do business in the US doesn't it? Yet assuredly that is not what is happening when corporations line up like the Oklahoma land rush to move to China and India.

Oklahoma Land Rush 1889

Yet, maybe that multinational corporate land rush has something to do with these results?

The Government General Accountability Office just released a report on how many large corporations do not pay taxes yet have strong sales. AP sums it up:

Friday Movie Night

hot buttered popcorn

It's Friday Night! Party Time!

Time to relax, put your feet up on the couch, lay back, and watch some detailed videos on economic policy!

This week, I found some original reports on worker displacement through insourcing from the 2003-2004 time frame. Insourcing is when corporations bring over cheaper labor via guest worker Visas and displace US workers. In other words, the jobs exist, US workers are simply swapped out for cheaper counter parts. I think to believe it, and get your head around this practice, you just plain have to see it.

This story rarely gets out but when you see the real people this is happening to, it makes the unbelievable real. It is real.

Age Discrimination So Brazen, It's Documented in the New York Times

You know something is brazen when the New York Times can publish an article where corporations admit to not hiring anyone over 40 years of age.

The biggest obstacle, experts say, is that most companies are reluctant to retain or hire older workers. At the top of the corporate ladder, executive recruiters are routinely told not to seek anyone over 50, notes Peter Cappelli, director of the Center for Human Resources at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

Hey Corporate Execs, You Got a Bailout, Now Give It Back

Even when times are good, it's hard to believe that corporate CEOs can look you in the eye and tell you that they've truly earned their outrageous $10 million, $50 million, $100 million or more pay packages.

And right now, times aren't good.

But this week I saw another round of stories on corporate CEOs getting multi-million dollar "bonuses" even as their companies lose millions of dollars.

Corporations Owning Corporations

seem to recall that at one time it was illegal for corporations to own other corporations. I think this grew out of the abuses where A owned part of B and B owned part of A.

I think the two Phillips Electronics firms were involved in this type of trick.

If corporations were prohibited from owning other firms and if firms could not set up subsidiaries in other countries, perhaps the incentives to bad behavior would be reduced.

The most obvious present difficulty has to do with tax avoidance. Firms incorporate in tax havens and shift profits to these subsidiaries, many of which are nothing more than mailboxes.