The recent story about GE paying zero taxes in this country due to lobbying loopholes, tax exemptions and trickery hasn't led President Obama to ask the CEO Jeffrey Immelt to step down as one of his senior economic advisers....to do that would stop any flow of corporate money to the President for the 2012 election campaign.
But what you may not know and which is pointed out in this very interesting article is that GE makes 50% of it's profit from GE Capital, which functions as a quasi bank. GE Capital was set to make huge losses due to it's exposure to bad mortgages, but after intensive lobbying was given the same bailout terms as the other big banks.
So - still think this is a fair society? Think the talk of an oligarchy is nonsense? Think the entire political system, governance and politicians aren't doing the bidding of the wealthy? Dream on....
If it had been revealed that Jeffrey Immelt once hired an undocumented nanny, or defaulted on his mortgage, he would be forced to resign as head of President Barack Obama’s “Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.” But the fact that General Electric, where Immelt is CEO, didn’t pay taxes on its $14.5 billion profit last year—and indeed is asking for a $3.2 billion tax rebate—has not produced a word of criticism from the president, who in January praised Immelt as a business leader who “understands what it takes for America to compete in the global economy.”
What it takes, evidently, is shifting profit and jobs abroad: As of last year only 134,000 of GE’s total workforce of 304,000 was based in the U.S. and, according to The New York Times, for the past three years 82 percent of the company’s profit was sheltered abroad. Thanks to changes in the tax law engineered when another avowedly pro-business Democrat, Bill Clinton, was president, U.S. multinational financial companies can avoid taxes on their international scams. And financial scams are what GE excelled in for decades, when GE Capital, its financial unit, which specialized in credit card, consumer loan and housing mortgage debt, accounted for most of GE’s profits.
Robert Reich is an economist and was Sec. of Labor under Clinton, so I take what he says about the economy seriously. And it's not good. His point is noone is telling us about the very real danger of slipping back into a double dip recession. With states firing employees, teachers and other workers, cutting budgets to the bone, house prices continuing to slide and the Republican house slashing social programs how can this "recovery" be sustained?
Good point.....
Why aren't Americans being told the truth about the economy? We're heading in the direction of a double dip -- but you'd never know it if you listened to the upbeat messages coming out of Wall Street and Washington.
Consumers are 70 percent of the American economy, and consumer confidence is plummeting. It's weaker today on average than at the lowest point of the Great Recession.
The Reuters/University of Michigan survey shows a 10 point decline in March -- the tenth largest drop on record. Part of that drop is attributable to rising fuel and food prices. A separate Conference Board's index of consumer confidence, just released, shows consumer confidence at a five-month low -- and a large part is due to expectations of fewer jobs and lower wages in the months ahead.
Pessimistic consumers buy less. And fewer sales spells economic trouble ahead.
A pretty good Jon Stewart, and he nails some of the far right wing Republican hopefuls for 2012 like the wonderful Michele Bachmann.....5 minutes....
And Tom Tomorrow has a comment on the Tea Party.....
Excellent article about our "Governor" Rick Scott, and how in three months he has alienated a lot of the Republicans in the legislature, and a majority of the voters in Florida who are starting to figure out they elected a crook who is pandering to the extreme right wing to get support for his vicious policies towards the most vulnerable.
A good summary of all of the salient points what's left of the media in Florida have been hammering about this asshole....a good read......
Despite his being best known as a cartoon villain fraudster who bilked Medicare and incurred a record-setting fine from authorities, Florida Governor Rick Scott outspent and outgunned his primary opponent Bill McCollum and then slipped past Democratic challenger Alex Sink in the 2010 GOP wave.
And now, after three months in office, he's become the very face of buyer's remorse:
A PPP poll of registered voters released today shows that in a hypothetical re-do of last year's gubernatorial election, Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) would lose to Democrat Alex Sink by a nearly 20-point margin, 56%-37%. Scott won a squeaker of an election last year, edging out Sink by about one point.
We haven't heard much from Adam Lambert, but he's still making music - here is his latest video "Whadya Want From Me"....
But this is what a lot of people remember him for - his incredible "Mad World" performance on American Idol.....wow....
Todays video - very rude but very funny song from a nice British lady - "Dogging"....which means what you think it might mean....5 minutes....
Todays blond joke
Two sisters, one blond and one brunette, inherit the family ranch. Unfortunately, after just a few years, they are in financial trouble..
In order to keep the bank from repossessing the ranch, they need to purchase a bull so that they can breed their own stock.
Upon leaving, the brunette tells her sister, 'When I get there, if I decide to buy the bull, I'll contact you to drive out after me and haul it home.'
The brunette arrives at the man's ranch, inspects the bull, and decides she wants to buy it.
The man tells her that he will sell it for $599, no less.
After paying him, she drives to the nearest town to send her sister a telegram to tell her the news.
She walks into the telegraph office, and says, 'I want to send a telegram to my sister telling her that I've bought a bull for our ranch.
I need her to hitch the trailer to our pickup truck and drive out here so we can haul it home.'
The telegraph operator explains that he'll be glad to help her, then adds it will cost 99 cents a word.
Well, after paying for the bull, the brunette realizes that she'll only be able to send her sister one word.
After a few minutes of thinking, she nods and says, 'I want you to send her the word 'comfortable.'
The operator shakes his head. 'How is she ever going to know that you want her to hitch the trailer to your pickup truck and drive out here to haul that bull back to your ranch if you send her just the word 'comfortable?'
The brunette explains, 'My sister is a blond. The word is big.
She'll read it very slowly......'com-for-da-bul.'
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