mineralt

The Return of the Plutocrats

Amen brother...you speak the truth


On Dec 04 05:50 AM Davewmart wrote:

> Had normal bankruptcy procedures been followed for the banks and
> the losses allowed to fall where they belonged on the shareholders
> and bondholders whilst government funds were used to set up new institutions
> to provide traditional banking some money would have got through
> to the real economy, the gamblers would have been out of a job and
> the collapse of the derivatives market would have meant that there
> were no funds available for them to continue to get huge bonus's.
>
> Many of the players would have been in jail for fiscal irresponsibility,
> fraud, false accounting and misrepresentation.
> That is what the bought and paid for politicians were desperate to
> avoid, and why they have stolen money from the taxpayer to avoid
> it.

The Return of the Plutocrats

That's a really nice idea. England has this a few years ago, where paying yourself via dividends resulted in a much lower tax rate than if you were paid their equivalent of W-2. I think the idea was to create business owners. This resulted in many technology professionals quitting their jobs, starting a company in the Jersey Islands, and having that new company invoice their former employers for their services. They were then paid a dividend quarterly by the offshore company.

It took their gov't years to shut down this loophole. However, I like your idea of paying on dividends, as it would get people to start businesses, assuming we could end the loopholes. It might also make CEOs use their wealth to actually buy shares of their own stock, and thus make their income based more heavily on the dividends of their own stock. This would finally truly align shareholder and executive best interests.


On Dec 04 07:15 AM davidbdc wrote:

> The only way to impact executive pay is to change the tax code.
> The tax code should be used to reward those that actually create
> jobs (ie business owners). Corporate chief's are just well dressed
> ass kissers that manage to climb the ladder....maybe they climbed
> it and produced good results....or maybe they climbed it in spite
> of results. They need to be paying higher taxes. That will push
> folks to go out and actually start businesses.....which will impact
> employment. Our current CEO's/BOD only know one play from the playbook.....headcount
> reductions.

Our Current Economic Illusions

Here's a definition that will help you understand why GDP is going up.

"Gross Domestic Product. The total market value of all final goods and services produced in a country in a given year, equal to total consumer, investment and government spending, plus the value of exports, minus the value of imports."

The gov't is making GDP go up by their own spending.

Productivity per worker is going up because the same amount of work has to be done, just with less people.

Accenture Sees Recovery in H210: Time for Dip Buying

10+ years ago, the entry level consultants hired by Accenture were college grads from places like UCLA, Cal, UVa, Georgia Tech. Many had MBAs. Many had engineering degrees from good schools. Today, they hire people in the US from the technical, for profit schools that advertise on late night TV. The other people they hire are all in India. They simply are no longer about high end systems integration, but are about putting low paid butts in seats. They don't deserve a high multiple, as they are now the Kmart of the IT industry.

Netsuite: Investors Begin to Doubt Growth

The mythical SME market for enterprise computing. It has never existed. SAP has failed three time to make an offering for this sector. Repeat, there is no SME market for enterprise computing. The fact is, you can run a $50M business on quickbooks and maybe a few salesforce.com licenses quite easily.

Spike in Mass Layoff Events

Here's a radical idea.

1. There has been no wage inflation in this country for over a decade. Clearly, this is because of jobs going to China and India. When you're at the top of the world's pay scale, globalization only hurts your workers' wages.

2. Over this decade of zero wage inflation, a lot of companies grew earnings nicely. Walmart's income for example is about 3x what it was in the 90's.

3. Companies are using cost cutting, which is usually layoffs, to protect earnings as they can't grow the top line.

So here's a radical idea. Since companies have no interest in creating American jobs, let's put the entire tax burden on them. End the federal income tax on individuals today. This would create a huge spending boom, as everyone with a job would get a giant raise. Companies would get a huge tax raise, but who cares? They have no interest in creating jobs anyway, and this would be offset by the surge in spending based on a consumer population getting a big raise.

China: Exactly Where Japan Was in the 1980s?

Since I'm a musician, I'll give you an analogy. Japan in 89 was a cocaine induced Duran Duran video. Today, China is more like Metallica's One...lots of hard work and intensity.

Los Angeles Ports Face a Grim Future

Nice article Tyler

Economic Collapse Is Accelerating

Jeff,

Do you have stats on how much more money a college grad makes ten years after graduating, compared to one year out of college.....and then compare this ratio over the past 50 years?

I think housing is toast as the newbies aren't getting nearly the salaries increases we got coming out of school. Without wage inflation, I simply can't see real estate really making big moves to the upside. I could be FOS, but that's what I see.

Caution Warranted Despite Full Spectrum of Bullish Indicators Worldwide

I don't understand why people insist on trying to make sense of the market, as if the economy and the stock market move in tandem. We have a nice bull market for four years, and it was due to the fake economy of HELOC purchases that blew up. In the 90's, we had a nice bull market due to overvalued internet companies that could never make money.

There is no relation, IMHO, between the Dow and reality. We are in for a terrible ten years, and the Dow, S&P or Nasdaq will go up and down, irrespective of the reality.

Why Is the Fed Buying Treasuries?

How much $ could we get for Alaska :) ?

Cognizant Technology: On a Tear and Still Undervalued

Dude, this is completely false, "more specifically technology strategy consulting. Essentially, they consult other businesses on how to more efficiently run their current technology infrastructure."

Cognizant is a offshore Indian firm, that sells software engineering services, performed in India. They charge, like every other Indian firm, $20/hr for a resource in India who is making about $7/hr. Their "onsite team" are mostly people in the US, working on an H1B or L1 Visa, from the mother ship in India.

They are in exactly the same business as Wipro, Tata, Infosys, etc. They are on a tear as American companies don't like hiring Americans whenever possible. They do have a reputation for being one of the better offshore firms, in terms of quality of the software they develop.

That's the facts, Jack.

Facebook Is Now the 4th Largest Site in the World

AOL #6? WTF? I didn't know they were still in business. Must be the grannies.

Buffett's Betrayal

He jumped the shark when Becky Quick became his lap dog IMHO.

Personal Income and Savings: The Double Whammy

Globalism means, "wages in high income countries will drop, wages in low income countries who participate in the global economy will rise".

This is as planned IMHO