Strong corporate profits amid weak economy?

Obombo still appeasing the GOP Botches, Bitches, Birchers and Birthers. Someone has to make up all those Cayman Island tax shelters. Corporate fiends must be broke, because their taxes paid are zero, and we know it's only the poor don't pay taxes...

Strong corporate profits amid weak economy - What's up with that?
U.S. corporations continue to post strong profits quarter after quarter, even as the unemployment rate remains high and the U.S. economic recovery plods along in fits and starts. What gives?

Corporate profits grew 36.8 percent in 2010, the biggest gain since 1950, according to Friday's latest report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. No sign could be more clear that U.S. companies see the so-called Great Recession in the rearview mirror.

The strong profits, however, mask the continued difficult terrain for businesses. Yes, profits are high, but that doesn't mean business is strong. Read more:


click pic to enlarge

Tax Time? Not for Giant Corporations
Release: March 27, 2011
While hard working Americans fill out their income tax returns this tax season, General Electric and other giant profitable corporations are avoiding U.S. taxes altogether.

10 worst corporate income tax avoiders.

1) Exxon Mobil made $19 billion in profits in 2009. Exxon not only paid no federal income taxes, it actually received a $156 million rebate from the IRS, according to its SEC filings.

2) Bank of America received a $1.9 billion tax refund from the IRS last year, although it made $4.4 billion in profits and received a bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department of nearly $1 trillion.

3) Over the past five years, while General Electric made $26 billion in profits in the United States, it received a $4.1 billion refund from the IRS.

4) Chevron received a $19 million refund from the IRS last year after it made $10 billion in profits in 2009.

5) Boeing, which received a $30 billion contract from the Pentagon to build 179 airborne tankers, got a $124 million refund from the IRS last year.

6) Valero Energy, the 25th largest company in America with $68 billion in sales last year received a $157 million tax refund check from the IRS and, over the past three years, it received a $134 million tax break from the oil and gas manufacturing tax deduction.

7) Goldman Sachs in 2008 only paid 1.1 percent of its income in taxes even though it earned a profit of $2.3 billion and received an almost $800 billion from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Department.

8) Citigroup last year made more than $4 billion in profits but paid no federal income taxes. It received a $2.5 trillion bailout from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury.

9) ConocoPhillips, the fifth largest oil company in the United States, made $16 billion in profits from 2007 through 2009, but received $451 million in tax breaks through the oil and gas manufacturing deduction.

10) Over the past five years, Carnival Cruise Lines made more than $11 billion in profits, but its federal income tax rate during those years was just 1.1 percent.

Corporate Welfare Rats - 03/21/09

Government waste of tax dollars equals $1 Trillion a year
Oil companies are getting a nice deal too. The country hands them more than $2 billion a year in tax breaks.

Hedge fund and private equity managers. Many of these moguls make vast "incomes" yet pay taxes on a portion of those earnings at the paltry 15 percent capital gains rate. By some estimates, this loophole costs taxpayers more than $2.5 billion a year.

Citizens for Tax Justice estimates that corporations reap more than $123 billion a year in special tax breaks.

Department of Defense's functions, including weapons procurement, have been deemed high risk by the GAO. That means there's a high probability that money - "tens of billions," according to Walker - will go missing or be otherwise wasted. Meanwhile, the Pentagon admits it simply can't account for more than $1 trillion.

The controversial U.S. farm subsidy program, part of which pays farmers not to grow crops, has become a giant welfare program for the rich, one that cost taxpayers nearly $20 billion last year.

National debt requires more government efficiency, not sweeping cuts

Welfare programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid account for $1.5 trillion. The problem is, making cuts to these programs would affect millions of Americans. A better option would be to reduce benefits for the wealthiest retirees.

Increasing revenue will easily reduce the deficit. One way to do this is to get rid of the Bush-era tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans.

Defense spending also accounts for a huge part of the federal budget. In the president's proposed budget, security spending totals $881 billion. $100 billion (waste, fraud, unnecessary weapons)

The Federal Reserve and other holdings within the government own more than $5 trillion of the federal debt.

The New York Times reported that the government loses $1 trillion a year because of income tax loopholes

What we should avoid is cutting spending on education and other programs that promote a better future for the United States. If we allow government to slash spending on everything that's costing money, we won't be any better off than we are now.

Bottom line, the federal government is inefficient.



CEO pay soars while workers' pay stalls
The heads of the nation’s top companies got the biggest raises in recent memory last year after taking a hiatus during the recession.

Most Gluttonous
Company....Viacom.........Occidental Petroleum
Executive....P. Dauman.........Ray Irani
Salary.........$2,625,000.......$1,191,667
Bonus.........$11,250,000.....$32,975,000
Stock &.......$70,453,309.....$40,250,000
options
Total...........$84,469,515.....$76,107,010
Chg from '09.......148.6%.....142.4%
Stock return..........30.3%......22.7%

2010 CEO pay chart, sorted by total

Compensation for corporate directors is rising sharply, a USA TODAY analysis of early 2011 proxy filings finds. Behind the gains: higher cash retainers, fees and rising values of stock and stock option grants.



Just the facts, please: Stock performance under Clinton, Bush, and Obama

According to most right-wing pundits, President Obama represents the demon seed of socialism. Just today, for example, Rep. Michele Bachmann said he's intentionally making Americans poorer.

But let's put aside all the hot air and just look at the facts. Based on this chart of stock market performance under Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama, can you figure out which adminstration had the anti-growth record?

 

More jobs, more calls for spending cuts
The unemployment rate continued its very slow, very welcome decline last month, falling another tenth of a percentage point to 8.8 percent. Which is still high. Better news is that the economy added 230,000 private sector jobs. That's enough to keep up with normal population growth and add back a very few of the millions lost in the Great Recession.

Right on cue, House Speaker John Boehner lobbied his call for cuts in government spending. But here's the thing: Government spending is part of economic growth. It becomes particularly important in bad times. We're way, way, way not out of this yet.

Putting An End To Corporate Welfare?
Speaker of the House John Boehner wants to cut at least $100 billion from the federal budget. President Obama agrees that there should be some spending reductions, but the budget shouldn`t be balanced on the backs of poor and working-class Americans. There is a way that both camps can have their way - end corporate welfare.

According to the Cato Institute, a liberatarian policy group in Washington, corporate welfare cost American taxpayers $92 billion in fiscal 2006, a figure that has grown to approximately $125 billion per year. And the beneficiaries include such major companies as Boeing, Xerox, IBM, Motorola, Dow Chemical and General Electric.

The Corporate Muzzle

Corporate Welfare Rats



Steven Chu On The 'Very Hard' Decision To Cut Energy Assistance For Poor Households

Gov. Rick Scott orders immediate cuts to programs for disabled

School District Prepares to Lay Off Nearly Half of Central Office Staff

A List of George Bush's Major Accomplishments
Boosted corporate profitability through the introduction of the best corporate welfare programs in the history of the world.

Kept thousands of very rich people off welfare roles by providing them the largest dollar-value tax cut in world history.

Increased corporate profitability and efficiency while simultaneously helping third-world economies by outsourcing millions of US jobs overseas.

Saved billions of tax dollars by cutting programs for poor, children and needy.

Increased corporate bottom line profits by limiting lawsuits and placing a cap on judgements against corporations.

Saved billions of tax dollars by cutting over 40 Federal educational programs.

Help Taxpayers -- Take Big Oil Off Welfare

Military Spending Scandal -- The Department of Waste

Government Fails to Collect Public Revenue

World's Biggest Corporation is a Welfare Queen
Wal-Mart Has Received More Than $1 Billion in Economic Development Subsidies

Corporate Welfare Search Engine!



TODAY'S TOPICS: NAFTA Lie

Think Again

"The food crisis is not about needing more food. We have plenty of food for everyone on the planet twice over at least...it is a hunger crisis brought on by POVERTY. We do not have a food problem, we have a hunger problem. That poverty is CREATED by multinational corporations (no more than a dozen) who control 80-90% of the GRAIN production. They are not growing food "for people", they are growing food for the greatest amount of profit they can accumulate!"
-- Urmas Kaldveer, Ph.D.

The Future of Social Security for This Generation and the Next Cato Institute
I have divided my testimony on corporate welfare into 7 observations about the economic and political state of affairs regarding corporate welfare. Then at the end of my testimony I provide 6 recommendations regarding how Congress can reduce the size of the corporate welfare state.



Money Spent on the War On Drugs this Year DrugSense

The U.S. federal government spent over $15 billion dollars in 2010 on the War on Drugs, at a rate of about $500 per second.
Source: Office of National Drug Control Policy

State and local governments spent at least another 25 billion dollars.
Source: Jeffrey A. Miron & Kathrine Waldock

Arrests for drug law violations this year are expected to exceed the 1,663,582 arrests of 2009. Law enforcement made more arrests for drug abuse violations (an estimated 1.6 million arrests, or 13.0 percent of the total number of arrests) than for any other offense in 2009. Someone is arrested for violating a drug law every 19 seconds.
Source: Uniform Crime Reports, Federal Bureau of Investigation

How some of the Worst Corporate Welfare Programs
Fared under the GOP Congress.gif (millions of dollars)

Who is Abusing Government Welfare?

 

thank you

i keep arguing that size doesn't matter, it's what you do with it

libertarians want everything to be small, hmm . . .

 

Excellant!!! However it doesn't look as if 50-60% of voting citizens ever consider these statistics---they still are subject to the republican spin machine from the loud mouth lying right-wing sacks like limbaugh,Hannity,Beck,Coulter,et al. And Faux "news" is the direct link from the republican party to the ears of fools. These stats you put up here show all who are interested (unfortunately not enough) what this country is about--the separation of money from the weak and ever weakening middle and lower classes to the "upper classes,the busting of unions and the privitization of everything in sight. The democrats have lost credibility by not charging full steam ahead for what they are "supposed" to have believed in and they should have learned by now that there is no give to republicans. They are and have always been full on for the rich-the anti union--anti social security-anti civil rights--anti anything that benefits the citizens that have always done the actual work of this country. They want it all-an ignorant ,barely surviving middle and lower class non-unionized work force --while they take ALL they can possibly get ,by hook or crook.

The statistics you provided should be published over and over and over until people actually understand what this country has become and will continue to become if right-wing-republican ways continue to hold sway.

What will it take to wake people up? When does this end?? How ignorant can people become?? Remains to be seen,but it doesn't look promising.

 

These statistics are awesome and i want to thank you for providing them. I've been meaning to compile something similiar to show my brother so I just emailed him your post, I hope you don't mind. He's been in an uproar because the United States just surpassed Japan as the numero uno country with the highest corporate tax rates. All it takes is a little common sense to realize that the official corporate tax rate in America means very little because most of these companies get it back in tax breaks and refunds.

 

Bump---everyone,especially the right needs to read this.

 

It is cultural elitism and ideology that motivates them, not statistical analysis.
It would be nice though.

 

That is a lot to take in, almost needs to be a sticky.

 

The damnedest part is that obama KNOWS it all, and doesn't give a rats ASS. We voted for change.

But that change seems to have been to throw money at corperations with no plan to get out of debt, bring social justice, end the war on drugs, or do ANYTHING else we need done. But we can go kill people in africa, because they just need killin'.

Yes please, sticky this.

 

What can Obama do? Raise their taxes and they will raise prices? Who gets hurt in the end?
Corporate profits are a result of moving operations out of the US and to low wage, no regulation China. Corps are pocketing the profits they make from not paying wages and benefits and taxes that they were paying here in the states. The funny thing is we thought prices would go down when the corps offshored production. Less production costs should mean lower prices. Ha! Prices went up!

 

dbl post