Corporate Profits hit a new record high!

Ausm

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
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It's amazing how the Corporations are able to make record profits with an Anti-business President?? How can Corporations be making so many profits while laying off millions of people and paying President Obama's oppressive tax rates?The GDP has also jumped up sharply which is awesome!


http://www.economonitor.com/blog/20...rply-upward-corporate-profits-ngdp-also-rise/

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LTC8K6

Lifer
Mar 10, 2004
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The rich, and the corporations, are always able to maneuver around regulations and laws and taxes. It's the poor and middle class that can't.

Laying off people, and moving money around early to avoid the coming tax increases, sounds like it would raise profits.

I would imagine profit taking is going on now to avoid the coming taxes.
 
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EagleKeeper

Discussion Club Moderator<br>Elite Member
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Oct 30, 2000
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Scared you wil not get your perceived share?
 

Genx87

Lifer
Apr 8, 2002
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Well we heard about the jobless recovery from the left under Bush. Looks like Obama is demostrating what it actually looks like.
 

KB

Diamond Member
Nov 8, 1999
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It is a good time to be a shareholder, but bad for employment. Companies greatly reduced the number of employees while making their current employees work harder. Less cost plus increasing sales means more profits.
 

Fern

Elite Member
Sep 30, 2003
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Jaskalas

Lifer
Jun 23, 2004
35,657
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So that's what a $16 trillion debt looks like in profit. We need to see $32 trillion, we'll be even richer!
 

EagleKeeper

Discussion Club Moderator<br>Elite Member
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Oct 30, 2000
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Only moderator wannabes need a "gift" .....I have plenty of cash. ;)

I thought you were giving your all against Walker.:p Must have had second thoughts about union power :colbert:
 

Jhhnn

IN MEMORIAM
Nov 11, 1999
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How many US companies derive profits from international sales?

Why would it matter? They're US companies, therefore they pay US taxes, except for money they squirrel away in offshore subsidiaries, denying it to shareholders & the govt...
 

herm0016

Diamond Member
Feb 26, 2005
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hmm...seems many big companies, like the one i work for, are not doing so hot in the US, but making buckets of cash over seas.
 

Jhhnn

IN MEMORIAM
Nov 11, 1999
62,365
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hmm...seems many big companies, like the one i work for, are not doing so hot in the US, but making buckets of cash over seas.

That's just how trickledown economics as applied to deregulated financialized capitalism works in a free trade environment.

Think of us as unwitting donors in the drive to make our own rich even richer & to incidentally reduce world poverty.

Ask Mitt- he knows all about it, although I doubt he'll tell you anything.
 

drinkmorejava

Diamond Member
Jun 24, 2004
3,567
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Why would it matter? They're US companies, therefore they pay US taxes, except for money they squirrel away in offshore subsidiaries, denying it to shareholders & the govt...

You seem surprised that a company can make more money when they have more customers. They're using fewer US workers and resources per dollar of profit, so of course their share of GDP increases if international profits are brought to the US. It's called math, it doesn't have to have anything to do with corruption, exploitation of workers, or anything nefarious.
 

LegendKiller

Lifer
Mar 5, 2001
18,256
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Well we heard about the jobless recovery from the left under Bush. Looks like Obama is demostrating what it actually looks like.

He can't force businesses to hire. This is exactly the problem we are having. Instead of hiring they merely give more money to the execs b/c higher valuations from higher profits and/or share buybacks. This does nothing but help the investing class (the ones who write the tax code) which allows them to circumvent higher taxes by not recognizing income as income but instead cap gains.

Tax them at a higher rate and distributions become less profitable and giving out lavish pay packages becomes less lucrative.

See Costco.
 

Jhhnn

IN MEMORIAM
Nov 11, 1999
62,365
14,685
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What if taxes were paid in the foreign country where the profits were derived?

Then that's taken into account when calculating their US taxes, if I understand the situation correctly. International mega-corps also have internal pricing transfer mechanisms, allowing them to declare profit in jurisdictions favorable to them.

You seem surprised that a company can make more money when they have more customers. They're using fewer US workers and resources per dollar of profit, so of course their share of GDP increases if international profits are brought to the US. It's called math, it doesn't have to have anything to do with corruption, exploitation of workers, or anything nefarious.

I'm not at all surprised. OTOH, they are US corporations, so paying US taxes is part of the bargain.
 

drinkmorejava

Diamond Member
Jun 24, 2004
3,567
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I'm not at all surprised. OTOH, they are US corporations, so paying US taxes is part of the bargain.

So are you angry at corporations limiting their tax burden or the laws that allow them to do so?

They could just divest their international subsidiaries, elect their own board members to the new company, issue new stock to current owners on any exchange of their choosing, and still keep their profits outside the country. The only difference is that there won't be a piece of paper with some words on it saying they're affiliated with the US.

There's no bargain, no allegiance, and no reason to say you're part of the US or any other country except when it's beneficial for the company. It's the world we live in and you will always lose if you try to demand or legislate it away.
 

cwjerome

Diamond Member
Sep 30, 2004
4,346
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Apparently, this is the new paradigm....imo, nothing to be proud of. I wonder what caused it?

It is a new paradigm and there's nothing we can do but recognize the reality of the situation and act according through policy and private action.

Historically when recessions happen and there's a drop in demand, companies restructure and make up for lost business by laying off workers and accepting lower profits. Then when the economy recovered they would hire back the workers. Well our economic system is changing and the type of jobs and way businesses operate is different. Now business replace laid off workers with more automation and outsourcing and when demand comes back they don't hire as many workers back as in the past because they have fundamentally structured there ops to do business with fewer people.

They didn't do this because they are evil, they did it to adapt and survive the marketplace. The connected world enabled them and required them to do it. Businesses are able to do more with less... productivity and profits continue to rise while jobs stagnate.
 

sportage

Lifer
Feb 1, 2008
11,492
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This isn't about profits, it is all about union busting.
Remove the union, and workers wages fall sharply as well as benefits.
Along with decent work environments.
So naturally, that alone means more cashola for the corporation and less for the employee.
Math doesn't get much more simpler as this.
Unions don't punish corporations, they simply protect and give workers a fair and decent cut of the rewards they themselves have created for that corporation.

A business can't serve up a tasty burger without someone flipping the meat over a burner.
And not one CEO sitting behind a desk can produce a tasty burger without some person cooking the meat.

But the day will come when the playing field is once again leveled.... You can count on that.