Corporate profits hit record high-

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Lanyap

Lanyap

Elite Member
Dec 23, 2000
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All Obama has to do now is threaten to tax the shit out of them unless they start hiring. He might come out looking like the good guy.

The new CEO of my former company, the company that layed me off, is restoring benefits and salary cuts by his predecessor (last name rhymes with turd.)
 
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rchiu

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Jun 8, 2002
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And corporations have the luxury to setup offices around the world and play around with revenue generated in or out of US to reduce tax rate. Like Google paying 2.4% on their billions of profit because most of the profit was generated in Bermuda.

All we have all these talks about tax increase on income tax and nothing on corporate tax.
 
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Double Trouble

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Oct 9, 1999
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I work for a fortune 100 company, and I assure you, the outlook is considered very uncertain, and current profits notwithstanding, the company is not looking to hire much of anything until it has a "clearer picture of the future". That's the way the AVP of human resources put it. At this point, when you have spots to fill because people leave etc, the company is 1) making you prove / justify why you really really really need to fill the spot, and 2) not letting you hire FTE (full time employees), you have to hire contractors or temps unless you get special approval.

It's kind of the chicken egg problem. The outlook is cloudy, which makes companies hold their money close to the vest and not hire etc, which makes the outlook cloudier etc etc. Not sure how we're going to get out of this spiral.
 
CPA

CPA

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Nov 19, 2001
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Lanyap said:
All Obama has to do now is threaten to tax the shit out of them unless they start hiring. He might come out looking like the good guy.

The new CEO of my former company, the company that layed me off, is restoring benefits and salary cuts by his predecessor (last name rhymes with turd.)
Click to expand...

Hire for the sake of hiring, brilliant :rolleyes:
 
CPA

CPA

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Nov 19, 2001
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Double Trouble said:
I work for a fortune 100 company, and I assure you, the outlook is considered very uncertain, and current profits notwithstanding, the company is not looking to hire much of anything until it has a "clearer picture of the future". That's the way the AVP of human resources put it. At this point, when you have spots to fill because people leave etc, the company is 1) making you prove / justify why you really really really need to fill the spot, and 2) not letting you hire FTE (full time employees), you have to hire contractors or temps unless you get special approval.

It's kind of the chicken egg problem. The outlook is cloudy, which makes companies hold their money close to the vest and not hire etc, which makes the outlook cloudier etc etc. Not sure how we're going to get out of this spiral.
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I as well. My company is in a current hiring freeze which is expected to be lifted at the beginning of 2011. However, there is so much focus on reducing SG&A because we spend much more than industry standards as a percentage of revenue, I'm not sure how long the "unfreezing" will last.
 
Zebo

Zebo

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Jul 29, 2001
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That's normal. Capitalism moves wealth from the labor that creates it to the owners who accumulate it. Simple as that. Over time control of capital enables them to control politics, banking, and job creation and pay nothing to workers because there's more workers than capital. Owners have succeeded in getting it all many many times and spawned a revolution because all of a society's productive assets and policies are controlled by a small elite.

You can control this natural shift w/o bloodshed with mechanisms to move wealth from the top back to the bottom. e.g. labor unions...progressive taxation etc... But we're into the "low tax" or "no tax" minimalist government offshoring mindset. I expect they are training Indians as we speak. Americans cost too much. Overpaid underworked and over benefited. What do you think Obama's and his massive entourage trip was about?
 
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cganesh75

cganesh75

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Oct 8, 2005
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Hacp said:
Uncertainty pertains to the future. Not to the present.
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today was the future 2 yrs ago right? 2 yrs ago, you were certain that corporations will make this much money today?

Yet corporations are not hiring because they are worried that their taxes will go up by 3% starting next year.
 
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Double Trouble

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Oct 9, 1999
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cganesh75 said:
today was the future 2 yrs ago right? 2 yrs ago, you were certain that corporations will make this much money today?

Yet corporations are not hiring because they are worried that their taxes will go up by 3% starting next year.
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Yep. In case you didn't notice, that's how companies work. If they are unsure about the future, they go into bunker mode -- hiring freeze, cut expenses etc until they are confident things are going in the right direction and then they invest in efforts that are likely to produce a good return.
 
postmortemIA

postmortemIA

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Jul 11, 2006
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well my company was in that mode, but now there's actually too much work to be done and they are hiring again. but new hires with lack of experience will not make huge difference towards the deadlines. In other words, it would have been better if they were hiring when nobody else was, they would have access to good labor pool that was looking for any job. Now is actually hard again to get decent FTEs is some positions.
 
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JockoJohnson

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May 20, 2009
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Zebo said:
But we're into the "low tax" or "no tax" minimalist government offshoring mindset. I expect they are training Indians as we speak. Americans cost too much. Overpaid underworked and over benefited. What do you think Obama's and his massive entourage trip was about?
Click to expand...

Could it also be that, dare I say it, the Indians have talent as well? Americans aren't the "Be all, End all" in knowledge and talent. Perhaps the Indians have talent too and, of course, are cheaper.

Also, with all of the uncertainty of who will be taken over next by the gov't or what new taxes will be imposed, why should companies invest in people? They are doing more with less people and they see they can get away with it. Lots of money not going to those extra employees.

Edit: I would like to also point out that I am in favor of taxing them more...I just wish they would do it already. Lay down the law and let the companies know what the tax rate is, if the tax cuts are going to expire, etc.
 
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jman19

jman19

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Nov 3, 2000
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More tax cuts please - I can't wait for the trickle down effect that will shower the plebes with wealth.
 
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D

drebo

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Feb 24, 2006
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cganesh75 said:
today was the future 2 yrs ago right? 2 yrs ago, you were certain that corporations will make this much money today?

Yet corporations are not hiring because they are worried that their taxes will go up by 3% starting next year.
Click to expand...

The uncertainty has to do with questions about policy changes in the future. It has nothing to do with the present or the past. The same questions that were questions 2 years ago are still questions today.

Most companies are holding on to their revenue and not making any significant investments because of uncertainty about what the future may hold. My company, for instance, could use another technician...but we're not going to hire one because we're not sure how the healthcare abomination is going to affect our business. We could also use some infrastructure upgrades, but we're not going to get them because we're not sure how the next couple of years will play out with respect to revenue. Last year was horrible, this year was better, but then again, 2008 was a pretty damn good year for us, too. That kind of up-down-up stuff breeds uncertainty for the future. If the trend was up-up-up, you wouldn't see the hoarding going on.

Also, companies that scaled back significantly a couple years ago are realizing that they didn't actually need as many workers as they had before. They're not hiring back the ones they laid off.

If you want to mandate profit margins and hiring levels, go to China or Cuba or some other communist country, because we don't want you here.
 
sMiLeYz

sMiLeYz

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Feb 3, 2003
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129021008687645509.jpg

Stole this from someone else on AT, very appropriate.
 
Lanyap

Lanyap

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Dec 23, 2000
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CPA said:
Hire for the sake of hiring, brilliant :rolleyes:
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Large corps have the work to be done. They just don't want to hire FTEs. They would rather double and triple the work for the employees that are left after layoffs.
 
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