Corporations are also using their profits to repurchase their own shares (thereby boosting stock indices to record levels), to finance mergers and acquisitions (which increase concentration, but not investment, and often involve cutting jobs)...
The presumption of mainstream economists and business journalists (as well as political and economic elites) is that the capitalist machine is the only possible one, and that it will work. Except it’s not: corporate profits have been growing (the red line in the chart above) but investment has been falling.
Ukraine war: the business with death (tags)
State-sponsored arms shipments cause corporate profits to skyrocket. That warlike conflicts boost the business of arms corporations is a well-known fact, but never in recent history have Western arms firms and corporations been able to enrich themselves so shamelessly from human suffering as in the Ukraine conflict.
Who can afford capitalism anymore? and Why are prices rising? (tags)
When the state now debates the need to create relief packages for employees, pensioners, unemployment benefit recipients, trainees and families, this is official confirmation that the result of wage labor is also poverty. The majority of citizens find themselves in a dual role...
Putin escalates: How should we react now? (tags)
The U.S. government wants to make the country independent of China. In no other area are the efforts to "decouple" (decoupling) as clear and unambiguous as in high technologies, especially in the (alleged) future fields of battery technology and high-performance chips. Matthias Becker
The Curse of Financial Entrepreneurship (tags)
We are not prisoners of bad decisions made in the past. We can and should rein in Wall Street, break up its five giant “too-big-to-fail” banks, support local and state banks, resurrect the Glass-Steagall Act’s divide between investment & commercial banking, tax all financial transactions
There is an alternative to maximizing profits (tags)
In a new encyclical, the Pope denounces the pursuit of profit. The Sonntagszeitung spoke about this with the business ethicist Peter Ulrich. He defends the Holy Father, criticizes the managers and calls for economy for fifth graders..Financial products seek to make money out of money, without the inconvenient real economy.
The issue of white-collar crime, on the other hand, is apparently impossible to address. None of the major parties has so far shown any inclination to take up the demonstrable threat to the welfare state and democracy posed by white-collar crime in the election campaign.
Selling off. The Price of Privatization in France (tags)
Liberalization and privatization have ultimately only confused consumers, but have whetted the appetite of the industry bosses and their puppets even more. The takeover of the state by the private sector is no longer about the realization of an ideological project.
The finance-dominated regime of accumulation and the crisis in Europe (tags)
Prof. Demirovic gives us charts on profits, private indebtedness and wages that show profits explode and wages and investments stagnate in 40 years of neoliberalism.
The Cure is the Sickness: Washington Consensus (tags)
Reality could replace the elite economic myths!
Amazon, the Elephant in the Bookshop (tags)
Amazon is one of many examples of a gigantic problem. International corporation s shirk from contributing their just share to financing the community. Hosts of advisers and lawyers have created a "tax avoidance industry."
5 Questions on Tax Justice (tags)
Tax justice must be created and tax avoidance stopped to fight inequality and poverty. Apple paid 0.0005% tax on its profits in Ireland - merely 50 euros on a million euros profits. Corporations dodge their just contribution as part of society through tax avoidance.
Capitalism Criticism 2.0 (tags)
"Capitalism contains crisis as rain clouds contain rain" (Jean Juares, 19th century socialist). Profits increase in the neoliberal model, not investment (Nicolas Krowall). The competitive pressure drives businessmen to reduce investments in labor and wages.
The Driving Force of Global Inequality (tags)
Behind closed doors, a powerful industry has developed worldwide since the 1980s: tax avoidance. Taxes that are avoided must be compensated by higher taxation of households with lower incomes.
In Praise of Taxes by Nicola Liebert (tags)
Our tax system p[romotes private wealth and impoverishes the community. Even if no one pays them gladly, most are aware taxes int he interest of the community are sensible. "Taxes are what we pay for a civilized society" (Oliver Wendell Holmes, former Supreme Court justice).
Tax Avoidance: Drastic Consequences for the Public (tags)
Taxes are the most important foundation of all government activities and public services. Corporate economic activity and profits cannot be clearly assigned to individual nation states anymore. Founding offshore centers is child's play Tax avoidance and tax fraud lead to revenue crisis
Ethics and the Profit System: Global Change of Values Necessary (tags)
Profit-making is not profit-maximizing. From the magic word profit-mongering is derived the absurd unequal distribution of wealth, cheating of consumers, the exploitation of workers and ultimately the abolition of democracy. An invisible hand makes business profit into common good
"Who is saving Whom?" shows what remains hidden. A tremendous redistribution from the bottom to the top.. Rescuing is taking place, for the 99% however there is no sign of a rescue.
Tax Justice for Social Justice (tags)
Every year states lose billions in tax revenues through the aggressive tax avoidance practices of international corporations. These companies profit from public services whose financing is left to citizens. 1 trillion euros are lost every year from European public budgets.
Offshore Shell Games 2014, 56 pp (tags)
Ugland House is a modest five-story office building in the Cayman Islands, yet it is the registered address for 18,857 companies. The Cayman Islands, like many other offshore tax havens, levies no income taxes on companies incorporated there.
Homo Economicus and Dethronement of the Profit Principle (tags)
Max Frisch summarized economism int he formula: "what brings profit is rational." Economism is a business ethics conception, a justification theory for profit maximization that declares ethics superfluous. Ultimately this is an "ethic" without morality.
Public Funds Brought Smart Phones (tags)
All personal achievement would have been impossible without state investment in roads, schools, hospitals, airwaves, health and food safety. The state share is completely faded out in the conventional story about business history.
Connecticut Governor Race: Dan Malloy Rather Than Foley: Factory Closing Union Buster (tags)
In the Connecticut governor race, voters are being informed of the unionbusting, factory closing profiteering of the Republican candidate Tom Foley, who was a fundraiser and state election coordinator for George Bush.
IMF Paper: Corporate Tax Avoidance Hurts Global Economy and Poor Countries (tags)
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) released a staff paper noting that corporate tax avoidance negatively impacts all economies, but hurts developing countries the most. The IMF's release comes as the G20, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and United Nations bodies seek vehicles to diminish corporate tax avoidance.
High court rules that financiers are more sovereign than Argentina (tags)
Although the corporate press has attempted to reduce Argentina’s debt to a simple morality tale of a debtor being obligated to pay back its creditors, the picture becomes much clearer once we understand the odious nature of Argentina’s debt.
Apple, the State and Social Rights (tags)
Apple only gained its profits with the iPhone through state promotion and investments in the Internet and language recognition software. The state suffers a revenue crisis in part because Apple, Google and dominant corporations transfer profits to tax havens or dummy Irish corporations.
The Neoliberal Model: Profits without Investments (tags)
According to the neoliberal myth, higher profits would lead to more investments and more jobs. In truth, higher profits lead to corporations buying back their stock and currency speculation. In truth, higher investments lead to higher profits.
Meet Obama's New HHS Chief (tags)
Obamacare
Casino Capitalism and Profit Maximization (tags)
“The state is consciously weakened to speed up the redistribution from bottom to top because that corresponds to the dogmas of the neoliberal ideology.” Our state was systematically weakened in the last 15 years by extensive tax cuts. I remember the lowering of the top income tax rate.
The Corporate Tax Rate Debate, 30pp (tags)
Lower taxes on corporate profits not linked to job creation
The Super Rich Reinvent U.S. Capitalism (tags)
As U.S. corporate profits soar to record highs, food stamps for the neediest were quietly cut. The politicians who are demanding endless cuts to social programs — Democrats and Republicans alike — insist that the U.S. is broke, all the while conveniently ignoring the mountains of tax-free wealth piling up in the pockets of the super rich.
Seven Good Reasons for a More Just Tax Policy (tags)
In the US, the top tax rate was over 70% from 1938 to 1982. Reagan cut the top rate to 35% and changed taxation from corporate to individual leading to exploding inequality and generalized insecurity. Taxation, investment, labor market, trade and distribution policies must change.
IMF Secures Windfall Gold Sales Profits for Concessional Lending to Low-Income Nations (tags)
On October 10, 2013, the International Monetary Fund announced that member countries have approved their commitment to fund the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT) for concessional lending. Financing comes from windfall profits made from the IMF selling part of their gold reserves that currently totals $3.4 billion. Currently, the IMF provides zero-interest financing to low-income nations through this fund.
Chicken Disease And Boycott Cause KFC Sales To Drop (tags)
Avian flu, salmonella, outlets not passing health inspections, declining sales are some reasons that KFC owner Yum Foods has seen a drop in profits of 70%.
They frack because clear air and water aren’t profitable (tags)
Newly developed fracking techniques represent an intensification, yet a special law known as the “Halliburton loophole” exempts fracking from federal regulations.
Is Capitalism to Blame for the Syrian War Drive? (tags)
Obama’s push for war in Syria seemed so deeply irrational, so crazed, that many people naturally asked, “Why is this happening?” And “who” wants it to happen? Few Americans actually believed that Nobel Peace Prizing winning Obama suddenly wanted to bomb Syria because “Assad gassed his own people” (especially when zero evidence was given to prove this).
Wage Slavery in the American Auto Industry: Obama’s Shame (tags)
The American auto industry is back in business in a big way. The carmakers are making enormous profits, direct from the blood, sweat and tears of autoworkers.
Three things nobody can avoid: Death, taxes and corporate lies (tags)
Dozens of the biggest corporations in the U.S. paid no taxes in years in which they racked up huge profits — taxes paid by Corporate America are so low that individuals account for eight times more in tax revenue than businesses.
Rail Disaster in Canada (tags)
The aftermath of the worst rail disaster in Canada for decades leaves at least 47 dead with many of the victims still unaccounted for.
VIDEO: Offshore Profit Sharing (tags)
Apple shifted 64% of profits ($78 billion over four years) to entities (AOI and AOS) in Ireland with no employees and no activities. Corporations avoiding paying taxes is a destructive business model. Should we close unjustified loopholes?
Are Reforms of the Financial Sector Enough? (tags)
This article focuses on seven errors and seven remedies of the financial crisis. The financial crisis was also a crisis of easy money. For years and again today, speculators exploited the situation that money was and is very easy to borrow in the US and Japan.
Shameless NYT Defense of Obamacare (tags)
anti-war
The Great Tax-Cut Experiment and Corporate Taxes as % of Profits (tags)
Comparisons with Other Countries: Americans pay a smaller proportion of total income in taxes than do people in any other advanced capitalist economy. as in Western European countries.
Is Capitalism Collapsing? (tags)
One of the causes for the obvious helplessness of the governments is that they function as simple receivers of orders of the financial industry. The financial industry has no interest in a policy that would make it liable for its inflicted disaster..
There is no democracy without economic democracy (tags)
Cooperatives would not have stratospheric executive pay or financiers getting fat by skimming off a large share of the pie — without the need to produce excess profits, the result would be reduced work hours, higher pay and more left over for investment and taxes to pay for social services.
It’s not only jobs that are off-shored; the profits are as well (tags)
Trillions of dollars are hidden in secretive tax havens untaxed while austerity is imposed and jobs are lost.
Goldman Sachs Free to Keep Stealing (tags)
fraud
Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact more draconian than NAFTA (tags)
The Trans-Pacific Partnership is intended to be a new floor in the ongoing effort to lock in the domination of industrialists and financiers through the multi-national corporations that they control.
Houston Janitors Strike for Economic Justice (tags)
Echoing the story of David vs. Goliath, janitors in Houston are on strike and taking on such corporate giants as JPMorganChase and Exxon Mobile in an effort to pressure the janitorial companies they employ to agree to the workers' modest demands. It is these big business behemoths that are the real powers behind cleaning contractors such as ABM, GCA, ISS etc. By striking against these contractors, and publicly targeting these contractors' employers, the janitors are using their collective power in a showdown that has great significance for not only the Labor Movement but all workers.
In the Towrope of the Financial Markets (tags)
"High growth has a well-known hook. Surpluses are only possible when natural resources from clear water to rare earth are available, when the energy supply is guaranteed and when the pollutant sinks are sufficient.. The debtors are now those states that had to become indebted.."
The Error is in the System (tags)
The financial crisis mutated into a global economic crisis and a state debt crisis. The financial crisis was not a "bump in the road" or an industrial accident but a systemic and structural crisis that caused $11 trillion of wealth to vanish while millions lost their jobs. homes and pension
Of Korea, the Rosenbergs, Berenson, Anti-Semitism & US imperialism (tags)
On Dec 20, 2011, the first day of Chanukah, the Jewish festival of lights that commemorates liberation, Lori Berenson, a victim of anti-Semitism common in Catholic countries like Peru, finally came home. Coincidentally, the latest leader of Stalinist North Korea, Kim Jong Il, died Dec 17, 2011, so the US saber rattling under the guise of "human rights" was renewed on all airwaves. Ignored everywhere, including KPFA, was the anti-Semitic frame-up of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, by Democratic president Harry Truman in 1950 to make Jew, Communist and traitor synonymous to justify the war of anti-communism in Korea, in the US first stage attempt to destroy the 1949 Chinese revolution, leaving 3 million dead Koreans, and a devastated country.
Occupy Our Homes: L.A. Joins a Nationwide Day of Action Against Foreclosures (tags)
Housing is a human right. Today a coalition including Occupy LA, Occupy Riverside, ACCE, Refund California, and SEIU teamed up to defend two families who are facing eviction by sheriffs who protect the profits of JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo.
Occupy UC Davis Supports Resolution Opposing Democrat-Republicans (tags)
A child shall lead them and the Occupy UC Davis students have shown the way with a resolution supporting breaking with the Democrat-Republicans. The resolution is here.
Wall Street Runs America (tags)
Wall Street
The Tax System is Out of Control (tags)
Citi-group and Bank of America operate many branch offices in tax havens. The use of tax havens deprives the state of $100 billion annually. "These tax havens accelerate the transfer of assets from local communities and the global South to the bank accounts of the richest..."
Supermarket Strike is Looming (tags)
The UFCW announced that they cancelled their contract, and are giving 72 hours notice that they may strike.
10 Year Since 9/11 Inside Job (tags)
September 11, 2011 is the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 Inside Job, the American Reichstag Fire, perpetrated for the same reason the Nazis burned their government building, the Reichstag: to perpetrate war and fascism so as to maximize profits for the capitalist class, the primary goal of capitalism, the greatest profits being in oil and munitions. Only a labor movement capable of carrying out a general strike can finally put an end to the private profit system, thereby saving the earth and humanity.
"There is an alternative to profit maximization" (tags)
The economy should be a part of life, not a steamroller crushing creativity and self-determination. The economy should be embedded in society; society should not be privatized and confiscated by the economy. The public sector must be expanded to create jobs.
Illegal Labor on the Farm Produces Big Profits for Agribusiness (tags)
NAFTA induced illegal immigration is providing agribusiness corporations with incredible profits, while legal workers and consumers reap few rewards. At some point people need to face the reality that the U.S. must withdraw from and repeal NAFTA!
One Land, Two Economies (tags)
Economic prosperity and progress for the president are obviously synonymous with robustly higher profits for businessmen and stock speculators. The large majority of Americans must suffer more because the crisis is not over for them.
True and False Causes of the Financial Crisis (tags)
If we can produce enough for all in superfluity-and we are already technically in this position-why must the whole enormous social wealth be squeezed through the needle of buying and selling, money, profit and growth? We all deserve something better than capitalist crisis economy.
Worldwide Economic Crisis 2.0 or the Collapse of Neoliberal Finance Capitalism (tags)
The present crisis is a consequence of the fact that exploding business profits found inadequate investment opportunities in the productive sector and turned instead to financial speculation. Deregulation created "law-free" spaces" with the abrogation of all political controls.
The Banking and Financial Crisis (tags)
"The transition from a long-term to a short-term orientation went along with the exaggerated profit goals. The approach of shareholder value sets maximum profits and dividends in the center of business policy and no longer long-term investments and the interests of employees.."
True and False Causes of the Financial Crisis (tags)
The jubilant singing about free enterprise as the supposedly best of all worlds sounds much quieter than at the beginning of the 1990s. We urgently need alternatives. This is now a matter of survival. As it was taboo to doubt the rule of the church in the Middle Ages, the thought prohibition of questioning the market economy is in effect.
What “Jobless Recovery” Means in Capitalism (tags)
The phrase “jobless recovery” entered the capitalist lexicon in 2002. But since then nobody want to be associated with these phrase. Although a lot of economist tried to use this term as a byword. Still noboy want to own up to this infamous phrase. The term “jobless recovery “ had been associated with the terms of momentary statistical growth and corporate profits on books of accounts and in the stock market rather than in terms of production, employment and improvement of the people's living conditions.
Applying the Emergency Brake (tags)
"The US bank model forces others in indebtedness, inflates the money supply, devalues assets and generates virtual dollars..Wall Street banks are involved in a `systemic risk' that endangers the capitalist reproduction process.."
The Next Crash is Brewing (tags)
The economic way of thinking enforced for a quarter of century is one of the structural factors that helped this "economy of depression" breakthrough. This dominant doctrine denies the role of demand and concentrates on the problems limiting the supply of goods & services
Lessons from the Crisis (tags)
Governments are extorted by multinational corporations. Those who made massive profits with bank business must now answer for the losses. The taxpayer may not pay for their crises. If control is not exercised by politics, banks will become absolute rulers with a state guarantee.
Journalism, Redistribution and Social Generosity (tags)
"The earth does not belong to people; people belong to the earth." (chief Seattle)> Nature is not a free good, external or sink but our living mother and basis for future human life. Alternative economics and community centers could lead us out of the dystopia of imperial wars.
Profits=Investments=Jobs? (tags)
The claimed connection between profits, investments and jobs is not right. Orders-literally demand-are more important than the profits that are investede for the creation of jobs. Market radicals repress market and system failure.
Capitalism Criticism 2.0 (tags)
Marx identified the falling rate of profit and the self-destruction of competition as contradictions of capitalism. Wages do not keep up with investments in machinery. Speculation and the explosion of the financial markets were encouraged by deregulation and higher profits.
The First Shots of the Trade War (tags)
With the G-20 summit approaching, cheerful talk of “international cooperation” fills the White House press-room. These comments carry with them the implication that “free trade” is integral to “cooperation,” a fact made explicit in the last meeting of the G-20. There, in the name of “united action,” world leaders agreed not to install any new protectionist measures. Since then, protectionist measures have flourished. Instead of global cooperation we have its opposite: international tensions are on the rise as trade disputes sharpen.
How to Lower the U.S. Deficit Without Killing Social Security (tags)
When it was recently announced that the federal deficit was $2 trillion higher than previously estimated, corporate vultures — after years of high-altitude circling — began their descent. The dying entity they’re after is the U.S. social safety net — Social Security, Medicare, etc. Years of waiting have finally paid off; the long awaited pretext for scavenging has arrived in the huge federal deficit.
Capitalism is the Problem: System Error (tags)
The chaos that we now witness is only the latest crisis of the global economic system. The system has not succeeded in keeping profits at the level of the postwar years. What is good for one capitalist is not necessarily good for the system. Triple-digit billions have been pumped into system
The Crisis of Speculative Capitalism (tags)
The bubble bursts when debtors cannot pay and a bankruptcy crisis develops at the end.. The illusion of the stock exchange as a roulette with guaranteed permanent profits burst with the New Economy bubble..Only the worldwide regulation of the financial markets can avert their collapse.
It's Official: Healthcare Reform is Dead (tags)
The “transparent government” that President Obama guaranteed during his electoral campaign has become yet another broken promise. On August 14th, the Huffington Post revealed a memo containing details of “the deal” that Obama cut with health care mega-corporations in secret White House meetings. And although the White House denies the authenticity of the memo, the details are consistent with earlier reports from other national media outlets.
The Democrats Abandon the Environment (tags)
“As a banker, I also welcome the fact that the 'cap-and-trade' system is becoming the dominant methodology for [carbon dioxide] control.” -Simon Linnett, Executive Vice Chairman of Rothschild Bank. Can the looming environmental catastrophe be solved by environmentalists working side by side with Wall Street Bankers? Such a question doesn’t deserve a serious answer. The Democrats, however, are attempting to address the issue of global warming by developing a “partnership” between those who love the earth, and those who love only profits.
Wall Street Ends Hope for Homeowners Via Congress (tags)
As if the bank bailouts weren’t proof enough that Wall Street owned Congress. History will likely show that these bailouts involved the largest transfer of wealth ever — from the working class to that small group of billionaires who own the corporations. This fact is recognized by most people now and is such common knowledge that even the mainstream media feels comfortable discussing it…matter-of-factly.
Making Sense of a U.S. Owned General Motors (tags)
Now that the United States owns General Motors, many are asking, “What’s in it for taxpayers?” This is an extremely good question, considering that taxpayers may spend up to $100 billion [!] towards a company that’s currently worth around $450 million. (Wall Street Journal, 6/02/09) This large discrepancy in numbers means, obviously, that taxpayers could lose tremendous amounts of “investment” money if Obama’s “profit first” plan is put into effect. What is this plan? Strip the company to a fraction of its former self, using far fewer workers and making far less money in the hopes that GM will then out-compete the foreign competition on the world market.
Austria: Crash Instead of Cash (tags)
In 1978 the Bretton Woods system broke down since the US abandoned the key function of the US dollar to print money to finance the Vietnam War.. The liberalization of the financial markets started a mechanism in which the worldwide population loses.
The Vacuum of World Trade Breaks Down (tags)
The unbridled free market was an illusion that gave free rein to greed and speculation and the dominance of the financial markets. Shareholder value made the profits of shareholders absolute and set short-term gain over long-term necessity.
Fallen Stars: On the Greed of Bankers and a New Morality (tags)
The economic ethicist Ulrich Thielemann explains how greed, false theories and the herd instinct caused the massive financial crisis. They had the theory when we make profits that is ultimately good for everyone.
On the Psychology of Neoliberalism (tags)
The claim of non-wage benefits was stylized as social misuse, recipients of high incomes as achievers and unemployment as personal responsibility. According to this ideology, the optimal conditions for gaining profits lead to prosperity for all.
Obama’s Campaign Promises and the Laws of Capitalism (tags)
Throughout his campaign, Obama made repeated overtures to working people. He talked about job creation, a tax cut for the middle class, health care, education, the rescinding of the lavish tax cuts for the rich, clean energy, facilitating unionization, and the elimination of the "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" policy for gays in the military. One got the distinct impression when he was campaigning that Obama was oriented to helping ordinary working people, who are now struggling to pay their bills, not the rich.
The Genesis of the Financial Crisis: Greed and Repression (tags)
The self-healing market, the market that corrects itself, is at the heart of the perfect economic story. The financial crisis (now banking, real estate, jobs and credit crises) has forced the reconsideration of the role of the state. Psychology helps unmask religion of the market.
Gaza's Offshore Gas Fields (tags)
Not only is Israel the US cop for US oil profits in the Middle East, but Gaza has lots of offshore gas fields, the explanation for this takeover by US/Israel of Gaza. The name of the game is always money.
From Real Estate Speculation to Collapse of Global Deficit Economy (tags)
Joy to the world, the world of fallen idols and bubble transfer. The truth will set us free but the truth is a process, not a cudgel or stimulus. After the dot-com bubble, trillions were "invested" in real estate speculation. The crisis of the work society is the background for low interests.
What the Economic Crisis Means for Us and How to Defend Ourselves (tags)
Gloom and Doom-----The pillars of the U.S. capitalist economy are crumbling and falling all around us while the federal government frantically races from one crisis to another, throwing money at them as if throwing water on a fire. It could well turn out that the money represents only a few drops of water thrown on threatening flames that will soon billow into an out-of-control wildfire so that nothing President-elect Barak Obama has proposed will succeed in averting the disaster.
Capitalism changed into "finance-driven" capitalism. The profit rates for industrial capital fell in the past decades. Washington could be paralyzed under the debt yoke like Japan in the early 1990s. After decades of market idolization, the US has rediscovered political power.
The Philosophies of Deregulation and Neoliberalism are Dead in the West (tags)
"The patient suffers massive internal bleeding and is given a blood transfusion. The banks lent money and accepted inflated assets as security. This bubble burst..Those who pocketed profits for years want to pin the losses on the taxpayers."
Part 2- World Capitalist Crisis (tags)
We expect more of the use of cheap labour in the less developed countries like China and India in order to produce cheap raw materials and semi-manufactured consumer products for the imperialist countries and thereby maximize imperialist profits. In fact the US capitalist are hell bent on transferring high paying industries to the third world and even already cheap service industries like call centers and car assemblies and other production lines in a vain attempt to cut jobs, paying insurances and other workers benefits that the people are demanding in the face of the capitalist made crisis.
NO MORE BAILOUTS....we have done too much already (tags)
It is FEAR MONGERING, by exaggerations and catastrophic depictions.. propaganda...selling us the 2% incomers version of how bad it will be for us if they lose any of their profits, capital gains, benefits, compensations, and lobbist powers, and government chummists [the revolving door club]
Venezuela: The nationalisation of Banco de Venezuela (tags)
Bolivarian Revolution
Chavez Nationalizes Bank of Venezuela (tags)
In a television programme broadcasted to the whole of the country on July 31st, President Chávez announced the nationalisation of Banco de Venezuela, the Venezuelan bank owned by the Spanish banking multinational Grupo Santander. "We are going to nationalize Banco de Venezuela. I make an appeal to Grupo Santander to come here so that we can start to negotiate". He added: "Months ago I received the information through intelligence sources that Banco de Venezuela, which had been privatized for years, was being sold by its Spanish owners; that an agreement had been signed between Grupo Santander and a Venezuelan private banker, then the Venezuelan banker needed the permission of the government to buy a bank, this is not a small operation (...) and then I sent a message to the Spanish and the Venezuelan banker, to tell them that the government wanted to buy the bank, we want to recover it. Then the owners said ‘no, we don't want to sell it'. So now I say ‘no, I will buy it, how much is it? We are going to pay for it, and we are going to nationalize Banco de Venezuela'." The President continued: "From this moment the media campaign on the part of the Spanish and international media is going to start. They are going to say that Chávez is an autocrat, that Chávez is a tyrant, I don't care, we are going to nationalize the bank regardless". "Ladran, luego cabalgamos" (the dogs bark, therefore the caravan is moving), he said, quoting from el Quijote.
Will the Neoliberal Consensus Survive the Banking Crisis? (tags)
These are hard times for the neoliberal consensus whose message was forced worldwide for three decades by the ruling classes in the imperialist metropolises on free capital flows. Business data is a fetish constructed for the goal of profit maximization.
America, Fight Back: Nationalize the Oil Industry! (tags)
Surging oil prices are sinking the U.S. economy, while Big Oil is raking in obscene profits. For example, ExxonMobil recorded profits in 2007 of $40.6 billion. Its CEO’s pay averaged out to $13,700 an hour. Today, gas is selling at $3.50 a gallon with no end in sight. Truckers are paying more for their diesel fuel and as a result food prices are rising. Globally, nationalization of the oil industry is the trend. It’s time for the U.S. to join that club.
VOTE PSL in 2008: Put Human Needs Over Profits (tags)
The Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) is fielding a slate of candidates in the 2008 U.S. presidential elections: Gloria La Riva for President and Eugene Puryear for Vice President. The campaign is rooted in the struggle for socialism. We believe a better world is possible and together we can make it happen.
The Crisis of Speculative Capitalism (tags)
Since the end of July 2007, the world economy was shocked by a new severe crisis of the financial markets. The courage to regulate the financial markets to prevent a future uncoupling from the productive economy is still obviously absent. The hour of truth will inevitably come.
A redirection toward regenerative sources of energy is our ownly option. A conversion of energy production and a change of our way of life are indispensable. Energy autonomy is only possible with smaller units and democratic procedures of self-determined energy policy.
Interview with Kurt Richebacher (tags)
"The dangers that loom on the currency front are immense. The US trade deficit and the accumulated foreign indebtedness have reached a scale that defies any possible action by central banks." Dr. Richebacher is a former economist of the Dresden Bank.
The War, Prisons, and the Economy (tags)
As the wars drag on with no end in sight, new technology is enabling more of our wounded troops to survive, and naturally, survival comes with added cost. From WWII to the present, survival rates rose from 1 dead for every 2.4 wounded to 1 dead to 8.3 wounded at present. In that time, an outfit cost went from $170 to $17,000 now. Future systems are expected to reach $28,000 to $60,000 in this decade. Every life is indeed precious, regardless of the price, but let us look at what makes up the cost of each system. Ever since, President Eisenhower coined the term Military Industrial Complex, most of us are aware of the huge profits war can provide for the weapon makers. How many of you are aware of the Prison Industrial Complex, (PIC)? Do you know the two complexes have now joined together to share in the rich profit bonanza?
The academic world changes fundamentally when universities are understood as businesses. Rectors become CEOs and researchers and teachers become point chasers through conditioning.
Submissiveness Toward the Finance Markets (tags)
Finance market transactions must be made more expensive. Finance market critics warn of a casino capitalism. Are businesses only objects of speculation for global invewstment capital?
The Bubble as the Work of Criminals (tags)
A conscious and organized deceit, a criminal fraud, is perpetrated on investors when speculators create marketable securities out of bad mortgages on an overheated real estatemarket.
Who Profits From the Crash? (tags)
A criminal corruption on the highest planes is at the heart of the assets transfer. Every few decades, the real owners of the world arrange an economic crisis to steal the assets of the people. The incredible sum of $325 billion was injected into the financial system within a few days.
The High Social Cost of Low Corporate Taxes (tags)
It is now taken for granted that social services in the U.S. will be under-funded – if they are funded at all. This isn’t because average people think that such things are unimportant, but because we’ve been taught by “our” representatives in government that even a miniscule social safety net is economically impossible (it is never explained why – it just is). As this approach continues to dominate mainstream political life, the living standards of working people everywhere are being destroyed, and the meager reforms politicians have always promised us have devolved into even tinier crumbs and counter-reforms. Indeed, reforms that benefit the working class seem to be impossible in Washington now-a-days, precisely at a time when the wealth of the country has never been greater. To make sense out of such irrationality, one has to consider that this issue isn’t limited to the 50 states of the U.S. – it’s an international problem, and its cause is no accident.
Property/Casualty Insurance Industry Losing Steam as it Faces Increasing Threats of Terror (tags)
This year’s prediction is more ominous. Climate forecasters are not very optimistic either as they expect 10 hurricanes will hit the United States this year and half of those will be major storms. Fears of major terrorist offensive this summer were raised with the recent car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow.
A Plea to Moms on Mother's Day (tags)
The time and effort required for a new-born child is immense and truly only known by moms. Constant care and nurturing of a completely helpless baby is no easy task and one that is mostly forgotten and unknown, except on this one day a year when we give thanks to our moms. A mother's care is a special gift that is taken for granted most of the time. And, sadly, that is the way man is concerning Mother Earth. We have been taking and taking from her with barely any regard.
Losses as Profits: Review of Enron; The Smartest Guys in the Room (tags)
The firm's business idea consisted in showing future profits on the books as real profits.. In this "Darwinian tragedy," the Enron cadres ennobled their corrupt business practices by referring to "The Selfish Gene."
The new philanthropy
Conservative Lunacy and Public Paralysis (tags)
The Australian Federal Treasurer, Peter (supercilious prick) Costello today impetuously let one cat out of the (tactics) bag! Responding to a question relating to the economy, Costello took the opportunity to state that “the people wouldn’t trust their mortgages to the opposition party or to the leader of the opposition”. Tired fear tactics aside, Costello’s statement relates directly to the crippling debt the Australian public has been experiencing since the conservatives took office (hint!) The conservatives are the problem not the solution.
15 points to break with oil addiction
Follow Chavez's Lead; Nationalize US Oil (tags)
Chavez took the needed step of nationalizing Venezuela's petroleum reserves to prevent multinational corporations (ie., Exxon-Mobil)from theft of resources. Here in US, we would be wise to follow Chavez's example..
Manifiesto: Wellcome Energy Crisis (tags)
This text is translated in 6 languages, spreaded around te world. Brake our oil adiction. Act now!
The CAFR Outrage - Qualify The Motive Over the last several decades, the public of the USA has griped about:
$1.6 million fine for videotaping drunken teenager (tags)
Some more major criminal busted and punished!!!! Geeze!! Don't these cops have any real criminals to hunt down???/
Fear of the Working Class At Home And Internationally Stirs Some Debate Among the Bankers (tags)
There is growing concern among sections of the capitalist class that the rising opposition to their global offensive and the market will get out of control.
How Much Poverty Can a Society Endure? (tags)
Pretending that justice is possible with growing inequality is pure ideology. Distribu-tive justice is the key for a peaceful future.. Spending for the welfare state has not grown in Germany.
BTL:Soaring Gas Prices, Oil Company Record Profits Incite Calls for... (tags)
...Windfall Profits Tax ~ Interview with Tyson Slocum, co-director of the Public Citizen's Energy Program, conducted by Between the Lines' Scott Harris
Excessive Profits Via the Bush Administration (tags)
Remember the Enron scandal? It seems small, now, doesn't it? Billions being bilked from California (and stashed in off-shore accounts) through a bogus energy crisis that we later were privy to emails and tapped phone conversations of. It was so unbelievable at the time.
The Democrats' Daddy Warbucks (tags)
Feinstein Family War Profits:
Capital Needs a Counterveiling Power (tags)
Functionless profits do not lead to more investments..The market, competition and profit are not ends in themselves. The economy exists for people, not vice versa.
MEDIA ALERT: DISAPPEARING GENOCIDE (tags)
The media beat the drums for th Balkans war, esp with the word :'Genocide' However,'lately this word is disappearing from their writings on the NATO war. The real target of Western 'intelligence' was not Iraq, but the British and American public - the goal was to frighten and deceive us to support a war fought for elite interests. It was to persuade us to send our troops to kill and die for profits. It was to persuade us to ignore clear warnings that, in all likelihood, we would be subject to terrorist reprisals. Such risks were clearly deemed a small price to pay for the prize that mattered - control of Iraqi oil and enhanced influence in the region and beyond.
The Tax State in the Globalization Trap (tags)
The middle class cannot do what corporations do..German corporations pay little corporation tax; their share amounts to 2.6% of all taxes. For decades, they even received more subsidies than the profit taxes paid in Germany. Corporate enrichment in the US leads to state deficits and social cuts.
Competition leads to Unemployment without Taxation (tags)
To create jobs, the profits from the Common Market must be brought back into the economy as investments.. Competition leads to higher unemployment without the recycling of profits.
Steve Miller, Bono and Angela Merkel—What An Act (tags)
As US capitalists intensify their offensive, the global club to which they belong meets in Davos with poster boy Bono offering them a cover.
BTL:Congress Does Little as Energy Company's Record Profits Prompt Calls for... (tags)
...Investigations of Disaster Profiteering ~ Interview with Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen's energy program, conducted by Between the Lines' Melinda Tuhus
Paul Samuelson Attacks a Dogma (tags)
The best-known economist of the world doubts that shifting services to india and buying cheap goods from China bring advantages to Americans when the income of workers falls through foreign competition. The rich North will lose its monopoly profits under the conditions of globalization.
BTL:ExxposeExxon Campaign Works to Inform Public About... (tags)
...Oil Giant's Windfall Profits and Environmental Policies ~ Interview with Dave Hamilton, of the Sierra Club, conducted by Between the Lines' Melinda Tuhus
Stanley "Tookie" Williams should not be executed.
Breaking the grip of Big Oil (tags)
The day after President Bush advised Americans to deal with skyrocketing gas prices by avoiding unnecessary driving, he flew to New Orleans for a photo-op, burning up about 11,437 gallons of jet fuel, worth over $24,000. Apparently, it all depends on what you consider “necessary.”
Labor and civil rights groups: We demand jobs, justice in Gulf (tags)
Oct. 29 rally in Baton Rouge to demand a ‘new direction’ for U.S. Gulf Coast union leaders hailed an action campaign launched by the AFL-CIO Sept. 30 to defend workers’ wages and rebuild their hurricane-torn states while turning the nation in a new direction that puts “people before profits.”
RFK, Jr. Blasts Big Oil & Bush-Cheney Gang (tags)
The Bush-Cheney Gang gave the store away in the so-called “Energy Bill.” It granted $4 billion in tax breaks to Big Oil, despite the fact that ExxonMobil had profits of $24 billion last year! Now, environmentalists rallying in Washington, D.C., on 09/20/05, suspect that parts of the pristine Arctic Wildlife Refuge will soon be opened up to oil drilling. At the protest, RFK, Jr., labeled George Bush: “The worst environmental president in U.S. history!”
Exploding Profits and Stagnant Wages (tags)
"Domestic demand has stagnated for years.. Money for investments exists in excess in Germany. However investments declined 0.7% in 2004 despite record profits. Invest-ments fell for the fourth year in a row and are 13 percent lower than the 2000 level.."
"How can the state finance itself in times of worldwide competition without damaging the national econmy? How can it find the old strength without creating new poverty?.. There is no system-conforming way out of this vicious circle.."
"Redistribution to poorer groups can increase growth..The public debate about the economy and economic policy is dominated by the practical necessity logic. Desires, interests and goals of social groups play no role in the discussion of economic reforms."
The Crisis of Work and its Future (tags)
"Producing more with less labor, distributing the fruits of technical progress better, crea-ting a new balance between required work and freely disposable time and giving every-one the possibility for a more relaxed life and more varied jobs are the new goals.."
Pensions hijacked: Bankruptcy scam rips off 119,000 United workers (tags)
CHICAGO — “You might see me coming down the aisle 20 years from now with my walker,” said flight attendant Melissa Madden. Faced with the slashing of their pensions to the tune of $6.6 billion, she and other United Airlines flight attendants here warn that if United gets away with using bankruptcy to dump its pension obligations, the nation’s entire defined-benefit pension system — and the futures of the 44 million workers it covers — could come tumbling down. Retirement for American workers could become a thing of the past.
"Managers Do Not Only Serve Shareholders" (tags)
"It is not legitimate to exploit every conceivable outsourcing chance. It is not legitimate to declare jobs superfluous to realize double-digit profits.. Profit cannot be the only maxim of good entrepreneural conduct.."
Short List of "Practical Necessities" (tags)
When interests rise, fewer and fewer investments occur in production and employ-ment, unemployment increases and the economy goes flat. This analysis of the Austrian economy could help the US battle deregulation and corporate enrichment.
"The US is Stuck in Quicksand": Arundhati Roy (tags)
This interview was given at the 2004 World Social Forum in Mumbia, India.
Anti-FTAA initiative in Paraguay (tags)
The anti-FTAA movement considers that this agreement will mean subdue mechanisms for our nations. The governments will be subdued to this mechanisms or game rules that respond to the interests of the big corporations and which will negatively affect the social and sensitive sectors of the national economy. They state that the FTAA is supposed to be a stage of negotiation with low operative costs for corporations, but at the same time it impose concepts and laws that won’t allow the governments to make public policies encouraging the strength of the little and middle companies and national industries.
Election 04: Stop US Aid to Israel (tags)
With the worldwide outcry at the murder and torture of Palestinians and theft of Palestinian land for 56 years with US tax dollars, it is long overdue that US voters demand that all candidates oppose US aid to Israel if they want our vote.
Kerry catches tax cut mania (tags)
It is highly unlikely that tax breaks would spur much job-creating investment, since employers are reluctant to expand operations while facing overcapacity in almost every industry. Utilization of industrial capacity hit a 20-year low of 74 percent last year, and is barely higher today. Instead of adding jobs, employers are squeezing more from fewer workers, while allowing little or no wage growth.
OFFER TO BUY HALLIBURTON (tags)
The next dead troop was sponsored by Halliburton and confirmed by Paul Bremer according to Fox news channel. Bremer is some GOP thug in charge of stealing oil and killing Persians in Iraq.
Vons Strike Continues -- Pacific Coast Highway (tags)
On January 16, employees on strike from Vons and Ralphs were picketing in front of the Vons on Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades.
Be sure to check out all the photos from this story! They are posted on Indybay.org.
Message to Congress: Extend jobless benefits (tags)
WASHINGTON – The New Year was a time of revelry for the corporate rich as government reports confirmed a surge in profits and productivity in the final quarter of 2003. George W. Bush trumpeted the news as proof that his trillions in tax cuts for the wealthy has pulled the nation out of recession.
Mad Cow Disease/Mad Capitalism Disease (tags)
Most scientists believe mad cow disease comes from the feeding of ground up bodies of dead and diseased cattle to other cattle, that we end up eating.
‘Shut down Safeway’s profits’ (tags)
Workers hold the line for health care LOS ANGELES – “Empty Safeway’s stores and cash drawers” by taking action to cut them off from the source of their money – consumers and communities, United Food and Commercial Workers President Doug Dority told a massive rally and march here Dec. 16.
The Health Care Epidemic (tags)
Health Care
As Iraq death toll rises, so do war profits (tags)
WASHINGTON – As the roster of dead and wounded in Iraq grows longer, George W. Bush is pleading that the people of this country stay the course despite admissions by his administration that the occupation has become a “long, hard slog.”
Yes, indeed — the Bush boom has begun at last. (tags)
This week's report of a barnburner 7.2 percent rise in gross domestic product is very significant. It informs us of the likelihood of a true recovery boom — call it the Bush boom — in the months and quarters ahead.
cheney is a terrorist massmurderer and war profiteer
ANSWER LA Wants You to Support Striking and Locked Out Grocery Workers (tags)
Join ANSWER LA's COMMUNITY ACTION PROJECT to SUPPORT LABOR (CAPSL)!
Executive Orders and Oil Profits (tags)
Another nail in the coffin of the ludicrous theory that the US invasion of Iraq had anything to do with weapons of mass destruction or "liberating" the Iraqi people.
The GRID: Profits vs Reliability (tags)
The "market" is already demanding "incentives" for expanding the transmission grid, but it will only increase their reach leaving the rest of the country even more vulnerable to widespread power outages.
Bad News! If You're Not Part of the Top %10 Corporations, GW's Policies Will Not Help You (tags)
This is a short rebuttal to the biased Reuter's article that claims that George W. Bush's so-called "free market" economics are working. Cut through all the financial broker's jargon in the piece and you'll see that it doesn't say anything about job losses in the service sector, or that the so-called upsurge is based on profits made by primarily defense-related corporations that benefited from bush's tax cut for the rich.
One In Every 32 American Adults is under crimninal justic system. (tags)
They make profits off you being in prisons. They make profits off your going to shrinks and taking their drugs, their ghettoes, their State-run schools.
Taxes for Revenue Are Obsolete (tags)
Taxes are NOT collected for revenue, but for redistribution of wealth to the wealthy, for the social control of YOU!
Free-Market Capitalism and Ecological Disaster (tags)
The Free-Market libertarian argues that business leaders see and understand the effects of long-term environmental damage. But business leaders concentrate on short term profits, thus the planet continues its free-fall toward ecological disaster.
Four Days of Action Against Bechtel and the Corporate Invasion of Iraq: June 1 - June 5 (tags)
Activists in San Francisco are organizing four days of action against war profiteer, Bechtel! Join us, flyer your community, inform your comrades! Flyers available at: http://www.actagainstwar.org/article.php?id=222 and let us know!
FOUR DAYS OF ACTION AGAINST BECHTEL (tags)
Plan an action at the LA office on June 5th!FOUR DAYS OF ACTION AGAINST BECHTEL AND THE CORPORATE INVASION OF IRAQ June 1 – June 5, 2003
Cheney's Corp. Profits Huge from Iraq War (tags)
Dick Cheney's Halliburton Corp. will receive up to a billion dollars from the Federal Government for Iraq reconstruction.
"Who Profits from War on Iraq?" (tags)
BBC Reporter Greg Palast Discusses "Who Profits from War on Iraq?" Saturday April 12 - New Haven 2:00 pm
This War is Not for Oil (tags)
This article explains exactly why the war in Iraq is not for oil.
Angry crowds greet Troops - CNN perplexed (tags)
When they find out that the oil profits will, of course, be going into the pockets of the U.S. oil robber barons, they will be even more pissed off...After all, these are the Americans who are liberating Iraq's oil fields, and in America, there is no such thing as 'developing the oil for the benefit of all the people' and, despite George W. Bush's socialist talk, the people of Iraq will be robbed blind and then left with nothing, just like Africa after colonialism...
Who Profits from War on Iraq? (tags)
BBC Reporter Greg Palast Discusses "Who Profits from War on Iraq?" Saturday April 12 - New Haven 2:00 pm
Clinton's Involved with World's Biggest Drug Launderers (tags)
From the book "False Profits: The Inside Story of BCCI, the World's Most Corrupt Financial Empire" by Peter Truell and Larry Gurwin 1992
mindless defense spending is the PROBLEM (tags)
yes, making war for profit is wrong! we must stop the root cause which is OUT OF CONTROL DEFENSE SPENDING!
Bush's state of the union speech-The die is cast (tags)
War Speech
just say you turned on your TV, saw all the death, and felt incredibly sick
The Real Stock Market Victims (tags)
The Real Story About Who Will Pay For The Latest Stock Market Tank.
Madrid 17-19 of May: Resistance to the EU Summit Meeting (tags)
Last news in english and spanish in LA HAINEweb http://www.lahaine.org/madrid_eng.htm