Debt Rattle May 20 2015

 

Home Forums The Automatic Earth Forum Debt Rattle May 20 2015

Viewing 10 posts - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #21189

    NPC District National Bank, Dupont branch, Washington, DC 1924 • The Low Velocity Economy – US Money Velocity At All-Time Low (CI) • Euro Plunges As E
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle May 20 2015]

    #21190
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    It would appear, when all is said and done; labor is fucked!
    What more is needed to know?

    #21192
    Raleigh
    Participant

    Some say Einstein said this, but others disagree. Regardless, it’s a good quote:

    “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.”

    Labour really is done. Illegal immigration from Mexico, H-1B temporary foreign workers, offshoring of jobs to China, trade agreements benefiting corporate interests only, and what’s left? Temporary, part-time, go-nowhere jobs. Strip the country of well-paying jobs, flood the country with labour, and you’ve got labour by the short hairs.

    “By the early 1980s, the anti-union offensive was in full swing. Taking a cue from the construction industry successes, the largest 100 U.S. corporations, mostly multinational businesses, restructured themselves into new capitalist organizations like the Business Council and Business Roundtable. (The Construction Roundtable quickly merged with the larger Roundtable). The Business Council and Roundtable surpassed the previous corporate-business organizations, like the National Association of Manufacturers, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Federation of Independent Businesses, etc. in terms of political influence with Congress and the Executive branch of U.S. government. (The preceding business organizations would eventually merge and coordinate with it as well). This organizational revitalization of U.S. Capital occurred around 1978. Not coincidentally, the new ideas for tax incentives to subsidize business abandonment of the north were introduced around this time as well.

    This was a new strategic thrust for corporate America. The CEOs of the largest 100 U.S. corporations had traditionally not directly engaged in business lobbying of Congress and the Executive. After the change, surveys showed that CEOs of the largest companies in the U.S. typically spent at least 50 percent of their time in political lobbying.

    Concurrent with these changes, corporate America forged new social alliances. Noteworthy were the alliances with the religious right and the direct political fundraisers that also emerged in the late 1970s, as well as the proliferation of various corporate and wealthy investor-financed think tanks that arose at the time. The new corporate strategy would be tested and refined by the think tanks who developed the message handed over, in turn to the expanding ranks of business lobbyists and consultants and to new media outlets (Cable TV, radio) enabled by the deregulation of the communications industry. […]

    The offshoring trend gathered initial momentum during the 1980s. Reagan-era tax incentives for businesses to invest—whether within or outside the U.S.—provided a major boost to offshoring. Investment tax incentives originally required investment in the U.S. to claim the tax cut. But no longer during the Reagan era. Now multinational corporations could claim the tax cut regardless of where they invested globally. Not surprising, with the tax cut incentive in place, corporations began moving operations and union jobs offshore in the 1980s. Free trade agreements, like NAFTA, accelerated the process. Free trade meant offshored operations could produce goods abroad that could be re-exported back to the U.S. without paying an U.S. import tax called a tariff. So businesses benefited from the tax cut, from the lower wages offshore, and from the absence of a tariff when they sent the goods back to the U.S. for sale. With this occurring primarily in the highly unionized manufacturing sector, it meant millions of union jobs were lost. […]

    Tax incentives for investing in plants and equipment had another major impact on union jobs starting with the Reagan tax cuts, then in 1997 with Clinton’s business tax cuts, and again with the Bush-era multi-trillion dollar business and investor tax cuts of 2001-04. Under Bush Jr., the corporate tax changes provided a massive incentive for businesses to lay off workers and replace them with new technology and equipment. This, too, hit manufacturing unions especially hard. The preceding multiple corporate strategies, with State assistance, eliminated seven million manufacturing jobs—predominantly union—since 2000 alone, and millions more before that.”

    https://www.kyklosproductions.com/posts/index.php?p=244

    Put a fork in it. Like a battered woman, we close our eyes and do not fight back.

    #21193
    John Day
    Participant

    For threatening two financial carrion birds with one stone, I vote STYLE POINTS for BERNIE!

    #21196
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    @ Raleigh

    Bees are not the only pollinators; hyperbole seems to be the order of the day, regardless the subject.
    Humans are necessarily the center of the known universe; Gaia would not agree. I love bees, but we’re bound to kill them off and we’ll follow soon enough…

    #21197
    Variable81
    Participant

    Sorry, but had to share this piece of brilliance…

    Cheers,
    GBV

    #21198
    Raleigh
    Participant

    Variable – wild, witty, and highly intelligent. He’s famous, somebody the younger generation listen to (well, I enjoy him too). I hope – hope – they’re listening to him. I say thank goodness there is someone famous out there who is willing to speak up. Apparently in the movie Good Will Hunting, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck had written in a lot more stuff about the government, but were told that their movie would sell better if they left most of it out.

    #21199
    Raleigh
    Participant

    Here is another brilliant Russell Brand clip called “Are We All Terrorists Now?” Very, very well done. Britain is going to change their laws on terrorism, just as Canada and the U.S. have done. Brand asks why Cameron did not mention this before the election. It’s a funny clip, yet he gets right to the point.

    #21201
    Raleigh
    Participant

    Sorry about that. I tried to post a different Russell Brand video, but if you just let the above video run through to the end, you’ll get the one I was trying to post. Thanks.

    #21205
    Variable81
    Participant

    @Raleigh,

    “We are all terrorists now” – yep, that was the third one I watched last night. Sent it off to some of my Canadian friends; hopefully they’ll get a laugh, but also wake up a little to what’s going on around here.

    Cheers!

Viewing 10 posts - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.