Random Thoughts on Other Notable Headlines of the Day – Issue IX

April 15, 2009  

• Ever wonder why lobbyists are so valuable? It’s because lobbying investments can return 22,000 percent; that’s right — twenty-two thousand percent. Figure out the return on a $3 billion a year investment. Naturally, not every dollar invested in lobbying returns that much, but it pays off handsomely in one form or another. On the repatriate profits for example, profits earned from overseas, American corporations were allowed to have their taxes reduced from 35% to 5.25% when they brought those profits home in 2004, thanks to those lobbyist. That “gift” was sold to the public as a way to create more jobs here at home. Yea, that worked out really well, didn’t it? And we commoners think we have a chance. Keep dreaming!

• Manufacturing retail sales for the month of February was 0.7%, better than expected. March figures were forecast to beat that figure by 0.1%, but didn’t. The figures do not include auto sales. The retail sales figure is a major indicator of where the economy is headed and consumer confidence. With the stock market on a six week winning streak, many are saying the economy has bottomed out and we can expect a comeback soon. I don’t believe that, but my question is ‘how much of those retail sales were cash purchases versus credit purchases’? We Americans are use to the good life. As such, we now have at least two generations who have prospered on the credit, and they don’t want to give that up. If the 0.7% increase in retail sales was mainly credit purchases, the economy is not getting better. But it’s good fodder for those who benefit from saying things are getting better.
• Another example of “Freedom of the Press”. The Veterans Administration is evidently afraid of what the public might learn of their gruesome care of our veterans. Reporter David Schultz was recording a town hall meeting at the VA hospital in our nation’s capital a couple of days ago. When he tried to interview a patient who was not happy with the treatment he was getting, Schultz’s recording equipment was confiscated and hospital security threw him out. What could they possibly be afraid of? This is the third incident within the past year of government officials trying to suppress what is reported in the media. I reported on one of those in this post.
• Small Business Myth — yet another debunking that paying estate tax hurts small business and family farmers. It just never seems to stop; the lying to justify ones end desires. And not to worry when we’re gone — our children and grandchildren will gladly step into our shoes; we are proudly teaching them that cheating and lying is the way to get what you want, and truth & morals is of no consequence.
• Last week Wells Fargo announced a profit of $3 billion dollars while announcing a $3.3 billion write-off at the same time. This week Goldman Sachs announced a $1.81 billion profit. No straight-forward word yet on how much they wrote off. However, Goldman did make a move that allowed them to not report at least a $2.7 billion write-down. This was done by modifying their fiscal year from ending in November to beginning in January. So all the billions of losses for December mysteriously “disappeared”. Now you see it, now you don’t! You know, I’ve never heard of any company that couldn’t post a profit if they wrote off all their losses, have you? But then again, most of the companies I’m thinking of didn’t have us taxpayers pay for all their losses.