John Hively's Blog

Obama Proposes to Redistribute More Income From Working Americans to the Rich Via Corporate Tax Cut

The World's Most Accurate Economic Forecaster — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 22:43:32 +0000

President Obama today proposed reducing the corporate tax rate and putting “an end to dozens of loopholes he said helps US companies move jobs and profits overseas.”

“It’s not right and it needs to change,” the president said.

I don’t disagree with what the president said. However, while closing incentives to ship and create jobs overseas is good for the vast majority of Americans, lowering the top corporate tax rate will only give corporations more profits to give to their wealthy shareholders and CEOs. Why not just eliminate the off-shoring incentives? FDR would have. But Obama is not FDR.

One other thing. Many US corporations don’t pay any taxes, and they receive tax rebates on taxes they never paid anyway. So perhaps Obama is negotiating with corporate America to lower the tax rate that most don’t pay anyway, as a way to negotiate an end to off-shoring incentives. We can only hope. However, one has to wonder how big of an incentive those incentives are when US CEOs decide to put jobs overseas rather than in the USA. There are lots of factors that compel CEOs to ship jobs overseas, such as environmental and labor regulations.

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Who Bankrolls Romney? Big Donors, Not Small Ones

The World's Most Accurate Economic Forecaster — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 21:54:17 +0000

The big boys bankroll Mitt Romney. Wall Street loves the guy. Maybe not as much as they do President “Wall Street” Obama, but they love Mitt. However, after Mitt’s fans max out their $2,500 yearly campaign contribution limit, they can give an unlimited amount of money to SuperPacs, which have no legal limit thanks to the Koch Brothers Corrupt Corporate Wing of the Supreme Court.

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Corrupt Corporate Wing of the Supreme Court to Strike Down Montana Law

The Corrupt, Corporate Wing of the Supreme Court Will Take on a Challenge to It’s Corrupt Citizens United Decision

The World's Most Accurate Economic Forecaster — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:49:15 +0000

The Corrupt Corporate Wing of the Supreme Court of the United States is arguably the most corrupt politically motivated group of morons now in office.

When these criminals decided to destroy one hundred years of legal precedence by voting for Citizens United, they showed us how corrupt they are. It didn’t matter that the wife of Clarence Thomas took in nearly $700,000 from the Koch brothers affiliated Heritage Foundation and didn’t report it until after she was caught. It didn’t matter that Scalia participated in a Koch brother political retreat; and that Alito participated in a right wing fund raiser sponsored by them and helped raise funds for the Koch funded Manhattan Institute. Nor does it matter that Thomas attended a Koch brothers’ political event in Palm Springs in 2008. In 2009, he raised funds for someone involved in a Supreme Court case.” (the Wide Influence of the Koch Brothers)

Did I mention legal precedence? Didn’t Chief Justice Roberts of the Koch Brothers testify under oath during his Senate confirmation hearings that he would uphold “legal precedence?” He lied. Big time. Just look at Citizens United. The Koch Brothers wing of the Supreme Court all voted to overturn precedence in this legal area.

They should’ve all recused themselves before the Citizens United decision given how affiliated they are with the Koch brothers. They are the corrupt Koch Brothers wing of the Supreme Corrupt Court. The Supreme Court has become a legal joke perpetrated on the American people. The Koch Brothers wing of the court’s sole function is to help corporate America redistribute income from working Americans to the affluent.

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What Does $26 Trillion dollars look like?

The World's Most Accurate Economic Forecaster — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:11:20 +0000

The Federal Reserve gave $26 trillion to rich people. Los Angeles-based 3D designer Oto Godfrey has created a powerful series of images to help us to visualize this much money. He does this in stacks of 100 dollar bills. If you want to see exactly what the money looks like, click the link below.

Click the link here to see the visual of what $26 trillion looks like

Mitt Romney has now become a labor unionist sympathizer!

The World's Most Accurate Economic Forecaster — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:16:22 +0000

Now that Wall Street Mitt is on the verge of losing in Michigan, okay he’s looking at getting his soft rearend spanked, Mitt has converted. Last week he declared that labor unions impede economic prosperity, and this week, he said they were important to prosperity. Which is it Mitt?

Mitt Romney changes stance on labor unions

Is Europe on the Verge of Depression?

The World's Most Accurate Economic Forecaster — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 20:59:57 +0000

A few European governments tried to cut back on spending during the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression. Now look at them. Europe is on the verge of another recession, and the entire Eurozone may crack up. There’s a ton of reasons why. One of them is that Italy, for example, redistributed income and wealth from working folks to the rich, so now the demand for goods and services is miniscule in that country. Much of the manufacturing base is in China and Vietnam. The same holds true for a ton of those European nations.

Click here for Paul Krugman's take on this issue

A Trip to The iFactory: ‘Nightline’ Gets an Unprecedented Glimpse Inside Apple’s Chinese Core

The World's Most Accurate Economic Forecaster — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 06:02:16 +0000

Nightline has an interesting story that fails to mention a few things. One of them is that if you build a computer in China that sells for $1500 in the USA, the labor cost per unit is about $9. The labor cost per unit of the same product made in the United States is roughly $24. So why does Apple have its factories in China and not in the USA if the cost difference per unit is not all that much?

The Nightline story isn’t going to tell you that Steve Jobs could have his Chinese factory employees working 12 to 16 hour shifts on a moments notice, and they couldn’t and can’t do anything about it. The story isn’t going to tell you that the workers could be fired for just about anything. Nor are they going to tell you that it is very difficult for employees to quit. The story isn’t going to tell you about the environmental hazards workers toil in. It does tell you of the numbers of workers that preferred to commit suicide rather than work for Apple. But these are the reasons why the jobs are there and not here; labor and environmental standards are higher in the USA. Steve Jobs wanted virtual slave labor. Sounds like a nice guy, a visionary. Right.

By the way, the jobs aren’t here, so the iPads are imported into the United States from China, helping to swell the US trade deficit, which is technically with China, but in reality with Apple Inc., as well as the rest of US corporations doing business there. Wall Street and the rich are the primary beneficiaries. The difference in compensation from the jobs that should be here (higher wages) but are over there (lower wages) goes into the pockets of the rich, year after year. That includes savings from lower environmental and labor standards over there. That’s one of the major reasons the rich are getting richer and the rest of us US citizens are descending into third world status. Your government officials are legislative whores of the wealthy.

When you’re reading the story, remember you’re really reading about how income is being redistributed from the 99 percent to the rich.

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Oh My! Two Charts That Republicans Find Terrifying

The World's Most Accurate Economic Forecaster — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 02:45:10 +0000

Economic indications are weak, but they have been slowly moving in favor of President Obama for the last year or two. It’s nothing to brag about, but as President Ronald Reagan said back in the day, “Don’t change horses in midstream.” Obama hasn’t done anything to stop income from flowing from the 99 percent to his 1 percent buddies on Wall Street.

Demand for goods and services is down because of the massive redistribution of income that has been engineered by Republican and Democratic politicians like Congressman Earl Blumenauer and Senator Ron Wyden. Both are good liberal Democrats in name only, but in reality, they’re legislative whores of Wall Street.

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Barack Obama’s lucky history of hapless opponents

The World's Most Accurate Economic Forecaster — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 21:19:56 +0000

President Obama appears to be a very lucky man. He just spent most of his first three years in office bending over for Wall Street, and now he gets to play like he cares about the masses that have been sucked dry by the parasites of Wall Street. Of course, he also appears to have a relatively weak Republican opponent waiting to do battle during the general election.

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Don’t you think we ought to know who funds thinktank lobbyists?

The World's Most Accurate Economic Forecaster — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 21:09:46 +0000

The battle for democracy has become a fight against backroom billionaires seeking to shape politics to suit their own interests. We’re the 99 percent, and we’re getting our butts handed to us. During the last few years we’ve awoken to the reality that the 1 percent has been waging class warfare against us for three plus decades. Their think tanks have created supposed facts to enthrall most of us and to keep us divided.

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