| MARKET ROUNDUP | |
| Dow | -170.69 to 17,905.58 |
| S&P 500 | -18.23 to 2,095.84 |
| Nasdaq | -40.11 to 5,059.12 |
| 10-YR Yield | -0.06 to 2.307% |
| Gold | -$8.50 to $1,176.40 |
| Crude Oil | -$1.49 to $58.15 |
Why aren’t I making more money?
It’s a question you’ve probably asked yourself, and it’s more important now than ever before. After all, home prices are rising. Health-care costs are soaring. And everything from college costs to groceries seems to get more expensive every year.
We’ll get fresh data on wages and job growth tomorrow morning, when the Labor Department releases its latest monthly report for May. In the meantime, the Wall Street Journal tried to answer the big-picture wage question by doing a deep dive into the data.
It analyzed the situation on the ground and in the numbers for metropolitan regions around the country. The goal: Try to explain why wages aren’t rising at anywhere near their old rates – despite the steep fall in the “official” unemployment rate.
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| A major employment report is due Friday. People are finding jobs, but salaries aren’t necessarily rising. |
The Journal’s conclusions:
==> Too much “hidden” labor supply. That includes temporary workers who are competing with others for any job they can get, and discouraged workers who previously dropped off the “available to work” labor rolls – but are coming back and competing for new positions now.
==> Too much foreign competition. When companies overseas are paying workers much less, and able to undercut our companies thanks to the dollar’s rise, it puts a lid on U.S. wage growth.
The New York Times highlighted an example of that yesterday, chronicling how Walt Disney (DIS) just laid off hundreds of U.S. IT workers. It hired an outsourcing firm that uses cheaper foreign labor to do the work, and even made the U.S. workers train their replacements if they wanted to get a decent severance package.
==> Too little productivity and too much of a recession hangover. These concepts are more nebulous, but it boils down to the fact that companies believe they aren’t getting enough output from workers to pay much more. Executives are also afraid to boost pay too much because of fear of a renewed economic downturn, considering we suffered the worst slump since the Great Depression only a few years ago.
| “What will it take to get us out of this rut?” |
All told, the Journal found that unemployment rates in many regions are now lower than they were before the economy got shot to heck in 2008. But the 4% or 5% wage increases we saw back then, or in the 1990s, are now more like increases of 2% to 3% – if that.
What will it take to get us out of this rut? Is there some kind of policy prescription to jump start things? Politicians are flailing about, trying to answer those questions. But the proposals announced to date haven’t done much, including state and local efforts to raise the minimum wage to well above the federal level.
Ultimately, it may just take the passage of even more time between the Great Recession and today. Time to replace lost productivity, lost confidence and lost demand. Not what the average American wants to hear, unfortunately, but it seems to be our sad reality.
So what do you think? What will get American wage growth back on track? Any evidence in your own personal experience that lower unemployment rates are boosting wage and salary increases? Or do you find that your pay, or the pay of your employees, is continuing to stagnate? Let me know your views over at the Money and Markets website — because this is a hugely important issue.
 (For more details about tomorrow’s market-moving events and my expectations, click on the video to watch a special Money and Markets Extra video update!)
| Our Readers Speak |
Interest rates are clearly on the rise again – but will it last? That’s among several issues you were debating over at the website.
Reader Peter B. said: “Interest rates have bottomed long term, proving again the markets set interest rates and not the Federal Reserve. The Fed will play catch up in 60 days to 90 days, pretending they control interest rates.”
Reader Stu agreed, saying: “Losses in the bond market will continue to mount, albeit with volatility. This will eventually lead to a crash in the general stock markets. Only at this point will bond yields drop just as dramatically as they rose.”
But not everyone is on the same page. Reader D. suggested that economic growth doesn’t support higher rates: “As the U.S. is likely to be heading into a recession, rates have nowhere to go but down in the next year, probably reaching lows not seen since 2012, perhaps even lower. The yield curve will eventually invert, with the Fed in a big struggle with the bond market.”
As for what to do about the increased volatility in bonds, Reader Kevin suggested an alternative to investing in Treasuries offering lousy yields:
“So if I have an extra $1,000 burning a hole in my pocket, I could invest in a 10-year Treasury note and get a 2.4% return … or I could apply it to my 3.625% mortgage and pay it off sooner. No brainer.”
Thanks for the comments. There’s no doubt we’ve been swept up in a massive bond bubble, one that started to pop in 2013 before the process was short-circuited.
Were the negative yields we saw earlier this year the final straw? Just like the last gasp move in the Nasdaq in the first couple months of 2000? Only time will tell … but I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if that turned out to be the case!
Be sure to add your thoughts on this or any other topic we’ve discussed over at the website here.
| Other Developments of the Day |
Bonds got rocked by another global sell off in the overnight hours, with the yield on the German benchmark 10-year note hitting 0.99% at one point. That compares with just a handful of basis points at the lows in April. It was also the highest since September.
The New York Times reports that corrupt bank insiders and shadowy oligarchs loaned themselves hundreds of millions of dollars for fraudulent enterprises. They also allegedly shifted money into overseas accounts, helping drive the country’s top three banks into insolvency and costing the nation huge amounts of money.
Share your comments over at the website when you have some time.
Until next time,
Mike Larson
Mike Larson graduated from Boston University with a B.S. degree in Journalism and a B.A. degree in English in 1998, and went to work for Bankrate.com. There, he learned the mortgage and interest rates markets inside and out. Mike then joined Weiss Research in 2001. He is the editor of Safe Money Report. He is often quoted by the Washington Post, Reuters, Dow Jones Newswires, Orlando Sentinel, Palm Beach Post and Sun-Sentinel, and he has appeared on CNN, Bloomberg Television and CNBC.
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the Fed is the problem. If they allowed interest rates to normalize then banks would loan more because the spread would increase and more middle class would get a decent return on their bank related investments and savings and would actually spend the money creating demand and more jobs and wage increases.. The cheap Fed money has only resulted in massive stock buybacks, M&E (which results in job losses), banks fortifying their capital reserves and corporations borrowing money to invest overseas, They may be brilliant data dependent economists but they sure lack common sense.
brilliant commies they are.
Regarding Moldova – The CIA World Factbook lists widespread crime and underground economic activity among major issues in Moldova.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moldova
Nothing will happen until Obama is out of office! He was and still is, the ‘log jam”!
log head.
Will Brown, Right on. He is the blind leading the blind. Big Dummy.Ob.
As a long time conservative I would like to add that I am weary of the “blame Obama” excuse for our problems. He was elected twice rather handily. If their is an idealogical problem in America it is with the American voter. Poll after poll is showing Americans increasingly favoring Socialistic solutions to problems like poor wage growth and income inequality. Any meaningful examination of the historical record of Socialism reveals it’s many shortcomings and failures, but our schools and media tend to teach otherwise. Somehow the myth that Government can solve these problems continues to persist, when their meddling is probably the source of the problem. Obama could fly to the moon tomorrow and we will still have an extremely partisan idealogical divide in America that is simply destroying our economy and social fabric. We haven’t been in a bind like this one since 1860.
I agree that the uninformed voter is part of the problem. But, the President has been a divider not a uniter, so it’s fair game to lay a large portion of our problems at his feet.
He certainly hasn’t done anything to fix them, so in that way if have to agree with you.
Jim,
Your comments are spot on. Thank you for speaking the truth. Individual responsibility is a key part of making families, communities and countries strong.
We’ve allowed our jobs to go overseas since the 1980’s, and were told not to worry, the jobs that remained would be good jobs. Any fool can realize that if you send millions of jobs elsewhere, there will be millions of people left with an uncertain future. Nobody cares about the average working person. It’s interesting that Obama get blamed for everything. He’d have to be a god to have so much supposed power over so much! I think we best look at our Congressmen and Senators, and those who lobby them, and contribute huge amounts to campaigns, expecting payback.
Right on, books!! DO NOT vote for any incumbent, regardless of party. Break the mobsters up and get them out of their power positions.
Think back to the 1992 election if you are able. Ross Perot told us that if we made Free Trade deals with Third World countries we would hear ” a giant sucking sound” of our jobs being siphoned off to those countries. Duh! Again, we voted for all of this stuff.
obama–just terrible; federal reserve—unconstitutional. balderdash! rick perry for pres.
The Fed is actually the anti-Obama. He wants to narrow the wealth gap and the Fed through their policies have widened it to an unprecedented amount. The rich get richer the poor gets benefits and the middle class takes it on the chin.
Everything Obama has done has been for the benefit of his wealthy donors. He has been an extremely able political animal. In truth, the Democratic Party is the party of the wealthy. The top two Democrats have made over $150,000,000 just for speaking to their buddies and have managed to pay next to nothing in taxes on it. Yet, they too may find themselves in White House anyway. Champions of the poor! Good grief!
I think many companies are doing just fine, but, there is intense pressure from stockholder (private & institutional) to keep profits high. I see executive bonuses and salaries that have gone thru the roof and significant growth/acquisition in my company, but, none of it seems to be trickling down to the worker bees.
Mark,
Thank you for the intelligent answer. There is no such thing as “trickle down” (also known as “Voodoo”) economics. Money floats up, not trickles down. Consumers with disposable income boost the economy, otherwise we wind up with the very rich, the professional middle class (lawyers, doctors, bankers), and the working poor. If stock prices were not driving the economy and we went back to sales and income driving the economy, we’d all be better off. See my comments below.
Roz
And those lawyers become politicians and load us up with a plethora of new laws and regulations for THEIR benefit.
Everything you have stated today is true Mike. I am retired, but have worked in all hi-tech companies for the majority of my post college years dating back to 1959. At that time (1959) the United States had survived WW2 (along with Canada) unscathed from a manufacturing standpoint. Raises were good, benefits were good, life was good. But as Europe and most recently Asia arose from the depths of WW2, world competition came to center stage along with all the hidden “gotchas” that most economists and certainly all the politicians , never saw coming. Unless there is a major calamity that effects most of the world which greatly reduces the workforce population, pay raises WILL stay in the 2 % to 3% range for the foreseeable future. And as far as I am concerned, a steady growth in the economy, in concert with wage increases of 2% to 3% is best for our country and most developed nations. However, the cost of goods and services including medical, MUST hold the line to reasonable increases otherwise economic failure will result.
I agree. Globalization and technology are transforming the world economy.
We are in a secular long-term period where economic wealth is gradually being more evenly distributed around the world. Corporations have fluid borders and are obligated to share holders to maximize profits.
The average standard of living across the globe has dramatically increased and continues to rise. Unfortunately for the first world, the RATE of increase in wealth RELATIVE to the rest of the world, is declining. The huge disequilibrium in global wealth distribution was never sustainable in a global economy.
Technology continues to advance to enable the elimination of humans. Eventually even the family physician will fall prey to artificial intelligence. Lawyers are finding the job market is not so great anymore thanks to the ability of software to supplant much of the time lawyers spent on legal research.
Progressive immigrant nation, and velocity of money, and lies in the White House. first progressive too many, second, money velocity too slow, third lies too much.
In every company, we need to establish a relationship between the income of the owners or the top management and the average wages of the lowest paid workers. If we do that we can have a realistic implementation of a rising tide lifting all boats in that the incomes of the owners and their top management will not be able to rise faster than the wages of the lowest paid workers. It would also be useful if we could decide on an appropriate multiple. Perhaps we could agree that owners and top management should not earn more than 20x that of the lowest paid workers. If we do this we would increase the purchasing power of all workers, the economy would be stimulated and we would all be better of.
Anyone who thinks that can happen without strong unions is a fool.
Capitalists have never given up anything to workers without a fight.
Republicans have been working for generations to destroy unions and have been remarkably successful. Now that corporations can make unlimited contributions to politicians, there is no hope that any serious political action in favor of workers can ever happen.
Please! The Unions became so corrupt they no longer existed for the benefit of the workers either. Their leaders are either in bed with the mob or corrupt Democrats.
1. Eliminate the Federal Reserve and all collusion between this false entity, our govt., ,the banksters and corporations. America needs to print OUR OWN CURRENCY AGAIN BACKED BY GOLD!
2. Taxes ARE out of sight on all levels – Federal, State, Local – nothing is untaxed today!
3. Too much government lobbying, govt. regulations and rules- it’s totally insane!
4. Too much debt. and living way above the govt. budgetary – g.et back to basics, if we can’t afford it, we don’t do it
5. Too much welfare benefits and its lack of accountability – too much disability going out with no checking up on the so called, “disabled”!
6. Too much money that is untraceable within the military complex – if we don’t know where the money goes, it needs to be cut off until we do know where it goes.
7. No foreign aid until our budget is balanced.
8. No illegals at all in the country – round them up and ship them out – then build the biggest fence the world has ever seen!
WE ARE SICK OF ALL THE LIES, THE INCOMPETENCE, THE CORRUPTION!!!
You are so right. Though he was too dense to realize it, Nixon made all the debt and corruption possible when he abandoned the gold standard. Honest money has always been the foundation of an honest and just society. All the money to pay for the wars and corruption of the last 40 years has been created out of thin air. If we actually had to pay for all this crap with real money it could never happen.
The IT workers at Disney aren’t alone. Southern California Edison did the same stab in the back to their IT workers, made them train their imported replacements to get any kind of severance package. SCE provides both gas and electric power and the distribution. Whereas the gas and electric rates can float a little and there is a minor amount of competition, the distribution rate is regulated by the CPUC, which also oversees energy rates very closely. And Ayatollah Obama wants to bring more foreign workers in. And lots of big greedy companies do the same outsourcing overseas, it is hard to compete with people who get 5 cents an hour and regular diaper changes and a nice shiny quarter if the don’t mess up during the week. So you can tell Disney you won’t be visiting thanks to their stab in the back, but how do you tell your local utility company “No thanks”?
My friend worked at Comerica Bank and had to train her Indian replacements. The entire department was then shipped to India. If they refused to train their replacements, they would forfeit their severance pay.
Unfortunately, labor is in a global market, as well as is most everything else. Our wages in general, and especially for the average low-to-medium skilled employee, will not rise very much until wages in the countries where most of the off-showing is going also rise. Look to China for an example. No longer are they the prime destination for off-shoring anymore, although companies which built factories there are more or less stuck. Instead the market is going to Vietnam and Indonesia and such countries, where they are just beginning to climb the long staircase to middle class status and wages. It will take a while, probably years, for wages on the whole planet to level off, and only then will the industrialized countries see a real push for higher wages.
Wage growth and job creation:
Back in Sept. 1966 I entered my senior year at St.Francis College as an Economics major. Our department head Prof. Casey opened the new term with a lecture. He had visited some factories where the assembly work was being done by machines. He lectured that this was the wave of the future and at some point society will be faced with a larger labor pool and few jobs. He also advised this problem would not affect him because he was much older than us ,but it was a problem us “younger guys” will have to confront. At this point in time it appears he was 100% correct. My suggestion is rather than encourage people to work longer have them retire earlier. Thus creating job openings. Impose a tariff on imported goods to make them equal in cost to domestically manufactured goods. Admittedly this will not be popular with CEOs, hedge fund managers
and Politicians (they will not be getting those generous campaign contributions). But the alternative is “silk slippers descending the stairs to meet the tread of hobnailed boots ascending the stairs”. Additionally limit campaign contributions to a maximum of $5,000.00 per person per year. The contributions must be audited to prove that the contributor is capable of such a contribution. No Corporate contributions to election or political causes. Term limits for all politicians two terms to any elected office ends a political career. Then the politicians return to the world they created.
Wages are stagnant because we never have “recovered” from 2008. We are in the latter days of a huge rebound, not a recovery. The next phase, when it hits, will be another HUGE leg down and then those wages will not just stagnate but will implode. What is funny is the fools in the leftist cities like L.A. and Seattle demanding that small businesses pay all workers $15 per hour. What they have done is insure that a lot of people will be OUT of work…..not magically making more money. I read a long article last week about how the REAL unemployment rate is 23%. Everyone must realize that these new numbers the gub-mint reports are nothing but a pack of lies.
Fred1, you are right, but read my comment below. The CEOs and officers income since 2008 has absolutely exploded higher!! There are more Billionaires on this planet than ever before and many more “elites” worth tens and hundreds of millions of dollars. The average working stiff has been screwed for decades, but particularly the last 10-15 years. This world is all about the global elites..They control everything, the employee controls NOTHING…Its all about FINANCIAL and COMPENSATION ENGINEERING!! to make the elites rich and the employees more slave like…
Neo-Feudalism, as I’ve said a number of times, with the lords and ladies of money ordering around all us serfs and peasants.
Chuck, as crazy as it sounds I do believe that we are headed to a modern form of Feudalism, with the political and financial elites the new royalty, living in castle like secure communities, and rest of us peasants laboring shoulder to shoulder with our comrades in the rice fields, content with a handful of beans and rice and a tiny apartment. The royalty of the Middle Ages were the most successful thugs of their time, the bankers and financiers are the most successful thugs of our time.
You nailed it – that is telling it as it truly stands. No one wants to hear that “the emporer has no clothes”, but all the powers that be, in both corporate and political board rooms, know that, “that” truth genie out of the bottle would jeopardize far to many that have skin in the game and would shed too much light on the inept and counter intuitive policies of this administration.
It’s simple. GET RID OF OVOMIT and the democRATS. Elect a true conservative.
Career politicians sometimes talk a big conservative talk. I like much of what I hear from Rand Paul, but he is a career politician, and I don’t really trust him. I don’t trust any politician any more after their first term. Vote them out!
If a true conservative could stop with the name calling of those who have a different set of opinions to offer, it would be very refreshing.
If this is a free market Im a eskimo.why cant one of you guys over there impeach BO or impeach somebody.When was the last time you guys voted someone in with intelligence.
CEO and managers bonuses are all based on the stock prices, and often paid in company stock. Stock prices go up when expenses go down. That means that everything that subtracts from profits must be reduced: employee salaries, bonuses, raises, safety, but not workload or hours. This has been what is driving management for the last few years. Thank the Harvard MBA’s for coming up with these belt tightening cutbacks. It hurts the common workers, but not the CEOs or their highly paid advisors.
I was an officer in a major Title Company for many years and it was my experience that when interest rates rose even 1/8 to 1/4 percent, everyone who has waited to buy real estate rushed to buy immediately before it rose again. My advice to the Fed is to test the waters with this approach. If it doesn’t work within a few months, they can always reduce the rates again. Thanks, Pam
Hi Mike,
I’m Canadian,and I can tell you Free Trade as it is will not work.When a 3rd.world country can make a widget for 1/4 of what it costs in the the western countries,then it is not a level playing field.The west needs to wake-up to this reality NOW ,not later on.If we do not the ‘rot’ will set in,and it will be too late.
The ignorance shown by commenters is staggering. There is NO DIFFERENCE between the two oligarch/corporate approved political parties. Blaming Obama for policies that have been approved by both democrats and republicans just show how stupid US citizens are when it comes to understanding how they are getting F@$Ked by the system itself. How soon one forgets how bush gave billions to the criminal Wall Street banks, to say nothing of attacking a sovereign nation on behalf of his oligarch/corporate owners. Voting for either party only condones the ongoing raping and pillaging of the US citizens. I will say it one last time. Neither party is going to approve policies that serve the average citizen. The two parties only exist to enrich their oligarch/corporate owners.
And themselves, of course. When was the last time you saw a politician living in a flophouse?
What we witness in Washington is pure Kabuki Theatre meant to give the impression we are represented. We are not! The Founding Fathers did everything they could think of to protect the People from what they called ” factions”, the special interests that rule us now.
Mike,
Lord knows, God knows, the REASON salaries have stagnated is due to the current EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT compensation strategies for its employees. The focus, which really came to being after after the early 1980s recession with the focus on FINANCIAL ENGINEERING. The financial/investment advisory firms, basically told and sold CEOs and associate levels on how they could ABSOLUTELY EXPLODE their salaries sky high, if they took most of their compensation based on Earnings Per Share (EPS) growth vs. salary and hard stuff like performance bonuses..Well that opened the flood gates for maximizing productivity and performance and cost reductions all to boost not revenue, BUT PROFITS and EPS. You don’t need to be a PhD in Finance to realize that this was an ABSOLUTE bonanza for CEOs and an ABSOLUTE DISASTER for rank and file employees. Go check how the CEOs and officers are compensated vs. all the rest of the employees, including upper level employees as well. Its all about profit, and EPS, cost cutting and squeezing your employees for everything and oh, then lay them off if that is not enough. THAT IS WHY Low/Middle/Upper SALARIES ARE STAGNATING!!!!!! So, who’s kidding who??? Were certainly not fooling the good Lord on this one!
Billy,
I said pretty much the same thing above, but you explained it better. Thanks.
Roz
Although some may fail to see the humor in this I couldn’t help myself. Somehow when I read about the rampant fraud and corruption in the country of Moldova this came to me as an afterthought. If one happened to be born and raised there it’s not their fault. However if a foreigner invested in a country whose name starts with the word, Mold they are not going to get much sympathy from me.
This is but one piece of a poisoned pie. Problem is much larger than most think. Ever hear of the Tower of BABEL? (We are being lied to and manipulated, ala “1984”.)
Research this, THEN review the 10 Commandments (declared out-of-bounds in schools and public spaces from 1960’s on) for the “common” sense prescription for society, THEN look up the book, “Propaganda”, 1928, written by Edward Pernays (Freud’s nephew) to see the mind-bending you’ve been subjected to, and finally, resolve to seek out truth-tellers and anti-bullies who encourage free speech, open debate and free will in a civilized society. You might want to start at Mises.org (home of Austrian Economics) for a rational look at economics–the books and classes they offer and a breath of fresh air and Sunshine. This is the kind of “solar power” that is really needed. Learn and act!
There iw also an overabundance of workers compared to openings. If there are ten qualified workers for an opening, the one who works cheapest gets it. Given the downsizing in this country, and the number of unemployed people with graduate degrees, employers have no reason to give better pay or benefits.
Thomas Schecter what you say is true. There was a business here recently that was going to hire around 50 people and 5,000 showed up. So much for lazy people who don’t want to work!
Too little productivity…….”Money goes where it is treated best” In most cases a company will look to invest where they perceive they will receive the best return on their investment.
What we need is a pro growth policy out of Washington. Lower taxes, less regulation and less government interference will go a long way to stimulating the economy. This would help to create a stronger recovery leading to company expansion and more jobs. The private sector is the answer to our economic challenges not the government.
Would you REALLY want a private company making and enforcing laws for profit? It would make the politicians look like pikers.
I live in the Washington, DC area which is expensive. I earn a good salary particularly compared to the average salary for Americans but still believer that I am not getting ahead. Food and transportation costs remain high and medical related expenses impact disposable income. Hard to decide when/if to retire given the economic uncertainty that exists and a lack of faith in government.
Two hundred years ago the world’s population was one billion people. Today it is around seven billion. This growth has occurred during the industrial revolution, a dramatic improvement in productivity, and a dramatic increase in global commerce. This combination of events has resulted in the world having many more people than are needed to sustain itself. If you want to read more about this, go to my web site http://www.IsThereACreator.com , click on EZIME tab and open my article titled OUR ECONOMIC PERFECT STORM.
Wages are not going up, because big corporation is still outsourcing jobs overseas. And until the people of this Country stand up and tell the Congress as well as the Senate to stop allowing these jobs to be outsourced wages will continue at a crawl for the next 20 years. This will continue to erode the middle class which is what the Republicans have been doing now since the 1980’s. When people work at Wal-Mart and can’t even make enough money to get by on or buy food without food stamps that right there should tell you something. Wal-Mart has the time to build a Billion dollar museum and buy $35 million dollar paintings, but can’t pay there employees a decent wage.
If you live in this Country and don’t make $250k or more you should not be voting for Republicans. The first thing the new Republican controlled Government did was try to pass a tax bill increasing taxes on the middle class and the poor.
I always hear Republicans crying about how they don’t like paying for people that are lazy and don’t want to work. And how people on the Government assistance program are mostly a shame. Well, I agree that there are people on the programs that shouldn’t be, but that amount is very small. Most food stamps in this Country are used on Children. And even if your claim was right unless you make $250k per year or more then you still shouldn’t be voting Republican as they want you to pay may while giving Corporations as well as the other rich society a tax break.
There are over 2500 families on this planet that control 96% of all the wealth. The last time these numbers were this high was when the great depression occurred and 99% of all the money was controlled by a small group.
Reganomics was a mistake and deregulating the banking industry was a mistake. When Reagan was President only one bank was publicly traded. Now almost all banks are publicly traded and they represent 52% of the Gross Domestic Product in this Country. Also when you go back to the 1950’s era Big Corporation accounted for 54-57% of all taxes collected in this Country and now they account for around 9%.
Pass a flat rate tax of 20-25% of Big Corporations
Bring back 20-30% of the outsourced jobs
Undue the Supreme Courts allowing of any amount to be donated or should I say buy off a politician as that’s a joke.
Close down the loopholes for Big Corporation and the rich which is in the Cayman Islands, etc.
Sometimes it’s unbelievable how man can be so inhuman to man!
Any tax imposed upon a corporation is simply passed on to the consumer in the price of the product. You want to see an economic boom in this country eliminate the corporate tax, the income tax, the capital gains tax, and then pass a consumption tax. The average American citizen knows far better than any effing bureaucrat what to do with their money. All of a sudden you have a system where the people with the money actually pay the taxes and there are no,possible loopholes for avoiding it. The IRS would be an instant historical relic. It would also result in a tax code whose only purpose is to fund government functions rather politicized social goals.
Sounds nice, Jim, but would you really want to pay $11.50 or $12 for a $10 steak? how about $23,000 or $24,000 for $20,000 car? Three or four thousand due at purchase. Maybe $230,000 or $240,000 for a $200,000 house – with the 30 or 40 thousand due on signing. That’s what a 15 or 20% consumption tax could mean. If you only lived in that house for half the mortgage period, that consumption tax would be 30 or 40 %, also. Same for the car if you only kept it for half the loan period. Politicians love sales or consumption taxes.
Good points Chuck, but I was thinking that if they weren’t taking half what I make with these other taxes I could pay the consumption tax. It would also be voluntary on my part. European politicians have loved the value added tax because they get it and all the others. Really though, there is no such thing as a good tax.
The simplest way to raise wages for the working stiffs is simply limit the management bonus’s to 100 times the average pay of their non management employees. It will never happen in the US but what a concept.
I believe that the main factor causing the outsourcing to foreign is not based on wages but the restrictions created by unelected bureaucrats whose loyalty is to Obama who appointed them. As long as these onerous restrictions hamper manufacturers from competing we will never have a recovery.
The lower foreign wages are offset by the shipping and handling of the material required shipped and the shipping and handling of the finished products .return
The other reason would be the high corporate tax rate in competing with countries that have no or smaller tax rate. Corporate taxes are not really a tax but a part of the cost of the finished product or service
Why do the workers get underpaid by reduced salaries? The CEO’s and other big shots don’t suffer wage reduction and always get more. Many, like Congress, always vote themselves increases.
Its very simple as one banker said “If your not cheating your not trying” Greed is so ingrained in our race to the top society worldwide. Even government are no longer honest all these figures that they throw at us have been massaged to come out to their liking. My ancestors worked hard to pay for the basics of life in cash. Now everybody wants the latest greatest gadget and runs to the bank to borrow its called credit. Read one article about a Canadian Bank who wanted to reprocess a mans property. They wanted to fast track it through the courts and throw him out in 24 hours. So much for your friendly neighborhood banker he’s greedy to.
Buy from foreign corporations that hire American workers (Honda is an example in my part of the world). Boycott American corporations that don’t hire American workers. Time to quit blaming unions, unproductive or unskilled labor force, etc. Hit them where it hurts – in their pocket.
Wages – my business is experiencing early stage wage growth pressure – primarily at the lower minimum wage &/or entry level wage positions. I sense the wage pressure is the result of these factors – Our areas unemployment rate is lower than many/most states, lower level wage groups who are typically employed by service industry employers are hearing/noticing the hype surrounding a minimum wage of $15/hr & therefore we’re seeing employers consistently increasing their entry level wage scale but not yet closely approaching the $15 level. The pressure, nevertheless – is building.
keep buying cheap stuf from low wage country and get a lower pay in america. you are responsible for this situation. instead of buying 4 cheat t shirt from a low wage country for the same amount just buy 2 US made and it will keep the job here as a consumer you are totally respponsible. as for unions why dont they recomend a shorter work week in order to put more people to work. where is the union solidarity. if you stop buying low wage made adidas, asics, nike, skeckers untill they are made in america you will pay more but the money and profit will stay in america and more workers will be put to work.
In my profession pay is stagnant. I also work in one of the most greedy fields out there, Wall Street. While everyone is talking about Wall Street making so much money they need to remember all the things the big shots do have to have a great staff behind them. Money is not trickling down. Fortier, I would not buy the cheapest items if I were getting a cost of living raise and I could afford the items made in the US. I much rather do that but I can not feed my family or clothe them if I do . I buy as much of American made things as I can, but with the pay not moving and prices are, more will by what they can afford and it is not always by choice.
Companies want infinite productivity for infinitesimal wages. ‘Ain’t gonna get it. Even slaves have to eat.
You have to stand up and fight back. NATION WIDE STRIKE.
Lessons taught by history is corruption (both in government and private industry)undermines trust and confidence and free economies decline.
Political parties are credited or blamed but the principals are bigger than political parties. Free economies -where trust is high- prosper. They prosper because resources can be safely combined to create value.
When government – for whatever reason- adds complexity, with it’s additional costs, there is less incentive for free people to take risks and act. The basic law of economics is – people respond to incentives. When incentives are reduced or clouded by complex rules or legal risks there is less incentive to take risks and deploy capital.
It has become popular in recent years to attempt to ‘control’ bad actors by increasing rules and adding more enforcement rules. There are bad actors – no doubt. But the real issues are when society is less willing to live my moral law and conscience, trust levels decrease. Lower trust results in slower economies and lower standards of living. We are living in a period of time where we are seeing that happen.
Political leaders can best help by promoting an example of respect, honor and integrity. The population will respond to that kind of leadership. Class divisions or giving constant attention to class warfare only divides and weakens us all.
In order for America to return to economic strength possible, Companies, political leaders, families and individuals need to be trustworthy. Most of us in our quiet moments know what we need to do to be trusted.
Again the solution to America’s economic challenges lies in us living the rules that allow for free and respectful commerce. People creating a product the best they can because they want to help others live better. Government leaders looking to private sector leaders who are doing it right and holding them us as examples and encouraging respectful behavior.
Kelly
Excellent!!
Re introduce the draft. This will get the thugs off the street, teach them discipline, respect for authority and a job with individual responsibility.
Repair our infra structure with the unemployed. A program similar to the Depression WPA. This will repay costs with large dividends. Move the workers away from home provide them with food and housing at low wages—no families.
Stop raising the minimum wage until we have low unemployment.
Enforce the present immigration laws.
Get the government off everyone’s back. Stop all the regulations. Cut government employment 10% everywhere immediately.
The Federal Government keeps proving it can’t run anything with efficiency. Most of the programs need to be run at the lowest level.
Our future is not in labor. It is in innovation. We must have an educational system base on merit. The best students go to the best schools and go as far as their interest can take them. We must stop slowing down our system so the slowest students can pass. We will always need good skilled labor, but not as many. That’s enough to think about,now.
Besides a fluctuating economy, the biggest causative factor for un and under employment has been starring us in the face for years…both legal and illegal immigration, Over 1 million green cards are issued each year with no end in sight…those folks want to be in the U.S. for economic reasons,..in short jobs. In the last 10 years over 10 million legal immigrants have come to the US, taking jobs that would have gone to American workers. If today, our labor pool had 10 million less, where do you think our unemployment and wage rates would be? That’s not to mention illegal workers, who displace many of our unskilled, lower paid American workers, needing work to feed their families too..
It’s time to wake up and get smart about immigration and limit permanent foreign workers to the number of US workers who leave the country for good. Should we need temporary workers, for example in agriculture, fine, but by law they must go home at some point, and we should make sure they do.
Let’s quit drinking the corporate kool-aid, and get smart about immigration!
I was working fifty hours per week for a company which made flow control products for the oil industry. The oil war led to a drop in demand for these products, I was laid off. I am working part time about twenty hours per week because the business could avoid paying benefits. The affordable care act is an unemployment increase bill. Because people are working part time as a result of the affordable care act, tax revenues are lower. By taxing the rich $250,000 per year incomes, there is no point in hiring more people and earning above this amount. This president needs to go, the affordable care act which is an anti jobs bill needs to be abolished.
Interesting comment about Disney. Why? Because ConocoPhillips did the same thing 3 years ago when it decided to move the Canadian Production Accountants positions to the US. They made the Canadian PA’s train the US people who were taking there jobs if they wanted a good package! I don’t remember you commenting on that?
How to receive a $ 593 gift ..?
mike do you really believe the data on inflation the government reports if you do I have
a bridge to sell you. sorry but hate to inform you the whole game is rigged.
The Federal Government is Bankrupt,exhibited at:www.USDebtClock.org
Until such time as “money” has value, hang onto your gold & your guns. And,vote Libertarian, if y9u don’t like the republican offerings.