[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'C')orporate Profits Hit New Record, U.S. Workers Still Struggling

Happy days are back! During the summer months, corporations logged their biggest profits since the government started counting way back in the age of Elvis, and the economy expanded at a slightly faster pace than previously thought. Surely, when Caterpillar and Morgan Stanley are swimming in lucre, life must be getting more wonderful for everyone.

Alas, no. Word that American businesses sucked in profits at an annualized pace of $1.66 trillion between July and September is certainly better than the alternative.

(snip)

But none of this has translated into the sort of job growth that will be required to cut into an unemployment rate stuck at 9.6 percent. Worse, there is little reason to suspect it will anytime soon.

We have been hearing for so long now that, once companies start making real money, they will feel the urge to expand. Then, they will hire lots of people, and we can stop worrying and resume shopping. Yet so far--this most recent quarter included--all we have gotten is an extended lesson in the modern workings of a stubbornly lean job market and a display of what now stands as American management's core competency: How to rack up profits and reward shareholders while keeping the cubicles empty.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/23/corporate-profits-q3-2010-_n_787573.html

[Pops]

The efficiencies of the paperless office finally paying off since the corps pruned the dead wood?

[Ludi]

Now we need to cut their taxes some more so they will create more jobs!

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', 'T')he efficiencies of the paperless office finally paying off since the corps pruned the dead wood?

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', '
')
So what are the 99ers supposed to do then, just eat cake and die?

[Plantagenet]

The "biggest profits in history" claim is illusory because the numbers weren't adjusted for inflation.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', 'T')he "biggest profits in history" claim is illusory because the numbers weren't adjusted for inflation.

[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', 'W')hat should the 99ers to do, just eat cake and die?

[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', 'T')he "biggest profits in history" claim is illusory because the numbers weren't adjusted for inflation.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', 'T')he "biggest profits in history" claim is illusory because the numbers weren't adjusted for inflation.

[vision-master]

CPI or COL Planted.......

[Novus]

Before the great recession started a large bank or insurance company would have a staff of 20k to 30k or more. Now they do the same work with only a few hundreds to a thousand people. What wasn't outmoded by computers and automation such as call centers and back office work was all outsourced to India and Philippines. Saving from job cuts go directly into the profit line and ultimately into the pockets of Wall St billionaires.


Maybe it is time for some true socialism. Nationalize the corps and then bring the jobs back home by decree because the free market surely is not going to to do it for us.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Novus', 'B')efore the great recession started a large bank or insurance company would have a staff of 20k to 30k or more. Now they do the same work with only a few hundreds to a thousand people. What wasn't outmoded by computers and automation such as call centers and back office work was all outsourced to India and Philippines. Saving from job cuts go directly into the profit line and ultimately into the pockets of Wall St billionaires.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Novus', ' ') Maybe it is time for some true socialism. Nationalize the corps...

[Kristen]

Why not enact some radical form of wealth distribution or something akin to an income cap?

[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', 'W')e just did nationalize huge corporations like GM and Chrysler and AIG and Fannie and Freddie and some major banks.

They've all got fewer jobs now then before before they were nationalized.

[mos6507]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', '
')So what are the 99ers supposed to do then, just eat cake and die?

[Lore]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', 'T')rue. The newest anomaly in the whole screwed up system is protecting private profits by nationalizing risk. Lots of people go on and on about food stamps and immigrant-welfare-mothers-on-drugs while big bucks go to backstop institutions run into the ground by management looking for the quick, personal buck.

And how many people in management of the bailed out companies have received anything but a golden parachute as a result of their malfeasance?

Corporate shareholders and management are protected from liability by law and if they are big enough, protected from loss by the taxpayer.


I think it's time to make them liable.

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Lore', '
')The problem lies in trying to save what middle class jobs are left, which means today, leaving more cash on the table for corporate heads. The gap continues to grow.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', 'M')aybe if they weren't buried in debt and high monthly expenses they'd be able to start their own business, that is, if they stopped waiting around for corporate america to bang down their door and give them their white-collar job back.