investment

Corporations Hoard Cash While Americans Go Without A Job

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The amount of cash multinational corporations are stashing is at an all time high and economists are wondering why.  A recent Federal Reserve research paper examined some of the reasons.  A big one is multinationals pay no taxes on profits if they park them offshore.  A stash of cash is building and the miser pile is now a mountain.

China's Indigenous Innovation Policy Bigger Threat to the U.S.. Economy Than Offshore Outsourcing

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china espioinageDid you know Silicon Valley's best export is American jobs? That China has a new policy which is a bigger threat to the U.S. economy and jobs than direct offshore outsourcing has been?

The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission held a hearing, China’s Five Year Plan, Indigenous Innovation, and Outsourcing and contained within are more damning facts about China running amok in terms of capturing U.S. industry for themselves.

China lays out economic strategies by five year detailed plans. The latest calls for Chinese investments, that's government investment, of up to $1.5 trillion to develop alternative energy, biotechnology, information technology, advanced equipment manufacturing, alternative fuel autos and other energy saving, environmental technologies.

China's indigenous innovation policy means corporations are forced to technology transfer to China their intellectual know-how, advanced technologies in order to even do business in China and certain to obtain Chinese government contracts.

Corporate Profits Soaring Thanks to Record Unemployment

In a January 2009 ABC interview with George Stephanopoulos, then President-elect Barack Obama said fixing the economy required shared sacrifice, "Everybody’s going to have to give. Everybody’s going to have to have some skin in the game." (1)
For the past two years, American workers submitted to the President’s appeal—taking steep pay cuts despite hectic productivity growth. By contrast, corporate executives have extracted record profits by sabotaging the recovery on every front—eliminating employees, repressing wages, withholding investment, and shirking federal taxes.

The global recession increased unemployment in every country, but the American experience is unparalleled. According to a July OECD report, the U.S. accounted for half of all job losses among the 31 richest countries from 2007 to mid-2010. (2) The rise of U.S. unemployment greatly exceeded the fall in economic output. Aside from Canada, U.S. GDP actually declined less than any other rich country, from mid-2008 to mid 2010. (3)

Washington’s embrace of labor market flexibility ensured companies encountered little resistance when they launched their brutal recovery plans. Leading into the recession, the US had the weakest worker protections against individual and collective dismissals in the world, according to a 2008 OECD study. (4) Blackrock’s Robert Doll explains, “When the markets faltered in 2008 and revenue growth stalled, U.S. companies moved decisively to cut costs—unlike their European and Japanese counterparts.” (5) The U.S. now has the highest unemployment rate among the ten major developed countries. (6).

Hung Over on Debt

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American business appears to be hung over on a massive debt fest from before the financial crisis. Debt Overhang to be more specific. It's so bad, it's causing real investment which in turn generates real jobs for the real economy which generates real growth... to be muted. One problem, the declining values of assets, specifically commercial real estate.

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland researcher Filippo Occhino delves deep, complete with crayons, on how debt overhang is negatively impacting business investment.

The below video explains debt overhang in simple terms, real simple, must watch simple.

 

 

Turning to adult versions of crayons, here is Occhino's graph of assets to business debt. Notice the asset to debt ratio historic high. (To read las matemáticas version of the research, pdf here).

 

Manufacturing Monday: The so-called Big Three, and the taxpayers' money

Greetings folks, the start of new week and thus we kick off another episode of Manufacturing Monday! Never a dull moment when it comes to covering stuff that either goes into the products you buy, or the impact that that consumption leads to. Now originally, I had these other items on bio-fuels, hydrogen cars, China and oil, and a few other things. But I see now that my section on the bailout of the US automakers is so big, that the whole thing is too long. So, if it is OK with you, I will post those items tomorrow.

A road often driven by these three

The 401k Scam

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"The 401(k) will turn out to be the greatest systemic financial hoax ever perpetrated on an unsuspecting public."
- William Wollman, The Great 401(k) Hoax

Like most people I was told to plow as much money into my 401k as possible. So like millions of other workers out there, I did as I was told. By 2003 I had accumulated a nice little nest egg...that I couldn't touch.
Then one day I was in a bookstore and I happened across a book called The Coming Generational Storm. What I read about 401k's that day made me immediately stop all contributions.

Since then I came to realize that the 401k model is hopelessly flawed and will lead an entire generation to despair.

Author Laurence J. Kotlikoff made two points that were simply too logical for me to ignore:

Sovereign Wealth Funds: The Rise Of Corporatism

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"The first stage of fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of State and corporate power"
--Benito Mussolini

Last week Treasury Secretary Paulson had a meeting with representatives from Abu Dhabi and Singapore. The meeting involved setting up "rules" for future investments in America from their Sovereign Wealth Funds.

"SWF investment decisions should be based solely on commercial grounds, rather than to advance, directly or indirectly, the geopolitical goals of the controlling government," the agreement stated.

No one noted the obvious irony.

A sovereign wealth fund (SWF) is a state-owned fund composed of financial assets such as stocks, bonds, property or other financial instruments.

The first ironic twist of this agreement is the fact that America has spent more than half a century pushing third world nations to open their markets to unrestricted foreign investment. Refusal to comply with America's wishes all too often meant a CIA-sponsored coup.
Now we are trying to put restrictions on how former third-world nation can invest in America.

The second, and more important, ironic twist is the obvious weakness this displays. If America had a strong economy would we really care what the motivations of the SWF's were? If we weren't desperate for the money, would there even be opportunities for the SWF's to buy significant amounts of American assets?