War On Capitalism Continues, Democrats Want to Push Administration on US Corporate Pay Strategies

They want to set compensation terms on company's taking Federal TARP money; I'm fine with that. You eat the government cheese, you play by their rules. But capping salaries on private companies?

This is getting ridiculous! This is socialism in action folks! Redistribution of wealth in action! The Liberal assault on free-market capitalism I have been warning you about for months!

Americans should be outraged at the socialism of Obama and the Liberals in Congress.

The Associated Press:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration is taking a half-step toward taming U.S. executive pay. Some lawmakers prefer a fuller stride.

Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee said Thursday the administration's efforts to hector the private sector into reining in executive pay might not go far enough.

The administration contends that excessive compensation contributed to the U.S. financial crisis, but rejects direct intervention in corporate pay decisions.

Instead, the administration plans to seek legislation that would try to rein in compensation at publicly traded companies through nonbinding shareholder votes and less management influence on pay decisions.

"I do differ with the administration in that hope springs eternal and their position seems to be that if we strengthen the compensation committees we will do better," said the committee chairman, Rep. Barney Frank, a Democrat.

Rep. Brad Sherman, a Democrat, said that instead of giving shareholders a nonbinding voice on pay, their votes should be binding on boards of directors.

Democrats and administration officials agreed that companies across the private sector need to adjust compensation practices to avoid damaging the economy.

Gene Sperling, a counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, said administration guidelines call on all publicly held companies to link compensation to long-term performance, not short-term gains.

"We believe that compensation practices must be better aligned with long-term value and prudent risk management at all firms, and not just for the financial services industry," Sperling said.

The committee also heard from officials from the Federal Reserve and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

While the administration has approached the issue with caution, a top Republican said the plans amounted to "incessant government intervention."

"The president cannot continue his heavy-handed meddling in the private sector and expect it to function, much less flourish," said Rep. Tom Price, chairman of the Republican Study Committee.

Alabama Rep. Spencer Bachus, the top Republican on the committee, added: "We need to get government out of businesses."

Obama Tells American Businesses to Drop Dead

How long have I been saying Obama is at war with capitalism? This column is pretty scary and frighteningly true.

By Kevin Hassett, Bloomberg:

June 8 (Bloomberg) -- I’ve finally figured out the Obama economic strategy. President Barack Obama and his team have been having so much fun wielding dictatorial power while rescuing “failed” firms, that they have developed a scheme to gain the same power over every business. The plan is to enact policies that are so anticompetitive that every firm needs a bailout.

Once that happens, their new pay czar Kenneth Feinberg can set the wage for everybody and Rahm Emanuel can stack the boards of all of our companies with his political cronies.

I know, it sounds like an exaggeration. But look at it this way. If there were a power ranking of U.S. companies, like the ones compiled by football writers for National Football League teams, Microsoft would surely be first or second to Google. But last week, Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer came to Washington to announce what Microsoft would do if Obama’s multinational tax policy is enacted.

“It makes U.S. jobs more expensive,” Ballmer said, “We’re better off taking lots of people and moving them out of the U.S.” If Microsoft, perhaps our most competitive company, has to abandon the U.S. in order to continue to thrive, who exactly is going to stay?

At issue is Obama’s policy to end the deferral of multinational taxation.

The U.S. now has about the highest combined corporate tax rate, second only to Japan among industrialized countries. That rate is so high that U.S. firms have an enormous disadvantage versus competitors. The average corporate tax rate for the major developed countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in 2008 was about 27 percent, more than 10 percentage points lower than the U.S. rate.

Tax Burden

U.S. firms have nonetheless prospered because our tax code allows a business to set up a subsidiary in a low-tax country. When that subsidiary earns profits, they are taxed at the rate of that country, and don’t face U.S. tax until the money is mailed home.

The economically illiterate partisan Democratic view is that this practice is unpatriotic and bleeds jobs from the U.S. The economic reality is that American companies use this approach to acquire market share overseas. The alternative is losing the business to foreign competitors.

Don’t just take my word for it. A recent paper by Harvard economists Mihir Desai and C. Fritz Foley and Berkeley economist James Hines and published in the distinguished American Economic Review, gathered data on American multinationals to explore the impact of foreign investments on domestic U.S. activity.

Encourage Overseas Sales

Their conclusion was striking. The authors found that “10 percent greater foreign capital investment is associated with 2.2 percent greater domestic investment, and that 10 percent greater foreign employee compensation is associated with 4 percent greater domestic employee compensation. Changes in foreign and domestic sales, assets, and numbers of employees are likewise positively associated; the evidence also indicates that greater foreign investment is associated with additional domestic exports and R&D spending.”

So when firms expand their operations abroad, taking advantage of the lower foreign tax rates, it helps their workers in the U.S. Higher sales abroad (surprise, surprise) are good for domestic workers.

It is worth noting that this study, which is confirmed by a boatload of evidence elsewhere, was coauthored by the same James Hines who recently wrote a sweeping review of international tax policy with Obama’s top economist, Larry Summers. Summers has to know what the literature says.

Inexplicable Stance

So the question is, why does Obama advocate a policy that so flies in the face of everything that economists have learned? How could Obama possibly say, as he did last month, that he wants “to see our companies remain the most competitive in the world. But the way to make sure that happens is not to reward our companies for moving jobs off our shores or transferring profits to overseas tax havens?” Further, how could Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner call a practice that top scholarship has shown increases wages and employment in the U.S. “indefensible?”

I have to admit I am at a loss. Maybe it is good politics to bash American corporations, and Obama isn’t really serious about making this change happen. But if the change is enacted, and domestic corporate taxes aren’t reduced to offset the big tax hike, the result will be a flight from the U.S. that rivals in scale the greatest avian arctic migrations.

If that occurs, the firms that stay in the U.S. will be at such a huge tax disadvantage that they will absolutely need a “rescue.”

Oprah Winfrey Gives Commencement Speech At Duke University On Mother's Day (Video)

Seems like President Obama's number one fan has conflicting views with her Savior over whether or not it's okay to make a buck in today's America!

Just days before the President blasted America(President Obama Commencement Speech To Arizona State Grads: America Sucks, Capitalism Sucks, Our Military Sucks (Complete Video)), Ms. Winfrey celebrated her success by saying "It's great to have a private jet!"

The Wall Street Journal reports on Oprah's pro-capitalism efforts:

The private-jet industry may have finally found its savior.

During a speech to Duke University’s graduating class, Oprah talked about the secrets and joys of success. Among them: owning a mansion and a jet.

“It’s great to have a nice home. It’s great to have nice homes! It’s great to have a nice home that just escaped the fire in Santa Barbara,” she told the students. “It’s great to have a private jet. Anyone that tells you that having your own private jet
isn’t great is lying to you.”

She went on to explain that “you haven’t completed the circle of success until you help someone else move to a higher ground and get to a better place.”

The golden nugget here is the jet part. In these times of hair-shirt capitalism and envy politics, the wealthy have been going to great lengths to pretend they don’t enjoy luxury or want nice stuff. If Oprah were like most of the faux-populist rich today, she would have said something like, “I don’t need private jets, in fact I’m happier flying commercial and living in a small house. I like the simple life.” Of course, she would be lying.

But she didn’t. She told the truth, which is that flying in a private jet is one of the great material perks that money can buy. (Talk to anyone who used to be rich and they will say one thing they really miss is the jet. Apparently Oprah’s ride is a $42 million custom-build Global Express XRS built by Bombardier Aerospace).

For the past few months, the private-jet industry has been mounting an enormous public-relations campaign to get people to fly private again. It will take a recovery and wealth creation to really turn the business around. Perhaps for the public-relations part, it should forget all the boring arguments about jobs and productivity and efficiency and run a picture of Oprah with one simple line: “It’s Great to Have a Private Jet.”

Oprah Winfrey:







From Duke University:

“Of all of the wonderful things that have happened to me, including receiving an honorary degree from Duke … you really haven’t completed that circle of success unless you have helped someone else to move forward,” Winfrey told a larger-than-usual crowd of graduates, families and friends under an overcast sky. “How can I help somebody else move to higher ground? That is success. That’s it. That’s why we’re all alive.”

She appeared to cheers and a shout of “We love you, Oprah,” to which she responded: “You love me even though I’m a doctor now?” She then urged mothers in the audience to rise for Mother’s Day and extended personal congratulations to her godson, William Bumpus, a graduating senior and son of Winfrey’s friend Gayle King. “Will never wants people to know he knows me,” Winfrey joked. “I’m like his crazy aunt that they let out at commencements.”

In her speech, which was carried live on CNN.com and Oprah.com as well as on Duke’s website, Winfrey shared stories about interviewing celebrities as diverse as Hugh Jackman and Nelson Mandela, as well as ordinary people who she said often inspired her even more. She returned repeatedly to her theme that “one of the best ways to enhance your own life is to enhance somebody else’s.”

She also emphasized the need to make wise choices daily, saying, “Each of us has to stand in our own shoes. Will you stand in them in humility and compassion and courage? Every day will give you a chance to make that choice.”

Everyone gets a school! You get a school! You get a school!

Obama At CIA: "We're On The Better Side Of History" (Video)

It's official; Obama is delusional -- the most arrogant, radical, dishonest and dangerous President in American history.

Obama, invoking JFK's classic "not because it is easy, but because it is hard" line during a speech at the CIA headquarters in Langley, VA, proves once again that he is out of touch with how to combat the real dangers of the world.

Mr. Obama, you are no Jack Kennedy.

He says "we will defeat our enemies, because we're on the better side of history."

Who is this we? The Radical Socialist whose new BFF is a Hugo Chavez? Defeat our enemies? Which enemies would those be? Capitalism? Wall Street? America ideals and Judeo-Christian values?

Just wondering. Because the path down which Team "O" is headed, the "real" enemies of America, such as radical Islamist terrorists, are surely headed towards victory over America.

"Don't be discouraged" by recent mistakes, he adds, referring to the successful counter-terror strategies employed by the Bush Administration.

Geithner: U.S. May Oust CEOs at Banks Needing ‘Exceptional’ Aid (Video)

Obama Wants to Control the Banks
There's a reason he refuses to accept repayment of TARP money.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner told Katie Couric last week he is open to more unconstitutional terminations of CEOs, continuing Team "O"s assault on the markets, investors and capitalism.

President Obama, in a blatant abuse on his constitutional Executive power, felt it necessary to fire GM CEO Rick Wagoner.

Geithner has recently unveiled a plan designed to give Treasury Department the ability to take over financial institutions at the Secretary's choosing.

Recently, a bill has been introduced in Congress, HR 1664 Grayson-Himes Pay For Performance Act of 2009, which aims to cap pay which is not performance based and any and all employees who work for companies receiving bailout dollars.

It's a power grab to redistribute wealth, penalize the successful and establish a communistic "equality" among Americans. Regulation = control and power. Team "O" wants to destroy free market capitalism. There is ample proof of Obama's war on investors. Welcome to The United Socialist States of America (USSA).

The "Firing" executives discussion begins at the 6:00 mark.

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April 5 (Bloomberg)

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said he’s prepared to oust the senior management and boards of directors at banks that require “exceptional” assistance from the U.S. government.

“If in the future, banks need exceptional assistance in order to get through this, then we will make sure that assistance comes,” while ensuring taxpayers are protected, Geithner said today in an interview on the CBS “Face the Nation” program. “Where that requires a change in management and the board, then we will do that.”

Geithner noted that American International Group Inc., Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had their chief executives removed after it became clear the companies couldn’t
survive without government rescues. The Treasury is reviewing how much capital the biggest U.S. financial companies need in order to endure a severe economic downturn.

“Where we’ve had to do exceptional things,” the government has replaced management and boards of directors, Geithner said.

Obama hates America and hates capitalism.