JPMorgan still alive
April 13, 2011
Whew! I pretty much hold my breath from quarter to quarter hoping JPM will survive.
[New York Times Dealbook] JPMorgan Chase kicked off bank earnings season on Wednesday, reporting first quarter profit of $5.6 billion, even as problems in its mortgage lending business continued to mount.
They are still kickin’.
Tax breaks for the ‘haves’ #incomedisparity
April 13, 2011
Business Week has some tips for those of us in the top income level. I just do not want you to miss these legal deals. Read here.
I especially appreciated Warren Buffett’s candor: “…since most of his income is from dividends, his tax rate is less than that of the people who clean his office.”
Is this a model of our education reform?
April 10, 2011
The Boise Guardian tells us “It looks like a Monday Night Massacre is set for the regular meeting of the Garden Valley School District.” Read his full story.
This is not a pretty picture, folks.
We have to jump on the Referendum bandwagon.
Idaho Legislature slashed H & W but finds tax money for attorney fees #idaholegislature
April 6, 2011
One of the highlights of this otherwise dismal legislative session was the willingness of the Joint Finance – Appropriations Committee to open their doors for Main Street people to give their testimonies as to why the Health & Welfare budget should not be cut — again. This committee listened for hours to a long stream of people, many of them hurting, some unable to walk to the microphone.
I realize this committee is a small number of the total legislative body, but all members of the body were aware of what was happening and the general tone of the messages delivered. Still, this body voted to cut — again — Health & Welfare.
HOWEVER, these same legislators were able to selfishly squeeze $100,000 out of the general fund to cover the costs of the attorneys who fought for the Republicans’ closed election.
On Monday, Republicans on the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee recommended siphoning $100,000 from a cash-challenged state budget to reimburse legal fees for the Republicans’ successful lawsuit challenging open primaries.
If you fall into the they’ve-got-to-be-kidding camp, you will take little comfort in the claim that the GOP’s is only seeking a portion of its $143,900 in legal fees. What a bargain.
I know $100,000 is a nice round number. The same can be said for zero.
Now, what will be a common retort, “That is a drop in the bucket of our overall budget,” will not sit well with those who were driven here and assisted to the microphone in front of JFAC. It might not be a drop in the bucket for those who could not possibly come to our capitol.
The actions of these legislators speak loudly.
Five Goldman execs each get $5 mill bonus; Main Street get 1.15% for savings #corporategreed
April 1, 2011
Goldman Sachs has divvied up some of their profits to share among their top executives. Per New York Times Dealbook:
Lloyd C. Blankfein, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, received $19 million in compensation for 2010, including his first cash bonus since the 2008 financial crisis, according to a regulatory filing from the firm late Friday.
His 2010 payday includes a $5.4 million cash bonus and other previously reported awards including $12.6 million in restricted stock, $600,000 salary and $464,067 in other benefits.
And there is good news for us on Main Street: American Express is offering an astounding (today it is) interest rate of 1.15% on savings accounts. As Floyd Norris calculated:
My son is an 18-year-old college freshman. If he puts $100 into such an account now, and rates remain constant, he will have doubled his money in time for his 79th birthday party.
I wonder if Mr. Blankfein might put his $5 million into an AmEx savings account to build that pile.
Ten huge corporations who really like our IRS system #corporatetaxbreaks @senatorsanders
March 31, 2011
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has shared his list of the ten corporations that benefit from our taxing system. See the list on Sen. Sanders’s website.
A brief summary of what these companies are:
- Oil/Gas – 4
- Bank/Financial -3
- Other – 3
Idaho received the second bag of money from the feds — a mere $25 million — which was to help our state save teachers’ jobs. Supt. of Public Instruction Tom Luna knew that money was there and his plan for funding our state’s reform in education included hacking 770 teachers from the payload. The governor and leaders in our legislature supported those cuts. All of them were aware of the federal money to SAVE teachers’ jobs. (Of course that bill has been revised and does not mention the hack job. This dirty job is now left to the poor school board members.)
You can read Betsy Russell’s story here.
As much as Idaho detests federal funds I guess when it does come our way we can spend it however we desire regardless of the government’s good intentions.
General Electric not afraid of the taxman #corporatewelfare
March 25, 2011
As we read and hear from various sources today, General Electric was very profitable this past year but in the end did not pay any taxes to the United States.
From Marketplace:
GE paid no corporate taxes in the United States last year on worldwide profits of $14 billion — $5 billion of it here.
Gosh, you’d think they could give us a donation or something!
The Marketplace report did leave us with this good news from G.E.:
GE said today it pays what it owes under the law. It did note that its tax bill will get bigger this year as GE Capital recovers.
Bigger than $0? That is good news for us all.
