Republicans blame Democrats, not Capitalism, when Prices and Profit Margins Rise.

It's the Republican Party of Contradictions! And it's lazy media reporting that's letting it all happen.

Love Capitalism, Hate Price increases? This is one of the big contradictions you're seeing more and more of these days. Gas prices, appliances, used cars...companies see a chance to exploit "inflation" by raising prices. Conservative capitalists are so oblivious to the inherent downside to corporate greed - rising prices - that they've convinced themselves that it must be the Democrats fault: 

Republicans, meanwhile, are using inflation as a political cudgel against Democrats' midterm hopes. The GOP has blamed their counterparts for rising prices through much of the year and frequently linked inflation to Biden's spending plans.

They sound gleeful that they get to run against Biden on the issue. Soaring prices are a "gold mine" for Republicans as they look to wrest control of the House and the Senate, Sen. Rick Scott of Florida recently told The Wall Street Journal.

Republicans aren't hiding their scheme:

This isn't rocket science:

Supply chain disruptions, increased labor costs, and surging demand all play a role. But one factor driving inflation is seldom discussed: mega-corporations with massive market power. As prices have increased in recent months, corporate profits have surged to record highs, according to data from Bloomberg:

Chief executive officers have cut costs and boosted prices for their products. ...“To a fundamental analyst, inflation is called ‘pricing power,’” said Nicholas Colas, co-founder of DataTrek Research. 

Corporations are not being forced to raise prices to stay afloat. They are choosing to raise prices to maintain large profit margins because they have enough market power to do so without losing customers. Corporations that are raising prices are also amassing huge profits and spending billions of stock buybacks.

"Companies are extracting from their consumers using the excuse of inflation -- all while lining their shareholders' and CEO's pockets," Rakeen Mabud, Chief Economist at the Groundwork Collaborative, told Popular Information. "This has nothing to do with inflation, and everything to do with corporate greed by those who are focused on enriching themselves at the expense of workers and families."

Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen was quite open about his intention to exploit inflation to increase profits. "A little bit of inflation is always good in our business."

Consumers like myself have not seen the kind of inflation the media seems to be preoccupied with, but Republican whining about inflation could lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy that could tank the economy:

The GOP's dismal sentiments could lead to diminished spending. That would starve the economy of much-needed activity. Higher inflation already risks cutting spending, and a sudden pullback would halt the incomplete recovery. Despite news of the omicron coronavirus variant spreading and rising inflation, consumers appear to be not all that shaken. Confidence even improved a bit this month, to 115.8 from 111.9 in November.

To sum it up...

Sign of the Times: Blowup Targets to lower Stock Prices for Purchase.

For love of money, capitalism, Corporate personhood and money is free speech took a giant step forward with this novel idea:

OCALA, Fla. AP: A Florida man is accused in a plot to blow up several Target stores along the East Coast in an attempt to acquire cheap stock in the company if the stock value plunged after the explosions.

The U.S Attorney's Office in the middle district of Florida said in a news release on Thursday that 48-year-old Mark Charles Barnett is charged with possession of a firearm affecting commerce by a previously convicted felon. Barnett is a registered sex offender in Florida. An affidavit says Barnett offered to pay another man $10,000 to place at least 10 "improvised explosive bombs" disguised in food-item packaging in stores from New York to Florida. The man went to authorities.

Post-Capitalism to the Rescue.....

The income gap is getting wider and wider, at the same time deep red states continue to shift power and public resources into the private sector. But don't give up hope.

There's hope now and repressive political policies won't be an impediment, thanks to technology. Heck, many of us already work out of our homes.

Capitalism is fading...slowly...all it needs is a major push by Democrats to rush this thing along. The Guardian:

The end of capitalism has begun: Without us noticing, we are entering the post-capitalist era. At the heart of further change to come is information technology, new ways of working and the sharing economy. The old ways will take a long while to disappear, but it’s time to be utopian.

First, it has reduced the need for work, blurred the edges between work and free time and loosened the relationship between work and wages. Second, information is corroding the market’s ability to form prices correctly. Third, we’re seeing the spontaneous rise of collaborative production: goods, services and organisations are appearing that no longer respond to the dictates of the market and the managerial hierarchy. 

The 2008 crash: The solutions have been austerity plus monetary excess. But they are not working. In the worst-hit countries, the pension system has been destroyed, the retirement age is being hiked to 70, and education is being privatized so that graduates now face a lifetime of high debt. Services are being dismantled and infrastructure projects put on hold.

Austerity is not eight years of spending cuts, as in the UK, or even the social catastrophe inflicted on Greece. It means driving the wages, social wages and living standards in the west down for decades until they meet those of the middle class in China and India on the way up.

The power of imagination will become critical. In an information society, no thought, debate or dream is wasted … The main contradiction today is between the possibility of free, abundant goods and information; and a system of monopolies, banks and governments trying to keep things private, scarce and commercial. Everything comes down to the struggle between the network and the hierarchy: between old forms of society molded around capitalism and new forms of society that prefigure what comes next.

Capitalism collapsing Global Economies as Wages Plummet, Killing Demand and the Middle Class.

For the longest time, wage declines in the U.S. have helped increased corporate bottom lines. But it also slowed consumer demand. Not to worry, global corporations simply shifted their focus to growing markets elsewhere. But that’s about to come to an end too.

Two major stories hit the business section of the paper today, and I can’t help think they’re connected. 

Story # 1: Austere economic efforts globally have taken their toll, and now growth is slowing in dangerous ways.

China's central bank unexpectedly slashed interest rates on Friday to re-energize the world's No. 2 economy, joining a growing list of major economies that are trying to encourage growth in the face of a global slowdown. The president of the European Central Bank said he was ready to step up stimulus for the 18-country Eurozone economy, where growth is meager and unemployment is soaring, encouraging delays in spending and investment. And Japan's government this week delayed a tax increase after the country slipped back into recession. 

The U.S. escaped much of this due to increased stimulus spending:

The United States is showing signs of steady growth, prompting the Federal Reserve to rein in its stimulus efforts. So far, the U.S. has escaped any drag from the slowdown overseas. Fed policy-makers said … exports are a smaller source of growth than in other developed nations and many major employers, such as health care and education providers, are largely unaffected by overseas activity.

Story # 2: Wages are plummeting due to anti-union efforts everywhere. I don’t expect a change in that anytime soon either, knowing how driven my conservative friend in Milwaukee is about these issues.

While Republicans complain about raising the minimum wage and increased dependence of Americans on government assistance (they don’t see a correlation?), the middle class manufacturing working stiff is already making close to that “job killing” $10.10 an hour already. And that can’t be good:

More than 600,000 U.S. manufacturing workers earn less than $9.60 an hour, and 1.5 million — or one-fourth of all manufacturing workers — make $11.91 or less, according to an analysis released Friday.

The National Employment Law Project said that manufacturing jobs — once considered the solid source of middle-class income — increasingly are paying wages that can barely support a family.

For 30 years, from 1976 to 2006, U.S. manufacturing workers were paid a median wage that was above the U.S. pay median. That manufacturing advantage peaked in the mid-1980s. By 2013, the median manufacturing wage was 7.7 percent lower than the median U.S. wage for all public and private sector workers, according to the Census Bureau’s survey data.

Wage concessions by unions, hiring of non-union workers, other pay cuts and broader use of temporary workers have contributed to the declining pay scales, particularly in the automotive sector, the report said. “While foreign and domestic automakers have added 350,000 new jobs in the U.S. since 2009, nearly three-fourths of all auto workers are now employed at parts plants, where workers are paid nearly 15 percent less on average than motor vehicle manufacturing workers overall.” 

It said that from 2003 to 2013, real wages for auto parts workers fell nearly 14 percent, three times faster than for all manufacturing workers and nine times faster than the drop for all occupations.

And as I’ve emphasized so many times here, the new business model after the Great Recession is to keep full time jobs at a minimum, while hiring part time workers when demand picks up:

The report also said that 14 percent of workers in the auto parts sector are employed by temporary staffing agencies, earning 29 percent less on average than workers employed directly by auto parts manufacturers.

Message to Free-Market/Anti-American Extremist Eric Hovde: “We’re not Communists, we’re Americans!!! Who’s Got the Sob Story Now?

Senate candidate and billionaire Eric Hovde is finding it difficult to reach out to, and talk to, the low life rabble in society otherwise known as working class Americans. 

Name calling and the vilification of the Democratic Party as commies is so…50’s. It’s odd too how conservatives want to take out country back to, what, a pure capitalist system? When was that? Please Eric, name the other industrialized countries that are pure free market systems?   From The Hill :

"I fundamentally disagree with Tammy on almost everything. She has a more liberal voting record than almost anybody in Congress. Her philosophy has its roots in Marxism, communism, socialism, extreme liberalism — she calls it progressivism — versus mine, which is rooted in free-market conservatism."

What is Hovde trying to do, channel Joe McCarthy? Our representative democracy is also rooted in the free-market experiment as well. It’s two systems in one, how original.  Republicans can’t image the possibility that half or more of the businesses in the country may very well be owned and run by liberals.

jsonline: Baldwin's campaign took sharp issue with Hovde. Spokesman John Kraus told the Hill that Baldwin has worked with Republicans to protect manufacturing in the United States against unfair trade practices by the Chinese. "Hovde clearly has no interest in bipartisan work to create jobs and move our economic recovery forward," Kraus said.

A better response; capitalism has resulted in offshoring, and the outsourcing jobs. Without worker protections put in place by the same government they pay taxes to support, the bloodletting of American jobs will continue. Hovde would consider that just another “sob story” though.

Thomas Frank offers his take on Wisconsin.

This is a must watch piece that explains just what is now happening in Wisconsin, and not just in Kansas anymore. Thomas Frank and E.J. Dionne offer the simple truth. I will be talking about this when I fill again for Sly in the Morning, the first week of July.

Frank: "These guys present themselves, and they have no right to do it anyways, they present themselves as the opponents of entrenched power.  Okay, they have this term that they like to throw around, the ruling class, they're always going up against what they call the "ruling class." It's preposterous but they say it all the time. It sorta of makes sense in this kind of upside down world they live in. The other thing is, they have is this very Utopian view of the world. It's very 1930's, they have this vision of a this sorta heroic producer capitalist, whereas as a long time ago, it would have been the heroic working man who produced, who built America. But they have this vision of...if only we could get government completely out of the picture, and let the free market do everything exactly as it wanted. That would be a legitimate economy. That would be what solved all our problems." 

Sen. John McCain wants Certainty, in an Uncertain Free Market. They're not kidding.

Suddenly, government has stopped the private sector from creating jobs, stopped them cold.

So the question is; how did the Obama Democrats stop business from creating jobs?

Sen. John McCain offers up this sobering shot in his recent email to me:

“The President's idea of jobs created by government … is wrong and … has led to a complete failure to lower the unemployment rate...”

Government, not Wall Street’s global crash, killed jobs! Republican deregulation? Forget it!

The play-no-favorites, uncertain ruthlessness of the free market, now needs…certainty.

But can Republicans actually sell the idea of free markets with government guaranteed certainty? That’s crazy, right? That would mean government can create jobs, by taking the “uncertainty” out of unregulated markets.

Sen. John “crazy” McCain continues:

"The President insists on blaming Republicans for his lack of results, and we're not going to stand for it anymore. Today, I'm asking you to show your support for the Jobs Through Growth Act. Our plan will help give the certainty and confidence that our private sector so badly needs to invest, grow and create jobs again."

Instead of laughing at the lunacy of free market “certainty,” the media went along. And like any unchecked authoritarian political power would, they exploited the idea of “disaster capitalism.” While the nation is down, plunder it.

“By cutting taxes, reforming our broken tax code, reducing spending and getting the burden of overregulation off America's back we can get our economy moving again.”

Sure we saw balanced budgets in the 90’s, surpluses too, suddenly the private sector needs "government help" by introducing certainty in an uncertain free market. 

Romney Still Wrong on Auto Bailout Loans.

Mitt Romney said during the debate that he would have still destroyed auto manufacturers by breaking them up through private sector bankruptcy. It would not have been a controlled bankruptcy, which because of the government, prevented selling off all parts of Chrysler and GM into oblivion. Oh, and if Republicans had their way, it would have destroyed a whole bunch of union jobs. Just saying.

Mad Money's Jim Cramer breaks it down perfectly here, and rips capitalism a new one;

Rep. James Sensenbrenner told by Waukesha Businesses; We Want it All…Now!!!

This amazing message from the conservative business community in Waukesha is jaw dropping and stunning. Sometimes I think “people” are just as “in the way” as government. Taking our first born isn’t too far away…

Patch: The question of how do we — as a country — create more jobs came to Brookfield Tuesday afternoon as 15 small business leaders from the Milwaukee area met with Republican U.S. Rep. James Sensenbrenner.

The overall message was clear: lower corporate taxes; ease government regulations; get tough on illegal immigration while expanding the number of visas; change the college-focused culture; and reduce unemployment benefits.  

And you thought I was exaggerating? Oh, it gets even more brutal:

Mary Springer, vice president of Therm-Tech of Waukesha, opened the discussion by telling the legislators to reduce unemployment benefits, and to require training and drug testing for those receiving the benefits.  

Mary Springer "Scrooge" would make the unemployed desperate enough to take any scraps thrown their way, even lower wages and little or no benefits. Sounds like Springer wants to expand government into the lives of unemployed Americans too. 

Machining company owners asked the government officials to reduce mining, energy and air quality regulations, which they described as squeezing businesses out of business and forcing layoffs. But a representative of Cooper Power Systems in Waukesha said the standards on electrical efficiency were helping his business. He just wanted to see Department of Energy guidelines to remain reasonable and open for discussion.

Hey, standards are helping his business…how did he get in there?

Wall Street, Corporate CEO's will never get it.

I found this bizarre point of view in the conservative rag of choice:

Wall Street Journals, John Bussey: Let's stipulate that the demonstrators have a fuzzy agenda. It's a smorgasbord of gripes ranging from income inequality to poor housing to executive pay … But what about one of the group's chief beefs: that business is falling short of its social responsibility, including creating jobs at home? 

The following is either something your inner moral and ethical value system will reject or find warm and fuzzily cruel:

Milton Friedman, the Nobel laureate economist, blasted the very idea of corporate social responsibility four decades ago, calling it a "fundamentally subversive doctrine." Speaking for many capitalists then and now, he said, "there is one and only one social responsibility of business—to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game."

Companies shouldn't spend profits on unrelated job creation or social causes. Pronouncements about corporate social responsibility, he added, are the indulgence of "pontificating executives" who are "incredibly shortsighted and muddleheaded in matters that are outside their businesses." And that indulgence can lead to inefficient markets.

That’s right, corporate do-gooders are “pontificating executives” and “shortsighted and muddleheaded,” not the greedy selfish. By the way, that indulgence in the past worked well for communities and the companies that supported them. Inefficiencies? Bull. Friedman’s failed theory (Great Recession), has some corporate executives devising a better idea:

What then to make of Howard Schultz, the chief executive of Starbucks, who in a letter earlier this month to fellow business leaders asked them to help "get Americans back to work and our economy growing again." He described Starbucks's own growth and hiring plans and announced a $5 million donation by the Starbucks Foundation to a group that helps finance local businesses. He's calling the program "Create Jobs for USA.” Schultz elbowed aside Mr. Friedman's triumph of profit: "Companies that hold on to the old-school, singular view of limiting their responsibilities to making a profit will not only discover it is a shallow goal but an unsustainable one," the post on the Harvard Business Review website read. "Values increasingly drive consumer and employee loyalties. Money and talent will follow those companies whose values are compatible."

That’s why conservatives don’t get it, and never will. That’s why Friedman is quoted today. But Schultz isn’t a lone:

A group of CEOs and executives from large companies, including Exxon, Cisco and McDonald's, echo Mr. Schultz's view … John Mackey, co-chief executive of Whole Foods, wrote: "From an investor's perspective, the purpose of the business is to maximize profits. But that's not the purpose for other stakeholders—for customers, employees, suppliers and the community. Each of those groups will define the purpose of the business in terms of its own needs and desires, and each perspective is valid and legitimate."

Makes sense, doesn’t it? Except to….

William Frezza, a Boston-based venture capitalist and fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute: “Businesses give back to society every day by pleasing their customers and employing their employees. There's nothing business owes other than selling the best product at the best price."

Cain's Iron Fisted Capitalism establishes new American Royalty.

Herman Cain may not end up as a presidential candidate, but he is a fascinating example of conservatism.

There are so many errors in Cain's thinking in the video below, it's would take two blog posts to cover them all. Let's just say that if you base policy on trumped up conspiracy theories and absolute bullshit, the end result would be less than desirable.

Cain can call citizen protests "un-American," if you buy into his self deceptive accusations that unions are behind Occupy Wall Street, or that higher taxes penalize success, or that the wealthy are still job creators like they were to some degree in the past. Each point here is provably wrong, but who cares?

Even if the unions were originally behind the OWS protests, which they weren't, Bob Schieffer rightly asked Cain why that would be bad or anti-American. To Cain, and most conservatives, America is all about capitalism and not the people, their labor or their government. Its an endorsement of corporate royalty.

What's the difference? The picture at the right blatantly displays how corporate money sponsors tea party events. But if organized labor put up a similar sign, or is even suspected of backing an event...outrageous?



What's even more worrisome is Cain's ability to create reasons to justify his insane policies. That's what  Republicans call "leadership," and the rest of us call authoritarian.

A Financial Management Firm Created 132 jobs in Wisconsin for just $8 million. Walker on similar reckless path.

Another big Republican handout to corporate power goes south, dragging down with it a whole bunch of "free market" Democrats who were starting to buy into the capitalist myth. Thank you Gov. Tommy Thompson, taxpayers wasted over $8 million so a financial management firm could take that money and expand, all the while creating only 132 jobs. That's right, $8 million created 132 jobs in Wisconsin. 

Fast forward from 1999 to the Walker administrations plans to build on that failure by not just pouring $16 million into a doing the same thing, but upping the ante to $400 million to another capital plan investment scheme. 

jsonline: A New York-based financial management firm invested only about half of the $16.6 million it got under a Wisconsin program designed to create jobs, taking advantage of loopholes in what some lawmakers now say was a poorly written, badly monitored law.

Rather than channel all of the $16.6 million into growing state companies, as lawmakers had intended, Wilshire Investors LLC invested just $8.6 million - plowing much of that money into companies that either failed or fed the growth of its own parent company, Newtek Business Services Inc., according to state records and federal securities filings.

That left about $8 million of taxpayers' money that Wilshire did not invest, the state records show. Wilshire's parent company isn't saying where the $8 million went. The company declined to answer reporters' questions, instead pointing to its financial statements and to state documents. "We're a public company," said Matthew Ash, Newtek's chief legal officer. "We've complied with the requirements of the law, and that's all we have to say."

Government handouts to business, wealthfare I like to call it, is part of the Republican Party's platform, so change isn't about to happen over a few wasted million. 

The situation has come to light as lawmakers debate whether to launch a similar, much larger program as part of an effort to infuse more venture capital into Wisconsin companies with high growth potential. The previous program - which gave $50 million in all to certified capital companies, or CAPCOs, such as Wilshire - came under new scrutiny this year when Gov. Scott Walker pressed for legislation that would have devoted $400 million to a new venture capital plan, with half of the money to be managed by CAPCO.

In the earlier program, the $8.6 million Wilshire invested created just two surviving companies and 132 Wisconsin jobs, according to state records.