In this morning's Washington Post there is a story about corporations holding record amounts of cash, but instead of using that cash to hire millions of out of work Americans they are instead buying back their own stock.
Yes, you heard that right. Given boatloads of cash, these companies are not hiring anyone with it. It's another nail in the coffin lid of the 'lower taxes increase revenue and create jobs' mantra that conservatives serve up with regularity.
Clearly, when you increase cash flow and revenue, corporations will not hire people. Why should they?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
For months, companies have been sitting on the sidelines with record piles of cash, too nervous to spend. Now they're starting to deploy some of that money - not to hire workers or build factories, but to prop up their share prices.
Paraphrasing to summarize:
"Let's keep the stock bubble at least temporarily filled for the time being. Sure, it's BS, but it's short term gains that matter, not long term stability."
http://www.cbpp.org/...
I don't want to violate fair use, but check out the bulleted list on this link. It gives several good reasons why cutting corporate taxes does not produce jobs. All it does it reduce the social safety net to those people who need it most, in essence punishing the poor for no good reason at all.
http://theragblog.blogspot.com/...
I love the graphic on this blog - it illustrates exactly how this 'trickle down' theory affects those who are waiting for it to 'trickle down'.
http://www.usatoday.com/...
So, where are these jobs that conservatives claim should have been created?
Cash is gushing into companies' coffers as they report what's shaping up to be the third-consecutive quarter of sharp earnings increases. But instead of spending on the typical things, such as expanding and hiring people, companies are mostly pocketing the money and stuffing it under their corporate mattresses.
Yet they continue despite this:
Meanwhile, there's concern companies have starved expansion so long, and focused merely on cutting costs to boost short-term profit, many might have difficultly boosting their top lines. "Reducing costs is a one-trick pony," says George Christy, principal of financial advisory firm Oakdale Advisors and author of Free Cash Flow. "You can only hold down headcount so much without hurting the quality of your products."
How many times do they trot out this one trick pony? Not only before their products suffer, but before there is only a limited pool of people to buy their crappy products?
http://www.usatoday.com/...
"Jobs rebound will be slow". Of course it will be slow - they aren't hiring!
http://www.bloomberg.com/...
"Unemployment May Rise Toward 10% on Feeble Growth". Ya think? Only what we should be doing is driving this story home over and over and over. The corporations are doing this, unemployment is something they can do something about, and they have the cash to do it, thanks to low taxes and government stimulus - and yet they still won't do it. It's greed, pure and simple.
http://money.usnews.com/...
No customers? I think there are millions of unemployed who would love to be able to be someone's customer, don't you?
What they companies never seem to get is that employees are also customers. People who are working and have money to spend, by and large actually are the ones who spend and keep the economy afloat. We're seeing what austerity measures are doing. They're weakening, not strengthening, the American economy