The media is finally starting to talk about our No. 1 problem - the economy - which is getting worse every day. The "Parade" magazine of April 13 had an article entitled "Are You Paying For Corporate Fat Cats?" by Gary Weiss which says, "A 2004 U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) study found that 61 percent of American corporations, including 39 percent of large companies, paid no corporate income taxes between 1996 and 2000. Last year, corporations, shouldered just 14.4 percent of the total U.S. tax burden, compared with about 50 percent in 1940."
Even better is the latest GAO report of October 2007 (GAO-08-25) which you can find on the Web entitled "Commodity Futures Trading Commission - Trends in Energy Derivatives Markets Raise Questions About CFTC's Oversight." "What GAO Recommends: As part of CFTC's reauthorization process, Congress should consider further exploring the scope of the agency's authority over energy derivatives trading, in particular for trading in exempt commercial markets. In addition, GAO recommends that CFTC improve the usefulness of the information provided to the public, better document its monitoring activities, and develop more outcome-oriented performance measures for its monitoring activities, and develop more outcome-oriented performance measures for its enforcement programs. In written comments, FTC generally agreed with GAO's recommendations."
Now, we'll see what our highly lobbied and well-financed politicians are going to do about it.
Now things even get better on a world basis.
In the April 28 issue of Business Week entitled "How New Global Banking Rules Could Deepen the U.S. Crisis" by Peter Coy, it says, "Basel II itself is a work in progress: On April 16, the Basel (Switzerland) Committee said it would toughen capital requirements for exotic derivates and pay more attention to making sure banks have adequate liquidity to pay their bills when money gets tight." Also, "True, if banks had anything close to 20 percent capital cushions, their return on equity would be much lower, but so would their risk to shareholders."
And when it comes to politicians' trustworthiness, you have to ask yourself - How can you have people down in Haiti eating mud cookies because they're too poor and there's a food shortage? In the same general area, they have hedge fund dealers, headquarters in Bermuda, paying no federal income tax. Would you call that fair? Do you think people who are billionaires really deserve tax breaks, while getting us middle class to pay for it? Do they really care about us? I would hope questioning people would keep questioning our elected officials.
Even better is the latest GAO report of October 2007 (GAO-08-25) which you can find on the Web entitled "Commodity Futures Trading Commission - Trends in Energy Derivatives Markets Raise Questions About CFTC's Oversight." "What GAO Recommends: As part of CFTC's reauthorization process, Congress should consider further exploring the scope of the agency's authority over energy derivatives trading, in particular for trading in exempt commercial markets. In addition, GAO recommends that CFTC improve the usefulness of the information provided to the public, better document its monitoring activities, and develop more outcome-oriented performance measures for its monitoring activities, and develop more outcome-oriented performance measures for its enforcement programs. In written comments, FTC generally agreed with GAO's recommendations."
Now, we'll see what our highly lobbied and well-financed politicians are going to do about it.
Now things even get better on a world basis.
In the April 28 issue of Business Week entitled "How New Global Banking Rules Could Deepen the U.S. Crisis" by Peter Coy, it says, "Basel II itself is a work in progress: On April 16, the Basel (Switzerland) Committee said it would toughen capital requirements for exotic derivates and pay more attention to making sure banks have adequate liquidity to pay their bills when money gets tight." Also, "True, if banks had anything close to 20 percent capital cushions, their return on equity would be much lower, but so would their risk to shareholders."
And when it comes to politicians' trustworthiness, you have to ask yourself - How can you have people down in Haiti eating mud cookies because they're too poor and there's a food shortage? In the same general area, they have hedge fund dealers, headquarters in Bermuda, paying no federal income tax. Would you call that fair? Do you think people who are billionaires really deserve tax breaks, while getting us middle class to pay for it? Do they really care about us? I would hope questioning people would keep questioning our elected officials.
