Anti-Business socialist Obama sees corporate profits rise 62% in 18 months

Yep, just the sort of thing his scary socialist policies are trying to push forward.

Source

Does President Barack Obama deserve credit for the fact that corporate profits have risen faster under him than during any other 18-month period since the 1920s?

....

Profits have surged 62 percent from the start of 2009 to mid-2010, according to the Commerce Department. That is faster than any other year and a half in the Fabulous ’50s, the Go-Go ’60s or the booms under Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.

It seems the problem of job growth is really one that economic policy doesn't have as much of a sway over, especially when corporate profits are going up while employment is going down.

...eagerly awaiting the 'but-but ___________" comments.

Corporate profits are up for a couple of reasons:
The manufacturers that are still in business here in the U.S. have trimmed down their work force to bare bone minnimums, allowing them to realize profit increases. Now this may lead to greater problems later as certain facets of the business get ignored or receive less attention, such as preventitive maintenance and so on. Also, more and more companies offshore their manufacturing to cheap overseas labor while realizing the profit of selling their product under their U.S. brand name. The lower labor costs don't get past on to the consumer but they certainly highlite the "bottom line". In some cases the original company that was founded in the States becomes nothing more than a shell. Companies can have their product manufactured, packaged and shipped directly to the "Big Box" outlets for fractions of what it costs Stateside. In my own personal experience, I've witnessed one of my largest customers move manufacturing to China. They have been able to grow their business during this downturn by capitalizing on offshoring while greatly reducing their employment and square footage. In a lot of incidents they have rejected entire container loads of product from China for defects only to scrap the original load, reorder and still realize a profit. The bottom line is that "Free Trade" is in most cases not "Fair Trade" but that is another topic for a seperate thread.

Your source is seriously distorting the economic reality.
The health of the economy is not measured by "corporate profits", especially when the corporations are not even domestic! A better gauge would be the relative health of small businesses and job growth.
Both are flat or falling, and have been for several years.
Obama can do nothing, actually, but make the economic environment more favorable or less favorable for business by pushing for more or less business friendly legislation.
As a small businessman, I can tell you Obama is not business friendly. He IS international corporation business friendly, and that is NOT GOOD for the average American.
That is closer to the whole story than that pathetic article that claims a "jobless recovery" is even possible.

reply to post by madnessinmysoul


talk about inaccuracy

lets clear this up for those who aren't paying attention

companies aren't hiring they are holding on to their cash and cash isn't being spent isn't profit

more than 17 million americans are out of work and untold millions are unemployed yeah the economy is just so great and companies are doing just so well but then again you are forgetting foreign investing.

lets not forget all the milllions who are on unemployment and their 99 week vacations.

someone isn't living in reality.

reply to post by Stewie

Originally posted by Stewie
Your source is seriously distorting the economic reality.
The health of the economy is not measured by "corporate profits", especially when the corporations are not even domestic!

Where in the article does it say anything about non-domestic businesses?

A better gauge would be the relative health of small businesses and job growth.

Job growth is unfortunately not up to a president's policies all the time, but we're currently experiencing job growth.
And small businesses are at a flat growth rate, at least it isn't negative.

Both are flat or falling, and have been for several years.

18 months flat small business growth and current growth in jobs...the problem is that there isn't a growth in employment. There are situations where people aren't qualified for jobs or simply aren't taking them.

Obama can do nothing, actually, but make the economic environment more favorable or less favorable for business by pushing for more or less business friendly legislation.

He's pushed business friendly legislation...

As a small businessman, I can tell you Obama is not business friendly.

Point to specific policies please. Point to specific actions.

Being a small businessman doesn't make your statements on Obama's business policies infallible.

Please, provide evidence that Obama isn't business friendly.

He IS international corporation business friendly, and that is NOT GOOD for the average American.

Where in this article was it talking about international corporations?

And also, how is it not good for America?

That is closer to the whole story than that pathetic article that claims a "jobless recovery" is even possible.

Wow, you're calling an article pathetic and making various claims that are entirely speculative.

reply to post by neo96

Originally posted by neo96
talk about inaccuracy

Oh look, it's mister no-sources talking about inaccuracy.

lets clear this up for those who aren't paying attention

companies aren't hiring they are holding on to their cash and cash isn't being spent isn't profit

...yes, it is. That's the definition of profit. Profit is money that is taken in and not spent.
I spend $300,000 annually on my business, I take in $500,000. I made a $200,000 profit. Next year I spend $250,000 on my business because I increased efficiency and take in $500,000 again, I made $250,000 profit this year.

more than 17 million americans are out of work and untold millions are unemployed

...out of work and unemployed are the same thing. We're hovering at around 9.6% unemployment right now. It's bad, but it's honestly not something that's easily fixed.

yeah the economy is just so great and companies are doing just so well but then again you are forgetting foreign investing.

How does that affect anything? Saying 'you are forgetting foreign investing' means absolutely nothing. It seems like nothing more than a regurgitated talking point.

lets not forget all the milllions who are on unemployment and their 99 week vacations.

You already mentioned the unemployed.

someone isn't living in reality.

Yeah, tell me how unreality is when you get back from it, because you're clearly living in a world with different definitions of 'profit' and 'unemployment'.



What everyone seems to be forgetting is that the unemployment bomb struck a month after Obama went into office. He hadn't implemented any policies, they were still operating under Bush's economic policies at that point. It takes months for a President to implement different policies from their predecessor, and if you look at things, the way Obama has handled stuff hasn't been too bad.

Could have been better, but hindsight is 20/20.

Of course the idea that Obama is a socialist is nonsense - he would never get into the Senate, let alone be nominated for president, if he was anything other than a democratic facade for the corporate and banking interests who own all the media and control both political parties with an iron grip.

The idea that corporate profits are surging, coming from political hacks in the Commerce Department, is probably not surprising. But how much of that surge is coming from the banking sector - from blatant mortgage fraud, Federal Reserve chicanery, and outright theft and looting of the Treasury by Goldman Sachs and the rest of the thieves?

No Obama is no socialist, he is just another Neoliberal puppet of the globalist elites, and the only ones who would say so are deliberately trying to whip up partisan rhetoric and bolster the illusion of free choice in a nation where nothing but corruption and plutocracy rule.

The question should not be is Obama business friendly enough? It should be why in the world are corporate profits surging, Wall Street bonuses blossoming, and the defense industry booming, when millions of people are going bankrupt, made homeless, being foreclosed on, their jobs vanishing overseas and their savings being devoured by a rapacious health insurance cartel?

There is no hope, because nothing has changed.

reply to post by madnessinmysoul

There really is nothing to gain for either of us by me countering you point by point.
The article says "corporate profits" are up, but what corporations are they really talking about? There are many corporations that are included in this report that are international in nature I can assure you. So who benefits when an international corporation has increased profits? How is that even a measure of health for the economy?
There is simply no way that small business is "flat", or improving. Any comprehensive look at the American economy will reveal a seriously deteriorating economic environment, anybody that says otherwise is simply lying, I can assure you. You cannot have commercial and residential construction in the toilet, banks that will not or cannot lend money, unemployment rising steadily, and then claim that small business is flat. Don't believe these government sources, or the parrots that echo that fraud.
Obama is bad for business because he does not understand what it will take for business to rebound, not at all. He is doing nothing about rooting out the corruption in the banks, only bailing them out, and most of this "news" never makes it to your sources. Or they don't print it.
Check out MY SOURCES:

www.zerohedge.com...

Zerohedge gives you the straight talk, they pull no punches.

www.deepcapture.com...

Deep Capture will give you a little insight as to how good businesses have been destroyed for years to profit Wall Street crooks, like Cramer's Mad Money cabal.

Wall Street insiders have made a fortune destroying the American economy, and they are not done yet.

hahaha yeah if you lay off your work force and export jobs to 3rd world countries sure you can make your bottom line look more profitable temporarily even though you are producing less and laying off your customers. Eventually it will come back to bite you.

Small business is still the backbone of the economy big corps are only about 20-30 percent, and small businesses are going out of business and loosing profits at an alarming rate. look around you at all the empty commercial real estate. A hundred thousand a month are still being laid off so yeah everything is just peachy.

The so called job growth is a pile of government BS! They only count people who are receiving unemployment benefits as jobless. It is all smoke and mirrors to keep the public fooled until it all finally finishes crashing down around them.