"Why businesses are scared to spend money..."

[kiwiman127]

2004 was the key year.
Boston Scientific hiring, expanding operations in Costa Rica

Hmmm, and then there's this:

Boston Scientific Corp. lays off 160 Minnesota workers
Boston Scientific Corp. lays off 160 Minnesota workers

Boston Scientific to Cut 2,300 Workers
Boston Scientific to Cut 2,300 Workers - ERE.net

 

[Sallow]

They are not "scared" to spend money. They don't need to spend it. They are making profit without doing very much.

They didn't invest under Bush..even after he gave them the keys to the bank.

Why the heck would they spend it now?

Amazing! You have a liberal Democrat billionaire explaining in blunt English what the real issue is for he and his peers and you won't believe it. You guys need to pull your heads out of your asses. Obama is a socialist who hates capitalism and business and wants to remake America into something it was never designed to be. I was one conservative who was willing to give the man the benefit of the doubt when he was elected. I've had 2.5 years to see him in action and now realize he is dangerous for this country. We can survive until November 2012, but if the man gets relected for 4 more years, God help us.

You don't understand business at all. Profit is the end game. That's it. If you don't have to do much to achieve it..then you don't do much.

There's no incentive to hire here. Government contracts are flowing like water..and they come with no attachments. No one is pulling government employee 401ks or IRAs or anything out of Financials. No one has changed tax regulations regarding overseas profits.

In short there is no reason to do anything. Heck..lots of corporations borrowed cheap money and either put it into interest bearing accounts or bought back stock.

We have so many "To big to fail" companies that the new thing (well old thing) are big executives to jump from company to company..fire people..make the books look good..collect fat paychecks..and move on.

THATS what is going on. And unless that is addressed..it's going to be going on for quite some time.

 

[Sallow]

Obama is another Bush in his actions.

He is and he isn't.

Anyone expecting radical change..was sorely disappointed. President Obama is process oriented.

And from where I sit..the process is broken. Because his opponents are abusing rules put into place to protect the minority vote.

 

[Wiseacre]

Risk vs Reward.

Risks are very uncertain, and higher than normal due to the policies Obama has put in place on many fronts. Nobody knows how the healthcare issue will work itself out, taxes, regulations, energy, housing, the litany of major issues that cannot be quantified is daunting. Most companies have pared down to be as profitable as they can in these hard times. Until they see some answers for determining costs, we ain't going to see much improvement in the economy, unless there is a major upshift in demand.

Which brings us to the reward side of the puzzle. There ain't any, demand is anemic and sensitive to the UE and housing, andneither shows any signs of much recovery. Who the hell is going to startup a new business or ramp up and existing one if there's no increase in customers in sight? Which is where the Keynesians come in, spend more gov't money by taking it from the rich guys and giving it to the poor guys. But it doesn't work, it's been tried and failed. We've tried rebate checks, cuts in payroll taxes, it doesn't work.

So you raise taxes on the rich and get maybe 70 billion/yr in more revenue, how much do you think that's going to help in a 15 trillion economy? Get real, that isn't an answer, it's political populism for votes instead of solutions. Sooner or later the lib/dems and the American public is going to have to face the fact that the rich cannot pay for everything. We're going to have to enact policies that are effective for economic growth which leads to job creation, whether it's fair or not.

 

[kwc57]

They are not "scared" to spend money. They don't need to spend it. They are making profit without doing very much.

They didn't invest under Bush..even after he gave them the keys to the bank.

Why the heck would they spend it now?

Amazing! You have a liberal Democrat billionaire explaining in blunt English what the real issue is for he and his peers and you won't believe it. You guys need to pull your heads out of your asses. Obama is a socialist who hates capitalism and business and wants to remake America into something it was never designed to be. I was one conservative who was willing to give the man the benefit of the doubt when he was elected. I've had 2.5 years to see him in action and now realize he is dangerous for this country. We can survive until November 2012, but if the man gets relected for 4 more years, God help us.

You don't understand business at all. Profit is the end game. That's it. If you don't have to do much to achieve it..then you don't do much.

There's no incentive to hire here. Government contracts are flowing like water..and they come with no attachments. No one is pulling government employee 401ks or IRAs or anything out of Financials. No one has changed tax regulations regarding overseas profits.

In short there is no reason to do anything. Heck..lots of corporations borrowed cheap money and either put it into interest bearing accounts or bought back stock.

We have so many "To big to fail" companies that the new thing (well old thing) are big executives to jump from company to company..fire people..make the books look good..collect fat paychecks..and move on.

THATS what is going on. And unless that is addressed..it's going to be going on for quite some time.

Yeah, right! My wife and I are both college educated professionals with 60 years of experience between us.......we don't understand business.

Of course a company exists to turn a profit. They do not exist to provide jobs. After all, this isn't the USSR, it's the USA. Businesses have never existed to provide jobs. Jobs are a byproduct of the success of a business. The difference between government and business is that business realizes you don't spend your way out of debt. They don't add needless idle jobs just for the hell of it. When Obama decides to quit talking about confiscating income and profit at the end of a gun and redistributing it to be fair to the "less fortunate", you'll see business pick back up. Until then, you won't. Don't believe me, go back to the OP and read liberal Democrat billionaire, Steve Wynn's quote.

You know, this is akin to when bin Laden would say why he attacked the US and the Bush admin would tell you all sorts of things like they are jealous of our wealth or freedom. Bullshit, the man TOLD you why he attacked. Billionaires, millionaires, CEO's and mom and pop business owners are telling us why business is stagnant.......fear of socialist Obama and his desired policies. Pure and simple. Accept it or not. Why would they lie about why they won't expand......after all, they want to make the largest profit possible don't they?

 

[mudwhistle]

Truth is why expand when you cannot sell all you have to offer now?

Jobs is the issue, not Obama.

One of the major downsides to a consumer spending based economy.

Yeah, just give us what we need. Free, at taxpayer expense.

 

[PoliticalChic]

Truth is why expand when you cannot sell all you have to offer now?

Jobs is the issue, not Obama.

One of the major downsides to a consumer spending based economy.

Let me expand of that thought.

Working wage earners have seen flat wages for over thirty years. As a matter of fact in Real Dollars, their income is about where it was in 1980! The wage earner simply has less and less expendable income. Thus the demand side of the supply and demand economics is missing a huge component.

What nonsense.

Interesting that you select the real-dollars-why-America-is-terrrible scenario.

So....what's keeping you here? Must be better places where you would earn far better return on your labor, no?
Altruism?


Let me give you a more informed view of why folks aren't manning the barricades....

1. Living in America is like a ticket for the lottery.

I lived for about a decade, on and off, in France and later moved to the United States. Nobody in their right mind would give up the manifold sensual, aesthetic and gastronomic pleasures offered by French savoir-vivre for the unrelenting battlefield of American ambition were it not for one thing: possibility.
You know possibility when you breathe it. For an immigrant, it lies in the ease of American identity and the boundlessness of American horizons after the narrower confines of European nationhood and the stifling attentions of the European nanny state, which has often made it more attractive not to work than to work. High French unemployment was never much of a mystery.
Roger Cohen: One France is enough - The New York Times


2. What can your 'real dollars' purchase?

In 1949, someone who worked minimum wage over the summer would have enough money to buy the following items from that year’s Sears’ catalogue: A Smith-Corona typewriter, Argus 21 35mm camera, Silvertone AM-FM table radio, and Silvertone 3-speed phonograph.

In 2009, the same person, working the same number of hours at minimum wage, would now be able to purchase: A Dell laptop computer, HP color ink printer, scanner, copier, Canon 8 megapixel digital camera, GPS system, 32” LCD HDTV television, 8GB iPod Nano, GE microwave, Haier refrigerator/freezer, Toshiba DVD/VCR combo, RCA home theater system, Uniden cordless phone, RCA AM/FM radio, Camcorder, Sony PlayStation 2, as well as several other things.

Mark J. Perry, “Young Americans: Luckiest Generation in History,” CARPE DIEM: Young Americans: Luckiest Generation in History

So...was this post too long? I know you must be packing this very minute.....

No?

Hmmmmmmm.........

 

[Moonglow]

things maybe a little slow but they will pick up. it always does.

 

[uscitizen]

Trickle down worked.
The true meaning was just misunderstood.
It means that the living standard of the working class Americans will trickle in a downward direction.
And they have and will continue to do so.
This is also an inevitable result of global economics.
American wages cannot compete with wages in poorer countries.

This is something neither party will talk about, but is true.

 

[mudwhistle]

They are not "scared" to spend money. They don't need to spend it. They are making profit without doing very much.

They didn't invest under Bush..even after he gave them the keys to the bank.

Why the heck would they spend it now?

I can tell you never owned a business.

 

[mudwhistle]

Trickle down worked.
The true meaning was just misunderstood.
It means that the living standard of the working class Americans will trickle in a downward direction.
And they have and will continue to do so.
This is also an inevitable result of global economics.
American wages cannot compete with wages in poorer countries.

This is something neither party will talk about, but is true.

I don't know what you're talking about. I've been talking about wages for a very long time. Raising the minimum-wage started us down the road to the poor economy we're experiencing today.

Sorry for all of the students flipping burgers at McDonalds.

Everything the Dems do seems to eventually cost jobs. A prime example is their banning of incandescent lightbulbs. Now GE has closed their U.S. factories and opened CFL bulb plants in......you guessed it.......China.

 

[uscitizen]

Trickle down worked.
The true meaning was just misunderstood.
It means that the living standard of the working class Americans will trickle in a downward direction.
And they have and will continue to do so.
This is also an inevitable result of global economics.
American wages cannot compete with wages in poorer countries.

This is something neither party will talk about, but is true.

I don't know what you're talking about. I've been talking about wages for a very long time. Raising the minimum-wage started us down the road to the poor economy we're experiencing today.

Sorry for all of the students flipping burgers at McDonalds.

Everything the Dems do seems to eventually cost jobs. A prime example is their banning of incandescent lightbulbs. Now GE has closed their U.S. factories and opened CFL bulb plants in......you guessed it.......China.

Umm the CFL's were already made in China.
But be a partisan hack and blame everything on the dems.
The CFL's are made in china becuase we cannot compete with their labor rates unless we drop ours to their level. Wanna live on $300/month?

And around here in rural america more middle aged people are flipping burgers at Mcdonalds.
17,000 signed up for 1,800 jobs at ford.

 

[Sallow]

Amazing! You have a liberal Democrat billionaire explaining in blunt English what the real issue is for he and his peers and you won't believe it. You guys need to pull your heads out of your asses. Obama is a socialist who hates capitalism and business and wants to remake America into something it was never designed to be. I was one conservative who was willing to give the man the benefit of the doubt when he was elected. I've had 2.5 years to see him in action and now realize he is dangerous for this country. We can survive until November 2012, but if the man gets relected for 4 more years, God help us.

You don't understand business at all. Profit is the end game. That's it. If you don't have to do much to achieve it..then you don't do much.

There's no incentive to hire here. Government contracts are flowing like water..and they come with no attachments. No one is pulling government employee 401ks or IRAs or anything out of Financials. No one has changed tax regulations regarding overseas profits.

In short there is no reason to do anything. Heck..lots of corporations borrowed cheap money and either put it into interest bearing accounts or bought back stock.

We have so many "To big to fail" companies that the new thing (well old thing) are big executives to jump from company to company..fire people..make the books look good..collect fat paychecks..and move on.

THATS what is going on. And unless that is addressed..it's going to be going on for quite some time.

Yeah, right! My wife and I are both college educated professionals with 60 years of experience between us.......we don't understand business.

Of course a company exists to turn a profit. They do not exist to provide jobs. After all, this isn't the USSR, it's the USA. Businesses have never existed to provide jobs. Jobs are a byproduct of the success of a business. The difference between government and business is that business realizes you don't spend your way out of debt. They don't add needless idle jobs just for the hell of it. When Obama decides to quit talking about confiscating income and profit at the end of a gun and redistributing it to be fair to the "less fortunate", you'll see business pick back up. Until then, you won't. Don't believe me, go back to the OP and read liberal Democrat billionaire, Steve Wynn's quote.

You know, this is akin to when bin Laden would say why he attacked the US and the Bush admin would tell you all sorts of things like they are jealous of our wealth or freedom. Bullshit, the man TOLD you why he attacked. Billionaires, millionaires, CEO's and mom and pop business owners are telling us why business is stagnant.......fear of socialist Obama and his desired policies. Pure and simple. Accept it or not. Why would they lie about why they won't expand......after all, they want to make the largest profit possible don't they?

Whatever.

Taxes as 'confiscated income' is the biggest load of crap I've ever heard. And it's patently Unconstitutional.

And you make some real logical fallacies too. Government is not business. Businesses don't start wars. Businesses don't build infrastructure because it's good for the overall health of the nation. Businesses aren't charged with taking care of anyone. The idea that the government should be run like one is insane.

And the very notion of "Billionaires" is anti-capitalistic. To much centralizing of wealth means you will eventually kill capitalism. Because the very key to capitalism..is competition.

 

[Sallow]

Trickle down worked.
The true meaning was just misunderstood.
It means that the living standard of the working class Americans will trickle in a downward direction.
And they have and will continue to do so.
This is also an inevitable result of global economics.
American wages cannot compete with wages in poorer countries.

This is something neither party will talk about, but is true.

I don't know what you're talking about. I've been talking about wages for a very long time. Raising the minimum-wage started us down the road to the poor economy we're experiencing today.

Sorry for all of the students flipping burgers at McDonalds.

Everything the Dems do seems to eventually cost jobs. A prime example is their banning of incandescent lightbulbs. Now GE has closed their U.S. factories and opened CFL bulb plants in......you guessed it.......China.

Bush banned those bulbs.

 

[uscitizen]

Trickle down worked.
The true meaning was just misunderstood.
It means that the living standard of the working class Americans will trickle in a downward direction.
And they have and will continue to do so.
This is also an inevitable result of global economics.
American wages cannot compete with wages in poorer countries.

This is something neither party will talk about, but is true.

I don't know what you're talking about. I've been talking about wages for a very long time. Raising the minimum-wage started us down the road to the poor economy we're experiencing today.

Sorry for all of the students flipping burgers at McDonalds.

Everything the Dems do seems to eventually cost jobs. A prime example is their banning of incandescent lightbulbs. Now GE has closed their U.S. factories and opened CFL bulb plants in......you guessed it.......China.

Bush banned those bulbs.

NOw don't confuse em with facts.
They about blew a gasket when they learned that Nixon started the EPA.

 

[spectrumc01]

Just so I'm clear on this...Businesses will only spend money when Republicans are in charge of the House, Senate, and White house. Just like when GWB had all three during his first term. How did that work for us?

Who runs this country? The Government, The People, or Big business?

Big Business is holding the US hostage until they get what they want, that is becoming more and more evident.

Here is a question...How far is business willing to go in destroying this country economically? They are sitting on huge sums of cash watching the economy, seemingly cheering, as the economy goes further and further into the toilet. Their only reply is that they will spend when they get what they want, and what they want is more profits.

They are the model American citizens.

 

[Wiseacre]

" Just so I'm clear on this...Businesses will only spend money when Republicans are in charge of the House, Senate, and White house. Just like when GWB had all three during his first term. How did that work for us? "


No, you idiot, businesses spent a lot of money and made tons of money during the Clinton years. Actually, the Bush43 presidency was doing pretty well until 2008. I would say both parties should share the blame over the recession, regardless of who was in the WH.


" Who runs this country? The Government, The People, or Big business? "

If the people are running their own gov't, then it's their own fault. If they don't vote out the people who get into bed with special interests, who's really to blame?


" Big Business is holding the US hostage until they get what they want, that is becoming more and more evident. "


Bullshit. You think this recession is what they want? You're an idiot.


" Here is a question...How far is business willing to go in destroying this country economically? They are sitting on huge sums of cash watching the economy, seemingly cheering, as the economy goes further and further into the toilet. Their only reply is that they will spend when they get what they want, and what they want is more profits. "

Nobody is cheering, only an idiot would think that. Of course they want the prospect of more profits, are you not familiar with the concepts of capitalism?

 

[uscitizen]

I am familiar witrh the concepts of capitalism and profits, that is why we cannot compete with offshore wages.

 

[Wiseacre]

I am familiar witrh the concepts of capitalism and profits, that is why we cannot compete with offshore wages.

I think we can, in some industries anyway. The shipping costs of bringing foreign products are growing, and so are labor and other costs in emerging market countries. If you exclude the import of oil and our gov't grows a pair and does something about China's unfair trade policies, we'd be okay.

 

[spectrumc01]

" Just so I'm clear on this...Businesses will only spend money when Republicans are in charge of the House, Senate, and White house. Just like when GWB had all three during his first term. How did that work for us? "


No, you idiot, businesses spent a lot of money and made tons of money during the Clinton years. Actually, the Bush43 presidency was doing pretty well until 2008. I would say both parties should share the blame over the recession, regardless of who was in the WH.


" Who runs this country? The Government, The People, or Big business? "

If the people are running their own gov't, then it's their own fault. If they don't vote out the people who get into bed with special interests, who's really to blame?


" Big Business is holding the US hostage until they get what they want, that is becoming more and more evident. "


Bullshit. You think this recession is what they want? You're an idiot.


" Here is a question...How far is business willing to go in destroying this country economically? They are sitting on huge sums of cash watching the economy, seemingly cheering, as the economy goes further and further into the toilet. Their only reply is that they will spend when they get what they want, and what they want is more profits. "

Nobody is cheering, only an idiot would think that. Of course they want the prospect of more profits, are you not familiar with the concepts of capitalism?

*I'll agree that both parties are to blame.
*I'll more than agree that the people are ultimately to blame because we do not hold our politicians accountable
*If they don't want a recession and they have the capital to do something about it, and don't. What does that say?
*Ok, maybe not cheering. But there is excessive drooling over the possibilities of lower taxes, and fewer regulations. All they have to do is wait until the US can't do anything but cave in to what they want.
*Capitalism is good / Excessive greed to the point of driving this country into the ground is bad.

PS. notice the lack of name calling - I thought better of you - but everyone makes a mistake