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f targeting websites thought to contain child pornography in australia s case a despotic regime would simply blacklist any sites that threaten the regime s version of the truth and unlike australians who happen to link to blacklisted sites and face a large fine a more autocratic machine could simply disappear the authors now of course there are some issues with using blogs as the only source of news an idea that just isn t plausible for any serious consumer of news or anyone concerned with the threats posed by unregulated capitalism on the value of their homes or retirement accounts anonymous blogging can be a source of libel and unfounded obligations and thereby unjustly attack individuals i don t favor hiding behind anonymity i ve extending my name fully here on some highly confidential issues myself and have imperiled myself professionally for years to come still like whistleblowers there s a role for certain anonymous bloggers to play particularly in sensitive industries or concerning complex topics when an insider s knowledge is essential one good example might be accountant rules or graft in contracting where the anonymous source could face drastic consequences for informing at the very least running off about goldman s hft schemes is probably a great way for a financial professional to get in trouble despite his anonymity tyler durden is taking risks that the cnbc people won t fearless journalism died on that network at least on that corporate network maybe the durden identity created in the movie fight club isn t that bad a name for zerohedge s author after all durden is clearly anti establishment and cnbc clearly stands on goldman s side in dodging the accusations links gasparino s profile http www cnbc com id 15838145 michelle caruso cabrera profile http www cnbc com id 15838214 labels bailout capitalism cnbc goldman sachs media posted by jbpeebles 1 20 pm 2 comments tuesday july 07 2009 employee ownership has a place in recovery i wish our economic troubles could be lit off like fireworks sent off to explode somewhere far away we ll likely face much more economic hardship talk of a second bailout has emerged in washington one topic that came up with friends and family during the independence day holiday was the term socialism one which has been redefined as the spending of government money the real term socialism means that workers own the means of production with the bailouts the original meaning has been turned around to mean bestowing federal aid on a single corporate entity this interpretation of the term has been more accurately termed corporate socialism a sort of robin hood in reverse where corporate entities receive public money if gm were actually socialized the company would be under the control of its workforce not government with real socialism the people who run the factory own it worker owned companies make money not for the benefit of its shareholders but rather for its employees employees would seek to making a living from what they produce and sell rather than by borrowing or outsourcing to maximize short term profitability under true socialism upper management has no role in managing shareholder relations or seeing the stock price driven up as the company is private and has no stock trading in public markets the price of the stock is secondary to the benefit the company provides its workers employee ownership isn t to say the company doesn t try to improve its profitability it can sell itself for the benefit of its workers but it s more likely that a worker owned company being better aligned with the interests of the local community and its citizens would seek to stay in business to offer a source of local employment for future generations rather than attract capital through outside investors the company seeks to set aside profits rather than borrow massive sums in order to grow of course this model of saving is far more sound for long term growth than trying to borrow one s way to prosperity but less lending is hardly beneficial to the politically powerful lenders who want an economic system based on debt because they profit that way under a traditional corporate scheme employees are considered stakeholders a little used but apt description of people who matter to the entity but aren t the core focus which is profitability some corporations have made their workforce integral to their business strategies henry ford did make paying a reasonable wage central to his business model so those who built his cars could afford them virtually all companies do consider employees important stakeholders but few would place the needs of their worker as equivalent to those of their shareholders maybe what s needed to resolve the crisis is greater levels of employee empowerment japanese companies for instance take a much more deliberate approach to decisions in a protracted process of consensus building another nice bonus is the novelty of employee ownership americans needn t feel imprisoned by industrial age modes of thinking exempting of course ford and a few other visionaries employee owned companies are a radical departure from pure capitalism but if a company can make profits that way no one can deny the validity of letting certain companies especially failing ones redesign their business model change is after all what is required by economic turbulence and challenges doing as one has done in the past is like following a doomed course change unfortunately is not in the interest of the government which must like the convenience offered by regular paychecks because of the taxes they provide but increased employee ownership might not be so bad if the alternative is stagnant tax roles and falling employment or subsidizing ongoing failures via bailouts to shareholders and management given the bureaucracy predisposition towards change the approach to collecting taxes does matter originally corporations weren t responsible for withholding yet the industrial assembly line nature of manufacturing industries lent itself to the taxing of workers they received uniform pay at regular intervals the factory produced goods consistently it therefore could pay its workers regularly and direct taxes withheld to government also 401 k s provide a rich stream of fees and revenue for banks and other financial firms administering the accounts we saw the depth of this industry s greed in a series of mutual fund fee scams that resulted in 3 5 billion in fines in 2003 update i just read that goldman sachs may have been conducting illicit front running operations via server routers a process referred to as quant scamming the digital equivalent of sniffing out server routes for web traffic in order to get ahead of trades see bottom of this post traditionally americans were responsible for their taxes without withholding the tax burden was clearly too much to bear unless you had sufficient savings on hand you were in for big trouble come tax time enter withholding and the irs at precisely the time when america s industrial greatness peaked in 1913 or so the notion of regular income is clearly an attractive target for government if workers were paid in stock perhaps on irregular intervals or moved to a trade and barter system their incomes wouldn t be as readily taxed so the industrial model fit with workers paying their share of the taxes an amount that was percentage wise roughly equal to what their boss paid enter reagan and the age of the investor class the idea behind this popular conservatism was that economic benefits of lower taxes and regulation would trickle down to the lower paid end of the workforce for a while that approach seemed to work generating unprecedented levels of participation in the stock markets not often heralded in the economic media is the truth that ownership of stock by the middle class presages larger economic vitality after the 2000 1 recession investments in the market by middle income folks fell substantially and could have predicted the broader market malaise the idea of lower taxes was great and the earned income tax credit did relieve working families but the government began to run larger deficits not a problem at first but a gradually growing threat and over time the disparity in income grew between the investors top 20 and top 1 the wealth of the rich peaked during the bush years coupled with globalization domestic manufacturing was gutted in a form of competition and direct threat the rich do pay the majority of taxes but they also make the most income to keep up their money making ways the investor class has long sought to get preferential tax treatment executive compensation has skyrocketed largely through the use of stock options and awards based on performance in lieu of direct pay stock based compensation ownership of company stock is significant on two levels whoever owns more stock controls more of the company through dividends and capital growth those with the most proportional ownership get the most profit stockholders are owners so company stock purchase programs encourage the same sense of pride as a worker owned company making workers and management essentially one on another level huge quantities of stock given to corporate managers by their boards is seen as a giant giveaway upper managers own large quantities of stock through board ratified stock ownership programs adding to a broadening discrepancy in incomes between top and bottom of the corporate pay scale average wages have scarcely grown in the past decade whereas ceo pay has gone up many multiples especially in the us recently the banks thrust towards higher employee compensation made the news and created a large political liability for the investor class and their supporters in washington largely through stock options executive pay has climbed to the point congress and the president feel compelled to intervene new legislation working its way through congress may only limit some kinds of compensation with so much influence available on the hill the wall street lobby is likely to forestall or water down any potential reforms choosing between regular salary and purely incentive based pay is an old business school debate if managers get paid more salary they may be less committed to their companies the inverse of stock ownership still higher pay has to make workers more loyal if anything they ll be more eager to keep getting paid and keep their pay structure viable i d say most company officers are better paid in cash rather than stock cash will incur a great tax cost burden however which is a chief motivator behind stock grants which tend to be treated favorably under the tax code a big bonus for top bracket executives the maximum marginal rate on income might be 30 33 while capital gains are taxed at a rate that taps out at 15 a difference of maybe 15 or 150 000 on every million of stock grants awarded vs salary ceo pay can be performance based even without stock a fact easily forgotten in the era of corporate irresponsibility and greed a company s executive pay committee could choose to pay based on performance but the standards might be based on varying criteria clearly a drop in stock price during a recession isn t evidence of bad management for instance increased sales could be fudged perhaps or inventories could drop because of a short running marketing campaign which means sales can look good on paper but disguise other deficiencies in a bull market compensation paid in stock has been a way to double up on the benefit of increased performance rising stock prices may or may not the bull market of the 1990s encouraged executive pay in stock but the rising tide may have done more to boost returns than any executive talent or ability when the stock boom lost its luster yet during bush years executive pay continued to rise despite the flat stock market performance for most companies with the dow barely rising much compensation came in the form of stocks typically provided at below market cost on a deferred basis with the company paying the difference much has also been made of possible collusion between executive compensation committees where board members offer a quid pro quo between large companies that inflates the size of stock awards for upper management in return board members get offered more seats on new companies where they offer liberal compensation agreements in time the stock is likely diluted adding millions of shares each year has the effect of weakening the value of existing shares the company must also pay more dividends which sap cash flow dilution was recently in the news as large financial companies made stock offerings in order to repay tarp funds citigroup is planning a massive conversion 60 billion shares of preferred stock which might lower the interest dividend payments it makes but has cheapened the stock considerably if upper management is paid in stock they might be motivated to pull an enron which could be the use of off balance sheet techniques and liability hiding chicanery that allows the corporate stock price to stay higher than if more transparency were offered then even as they talked up the company enron s manager sold their private holdings much of the stock came at below market prices through heavily subsidized stock purchase agreements so selling stock makes sense plus of course the taxes on capital gains are lower for more on accounting changes by fasb see this link in huffpo back in 2006 or so indianapolis power and light was purchased by a foreign consortium before workers could sell their shares upper management cashed in by the time workers were able to sell their shares they d become almost worthless i d written about the event on this blog i d not been surprised at the collapse but rather the complete abject denial of worker rights to sell their stock held in retirement plans whereas i guess the typical executive stock compensation program holds the stock in less constrained more easily sold accounts different treatment of employee and executive stock ownership accounts comes from the onerous fiduciary responsibilities associated with managing retirement accounts under the erisa law governing tax deferred contributions and withdrawals tax implications and legal ramifications of a company offering its stock to employees are complex still a well founded rule of financial planning is not to invest more than 10 of your worth in your company s stock should the company fail you d therefore lose not only your job but your retirement savings as well tax structure not surprisingly is geared to reward investors workers meanwhile get to pay social security on all their income now if workers could be paid in company stock a worker owned company could really work but unfortunately cash money is how bills are paid perhaps mini shares in a worker owned company could be used in lieu of cash by local accepting business heck california has already gone to this mode by issuing ious which...
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