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?
“The better question is whether he wants the credit,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who was an economic adviser to Republican Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. “Obama sounds a lot like he wants corporations to be less profitable.”
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.
Under another president, especially a Republican president, the data on corporate profits would be envied. George W. Bush, who dedicated a good deal of his presidency to tax cuts aimed at boosting business profits, probably would have loved such results. It took Bush nearly four years to post the gains that Obama has managed in less than half the time.
While this report stands in completely contrast of the narrative coming from the modern conservative movement, I'm not entirely sure this is going to sit well with most liberals/progressives. However, it would seem that this would be something that Republican politicians would want to at least mention in passing.
I just have one question in regards to this - if corporations are raking in such massive profits, where is the reinvestment into the economy? Not to get overtly conspiratorial, but could it be a concerted effort to see the Obama administration fail, even at the expense of the worker?
1 comment:
This is exactly what one expects from corporate socialism such as that supported by liberals like Obama. Obama's every move has been pro-business and anti-market (the two are quite different things). If the companies are wary of reinvestment, perhaps it is because they are concerned with some major expenditures coming their way: tax increases, health insurance increases, etc. Perhaps they are keeping the money to ensure they have enough to stay afloat once Obama's anti-business policies finally come online to match his current anti-market ones. Just a theory. But it makes more sense than a conspiracy theory does.
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