US Economy Thread

Continuing the OT discussion from the Zmeevik thread.

GarryB wrote:The problem is that politicians and MIC companies and the Pentagon all cooperate in it so anyone trying to expose it all will get attacked by everyone for trying to destroy america... despite this corruption being what is destroying america.

There is an ecosystem now that rules America where the government, judiciary and corporate interests act as a single corrupt whole. The taxpayer voter is left with the
placebo of voting and thinking their vote counts. But as we saw in 2020 even this placebo is stolen from them.

I think that idea of periodic elections would be to have a turn-over of people in government that would naturally purge corruption. But it did not work out this way because
there are way too many deciders who survive one administration to another. There is a stagnant "deep state" pool (swamp) that is not drained periodically. This allows
corporate interests to buy off and install over time people into these positions who will deliver for decades. But the legislative process is also a joke. Biden has been around
for how long now? I think it is over 50 years. This is nonsense. There should be term limits on Congress critters. There should also be term limits on judges and other
elements of power.

This will not guarantee absence of corruption and abuse, but it will at least make long-term corruption planning by the rotten elites harder. However, this may not be enough
to frustrate absolute control of the system by the oligarchy. It is also a reform that is not accessible while the oligarchy rules. The US is going to have to rebel against the
oligarchy and suppress it. Then the it needs a new system and a new philosophy. Worship of tycoons is moronic.

I may sound like a hypocrite about Putin and Russia. But the difference is that Putin's persistence in office allowed him to crush the nascent oligarchy that emerged during
the 1990s. The US simply does not have a situation where the oligarchy can be put in its place without a revolution. It has a weak government in this regard. So the
government becomes the iron fist of the oligarchy. All of its mighty power is aimed at suppressing individual proles. Of course, if Putin was a form of Yeltsin, Russia would
have been terminally f*cked by now. It would make sense for a faster turnover of Russian leaders in the future. But this must be associated with no persistent power such as
the US oligarchy. This will turn Russia into another America with stooge leaders fronting for non-elected power holders.

Have you seen the British Political comedy "Yes, Minister". There was a follow up series called Yes, Prime Minister that followed, which was about a pretty incompetent UK politician who was going to stir things up and make a difference.

It shows the two components of government... the politician and the civil servant... the politicians come and go based on competence and popularity, but the civil servants remain and make sure nothing really changes because the civil servants remain and politicians come and go and every amazing new idea a new politician comes up with has been tried a dozen times before and failed miserably... except sometimes it is too much work or might interfere with some corruption that someone powerful has going on so it is sabotaged so they don't try it.

Very well written and very clever... and appears rather realistic and rather funny.

When asked about it British politicians will often say how accurately it shows civil servants but they got the politicians wrong, while the civil servants will say it shows the politicians accurately but gets the civil servants wrong... I would say it is probably dead right on both counts.

The problem is when you change the party in power you don't change their sponsors and financial supporters who are not interested in anything but making good money on their investment.

If you went to a local factory that made cars and put it to the vote those workers are not going to vote for the CEO to get 25 million per year in salary, and they are certainly not going to agree with the idea that shifting production to Mexico or China or India will provide the customer with a better product... it is CEOs and investors that make such decisions and that is what has screwed America too.

I liked both series. British TV programs that I saw in Canada in the 70s and 80s were really good. Now we have woke nonsense.

There was still some substance in the political hierarchy back in those days. With the level of politicians and likely the private elites
as well today, the rot is starting to take on civilization collapse properties.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/business-67367101.amp

Apple should pay €13bn Irish tax, argues EU lawyer

This case is interesting, and its not just Apple

It's clear that the rest of the world will continue the assault on American business, by raising the costs of doing business abroad, by imposing punitive fines and taxes on American corporations

The reason?

Well in 2017, probably the main legacy of Trumps presidency came into effect: TCJA

The Tax Cut and Jobs Act

This regime, lowered the corporate tax rate for US businesses which had moved their intellectual property, licenses, and software production abroad to other lower tax jurisdictions, to incentive a return to America

What is interesting, is that the rest of the world did not take long in formulating a response

Ofc, some say the EU is a lapdog, but not when it comes to US tech companies, which happen to be the most profitable ones for the US

In fact the EU is the most aggressive bloc , which wants to bleed US tech companies - the logic is, if you want to sell a 1000 euro phone, you will pay 500 Euros in taxes and fines per phone, hurting the companies profit margin

And other countries are joining in, with India leading the Google tax, and cheerleading the imposition of the OECD Pillar 2 global minimum tax as a new world wide tax regime

The regime would lower the corporate rates of OECD participating countries to 21% , making TCJA redundant, and either try to lure away American IP, or become competitive themselves

It seems that Russia is not the only one conducting import substitution, they are just the ones that have more or less done so, repatriating intellectual property however did not take any tax legislation, but simply seizing the property, plant,  and equipment of foreign corporations, renaming them, and selling them to Russian business men

Everything has a solution , and there are different ways of arriving to the same one