Who Do You Work For?

[mtraininjax]

BT - Best Article I have seen on MJ in 2011!

Over the period 1970-2005, school spending per pupil, adjusted for inflation, doubled, while standardized achievement test scores were flat. Over roughly that same time period, public-school employment doubled per student, according to a study by researchers at the University of Washington. That is what economists call negative productivity.

We call it negative productivity here in Jacksonville with the DCPS system too! If others see the problem, this is not just a Jacksonville problem.

I blame the internet. Great discussion!

[FayeforCure]

At least the government provides services to people.  How many people work in the financial industry which does little but leech off of all other sectors?

+1

The market mystique didn’t always rule financial policy. America emerged from the Great Depression with a tightly regulated banking system, which made finance a staid, even boring business. Banks attracted depositors by providing convenient branch locations and maybe a free toaster or two; they used the money thus attracted to make loans, and that was that.

And the financial system wasn’t just boring. It was also, by today’s standards, small. Even during the “go-go years,” the bull market of the 1960s, finance and insurance together accounted for less than 4 percent of G.D.P. The relative unimportance of finance was reflected in the list of stocks making up the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which until 1982 contained not a single financial company.

It all sounds primitive by today’s standards. Yet that boring, primitive financial system serviced an economy that doubled living standards over the course of a generation.

After 1980, of course, a very different financial system emerged. In the deregulation-minded Reagan era, old-fashioned banking was increasingly replaced by wheeling and dealing on a grand scale. The new system was much bigger than the old regime: On the eve of the current crisis, finance and insurance accounted for 8 percent of G.D.P., more than twice their share in the 1960s. By early last year, the Dow contained five financial companies â€" giants like A.I.G., Citigroup and Bank of America.

And finance became anything but boring. It attracted many of our sharpest minds and made a select few immensely rich.

Underlying the glamorous new world of finance was the process of securitization. Loans no longer stayed with the lender. Instead, they were sold on to others, who sliced, diced and puréed individual debts to synthesize new assets. Subprime mortgages, credit card debts, car loans â€" all went into the financial system’s juicer. Out the other end, supposedly, came sweet-tasting AAA investments. And financial wizards were lavishly rewarded for overseeing the process.

But the wizards were frauds, whether they knew it or not, and their magic turned out to be no more than a collection of cheap stage tricks. Above all, the key promise of securitization â€" that it would make the financial system more robust by spreading risk more widely â€" turned out to be a lie. Banks used securitization to increase their risk, not reduce it, and in the process they made the economy more, not less, vulnerable to financial disruption.

Sooner or later, things were bound to go wrong, and eventually they did. Bear Stearns failed; Lehman failed; but most of all, securitization failed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/opinion/27krugman.html

[FayeforCure]

Citicorp is a financial institute, I work for another big one, and we sell a lot of the software and programs/products we create. Many of these financial institutions work hand in hand with manufactures, and even schools such as caltech and MIT in inovation center partnerships.

What do financial services create again other than toxic assets?



BTW, I wonder if you actually work for a European company?

ING Group
Dutch insurance conglomerate providing news, investor relations and general information about the company. Offers personal and institutional clients ...
www.ing.com/

[BridgeTroll]

BT - Best Article I have seen on MJ in 2011!

Over the period 1970-2005, school spending per pupil, adjusted for inflation, doubled, while standardized achievement test scores were flat. Over roughly that same time period, public-school employment doubled per student, according to a study by researchers at the University of Washington. That is what economists call negative productivity.

We call it negative productivity here in Jacksonville with the DCPS system too! If others see the problem, this is not just a Jacksonville problem.

I blame the internet. Great discussion!

Like most of the articles that BT has been posting lately, it doesnt really tell you anything.

How much of that, for example, went for school security in the wake of national hysteria following columbine.  Arent the extra security measures merely a way of forcing the schools to pay for the outcomes of the gun laws in this country?

How much money went into the mandatory court compliance programs in pursuit of the war on drugs?

Why again, are the school tax payers being made to pay for the programs set in place by the national politicians?

How much of that alleged per student spending (not verified, naturally) was spent because of the number of corrupt charter schools that were able to take money from public coffers, which count in the budget as dollars per child, but still took children away from the school system (which raises the average since there are fewer students?

Aw darn... Stephen disappoves of my article and topic?  I must be doing something right...

[FayeforCure]

Citicorp is a financial institute, I work for another big one, and we sell a lot of the software and programs/products we create. Many of these financial institutions work hand in hand with manufactures, and even schools such as caltech and MIT in inovation center partnerships.

Ok, a wild guess:

Given our comprehensive experience in software engineering and project management, our company can be relied upon to deliver partial or full life-cycle projects on time and within budget. By outsourcing a portion of their development needs to Website Outsourcing, our customers gain a flexible and cost-effective resource enabling them to increase product ranges, decrease time to market, and significantly lower development costs.

http://ingsoftware.com/outsourcing/

Oooopsie, might you actually work for one of those socialist capitalist european companies?

Makes me proud of my home country ( the Netherlands) for their prowess, and higher Per Capita GDP than FL despite offering universal healthcare to ALL its citizens.


Too bad they lack the sunshine of the Sunshine state  

Yes, some of us immigrants are simply here for the sunshine  

[uptowngirl]

Faye you must really like me 

But no, I do not work for any European bank, but we did buy one 

[NotNow]

Citicorp is a financial institute, I work for another big one, and we sell a lot of the software and programs/products we create. Many of these financial institutions work hand in hand with manufactures, and even schools such as caltech and MIT in inovation center partnerships.

Ok, a wild guess:

Given our comprehensive experience in software engineering and project management, our company can be relied upon to deliver partial or full life-cycle projects on time and within budget. By outsourcing a portion of their development needs to Website Outsourcing, our customers gain a flexible and cost-effective resource enabling them to increase product ranges, decrease time to market, and significantly lower development costs.

http://ingsoftware.com/outsourcing/

Oooopsie, might you actually work for one of those socialist capitalist european companies?

Makes me proud of my home country ( the Netherlands) for their prowess, and higher Per Capita GDP than FL despite offering universal healthcare to ALL its citizens.


Too bad they lack the sunshine of the Sunshine state 

Yes, some of us immigrants are simply here for the sunshine 

Faye,

If you don't mind me asking, why did you immigrate?   And why did you choose Jacksonville, Florida?  Or was it not by choice?

[FayeforCure]

Faye you must really like me  

But no, I do not work for any European bank, but we did buy one  

Ah, well THAT really narrows it down:

Bank Of America Paid Nothing In Federal Income Taxes Last Year And Got Almost $1 Billion From Taxpayers


All around the country, right-wing legislators are asking Main Street Americans to pay for budget deficits resulting mainly from a recession caused by Wall Street by attacking collective bargaining, and cutting necessary services and investments like college tuition aid and health care for the poor.

Yet at the same time, some of the country’s biggest corporations are getting away without being asked to pay anything at all. In 2009, mega corporations like Boeing and General Electric managed to avoid paying a penny in federal taxes â€" while also netting enormous benefits in tax benefits and subsidies.

Now, with many companies releasing their financial reports for 2010, it appears that Bank of America â€" the nation’s largest bank â€" has gone a second year in a row paying absolutely no federal corporate income taxes. In fact, not only did the company use its losses to avoid paying taxes last year, but it actually reported a tax benefit of almost a billion dollars:

After another money-losing year, Bank of America Corp. got the upper hand with Uncle Sam in 2010.

The Charlotte-based bank had no federal income tax expense for a second straight year and actually reported a tax “benefit” of nearly $1 billion. Also, the bank’s billions in accumulated losses could reduce its taxes in future years, a tax expert said.

“Bank of America takes its role as a corporate citizen very seriously, and pays taxes in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations,” bank spokesman Jerry Dubrowski said.

“If you go out and try to make money and you don’t do it, why should the government pay you for your losses?” asked Bob McIntyre of Citizens for Tax Justice when Bank of America used a similar provision in the tax code to dodge taxes in 2009. Additionally, in one state alone, Connecticut, Bank of America’s state income tax tax dodging cost the state a whopping $500 million.

Over the weekend, the UK-inspired movement US Uncut held demonstrations at Bank of America branches all over the country to protest the bank’s egregious tax dodging. In Washington, D.C., US Uncut protests shut down a major Bank of America branch in the Columbia Heights neighborhood. Watch it:



In a press release from last week, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) laid out ten corporate tax dodgers who aren’t paying their fair share and called for shared sacrifice. We have a deficit problem. It has to be addressed,” said Sanders in a press release addressing tax fairness. “But it cannot be addressed on the backs of the sick, the elderly, the poor, young people, the most vulnerable in this country. The wealthiest people and the largest corporations in this country have got to contribute. We’ve got to talk about shared sacrifice.”[/b]

http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/28/bank-of-america-taxes/

What do they exactly "produce" again?

TOXIC ASSETS

[hillary supporter]

Faye you must really like me 

But no, I do not work for any European bank, but we did buy one 

Ah, well THAT really narrows it down:

Bank Of America Paid Nothing In Federal Income Taxes Last Year And Got Almost $1 Billion From Taxpayers


All around the country, right-wing legislators are asking Main Street Americans to pay for budget deficits resulting mainly from a recession caused by Wall Street by attacking collective bargaining, and cutting necessary services and investments like college tuition aid and health care for the poor.

Yet at the same time, some of the country’s biggest corporations are getting away without being asked to pay anything at all. In 2009, mega corporations like Boeing and General Electric managed to avoid paying a penny in federal taxes â€" while also netting enormous benefits in tax benefits and subsidies.

Now, with many companies releasing their financial reports for 2010, it appears that Bank of America â€" the nation’s largest bank â€" has gone a second year in a row paying absolutely no federal corporate income taxes. In fact, not only did the company use its losses to avoid paying taxes last year, but it actually reported a tax benefit of almost a billion dollars:

After another money-losing year, Bank of America Corp. got the upper hand with Uncle Sam in 2010.

The Charlotte-based bank had no federal income tax expense for a second straight year and actually reported a tax “benefit” of nearly $1 billion. Also, the bank’s billions in accumulated losses could reduce its taxes in future years, a tax expert said.

“Bank of America takes its role as a corporate citizen very seriously, and pays taxes in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations,” bank spokesman Jerry Dubrowski said.

“If you go out and try to make money and you don’t do it, why should the government pay you for your losses?” asked Bob McIntyre of Citizens for Tax Justice when Bank of America used a similar provision in the tax code to dodge taxes in 2009. Additionally, in one state alone, Connecticut, Bank of America’s state income tax tax dodging cost the state a whopping $500 million.

Over the weekend, the UK-inspired movement US Uncut held demonstrations at Bank of America branches all over the country to protest the bank’s egregious tax dodging. In Washington, D.C., US Uncut protests shut down a major Bank of America branch in the Columbia Heights neighborhood. Watch it:



In a press release from last week, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) laid out ten corporate tax dodgers who aren’t paying their fair share and called for shared sacrifice. We have a deficit problem. It has to be addressed,” said Sanders in a press release addressing tax fairness. “But it cannot be addressed on the backs of the sick, the elderly, the poor, young people, the most vulnerable in this country. The wealthiest people and the largest corporations in this country have got to contribute. We’ve got to talk about shared sacrifice.”[/b]

http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/28/bank-of-america-taxes/

What do they exactly "produce" again?

TOXIC ASSETS

I understand and see your point of view/ And agree with it.
Unfortunately, in the fall of 2008, a decision had ti be made, whether to let these banks fail, and endure the repercussions, or save them through a bail out, to possibly avoid the consequences of a
depression. a great depression. And with quick and (very) kn owedgable insight, and unprecedented bi partisanship, leading democrats and republicans concluded, through chairman Bernanke's expertise, that to allow the banks to fail would bring on a great economic depression that would probably eclipse the great depression of the 1930s. So 'too big to fail" was enacted and i believe it saved America from probably the biggest economic catasphone of our history.  But it was far from prefect. And many Americans that had nothing to do with it , would take the biggest bite out of the s#$t sandwich we were dealt.
Oh i so much agree with your point, i personally felt it when, after our taxpayer dollars with to save "my" bank, they then cancelled my credit account and refused to lent me money for a house loan. But, and only as time passed i say, did i learn that such is the PARADOX of living in a capitalist society and more importantly, America.
And as bad as the economic "sneeze" was, is... the rest of the world did catch the "cold".

[buckethead]

Tarp came with no strings attached, and was followed by no real banking reforms.

This is the larger tragedy than the initial meltdown.

[hillary supporter]

Tarp came with no strings attached, and was followed by no real banking reforms.

This is the larger tragedy than the initial meltdown.

That is a very tragic and scary point!

[FayeforCure]

Citicorp is a financial institute, I work for another big one, and we sell a lot of the software and programs/products we create. Many of these financial institutions work hand in hand with manufactures, and even schools such as caltech and MIT in inovation center partnerships.

Ok, a wild guess:

Given our comprehensive experience in software engineering and project management, our company can be relied upon to deliver partial or full life-cycle projects on time and within budget. By outsourcing a portion of their development needs to Website Outsourcing, our customers gain a flexible and cost-effective resource enabling them to increase product ranges, decrease time to market, and significantly lower development costs.

http://ingsoftware.com/outsourcing/

Oooopsie, might you actually work for one of those socialist capitalist european companies?

Makes me proud of my home country ( the Netherlands) for their prowess, and higher Per Capita GDP than FL despite offering universal healthcare to ALL its citizens.


Too bad they lack the sunshine of the Sunshine state  

Yes, some of us immigrants are simply here for the sunshine  

Faye,

If you don't mind me asking, why did you immigrate?   And why did you choose Jacksonville, Florida?  Or was it not by choice?

No problem NotNow.

I recently went back to the Netherlands for a week to attend my dad's 80th birthday celebration. He has stage 4 kidney cancer, and when it was discovered in 2007, he was immediately put on Sutent which had just been FDA approved in 2006, and had a price tag of $7,000 per month. No questions asked and no out-of pocket expense to my then 77 year old dad.

And contrary to the Republican "too old for treatment" rationing that their vivid imagination holds of European universal healthcare systems, my dad was NOT deemed too old for life-extending treatments!!!! That whole notion is preposterous, and does NOT exist except as a figment of the imagination. But it is just sooooo easy to fool the ignorant American masses.

All my four sisters were there too at his 80th birthday celebration.........as they all remained in the Netherlands (and never even bothered to visit me in the US).

In reminiscing, my dad told me he was disappointed in me for turning down a great job opportunity for a marketing Innovation think tank, working directly for Mr. Dreesmann: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxeda

Instead I had to "chase after the sun" according to my dad.

I left Amsterdam in 1980, and moved to Los Angeles. Got married in 1982 to a British man that I had been living with since my Amsterdam college days, and all my children were born in LA. After 10 years of marriage, we divorced and I decided to move to Florida primarily because housing expenses were so much less in Florida. I settled in Orlando in 1994, but after about 6 years there I decided Orlando was too transient of a community. I briefly moved to Georgia (where I taught at Georgia Perimeter College, Brenau University and had an evening job as a pharmacy assistant at Wal-mart) for a therapy program for my son who became paralyzed from a soccer collison at age 7, but got home-sick for Florida.

It was a choice of either Tallahassee or Jacksonville (further south would be too much of a hassle)...........I found the house I was looking for in Jax in Dec. 2002, and voila, I'm here!

Actually grew some roots here  

So yeah, it really is true: some of us immigrants simply come here for the sunshine!

[NotNow]

Thanks Faye, and though we don't always agree, Welcome!  (Although you have been here long enough to be considered...Floridian)

And best wishes for your Dad.

[Timkin]

Same here, Faye

[FayeforCure]

Thank you, NotNow and Timkin. Your kind words are much appreciated!