Bravo for People for Corporate Tax Cuts

Wow, I have to say my hat is off to the people at OPSEU who put this campaign together. They are doing a marvelous job of keeping a straight faee and keeping up the gag. This was in my inbox at the newspaper this morning.

Good Morning -

Are you wondering how you will come up with $500 to pay your share of the Ontario government's proposed $2.4 billion a year corporate tax cut? Today, People for Corporate Tax Cuts unveiled its province-wide campaign to shares tips on how Ontarians can raise the $500 every household must contribute to pay for the corporate tax cuts. The organization will also educate Ontarians on the important role the cuts play in executive salaries and bonuses, and paying for other vital management incentives.

Examples of how Ontarians can raise $500:
– 15 year old Jimmy Palmatier sold his hockey equipment to help his parents pay their share
– Rahid Gupta vowed to give up his health care benefits so the government could put that money towards the corporate tax cuts


For more information, please visit our website.

NOTE: A press release is included below with additional information.

James Stephen
People for Corporate Tax Cuts



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


PEOPLE FOR CORPORATE TAX CUTS LAUNCHES PRO-CORPORATION CAMPAIGN

(TORONTO) January 20 – People For Corporate Tax Cuts (PFCTC) has launched a province-wide multi-media campaign in support of the Ontario government’s plan to give corporations a $2.4 billion a year tax cut.

“Giving corporations a $2.4 billion income tax cut means that every household in Ontario will have to contribute $500 to pay their share,” announced Nuella Warkworth, PFCTC President, Chair, CEO and COO, at a Niagara Falls press conference held earlier this week. “We’re here to help them do that.”

Through www.peopleforcorporatetaxcuts.ca and a media advertising campaign, PFCTC will share tips on how Ontarians can raise $500 to pay their share of the corporate tax cuts.

“The goal of the campaign is to show Ontarians that there are many ways they can come up with their $500 share of the corporate tax cuts,” said Warkworth. “Take Mrs. Muriel Flagle, for example. This 77 year old woman sold her walker to pay her share and is a proud member of PFCTC.”

The organization will also educate all Ontarians on the important role corporate tax cuts play in increasing executive salaries and bonuses, and paying for other vital management incentives.

PFCTC will be giving away $500 prizes to those who submit the best videos or photos showing how they will come up with the money they need to pay for corporate tax cuts. If they are unable to come with the money, entrants may also outline what public services they are personally prepared to give up so that the government can pass the savings on to corporations.

People For Corporate Tax Cuts also wishes to ensure that the Ontario government gets the credit it deserves. Ms Warkworth explained, “Even though Ontario already has about the lowest corporate taxes in North America, our government is proudly determined to cut corporate taxes even further. People For Corporate Tax Cuts recognizes and applauds this well-planned transfer of wealth from the people of Ontario to our corporate friends.”

Nuella Warkworth is a tireless fighter for the rights of corporations and the executives who run them. See her videos at www.peopleforcorporatetaxcuts.ca

About People for Corporate Tax Cuts – www.peopleforcorporatetaxcuts.ca:
People For Corporate Tax Cuts is a grassroots organization, founded in 2000 and led by Nuella Warkworth. Headquartered in Toronto with members throughout Ontario, PFCTC’s mission is to advocate for ever more generous corporate tax cuts. The organization has been very successful as Ontario’s corporate tax rates have fallen significantly in the last decade. A 2010 study by the KPMG consulting firm shows that Ontario has much lower business taxes than the United States and our key competitors.

“Pay Your Share” The People For Corporate Tax Cuts Anthem is available on our website.

- 30 -

Tweet

Attention political strategists

This is how a new media campaign is run. This is how you make a political point in a memorable way. I don't know who the brains are behind this. I'll be amazed if it is something that the provincial NDP came up with, since it lacks their usual earnestness, but if I were in charge of any of the media stuff for any of the parties, I'd be hiring these people yesterday, if not sooner.


Tweet

Harper's corporate welfare state

AbitibiBowater is a Montreal-based, Canadian company.... right? That would make initiating an action against the Canadian government under a NAFTA Chapter 11 complaint somewhat difficult you might think.

You'd be wrong. Further, you'll be shocked to find out that the Harper government didn't even start to fight AbitibiBowater. It simply handed over $130 million in an off-the-table agreement to a Canadian company and opened the doors to any other company that wants to rip off the Canadian taxpayer.

Welcome to Harper's northern welfare state. The corporate hogs are arriving at the Harper neo-con trough. And you aren't invited.

And now ... a message from Steve

From Pale at A Creative Revolution and featuring the smooth but fuzzy blue sweater vocalizations of our own Reverend Paperboy.

Canada-EU Trade Agreement and the 'Buy American' scare

Why does it fall to a former Irish MP and Member of the European Parliament to raise questions about the dangers of privatization to Canadians when the Canada-EU trade agreement (CETA) gets passed? Isn't that the job of the Canadian government and the Canadian media? *rhetorical lol*

Under the guise of harmonizing regulations between provinces, TILMA enjoyed limited success in the west in ending the provinces' and municipalities' right to "Buy Local" in favour of investor rights for international corps. This was a big sticking point for the EU decision in going ahead with a Canada-EU trade deal - if European companies weren't going to be allowed to bid as equals on government contracts for both goods and services and if the provinces refused to end the favouring of local or national providers of public-sector services, well then the EU wasn't very interested in pursuing the deal.

Luckily for Harper and the Canadian Council of Chief Executives and the 100 transatlantic CEOs plumping for CETA, the big "Buy American" scare came along. In exchange for a one day opportunity window into the 4 or 5 billion dollars left in Obama's Buy American stimulus package - jobs! jobs! jobs! - Harper convinced the provinces to give up their local procurement rights.

Between these two deals - the throw-away Buy American 'exemption' and the proposed Canada-EU deal - we're caught in a pincer move to further corporatize public services.

Good thing there's one Irishman at the European parliament asking a few questions on our behalf then, eh?

Justifying the plunder. Hell. He learned it from Cheney.

Indeed, this is a capital idea. In light of AIG Financial Products to continue paying exorbitant bonuses, reining them in is hardly sufficient. Immediate dismissal is actually called for.

If only it were so. If only it were so easy as that.

Edward M. Liddy, chairman and CEO of American International Group sent a letter to US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner explaining "why" AIG found itself in the untenable position of having to pay "retention" bonuses to the scam artists who ran the (cough) financial products mob of AIG. The Financial Post, a birdcage liner contained in the National Post, headlines Liddy's letter with, AIG must keep its word on bonuses.

Um... it's unclear as to whether the FinPo's headline is a sentiment supporting Liddy or whether it is simply repeating the tone of Liddy's remarkable line of bullshit. There is no comment from the editor either way.

So, the first question must be - Why?! AIG didn't keep its word to any of its clients and investors. It knowingly sold toxic products it couldn't clearly explain to customers all over the world. Those products were not what AIG claimed them to be. Why is the CEO of AIG suddenly so concerned about "keeping his word"?

In the first quarter of 2008, prior management took significant retention steps at AIG Financial Products. These arrangements were designed at a time when AIG Financial Products was expected to have a significant, ongoing role at AIG and guaranteed a minimum level of pay for both 2008 and 2009. (Due to losses at AIG Financial Products, a senior manager will receive about 43% of his 2007 expected level for 2008.) Some of these payments are coming due on March 15, and, quite frankly, AIG’s hands are tied. Outside counsel has advised that these are legal, binding obligations of AIG, and there are serious legal, as well as business, consequences for not paying.

Oh... Hector, don't step in that. It'll stick to your shoe!

The CEO of AIG doesn't seem to get that others who have received or are begging to receive corporate welfare at the hands of the American (and other nations') taxpayers are expected to renegotiate labour agreements with their employees. In the case of at least one automaker, those receiving a pension are to be whacked and whacked hard - without the benefit of being able to vote for or against the renegotiated settlement. And Mr. Liddy can't find it in his guts to demand the same thing from the people who led AIG right down the sinkhole?

Something wrong there. I think I may be getting close to it.

Given the trillion-dollar portfolio at AIG Financial Products, retaining key traders and risk managers is critical to our goal of repayment. This is all discussed in more detail in the attached “white paper.

Interesting threat! Wow! If you don't let me overpay my employees, we won't pay you back.

Honouring contractual commitments is at the heart of what we do in the insurance business. I cannot have our clients lose faith in our desire and ability to do just that.

So, if you are a CEO the formula works this way:
1. We sell you a piece of junk with the label "money market" on it and tell you it is as secure as the Rock of Gibraltar.
2. It failed and we had a pretty good idea this game would run out. We didn't know exactly when but we were pretty sure that when it did, anyone holding our paper was going straight down the tubes.
3. Because we are unbelievably huge and owe more money to our counterparties than any regular calculator has the ability to display, we insist that the US taxpayer bail us out when the game ends and we are exposed for having played a risky, unwinnable and possibly illegal game with our investors money.
4. We have to continue overpaying our executives and key portfolio managers because our investors will lose confidence in our company if we don't.

Mr. Liddy... what kind of drugs are you using?!!! What confidence, precisely, are you talking about?

On the other hand, we cannot attract and retain the best and brightest talent to lead and staff the AIG businesses — which are now being operated principally on behalf of the American taxpayers — if employees believe that their compensation is subject to continued and arbitrary adjustment by the U.S. Treasury.

Excuse me? AIG never had the best and brightest. It clearly had a horde of incompetents, crooks, swindlers and liars running things. And just in case that bunch of lily-assed MBAs haven't quite got the picture yet, they need to be made aware of one important item - they are being paid by the US Treasury. The option available was to learn to say, "Would like fries with that?"

Apparently the Attorney General of New York sees things differently than Liddy.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said he will subpoena American International Group Inc., the insurer that got a $173 billion taxpayer bailout, for information on employees who he said were sent bonuses March 13.

Cuomo said in a conference call that the New York-based insurer claims it had to make the retention payments because of employment contracts.

“If the taxpayer didn’t bail out AIG, those contracts wouldn’t be worth the paper they’re printed on,” Cuomo said. “Just because there’s a contract doesn’t mean there’s no way around the contract.”

The attorney general demanded the names of the employees, their positions, job descriptions and information on their performance, as well as their employment contracts and who negotiated them, according to a letter Cuomo sent AIG earlier today. Cuomo said in the letter that he would subpoena the company if he didn’t receive the information by 4 p.m. today.

Hmmm... looks like time in the courtroom is inevitable. And that's what Liddy didn't want... remember?

Why?

Because of the stories that will get told. Those bonuses buy silence. Without them, the flock of MBAs will start to twitter. And since they know where all the bodies are buried I suspect we're in for one helluva horror story.

It isn't free and it isn't a market

"The American International Group, which has received more than $170 billion in taxpayer bailout money from the US Treasury and Federal Reserve, plans to pay about $165 million in bonuses to executives in the same business unit that brought the company to the brink of collapse last year. The payments to A.I.G.’s financial products unit are in addition to $121 million in previously scheduled bonuses for the company’s senior executives.

A.I.G.’s main business is insurance, but the financial products unit sold hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of derivatives, the notorious credit-default swaps that nearly toppled the entire company last fall.
A.I.G. had set up a special bonus pool for the financial products unit early in 2008, before the company’s near collapse, when problems stemming from the mortgage crisis were becoming clear and there were concerns that some of the best-informed derivatives specialists might leave.
Edward M. Liddy, the government-appointed chairman of A.I.G., argued that some bonuses were needed to keep the most skilled executives."

AIG loss in 2008 was $99.3 billion.

Fin. Times : "Goldman Sachs Group Inc and 22 European banks were the major beneficiaries of US$93-billion in payments from AIG -- more than half of the U.S. taxpayer money spent to rescue the massive insurer."

Goldman Sachs was formerly led by Henry Paulson who was treasury secretary at the time of the original AIG bailout.
Obama is apparently "outraged".

Michael Parenti : "They don't mind recessions. Recessions are fine. It allows them to buy up smaller companies at bargain prices. It disciplines labor. It humiliates and beats back people. And this, I think, is what we're facing.And it's not merely because of a number of wicked personalities, because these personalities are brought to the fore. Those are the people who get the rewards.
The free market does not work. It's not free. It's not really a market; it's a plunder. And it has to be done away with."

Cross-posted at Creekside

Bail! Bail! . . . .

In honour of what appears to be an impending Big Three bailout, this ad may come in handy:


H/T Dana

I for one welcome our new Chinese corporate overlords

Chrysler Canada has asked Ottawa and Ontario for $1-billion in aid, as the "big three" in the US are attempting to hit up their taxpayers for $25-billion.

US Ford CEO Alan Mulally took home $28 million in pay in 2007 while GM's Rick Wagoner struggled by on just $15.7 million.
As a private company, Chrysler is not required to disclose the salary paid to its execs and CEO Robert Nardelli has offered to reduce his salary to $1 till business "picks up", but don't feel too sorry for him - Home Depot just paid him $210 million to piss off last year.

All three U.S. auto industry leaders flew to the Washington bailout hearings to ask for money in separate luxury jets. Each flight was estimated to cost $20,000 (U.S.)

.

Anyway, while knocking around teh google, trying to find out how much the Canadian Chrysler CEO makes, I ran into this at The Truth About Cars :
Chinese May Buy GM and Chrysler :

"Chinese carmakers SAIC and Dongfeng have plans to acquire GM and Chrysler, China’s 21st Century Business Herald reports today. The paper cites a senior official of China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology– the state regulator of China’s auto industry– who dropped the hint that “the auto manufacturing giants in China, such as Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) and Dongfeng Motor Corporation, have the capability and intention to buy some assets of the two
crisis-plagued American automakers."

An editorial at TTAC notes :

"As of September, the U.S. Treasury owes China $585b. With GM’s market cap now standing at a pocket change rate of $1.35b, and getting cheaper by the minute, China could buy 433 General Motors with their T bills alone."

Cross-posted, more or less, at Creekside.

Update : Heh. Great minds google images alike.