Tag: multi-national

Senate blocks bill repealing $2B in oil tax breaks (via CBS News)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Once again we see who is important in Washington. Giant highly profitable oil companies get the help they want need while the public pays the full amount at the gas pump.

From the article at CBS News –

“Symbolic votes like this that aim to do nothing but pit people against each other will only frustrate the public even more,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said.

“Americans really aren’t interested in scapegoats,” he continued. “They just want to pay less to fill up their cars. That’s why this Democratic bill to tax American energy is an affront to the American people.”

I can think of 2 billion reasons this is not a “symbolic” vote and if by pitting people against each other, you mean calling the multibillion dollar profiting oil companies being called to task for their cynical political machinations, pitting people against each other, you are a very cynical man.

Is it ethical to manipulate Congress for relief from taxes when you run an extremely profitable multi-national corporation? It is ethical to call your opponents Un-American for wanting fair taxation?

You do not have to do a deep analysis of the ethical components here. This is a tragedy for the American people that evades the word, theft, by a razor’s edge.

More significant is that both these oil companies and the congressmen protecting them can be found day after day preaching with complete and apparent total conviction the value and importance of free markets. But we see here the colossal hypocrisy, basically six large corporations dictating to a suppliant congress a vast competitive advantage over any competitors. What about the innovation and low prices that competition brings about? Where’s that?

I have been told I am shrill. Explain to me at a time when there are serious plans to limit or eliminate Medicare and Social Security, why these companies should be able to evade their taxes. Tell me. Apparently this nation deserves no tax money from corporations since we don’t provide laws, roads, education, or a horde of ships, tanks, and planes to defend their property. Yeah, I’m shrill. Isn’t someone supposed to look out for the citizens?

From time to time I explain these things to people and they ask me who they should vote for. I tell them honestly, “There is no one.” The only difference between the two parties is in the level of obedience that lobbyists can command. I believe the welfare of the American people figure at most peripherally in the affairs of our government.

James Pilant

Warren: Consumer agency on small banks’ side (via MSNBC)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I have become concerned at the language of corporate ethics and white collar crime. It is not precise enough for what we are doing. I have talked many times about banks often very critically. But very seldom was I speaking of the local banks, the small banks. Generally, the despicable actions of the 24 large investment banks were what was motivating my anger. We don’t have the right words. Multi-national corporations shifting jobs overseas are not the same as close corporations composed of a single family running a large farm. We speak of corporations and banks but we mean only a few. We need a new language in business ethics. We need a new precision. Those small banks, those small businesses would be allies in the fight for morality and justice if not lumped in with the others everytime criticism is made.

We need a new language.

James Pilant

From MSNBC –

Small banks have expressed concern the new agency, set to open its doors in July, will add regulatory costs, making it harder for them to survive.

Warren told a gathering of community bankers that the opposite will happen as the agency simplifies regulations on products such as mortgages and seeks to crack down on non-bank lenders that went largely unregulated during the 2007-2009 financial crisis and are accused of shady lending practices.

“I know that you want a regulatory structure that doesn’t require an army of lawyers,” she said in remarks prepared for delivery at the Independent Community Bankers of America annual convention. “Big banks may be able to afford to hire all those lawyers, but you cannot.”