Bank CD rates...WTF?

[BlueStreak]

84. I agree with you, but maybe for a different reason

As I see it, this is the perfect scenario for the biggest corporations (lousy for the small businesses that do most of the real hiring.)

They have the cheapest labor costs in years. That comes from a combination of people willing to take any job at half their prior pay just to have some food on the table. It also comes from being able to work people like dogs with no repercussions. Productivity is at an all time high, but we need to understand that high productivity essentially converges with slave labor. We are part of the way there already. And they have been able to kill unions and labor laws left and right. There has never been a better labor situation for big business. For them an 8% unemployment rate is just about optimal -- at least as far as maximizing profits.

They also benefit from the lowest taxes ever. Again this is a benefit that mostly goes only to the really big companies that can afford to set up offshore havens and use all the other tax tricks they have paid lobbyists to set up for them. Small businesses -- the good guys -- aren't getting much of that benefit. Their taxes aren't historically high, but as the biggest corporations have excluded themselves from paying ANYTHING, all the rest of us are facing higher taxes and fees everywhere we look.

So this is pretty much the dream situation for big businesses: the cheapest labor possible without going offshore, and no taxes. Any movement from here will move them off that optimal profit point. Ironically, further recover is bad for the biggest businesses.

We need legislators who understand how to get rid of perverse incentives that reward people and companies for doing all the worst things for the nation at large.