Per the US Census: What the wealthy did with their tax cuts

[Capn Sunshine]

Per Blogger http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/l/e/let_freedom_ring/2010/09/what-the-wealthy-did-with-thei.php?ref=reccafe#">let freedom ring at Talking points memo, Here's a factoid that really stands out:

What the wealthy did with their tax cuts
September 9, 2010, 12:31PM


According to the the U.S. census US capital investment in foreign countries has gone from $1.3 trillion in 2000 to $3.2 trillion in 2008 while at the same time the Bush tax cuts which overwhelmingly went to the wealthy cost 1.3 trillion per politifact. So the wealthy essentially took their tax cuts, intended per the Republicans to spur U.S. jobs, and invested them and more in foreign countries, not the U.S..

Not only bad for the deficit, but more support of foreign economies at our expense. Isn't this more of a threat than a guy working at a car wash to support his family sending a couple of hundred dollars back home?

[WCGreen]

1. I am shocked, I tell, you shocked....

[indepat]

6. When pubs fu*k us over, it's a really good royal f*ckin'

;)

[BrklynLiberal]

2. and don't forget

[rfranklin]

5. I've noticed that the rich kids now get new BMWs in high school...

when in past years they only got the old family Volvo or SUV.

[BrklynLiberal]

7. Sickening, isn't it?

I have heard of girls spending thousands of dollars on their sweet sixteen parties..more than I spent on my wedding.
$1200 birthday cakes
$2000 dresses..
$1000 on flowers,+ hall rental, orchestra, etc etc etc
The TV shows only encourage it...

[AlbertCat]

58. Sickening, isn't it?

Yeah, sour grapes will make you sick.

[rfranklin]

63. So you are for the transfer of wealth from the middle class to the one percenters?

Because that's what we're talking about here.

[truedelphi]

72. Few here would dis people who legitimately got their wealth.

I mean, someone like Jacques Cousteau who enabled people to enjoy diving without the cumbersome tubes connecting them to the boats.

Someone inventing a cure for any disease (Though most of the real disease curers now live outside the country. Note that Suzanne Sommers went to Europe to survive her breast cancer.)

But most of the big profits occurring now are on account of the Wealth Transfer that occurred when nine to fourteen trillion bucks went from Main Street to Wall Street, via Bernanke and Geihtner funny business.

Geithner would be involved in RICO charges were he not a public official. If someone privately did the crap Geithner does - there would be a silly stirped suit waiting for them at a Federal Pen.

Please "google" Alan Grayson as he questions the head of oversight about that money - she was the Inspector General of banking processes, and she claimed that she doesn't know where the money went, blaming her ignorance on not reading some article Alan quoted from.

look at yesterday's DU OP's about the recent "investigations" into Citibank funny business.

Two executives involved plead guilty, and my oh my, for their fraud that helped crash our entire economy, they got slapped with one 80 K penalty and one 100 K penalty. Pretty nasty penalties applied to these men, who received tens of millions over the last several Christmas'es as bonus money.

[rhett o rick]

74. What's your point ? nm

[marew]

68. Not true here!

The most expensive cars in the high school parking lots have always belonged to the students where I live.

[LakeLucerne]

49. You forgot?

Nice boat, where's the plane (GS 550)?

[Capn Sunshine]

3. There's a whole cottage industry that is designed to offshore money

Apparently it's more effective than I knew. They use the same techniques -targeted emails, junk mail newsletters, subscription solcitations based on other subscriptions ( like To Barrons, for ex)as Newsmax.

[BrklynLiberal]

4. Heard an ad on the radio today about the merger of two big Accountancy Firms...offices

in major US cites, AND THE CAYMAN ISLANDS.....DUH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[m00nbeam]

8. I have often thought

that in order to "clamp" down on "illegal" immigration, our government has had it all backwards. Don't go after the immigrants AT ALL. They are only here because the opportunities here are better than the opportunities where they came from.

Go after the employers, put real teeth in the consequence. Fine the employers a very significant amount of money per undocumented worker. Make it really hurt the bottom line to hire undocumented workers.

[DesertFlower]

9. i agree. nt

[Jackpine Radical]

16. You're missing the point of the legislation.

It's not intended to shut down illegal immigration. It's intended to keep the illegals scared, docile and willing to work under brutal conditions for starvation wages.

[m00nbeam]

21. true.

I never quite thought of it in those terms, but you are right.

[kenfrequed]

44. Sad but true

And when the dejure boot doesn't press hard enough, the right wing xenophobic nut jobs rachet up the language and fear to cause fearful emotions to reverberate through our culture.

[pezDispenser]

45. exactly

[Raster]

47. No shit!

[ejpoeta]

51. exactly true. if the immigrants aren't afraid of being deported or discovered,

they might tell people what they are being subjected to.

[femrap]

59. You're correct....

it's all about Social Control/Power.

[blondeatlast]

61. Big effin' BINGO! and the bonus for the exploiters is that it works on almost all brown people.

They aren't gonna pull over lily-white Canadian snowbirds here in AZ, I'm fairly certain.

[valerief]

67. Right. Whenever any legislation is passed, Question One should be:

What rich people will benefit very well from this?

I'll be there's ALWAYS an answer.

[Divernan]

38. You are absolutely right about that. (and welcome to DU!)

I recall seeing migrant labor camps in Florida, Texas and California back in the 1960's. Agricultural interests depended on mainly Mexican labor and made the necessary political "arrangements" to make sure the laborers could get across the border. Nowadays, US corporations make bogus claims about lack of skilled workers to get green cards for foreign IT people, who work a lot cheaper than their US counterparts. The green card folks ARE legally here - but what remains the same is that business interests grease political palms to get the cheapest labor, and American working men and women end up unemployed and eventually bankrupt and/or homeless.

I have animosity toward legal or illegal immigrants - they naturally look out for their own best interests and go where the jobs are. It's the employers who accept the bogus social security numbers who should be fined big-time.

[RaleighNCDUer]

57. I assume you mean "I have NO animosity..." nt

[Divernan]

78. Thanks for catching that - I posted on the way out, and didn't edit!

[MedicalAdmin]

52. +1 --- the employers hire 'em.

It's not like they show up a jobs and just pick up tools and get to work.

SOMEONE is hiring them.

[OHdem10]

10. Right now think how many people are invested in the Chinese

Stock Market. Just one example.

[Phx_Dem]

11. Rich people are patriots.

They're always thinking about how they can contribute to their county's wellbeing.

:rofl:

P.S. I hope they invested most of they money in Greece.

[ProudDad]

12. tax cuts, intended per the Republicans to spur U.S. jobs

Uh, actually no. Indented by the republicans to reward their rich friends (and themselves)...

[JHB]

31. I don't think anyone here was fooled about their true intent...

...just pointing out the now-proven wrongness of their sales pitch.

[MichiganVote]

13. K&R

[Billy Burnett]

14. The repigs squeal on about commies and socialist Europe, yet that's where their money goes to grow.

Sadly, too many Americans can't see any of this hypocrisy.

Freedom is Slavery.

[JDPriestly]

18. The outsourcing to China and India is really stupid.

What is to stop China from suddenly deciding to revert to Communism and just nationalize its major industries? The whole build-your-factory-in-China mania is just foolish. I think that at least in theory China is still a Communist country.

[MedicalAdmin]

53. Which gives the rich a reason to ask for a war to ...

wait for it... protect American interests. And if you thought Iraq was a clusterfuck where money was siphoned off from the American taxpayers, then you aint seen nothing yet.

[femrap]

60. All they really need to

do is place an Embargo against the US. Which maybe in the long run would be OK...we'd have to make our own stuff again.

[JNelson6563]

15. Astounding anyone could think this is good. Fools.

Thanks for posting this Cap'n! Always good to see you old friend! :hi:

Julie

[krispos42]

17. K&R

[krispos42]

19. What is interesting is the percentages and the dollar amounts

I added an extra column in Excel and had it compute the percentages from 2000 to 2008, then sorted by number.

Russia... foreign investment increased 798%
Nigeria, 722%
India, 677%
The Bahamas, 594%
Luxembourg, 586%
UK Islands in the Caribbean, 416%
China, 410%


And by 2008 dollar amounts:

Belgium, with $443 billion. The UK has $420 billion, Canada $227 billion, Bermuda $166 billion, Luxembourg with $163 billion, Ireland with $146 billion, and the UK-owned islands in the Caribbean with $139 billion.

Aren't the UK islands in the Caribbean, Luxembourg, and the Bahamas notorious tax shelters?

[Cha]

20. Thank you for this priceless nugget of

information, Capn~

[slay]

22. K&R

glad to finally be able to K&R a post from here. :) The rich don't care about us, they care about one thing = $$$$$$. A lot easier to make it in "developing countries" that don't have those darn pesky environmental regulations keeping them in check. Minimum wage.. HA!

Obama says he's not a fan of government creating jobs - well guess what Mr. President, you best BECOME a fan and fast cause the rich are fucking the rest of us - hard! And not in a good way.

[jmondine]

23. This is a talking point with the power to change the course of the next election

It must go viral.

[laughingliberal]

24. K & R nt

[Lasher]

25. Which financed offshoring of US jobs.

Prior to the Bush tax cuts there was more incentive to reinvest earnings in US plant, on account of the associated tax writeoff.

[LawnKorn]

26. The economy is starved for cash circulating in the system

The rich are just sitting on their portfolios and the economy has come to a halt. In order to effect a recovery, more cash has to be changing hands to get the economy going again.

Selective use of the tax code to tax away the assets of the wealthy and put that money back into the economy is what we need.

[fasttense]

32. It seems the rich are hoarding cash during this economic crisis.

They did it during the 1st RepubliCON Great Depression too.

It's not such a big deal if the rich Don't control a huge chunk of the national wealth. But when they do, it can devastate a country's economy. A government has a vested interest in preventing the accumulation of too much wealth in too few hands. Relying on the uber wealthy's good intentions is really bad economic policy. But it's the only one we got.

[truedelphi]

73. KQED TV out of San Fraancisco had a program two nights ago

About Goldman Sachs and their wonderful use of our money - they have purchased a huge tract of land as a sanctuary for wildlife in Patagonia.

Good use of money, I suppose, but that sanctuary cost many on Main Street their livelihood. So a few people can go their and observe wildlife.

I very much resent GS getting any credit. They should have a disclaimer on such TV shows - this would not have happened if not for the willingness of tens of millions of people in the USA to live on Food Stamps and dwindling unemployment checks.

Credit where credit is due.

[LawnKorn]

27. K&R

[Enthusiast]

28. At least they didn't invest

in lazy American union workers.










:sarcasm:

[rasputin1952]

29. The supporting of slave labor by these clowns is despicable...

x(

[boomerbust]

30. A quote I just heard on CNBC

"The only way to a healthy economy is lowering the cost of labor". :smoke:

[fasttense]

33. What bozo said that????

Lowering the cost of labor will lower demand, which will guarantee a continued depression.

No rich man ever offered anyone a job without having 5 customers lined up to buy what that job will make.

[boomerbust]

35. Some fat pig called

LeFrak

[L0oniX]

56. ...So the rich can get more millions in bonuses.

[orbitalman]

34. SEE!!.... And it just gives us more AMMO. n/t

[TomClash]

36. Not only won't the rich fight for their country

The won't invest in it either.

[chriscruzan]

37. Capitalism

without compassion is Satanism ! Real facts about how monies are manipulated and a gnowledge of how the Bible reads will be the best tools to defend " Liberty and Justice for All ". Kind of like a 10lb. sledgehammer to the nuts.

[wilt the stilt]

39. The truth of the matter

is the rich are only loyal to their own well being. They couldn't give a shit about the country.

That being said the republicans are led by the south who believe in an aristocratic society bordering on benevolent despotism. They actually believe that if we give them enough money that they will be kind enough to give us jobs. This belief goes back to an earlier time and is deeply rooted in medieval times. What a warped belief.

[valerief]

41. The rich don't have a country. They have RichWorld and NotRichWorld. nt

[valerief]

40. They all bought palaces in Dubai. nt

[BEZERKO]

42. You know

we went to a party meeting a couple of years ago, and someone broke into our house - stole our safe, debit cards, rifled through our files, and on the way out took our Wii. Bastard! This makes me feel like I did that night. Like I've been robbed, it IS the same thing.

[lonestarnot]

43. Uno dos tres quatro. We suck.

[T Wolf]

46. I am spreading this truth. Amazing how dedicated corporatists can discard facts in pursuit of

their faith-based economic system.

[Javaman]

48. But who will say or do anything about this?

will our elected dems squawk at all?

Since is the election season, one would think this is prefect ammo for any dem, but alas, I feel they will let yet another opportunity to slip by and instead roll over for the repukes to rub their tummys.

[slipslidingaway]

50. Why is the UBS Whistle-Blower Headed to Prison?

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1928897,00.html

"...Many critics believe the decision to prosecute Birkenfeld, whom some consider the most important whistle-blower in years, sends the worst possible message to other financial-industry insiders who might be considering coming forward. The Government Accountability Project (GAP), a Washington watchdog organization that has extensive whistle-blower experience, says a chilling effect is already apparent: a senior executive at a European bank that offers similar U.S. tax shelters is having second thoughts about going public because of the Birkenfeld case.

"No wonder nobody has ever come forward to blow the whistle on the Swiss banks before — and with this mind-set, the government is guaranteeing that nobody will come forward again and disclose information about tax fraud on this scale," says Dean Zerbe, a tax attorney representing Birkenfeld in his dealings with the IRS. Zerbe also served as tax counsel for the Senate Finance Committee; in 2006 it revised the tax code to include whistle-blower protections.

Birkenfeld voluntarily approached U.S. authorities in May 2007 offering details on the illegal tax shelters run by UBS, where he had worked since 2001..."


http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/7/why_is_the_whistleblower_who_exposed

"...Birkenfeld laid all this out to the Justice Department. He agreed to wear a wire. He agreed to go—live in Switzerland with the people he hung out with, wear a wire, to tell the Justice Department when these bankers were traveling, what hotels they were staying at. He gave them their cell phone numbers. He pointed them in the direction of how they could learn the identities of these thousands of Americans.

And remember, they’re all very rich people, very powerful people. They could be judges. They could be senators. They’re all rich. They’re all probably very powerful in their local communities. How guilty were they? Just what Juan said. Every year they checked a box that was a lie on their tax form that permitted them to hide millions and millions in assets. Each time they checked that box, they committed a felony. So if they were doing it for fifteen, twenty years, these are large felonies.

They also had this thing called “mail hold.” The Swiss bank would never send them a letter, so no one could ever track it down. It was personal between that millionaire cheater and the bank. And all of their mail would be held in a secret vault. So when they traveled to Switzerland, they could sit and open all their mail, all their receipts, all their statements, and then shred them when they were done looking at them. In other words, the bank was actively facilitating the fraud, but each client was actively engaged. And these were not small frauds. These were major frauds by millionaires and billionaires.

And right now, the American people don’t know who they were. Think of that. Fourteen thousand multimillionaires and, we know, billionaires had illegal accounts for years. They hold positions of authority in the United States. And the Justice Department has essentially given cover to every single one of them. And Birkenfeld explained how you could catch them. And instead of letting Birkenfeld wear a wire, they want Birkenfeld to wear stripes. Instead of letting Birkenfeld go back to Switzerland and help with law enforcement, they’re putting him in jail for forty months, more than everyone else.

I mean, they’re sending a message: if you want to blow the whistle on this level of wealthy and powerful individual in the United States of America, be prepared to go to jail..."

[slipslidingaway]

65. More from Birkenfeld - Senior management at UBS was aware ...

of tax evasion.

Ex-UBS whistleblower hits out at 'corrupt' US justice

http://www.france24.com/en/20100828-ex-ubs-whistleblower-hits-out-corrupt-us-justice

""The Department of Justice's corruption is evident today -- why am I the only one in prison when I had revealed everything?" the US banker asked in a French-language interview with Swiss newspaper Le Temps.

...He charged that the fact that the Department of Justice failed to uncover the tax fraud without his help showed that it was "not only incompetent, but corrupt."

He also claimed that UBS' senior management was well aware that bankers were helping rich Americans to evade taxes illegally.

"Of course they knew. All these trips, the encrypted laptops -- the management knew all that, and had even authorised them.

"Denying it is just like saying that the Japanese generals did not know that an attack on Pearl Harbour was being prepared," he charged..."

[ihavenobias]

54. K & R n/t

[L0oniX]

55. Said it before. Tax cuts for the rich does not create jobs here. The rich are our enemies.

[Raoul]

77. Yep - you got that right..

[Change Happens]

62. lol....Nice!

Amazing, thank you for posting.

[raouldukelives]

64. If only they loved the United States as much as Dubai..nt

[woodpeckercider]

71. Exactly where is the love for their own country? n/t

[chill_wind]

66. K & R. n/t

[LuckyLib]

69. Let's see more of this -- peel back the ugly layers of "where the dollars go"

[woodpeckercider]

70. K&R n/t

[midnight]

75. Wisconsin's Paul Ryan is so busy complaining about entitlements for the poor

that I bet he doesn't know what the rich have done with their entitlements.

[Raoul]

76. I'm not surprised

Because they are just evil, self absorbed scum. Why do you think the French did what they did during their revolution? Do you think the rich has changed since then?

And, from a personal story - I used to duke it out with some religious right wing fundies over at a GOP blog. This one who called herself NJGOP used to write post after post telling everyone how much she loves God and follows His rules. At the same time she'd be attacking me and other lefties for being anti everything.

I cornered her once about a bible verse that proved, to me, that the 1st century folks were really socialists at heart - giving up all of their possessions for the common good of the community, etc. She kept dodging the bible verse until I finally got her to agree about the verse showing that people shared things. She refused, however, to admit that this was classic socialism at work.

Anyway, I'd managed to infiltrate one of their right wing blogs where she was a member. One day she actually bragged about 'hiding some money' in the Cayman Islands in order to avoid having to pay our horrible taxes over here.

I think they call that hypocrisy. Now, where's that gullotine?