Corporations are going to spend their extra money on dividend payments! NOT JOBS!

[Joanne98]

It was easy to see this coming. Even Wisdom Tree has a new ETF that just focuses on company's dividends.


CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — Investors found dividend-paying stocks were a gift that kept on giving in 2010, and judging from current trends, the corporate payout spree could continue well into next year.

Even as profits recovered from the troughs of 2009, many companies were — and remain — too nervous about economic conditions to put meaningful investment into business expansion. At the same time, they’ve benefitted from deep cost cuts made during the depths of the recession. The result is that money has piled up in corporate coffers — cash that management increasingly is choosing to give to shareholders.

From AFLAC Inc. /quotes/comstock/13*!afl/quotes/nls/afl (AFL 56.97, -0.14, -0.25%) to Walgreen Co. /quotes/comstock/13*!wag/quotes/nls/wag (WAG 39.20, +0.24, +0.62%) , scores of firms have increased or initiated dividends in the past 12 months, giving their stockholders a little extra something to go along with often impressive share price rises.

Coming into the last week of the year, 255 companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index /quotes/comstock/21z!i1:in\x (SPX 1,258, +0.77, +0.06%) had either boosted dividends or begun paying them in 2010, up from 157 in 2009, according to S&P. That meant $20.6 billion was added to the total kitty this year, a sharp reversal from the $37.3 billion that was removed in 2009. Only four S&P 500 components cut their dividends in 2010, with an aggregate total value of $400 million. By contrast, 140 firms cut or suspended their dividends in 2008 and 2009, costing investors almost $89 billion.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/cash-rich-companies-gift-wrap-dividends-2010-12-24

So the next time a lying filth conservative says we should give corporations tax cuts to create jobs, shove this in their lying faces.

[RandomThoughts]

1. You make a good point with your last comment.

That is why media control is important to some, so people don't point those things out in open discussion on topics, and so that many discussions can be disingenuous.

But there are many journalist out there that are thinking on things like that.

[Joanne98]

4. And it so easy to check. All the American people have to do is read the financial papers.

And they would find out that what the corporations are saying to the shareholders is the EXACT OPPOSITE of what the pols are saying. I can't believe how gullible the people in this country are!

[somone]

2. Just more money for the ownership class

straight into their pockets

[toddwv]

3. New law for legal entities called "corporations"

51% of the company is required to be owned by the workers. Change them all to "co-operations" instead of "corporations".

[Joanne98]

5. Great idea.

[Statistical]

7. Will the workers be willing to pay for ownership stake via payroll deduction?

To transition from ~0% (or low some companies have employee stock purchase plans) ownership to 51% ownership?

[toddwv]

8. There would have to be some guarantee.

Otherwise, they'd be suspect that they were just boosting exec bonuses and stock dividends even higher.

[Statistical]

11. Well if it were boosting dividends higher those dividends would return to shareholder/employees.

Still it is an interesting concept one that I think deserves some merit.

If workers are part of ownership it would reduce one of the largest complaints about capitalism (that it benefits the "ownership class" at the expense of the workers.

[FormerDittoHead]

6. What's the problem? They pay lower taxes that way - only 15%!

The problem with our society is that we don't reward the rich ENOUGH.

http://duanegraham.wordpress.com/2010/12/16/obama-tax-deal-makes-it-even-better-to-be-rich/

"The tax compromise extends a 15 percent top tax rate on long-term capital gains and dividends enacted in 2003, which is the lowest rate since 1933"

[Hawkeye-X]

9. That capital gain tax needs to be re-reaised at least 5x that much

Yes, I'm talking about a 75% rate!

[lunatica]

10. Another sucker punch to the gut

It just never ends with these corporations.