Will companies spend tax savings to create jobs?

[IronLionZion]

http://money.cnn.com/2017/12/19/investing/tax-plan-jobs-trump-ceo-yale-survey/index.html

CEOs may like the idea of a big tax cut for businesses, but that doesn't mean they'll use the savings to create American jobs.

Just 14% of CEOs surveyed by Yale University said their companies plan to make large, immediate capital investments in the United States if the tax overhaul passes. Capital investments, like building plants and upgrading equipment, can lead to hiring.

Only a slim majority of the CEOs, 55%, said the Republican tax package should be signed into law. The Yale CEO Summit surveyed 110 prominent business leaders of Fortune 500 and Fortune 50 companies last week.

The findings, along with other surveys, suggest that the tax plan may not have the dramatic impact on jobs that President Trump and Republicans in Congress have promised.

Trump tweeted over the weekend that "TAX CUTS" will lead to "higher growth, higher wages, and more JOBS!" The GOP tax overhaul would slash the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% and offer incentives for companies to bring foreign profits back home.

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, who leads the Yale CEO Summit, said in an interview that it's "astounding" how few companies plan to reinvest their tax savings.

He called the idea of a jobs boom from the tax plan "a lot of smoke and mirrors," especially because the unemployment rate is just 4.1% and companies already have plenty of cash to make investments.

The American people are being taken for suckers by the wealthy investor class. Unemployed are not going to see much from a tax cut. People with no stocks won't get much benefit from higher dividends and stock prices. People who depend on government benefits will see a different type of cut. Charities who get tax deductible donations are going to get the screwed.

[annabanana]

1. What? Like, for the FIRST TIME EVER?

I don't think kso.

No one hires until they can't handle the workload themselves.
Doesn't happen

[awesomerwb1]

2. For starters, We're at peak employment right now

There are over 6 million unfilled jobs in the Obama economy.

Companies will simply increase stockholders dividends and executive bonuses.

[Vinca]

3. If companies do hire, what's to prevent them from outsourcing? Nothing!

Greed wins. If they can find a country where they can pay a worker $15 a week rather than $15 an hour, that's where the jobs will be. The whole this is "bassackwards." The loot should be going to the people who have to spend it, not the people who are going to hoard it or buy another mansion or a yacht. Demand creates jobs, not wishful thinking.

[BigmanPigman]

4. I saw a business meeting on TV last week.

Last edited Tue Dec 19, 2017, 05:50 PM - Edit history (1)

The rich businessmen were asked if they would a pass a tax cut for them down to their employees and the consumers. Almost all of them said that they were going to keep their money. At least they were honest about their greed. I think this is the meeting.

[onecaliberal]

5. What is stopping them now

[IronLionZion]

8. Those damn job killing liberals

after they get the tax cuts, they'll claim regulations are stopping them, and then the decrease in consumer demand, and so on.

[onecaliberal]

11. Fat fucking circle of lies that the stupid in this country believes because theyre not smart enough

To know it’s failed EVERY GOD DAMN TIME

[Kimchijeon]

10. Exactly - they don't need to pretend

It's open looting season.

[haele]

6. No, never did in the past.

Why should they start now?
The tax cut is not during a time of high unemployment or sluggish economy.

Bring manufacturing or services over here? Companies have already brought back facilities here as they needed to - cost of unskilled or lower skilled labor will still be too high because the cost of living wages and support for those employees is still too high in this country to move that type of manufacturing or service job back.

Unless we as a country want to view all labor to be "disposable" which at least a good 70% of the citizens of this country won't tolerate. We still have this pretense that there is no "caste" in the United States; those suburban yokels, Chamber of Commerce and "Blue Collar" types still like to pretend that they're the equal of any Wall Street wizard or Corporate Technocrat.

It won't matter to those who can already park their money offshore whether or not wages or jobs grow. All they care about is that their revenue and dividends grow.
The ones who are getting the tax cuts are nothing but a pack of Rentiers, living off the labor and talents of people who actually have to work to survive. They don't actually produce much of anything, they just throw money around to get more money back.

On edit - My GOP BiL, who manages a regional bank, admitted that if his bank got a tax cut or regulations that "slowed down" their business activity and cost them were removed, there would still be no reason to hire more bank tellers or loan officers because they had enough employees to do the job they wanted to do right then. They'd just put that money back into dividends, invest it, or let it sit on the books.
Why would they physically grow any more than they needed to?

Why would any company relocate to somewhere they don't need to be, or hire more people they need to, or raise wages above the prevailing level if they didn't need to hire more people or keep the people they have?

Haele

[Wellstone ruled]

7. Zero,Nadda,Never,and For Get Abut it!!!!!!!

[Angry Dragon]

13. you forgot NYET

[Wellstone ruled]

15. Forget,we are under the Putin.

[shraby]

9. They never have yet.

[Angry Dragon]

12. How many robots are they going to hire??

[ProudLib72]

16. That and building globaly

If I were a CEO, I would not be so sure of our economy under this administration, and I would be loathe to invest my money in an economy that could very well tank in the next couple of years.

[DanTex]

14. Of course not. Companies don't rely on cash on hand, whether tax savings or anything else,

to fund capital investments. If there are profitable capital investments to be made, companies borrow money or sell equity and make them. If there aren't any profitable capital investments to be made, then companies let their cash earn interest, or return it to shareholders as dividends.

[Caliman73]

17. I have not been in high school for about 26 years now, do they not teach economics anymore?

I know that economics is a more complicated field than my simplistic explanation, but what I remember is that demand is the engine for an economy in a market based system.

I do understand that if a company creates innovative products, that they can create a demand (I.E. Apple's Ipod, etc...) but ultimately, it is the demand, which means that it is the regular, everyday individual who makes money at a job, who has some discretionary funds, who chooses to buy a product, or a necessity, that creates demand that drives employers to increase their ability to supply the products (jobs).

This ridiculous supply side idea (which Bush Sr. aptly called Voodoo economics) has never worked and yet it persists and is soon to be passed into law. Which leads me back to my question... Is anyone teaching economics anymore?

[IronLionZion]

18. Education makes people soft and weak, winners don't have time for that

there's a reason most economists are liberal by a large margin.

[Caliman73]

20. The Batman v. Joker phenomenon...

Liberals are typically a step behind because there is an inherent humanity that we have to respect, even when fighting things that represent a great evil and threat. The Joker just runs in a blows things up, but we (liberals) won't just go out and kill him because we don't want to become him.

Yep, that is definitely one of the drawbacks of mixing education with a conscience or an ethical values system.

[DeminPennswoods]

19. Companies are awash in cash right now

They're not investing it in anything. So more cash will change that how?

[Xolodno]

21. Companies are going to put money away...

...for the eventual Trump Recession.

Hell, I would. Use it at as a slush fund to either retain talent (think executives), an alternative to credit should banks scale back borrowing, or worse, pay for the costs of shutting down offices (since they will be breaking leases), severance packages, etc.