For Multinationals, U.S. Wages, and Workers, No Longer Key to Profits

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.inthesetimes.com/working

Friday July 30 2:15 pm By Roger Bybee

By Roger Bybee


—from "The Global Jobs Competition Heats Up" (Wall Street Journal, July 1) by Martin Bailey, Matthew Slaughter, and Laura D'Andrea Tyson

* * * * *

The notion that the U.S. government has been "tak its multinationals for granted" and "driving them overseas" is certainly a novel proposition, coming after three decades in which federal policy has been more closely aligned than ever with the demands of these huge global corporations.

It is particularly revealing that this urgent concern is being expressed by Laura D'Andrea Tyson, a top economic advisor to President Bill Clinton and an influential voice in Democratic policy circles. Clinton's notable achievements included the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (job toll: over one million US jobs transplanted to Mexico and counting) normalization of trade relations with China, and China's admission to the World Trade Organization (2.2 million jobs lost and rising).

Yet Tyson and her colleagues are advancing this argument for more solicitous treatment of multinational corporations at a particularly bizarre moment: Corporate profits are skyrocketing, employment remains sharply reduced with devastating human costs, and wages represent a record-low share of national income.

BREAKING THE LINK BETWEEN PROFITS AND JOB CREATION

Harold Meyerson, arguing along the lines of Robert Reich and my recent post on this site outlined in depth what Reich called the "decoupling of profits from jobs":

Among the 175 companies in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index that have released their second-quarter reports, the New York Times reported Sunday, revenue rose by a tidy 6.9 percent, but profits soared by a stunning 42.3 percent. Profits, that is, are increasing seven times faster than revenue. The mind, as it should, boggles.

How can America's corporations so defy gravity?

Ever adaptive, they have evolved a business model that enables them to make money even while the strapped American consumer has cut back on purchasing.


FULL story at link.

[Donnachaidh]

1. NAFTA the gift that keeps on giving -- to the WEALTHY.

Thanks Bill! :sarcasm: