TFK Capitalist Thread

[Horsebox]

@Tim_Riggins

As an aside would it be possible for someone from an employer background to ever chair that Commission? Absolutely not in left wing Ireland.

If it is run like the LRC was, it will be rotated. The LRC was made up of a mixture of IBEC and union heads, a 3 man board iirc although I think the WRC will be around 10 people.

[Brimmer_Bradley]

Mulvey is fucked from here on. He’s supposed to be impartial and only came out a slated one of the most powerful and influential unions in the county.
What the fuck was he thinking of.

[Tim_Riggins]

He’s retiring in less than a month

[Brimmer_Bradley]

Didn’t know that Tim.
I did a seminar thing with him last year, he did a speech about how important it was for him to be impartial and above all to listen to both sides and not to express his opinion. …
What the fuck happened to him today.

[Tim_Riggins]

He’s retiring and doesn’t give a fuck

[Little_Lord_Fauntleroy]

His legacy is that of failure and being unprofessional

[glasagusban]

@TreatyStones

The new deal was structured so that new entrants are paid less for the first few years then moved onto the same pay scale as everyone else. A very normal way to do business in the real world.

A very bad precedent was set for this with new entrants to the Gardaí, nurses and teachers being fucked over for years. It’s a stupid and deeply unfair way of doing business.

[Brimmer_Bradley]

Well the unions would probably look at the long game and get as many as possible entrants hired as soon as possible and once they’re in get to work on building up a pay claim to even out the pay structure. That always happened.
If the union look for too many conditions for new staff too soon they won’t be hired, once the foot is in the door it’s way easier to look for improved conditions then.

[ironmoth]

April 6, 2016
Medellin, Colombia

What’s the dumbest thing you can possibly imagine your government doing?

It’s a serious question-- think about it for a moment.

Now, whatever you come up with, I’m about to present an option that will probably blow it out of the water.

This morning, pharmaceutical mega-companies Pfizer and Allergan announced that they were bowing to US government pressure and terminating their $160 billion merger that was announced a few months ago.

Big deal, right? Who cares whether or not a couple of drug companies merge?

I’ll explain, because this is really incredible:

Pfizer is based in the United States, where the corporate tax rate is one of the highest in the world at 35%.

Allergan is based in Ireland where the corporate tax rate is 12.5%, and can be as low as 10% for companies engaged in manufacturing.

So the plan was simple. The two companies would merge together and maintain Allergen’s headquarters in Dublin.

That way the new corporation would be subject to the low Irish tax rate rather than the high US tax rate.

It was a great move for shareholders.

Every tax dollar that the company saves is an extra dollar that can be reinvested for growth, or returned to stockholders to spend or save as they see fit.

Those stockholders include countless individual investors, as well as large mutual funds that manage the savings of millions of people.

All of those shareholders were set to benefit from the merger.

But the US government didn’t like that idea. They want all the money for themselves.

So two days ago the US Treasury Department decided to squash the deal.

There were no laws passed. Congress didn’t have a debate or propose any new legislation.

Nor were any courts involved. There was no judge, jury, or legal pleading.

The Obama administration simply set aside the law and changed the rules in its sole discretion to force the deal to break down.

It was an extraordinary example of how the rule of law counts for absolutely nothing in the Land of the Free anymore.

They ignore their own laws whenever they want in order to be able to do whatever they want. This is banana republic stuff.

But to add injury to insult, aside from the offense to freedom and general stability, it was also a financially destructive thing for them to do.

Look at Allergan, one of the two companies involved in the merger.

Even though Allergan is headquartered in Ireland, it still does owe some US tax.

Remember, these are large, multinational companies that end up paying tax in dozens of countries around the world.

Allergan’s actual US tax bill has averaged about $290 million per year over the last five years (which is about $50 million more than Pfizer pays in US tax).

$290 million might sound like a lot of money. But in reality it only paid for about 6 hours and 18 minutes worth of INTEREST on the US federal debt last year.

So this is really a trivial sum for a government that burns through cash like a drunken sailor.

But consider just one of the consequences of the deal getting squashed: Allergan’s stock (traded on the New York Stock Exchange) plummeted.

According to the Financial Times, over $20 billion worth of shareholder value was wiped away in just minutes.

Now, before the Bernie Sanders crowd cheers that evil capitalists have been served their just desserts, think about the implications.

INCOME tax is not the only tax in the Land of the Free.

The US government also taxes capital gains, e.g. the tax you pay on gains when you sell an investment for more than it cost you.

Capital gains tax rates in the US are as high as 20%, not including the 3.8% Obamacare surcharge.

Let’s assume a more conservative federal capital gains tax of 15%.

This means that, since the US government wiped out $20 billion in market value from Allergan, there’s $20 billion LESS in capital gains available for them to tax.

In other words, the US government just cost itself $3 BILLION in potential tax revenue (15% x $20 billion).

Incredible.

For a government that seems so bent on getting every dollar they can, you’d think they would’ve done everything to support the Pfizer-Allergan merger.

After all, it would have meant much more capital gains tax.

But no. They still haven’t figured out that when corporations arrange their tax affairs in a way that’s in the best interest of shareholders, EVERYONE can win.

Instead they did something astonishingly short-sighted.

They cost themselves billions in capital gains tax for the sake of a few hundred million in income tax.

And most importantly they left absolutely no doubt that the Rule of Law in the Land of the Free amounts to absolutely nothing.

It would be pretty hard to come up with something dumber than that.

Until tomorrow,

Simon Black
Founder, SovereignMan.com

[Fagan_ODowd]

That sounds like the ranting of one of those anti all government frontiersman types.

[ironmoth]

You know me too well!

[Tassotti]

Mulvey clamping these useless leeches they don’t like it one bit, I was listening to that useless beardy cunt Jack O’Connor on Good Friday, its no wonder Ireland is the way it is,a joke of a country with the likes of him in positions of power

[TreatyStones]

I see these pricks have announced another 6 stoppages. Is there anyway to company can just sack them?

[Mac]

@TreatyStones

I see these pricks have announced another 6 stoppages. Is there anyway to company can just sack them?

Better to send some of the career dole heads on the 6 week training course and let them start to drive the feckin things.

[anon7035031]

The article is largely correct. The problem for companies in the US is a high corporate tax rate, at 35% its at least 15% above most of the rest of the developed world and obviously significantly above low tax regimes like Ireland and Singapore that use low corporate tax to encourage investment. The high tax rate encourages companies to relocate elsewhere, or at least minimize the profits declared in the US.

The correct approach would be to reduce corporate tax rates to about 20% and encourage companies to invest in the US. Won’t happen under the Democrats who want to continue the suicidal spending spree that is bankrupting the country. The only Republican with the brains and balls to tackle the issue is Paul Ryan, which is why the intelligent wing of the party are gently twisting his arm that the time is now.

[Ambrose_McNulty]

Jesus, I had you down for a democrat.

[balbec]

Only Republicans can afford to drink as much whiskey as him.

[Massey]

I believe they like to be called libertarian fagan

[flattythehurdler]

Yeh but my fucking tax rate is 50% or more.

[iron_mike]

Ryan won’t touch the nomination this time around. He’s right too. The republican nomination is toxic this year. Ryan is only 46 and will walk the presidency in 4 years time