Posted on 05/11/2009 8:18:48 PM PDT by posterchild
Like it or not, ours is a world of multinational companies. Almost all of America's brand-name firms (Coca-Cola, IBM, Microsoft, Caterpillar) are multinationals, and the process works both ways. In 2006, the U.S. operations of foreign firms employed 5.3 million workers. Fiat's looming takeover of Chrysler reminds us again that much business is transnational.
For most people, the multinational company is a troubling concept. We like to think "our companies" serve the broad national interest rather than just scouring the world for the cheapest labor, the laxest regulations and the lowest taxes. And the tax issue is especially vexing: How should multinationals be taxed on the profits they make outside their home countries?
But listen to President Obama, and the status quo seems a cesspool. Pervasive "loopholes" engineered by "well-connected lobbyists" let U.S. multinationals skirt taxes and outsource jobs to low-tax countries.
So the president proposes plugging loopholes. Some jobs will return to the United States, and U.S. tax coffers will grow by $210 billion over the next decade.
Sounds great — and that's how the story played. "Obama Targets Overseas Tax Dodge," headlined the Washington Post. But the reality is murkier; the president's accusatory rhetoric perpetuates many myths.
Myth: Aided by those overpaid lobbyists, American multinationals are taxed lightly — less so than their foreign counterparts.
(Excerpt) Read more at ibdeditorials.com ...
IBD rocks.
That it does:)
“But most overseas investments by multinationals serve local markets. Only 10% of their foreign output is exported back to the U.S. When Wal-Mart opens a store in China, it doesn’t close one in California.”
I’m afraid I gotta call (possible) BS on that. I think it’s disingenuous to say that. Many US concerns OWN foreign compamies - hence they are no longer “US companies”.
“Obama sacrificed substance for grandstanding”
gotta love the last line.
The internationalization of wealth is an old story. I recall an Atlantic Monthly cover story from the nineties along these lines. I forget the “alarmist” title, but it’s just a matter of phraseology, you know? The facts are well established. There were all these stories about the money market and so on, saying that governments no longer had the dominant role they once had, they were just players in the market now. Obama is a buffoon, an overreacher ... Phaeton at the reins!
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