What's That Under the Hood?

There is an extremely eye-opening article, "The Greatest Recovery": Economic Depression, by Mark Provost posted at Global Research. It helps to explain some of the sleight of hand and interesting statistics related to the economic downturn in the 'ol US of A. While I encourage you to read the entire article for yourself (that way you can check out the referenced source material), here are some tidbits quoted directly from the article (emphasis added for reading enjoyment).

• The global recession increased unemployment in every country, but the American experience is unparalleled. According to a July OECD report, the U.S. accounted for half of all job losses among the 31 richest countries from 2007 to mid-2010.

• Leading into the recession, the US had the weakest worker protections against individual and collective dismissals in the world, according to a 2008 OECD study.

• The few new jobs are unlikely to satisfy Americans who lost careers. In November, temporary labor represented an astonishing 80% of private sector job growth.

• UPI reports, “This year, 26.2 percent of new private sector jobs are temporary, compared to 10.9 percent in the recovery after the 1990s recession and 7.1 percent in previous recoveries.” The remainder of 2010 private sector job growth has consisted mainly of low-wage, scant-benefit service sector jobs, especially bars and restaurants, which added 143,000 jobs, growing at four times the rate of the rest of the economy.

• Non-financial companies have amassed nearly two-trillion in cash, representing 11% of total assets, a sixty year high.

• Corporate taxes as a percentage of GDP in 2009 and 2010 are the lowest on record, just above 1%.

• In mid December, a group of 20 corporate executives met with the Obama administration and pleaded for a tax holiday on the $1 trillion stashed overseas, claiming the money will spur jobs and investment. In 2004, corporate executives convinced President Bush and Congress to include a similar amnesty provision in the American Jobs Creation Act; 842 companies participated in the program, repatriating $312 billion back to the U.S. at 5.25% rather than 35%. In 2009, the Congressional Research Service concluded that most of the money went to stock buybacks and dividends — in direct violation of the Act.

How can anyone claim with a straight-face that President Obama is not a corporate-friendly leader?

How can anyone seriously claim that this economic meltdown is the fault of unionized public and private sector workers?