Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Bernie, You Know the Answer

Trey Smith

When the greed, recklessness, and illegal behavior on Wall Street drove this country into the deepest recession since the 1930s, the largest financial institutions in the United States took every advantage of being American. They just loved their country - and the willingness of the American people to provide them with the largest bailout in world history. In 2008, Congress approved a $700 billion gift to Wall Street. Another $16 trillion in virtually zero interest loans and other financial assistance came from the Federal Reserve. America. What a great country.

But just two years later, as soon as these giant financial institutions started making record-breaking profits again, they suddenly lost their love for their native country. At a time when the nation was suffering from a huge deficit, largely created by the recession that Wall Street caused, the major financial institutions did everything they could to avoid paying American taxes by establishing shell corporations in the Cayman Islands and other tax havens.
~ from A Choice For Corporate America: Are You With America Or The Cayman Islands by Sen. Bernie Sanders ~
The populist answer to the question is readily discernible: Corporate America is with the Cayman Islands. It's a no-brainer. And the answer is wrong!

Truth be known, corporations and their CEOs have no allegiance to any specific country. Their sole allegiance is to profit. If they can realize greater profits today in the Cayman Islands, that's where they will go. If they realized tomorrow that it was more lucrative to shelter their wealth in Senegal or the South Pole, they would wave goodbye to the Caymans in a heartbeat. Heck, if one day they crafted things so that they could realize even greater profits by sheltering their wealth right here in the US, they would bring their money "home" in a second.

It is not about borders. It is not about geography. It's about politics. Capitalists will go wherever and deal with whomever allows them to shelter as much of their largess as possible.

End of story.

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