The Stock Market, The Fed, Gold and the US Dollar: Are we really wealthier or is it an illusion?

The stock market hit a 3 year high yesterday and the big question for all investors is where do we go from here. Interest rates this week dropped most dramatically for 3 year Government Bonds, from 1.12% to 0.99%, raising yields for these instruments. The chart below shows this week's move. The actual percent change for these various instruments showed the 3 month yields changing 20% from 0.05% to 0.04%, followed by a 6 month move from 0.11% to 0.09%, as the Table below shows.


Volume yesterday was incredibly high for the Dow at over 325 Million shares traded. The spike up in Volume is very noticeable also on the charts as is shown below. Was this a blowout and capitulation? I think not. This market still has some legs left. And while you may be comforted by the move to a 3 year high in the stock market, don't be. Gold has continued to rise closing also at an all time high of $1563. As you can see from the charts below that Gold prices continue to climb and the all important Dow/Gold ratio continues to drop. You see while the move in the market may make you feel wealthier, your purchasing power has been simultaneously dropping as well. One could argue successfully that the inflated price of Gold have taken all your wealth away. Did you know that?

Buy a house today with Gold and let me know how many ounces it takes, compared to what you needed just 3 years ago. In the year 2000, The Dow was at 10,787 while Gold was at $237/ounce. Today the Dow is at 12,800 and Gold is at $1563/ounce. So the Dow gained 18.7% in those 11 years and Gold gained 544% over the same period. (Source: Wikipedia)


Here's a look at the almighty US Dollar's value over about the past 25 years in the chart below. You still feel wealthier with the stock market advance? I don't think so! Ponder these charts and your government's complicity in this. We need politicians that can't be bought by Wall Street and we don't need the Fed! They have messed up this country the past 25 years or so starting with the Reagan Presidency. Ever since then it has been down hill financially. It has been nothing but gimmicks and smoke and mirrors with the people's money. Tax rates before Reagan were 90% for the wealthy and the country was fine! Oh for the good old days! Here's the chart on the US Dollar.

Market comments for April 28th

Yesterday, Fed Chairman Bernanke had the first ever News Conference for the Federal Reserve, which was not covered by many cable stations like CNN, as they were consumed by the news the President released his long form birth certificate, but nevertheless Bernanke made some news to me. We have been told for a long time that the recovery is "Moderate, but Main St. doesn't believe it. It seems very slow to Main St. So during yesterday's news conference , several times Bernanke commented that the "recovery" was moderate and moments later called the "recovery" slow. So all this time over the past 6 months to a year, the Fed was using language to imply the economy was growing faster than we all knew was false, but more encouraging to those on Wall St. who wanted to believe it was faster than we all experienced on Main St. Today's release of the GDP numbers and the Initial Unemployment Claims verify that the Emperor has had no clothes on.

Initial Jobless Claims released today showed that 429K new claims were filled against an expectation of 390K Initial jobless Claims. That make now several weeks in a row where these claims have exceeded 400K. Last week the number came in at a revised 404K Initial Claims. And the week before, on April 14th that it was 412K. Not since April 2nd have the claims been below 400K, coming in at 390K.

GDP numbers released today for Q1 came in at only 1.8% versus the prior period reading of 3.1%, which shows the economy is in a very significant slowing. In order to have more jobs for the unemployed, we need about a 4% GDP. Also, having a low GDP number is bad for the debt we carry, because overall debt % is compared to % GDP to determine whether we can pay back our debt as promised.

Today's numbers were not good no matter all the hype you hear to the contrary. The Dow Futures are down this morning following the data release.

The Birthers will be excluded from the real Presidential hopefuls soon! UPDATE

Much has been made about the latest assertions of Donald Trump and his pushing the "birther" claims that President Obama was not born in the US. He has risen to the top of the Republican Presidential hopefuls with these assertions as it has played well to a minority, a loud minority, within the Republican Party. In my view, the 'birther claim is code for we never will recognize any black man as our President. But soon this "birther" gauntlet will be abandoned by the extreme Republicans in favor of more moderate ones within the party.

You see right now it is a litmus test to show if you are conservative enough. Soon it will revert in the other direction, as a test to separate out the extreme candidates from the more serious Republicans, and it will happen in the blink of an eye. Several respectable candidates have stood up and renounced there idea that the President wasn't born here, like Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty. Mayor Bloomberg did this week. These are the adults out there. People will be reminded by the media of their position on this issue as time carries on and those who sided with the birther thinking will be left out of the running. That will include Donald Trump, Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Mike Pence and Michele Bachmann. You just watch!

UPDATE: Wednesday, April 27th
Well today President Obama through his complete Birth Certificate on the web dashing the Carnival Barker, Donald Trump, under the bus in as classy a way as our President has behaved since his Presidency. For his part, Trump claimed how great he was that he was able to force the issue on President Obama to finally present his birth certificate, but he said he had to see it first and go over it carefully before he was willing to proclaim it valid. What nonsense by Trump. He is a fool and a racist. I would never watch his TV show and I hope you give it up too!

Charts that will wake you up!

A former colleague and friend sent me an email this morning from which he excerpt some very interesting charts on America versus the rest of the world. The excerpt comes from an article dated April 18th, titled "The Real American Exceptionalism" in Defending the Public Good by David Morris.

Quote from article: "I too believe in American exceptionalism, although I don’t think God has anything to do with it. But I suspect my perspective will find little favor among Republicans in general and Tea Party members in particular. For I believe that America is exceptional in the advantages we’ve had over other nations, not what we’ve done with those advantages."

Here are the charts which should wake you up. Thanks Mac!





More charts continue into the previous post. Enjoy!

Charts from the article "The Real American Exceptionalism"

This is a continuation of the recent post of charts from the article titled, "The Real American Exceptionalism", by David Morris. These are charts not found in the above post.

Silver's value for the past 663 years charted.

I came across a chart on the price of Silver over the past 650 years from Chartsrus, which I thought would be something special to post today. It isn't every day where people see this type of chart. I have updated the chart to the current price of Silver. Enjoy it. I don't know how high Silver is going to go but clearly we are going to be at $50/ounce shortly. Whether we climb to the all time high price around the year 1980, which was at $68/ounce is anybody's guess.

Market comments for April 19th on the Dow and CAT

Looking at yesterday's drop in the markets and specifically the Dow, you can see that again Caterpillar, symbol CAT, which has led the Dow rise over the past year was one of 2 stocks leading the Dow lower yesterday. I have posted 2 charts below of Dow and Caterpillar which shows the extent of CAT's move down lately. More is to come as the market goes lower, but there will be bounces up on the way down. Notice the volume to the downside for CAT yesterday. It was very high, suggesting more downside is to come.



Housing starts and Building permits data was released today and both showed better than expected numbers. While many see this as a positive for the Real Estate market, I see it as a negative because the supply of houses on the market or about to be put on the market much too high a supply. This will keep housing prices low and may drive prices even lower if this becomes a trend and continues.

Narrowing the debate on the National debt and whether to tax the wealthiest.

I sent an email to friends yesterday showing an article on Executive compensation vs. Average workers pay and decided to post it here.The article is titled, WHO RULES AMERICA by Prof. G. William Domhoff, Sociology Dept. Univ. of California, Santa Cruz. It is very worth reading and educating yourself.

For the complete article click this.

"Income Ratios and Power: Executives vs. Laborers

Another way that income can be used as a power indicator is by comparing average CEO annual pay to average factory worker pay, something that has been done for many years byBusiness Week and, later, the Associated Press. The ratio of CEO pay to factory worker pay rose from 42:1 in 1960 to as high as 531:1 in 2000, at the height of the stock market bubble, when CEOs were cashing in big stock options. It was at 411:1 in 2005 and 344:1 in 2007, according to research by United for a Fair Economy. By way of comparison, the same ratio is about 25:1 in Europe. The changes in the American ratio from 1960 to 2007 are displayed in Figure 8, which is based on data from several hundred of the largest corporations.

Figure 8: CEOs' pay as a multiple of the average worker's pay, 1960-2007

Source: Executive Excess 2008, the 15th Annual CEO Compensation Survey from the Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy.

It's even more revealing to compare the actual rates of increase of the salaries of CEOs and ordinary workers; from 1990 to 2005, CEOs' pay increased almost 300% (adjusted for inflation), while production workers gained a scant 4.3%. The purchasing power of the federal minimum wage actually declined by 9.3%, when inflation is taken into account. These startling results are illustrated in Figure 9.

Figure 9: CEOs' average pay, production workers' average pay, the S&P 500 Index,corporate profits, and the federal minimum wage, 1990-2005(all figures adjusted for inflation)


Source: Executive Excess 2006, the 13th Annual CEO Compensation Survey from the Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy.

Although some of the information I've relied upon to create this section on executives' vs. workers' pay is a few years old now, the AFL/CIO provides up-to-date information on CEO salaries at their Web site. There, you can learn that the median compensation for CEO's in allindustries as of early 2010 is $3.9 million; it's $10.6 million for the companies listed in Standard and Poor's 500, and $19.8 million for the companies listed in the Dow-Jones Industrial Average. Since the median worker's pay is about $36,000, then you can quickly calculate that CEOs in general make 100 times as much as the workers, that CEO's of S&P 500 firms make almost 300 times as much, and that CEOs at the Dow-Jones companies make 550 times as much. (For a more recent update on CEOs' pay, see "The Drought Is Over (At Least for CEOs)" at NYTimes.com; the article reports that the median compensation for CEOs at 200 major companies was $9.6 million in 2010 -- up by about 12% over 2009 and generally equal to or surpassing pre-recession levels. For specific information about some of the top CEOs, see http://projects.nytimes.com/executive_compensation.

If you wonder how such a large gap could develop, the proximate, or most immediate, factor involves the way in which CEOs now are able to rig things so that the board of directors, which they help select -- and which includes some fellow CEOs on whose boards they sit -- gives them the pay they want. The trick is in hiring outside experts, called "compensation consultants," who give the process a thin veneer of economic respectability.

The process has been explained in detail by a retired CEO of DuPont, Edgar S. Woolard, Jr., who is now chair of the New York Stock Exchange's executive compensation committee. His experience suggests that he knows whereof he speaks, and he speaks because he's concerned that corporate leaders are losing respect in the public mind. He says that the business page chatter about CEO salaries being set by the competition for their services in the executive labor market is "bull." As to the claim that CEOs deserve ever higher salaries because they "create wealth," he describes that rationale as a "joke," says the New York Times."

New Mini Poll and results of the last survey.

There's a new Mini Poll I have posted on my Blog. Wanting to know where do you think cuts in spending should be made and whether taxes should be increased. I give multiple choice answers to vote for. Only one vote per person. You can add a comment on this post if you believe I have missed a category.

The results of my last Mini poll question yielded the following results. First the question:
Do you support the right to form and join Unions in State and Federal jobs with their right to collective bargaining or do you support the Gov. of Wisconsin's right to end this right?

80% said Yes, I support the State workers rights in Wisconsin.
20% said No, I don't support the State worker's rights in Wisconsin.

Market comments for April 14th, 2011

Initial Jobless Claims rose unexpectedly last week to 412,000, going back above the 400,000 level many thought were in the rear view mirror. Also the PPI number for March came in at +0.7%, while Core PPI came in unexpectedly at +0.3%, causing more worries about inflation creeping into goods produced.

Futures are down in pre-market with the Dow down about 54 points. Still to come out tomorrow are CPI, Core CPI, Industrial Production, Capacity Utilization and Michigan Sentiment.

Yesterday the Dow closed up a few points as shown in the chart below, but if you look at the other leaders like CAT, DD and others in the Index, you will notice that volume was down yesterday and that the trend of these leaders looks like they will continue down. Unless new leaders emerge in the Dow Index, then the Dow is set to continue to drop as we are now below the 25 and 50 day Moving Averages on these stocks.

Today's spin on Retail Sales and other economic indicators

That's right, there was a big spin job played on the simple minded this morning on the release of the Retail Sales numbers. Here are the headlines form Bllomberg.com on the matter:

"Retail Sales in U.S. Rose in March for Ninth Straight Month.
Sales at U.S. retailers rose in March for a ninth consecutive month, showing the improving job market is helping Americans cope with higher costs for fuel and food."

The actual data is this. Retail Sales reported back for February rose 1.1% but March's data came in at a gain of 0.4%. Expectations were for a gain of 0.6% for March. So it is less than half of last month's gain, isn't it. The way the number was reported in Bloomberg encourages the those trading the stock market to look for gains today, which Futures now suggest.

Another piece of data released which you will be hard pressed to see printed anywhere is the MBA Mortgage Index. The data came in at -2.0% in the prior period and today, for the week of 4/8 it came in at -6.7%. This index measures the Mortgage Applications during the period. You would think with Spring here that the numbers would be positive and rising as many look at buying homes in the Spring. But the number is very negative. Here's a news clip on this number which I did find in the Providence Business News web site:

"Mortgage applications in the U.S. fell for a third consecutive week as rising borrowing costs limited home buying and refinancing.

The Mortgage Bankers Association’s index decreased 6.7 percent in the week ended April 8 to lowest level in two months, the Washington-based group reported on Wednesday . The group’s gauge of purchases declined 4.7 percent, while its refinancing index plunged 7.7 percent.

Homeowners seeking to refinance loans to reduce monthly payments are getting discouraged by 30-year mortgage rates that have risen for four straight weeks. Sales remain depressed while foreclosures mount, making it more likely property prices will continue to fall and weigh on consumer spending and economic growth."

So that is what's going on in the Housing Market. That isn't good for the economy and is sure to have an impact on the Consumer. So the spin is to get you to think everything is honkey dory. It isn't! Wake up from the delusion.

Projection of the Dow the remainder of the week.

The Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500 all dropped today. The dow was down over 100 points and the question is what is the prognosis for the rest of the week. To take a look at the charts for a moment, you will see the Dow as compared to the stocks which have been leading the rise. The summary is that these leaders are actually much ahead of the Dow's drop so far and so I believe this is these will lead the Dow lower in the coming days. The only question remaining is whether we will go below the previous low which occurred on March 16th.

Market comments for beginning of Earnings season

So we have started earnings season and while Alcoa beat earnings estimates by a penny, they missed on the Revenue side. I thought it might be useful to see what the P/E (Price to earnings ratio) is for the various Indexes before all companies have reported their earnings. So here are the current P/E's for the many country Indexes and you can decide which is overvalued and hence suspect to dropping and which might be undervalued and worth looking at.

Dow Jones Industrial Average 14.16
S&P 500 15.42
Nasdaq 38.93
Russell 2000 32.57
England's FTSE 14.74
France's CAC 12.11
Germany's DAX 12.97
Japan's Nikkei 17.24
Brazil's Bovespa 11.33

Seems to me that the Russell 2000 Small Cap Index is very overvalued at this point and a major correction looks likely. You decide.

Dow charts and what they suggest.

I have put together 1 year charts of some of the Dow 30 stocks below and the overall chart of the Dow Industrial average for a comparison. We are at a very critical juncture in the market right now as we have extended the rally now to what appears to be a peak, after having weathered a recent drop in March. The question on everyones mind is whether this means we are going to go higher on our way to 14,000, stay in a tight range or tip over. For some clues, looking at where individual stocks of the Dow are currently, might help us. A number of the stocks that make up the Dow, clearly show they have been leaders over the past year. Leading the gains in the composite Dow over the past year include CAT, DIS and HD. None of the other stocks gained as much from a percentage point of view. Here's a summary of the gains by stocks from the lows around May/June of last year to Friday's close in descending order of percent gains.

CAT 100%
AA 80%
DD 72%
CVX 69%
XOM 55%
GE 54%
PFE 50%
VZ 50%
HD 46%
KO 43%
T 38%
IBM 38%
DIS 38%
UTX 37%
JPM 34%
MMM 31%
TRV 30%
BA 29%
AXP 21%
MFST 19%
MCD 19%
KFT 18%
WMT 13%
MRK 10%
JNU 7%
PG 0%
INTC 0%
HPQ -6%
BAC -13%
CSCO -26%

THE OVERALL DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE HAD A GAIN OF 28% FOR THE SAME PERIOD.

Now, to get a sense of market direction in the coming weeks I decided to focus on the leaders to see what has happened in the past 3-5 days looking for weakness. CAT for example has turned down. AA has paused, as their earnings are to be the first released this week as earnings season begins. DO has also paused. CVX seems to continue to gain as OIL has gone over $110/barrel, so it's continued move up does have a context. The same is true for XOM, it's the price of oil. GE has turned down the past few days. So I have concluded that if Oil prices had not surged, this market would be dropping. Given that premise, oil prices shouldn't surge much from here, unless there are new problems in the Middle East besides Libya, say in Saudi Arabia.

I know the news of avoiding a shutdown of government is a good thing but I don't see much of a rally from it next week. If there is any rally, it should come from Earnings reports. I'm expecting the rally to stall and flounder. Other experts believe a rally is in order. This is definitely a real possibility but at the end of this last push higher is the precipice where stocks will drop sharply as the big scary decline begins. Below are a few of the charts for individual stocks in the Dow and the Dow itself.

10 Things to Learn from Japan: The Source.

A friend sent me an email this morning titled, "10 Things to Learn from Japan". It was a list on how the Japanese are coping with the tragedy of the earthquake and tsunami. I also have a link to the original source, which took me more than 45 minutes to research. It is worth the read and will humble you to ask yourself the question, How do I want to be in such a tragedy and how do I want other Americans to be as well? Here's the list, then the link:

10 things to learn from Japan:

1. THE CALM
Not a single visual of chest-beating or wild grief. Sorrow itself has been elevated.

2. THE DIGNITY
Disciplined queues for water and groceries. Not a rough word or a crude gesture.

3. THE ABILITY
The incredible architects, for instance. Buildings swayed but didn't fall.

4. THE GRACE
People bought only what they needed for the present, so everybody could get something.

5. THE ORDER
No looting in shops. No honking and no overtaking on the roads. Just understanding.

6. THE SACRIFICE
Fifty workers stayed back to pump sea water in the N-reactors. How will they ever be repaid?

7. THE TENDERNESS
Restaurants cut prices. An unguarded ATM is left alone. The strong cared for the weak.

8. THE TRAINING
The old and the children, everyone knew exactly what to do. And they did just that.

9. THE MEDIA
They showed magnificent restraint in the bulletins. No silly reporters. Only calm reportage.

10. THE CONSCIENCE
When the power went off in a store, people put things back on the shelves and left quietly.
Strength of one's character is reflected in one's behaviour at the crucial moment.
Character of people is what makes the character of a nation.

Here is the link to the story run by Sky News of the U.K on March 21st, 2011. This is definitely worth the read!

Market comments for April 8th

Still think the market should be going up and is undervalued? Well this chart below and commentary should give you great pause and concern. This from Chart of the Day:

With first-quarter earnings season set to officially kick-off on Monday when Alcoa reports first-quarter earnings, today's chart provides some long-term perspective to the current earnings environment by focusing on 12-month, as reported S&P 500 earnings. Today's chart illustrates how earnings declined over 92% from its Q3 2007 peak to Q1 2009 low which brought inflation-adjusted earnings to near Great Depression lows. Since its Q1 2009 low, S&P 500 earnings have surged (up an inflation-adjusted 994%) and currently come in at a level that is greater than what occurred at the peak of the dot-com bubble and not far from its credit bubble peak. It is interesting to note that the original run up in real earnings from Great Depression lows to dot-com highs took over 67 years. The current spike has taken 20 months.

The 10 year Treasuries are now up to almost 3.60% on the day the government shutdown is expected to happen at midnight tonight. Silver has surpassed $40 and ounce and continues to go up.

Government Shutdown?

The only thing that should be shut down in our government is our Congress! Now that's a good government shutdown. Oh, and no pay for them while it is shut down and daily penalties of thousands of dollars a day per person. Gee, I feel great already, how about you?!

Healthcare: The argument!

I have been seeing this unfold now for the past 6 months to a year. Because we have a huge budget deficit we all know we must cut spending. I have also argued here that we need to increase taxes on the wealthiest 1% of our population. Today, Republican Rep. Paul Ryan came out with his major spending cut proposal which focused on getting rid of Medicare as we know it in favor of a voucher system for the elderly to purchase health insurance. The Democrats are already out there saying the Republicans want to kill Medicare, funding for Planned Parenthood and PBS and aren't even considering taxing the wealthy or cutting subsidies for the Oil companies and Banks.

I wouldn't be surprised that a compromise might be proposed, whereby Democrats agree to some cuts in Medicare, while Republicans agree to small tax increases on the wealthy. But I am afraid that this will not be enough to close the gap in our debt. We can't use the argument that taxing the wealthiest will cost jobs as they will have less money to help grow and invest in America. They aren't really helping now nor have they through the entire time they have had the Bush tax cuts.

Free Speech issue?

If it is illegal to yell "Fire!" in a theater because it could stampede moviegoers and cause physical harm or even death with people panicking to leave the theater, why isn't it illegal to burn the holy book of the Quran? Seems to me both are Free Speech issues and we have already decided that yelling Fire is not protected by Free Speech.

The U.S. corporate tax rate: Is it really too high? Nope!

Yes, we are in a lot of trouble when it comes to our Debt level as a Country and if we don't fix that problem we are all going to be in worse troubles than we are now. Much is being discussed in terms of cutting spending by Republicans, Democrats and Tea Party members. Congress is feeling the pressure, especially by the Tea Party. All this is good but it deals with only 1/2 of the equation, cutting spending. The other part is to raise tax revenue for the government, which is off the table and not being discussed because they say we pay too much taxes now. That is why the Bill to attempt to have the wealthiest millionaires in our country pay more taxes was defeated in the Congress.

What we hear now is that our Corporate taxes are the highest in the world and need to be reduced. This is both true and false. How can that be both true and false at the same time, you ask? That's simple to answer. It is because while we have a top Corporate tax rate of 35% on profits, we also have a 0% tax rate for many Corporations as well if they can fit through the loophole. That is why companies like GE, Bank of America and many, many others pay no taxes at all. That's right, both companies made Billions of dollars in profit last year, but paid no Corporate taxes. In fact, Bank of America even got a rebate from the government. Here's the actual date on the Corporate Tax rate by Country. Notice what it says for the US. The best way to use this list is to think of a Country you think is financially doing well. For example, many believe Germany is the best economy in the EU right now financially. Well, their Corporate tax rate is 29.8%, but all companies pay that amount in Germany!


Country/Region Corporate Tax Rate

Afghanistan 20%
Albania 10%
Algeria 19%
Angola 35%
Argentina 35%
Armenia 20%
Aruba 28%
Australia 30%
Austria 25%
Azerbaijan 22%
Bangladesh 0–45%
Barbados 25%
Belarus 24%
Belgium 33.99%
Benin 35%
Bhutan 0–25%
Bolivia 25%
Bosnia and Herzegovina 10%
Botswana 15%
Brazil 34%
Brunei 23.5%
Bulgaria 10%
Burkina Faso 10–45%
Burundi 35%
Cambodia 10%
Cameroon 38.5%
Canada 11–16.5%
Cape Verde 15%
Central African Republic 19%
Chile 17%
China 25%
Colombia 33%
Croatia 20%
Cuba 30%
Cyprus 10%
Czech Republic 20%
Denmark 25%
Egypt 20%
El Salvador 25%
Estonia 21%
Finland 26%
France 33.33%
Gabon 35%
Germany 29.8%
Georgia 15%
Gibraltar 33%
Greece 22/25%
Guatemala 31%
Guyana 35%/45%
Hong Kong 16.5%
Hungary 10%
Iceland 18/3%
India 33.2%
Indonesia 25%
Iran 25%
Ireland 12.5%
Israel 25%
Italy 31.4%
Jamaica 33.3%
Japan 40.7%
Jordan 15/25/35%
Kazakhstan 17.5%
South Korea 13/25%
Latvia 15%
Lithuania 15%
Luxembourg 29.63%
Macau 12%
Malaysia 25%
Malta 35%
Mauritius 15%
Mexico 28%
Monaco 33.33%
Montenegro 9%
Morocco 30%
Netherlands 20/25.5%
New Zealand 28%
Norway 28%
Pakistan 35%
Panama 30%
Peru 30%
Philippines 30%
Poland 19%
Portugal 25%
Romania 16%
Russia 13–20%
Saudi Arabia 20%
Senegal 25%
Serbia 10%
Singapore 17%
Slovakia 20%
Slovenia 21%
South Africa 28%
Spain 25–30%
Sweden 26.3%
Switzerland 13–25%
Syria 10–45%
Taiwan 17%[
Tanzania 30%
Thailand 30%
Tunisia 30%
Turkey 20%
Ukraine 25%
United Kingdom 21–28%
United States 0–35%
Uruguay 30%
Uzbekistan 9 %
Venezuela 15/22/34%
Vietnam 25%
Zambia 35%

I think we should lower the overall Corporate tax rate but all companies profits should be taxed and all should pay with no exceptions. I don't care if the Corporate Tax rate was 25% instead of 35%. I'LL BET WE WOULD STILL GET MORE TAX MONEY INTO THE U.S. TREASURY THAN WE DO TODAY! After all, if we are the policemen of the World as Libya seems to show, we need to pay for it somehow and just cutting spending is not the answer.

Here's something that was published in August, 2008 and received little notice. You can click on this link and read the entire article. "Two out of every three United States corporations paid no federal income taxes from 1998 through 2005, according to a report released Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress."

Are you seeing the problem now more clearly? I hope so!