America’s Corporations Made A Record $824 Billion Last Year, As Conservatives Claim Obama Is Anti-Business
In all seriousness, if there has ever been a better display of undeserving and entitled delusional meatheads it would be hard to find.
"The Fortune 500 generated a total of $824.5 billion in earnings last year, up 16.4% over 2010. That beats the previous record of $785 billion, set in 2006 during a roaring economy. The 2011 profits are outsized based on two key historical metrics. They represent 7% of total sales, vs. an average of 5.14% over the 58-year history of the Fortune 500. Companies are also garnering exceptional returns on their capital. The 500 achieved a return-on-equity of 14.3%, far above the historical norm of 12%."
This is not meant to attack the President in any way. But it should blunt the rhetoric of the right and business propagandists. Politically, this realist evidence that business is doing just fine won't help President Obama. Epsilon semi-morons of the right believe their own conception of reality no matter what the facts are and politically-engaged liberals will cite these facts as further proof of how far in wall street's pocket he is.
Meanwhile, outside the fortune 500 and their spectacular haul of booty, the economy for the 99% is crawling along at a snail's pace toward pre-crash levels of employment.
I am sure some well-paid heritage foundation toad will spin this chart to look bad for the lowest-common denominator public, but reality is that the best medicine for our economy is electoral removal of republicans from power. Just as slicing off leeches or purging parasites from a body is the first step toward recovery, voting out the dingleberries conspiring and obstructing recovery at every turn is the first step to fixing the economy. If somehow the gop could be cast out into the political wilderness for a decade or so, we would have a chance of really fixing our economy and making it work for the wider society. But at least we can fashion talking points to nullify the supposed anti-business Obama administration.
Fixing things at the national level can do only so much, however, as long as republican governors and legistatures have their talons and suckers firmly implanted at the state and local level they will continue to bring the pain.
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