Media falls for hoax that GE will pay taxes

We knew the mainstream media doesn't understand that multinational corporations are amoral and greedy. But we were still a little surprised by this. CBS reports the world's largest news organization fell for a bogus press release saying GE would voluntarily pay $3.2 billion in taxes and adopt other socially responsible policies.

It brings new meaning to the word "gullible."

The Associated Press and other news organizations have had to withdraw stories reporting that General Electric would pay a $3.2 billion tax refund to the U.S. Treasury after it was revealed that the stories was based on a hoax press release.

GE came under fire after a New York Times story that said despite $14.2 billion in worldwide profits - including more than $5 billion from U.S. operations - GE did not owe taxes in 2010...
The hoax press release ... claimed that GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt had informed the Obama administration that his company was returning $3.2 billion to the Treasury and "will furthermore adopt a host of new policies that secure its position as a leader in corporate social responsibility."

The release included what seem to be some pretty obvious fake quotes, including this, attributed to Immelt: "All seven of our foreign tax havens are entirely legal. But Americans have made it clear that they deplore laws that enable tax avoidance. While we owe it to our shareholders to use every legal loophole to maximize returns - we also owe something to the American people. We didn't write the laws that let us legally avoid paying taxes. Congress did. But we benefit from those laws, and now we'd like to share those benefits."

The AP nonetheless ran a four-paragraph story that began, "Facing criticism over the amount of taxes it pays, General Electric announced it will repay its entire $3.2 billion tax refund to the US Treasury on April 18."

US Uncut is the purveyor of the hoax. The group issued its own press release in response to the phony press release it had sent out. It said,

"This is a good first step," said, US Uncut spokesman Carl Gibson. "But even if they return their full $3.2 billion 2010 tax benefit as they’re promising, they will still have paid $0 in US taxes since 2006, when they had profits of $26 billion.

If only it were true....

Today's Teamster News 03.25.11

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Short on Funds, but Long on Pink Slips  New York Times   ...Nearly half of this city’s workers were told late last week that, come September, they would probably be out of a job...
States Pass Budget Pains to Cities  New York Times   ...struggling states around the nation plan deep cuts in aid to cities and local governments that will almost certainly result in more service cuts, layoffs and local tax increases...
G.E.'s Strategies Let It Avoid Taxes Altogether   New York Times   ...Its extraordinary success is based on an aggressive strategy that mixes fierce lobbying for tax breaks and innovative accounting that enables it to concentrate its profits offshore... 

Today's Teamster News 01.24.11

VISION: Can a New High-Speed Rail System Save the American Dream?  Alternet   ...America is looking for answers and solutions, and it may have found a good one in the form of an ambitious national high-speed rail network...
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Mortgage Giants Leave Legal Bills to the Taxpayers  New York Times   ...Since the government took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, taxpayers have spent more than $160 million defending the mortgage finance companies and their former top executives in civil lawsuits accusing them of fraud...
Postal Service Eyes Closing Thousands of Post Offices  Wall Street Journal   ...Beginning in March, the agency will start the process of closing as many as 2,000 post offices, on top of the 491 it said it would close starting at the end of last year...
The State of the Union: What the President Should Say  robertreich.org   ...the U.S. economy is now twice as large as it was in 1980 but the real median wage has barely budged...
Jeff Immelt’s GE: The Too Biggest To Fail  firedoglake   ...GE was one of the biggest beneficiaries of the government’s bailout of shadow banking in 2008-09...

Boeing signs deal with China, lays off 1,000 U.S. workers

Remember all that happy talk just last week about how trade with China is so great for the U.S.?

You know, how it's a good thing that GE is sharing sophisticated jet technology with China, just as China is building up its military?

Now we learn that the day after Boeing signed a deal to make 200 airplanes for China, it laid off a thousand workers on the West Coast.

This just gets better and better.

Sure, let's give all our technology to China

Today we learned from the Wall Street Journal that a U.S. battery firm will share its lithium-ion battery and pack technology in a joint venture with China -- so China can export electric cars. We learned from the New York Times that GE will share its most sophisticated jet electronics technology in a joint venture with a state-owned Chinese company. And we learned from the Washington Post that Manitowoc Co., bought a plant in China to make restaurant equipment -- and Chinese competitors stole Manitowoc's designs and ideas.

This is not good, but it's not surprising. As Economy in Crisis notes, 

...the Chinese government frequently requires U.S. businesses to share proprietary knowledge in exchange for access to the Chinese market. With over a billion people, this is an allure few companies can pass up. When that method fails to gain technological secrets, the Chinese government turns a blind eye to intellectual property laws if a company just outright steals patented or protected information.

Peter Cohan at DailyFinance is especially disturbed that GE may be helping to arm China's military. "If you don't have a problem with that, maybe you should," he writes.

After all, China just flight-tested a prototype stealth fighter (pictured), it continues to build up its military -- and we can only hope it's not planning to expand its territory in ways that threaten the U.S.

Cohan doesn't think much of U.S. CEOs who happen to live in the U.S. but have no patriotism.

All this corporate maneuvering raises an important question: Who's in charge? To me, it looks like big-company CEOs are making the decisions that will determine America's fate. These execs may live in the U.S., but they're making big money by selling our best technology to China.

Amen, brother.

Today's Teamster News 09/28/10

Discount Carriers Southwest, AirTran Tie Knot Wall Street Journal ...Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV) on Monday announced plans to buy discount rival AirTran Holdings Inc. (AAI)...

GE Inks Deal To Extend Reach In China's Wind Power Market Wall Street Journal ...General Electric Co. (GE) announced a joint venture with a subsidiary of Harbin Power Equipment Co. (1133.HK) to manufacture and supply wind turbines to its customers in China...

Health Insurers Finally Get Some Oversight (opinion) Wall Street Journal ...we will review large premium increases and identify those that are unreasonable...

It's not a recovery without jobs (opinion) Politico ...On Thursday, one of the most successful job-generating provisions of the Recovery Act ... is scheduled to expire...

Income Gap Widens: Census Finds Record Gap Between Rich And Poor Associated Press ...The income gap between the richest and poorest Americans grew last year to its widest amount on record as young adults and children in particular struggled to stay afloat in the recession...

Not just arrogant, but clueless about China

China is out for China, period, and that is a stance that the US would be well advised to emulate, rather than being brainwashed (or bribed) into thinking that the interests of large multinational are aligned with national goals.

Yves Smith in her naked capitalist blog, writing about GE CEO Jeff Imelt's comments on China and Obama.