The whiny CEO’s of America are so wrapped up in their mental recession, they don’t see how great the economy is: CEOs Portray a Dismal Forecast for the U.S. (Buncha bitches!)
Here’s what these damned Chief Executive Kvetchers had to say:
"With the economy overtaking Iraq as one of the main issues this election year, Chief Executive magazine conducted a survey among CEOs between June 13 and June 27 in an effort to gauge CEO sentiment on the direction of the U.S. economy.
CEOs were asked which policy position they think the U.S. should take to increase or maintain American competitiveness as well as questions on which countries will generate the highest number of jobs and where the top paying jobs will be in the future.
An overwhelming majority of American CEOs believe that in order to create the highest paying jobs and maintain the U.S.’ economic competitiveness, the government needs to reduce taxes and regulation, privatize education and remove restrictions on trade . . .
Frustrated with the current economic policy, another CEO said, “The formula for international competitiveness is quite simple: minimal trade restrictions, predictable regulation, competitive tax rates, strong educational system, trade balance (not deficit), predictable currency, low interest rates, responsible fiscal spending and low corruption. Unfortunately, under the Bush administration, we have failed on many of the factors, with corruption and macroeconomic incompetence being the most insidious.”
–CEOs Portray a Dismal Forecast for the U.S. (emphasis added)
Can you imagine these ungrateful bastards actually complaining about the economic stewardship of this great nation? Geez, some people are never happy.
Hey! Would someone get please have Phil Gramm or Amity Shlaes give these whiny bee-yatches a call and straighten their asses out?
Thank you . . .
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Sample CEO questions and charts:
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Which country will be the greatest job creator in the future? 
CEO Answer: China
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Which country will create the most high paying jobs? 
CEO Answer: USA
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Source:
CEOs Portray a Dismal Forecast for the U.S.
Chief Executive Magazine, 7/11/2008
http://tinyurl.com/69hcfn
ah, if only we could time shift back to the good old Clinton years. Free love, free money and long road trips in the SUV. I’ll have to watch Nick at Nite to take me out of this nightmare.
“Under the Bush administration, we have failed on many of the factors, with corruption and macroeconomic incompetence being the most insidious.”
True enough. But CEOs, through their Washington lobbyists, played a big part in this.
Archer-Daniels-Midland and its financiers (e.g. Goldman Sachs) lobbied for ethanol subsidies, so we could burn our food supply.
Big Pharma lobbied for the Medicare prescription drug benefit, which added trillions to Usgov’s negative net worth in one shot.
The defense industry lobbied for weapons programs and foreign wars which flushed trillions down the drain, not to mention all the human lives.
Worst of all, Wall Street and the banks lobbied for Greenspan’s easy money policy which created a disastrous Bubble, whose demise is now eating us alive.
Sad to say, CEOs are very conventional thinkers. Most best-selling books aimed at CEOs are formulaic, with large print and lots of bullet points, written at perhaps a ninth-grade reading level. Even the comments which CEOs made to the cited survey are mostly talking points which they memorized.
Sorry, but CEOs, like the government, are among the last people who will ever get a clue. Change bubbles up from below; it isn’t administered from the top. Making undeserved millions in salary pretty much insulates CEOs from the real world.
Anyone figure out why these ‘Fortune 500’ CEOs are paid so much?
“whiny bee-yatches a call and straighten their asses out?”
I’ve heard a lot of rappers know how to straighten a “person” out. At least that’s what they say in their songs.
On a serious note, major declines happen in oversold markets…
On a positive note, the U.S.A. was voted least likely to be attacked by killer stem cells.
“the government needs to reduce taxes and regulation”
Yup, deregulation of the banking and investment sector has worked out so spectacularly well that more deregulation of everything else is the obvious next step. I’d say that getting rid of the FDIC has to be right at the top of the list — anyone who expects their bank deposits to be insured is a damn whiner. And let’s dump that pesky FDA while we’re at it, too — mad cow disease is just a liberal myth. Grover Norquist told me so, and just because he’s a little bearded parasite doesn’t mean we should take issue with him.
I’m with you, Jim Haygood.
These are the same guys that got us into this mess.
Never has there been an administration and congress more responsive to the demands of big business, and look where it landed us.
These corporate leaders have squandered any and all credibility they once might have had. Allowing them to push everyone else away from the policy table is perhaps the biggest mistake this country has ever made.
To my own Q: I find it interesting that the ‘hourly rate’ for Hitmen and CEOs are in the same ballpark..
bsd,
How has ‘Regulation’ worked out?
the FDIC has effectively neutered the Depositors, otherwise, check on imprudent Bank Managers..
and, FDA approved drugs, taken per Prescription, is one of the leading causes of death in the Country..
excuse the colloquial, I’ll blame it on BR’s influence :), but: “Get Real, or Get Bent”
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/colloquial
BizLinks and Open Comments | 7.15.08
Global financial danger warnings prompted quick action — with fears of systemic failure from bankers, no wonder Confidence in U.S. banking sector runs short WaMu on track to post worst-ever stock drop since IPO — uh-oo, WaMu The Upside…
Won’t add anything other than to observe that there seem to be a lot of fellow travelers here along with me :)
BTW, Ackman on CNBC this morning presented something closer to Roubini’s plan to restructure Fannie and Freddie. It certainly sounds a lot more realistic than the vague, open-ended guarantee crap Paulson spoke about. While it still involved a three year government guarantee, it required wiping out the shareholders and a haircut for bondholders which made it a lot less likely government money would be needed. While I don’t like the government guarantee, it’s better than anything I’ve seen on the MSM so far.
Ackman’s Plan to Restructure GSE’s
“Where’s My Bailout?” gloats the pasty, option-counting CEO giving a two thumbs up to No-Bid Bush in the Oval Office on a an up-coming New Yorker cover parodying whining about the whiners.
Ah yes, the same CEOs who almost universally backdated their stock options. Not content to simply steal from their employees, they went after the people who financed them, too. And now they they know what will fix things for the rest of us.
Along the same lines as bluestatedon, I have my own observation of the CEO’s comments:
“An overwhelming majority of American CEOs believe that in order to create the highest paying jobs and maintain the U.S.’ economic competitiveness, the government needs to reduce taxes and regulation, privatize education and remove restrictions on trade . . .” (emphasis mine, of course)
Abolish public education? What the hell is that all about? What would ever make them think that would help? I just don’t get that kind of thinking at all. How are we supposed to become more competitive if we deny public education to American children? And who is going to pay for this “privatized” education? Them? Don’t make me laugh; it would contradict their immediately previous statement about lowering taxes.
The CEOs in this story are the ones who should stop whining.
To wally’s point, let’s recall that all during this decade, CEOs have been buying back stock, to make their options go up in value. That this also increased leverage did not concern them.
Now that recession (which none of them saw coming) has struck, they are desperately raising equity capital with highly-dilutive distress sales of stock in secondary offerings at knockdown prices.
Only top-dollar salaries and bonuses can command such discerning financial talent at the helm. /satire/
Posted by: OkieLawyer | Jul 15, 2008 9:40:30 AM
FYI..
#10. Free Education for All Children in Public Schools. Abolition of Children’s Factory Labor in it’s Present Form. Combination of Education with Industrial Production.
http://www.conservativeusa.org/10planksofcommunism.htm
“Perhaps the greatest of school’s illusions is that the institution was launched by a group of kindly men and women who wanted to help the children of ordinary families—to level the playing field, so to speak.”
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/
OkieL,
Remember that it’s imperative to Learn more than your Taught..
Funny. I would think that they would be really concerned with the inefficiencies in the labor market for CEOs that relentlessly push CEO compensations up while CEO performance goes down. I would think they’d be all against that stuff…
Privatizing education seems weird, on the face of it. The Whittle and Edison corporations have been huge busts. On the other hand, I can understand the CEO lust for treating the department of Education like the Pentagon, with a constant stream of tax money propping up a bloated, profitable and corrupt chain of crony companies.
Privatizing education and social security might be the next bubble! We’ve found it!
A Wu Tang Financial reference!
http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=11887&title=wu-tang-financial
more than your Taught..
your=you’re
funny, diction counts, too ..
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/diction
I dunno.
Considering how off the mark their solutions are, why should we believe them they say the economic outlook is dismal?
Privatize education? WTF?
Oh look! Ponies!
“Remember that it’s imperative to Learn more than your Taught..”
It’s pretty funny getting a lecture from a wingnut about education that is riddled with grammatical errors.
So, by far China is expected to lead in job creation yet these bozos think the US will lead in creating high paying jobs?
Doesn’t anyone see this disconnect?
Surely they believe CEOs will continue to be overpaid (self interest), but this is a level of intellectual dishonesty right up there with the “Iraq war will pay for itself”.
sounds like all these CEOs need to put on their big girl panties and deal with reality.
What a sad bunch. Why they don’t just come out and say that they only care about their own wallets?
“and, FDA approved drugs, taken per Prescription, is one of the leading causes of death in the Country..”
Yeah right!
Be kind enough to put the contact info of your weed provider in your next post. It’s gotta be Premium Vancouver Gold he’s selling you.
“An overwhelming majority of American CEOs believe that in order to create the highest paying jobs and maintain the U.S.’ economic competitiveness.”
Quid? Huh? Did I read correctly?
Since when CEOs are concerned in providing high paying jobs? We constantly hear sobs of “high wages are killing our global competitiveness” or “if we want to maintain our global competitiveness, US incomes must par with what the global marketplace will bear.”
Oh wait! Could it be that they’re talking about profit margins which has a direct impact on THEIR high-paying jobs?
That would explain it.
(sigh of relief)
Phil Gramm snuck in the law allowing the Enron loophole. The entire dark market and attempts to corner it for energy commodities from Amaranth to BP to Enron is on him. Also, his legislation loosening regulation allowed the subprime fiasco to happen. Far from admitting it, he has told critics that “You’re not putting that (subprime) on me.”
So it is zero surprise to me that the one man who has done more to undermine the U.S. economy comes out and calls us all whiners. While many Americans are suffering, Mr. Gramm has been getting paid by the government and by his connection with UBS. Yep, I don’t want to hear any whining says the lobbyist.
I wrote on a different forum that I would not consider voting for McCain if Gramm were going to be a part of his cabinet. He seemed to be a shoo in for Sect. of Treasury, and I am sure he would have used that position to whore out to the financials like UBS and energy companies like Enron.
I was glad McCain said that he would make Gramm ambassador to Belarus. I just hope he means it.
“and, FDA approved drugs, taken per Prescription, is one of the leading causes of death in the Country..”
For 2005 from the CDC website, the leading causes of death in the U.S.:
Heart disease: 652,091
Cancer: 559,312
Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 143,579
Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 130,933
Accidents (unintentional injuries): 117,809
Diabetes: 75,119
Alzheimer’s disease: 71,599
Influenza/Pneumonia: 63,001
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 43,901
Septicemia: 34,136
In 2005, a total of 33,541 persons died of drug-induced causes in the United States (Tables 21 and 22). The category ‘‘drug-induced causes’’ includes not only deaths from dependent and nondependent use of either legal or illegal drugs, but also includes poisoning from medically prescribed and other drugs.
The numbers for deaths directly attributable to illegal vs. FDA-approved drugs is not available, nor is the number for deaths directly specifically attributable to taking FDA-approved drugs per perscription. Allotting half of the 33.5K deaths to deaths via FDA-approved prescription drugs yields less than 17K deaths per year, which places it outside the top 15 causes of death.
In other words, the notion that deaths attributable to FDA-approved drugs taken by prescription is among the leading causes of death in the U.S. is, in fact, horsecrap, unless the definition of “leading” is stretched beyond all normal meaning.
maybe i missed something….was the question ‘how does the US maintain and increase its competitiveness’? or ‘what US policies will maintain and increase your obscene pay package?’
“Phil Gramm snuck in the law allowing the Enron loophole.”
Yea, good old war-hero John McSame, with the rich trophy wife. Gramm running that complicated economy-thing so he doesn’t have to wake up from his snooze. Maybe failed CEO Carly Fiorina as Veep.
“I love the smell of Napalm in the morning. Smells of–Victory”
Inspite of it all, I am just sitting here trying to figure out what to do. Democracy? This isn’t what I think our founding fathers planned. This is a corporatocracy in which the rich and powerful heads of corporations get all the tax benefits and work all the angles and it doesn’t matter about the 300 million people living in this country. I worry about the future. What will be the economic reality for my grandsons?
bsd,
I appreciate your response. But, the CDC is part of the problem.
see: CHICAGO — Northwestern University’s Charles Bennett, M.D., is a super sleuth of potentially deadly prescription drug reactions. He leads a national SWAT team of doctors called RADAR (Research on Adverse Drug Events and Reports) based out of Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine. They swoop in to investigate early signs of trouble years before the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) takes notice.
A new study by Bennett, the A.C. Buehler Professor in Economics and Aging at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine, and a hematologist and oncologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, found RADAR identified serious drug reactions six years earlier than the FDA and drug companies.
RADAR’s proactive safety efforts and reports also were much more comprehensive than those from the FDA or drug companies, according to the study. RADAR’s reports provided doctors with important medical insights as well as guidance for prevention, diagnosis and treatment.
The study was published May 28 in Archives of Internal Medicine.
Since Bennett launched RADAR in 1998, his research has resulted in black box warnings on billion dollar drugs that may have saved thousands of lives. He has also provided guidance to help physicians more safely administer drugs. More than 100,000 people die each year from reactions to medications. The FDA is under attack for its passive and inefficient methods of learning about these problems.
http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2007/06/radar.html
The CEO’s think global, and are paid accordingly. The US economy for the most part has peaked already and has been in decline for some time now (excluding FIRE and the fictitous capital economy which is now in decline ).
The present and future is in Asia which has 40% of the global population (compared to the US 5%). The CEO’s may get paid in the US, but their performance is measured by how much of the business can get moved out of the US, and how effectively the global operation is run. The high paying jobs are the executives and personnel who manage the overseas operations. I am seeng a great shift of US global HQ being moved offshore as well. It starts with American staff who move to Hong Kong, Shanghai or Singapore to manage the local/regional operations, and then after some time begins the process of localization, where the American staff are replaced by local staff who have been trained up.
The American worker has served it’s purpose, the torch is being passed, and the USD is all set to be Left Behind and a World Currency will replace it. After that, you will rely on the IMF to provide you credit. That credit will come with all kinds of strings attached (eg. good by ss and medicare). Just another 3rd world nation with too much debt and a currency nobody will want.
Globalization, ain’t she great.
America will not get back on its feet until McCain has a chance to finish the Republican project of putting an end to pre-marital sex and the teaching of evolution in our nation’s schools.
“…reduce taxes and regulation…”
->yeah, lets create more bubbles!