Frayed Ends: Business, Economics, and Tax Policy 3.0

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: Frayed Ends: Business, Economics, and Tax Policy 3.0

So in another example of strong governance locally...Minn has been rated the top state for kids welfare. And what was the response from the key governing dem stakeholders? They said they were pleased. But continued to say just how problematic things still were. In fact, Dayton pushed for universal preschool to double down on the state's lead. And in perfect opposition party form, the GOP reached an appropriate compromise to increase scholarships for young students. This at a time when TC business climate is absolutely top rate and the already powerful engine Mpls is in full reinvention mode (stadium, light rail, downtown street renovations). Things really can't be going any smoother here.

It seems more like nothing's good enough, and the socialists want nothing more but to completely destroy the country and make everyone a government slave.

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: Frayed Ends: Business, Economics, and Tax Policy 3.0

It seems more like nothing's good enough, and the socialists want nothing more but to completely destroy the country and make everyone a government slave.

Sounds to me like it's competition between the states. Which should be the most desirable condition of any true conservative. Minnesota wants to double down while Wisconsin wants to slash and burn. Let's see how it all shakes out. So far Wisconsin is about ready to ask for more money from the Feds to bail them out.

 

[dxmnkd316]

Re: Frayed Ends: Business, Economics, and Tax Policy 3.0

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/08/05/sec-pay-ratio-disclosure-vote/31112725/

Interesting. SEC votes to require CEO pay ratio disclosure.

My favorite line:

Commissioners Daniel Gallagher and Michael Piwowar, the SEC's two Republican commissioners, voted "no" after arguing the rule had no evident benefits and would cost businesses an estimated $1.3 billion in initial compliance costs alone. They contended the change instead was designed to "name and shame" highly paid CEOs and their firms.

$1.3 BILLION!??! HOLY ****! You mean in an economy that produces something around $17-$18 trillion every year that $1.3 billion is going to be a burden?

That would be like someone making $50k a year and worrying about $5 more in taxes.

 

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: Frayed Ends: Business, Economics, and Tax Policy 3.0

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/08/05/sec-pay-ratio-disclosure-vote/31112725/

Interesting. SEC votes to require CEO pay ratio disclosure.

My favorite line:


$1.3 BILLION!??! HOLY ****! You mean in an economy that produces something around $17-$18 trillion every year that $1.3 billion is going to be a burden?

That would be like someone making $50k a year and worrying about $5 more in taxes.

Someone doesn't understand scale, in that everyone's going to pay the same, resulting in this being a regressive tax. In addition to profit costs, there are also time costs, potentially where you have to hire ANOTHER accountant just to comply with this.

 

[trixR4kids]

Re: Frayed Ends: Business, Economics, and Tax Policy 3.0

Yeah I doubt it.

 

[St. Clown]

Re: Frayed Ends: Business, Economics, and Tax Policy 3.0

Someone doesn't understand scale, in that everyone's going to pay the same, resulting in this being a regressive tax. In addition to profit costs, there are also time costs, potentially where you have to hire ANOTHER accountant just to comply with this.

Give someone in HR with access to payroll data, some DB knowledge, and that person can have it all knocked out in a day - two tops.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Frayed Ends: Business, Economics, and Tax Policy 3.0

Give someone in HR with access to payroll data, some DB knowledge, and that person can have it all knocked out in a day - two tops.

Exactly. It's an easy problem; all the excuses are just attempts to hide the scale of the massive inequality.

They're afraid people are going to get mad. People should get mad.

 

[joecct]

Re: Frayed Ends: Business, Economics, and Tax Policy 3.0

Could a solution be to require a CEO to buy into the company with at least a $1 million investment (I'd prefer $10 M)? If the company goes belly up, the CEO loses the investment or gets pennies on the dollar. If the company does well, the CEO gets a good ROI.

The point being that a CEO (and the BoD) have a vested interest in the success of the company and can't rely on the golden parachute to save them when times go bad.

 

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: Frayed Ends: Business, Economics, and Tax Policy 3.0

Give someone in HR with access to payroll data, some DB knowledge, and that person can have it all knocked out in a day - two tops.

You vastly underestimate the red tape associated with programming ANYTHING billing related.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Frayed Ends: Business, Economics, and Tax Policy 3.0

Could a solution be to require a CEO to buy into the company with at least a $1 million investment (I'd prefer $10 M)? If the company goes belly up, the CEO loses the investment or gets pennies on the dollar. If the company does well, the CEO gets a good ROI.

The point being that a CEO (and the BoD) have a vested interest in the success of the company and can't rely on the golden parachute to save them when times go bad.

Somebody here may have raised the idea of having the officers have deferred bonuses based on long term performance. So, they'd get a straight-up salary just like any employee. They'd also have bonuses based on measures of the health of the company after, say, a 10-year timeframe. Stock options are supposed to accomplish this, but I guess they either don't or they're abused in practice.

The big problem seems to be that none of the decision-makers are incentified to follow long-term growth strategies. Even a forward-looking CEO gets screwed if his strategy leads to short-term loss.

The other direction would be to severely limit the sort of predatory speculation that has turned the market into a casino. Which basically means: take on the financial services industry directly, restore the firewalls between different business lines, break up the biggest players, adopt a Tobin tax, and bring the gamblers to heel. We should do all of those things anyway, since even if you're the biggest booster of Capitalism out there you want it to survive.

Full disclosure, the prior 3 paragraphs were written by somebody with zero economics education other than what I read here and on bathroom walls.

 

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: Frayed Ends: Business, Economics, and Tax Policy 3.0

Could a solution be to require a CEO to buy into the company with at least a $1 million investment (I'd prefer $10 M)? If the company goes belly up, the CEO loses the investment or gets pennies on the dollar. If the company does well, the CEO gets a good ROI.

The point being that a CEO (and the BoD) have a vested interest in the success of the company and can't rely on the golden parachute to save them when times go bad.

Already happens. Most of a CEO's reported isn't necessarily cash salary, but rather stock options.

 

[joecct]

Already happens. Most of a CEO's reported isn't necessarily cash salary, but rather stock options.

But they're not paying for it out of their pocket. Think of it as buying into a partnership.

I want them financially punished if they lead the company to ruin and rewarded if they lead the company to success.

 

[St. Clown]

Re: Frayed Ends: Business, Economics, and Tax Policy 3.0

You vastly underestimate the red tape associated with programming ANYTHING billing related.

You're grossly overestimating the scope of a project like this. First off, it's not a billing project, it's a reporting project. To do it on the absolute cheapest method, kick out a report that finds the total compensation of the non-CEO employees (perhaps it's non-executive, but more likely limited to the CEO), list the qty of said employees, compare against the CEO's total compensation. While there are variables like stock options involved, those can be figured in based upon a few variables as well by just giving the spreadsheet operating the quantity of shares included in the option, the exercise price and the current stock price. This isn't a billing application, it's a report feature added onto the HR DB. If you want to make it more complicated, you add in those really simple equations for the reporting app to do for the person who then will have to complete the government form.

It gets expensive when you try to program the application to create the entire form as an STP process, but the only reason to do that is if you're a company like PeopleSoft or grandstanding for political purposes.

 

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: Frayed Ends: Business, Economics, and Tax Policy 3.0

You're grossly overestimating the scope of a project like this. First off, it's not a billing project, it's a reporting project. To do it on the absolute cheapest method, kick out a report that finds the total compensation of the non-CEO employees (perhaps it's non-executive, but more likely limited to the CEO), list the qty of said employees, compare against the CEO's total compensation. While there are variables like stock options involved, those can be figured in based upon a few variables as well by just giving the spreadsheet operating the quantity of shares included in the option, the exercise price and the current stock price. This isn't a billing application, it's a report feature added onto the HR DB. If you want to make it more complicated, you add in those really simple equations for the reporting app to do for the person who then will have to complete the government form.

It gets expensive when you try to program the application to create the entire form as an STP process, but the only reason to do that is if you're a company like PeopleSoft or grandstanding for political purposes.

You still have to enter the data somewhere, and every single employer can be different; you can't necessarily depend upon eVerify. And even though it isn't billing related, you can be sure that an auditing firm like Sarbanes-Oxley will be getting involved.

 

[St. Clown]

Re: Frayed Ends: Business, Economics, and Tax Policy 3.0

You still have to enter the data somewhere, and every single employer can be different; you can't necessarily depend upon eVerify. And even though it isn't billing related, you can be sure that an auditing firm like Sarbanes-Oxley will be getting involved.

First of all, the data entry is all of five minutes of work. It's a nothing effort. Secondly, Sarbanes-Oxley is the financial industry oversight law that Congress passed shortly after the whole Enron debacle, not an auditing company.

 

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

Re: Frayed Ends: Business, Economics, and Tax Policy 3.0

First of all, the data entry is all of five minutes of work. It's a nothing effort. Secondly, Sarbanes-Oxley is the financial industry oversight law that Congress passed shortly after the whole Enron debacle, not an auditing company.

Forget it, he's trolling.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Frayed Ends: Business, Economics, and Tax Policy 3.0

Forget it, he's trolling.

http://cdn.hark.com/images/000/676/822/676822/was-it-over-when-the-germans-b_clink_large.jpg

 

[St. Clown]

Re: Frayed Ends: Business, Economics, and Tax Policy 3.0

Forget it, he's trolling.

Germans?

 

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: Frayed Ends: Business, Economics, and Tax Policy 3.0

Germans?

He's referring to National Lampoon's Animal House.

And I can't wait to see what happens for companies that don't have computer reporting capabilities. And yes, they still exist.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Frayed Ends: Business, Economics, and Tax Policy 3.0

And I can't wait to see what happens for companies that don't have computer reporting capabilities. And yes, they still exist.

This is for publicly traded companies. Don't they have a myriad of SEC reporting requirements?