Global Economic Perceptions: it's so much like Orson Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray"- by RM

Although European economies are very far away from anything resembling a recovery, they seem to have weathered the storm — at least temporarily. This has been made possible largely because of pressures on Germany from other European countries, to allow the ECB and the European stabilization fund to directly inject funds into troubled banks and also to allow Greece some more flexibility.

Good news? At least that is what we are reading in the press and seeing on TV .

Unfortunately, and regardless of the "good news" politicians, the financial community,  and the corporate press are trying to portray, the political and corporate establishment in reality probably represents what Oscar Wilde illustrated so well in his novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray" - the cultivation of a false image.

Myth : "Politicians are people who are there to help the people who elected them": They are not. Their main purpose is to stay in power and they will say and do anything which will get them reelected.

Myth: "A bank is your friend and a safe place to keep your hard earned money":  It is not. A financial institution is a business, and a colossal one at that. A bank's sole purpose is to make money off your money. When they get caught or go belly up because of fraudulent activities including money laundering their top management usually gets away scot-free and end up with millions in severance pay. You will probably lose all the money you had entrusted to your "friendly" bank.

Myth:"Corporations should be treasured and given more tax breaks because they are "the goose which lays the golden egg": Not true. Some of the wealthiest corporations pay no taxes at all. They even get money back. Verizon made $32.8 billion in profit and got $951 million in  refunds. Financial Institution Wells Fargo made $49.4 billion and got  $68 million in refunds. Boeing made $9.7 billion and got $177.6 million in refunds. In the US corporate taxes as a percentage of federal revenue in 2010 was only 8.9% while individual income and payroll taxes as a percentage of federal revenue were 81.5 % and the rest 9.6 coming from other taxes".

Myth:"When you own stock which trades on the stock market and the stock value starts going down you should ride the stock all the way down. Don't sell at a 20% or 30% loss, hold on to it because it will eventually go up": It won't, when a company stock goes way down it usually is the result of something "unrepairable" going on in that company.
 
Myth: "Corporations are people": Corporations are not people, regardless of what some right wing politicians say or what the US Supreme Court decides. Corporations never rock in a cradle and cannot rest in a grave. Corporations do not have dreams or aspirations — they cannot love or feel and, no matter how hard their defenders might try to convince us otherwise, they will never put the greater good before private profit. Corporations are conceived in the offices of law firms and die in the halls of bankruptcy courts.

Bottom-line What you think you hear and what you see is not always what you get.

Global Economic Perception:  it's so much like "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Orson Wilde  - by RM

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