Markets - Where did all the stocks go?
Public Companies In Decline
The number of public companies has fallen fast by Matt Phillips, David Crowther 4/28/24
"...After analyzing the effects of mergers, private-equity investment, and regulatory costs, the paper suggests that M&A is the main culprit. (Though they do theorize that higher costs associated with regulation could be a less important contributing factor.)
“Mergers seem to be the biggest driver of this trend,” Ali Sanati told Sherwood. Sanati is a finance professor at the American University in Washington, DC, and a coauthor of the 2023 paper.
The authors categorized mergers according to various financial metrics, noting that mergers motivated around financing and innovation “are the ones that effectively reduce the number of U.S. listings.”
By Mary Wildfire, originally published by Resilience.org May 14, 2024
"...A sociopath is by definition selfish, concerned only about getting what he or she wants and unconcerned about anyone else’s needs. And what is it that they want? Usually wealth. Some—the narcissists—also want the spotlight, want fame and adulation. Some crave power for its own sake, aside from the need to use power to get more wealth. Some don’t care about either of those. But mostly, it seems, what the billionaires want is more money. They have more money than they could spend in twenty lifetimes but they still are willing to sacrifice our children’s future to get even more money. This is remarkably narrow thinking, a fascination with numbers—you might even call it machinelike..."
You may be privy to or unfamiliar with how the ultra-wealthy are taking advantage of the system. Either way, you’ll find this report by @ProPublica to be staggering. The facts are clear: there is a class war, and we’re losing.
“…it demolishes the cornerstone myth of the American tax system: that everyone pays their fair share and the richest Americans pay the most.”
@Sherifazuhur The name of the game is Disruption. Not just the uberriche US Elite, ALL THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC ELITE profit from systemic disruptions, and the 'west playing a dangerous game in the middle east' is just that kind of systemic disruption they profit from.
Underground House
Las Vegas, Nevada
A luxurious doomsday bunker hidden beneath an unassuming Las Vegas home offers the best of subterranean suburbia.
The unique home was built in the 1970s by Girard “Jerry” Henderson, a former Avon executive. He and his wife Mary lived in this underground mansion as their primary residence. He was a majority partner with Underground World Homes, Inc. in the 1960s, which promoted subterranean health and safety benefits as well as “the ultimate in true privacy.”
...The underground property was last purchased in 2014...The Underground House is private property. You can view the above-ground home and yard from the street, but venturing onto the property without permission would be trespassing. Occasional tours and events are held inside the subterranean bunker. Soon, the property will be available for private events, historical tours, and more..."
About 125,000 notices will be sent to high-income earners, including 25,000 people with income more than $1 million, the tax agency said. Maybe we should eat the rich before the price per pound exceeds that of ground beef.
Just came to this quote in “A People’s History of the United States” and thought it worth sharing — even though May Day is almost over.
“If the workers of the world want to win, all they have to do is recognize their own solidarity. They have nothing to do but fold their arms and the world will stop. The workers are more powerful with their hands in their pockets than all the property of the capitalists.”
“We need to know who is going to stand up with us! And this choice is clear. Joe Biden bet on the American worker, while Donald Trump blamed the American worker”
United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain
Although this clip is a few months old the sentiment is still true
If you truly are moral, if you truly care about the American worker then you must vote Joe Biden
@flexghost wasn't it Joe biden that told the rail workers they had to deal with it and
get back to work or else? The truth is he's pro-business, #antiunion. And on top of that he sends bullets to kill #palestinians. #genocidejoe has got to go. #eattherich
Red states like Ky are planning to eliminate income taxes to move to an entirely sales tax system. They plan to tax all goods & services, so presumably your doctor, home care, your bookkeeper, and your contract labor will all have to charge you sales tax on top of their regular co-pays & fees.
Of course, that means the brunt of all taxes will be paid by the low wage working poor, and the rich will not be affected - nor pay any tax on their income. Small biz is screwed.
Of course, this being the GOP in Kentucky, they will no doubt slap sales taxes on Food & Medicine, too, just to make sure they hurt the poor as much as possible.
B/c that's what right wing christians do - hurt the poor, disabled, elderly by depriving them of food, med care, affordable housing, and then criminalizing homelessness for good measure. In the name of their evil god.
I remember folks in the web community shunning me when I first started speaking out against Big Tech – because I was criticising their friends who worked at Google, Facebook, etc. – saying I was exaggerating things.
I wonder what the same folks think now given what we know about these very same corporations; given a number of them are actively enabling a genocide.
Am I still an alarmist?
(I understand if some of you are too busy working at one or debating the minutiae of CSS syntax to reply.)
Folks have made many visual explainers to help us grasp just how rich the world's wealthiest people are. This is one of the best I've seen: https://mkorostoff.github.io/1-pixel-wealth/
However, I think it's good while viewing this to keep in mind that most folks still think rich people are not bad. I'd urge you to consider while going thru this visualizer how many people are visibly homeless - just where you live - and ask yourself if you could have this much wealth and NOT help, and in fact hinder. #EatTheRich
Rich folks undermine democracries, then have their pick of wherever they want to flee to because their accomplices in other nations believe hooey about the virtue of rich people.
From layoffs to lawsuits, billionaires are striking back to crush worker power (therealnews.com)