Post by the Scribe on Apr 26, 2021 1:04:46 GMT
RepubliCONservatives ONLY like the concept of FREE SPEECH when it is on THEIR terms. Free Speech is only for conservatives, NO ONE ELSE.
Business Insider
If the GOP's attacks on corporate America are confusing you, it's because the whole party is confused
Linette Lopez
Sun, April 25, 2021, 5:27 AM
rick scott complaining about woke companies on fox news
YouTube
My colleague reasoned that the GOP is attacking 'woke' corporations while protecting their tax rates is consistent with its policy of helping shareholders.
The problem is that the party has no problem hurting shareholders when it wants to, depending on how 'woke' the company is.
"Champagne for my real friends, real pain for my sham friends," is the real principle here. The rest is just the GOP figuring itself out.
See more stories on Insider's business page.
In a column earlier this week, my colleague Josh Barro tried to make sense out of nonsense. He tried to explain how the GOP can attack corporations for being "woke" while also acting as their champion by opposing a corporate tax hike.
www.businessinsider.com/woke-capital-isnt-about-capital-republicans-taxes-corporations-managers-2021-4?utm_source=yahoo.com&utm_medium=referral
He reasoned that Republicans can support measures that protect shareholders while also attacking certain people at the companies - management or workers - for opposing Republican-backed restrictive voting laws.
This is not consistent with what Republicans are actually doing though. No one in the GOP was thinking about shareholders when Georgia's lower house vote dto rescind Atlanta-based Delta Airlines' $35 million state tax break after it spoke out against Georgia's new restrictive voter law. And in a recent screed for Fox Business, GOP Sen. Rick Scott of Florida threatened "woke" companies about a "day of reckoning" to come with nary a word of comfort for shareholders.
"There is a massive backlash coming," Scott wrote. "You will rue the day when it hits you. That day is November 8, 2022. That is the day Republicans will take back the Senate and the House. It will be a day of reckoning."
Law and order, but only if I make the laws and give the orders
It's not clear what Scott is threatening to do, but it's clear he thinks corporations will be punished when Republicans have majority power. And it's also clear he's not making a distinction between management and shareholders.
Will this coming GOP majority investigate these woke companies? Tax them or regulate them on the basis of their wokeness? These companies are not breaking any laws by expressing their position on issues fundamental to our democracy, so they do not deserve to be punished, but Scott says the Republicans will do it anyway. What he is describing is how corporations are treated in banana republics.
Contrary to my colleagues' piece, these threats may be directed at managers or executives but the level of uncertainty they bring is never for shareholders. None of this reflects (what once were) GOP principles like respecting the rule of law, free speech, or "small government."
Besides, in some cases it's shareholders who are pushing for more disclosures about corporate political spending, especially in the wake of January 6. Shareholders want to know that what companies are saying about democracy is being backed up in their political giving, so you can expect corporate boards to field resolutions and questions about that this proxy season.
"Companies are reading the writing on the wall," Thomas DiNapoli, New York State's comptroller and trustee for the state's public pension fund, told the New York Times' DealBook. "Political and social polarization are bad for their business, and they need to decide if political donations are worth the risk."
Trying to use principles that the GOP once stood for to explain what it's doing with corporations - and just about anything else - right now is increasingly confusing, and that's because the party itself is confused.
We're watching the post-Trump Republican Party negotiate what it does and does not believe in in real time. Republicans still haven't let go of being the party of big business, but they've also fully embraced populist theatrics and grievance politics to please the base. The problem is that these two things aren't playing very well together and trying to make sense of the contradictions is like chasing a pig on LSD.
The limits of shareholder primacy
This rift between the GOP and big business is also exposing the hollowness of "shareholder primacy" - the theory that businesses should put the desires of their shareholders above all else because they are the "owners" and other stakeholders (like workers, customers and communities) are less important.
www.businessinsider.com/american-companies-and-short-termism-2016-6?utm_source=yahoo.com&utm_medium=referral
This theory of how corporations should work came to the fore in the 1970s, but before that American corporations and the scholars who studied them took a more holistic view of what and who corporations should take into consideration when making decisions. This was known as the "managerialist view" of corporate governance, and in the last few years it has been creeping ever-so-slightly back into some C-suites around the country.
You can see how it's taken hold when you look at companies' approaches to climate change. The increasing risk of an uninhabitable planet has made this a moment when C-suite leaders feel their communities are at risk. Their customers and workers are angry and want to see action. That's why you see big asset managers like BlackRock pushing companies toward net zero carbon emissions, for example. To them, a threat to democracy is a similar existential threat to their communities, workers, and bottom lines.
www.blackrock.com/corporate?gclid=Cj0KCQjw9_mDBhCGARIsAN3PaFM_aYQtiholbmpj2GFvucV-3rpzsQoe0dXmy8ChFNBEDcbGqQrsvCsaAkdwEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.dsw.ds
In an interview with Politico, Yale School of Management Dean Jeffrey Sonnenfeld explained why the GOP and corporations are increasingly at loggerheads. He helped coordinate a call with around 100 corporate executives earlier this month in which they discussed their opposition to restrictive GOP voter laws popping up in states around the country and agreed to take action against them.
www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/04/15/republican-party-big-business-georgia-voting-rights-conservative-481978
Sonnenfeld explained that what's even more important to corporations than their taxes is a peaceful, unified country. Using wedge issues to divide the Americans used to be part of the GOP fringe, now it's gone mainstream. Now the Republican push to break the country in two is pitting the party against the corporate class they once championed.
"They [CEOs] don't want angry communities; they don't want fractious, finger-pointing workforces; they don't want hostile customers; they don't want confused and angry shareholders," said Sonnenfeld. "That is 100%at variance with what the business community wants. And that is a million times more important to them than how many dollars of taxes are paid here or there."
The GOP has parted with corporations on other issues too, like trade and immigration. And if you ask CEOs, they'd likely tell you that they stand against protectionism and support immigration reform because those policies are best for shareholders - just like the GOP would've once said. After all, tax policies are not the only ones that impact a company's bottom line.
www.businessinsider.com/george-w-bush-slams-the-gop-as-isolationist-protectionist-and-nativist-2021-4?utm_source=yahoo.com&utm_medium=referral
What this leaves us with, is a Republican Party that is increasingly ideologically inconsistent and unreliable. And it leaves us with a corporate America that is being forced to move farther from the GOP to protect its interests because of that inconsistency and unreliability. If that sounds confusing to you, that's because it is.
Read the original article on Business Insider
www.businessinsider.com/gop-attacks-corporate-america-confusing-corporate-taxes-georgia-2021-4
Business Insider
If the GOP's attacks on corporate America are confusing you, it's because the whole party is confused
Linette Lopez
Sun, April 25, 2021, 5:27 AM
rick scott complaining about woke companies on fox news
YouTube
My colleague reasoned that the GOP is attacking 'woke' corporations while protecting their tax rates is consistent with its policy of helping shareholders.
The problem is that the party has no problem hurting shareholders when it wants to, depending on how 'woke' the company is.
"Champagne for my real friends, real pain for my sham friends," is the real principle here. The rest is just the GOP figuring itself out.
See more stories on Insider's business page.
In a column earlier this week, my colleague Josh Barro tried to make sense out of nonsense. He tried to explain how the GOP can attack corporations for being "woke" while also acting as their champion by opposing a corporate tax hike.
www.businessinsider.com/woke-capital-isnt-about-capital-republicans-taxes-corporations-managers-2021-4?utm_source=yahoo.com&utm_medium=referral
He reasoned that Republicans can support measures that protect shareholders while also attacking certain people at the companies - management or workers - for opposing Republican-backed restrictive voting laws.
This is not consistent with what Republicans are actually doing though. No one in the GOP was thinking about shareholders when Georgia's lower house vote dto rescind Atlanta-based Delta Airlines' $35 million state tax break after it spoke out against Georgia's new restrictive voter law. And in a recent screed for Fox Business, GOP Sen. Rick Scott of Florida threatened "woke" companies about a "day of reckoning" to come with nary a word of comfort for shareholders.
"There is a massive backlash coming," Scott wrote. "You will rue the day when it hits you. That day is November 8, 2022. That is the day Republicans will take back the Senate and the House. It will be a day of reckoning."
Law and order, but only if I make the laws and give the orders
It's not clear what Scott is threatening to do, but it's clear he thinks corporations will be punished when Republicans have majority power. And it's also clear he's not making a distinction between management and shareholders.
Will this coming GOP majority investigate these woke companies? Tax them or regulate them on the basis of their wokeness? These companies are not breaking any laws by expressing their position on issues fundamental to our democracy, so they do not deserve to be punished, but Scott says the Republicans will do it anyway. What he is describing is how corporations are treated in banana republics.
Contrary to my colleagues' piece, these threats may be directed at managers or executives but the level of uncertainty they bring is never for shareholders. None of this reflects (what once were) GOP principles like respecting the rule of law, free speech, or "small government."
Besides, in some cases it's shareholders who are pushing for more disclosures about corporate political spending, especially in the wake of January 6. Shareholders want to know that what companies are saying about democracy is being backed up in their political giving, so you can expect corporate boards to field resolutions and questions about that this proxy season.
"Companies are reading the writing on the wall," Thomas DiNapoli, New York State's comptroller and trustee for the state's public pension fund, told the New York Times' DealBook. "Political and social polarization are bad for their business, and they need to decide if political donations are worth the risk."
Trying to use principles that the GOP once stood for to explain what it's doing with corporations - and just about anything else - right now is increasingly confusing, and that's because the party itself is confused.
We're watching the post-Trump Republican Party negotiate what it does and does not believe in in real time. Republicans still haven't let go of being the party of big business, but they've also fully embraced populist theatrics and grievance politics to please the base. The problem is that these two things aren't playing very well together and trying to make sense of the contradictions is like chasing a pig on LSD.
The limits of shareholder primacy
This rift between the GOP and big business is also exposing the hollowness of "shareholder primacy" - the theory that businesses should put the desires of their shareholders above all else because they are the "owners" and other stakeholders (like workers, customers and communities) are less important.
www.businessinsider.com/american-companies-and-short-termism-2016-6?utm_source=yahoo.com&utm_medium=referral
This theory of how corporations should work came to the fore in the 1970s, but before that American corporations and the scholars who studied them took a more holistic view of what and who corporations should take into consideration when making decisions. This was known as the "managerialist view" of corporate governance, and in the last few years it has been creeping ever-so-slightly back into some C-suites around the country.
You can see how it's taken hold when you look at companies' approaches to climate change. The increasing risk of an uninhabitable planet has made this a moment when C-suite leaders feel their communities are at risk. Their customers and workers are angry and want to see action. That's why you see big asset managers like BlackRock pushing companies toward net zero carbon emissions, for example. To them, a threat to democracy is a similar existential threat to their communities, workers, and bottom lines.
www.blackrock.com/corporate?gclid=Cj0KCQjw9_mDBhCGARIsAN3PaFM_aYQtiholbmpj2GFvucV-3rpzsQoe0dXmy8ChFNBEDcbGqQrsvCsaAkdwEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.dsw.ds
In an interview with Politico, Yale School of Management Dean Jeffrey Sonnenfeld explained why the GOP and corporations are increasingly at loggerheads. He helped coordinate a call with around 100 corporate executives earlier this month in which they discussed their opposition to restrictive GOP voter laws popping up in states around the country and agreed to take action against them.
www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/04/15/republican-party-big-business-georgia-voting-rights-conservative-481978
Sonnenfeld explained that what's even more important to corporations than their taxes is a peaceful, unified country. Using wedge issues to divide the Americans used to be part of the GOP fringe, now it's gone mainstream. Now the Republican push to break the country in two is pitting the party against the corporate class they once championed.
"They [CEOs] don't want angry communities; they don't want fractious, finger-pointing workforces; they don't want hostile customers; they don't want confused and angry shareholders," said Sonnenfeld. "That is 100%at variance with what the business community wants. And that is a million times more important to them than how many dollars of taxes are paid here or there."
The GOP has parted with corporations on other issues too, like trade and immigration. And if you ask CEOs, they'd likely tell you that they stand against protectionism and support immigration reform because those policies are best for shareholders - just like the GOP would've once said. After all, tax policies are not the only ones that impact a company's bottom line.
www.businessinsider.com/george-w-bush-slams-the-gop-as-isolationist-protectionist-and-nativist-2021-4?utm_source=yahoo.com&utm_medium=referral
What this leaves us with, is a Republican Party that is increasingly ideologically inconsistent and unreliable. And it leaves us with a corporate America that is being forced to move farther from the GOP to protect its interests because of that inconsistency and unreliability. If that sounds confusing to you, that's because it is.
Read the original article on Business Insider
www.businessinsider.com/gop-attacks-corporate-america-confusing-corporate-taxes-georgia-2021-4