Fact-esque

Entities Not Too Big to Fail...Wait...The FDIC?!

I started out this afternoon by running into tech ticker's Top Ten List of BIG Companies Facing Bankruptcy, which included a few surprises, like Hertz, Goodyear tire, and - oops! - CBS. O yes.

7. CBS

Weak advertising and falling license fees have sent CBS's earnings off a cliff in 2009.

If they remain depressed for too long, the company could have trouble refinancing $3.2 billion of debt coming due over the next five years.

It will really come down to whether or not CBS’s earnings collapse is merely cyclical, or the result of structural trend whereby traditional TV is dying.

I wouldn't worry too much. $3.2BIL is just about what the CIS franchise alone will make over the next five years. Still, the thought that traditional tv might be dead is delicious even if it is 50 years too late.

Pigs in Space 11: Govt Is Supposed to Give Us Money, Not Take It

Obama has begun to make a few tentative moves toward increasing revenues to get the deficit down rather than just cutting or threatening to cut Soc Sec, Medicare, and other programs aimed at helping people who aren't rich. He has proposed raising the top level of income taxes from 36% to 39%, way below what they were in the 50's, 60's and even 80's under St Ronnie. This has caused Glenn Beck to cry on camera about how his country is being destroyed and Sean Hanity to compare Obama to Hitler.

Corporate America ain't happy about it either and they're fighting it if somewhat lackadaisically. What they're far more concerned about is Obama's attempt to raise taxes on profits they thought were protected by sham overseas accounts. (Via dday at Hullaballoo)

In one of the biggest battles between the business community and the White House, corporate lobbyists are intensifying efforts to block an Obama administration proposal to raise taxes on overseas profits. Executives say the measure, which could cost U.S.-based multinationals $100 billion over the next decade, would hamper economic recovery efforts.

Of course they would. Take ONE PENNY of obscene corporate profits to boost the recovery of a society brought to the brink of dissolution by corporate greed and the ECONOMIC SKY WILL FALL IN!! THE OCEANS WILL HEAVE, TORNADOS WILL BELLOW, HURRICANES WILL BLOW YOUR HOUSE DOWN AND GOD WILL SMITE YOU!!!