Politics, Humor, Music and just the plain simple pleasure of being an annoying sonofabitch.
United States corporate profits reached a record high in the third quarter of this year, even adjusted for inflation, according to a report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
But not everyone is happy with Costco's business strategy. Some Wall Street analysts assert that Mr. Sinegal is overly generous not only to Costco's customers but to its workers as well.
Costco's average pay, for example, is $17 an hour, 42 percent higher than its fiercest rival, Sam's Club. And Costco's health plan makes those at many other retailers look Scroogish. One analyst, Bill Dreher of Deutsche Bank, complained last year that at Costco "it's better to be an employee or a customer than a shareholder."
Mr. Sinegal begs to differ. He rejects Wall Street's assumption that to succeed in discount retailing, companies must pay poorly and skimp on benefits, or must ratchet up prices to meet Wall Street's profit demands.
Good wages and benefits are why Costco has extremely low rates of turnover and theft by employees, he said. And Costco's customers, who are more affluent than other warehouse store shoppers, stay loyal because they like that low prices do not come at the workers' expense. "This is not altruistic," he said. "This is good business."
1. Open up your favorite web browser.
2. Go to Google.
3. Type in the search box the words "Mitt Romney Let Detroit Go Bankrupt."
4. The very first result of that search should be a link to a NY Times article with same name. Click the link - which is actually this one: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/opinion/19romney.html.
5. Look at the article byline to see who wrote the article with the title "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt."
6. The author of that article is Mitt Romney. Read the whole article and then ask yourself if that sounds like a plan which would have "saved the auto industry."
But of course there are many other reasons why the Republicans have failed to ask George Bush to campaign for their Presidential ticket. Two stand out.
We have had two great economic experiments in America over the last 30 years. One succeeded. The other failed – in fact, it was a man made disaster.
The first was led by President Bill Clinton. Clinton believed that you grow the economy from the middle out – not the top down. He understood that businesses don't invest and hire unless there are customers out there with money in their pockets – that they are the "job creators" – not a bunch of hedge fund managers on Wall Street.
Clinton proposed a federal budget that would eliminate the deficit mainly by calling on the wealthiest Americans to pay a little more in taxes -- and by investing in infrastructure and education to grow the economy. And Clinton forcefully defended programs like Medicare when Newt Gingrich wanted to cut them to give tax cuts to the rich.
When his budget was debated in Congress, Republicans predicted it would lead to massive job losses and recession.
The Republicans were dead wrong. Clinton presided over the most prosperous period in human history - literally. On his watch the economy experienced robust growth and created 22 million new American jobs. Clinton eliminated the Federal deficit and left his successor with budget surpluses as far as the eye could see.
Then came George Bush. He cut taxes for the rich – arguing that this would turbo charge job growth and that the deficit would take care of itself. In fact, Bush's Vice President, Dick Cheney – a man who has also been noticeably absent from the campaign trail this fall – famously said that "deficits don't matter."
The result: Bush left office having presided over the worst record of job growth since the Great Depression – zero net private sector jobs created – that's right, zero.
Worse, his failure to regulate Wall Street set the stage for the worst financial collapse since the Great Depression, costing 8 million Americans their jobs, wiping out 40% of many people's pensions, collapsing of the housing market, and causing the worst economic downturn in 60 years.
Bush's trickle down tax policies not only failed to create economic growth – they left the Federal Government saddled with more debt than all of the previous Presidents had racked up since the beginning of the Republic. And remember, that debt load made it even harder for President Obama to clean up the economic mess once he came into office in 2009.
It's not surprising, then, that you don't see George Bush on the stump trying to convince Americans that Mitt Romney's economic policies will create a better life for the middle class. Of course he could step in for Mitt, he certainly knows the script – in fact he wrote the script.
After all, Mitt Romney is promoting exactly the same economic policies that Bush used to create zero private sector jobs, crash the economy and run up the deficit just a few short years ago.
