NPR says US CEOs don't know why consumer confidence is so low.

[SmileyRose]

Really??

No honestly............. REALLY?


Our wages have been falling for 30 years.
Our primary "savings" plan - the house - isn't even worth what we paid for it 40 years ago. (even before factoring in inflation)
What little savings we managed to cobble together is long gone trying to keep up the medical care insurance premiums and the growing list of shit you people won't pay for anymore.

You CEO, leadership dudes are wiping your butts with Benjamins rather than hand out a few raises or hire some people.

And then you are seriously going to sit there and scratch your little pinheads wondering why we little peons aren't sending you all the cash anymore?

Beyond clueless. How on earth did a group of people that utterly stupid end up in charge?

[Hawkowl]

1. They are not stupid

They are the ones stealing pensions, reducing wages, and eliminating benefits. They are the ones who keep insisting that "their" workers work longer hours for less to "remain competitive", i.e; insure increased profits.

Today's ceo's are nothing more than petty tyrants equivalent to the 18th century French or 19th century Russian nobilities. They are greedy, sociopathic, narcissistic scum.

[gateley]

3. They're not stupid, but they're so far removed from reality

that they just don't get it. I'm convinced of it.

[SmileyRose]

4. Quite frankly i think it's part stupid and part evil toxic greed.

i really do believe the twits think they are just so far superior to the rest of us that they 'earned' all the money and power that comes with it. And I think in their twisted little pea brains some of them really do think fleecing the masses doesn't hurt them at all. As in "I got mine and no one else matters anyway".

A truly stupid idea. Obviously they never learned any history............ where the toxic greedy always eventually go too far, reach in for another piece of cake and come out with a nub.

[kenfrequed]

39. Suddenly...

I seem to recall the evil vs stupid argument on the daily show from years back during the Bush administration.

[Hawkowl]

12. I know it.

I personally know some of these people. First they don't know. Second, they just don't give a shit.

[valerief]

66. No, they get it. They're just playing the dumb blonde routine. nt

[Blue_Tires]

19. it's just willful ignorance on their part...

[hifiguy]

23. Well said, Hawkowl.

And they simply don't give a shit about anyone not in their own class. If there was a dollar to be made from flinging the masses into tree chippers they'd be on it in a nanosecond.

[Starcats]

44. They'd Only

retain enough of us to wipe their butts and do their laundry, cooking, etc. Oh, and just enough to buy all their shitty shit so they continue to make profits.

[liberation]

38. Yes they are stupid. They are also efficient and ruthlessly greedy .

I say they are stupid because their greed is basically forcing them to be shitting on where they eat from. Which is one of the most basic lessons nature expects high life forms to grasp.

[DaveJ]

51. Right, They are stupid and That explains their greed

I realized recently that greedy rich people are so heartless because they think to themselves "Well, I'm stupid so if I can end up rich then poor people must bring it on themselves."

What they are too stupid to realize, is that stupidity assists in making money -- intelligent people recognize the repercussions of their actions, they have more to think about, than what will make then a buck. Stupid people, like these execs, have no sophisticated thoughts in their heads.

[Alcibiades]

63. They are not efficient

Not in a cost sense, anyway: you could fine 100,000 people to do any of these jobs for a hundredth of the money, and many would do it better.

[adigal]

47. They know that we are stupid, and keep buying their Chinese made crap

If you want the corporations to pay attention, stop buying their shit made in China that breaks in a year. Just stop. You don't need a 48 inch made in China TV. You don't, really. You can buy a second-hand one. You don't need a new car until the old one has 150,000 to 200,000 miles on it. (I am not talking to anyone in particular!)

I am really getting tired of people complaining about the corporations, and they they race out to buy all of the shit they make. We hate them, they make everything in China so it won't hurt our work force to boycott most goods. Boycott for a year - see what happens.

[AdHocSolver]

67. They prefer to bitch and not give up their toys.

You can add overpriced cell phones, gas-guzzling vehicles, and thousands of other overpriced super-profitable items that these people "have to" buy "right now".

Americans are incompetent consumers in addition to being ignorant about economics. I will qualify the last comment. Americans aren't merely ignorant about economics.

What most Americans think they know about economics is all wrong: It is almost pure supply side, trickle down economics that they speak in terms of even as they claim to criticize it.

The stock market doesn't drive the real economy. Demand drives the real economy.

The Federal deficit isn't the main problem. The main problem is the trade deficit.

Buying overpriced imported crap increases corporate profits. Why on earth would they stop importing overpriced crap when it pays so well?

Your comment hits the proverbial nail on its head. The public that keeps buying overpriced imported crap is encouraging the continued outsourcing of jobs.

When Americans refuse to buy imported crap and demand that stores stock American-made items such as clothing, shoes, appliances, tools, hardware, linens, furniture, and thousands of everyday goods, then the corporations will pay attention.

[alarimer]

65. No, they are evil.

Evil greedy worthless dirtbags.

[RandomKoolzip]

2. It's "pretend" stupid, not the real thing.

Our economic woes - and THEIR economic boontimes - are happening according to plan. The endgame is: cut off revenue and the programs it funds which keep "useless eaters" alive...which leads to the elimination of a few million people so fewer (probably mostly affluent white suburbanite) people and the already wealthy "chosen few" can survive and share what resources are left. They can always sell their products to foreign markets, remember. As long as CEOs can act convincingly "jeez, how did that happen?!" puzzled by the whole thing, no one will ever call them on it - certainly not NPR.

It's already happening, it's not paranoia, and we better start preparing for what happens after the tent cities get razed.

[closeupready]

25. Yes, this is an essential part of the "who could have predicted?" game.

Also known as "plausible deniability".

[McCamy Taylor]

46. Don't underestimate the power of "real stupid" to make a quick buck and then leave

the economy in a shambles.

Some of these guys probably do not even know what the term "ponzi scheme" means when they are running one.

[DaveJ]

54. You are right -- their plan includes money extraction

What little money we do spend we never see back in the economy through wages anyway. It all goes straight to them never to be seen again. Why would anyone want to spend?

I'm not sure about the tent cities though. They would need people to keep working and in order to work people need a car, a place to park it, place to sleep, etc. A tent city might actually be ok in comparison, but they'd prefer to keep us in indentured servitude. Just barely enough to work and survive, no more than that. In a way it makes sense, to conserve resources, but there should also be some semblance of fairness and quality of life and now there is not.

[kenny blankenship]

5. Yes, really. "The beatings will continue..."

until and you know how the rest of it goes.

Hey and what's more, they are sure and I mean positively SURE that they are paying too much in taxes and that THAT and government spending is what is wrong with our economy.

No, REALLY. Seriously, that is what 90% PLUS of them really believe. And half of their middle management minions too - the half they didn't fire.

It's called ideology. These folks are members of a class that really is quite certain that the Sun shines out of their own assholes and that the rest of us would wither in eternal darkness without their life giving ass-rays.

[keopeli]

59. "without their life giving ass-rays" ROFL! n/t

[Fumesucker]

6. Cognitive dissonance...

Or more properly a lack of cognitive dissonance.

They really don't see any connection at all between their policies and what consumers are experiencing.

The bullshit memes are remarkably powerful in this society and it's extremely difficult not to buy into them, particularly so if you're one of the ones on the top of the heap like a CEO.

It's really powerful even among rank and file GOP (and even more than a few Democrats) and gets even stronger the further you go up the ladder.

[JoeyT]

35. Yep, it's easy to surround yourself with people

that constantly tell you what an awesome person you are and how good a job you're doing. That goes for both the CEOs and the politicians that enable them.

It doesn't help that the media and nearly all politicians constantly refer to them as "The Job Creators", as if they're some benevolent group of people that are the only thing keeping the economy alive.

[russspeakeasy]

62. Well put JoeyT.....................

:evilgrin:

[StarsInHerHair]

7. outlaw CEO positions, they cycle into political power write laws for themselves

then cycle into their CEO positions

[Kennah]

8. Thom Hartmann theorizes that many, if not most, CEOs are sociopaths

He notes that sociopaths are already a small fraction of the population, and to be a CEO you need to be a member of the lucky sperm and eggs club to have the upbringing, education, connections, and family wealth. Because they are such a select group, they get outrageous salaries and bonuses. If one buys into the theory, then the BODs are complicit, at least on some level, in knowing they have hired a sociopath to run their corporation.

Try as I might, I cannot poke a hole in Thom's theory.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/07/27

[marions ghost]

33. Thom is correct IMO

Sociopaths are running this country. (And I don't use the word lightly having studied it).

[w0nderer]

43. well that kind of behaviour is rewarded

be ruthless, do a heist, do a job, the more outrageously ruthlessly nasty the more the dollars, get the car, get the nice apartment
get the lifestyle, get the chick or buck, get the kids
make sure the chick or buck is equally 'power and money hungry'

get the right school the right crowd, rinse lather repeat

end up with a
darwinistic system only sociopaths will survive in the end
everyone else will be eliminated

running wild system with no 'negative feedback controls'
the wilder the run or heist one does, the more outrageous, the bigger the bonus

interesting set up of a sociological experiment

personally i feel the petri dish should be chlorinated and the experiment should be flushed right about now
the point is proven, it works fine(0.1%), or not at all depending on ones point of view(99.9%)

[marions ghost]

60. yep--nasty & exploitative wins, is celebrated

you speak truth wOnderer

welcome to DU

[w0nderer]

61. thanks and thanks for welcome n/t

[cyglet]

9. It would be funny, if it weren't so sad n/t

[jwirr]

10. Of course they don't know - one month one my budget and they would.

They have never had to go without in order to make it to the end of the month. They have no idea what it is like for most of us.

[Turbineguy]

11. They don't think they

are stealing your money, they think they are earning it from you. OK, they earn it from teabaggers, fair enough.

[demwing]

13. The Peter Principle

in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence...

[Kalidurga]

15. maybe they should ask some consumers...

when I don't know why someone did or didn't do something I ask them. Yeah I know I could get a bull shit answer, but I still ask. A lot of times I get what I believe is the truth or at least as much of the truth as the person I am asking wants to share. In any case it is obvious that if they wanted to know why confidence is down they have the means to ask why.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. Actually, not only can I see it

But I get it...when you live outside the economy you really do not share the same worries. Concentration of wealth does this all the time...and way too mant examples. Suffice it to say, et them eat cake is not strange to them.

[Sherman A1]

16. Precisely

These folks are looking at charts, graphs & excel spreadsheets of market share, sales numbers and projections and simply live in a bubble. They don't get that Lay's Potato Chips are $4.29 a a bag, gasoline is much higher than a year ago and people are out of work, have had no real boost in income in 30 odd years, are working less hours, constantly asked to do more with less and less at work and are finding every way they can to make adjustments in their own budgets to simply get by.

[closeupready]

26. Not strange to them, but eventually, unchecked, there will be a sort of karmic push-back.

And I say that not as someone who wishes things continue as they have been going - to the contrary, I would like to wake up tomorrow in a perfect economy and a healthy society - but as someone who knows a little bit about the history of where this has always led - to civil unrest, of varying sizes.

[nadinbrzezinski]

27. They also live outside of history

And this time it will be different, never mind it will not.

[no_hypocrisy]

17. All those MBA's are miserable failures.

[Leftist Agitator]

18. Not everyone with an MBA buys into the supply side bullshit.

[Enthusiast]

20. When every TV talking head,

with the exception of Bernie Sanders, tells a huge segment of American consumers that we must cut social security and medicare it will sort of dampen down consumer confidence.

Another meme constantly pushed by talking heads is that joba are not being created because of business uncertainty due to taxes and regulations. Never before has such a load of shit been shoveled onto the American airwaves.

[marions ghost]

34. Right

...where exactly would consumer confidence be coming FROM?

[progressoid]

21. Fucking morons. There are a lot of things I want and NEED to buy.

And like most Americans, I just don't have the cash.

[Statistical]

22. Your house is worth less than it was 40 years ago?

4 years ago maybe?

The median home price in 1971 was $25,500.

[SmileyRose]

24. We actually bought it in 1973

Paid $23,658 brand new.

Just had it appraised - $22,843 by the appraiser. County appraiser says $21,500.

4 years ago houses our size and area were going for $95000 to $120000.

Will it come back? Maybe. Will it come back before I'm too old and used up to work anymore? I can only hope so.

[WDIM]

30. Can I ask what state you live in?

those are some truly amazing numbers.

In reality housing has been way over inflated for a long time. The housing bubble was directly linked to easy to get loans. Now loans are not so easy to get. The prices for housing will continue to return to normal and not be inflated.

[SmileyRose]

31. Metro Atlanta

on my side of town it's been especially brutal and we never really had the bubble to begin with. My house really never even kept up with inflation. Our biggest thing is developers that went belly up with lots of unsold inventory. Tons of flippers and investors that either legitimately went under or decided on strategic defaults. Not to mention the unemployment rate in my area is over 14% so there are a lot of people just plain losing the house.

They built some big houses about half a mile away in 2005/6 that sold in the high 200's - mid 300's. They are listed in MLS now for the low $100's. ..... which is consistent. My house is worth about 1/3 of what it was 4 yrs ago and so are those big houses.

Painful, really painful.

And then the CEO types wonder how it all happened.

[reggie the dog]

28. they orchestrated our demise and they dont know why we are down?

[WDIM]

29. Demand the money back!

The wealth we create as a people is our wealth. No one job in the community or one job in the corporation is more important than the next.

This is old data so if somebody has the current number please add.

"A typical chief executive at a U.S. company earned 262 times the pay of a typical worker in 2005, according to a recent report."

So you are telling me a CEO works 262 times harder than I do?
A CEO is 262 times more productive than I am?
A CEO is 262 times better than me? 262 times smarter than me?

The equity in pay scale is gone! We the workers are the ones really creating that wealth with our goods and services that we produce. Yet, they get the bulk of it? One man gets what 262 of his workers gets paid? Cut one CEO that is 262 jobs. Imagine if we cut all CEOs.

Go to your boss today and ask for a pay raise!

[SmileyRose]

32. Imagine if we cut all the CEO's

I am so stealing that............

[truedelphi]

36. I just watched rich guy Forbes on C Span (IIRC)

He had some admirable positions - if everyone of us lived in an awesomely ideal world.

For instance, he said that if every person was allowed to have a private investment insurance fund to replace Social Security - that would be a better deal for the individual.

And it would.

but how in the world would any sane person be able to decide which bank to use? The account would be labelled in such a way that the bank would know it should remain untouched for most of the person's lifetime, and only used upon their retirement.

Which bank would I trust with my money?

None I can think of.

[Rex]

53. Good point! I barely trust the govt to leave it be.

Why in the world would I trust a private organization even more!? They get bailouts of my money, what did I get?

[truedelphi]

68. You get to suffer through the inflation that we will all be dealing with

On account of Paulson/Bernacke/Geithner slipping the Bigger Financial Firms some fourteen to thirty trillions of dollars.

But not to worry. Critics will not admit it, but the Bigger Financial Players are creating jobs.

With Goldman Sachs buying up an entire nature preserve in Patagonia, you can simply move there and apply for work! Possibly in the good paying field of concession stand operator.

[Rex]

70. What is it with Patagonia?

Is that like some pro-corporate, lovefest region or what? At least they make some nice jackets. :P

[truedelphi]

72. It's a really pretty place. I often thought of living near there,

Before Goldman Sachs beat me to it.

And they did it on our "dime."

PS Like you, I sure can't complain about the jackets.

[Supersedeas]

37. If they aren't foreclosing on our homes, they are cutting pay and jobs

and demanding that all of their current workers be more EFFICIENT or else.

[w0nderer]

40. k&r n/t

[kestrel91316]

41. + 1 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000

[KansDem]

42. Wow!!! "Clueless" for sure...give them all an additional million-dollar bonus!

nt

[obxhead]

45. They know.

They just can't admit they know because they will have to sacrifice a tiny bit to rectify the problems.

Instead they go on news shows and give their little pep talks and say "we don't know why you have no money or confidence."

[cascadiance]

48. I bet that the CEOs in the 80's that made only 40 times as much as average employees...

... instead of 400 times as much as average employee than they make today would be wiser and not make such stupid statements as these bums are!

And these idiots deserve to be paid that an order of magnitude on average than they do? Obviously not! The idiocy being shown here clearly demonstrates that they are only making this much more because they are actively making sure that they themselves are overpaid at the rest of our expense! They should be fired for such ignorance instead of being paid mega bonuses with our "bailout" money...

[Ready4Change]

49. It's not that they don't know why...

... it's that they just don't care.

Why should they? In spite of all the gloom and doom, they continue to get rich(er). From their viewpoint, things are just fine.

[Jim_Shorts]

50. The Chamber of Commerce has declared war on working people

so when they say they don't know why confidence is low, they are just rubbing our noses in it. It's just the same as when Carl Svanberg (chairman of BP) said "We care about small people"

Now corporations like Exxon are acting like government entities, negotiating deals allowing Russia to be part of the drilling in the gulf of Mexico. Why not? They own our politicians anyway.

Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson & Putin at a signing ceremony:

[Rex]

52. And I really won't know why they are weeping and crying

after the stock market tanks. They seem to buy back everything at pennies on the dollar and become that much richer!

Must be nice to live in that kind of fantasy land.

[steve2470]

55. here's my best guess as to how they think (if they think about us):

1- You're lazy, so quit complaining.
2- You aren't a good employee, so quit....
3- You don't save your money or invest your money wisely
4- Your misfortunes are all your own fault, not mine
5- Your lack of education and/or training is not my fault
6- There's jobs out there, you're just too lazy or stupid or (fill in the blank) to get one or a better one
7- You should have family and friends or your church/synagogue/mosque/etc to fall back on

In other words, totally ignoring systemic data and putting it all on you.

[JuniperLea]

56. Doesn't matter how confident you are when you're broke...

If you have no money, you have no money to spend.

Idiots.

[Odin2005]

57. I can believe that. Business schools are propaganda factories, and so...

...many of these folks really truly believe the BS they spew.

[harun]

64. +1

[keopeli]

58. "CEOs" "They" "Them"

These are terrible words to use to describe the consciousness of business leaders throughout the country.

Scripts like this, from NPR, are designed specifically by a group of "CEOs" (via their marketers) who desire to paint a public perception. In this case, we are asked to believe two incredulous things:

1. NPR has figured out how to know what the consciousness of American business leaders is at any given moment.

2. It is likely that the consensus of CEOs throughout the country is that they have tried everything, using all their resources, and have determined that they can not, at this time, determine what to do next to make the economy grow to alleviate the strains on our citizens at large.

Does anyone in their right mind give credence to either of those two statements? I can tell you that ALL of the Republican friends I have (and I have a lot of them) would believe both statements to be ludicrous (this includes at least a few CEOs).

Dispensing with the logical fallacies presented in this program, National Public Radio, at it's best, is financially supported primarily by large corporations with a philanthropic purpose that benefits them. Anyone can logically conclude that this report contains tangential relationships between both parties, possibly too numerous and perhaps even subtle to measure. Yet, as Judge Judy would say, we know it is true because it makes sense.

Perhaps NPR is the best representation for the heartbeat of corporate America, just as Fox does for the Republican party and the networks do for huge conglomerate interests. If we assume this to be true, then it's apparent that the message we are hearing in this report is genuinely what "corporate America" wants us to believe. Just like Fox, it's not about what is true, it's about what we believe to be true.

Just a couple of years ago, this country was heated up to boiling about CEOs and their salaries and bonuses. While that fire has abated some, it's still burning. I have no doubt that efforts are being made to inoculate "corporate America" from future economic disruptions. This report looks like one of those efforts.

NPR - Nice Polite Republicans

Even if you donate, don't forget who they are

Peace

[librechik]

69. They are like the monkey who can't pull his hand out of the jar of peanuts

without dropping the peanuts. Sure they want everybody to have jobs so they can buy products. But that might mean letting go of a little bit of their stash. And those rubes they call Americans just are not worth it to them. After all, they have other monkeys hand-feeding them peanuts all day long, they don't even need the peanuts in the jar. But no, they will never let go. They earned those peanuts.

[ItNerd4life]

71. Having worked for dozens of CEOs, most are clueless.

They do only care about themselves and how much of a bonus they can get that year. They are short term thinkers and don't plan.
Most have no clue what a business plan is or how to write one that works.