Speaking of scumbags:
Bank of America, which last fall announced plans to lay off 30,000 workers, is about to go on a hiring spree—overseas.
America’s second-largest bank is relocating its business-support operations to the Philippines, according to a high-ranking Filipino government official recently quoted in the Filipino press. The move, which includes a portion of the bank’s customer service unit, comes less than three years after Bank of America received a $45 billion federal bailout.
Roman Romulo, deputy majority leader of the Philippine House of Representatives, bragged to the Manila Standard Today earlier this month that the Philippines “has secured its place as the world’s fastest-growing outsourcing hub.” Romulo pointed out that BofA is the last of the “big four” US banks to move their business-support network to his island nation, where the average family makes $4,700 a year.
A spokesman for Bank of America, Mark Pipitone, was unable to provide additional information about the bank’s offshoring plans on Friday. “We have employees and operations where we can ensure that we best serve our customers and clients,” he told me in an email.
And just so you understand what kind of sociopaths we are dealing with, read this related story:
During an interview today, Honeywell CEO David Cote — who President Obama named to the Bowles-Simpson deficit commission — told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin that he believes the U.S. corporate tax rate should be zero. Cote added that the only reason his desired rate won’t happen is because “from a fairness perspective, nobody would be able to stand it”
Our Galtian Overlords just keep getting more and more brazen. Just click your heels together and say “Privatize the profits, socialize the costs” until the pain goes away.
schrodinger's cat
Obama should have nationalized the banks, then at least all the rantings of him being a socialist would have had some basis in fact.
gopher2b
I’ve wondered about his hypothetical a lot:
Lower a corporation’s rate to 0%
Raise dividend rate to a person’s marginal rate (or something fixed like 40%).
Remove corporate “personhood” from the books. No more “speech” protections etc.
I know it would never pass (we would only get #1) but what do you think the effect would be? A 0% corporate rate would be the most efficient if you could make up the taxes elsewhere (e.g. raising the dividend rate).
cathyx
@schrodinger’s cat: But then he wouldn’t get campaign donations from them or a lucrative job from them after he’s done being president.
shep
@gopher2b: You’ve got my vote. Don’t leave out the Estate Tax.
danimal
Love the Hitchhiker’s Guide reference.
beltane
Unfortunately, things have reached the point where it will take a true monster to bring down the TBTF beast, not just here but in Europe as well. The banks have utterly subverted the democratic process in most of the developed world. There are reports that the turnout in today’s referendum in Ireland was at a record low, not because people don’t care but because they are powerless, and that the bailout/austerity package will be forced on them no matter how, or if, they vote.
Lets just hope that whatever force brings down the reign of the banksters is a relatively benign one.
Mark S.
1. Eliminate corporate taxes
2. Abolish the safety net
3. ?????
4. VICTORY
Jeff Spender
In the robot laborer’s paradise, we will throw off the oppressive human bourgeoisie and reclaim the simple dignity of being a robot.
Or some such.
Chris
@beltane:
Kind of gives you an insight into why anti-democratic ideologies became so popular in the 1930s. When democracy’s become such a complete fucking joke, why wouldn’t people fall back on something that’s at least “more honest.”
Mark S.
Maybe we should just turn the Treasury over to the 1%. Then they could really start creating jobs.
Mnemosyne
@Chris:
Someone mentioned here one time that in Weimar Germany, the economy had recovered by the early 1930s (ie GDP was growing again) but there was 40% unemployment. It was having scores of angry, unemployed men roaming the streets that led to the conservative backlash that brought Hitler to power.
Those who refuse to learn from history …
slag
@gopher2b: Maybe. But what about eliminating external costs created by corporations. Is there any way to do that without a corporate tax rate?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@beltane: Like much that has happened since The Clenis (I guess you could debate the starting point) there’s so much dark comedy in the claims that the Tea Party movement was all about TARP and bail outs. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a Republican or Tea Bagger come out for breaking up the big banks, and now they’re all voting for Romney, whose response to JP Morgan-Chase losing 3 billion dollars was to call for greater deregulation.
beltane
@Chris: When the democratic process has been corrupted to the point of becoming a sham, and when this results in widespread economic hardship, people will invariably choose vengeance over civility. It’s not rocket science.
Jager
This is why Mrs. J and I switched to a local credit union last summer.
kindness
Guillotine yet?
@David Koch: man it sure sucks to be your sarcasm.
4tehlulz
@David Koch: Ani DeFranco > Marisa DeFranco
gene108
Pulled up BofA’s “stats” and it looks like their sucking pretty bad right now.
I can see them needing to shed costs.
The real issue is how to spur investment in the USA. I don’t think it’s by dropping tax rates to zero, but that’s just my ignorant 99%’er self talking…what could I possibly know…
beltane
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: The Tea Party only got going when it appeared that homeowners, rather than just the banks, might get some assistance. And then, of course, you had the dumbass Fox crowd bleating “Get the government out of my Medicare” which is exactly what the Republicans plan to do. I would admire the GOP for treating their base with this degree of sadistic cruelty if it didn’t affect the good people of this country.
Suffern ACE
Not certain why this is shocking news. Until you solve your healthcare cost problem, your non-professional back office kind of white collar jobs will be leaving. In some business functions, those jobs have gone years ago. The reason your college educated youth have problems finding entry level white collar jobs is that those (low skill) entry level white collar jobs are gone. Neither single payor nor a public option is going to bring those back until the entire cost of the benefits package is borne by the employee and the employee takes a paycut.
jl
A lot of Filipinos are big into wild and irresponsible gambling. Not my immediate circle of Filipino friends, but they done tell me stories.
So, is BofA outsourcing their executives now?
redshirt
Good news for the heirs of Imelda Marcos!
Shinobi
I guess it is really time for me to get off my butt and switch banks. Recommendations? I”m in Chicago.
owlbear1
Tax the fuck out of International Communications…
schrodinger's cat
@Shinobi: Do you have access to a local Credit Union?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Chris:
or at lest is able to provide some basic government services. As it was pointed out The Serious People’s(r) reaction to the Great Depression in Wiemar Germany was “shared sacrifice”, as in “starve to death you loser”. Within a year Hitler was elected. Wonder if there was a connection.
tofubo
OT, of course
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2012/may/08/gay-rights-united-states
iowa and penn suprised me
lamh35
OT, I mean really. I never thought I could dislike someone as much as I disliked Sarah freakn’ Palin and I rarely use the word “hate”, but I seriously hate this damn man and his bourgeois ass wife and him.
gene108
@Suffern ACE:
Single payer would be the best way to spread the cost of healthcare around. Partly through taxes and partly through whatever people in single payer countries pay for their benefits plans.
It’d be a big relief for most businesses to not have to manage healthcare anymore.
Probably one of the most pro-business things government could do.
Why people don’t realize this is beyond me. Or maybe it’s not, because most folks never had to negotiate group plans for a small business, where one guy with a brain tumor and another one with premature triplets can double your premiums instantly.
bemused
SuperPac donors Ricketts, Friess and VanderSloot are crying they are being picked on. They share with banksters massive egos and senses of unlimited entitlement.
Ruckus
@Shinobi:
Look up bank ratings. There are a couple of ratings companies. At least 4 stars, 5 is of course better. Next make sure that if you travel you have free atm access.
I moved recently and found a 5 star bank with free checking(62 and over), no minimums, of course no .02% interest either, nationwide free atms.
5 star banks will have little exposure to the mortgage mess. If you need to understand the rating system BofA(bunch of assholes) is rated 3 stars in CA.
slag
@lamh35:
They love it when you hate them. It’s what they want. So, I don’t recommend doing it.
Laugh at them. They’re cloistered imbeciles who deserve your pity and scorn way more than they deserve your hatred.
dan
CREDIT UNIONS!
Linda Featheringill
@lamh35:
So Mitt is blaming Obama for his own low turnouts?
Lolis
OT: Romney gave Obama an F grade for foreign policy. The questioner said but he got Bin Laden. Romney gave some weird word salad follow-up. Wingnuts may suffer ODS but most independent voters do not. Giving Obama no credit for OBL will not play well. Romney can’t even make a credible critique of Obama on any foreign policy issue.
jl
@slag:
More evidence that Romney is going to tap dance along the crazification line all through the campaign to get out the vicious loon vote.
And then be a passive aggressive insinuendoing weasel about it.
And, IMHO, more evidence that GOP vicious loon GOTV and voter suppression efforts will be key factors in the race. Because I do not think enough normal people will vote for a passive aggressive dishonest arrogant weasel for president (I may be sentimental about the US electorate there, but as of now, that is my bet).
Thoughtcrime
@David Koch:
You know who else supported someone whose name ended with Franco?
Chris
@Lolis: @Lolis:
At least most Democrats gave Bush credit for the initial reaction to 9/11, even though “any president would have done it” was at LEAST as applicable there.
slag
@jl:
No doubt at all. They’re pretty gross that way. It’s quite fitting that Rush Limbaugh is one of their leaders.
Chris
@jl:
I think you’re right. And it’s not because he’s an asshole, we’ve elected plenty of them before. It’s because he’s such a transparently spineless wimp with absolutely no beliefs of his own. Well, that and the fact that he’s an AWFUL campaigner.
kindness
@Shinobi: My Credit Union is out of Chicago. Alliant. My bank is Chase so I don’t think there’s much difference w/ BofA other than I hate BofA and actually like Chase.
Heliopause
Ah. Having an affair is roughly equivalent to stealing $45 billion and destroying thousands of jobs.
What a seriously fucked-up moral compass Americans have.
Hill Dweller
@Lolis: The questioner should be laughed out of the room for thinking Willard is qualified to critique anyone on foreign policy. He is utterly clueless, as are the Bushies advising his campaign.
4tehlulz
@lamh35: I used to joke about this, but I really think Mitt’s stategy for the election is to hope someone rids him of this meddlesome president.
Suffern ACE
@Lolis: Well, he could complain that we should still be in Iraq. That would be possible. Or talk about the “political timetables” in Afghanistan, although making the case that we should be there “until the job is done” isn’t really going to be that popular. My guess is they’ll do what the did in the run up to Libya on Syria. Complain that he isn’t doing anything, then scream if he does. It’s the McCain, Lieberman, Graham school of criticism. Maybe announce that he has a secret plan to overthrow the Iranian government in two weeks like Newt and complain that the president hasn’t overthrown Iran every two weeks. Worked for Nixon.
lamh35
@Lolis:
I mean….with no obvious push-back from the reporter to Romney’s lying face. Some people still get their news from the nightly news cast. You can maybe say that cable news is mostly not watched by many people (although I’ll admit that a lot of people watch CNN) so if the nightly news is last bastion of truthfully informing the public of what’s going on in politics are now playing the “fair and balanced” game (ie letting liars lie), then what now?
Despite Bin Laden, Romney Gives Obama An ‘F’ On Foreign Policy
Uhmmm what?
Valdivia
@lamh35:
I am right there with you. First they send hecklers from their staff to the Obama event and then they go around spewing conspiracy bs stories about sabotage. When will the Village finally wake up to the Potemkin Candidate that is RMoney?
VividBlueDotty
An interesting coincidence on a personal level. Today is my last day at a contractor job at Citi. My position has been strategically relocated to the Philippines.
jl
@Valdivia: when the press gets similar treatment, which, I think, they will.
kay
@Lolis:
They’re rolling out the new, tough Romney to replace the pleading, cowardly Romney that we saw yesterday.
I think we’re going to look back on the primary as Romney’s “authentic, principled period”,incredible as that sounds now.
He won the nom. Time to change into a completely different person. Again.
TK421
Obama had to do that, because…because…
beltane
@VividBlueDotty: I guess the Philippines is slated to be the next victim of the banking industry, the next “tiger” economy. They’ll see a few dreamlike boom years followed by a dramatic bust and the inevitable IMF imposed austerity program. We’ve seen this movie so many times the plot has grown panfully stale and predictable.
Valdivia
@jl:
I hope so. I can’t bear to spend another day reading about the bullshit this campaign is doing. It’s like getting to be President is a series of pranks to his team. Makes the McCain team seem like a bastion of seriousness.
beltane
@Valdivia: The Village media draws a lavish paycheck to prop up the Potemkin candidate Romney. Don’t ever accuse them of not doing their jobs, they are doing their jobs very well.
Litlebritdifrnt
I belong to a credit union where I have nice friendly American folks to talk to when I have a problem. If I had BOA and I had to explain my issue three times to someone in Manila for whom English is a second language I would be looking for a new bank after the first call.
This will save them money obviously, but I think it will lose them customers. JMHO.
Darkrose
Moving my accounts to Golden 1 may be one of my best decisions of the past year.
Mino
@kay: Is the Brooks Brothers mafia involved?
jl
@Valdivia:
I was trying to think of the appropriate catch phrase for the apparent Rmoney/GOP philosophy for the campaign.
Probably ‘mega bitch slap’ describes it.
Bitch slap the president, the Democrats, the press, anyone who is not likely to vote for them. Do it over and over again, in their faces and in public. Demoralize enough Democrats and independents, suppress enough vote, and hope he squeaks by.
Looking at the national polls, which I think other commenters have pointed out are underestimates of Obama’s strength in the electoral vote, Romney (the most electable GOP candidate) cannot hold a lead, though Obama has gotten negative press all GOP primary long. Romney needed to show more strength against a sitting, relatively popular, president, with the economy starting the recover. I think the GOP election mavens know they are in trouble, unless the recovery totally falls apart, and does so in a way that does not implicate GOP policies. So, since luck is not a plan, this pissant BS and turnout manipulation is their only hope.
Romney is the dream Ham Rove candidate.
Marlowe: You know what he’ll do when he comes back? Beat my teeth out, then kick me in the stomach for mumbling.
Edit: maybe ‘mega pissant BS bitch slap’ campaign?
Jeff Boatright
@Chris: Whaaa? Most Americans think reading “My Pet Goat” and then turning the shebang over to Darth Cheney is “what any President would do”?
Keith G
Obama: Palling around with terrorists?
Jager
@beltane: I fully expect Haiti to be bidding on those service jobs next. Think of the money the banks could save.
beltane
@jl: The only thing I know is that if Romney is somehow elected he will make post-Katrina George W. Bush look like Mr. Popularity by comparison.
Comrade Dread
@Chris:
Yeah. Given the state of our government, it would probably be far more honest just to disband it and let Wall St. name officers to run the nation directly.
It would save them money in the long run, and who knows, maybe they’ll pass .0001% of that savings down to us.
Valdivia
@beltane:
indeed they are. I am sure they will be getting bonuses for it.
@jl:
I agree with your premise but in the end Romney looks not really strong but like a little kid throwing a tantrum no?
kay
@Mino:
I don’t understand “bracketing” which is the whole theme of their campaign.
To me it looks like they’re following Obama around, yelling at him. I personally have never seen this before.
I think it’s weird to predicate a whole campaign on “following the other Guy”. They’re always responding or following. I wouldn’t be comfortable with it, but Romney is risk-averse, so maybe that feels “safer” to him.
Ben Cisco
This seems to be an appropriate response to that.
Valdivia
@kay:
it also makes him look like he has zero ideas. So they send their own campaign people to heckle Axelrod? Is that what the President of the US does? Really? Is that how he is going to deal with Syria and Russia and Iran?
jl
@Valdivia:
” It also makes him look like he has zero ideas. So they send their own campaign people to heckle Axelrod? Is that what the President of the US does? Really? Is that how he is going to deal with Syria and
Russiathe Soviet Union and Iran? ”I fixed your quote so it shows the correct Rmoney time.
Sly
@gene108:
Three reasons:
1) The costs of maintaining health care access is negligible compared to the benefits that kind of coercive power over your workforce gives you. A worker who depends on their employment status for healthcare is more compliant than one who is not.
2) Health benefits are not subject to payroll taxes while wages are, so shoveling money into benefits when COLA comes due helps offset the corporations tax liabilities.
3) Related to two: It helps to co-opt unions, through both corruption (bribing delegates to accept benefit increases in lieu of wage increases directly, or having the insurance company give them a kickback) and subversion; workers see financial parity between benefits and wages while management does not, so workers and their representatives feel they have just as much “skin in the game” if they take a benefit increase as when they take a wage increase. Take away those benefits, and now they have to renegotiate for wage increases to make up for the loss in total compensation.
Remember the outcry over the “excess benefits” tax in PPACA? There were shouts of “We worked hard for those benefits and now you’re taxing them!” when in reality that tax was designed to bring some semblance of wage/benefits parity to the system by putting an upper limit on what the Federal government would not subject to taxes.
Valdivia
@jl:
Exactly. I really think I am going to have to take time off from following the campaign this summer because it is not even June and I am already having major agitation issues with the stupidity of the media and the pranks of the Romney team that pass for ‘successful’ won the day tactics.
ETA: Romney pissed me off so much today I gave an extra $50 to Obama aside from my monthly contribution. :)
RalfW
Y’all know Obama is speaking at a Honeywell facility tomorrow in MN, right? Zero taxes, here we come!
Chris
@Comrade Dread:
And put the responsibility for all government actions squarely on Wall Street’s shoulders? Perish the thought old boy…
Chad
@cathyx: if you think Obama’s gong to work for Wall Street after he leaves office I’ve got some beans you should really check out
David Koch
speaking of scumbags, Bush’s official portrait portrays him holding 2 books. HA! As if. If they wanted to be accurate, it they should have had him holding a bag of pretzels.
once again, he made a complete ass of himself at the white house http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/09mW92h0Oo78O/610x.jpg
slag
@kay:
Maybe this is their version of leading from behind?
It is weird, though. I’ve never seen anything like it either. It reminds me of the big dog-little dog cartoon from Looney Tunes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov-1S8Xxd94.
Mike G
One should be My Pet Goat, to symbolize Mr. Codpiece Commander Guy’s deer-in-headlights pants-pissing and stupidity at a moment of high national emergency. The other should be The Culture of Narcissism, since I’m sure he loves to read about himself, though I’m afraid it’s far above his comprehension level.
Patricia Kayden
Well if Romneybot wins, Cote may get his wish. What will he do with all the extra $$$? Hire more poor foreigners for pennies a day.
yopd1
Didn’t Honeywell have net negative tax bills in 2008 and 2010.
VividBlueDotty
@beltane: I worked in a business that outsourced call center work several years ago. When we attempted to take work to the Philippines in 2006-2007ish, the company we were working with there wasn’t up to speed, technologically or with the ability to provide capable workers, and we abandoned that market as a potential partner area. I expect there was a wide scale effort among those companies in the Philippines over the last few years to get them ready to be the up-and-coming destination for outsourced work.
The Filipino centers will get better and better and then the banks and other big businesses will be looking for the next cheap place. Because it’s always worth it to save a buck (or sometimes just a dime.) That’s what those guys get paid multi million dollar bonuses for.
Henry Bayer
Isn’t David Cote one of the three members of JP Morgan’s risk monitoring committee that failed spectacularly when JPM lost billions this month? Shouldn’t his name be toxic?
See Slate article by Matthew Yglesias May 25
pluege
Our Galtian Overlords just keep getting more and more brazen.
why wouldn’t they? there’s no push-back and hence no down side for them: all gain and no pain for them, suck the very lifeblood from the nation engorging themselves. the rich are psychological slaves to their wealth, they can’t stop or ever say enough.
This can only get worse until poor Yertle has had enough.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@tofubo: Iowa surprised me, but not Pennsyltucky. Pittsburgh on the left, Philly on the right, Alabama up the middle.
I won’t up an Obama sign on my lawn here in South PA.