This is rather a black period for American commerce.
We have a president of the United States who has never held a job in business in his life. In the past week we saw two severe consequences of this failure.
The president attacked a practice that is gaining widespread popularity among major US corporations, it is called: ‘tax inversion’. Because the United States ranks among the highest corporate tax entities in the world and especially since it taxes earnings by American corporations outside the United States, an unusual global practice, many American corporations are finding it beneficial to buy a small foreign company and declare that subsidiary as its headquarters.
The president declared this practice immoral. He actually used the words “unpatriotic" and "wrong".
In the same week, the National Labor Relations Board controlled by his appointees and his friends in the union labor movement sought and obtained a federal court ruling against a franchise business arguing that local labor conditions at a single franchisee could be applicable to the entire franchise business.
Let's begin with the preposterous attack on American corporations that are unwilling to pay the highest corporate taxes on their gross global earnings and want to reduce them.
* Corporations have no obligation to a nation that abuses them as the Obama government does. Nobody has an obligation to another person or a government that abuses them.
* Corporations gain only a small benefit, from the overall existence of the United States in their operations around the world. Less and less as the Obama administration continues in power. Under the current administration the beneficial American activities such as free-trade treaties have failed, the freedom of the Internet backbone and the protective military are on the wane.
Franchises are an important part of American business. There are virtually 0.5 million franchises in the U.S.; nearly 2/3rds are in food and retail. They employ more than half of the commercial employment marketplace. I said 'half", and that number is correct.
The NLRB has now declared that a trivial-absurd labor problem in a single franchisee can result in a legal case against the parent franchise. For every franchise that makes a local mistake this means nine other franchises in the same company will be punished. I call that group punishment. President Obama, that is really UnAmerican.
This group punishment is irrelevant. The fact is that the relationship between nearly all franchisees and their franchise parent leaves employment practices up to the franchisee. By contract.
The two preposterous attacks on commerce that I cover in this blog, spell a grim outlook for American business.
American businesses are already reluctant to accept the nightmare of an Obama-Democrat-union-environment. Investment in the future is minimal. Things keep getting worse.