Portland imposes surtax on CEO pay in salvo at income inequality Oregon's largest city will charge companies with chief executives whomake more than 100 timesthe median pay of the company's average workers. The 10 percent surtax, which would be added to the city's business tax for companies that qualify, is the first of its kind in the United States, Portland officials said.(New York Times)
Then, How about 'settlement tax' on every settlement banksters do with SEC for their violations (crimes in the markets)?
I've done a number of transactions with Wall Street, including an IPO and several bond securitizations. Most of the professionals I dealt with were people of integrity, intelligence and strong skill sets. Are there scoundrels among the "banksters"? Of course, there are scoundrels in every arena but all things being equal, I prefer those in the private sector to those in government for reasons including but not limited to issues of accountability and competence. I think a fortune 100 company looking for capital for enterprise expansion would be better served to approach Goldman Sachs or Credit Suisse than apply for an SBA or setting up a gofundme account.
Since by definition a Fortune 100 company isn't "small" and the S in SBA stands for small, that's pretty obvious.
The point is, Wall Street and not the government serves the capital needs of enterprise. Government will make loans to some who dovetail with current political agenda but are notoriously bad with underwriting....not to mention collections.
The silly morons who propose this kind of stupid fiscal policy have no understanding that capital is mobile ... did the fact that production has been moving out the U.S. because of bad fiscal policy on the national basis totally evade their awareness? Does anyone know how many Portland domicile business CEO's will be subject to this tax? There cannot be too many, and their will certainly be less now. How do they think the few CEOs with business domiciled in Portland will respond? How do they think CEO's looking to expand or locate their business will look at Portland? What is an "average worker" in today's economy? What if he leases all his employees other than his "special workers"? This can only hurt their tax base and raise unemployment in Portland