CNN and the Tea Party to Sponsor Next Debate, How Much Severance Does a CEO Get Who Managed a Company Into Bankruptcy, Research and Development Tax Credit Goes to Video Game Makers . .

 And News That Just Begs for Comment

Remember when CNN was considered a hallmark of network news?  Admittedly it was a long time ago, but at one point in our history people actually turned to CNN a s source of hard news.  Today CNN is reduced to co-sponsoring a Republican Debate with the Tea Party.



Not Available to Co-Sponsor Debate
So Tea Party is the closest substitute



Monday’s debate, which is co-sponsored by CNN and the Tea Party Express, . . .. CNN plans just one moderator posing questions, Wolf Blitzer, and will allow questions from the audience of Tea Party groups from 31 states, as well as from Tea Party panels watching nationally.





 Since the debate will be in Florida, one must assume that the first choice of CNN to partner with was the Mickey Mouse Club.  Since that organization apparently declined, CNN must have concluded that the Tea Party was the next closest thing.

How much severance pay do you get if you mismanage a company into bankruptcy?  If  you answered “zero” you obviously have not been paying attention to the news in executive compensation for the past 20 years (Maybe you were with Rip Van Winkle in the Catskills).  The correct answer is $125,000.

A bankruptcy judge cleared Borders Group Inc. to make $500,000 in severance payments to four company "insiders," including its former chief executive, Mike Edwards. . . Messrs. Edwards and Henry were "voluntarily terminated" on July 29

In case anyone was wondering, the term “voluntarily terminated” is when persons “quit before they fired your sorry butt”.  As to why the executive got severance



Going, going, gone
Couldn't Be the Fault of the CEO?



The executives "bargained for and expected severance in the event their positions were terminated due to no fault of their own, which is exactly what is occurring," the company said in court papers.

Well of course the fact that the company went bankrupt, wiped out shareholder equity, had to be shut down, cost 17,500 employees their jobs and was liquidated is certainly no fault of the CEO.  It was probably the fault of public employee unions.

In the last Republican debate Michelle Bachmann did not do all that well, and that sends a message about her candidacy.

Mrs. Bachmann’s team believes she garners empathy and support when she defends herself — such as when she responded to Chris Wallace’s question on national television in June asking if she was a “flake.”

But at the last debate none of the candidates attacked Mrs. Bachmann. They did not perceive her as a big enough threat.

Ok Ms. Bachmann, Monday night you need to be more threatening, you know, make up some more stuff like you usually do, that will scare them.

Greece continues to be under pressure from the European community to contract its economy so it will be in even worse shape to decrease its budget deficit.  So Greece just announced it will increase property taxes by $2.7 billion.  It will also cut wages of senior and elected government officials.  And how is the Greek austerity plan working out? 

the economy—now in its third year of recession—would contract by 5.3% this year, worse than an initial forecast of 3.9%.

About as expected.

The Research and Development Tax Credit was enacted to support research and development necessary to advance American industry.  Like all government programs, it has been corrupted.  Electronic Arts is a maker of video games.  Yes, video games.

During the last five years, Electronic Arts has claimed tens of millions in tax savings from research and development credits for its various games, according to the company’s regulatory filings. (Company officials declined to specify how much of that total came from the federal government.)

          At the same time, the I.R.S. and the United States Tax Court have denied the credit     for some projects that would have benefited the community as well as the companies receiving it. In 2009, for instance, the federal tax court denied Union Carbide’s attempt to claim a research and development credit for its project to reduce the pollutants released from the smokestacks of a refinery in Louisiana

The explanation: exactly what anyone would have guessed.  Video game maker Electronic Arts has a better lobbying team than Union Carbide.