Big profits at big banks but what about jobs?

News of bank profits soaring into billions from second quarter! $3.4 billion at Goldman Sachs, $2.7 billion at JP Morgan, $3.2 billion at BofA and now $3 billion for Citigroup http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090717/ap_on_bi_ge/us_earns_citigroup

Paul Krugman has a good take on Goldman Sachs and the "financialization" of the economy:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/17/opinion/17krugman.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

I am really sick though of the talk in most media outlets that the economy is all about how the "market" is doing -- the stock market, that is -- and how much profits banks and big corporations have made. That is just one measure of the economy -- and the measure that Big Capital cares about.

But the "real" economy is about regular people and families -- and those reports don't make the business news headlines. Joblessness continues to rise and the jobless numbers for African Americans and Latinos are much higher than the 9.5 percent national average. Joblessness leads to many, many other crises -- social, health, community, education ... The grassroots movement has to be stronger to help the president pass some of his initiatives and take on those that want to block them.

Those bank profits should be heavily taxed and the government can use that tax money for a job and infrastructure development bank, since all these banks aren't going to voluntarily invest in creating necessary jobs here. They will invest where the maximum profit is -- not for the socially necessary work. Like providing health care for all, making sure we have environmentally sound and modern water and sewage systems (another water main break in NYC today -- this time in front of our NY office!), mass transportation that's affordable and green, modern schools with WiFi and IT people to help staff them, no shortage of things that need to be done that could create good, union jobs for all.

Read our latest editorial 'Jobs needed now' http://pww.org/article/view/16386

Oil companies' reason for being

Woo-hoo. We used to have a "quote of the week" feature here at PWW but gave it up because of space limitations and frequent lack of good punchy quotes. Well, here's one:

Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions noted that “the world market for oil is not a free market.”

He also pointed out that oil companies “don’t exist to produce the lowest possible price of fuel for our constituents. They exist to maximize their profits for their shareholders.”

Sessions said this at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing where top oil execs had been summoned to explain why they're making exorbitant profits.

For some real insights into why, see here and here.