"Corporations are people, my friend."
MITT ROMNEY, responding to a hecklers in Iowa who want higher corporate taxes.

Not our usual VI, but an honourable mention.

"Corporations are people, my friend."
MITT ROMNEY, responding to a hecklers in Iowa who want higher corporate taxes.

Not our usual VI, but an honourable mention.

The scary thing is, legally, he's right.

Yep. Legally corporations are people. I remember it was something that was impressed upon me by my bus org teacher many years ago. The main reason to incorporate a small business in a limited company is so that if there are legal or financial problems then it is with the business. And if it gets really bad you can walk away. Because you're an employee and the company's problems aren't necessarily your problems in the same way that they are if you're a sole-trader (or unlimited company). She always said you'd be mad to be a sole-trader. If you're a sole trader the can take away everything you possess if the business goes under.

In a lively decision that relied as much on dictionaries, grammar and usage as it did on legal analysis, the Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled unanimously that corporations have no personal privacy rights for purposes of the Freedom of Information Act.

AT&T, the plaintiff in the case, had sought to block the release of documents it had provided to the government. It argued that the documents should be withheld under an exemption to the law that applied to records that “could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”

If corporations aren't persons under US law then the ACLU, the NAACP, etc. don't get constitutional protection for their advocacy and the NY Times or (insert favourite newspaper here) don't get the constitutional guarantee of freedom of expression.

http://volokh.com/posts/1253637850.shtml

"Corporations are people, my friend."
MITT ROMNEY, responding to a hecklers in Iowa who want higher corporate taxes.

Not our usual VI, but an honourable mention.

Edited to add Link

Mr Hughes, who has been one of the more conservative economic forecasters, was very bullish about prospects for property.
He signalled that chances of the "bubble bursting" were remote - even with interest rates on the rise.
Mr Hughes predicted a 0.75pc increase in rates this year, which is slightly more than expected.
However, "any adverse impact (on property prices) from higher interest rates will be more than offset by the persistence of very strong demand," he said.
Fast-rising private sector debt levels of €260bn have raised fears that debt is spiralling out of control.
Yet Mr Hughes played down these fears, insisting that Irish consumers are in fact "underborrowed".
Money on deposit totals €60bn and householders have €545bn worth of positive "equity" in their homes.
"Looking only on one side of the balance sheet ignores the fact that Irish property wealth has soared in the past decade," Mr Hughes said.
"The net worth of Irish householders (market value of house less property debt) has risen from 2.3 times after tax incomes in 1996 to 4.3 times in 2005."
This is three-and-a-half times greater than the equivalent level in the US, where householders use their property almost as an ATM outlet, dipping into their equity over and over again by borrowing, Mr Hughes observed.
"This comparison underscores the the exceptional level of Irish property-related wealth and its extraordinary growth in recent years."
He estimates that the average Irish household will hold some €270,000 in net property wealth in 2006.

more

There is no doubt now that the market is overcorrecting. That said stability will only be achieved through increased liquidity and renewed consumer confidence in the overall economy.