Since it’s football season, it would seem appropriate to discuss the art of passing.
No, I don’t mean from a quarterback to a wide receiver.
What I’m referring to is the passing the national media tends to do when it comes to their personal pets, both people and corporations.
We all know the pass that was given to Obama when it came to his various questionable acquaintances, from Bill Ayers to the Reverend Wright.
In addition, consider Obama’s lack of attending church or honoring Christian observances, not to mention the media turning a blind eye to Solyndra and the President’s involvement.
I could go on and on but you get the picture.
Sgt. Schultz used to say on Hogan’s Heroes, “I know nothing!”
He must have had a national press card.
Now, the media wants to give a pass to the various large corporations and their inaction when it comes to bringing jobs back home.
There is some mainstream media discussion regarding corporations’ lack of tax payments, but it’s usually brief and without comment.
However, maybe the most egregious pass, and consequently the most misleading, is the discussion about the amount of cash hidden on the books of corporate balance sheets.
The press would have you believe this cash has been accumulated through sales and it’s just waiting to be injected into the economy.
Corporate cash is at record levels, and supposedly, in conjunction with the President’s programs, will be the engine for U.S. growth.
In this instance, the media has certainly bypassed on the truth.
Non-financial corporations do have record amounts of cash; however, they have accumulated this cash by taking advantage of Bernanke’s historically low interest rates.
Thus, when you read the balance sheets in their totality, you see total domestic corporate debt at $7.2 trillion, the highest indebtedness in history, and twice the level seen in the 1990s.
In fact, this existing debt represents 50% of current GDP. If we look at the picture truthfully, the white knight corporations are perhaps just as bad as everything else.
Who really wants to look with full disclosure? Not the media.
After all, it’s football season and time to pass, even if it means circumventing the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.