Big Business is hoarding their cash!
By Thom Hartmann A...
The stock market keeps hitting record highs, but big businesses aren't putting those profits back into our economy. A recent article in the New York Times said that corporate investment still hasn't bounced back to precrisis levels, let along made up for the lost ground from the record lows of 2009. If firms would invest at the same levels that they did during the previous decade, they could boost our economy by about $220 billion dollars annually, and possibly create another two million jobs.
When a business buys a new piece of equipment, they immediately provide more income to the manufacturer. However, they also make it easier for that manufacturer to hire more workers, and they make their own employees more productive. That single purchase has a ripple effect throughout our economy, but it doesn't happen when corporations hoard their cash. According to the New York Times, there is little incentive to purchase new equipment to improve productivity when businesses can easily get more cheap labor. As wages go up and fewer people are looking for jobs, that new equipment starts to look like a better deal.
Congress has the ability to encourage this investment through tax policy, but many of our lawmakers have no real interest in stimulating the economy. Republicans think slow growth and high unemployment are a great excuse to cut taxes, despite the fact that lower rates have never given us the economic boost that they predicted. In fact, we need to do the exact opposite to fix this problem. We need a progressive tax system that encourages investments over dividends. Let's take our economy back, and force big business to put the needs of our nation ahead of corporate greed.
Comments
#2
ckrob: Perhaps you could be an example of what you are talking about? Can you provide links to the graphs you are speaking of..unless you are speaking hypothetically. :)
#3
Considering that visual (V), auditory (A) and kinesthetic (K) ways of thinking mix, I wonder if there's a fourth category: abstract, the absence of the other three. I think I'm mostly abstract with visual as a close second. I tend to speak in abstract terms, which doesn't reach anyone that requires V, A or K. However, I tend to draw in the air while I talk to people in person. And I hate talking on the phone, which I think is because it removes the visual element (body language, gestures, facial expressions). The abstract mode would also cover written language, which is not really visual, and I excel at that.
#4
Hey Palin, the NLP stuff is something Thom has been talking about for a couple of days. Thom's book "Cracking the Code" is a good primer. The specific chart I mention was from Bloomberg (BusinessWeek?) about executive compensation as related the stock price of their corp. It showed NO correlation. Lousy performance could be fabulously paid and great performance was just as likely to be modestly rewarded. The chart can be found by searching on "the pay-for-performance myth." Hope this helps.
Mathboy, extremely intelligent persons can show an 'abstract' modality.
#5
Thanks, ckrob!
#6
ckrob -- on jul 23, the 2nd hour Thom said the title of his book "Healing ADD" should have been NLP. The publisher said no one would buy it.
#7
I would have bought it; can't speak for anyone else.
#8
Thanks, ckrob. I am extremely intelligent. The idea occurred to me because in Thom's examples, he often translated V/A/K terms into terms I would have considererd neutral, but now I think are abstract.
#9
Mariupol, Ukraine sits on the northern edge of the Sea of Azov and Anapa, Russia sits just south of the Sea of Azov. Before July 14th, 2014 MH-17's flight paths were about half way between Mariupol and Anapa over the Sea of Azov.
The normal MH17 flight path (before July 14, 2014) would have been between Mariupol and Anapa over the Sea of Azov. The weather patterns from the 14th to the 17th were all very travelable with a light thunderstorm over Mariupol, on the 17th, and better weather to the south of Mariupol towards Anapa. So why did MH-17 go north of Mariupol into the conflict zone when it could have stayed on the pre-14th normal flight path? Weather was no problem if it had taken the pre-14th flight path. So why was MH17's flight path shifted on the 14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th of July from over the Sea of Azov to about 270km (170 miles) to the North directly over the conflict area?
This is the weather on July 17 at both locations.
Mariupol, Ukraine July 17, 2014 (North of the Sea of Azov)
12:00pm overcast visibility 12 miles wind speed 17.9 mph E
3:00pm light thunderstorm visibility 12 miles wind speed mph 11.2 E
6:00pm lt rain showers visibility 6 miles wind speed mph 6.7 NW
http://www.wunderground.com/history/wmo/34712/2014/7/17/DailyHistory.htm...
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Anapa, Russia July 17, 2014 (south of the Sea of Azov)
12:00pm overcast visibility 6.2 miles wind speed 4.5mph N
3:00pm mostly cloudy visibility 6.2 miles wind speed 11.2mph WSW
6:00pm overcast visibility 6.2 miles wind speed 4.5mph W
http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/URKA/2014/7/17/DailyHistory....
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#10
Thom here is a article written by a woman who lives in Las Vegas, she writes very well and very knowledgeable on the subject, it is worth reading. goes by the name of VegasJesse. This is her Article The Israeli Government Is Much Like The Texas Tea Party, maybe it would be worth your time to reply to her.
#11
What ever happen to the trickle-down, maybe it stops at the CEOs and his board members
#12
First, they told us that MH17 changed course to avoid a thunderstorm, now they are telling us that they did it to save money...that it was a shorter root. That's a lot of bunk! I don't believe it one second. I believe that the pilot's course, over the war zone, was decided by those who wanted to use the passenger airliners as a shield or cover in order to sneak in the Ukraine military jets behind them.
#13
Palindromedary ~ I share your apprehension. There must have been an ulterior motive. As we all know there are already well known ways to remotely alter a jets course and effect its controls. There is more to this story than meets the eye; and, until I hear an explanation that makes sense I'm 100% there with you brother.
#14
For the past twenty years - at least for me when on December 14, 1994 my upward career as a claims manager at an insurance company, a small brand, one of a hundred corporations owned by a billionaire family in Cincinnati, terminated my middle income, middle management position, and like millions of Americans, began a steady, downward direction since then.
All the managers were fired in the name of restructuring. There were likely a few CEO bonuses afterwards
The buyouts and restructuring of other jobs in the insurance industry have consolidate into six or seven super giant corporations. I was working at another insurance company when they sold out to one the giants further institutionalizing serfdom and taking away competition. They too lied to the consumer, selling their insurance service under a brand but owned by the good hands people. My current self employed income - taking into account not having company sponsored health, dental, vacation, and sick time, limited short term disability coverage - is about 50% less than 20 years ago. I look around my neighborhood and see the consequence of the loss of union jobs when they closed Ralph's - now a dollar store staffed by people who earn $70 per day - before taxes, no healthcare. How far must we fall before we take to the streets or will it by then be too late to save the Constitution?
#15
Wow Rich. A chilling tale indeed. Reading something like this, I feel a noose tightening around my neck, along with everyone else's. "How far must we fall" is a question I've asked many times, and heard others ask too. That boiling-frog parable comes to mind. - AIW
#16
Thom, I think many of our progressive ideas that involve big business spending (for the betterment of the economy), raising the minimum wage, the opening of the banking floodgates enabling easy credit, and more equitable taxation will be explored by the GOPPs if they win the presidential in 2016. They will gloat and say that they are responsible for turning our economy around, raising the GNP, when it was their ideologies and obstructionism that made us wait 8 years. Meanwhile they will continue to fund the DOJ's and NSA's war on working Americans and minorities just in case not everyone is happy with their sliver of the economic pie.
The corporation aren't spending money because they want Obama and the democrats to fail.
#17
Palindromedary,
It's been over a week since we talked about the melting methane hydrates in the Arctic. The question was how much sea level rise will result when it is all released as methane and later decomposed to carbon dioxide and water. This was an interesting question that I had never seen explained. The best answers i can find at Real Climate and Climate Central is that about an inch of sea level rise could be attributed to the release of all of the frozen methane on the planet. Not enough to matter when the average air temperature of the planet would go up more than 10 degrees from the additional greenhouse gases, wreaking havoc on the entire biosphere and melting all of the land ice and perhaps raising sea level more than 100 feet.
#18
catman306: Only an inch...not seemingly enough to matter one would think. There would be a redistribution of heat (or absence of heat..which is what "cold" is) when those melted arctic and antarctic ices get combined with the ocean's waters. But I guess we won't know till it happens..
A couple of years ago, we had a massive sun's corona mass ejection (CME)... a sun flare that would have fried all of Earth's communication and power infrastructure that would have taken years to recover from. We were lucky that the flare went off to a different direction just missing the earth. Electro Motive Pulse (EMP) from a nuclear detonation in the air can also cause a disruption in communications and the electrical grid. If the US and Russia keep going at it over Ukraine....
#19
Interest charged by banks is made up of at least three factors, the sum of which is that seen by the borrower. The three factors, and there may be more, are risk, profit and administrative costs. The risk for student loans is nil as the government guarantees the loans made by students on the basis that education is a investment in people and that is one of the objectives of good government.
Similarly, production is also made up of several factors. Increased productivity cause by better equipment requires different managerial and professional and labor-wise help. Some pieces of equipment merely replace low-cost manual labor and require a semi-proficient worker to operate several pieces of robotic equipment simultaneously. This happened when weaving looms became powered by water, stem, or electrical pour sources. One operator could handle several looms. Previously, with foot power, each loom had an operator. Skills of the operator was replaced by the punched boards determining the type of weave cause the "sabots" to be thrown into the looms by displaced workers in France. In the late 1700's factories in the colonies sprang up at the “water fall" sources on the rivers in New England. Alexander Hamilton was one of the developers of this industry. Young girls wee hired to work in the factories for very small wages. But Hamilton became wealthy.
Specialty equipment requires much more specialized training to operate. The simple sheet metal bending machines used in the first steam powered mine pumps were so uneven that leather gaskets were used to seal the cylinder from the piston. Cheap but effective. Where higher pressures required different sealing techniques, higher precision milling of the cylinders was required. The development of numerical controlled five and seven axis milling machines made precision engineering of propeller blades, turbine blades and intricate parts with very high precision and specification in the millionths of an inch tolerances. Some of these machines required very highly trained technicians to maintain and operate. Costs of operation on these machines can be much higher than more simple machines. During WW2 it was found that air conditioning of the factories to enable control of thermal expansion of both cutting tools and work pieces made precisions much higher and worker training much more beneficial.
Because we bombed Germany and Japan production facilities so well, after the war the bombed out factories were replaced with more modern tools and equipment. Bother Germany and Japan and China (Formosa) took advantage of this whereas American industry thought because our production was so high we didn't have to improve industry any. Only in research universities in the U.S. was advanced engineering production procedure developed. American management was 30 or 40 years behind Germany and Japan. Therefore Japanese and German automobiles lasted longer, were better, could be developed less expensively than the Americans cold and until both Japanese and German vehicles began to be sold more that American made vehicles did the American management begin to take notice. An article in the IEE Spectrum several years ago analyzed the differences between American management practice and European and Japanese manufacturing practices in the automobile industry. They reported that the practice in Japan was that when a young engineer was found to be particularly good and potentially able to be developed further, they would send the young engineer to the U. for advanced engineering training. When he returned to Japan, his first assignment was to teach the Japanese engineers the newest techniques in automatic tools and managerial practices. In the U.S, management was 30 or 40 years behind. A young engineer would have to work for 10 or 20 years before he would rise to a position of management where he could put into practice the technicians he had learned many years before.
Production is made up of highly trained operators and engineers. Both of these are expensive. Because these tools are expensive, often bought with loans from bank, production became finance dependent.
In tersest on production tool financing by banks are counter productive. they are necessary but if the banks are too interested in increasing their profits, they negotiate a higher interest rate to maximize that profit component with reduces industrial productivity. Government taxes, when not used for necessary investments in people, education, infrastructures, etc, are negative on productivity. Military expenditures beyond the absolutely necessary defense requirement are also a negative influence on productivity. A bomb, once exploded has lost its investment. A rifle bullet, one fired, has lost its investment. A winded soldier or sailor is highly costly and the training of said individual is lost, perhaps forever. These costs must be weighed against the necessity for "necessary" defense.
#20
Rich, in my career, which started in 1957 at age twelve selling vegetables door to door, I've been fired twice, and quit after a demotion. In every case, I rebounded with a better job. Along the way, I put myself through college. I have a BS and a MA from the University of Maryland. I paid the bill, no free ride, no student loans. I refuse to be a victim. You can go through life cursing everyone or you can choose to do something about It.
#21
Yes maam.
#22
Quote Ou812:In every case, I rebounded with a better job. Along the way, I put myself through college. I have a BS and a MA from the University of Maryland. I paid the bill, no free ride, no student loans. I refuse to be a victim. You can go through life cursing everyone or you can choose to do something about It.
Ou812 ~ O u sure do talk the big talk. However, I'd just love to see you repeat that little trick in today's world. If you did, I'm certain that you would be eating your own words--something that probably wouldn't be to hard for someone like YOU.
#23
bobcox ~ Yet again, my hat is off to you. Your understanding of international industrial arts is second to none. Thank you so much for sharing your perspective. It has, indeed, shed light on many modern day marketplace mysteries! Thank you!
#24
Did anyone get a load of the BS peddler/oxymoron, "compassionate conservative," Arthur C. Brooks on Bill Moyers this week? I couldn't stand to watch more than 10 minutes--from the comments, the protect the wealthy, don't be jealous of the wealthy, minimum wage hikes will cost jobs, the free market should decide, let's help only the truly poor,...crap pile only got deeper.
Haven't we all heard that before? Isn't that why we are currently in the mess we are in?
#25
DAnneMarc,
I could give you examples of kids who just graduated from high school this year who have started a business, or working there way through university, or started an apprenticeship. They are refusing to be victims. But you wouldn't believe that either. You victims tend to stick together.
#26
Ou812: I'm writing a book entitled The Conservative Playbook. Turns out it's going to be a short one because you all seem to stick together and spout the same schoolyard bully crap, offer platitudes without proof, say "not true" when faced with facts or research. I'll add you in with the rest of the tired and worn, know-it-all conservative phrases--you'll be just a number among the others, because it's been said millions of times before. Yawn!
#27
Elioflight: I missed that one but I did catch Chuck Lewis, founder of The Center for Public Integrity and several other nonprofit organizations and former investigative producer on CBS news show 60 minutes, on Bill Moyers. The show was dated June 27, 2014 called "The Lies That Lead to War"
Lewis’ latest book is "935 Lies: The Future of Truth and the Decline of America’s Moral Integrity".
Quote billmoyers.com:Lewis details the deceptions and illusions that have caused “most Americans and their elected representatives to completely ignore facts, logic and reason in the rush to war.” A complicit partner, he says, is a media intent on preserving the status quo and never offending the ruling elite.
In watching this show, I couldn't help but think about the lies that the US is currently telling about Russia and the MH17 crash. They've always lied to us so why believe them now? *
Funny thing is that the war hysteria often bridges both Republicans and Democrats. It is especially noticeable in the liberal press how they have all been zombies to the war mongering propagandists in falling for the their evil Russian empire propaganda especially since the 7/17 downing of MH17.
The real evil empire (the US) was instrumental in overthrowing a legitimate Ukraine government that was taken over by the Fatherland Party (largely NAZIs). The US, using methods that they had used in overthrowing other countries, recently, created the instability which led to war between the Ukraine NAZIs and Eastern Ukraine.
And I wouldn't be surprised if they were instrumental in assisting the Ukraine military in supplying satellite data and other intelligence in their murderous missile strikes that kill thousands of East Ukrainian civilians. Remember when the US supplied satellite data to Iraq against the Iranians during the Iraq-Iran war?
I believe that: the Ukraine government was having problems getting their war planes into the East Ukraine (several were shot down) so they decided to sneak their war planes in to the war zone in the shadow of passenger airliners that had recently (since July 14th) been diverted from their normal flight path over the middle of the Sea of Azov to over the war zone (~150 miles away). Several other airliners (Thai airlines, et al) did the same thing but others avoided the war area. I believe that they purposely used passenger airliners for cover..or as a shield..to sneak their war planes into the conflict zone. I believe that those passenger airliners were purposely diverted over the war zone specifically to act as shields for the Ukraine war planes. So, the question is who determined, or ordered, the new flight paths over the conflict area?
After all of the lies our politicians (Republican and Democrat and the Pentagon) told us about WMDs and mushroom clouds, and all of the bad things they have done to the 99% of the Americans (deregulating banksters and wall street, bankster bailouts, the criminal housing crisis...people losing their homes, etc) a large part of the 99% now believes the propaganda lies they are being told about Russia and the shoot down of MH17. Why?
Because they are still the same zombies they were when the US told lies about the Soviet Union...the evil empire of the Pre-Reagan years. Fear of Russia has not left people's minds...they are still victims of the 50s and 60s propaganda era. Despite the fact that the Soviet Union tore down the wall and became more democratic and more capitalist even (which ticked off our military industrial complex because then they lost their ability to suckle off the tax teats) the MIC needed to find a way to turn on the cash spigot once more. They tried the war on drugs and terrorist bogey men; but, you can't really justify spending $trillions to build more expensive nukes to "defend" against "underwear bombers" or pot smokers. So, they have been chipping away at their old arch enemy to put new life into a new cold war. And the people buy this hook, line and sinker?
Another reason, I think, why the US is being so belligerent, around the world, is because not only are they trying to snatch control of all of the oil and other resources but the rest of the world is starting to move away from the $US as the world standard. The BRIC countries are even starting to compete with the IMF and World Bank. **
Makes me kind of wonder just how complicit in undermining and manipulating the 99% are the supposed "liberal" media when they jump on the "hate evil Russia" bandwagon. When one comes to realize that the Democrat Party is not really who they pretend to be, and when liberal sounding names like "Freedom House" and "International Center on Nonviolent Conflict", and many more, tend to fool many people, it makes the overt attackers of liberty, like the Republicans, obsolete. Except, they are necessary to hold up as the wacko crazy bogeymen that will drive us to supporting and voting for the covert operatives, the Democrats and organizations with liberal sounding names, who undermine us just as well as the Republicans.
-----------------------------
* http://billmoyers.com/episode/the-truth-vs-dcs-propaganda-machine/
** http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-16/brics-to-form-50-billion-lender...
#28
Ou812, didn't you tell us you're a schoolteacher? If you don't know the difference between "there" (as in location or proximity) and "their" (as in ownership), you're in the wrong profession.
You can keep right on cranking out those smug, sanctimonious posts, dearie, because I love reading the responses from folks like Marc and Elioflight! Very entertaining. - Aliceinwonderland
#29
Palindromedary - EXCELLENT. Take a bow! You really outdid yourself with this one.
#30
Elioflght, Thanks, I'm honored to be included in your 'intelluctual' endeavor. By the way, I don't put labels on my self, except to say I'm not a victim.
#31
Alice I'm not going to apologize for the self correct on my IPad. Attack me all you want, if that's the best you have.
#32
OU812: An ipad self corrected "their" to "there"? That's a new one!
AIW: We probably should give him some slack since he is nearly 70. ;-} (he said in #21 that he was 12 in 1957 that would make him about 69 now). By the way, thanks!
#33
Quote Ou812:DAnneMarc,I could give you examples of kids who just graduated from high school this year who have started a business, or working there way through university, or started an apprenticeship. They are refusing to be victims. But you wouldn't believe that either. You victims tend to stick together.
Ou812 ~ Really? Coming from the same person who a short while ago claimed they knew former president Reagan was still alive and well and still in secret control of the government. Didn't earning that "Masters" degree in "whatever" give you enough sense to realize that spouting that type of nonsense blows all you credibility out the door?
Personally I think you just pulled that little statistic out of your mouth on a stick. You right wingers tend to stick together when it comes to your loose facts. I, however, know of some REAL kids who have done just that. It was far from as easy as you might like us to believe. It was an uphill climb that was only made possible because they pooled their resources, worked together, and got real lucky. Yet that means absolutely nothing. It was, indeed, an exception to the rule as I'm sure your questionable examples--if true--are too. Besides, since you really can't share any personal information on this blog that remark really doesn't carry any weight does it? All that really matters in education is what is available to the majority of people and how they fare--not what a few examples accomplish on their own without it.
Speaking about education, I hope you wouldn't mind sharing just what University you earned your BS and MS from? I need to warn my nephews about it. I certainly wouldn't want them to end up going their; and, I have a letter that I am dying to right there staff members in there English department.
#34
nothing gets by the king of conspiracies does it....yup 69 and proud of it.:))
#35
Palindromedary ~ As usual your math is impeccable.
PS I love the new avatar! It's precious! You little devil you!
#36
DAnneMarc: Whoa! we both submitted our entries at the same time...well, I guess you were a few seconds ahead of me.
Anyway, I believe OU812 had said he went to the University of Maryland. He must have had Mr. Valentine (remember him?) as a teacher. On second thought, I don't think Mr. Valentine was teaching that far back...assuming OU812 got his degrees at the normal young age that most people do.
#37
So entertaining! Keep 'em rolling "OU". The "best you have" is such a joke, it really livens things up around here. Hey Marc, pass the popcorn. - AIW
#38
Thank you, DAnneMarc! Whoa! almost did it again! My how little coincidental things amaze me! ;-} And no, I haven't been eating any brownies, lately.
#39
Palin, at the risk of being redundant, I love your new avatar!! Really suits your aura, dahling.
#40
DAnneMarc ( you won't mind if I call you Denmark), please reread my post, it clearly states I Earned my BS and MA from the University of Maryland. I guess reading was not a focus in your education?. Didn't you write an article about you adventures of time travel with Obama:)) I guess humor is permitted for you, but not me. One more point, I am a teacher and I get to influence hundreds of students. Who do you influence but a bunch of washed up lefties:))
#41
OU812: "King of Conspiracies"! Why thank you, and I'm very proud of that too! Because there really are conspiracies but many people are either just too dumb to realize it or they have been propagandized into not believing that conspiracies exist. It is the conspirators who don't want people to know that they exist and use whatever means they have to dispel real conspiracies with their manipulative propaganda. And when they own most of the major news media in this country the gullible will always be taken in by it and will march, lock-step, to the beats of their drummers. Herd mentality. Moooo!
Question authority!
#42
Aliceinwonderland ~ I know! It's so cool. It looks like it's trying to say, "Stay the hell away from me or I'll slice your head off!" I love it!
#43
Quote Ou812:I guess humor is permitted for you, but not me. One more point, I am a teacher and I get to influence hundreds of students. Who do you influence but a bunch of washed up lefties:))
Ou812 ~ You "get to" influence hundreds of students? Spoken like a true scholar. I think that's a sure sign of the Apocolypse if I ever heard one.
Beam me up oh great spaghetti monster!
#44
OU812: You are still a teacher, even at 69? Really? I thought most teachers would be retired by now. Guess there is no reason to retire if you still love teaching....or, if because of Reaganomics...you could never save up enough for retirement. ;-}
I had a physics teacher once that was older than God. We could barely hear him and he shook a lot. He was a nice old guy though. I liked him. But when one of the class members, one day, flicked a switch-blade at him from behind the table...I thought he was going to shit his britches or have a heart attack. He just left the room...probably called the cops. It really wasn't a rough school...never any other incidents than that...that I can remember.
#45
I influence people every time I drive my car :)
#46
Or fart.
#47
Yes, Elio, and yes. As to the first of those two inquiries, it helps to disengage the TV, or give it the ole heave-ho. Speaking for myself, sister, I don't want those airbrushed little fascists on FOX, or any other mainstream "news" outlet, contaminating my space with their toxic drivel. It truly is amazing how many other, nicer, more contructive kinds of things could be filling that space instead.
People like saying health is wealth. Silence is golden too. - Aliceinwonderland
#48
Quote Palindromedary: I believe that those passenger airliners were purposely diverted over the war zone specifically to act as shields for the Ukraine war planes. So, the question is who determined, or ordered, the new flight paths over the conflict area?
Palindromedary ~ Wow! So far I've missed a lot on this blog this weekend. I've been sidetracked by some beautiful music I found. Time to play catch up. Shocked I missed that post till just now. Kudos my friend. I think you found the only logical explanation for that tragedy. Thanks for the insight!
By the way, you are so right! Just who gave that order? Or, perhaps, who remotely steered that airliner off course; and, why didn't the radar tower report that? I smell yet another conspiracy!
#49
Don't just question authority, question everything:)
By the way, I didn't start teaching until I was 60. I "retired" from business ( I hate the whole concept of retirement conjures up images of people sitting around waiting to die) I returned to school at age 60 and got the necessary credits to get my teaching certificate from the State of Maryland, which happens to have the best public education system in the USA. I teach because I love it. I don't need the money, I've plenty, thanks to reganomics. I'm truly impressed with the respect I receive from today's students. I was concerned at first, but soon learned our future is in good hands with today's students .
#50
Well goodie-goodie for yew.
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Yesterday, on "Rumble" you mentioned in the places minimum wage was raised, jobs increased rather than being lost. It would have helped if you had a graphic illustrating where and how much. (with source) That would have taken the discussion beyond 'he said, she said.' Additionally, if you had a graphic with a high correlation between executive pay and stock value and the chart of virtual zero correlation (via Bloomberg) you could ask which is the real one and which is the fake. Remember most of what we learn comes through our visual channel. Leave the graphics where you can point to them. That can add kinesthetic to the audio. The visual would also permit a slight override when several are talking over one another or filibustering.