Yes, THAT Gene Simmons, from The Sun (UK):

This mess is our fault — corporations have no responsibility.

Capitalism is the best thing that ever happened to human beings. The welfare state sounds wonderful but it doesn’t work.

Governments hand out more money than they have to support welfare and they land in debt.

Then they have to borrow money — and then there’s interest on top of that.

That’s bad business. And it has created a culture of entitlement.

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From The New York Times:

Mike Keane, who owns O’Hara’s Restaurant and Pub, said that the theft of soap and toilet paper had soared and that one protester had used the bathroom but had failed to properly use the toilet. Both Ms. Tzortzatos, owner of the Panini and Company Cafe, and Mr. Keane said the protesters rarely bought anything, yet hurled curses when they were told that only paying customers could use their bathrooms.

Steve Zamfotis, manager of another nearby store, Steve’s Pizza, said: “They are pests. They go to the bathroom and don’t even buy a cup of coffee.”

Mr. Zamfotis closed his bathroom after it repeatedly flooded from protesters’ bathing there.

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American political fortunes have long been tied directly to the economy… so you would think that politicians would do a better job understanding how to improve the economy.  We know consumer demand is down – because consumers don’t have the money or home equity they used to have.  That alone is keeping the economy down.  Businesses, however, are said to have money but they are not spending or investing it.  Why? Because for them it’s the early 1920’s all over again.

Our so-called brilliant, Nobel Prize-winning President, for months, has exhorted American businesses to hire employees and invest – as if wishing for an economic recovery would make it so.  Recently, however, Democrat and mega-businessman Steve Wynn told the country – and Obama, if he was listening – why cash rich business is not hiring and investing.  According to Wynn, “this administration is the greatest wet blanket to business, and progress and job creation in my lifetime . . . those of us who have business opportunities and the capital to do it are going to sit in fear of the President . . .”

President Calvin Coolidge used to say, “The chief business of the American people is business.”  Even so, business doesn’t invest just for fun – they invest for profit – and they don’t invest if they think the risk of not making an acceptable profit is too high.  I wrote “acceptable” because business weighs the fact that even if they make money, it will be taxed.  As such, a business must decide not only if it will be able to make a profit, but will the profit be so much that it would be worth the trouble/risk after taking taxes into consideration.  Keep in mind business knows that it carries all of the downside risk and that government will take a good portion of any upside.  If at some point the risk gets too high, business investment and spending is stalled.

Today, Steve Wynn, and much of American business, believes that the risk of not making a decent profit is too high for several reasons.  For instance, business doesn’t see sufficient consumer demand – so they don’t stock their shelves or expand production as they otherwise might.  Regulations and the threat of more regulations are so high that they hold back money to pay for future costs.  Taxes and the threat of higher taxes are also high – and that too causes business to hold back spending in order to pay those future taxes.  As a result, business investment and spending is stalled.

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If you look at statements made by Ben Bernanke over the last several years on the US economic outlook, they are not a model of consistency, let alone confidence building.  Indeed, they reflect an economy that appears to be stopping and starting – subject to the vagaries of the world not driving the world’s economy. Many other economists are similarly uncertain as to why our economy is in such trouble.  Real-world Americans, however, have no such confusion.

In April of 2010, the Federal Reserve Chairman said the economy had “staying power.” In August of 2010, Bernanke said, “The economy remains vulnerable to unexpected developments.”  Early last month he stated: “U.S. economic growth so far this year looks to have been somewhat slower than expected.”  Later in the month, he let us know that “We don’t have a precise read on why this slower pace of growth is persisting.”

On the other hand, we hear stories of banks and corporations flush with cash.  For his part, Obama appears focused on luxurious corporate jets and the Left tells us (falsely) that taxes are at the lowest they have been in 50 years.

So why is the economy underperforming to their great confusion or surprise?

There are many reasons – but one central one.  First, among the many reasons, are businesses’ fears of the costs of doing business in the future, including the costs of Obamacare. Adding to those fears are the costs of regulations (Obama’s and state regulators) and, of course, higher taxes.  Also among the many reasons are the national debt and the debt of our states.  Those amounts are so far past rationality and are paired with future entitlement requirements that are way beyond unsustainable.  Combined, they produce economic fear, which translates quickly into economic caution which equals less economic activity.

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Andrew Puzder knows a thing or two about creating jobs. As CEO of CKE Restaurants, the parent company of many famous brands including Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s, Puzder has seen firsthand how government policies can help or hurt job creation. In his new book, “Job Creation: How It Really Works and Why Government Doesn’t Understand It”, Puzder and co-author Dave Newton share what they have learned.

Puzder spoke at Heritage this week and sat down with Heritage to talk about his experience in the business world.

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Amidst the requisite election-year class warfare being played across the country, one of the common arguments being made by the left and accepted begrudgingly by the right is that those who earn the most should pay their fair share.  While both sides might differ over the size of one’s “fair share,” nevertheless even the most sober conservatives will usually concede this point.  Yet when one looks at how wealth is created, especially in spite of an economy as increasingly shackled as ours, this proves to be a specious argument.

The “fair share” arguments insinuate that the businessman, the entrepreneur, the inventor greedily piles their money on the backs of the poor.  Even for those who don’t see the world this way, there is a pervasive feeling that because one lives comfortably, one should be forced to support others because one has had such good fortune.  While you or I may agree that there is great merit to being charitable, I think we can also agree at least in principle that it is immoral for us to force someone to be charitable — especially if that “charity” is a government-run one for a government-determined cause, which is to say that it bears little resemblance to a charity at all.

But more importantly, what is forgotten are all the benefits that accrue to society as a result of the efforts of the wealth producer.

For it is the producer who generates wealth by applying his skills, energies and ideas and taking risk, generation which requires the creation of jobs both within his firm and within the firms that make up the other cogs in the chain of production, the proper allocation of capital by investors to fund the idea and the provision of a product that society values.  For one to make a lot of money, all of these disparate parts must come together, leading not just to success for the the producer, but food, an education and healthcare for the family of the employee and all of the employees at the firms that helped in the production of the good, a return for investors that can be reinvested in other profitable ventures to grow the overall economic pie and over time better and cheaper goods for the consumers, those who solely determine which producers are rewarded with profits and which are penalized with losses.

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That sound you hear is the White House’s credibility bubble bursting. CBS reported last week that 74 percent of Americans believe the Obama stimulus either damaged the economy or had no effect.

The wisdom of the crowd turns out to be true.

The White House boasts that the $862 billion Stimulus is performing like a well-oiled machine, ensuring that 3.5 million jobs have been “created or saved” because of it. At $246, 285.71 per job, that’s a hefty claim were it true. Since February of 2009 the U.S. economy lost a net 2.35 million jobs.

What is true is that the administration’s confidence-crushing economic policies are, according to National Federation of Independent Business Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg, “scaring us to death”. What’s happened here is that a White House sorely lacking in private-sector experience has, for almost two years now, been broadcasting a clear message: “Business: beware.”

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With a bad-blood, confidence-destroying battle royale going on between Team Obama and business, you would think a highly publicized White House jobs summit would have produced some kind of positive announcement that gives a nod to the business point of view.

After all, as part of his so-called “business charm offensive,” the president is arguing that “it’s the private sector that has always been the source of our job creation, our economic growth, and our prosperity; and it’s our businesses and workers who will take the reins of this recovery and lead us forward.”

He also says “the free market depends on a government that sets clear rules that ensure fair and honest competition,” and that “too much regulation or too much spending can stifle innovation, can hamper confidence and growth, and hurt business and families.”

But uncertainty over the regulatory-and-tax rules of the road is exactly what has buffaloed business and stifled the animal spirits that are so necessary for investment and job creation.

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