Subsidized Rape and Pillage

I don't often comment on stories like this -- under this administration, this sort of thing is just business as usual -- and they shouldn't need comment. This is just confirmation of what we knew:

Most of America's largest publicly traded corporations -- including several that are receiving billions of dollars from U.S. taxpayers to finance their recovery -- have set up offshore operations that could help them avoid paying U.S. taxes on their profits, a government study released yesterday found.

American International Group, Bank of America, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley are among the companies that are getting bailed out by U.S. taxpayers while having subsidiaries in locations where they can avoid paying U.S. taxes, according to the Government Accountability Office.

Of the 100 largest public companies, 83 do business in tax-haven hotspots like the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and the British Virgin Islands, where they can move their income into tax-free accounts.

Of course it makes good business sense -- remember, the only god is the bottom line -- but it also points up one of the major reasons I think that business is basically amoral and needs to be watched closely: this is the sort of thing that Grover Norquist and the Club for Growth favor. And if there was ever a walking talking example of the moral poverty of libertarianism, it's Grover Norquist.

Of course, there's also the fact that if you or I did this, we'd wind up in jail.