The GOP Tax Cuts Led to Record Earnings Per Share for My Company

And hundreds of layoffs.

We got the news earlier that the executive team is halting IT initiatives outside of maintenance until Q1 2019. The projects will be halted in September, at which point the employees involved will be laid off. When resumed in Q1 2019, they will be outsourced to our contracting partner.

Two days later, we had our quarterly meeting at which the executive team provides updates on the status of the company. This quarter the CFO's presentation focused on how the combination of the tax cuts and soybean tariffs led to record EPS figures for the first 2 and a half quarters, and if we cut costs a bit during Q4 a record EPS figure would be all but assured for the year.

I don't know if you guys have had much of a trickle down effect from the tax cuts, but I may be feeling a significant one in a few weeks.

If I cut off my leg, it means less weight. Essentially when companies decide to cut labor so that they'll have record profits.

Basically what's going on over here, unless there really is a surplus of workers. Unfortunately, that's capitalism and it really is. Not a totally bad thing or good thing but the nature of it. Hopefully you bounce back and find a good job.

I’m currently using my company for the free Angular 6 training and experience and I plan on testing the market as soon as my current project is over just after the fiscal year.

Yeah, I feel you man. My only advice is stay marketable and suck ever shred of value you can out of the company you work for and move on the second you get a better deal somewhere else. Never agree to work on legacy anything and don’t spend a second of your time outside of work learning anything that won’t go on your resume.

If you still work in infrastructure, my suggestion is to find a company willing to pay for your AWS training and certs.

Loyalty is for suckers. Just ask both my mom and my dad who were laid off in their 50s from companies they had worked for their entire adult lives.

shareholders are going to be pissed next year when there is a "strong compare" vs. the 2018 results and the 2019 quarterly results look like shit.

unless the plan is to just try to cut taxes each year.. but what happens when the tax rate hit 0%?

Would be interesting to see what would happen if we took a more balanced approach with sustainable goals, and didn't have to fire people to get record growth, didn't have to through a recession every decade or so, didn't have to negatively impact millions of people that had nothing to do with anything that's going on, and all that jazz.

Would be nice.

But the nature of the beast is this: publicly-traded companies operate like tomorrow is their last day on earth, and will do anything to maximize profits with zero regard for the day after next.

Then you rely on tariffs and other taxes like they did pre-Federal reserve.

If that's the case, I'm all in. The Fed being totally gone is a big win for freedom.

Tariffs? LOL you won't be able to afford anything.

my point was what would be the excuse then for poor performance? they couldn't blame it on taxes anymore.

So... When the project goes down the drain due to outsourcing it? Who will you blame then?

Company name?

Sorry, I can't say. The two reasons are 1) I still have a job for now and I want to ensure I don't burn any bridges and 2) there are some ethics involved since this would be insider information when paired with a name and, with this knowledge, the smart but unethical move would be to buy stock now and sell before the first quarter results of 2019 are released. That's when their increased costs from moving onsite jobs to expensive consultants will hit.

Exactly, which is why I was waiting to see if you gave a name. You didn't fall for it, far too clever.

It doesn't matter what your point was, 'End the Fed'!

But seriously, when taxes hit 0% it won't stop. Then we start SUBSIDIZING! Negative income taxes for companies, baby.

@HoolaHoopMan: "End the Fed"

Et tu, Hoola?

Well of course. We need our freedom back, like the freedom to strip ourselves of monetary policy! Its about time we pegged our currency back to a commodity. This time I'm thinking platinum because its SHINIER than gold.

@HoolaHoopMan: If we can tie it to pepperoni count me in. It's tastier than gold.

I think the End the Fed crowd has largely coalesced around cryptocurrency as the replacement commodity though. I guess because it... Um.... Hmmmm.

Well, I'm sure they have their reasons.

@mattbbpl: mmmm pepperoni-based currency...

too volatile, imo

"In financial news, the pepperoni is down as salami gains ground in..."

Cryptocurrency, just a decentralized eGold standard. Of they'd flock to it since they see any outside control of money as the enemy. It's why the anarcho-capitalists and paleo-conservatives hold their views as deeply as religious people.

They don't care about the efficacy of the Fed or their monetary policy, it's still control.

@mrbojangles25: Pshaw ... As if the peppo-dollar that forms the basis of the pizza sector of the economy could be endangered by a fringe sandwich currency.

Hopefully you own stock in your company. Then you'd be seeing a big boost. Most of these tax cuts are going to help the market but not wages per se. However, i still fear a big correction is coming down the pipeline.

@HoolaHoopMan: 0% taxes, but they can subsidize? How does that work?

same way it works now.

borrow

borrow

borrow