WatchObama has investments in companies that ship jobs overseas
President Obama has accused Mitt Romney of raking in profits from investing in companies that ship American jobs overseas, but according to his most recent financial disclosure, he and First Lady Michelle Obama have hundreds of thousands of dollars in a mutual fund that has large holdings in corporations that outsource jobs.
“(Romney) invested in companies that have been called ‘pioneers’ of outsourcing,” Obama said at a Saturday campaign event in Glen Allen, Va. “I don’t want a pioneer in outsourcing. I want some insourcing.”
But Obama’s own portfolio shows a willingness to invest in American corporations that have shifted employment overseas.
In his most recent financial disclosure from 2011, Obama and his wife reported having between $200,000 and $450,000 in the Vanguard 500 Index Fund, which invests in the largest U.S. corporations. According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as of Sept. 30, 2011, the fund’s biggest holding was 8,272,039 shares of Apple Inc., then valued at $3.2 billion.
The New York Times reported in January:
Not long ago, Apple boasted that its products were made in America. Today, few are. Almost all of the 70 million iPhones, 30 million iPads and 59 million other products Apple sold last year were manufactured overseas….
“Apple’s an example of why it’s so hard to create middle-class jobs in the U.S. now,” said Jared Bernstein, who until last year was an economic adviser to the White House.
“If it’s the pinnacle of capitalism, we should be worried.”
The mutual fund that the Obamas have invested in also held 94,582,281 million shares of General Electric, valued at $1.4 billion, as of the SEC filing. The multinational conglomorate has a long history of outsourcing – according to a new book cited by the New York Times, in 1989, “G.E. became the first U.S. company to outsource software work to India.” Obama also has close ties to GE’s CEO, Jeffrey Immelt, who was appointed as chairman of his outside panel of economic advisers last year.
In addition to Apple and GE, the Obamas’ fund listed 10,655,961 shares of International Business Machines, valued at $1.9 billion. As the Wall Street Journal reported in 2009, “The technology giant has been steadily building its work force in India and other locations while reducing the number of workers based in the U.S. Foreign workers accounted for 71% of Big Blue’s nearly 400,000 employees at the start of the year, up from about 65% in 2006.”
The point in this is not to say outsourcing is wrong. Corporations are supposed to maximize profits for shareholders. But Obama’s own portfolio shows that despite his heated rhetoric, he makes investment decisions without regard to whether companies are outsourcing.
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This is a non-story. A lame comeback. Move on...
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zzyzzx says
"Do as I say, not as I do."
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zzyzzx says
he bought a plane jane "500 biggest companies" fund, and you view that as the same thing?
"he once ate at a McDonald's, which buys beef from out of the country..."
Yeah, that is the same, if you are completely stupid!
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edvard2 says
Yeah stuff like this only matters if and when the GOP does it.
Everything thing else is Moocher fodder.
Hey are you going to eat that Vote? Like we're not using it, or aren't putting our vote to proper use any anyhow.
Our votes no good, it's got Iwog's spit on it now.
No double dipping dude.
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Oh boy the repubs are getting desperate. That's what happens when you pick one of the worst candidates ever.
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woppa says
Would you rather have Sarah Palin, Rick Perry, or Michelle "Batshit Crazy" Bachmann?
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CaptainShuddup says
The "story" is a Johnny-come-lately story which is trying to make political hay out of nothing. Moving on. And yes, I am voting for Obama, thanks.
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I'm just going to take my vote and put it on the floor and let it get hair on it, and then stuff it in the sofa cushion down deep, take it out in November and give it to Romney.
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HRHMedia says
That's the idea. I miss when Liberals were on the "Get out and Vote" kick back in the 80's.
They didn't demand who you should vote for, they just implored you to get out there and Vote. Of course they assumed that, that would mean people would vote Democrat. Then it all went to hell in 2000, when some 2,882,995 intelligent free thinking independent voters like my self voted Nader. That's almost 3 million people in this country that isn't completely mad.
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CaptainShuddup says
As opposed to the republipukes, "stop them from voting" campaign that we have today?
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robertoaribas says
Care to elaborate? How are Republicans keeping eligible voters from voting? Keep in mind that only legal US citizens are eligible to vote. Keeping illegal immigrants from voting is not voter suppression. Keeping dead people from "voting" isn't voter suppression either...regardless of what Chicago politicians might tell you.
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robertoaribas says
Hey Guess what???
The State of Florida sent me my New voter card today.
Says right on it, NPA nobody stopped my card from getting to me, a legal registered "Live" voter.
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zzyzzx says
OMFG I'm seriously laughing here.
Oh noes! A mutual fund that invests in GE or Ford or AT&T. Treason!
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zzyzzx says
Its rather strange... since Obama supporters at BOTH Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers AND Sequoia Capital have done alot more on moving jobs overseas.
But even the VCs will state to Obama as has Apples Steve Jobs,,, its about the USAs
labor and EPA regulations that have restricted manufacturing in the our borders...
Obama heard it from them directly was unwilling to do anything about it...
"Walter Isaacson, who wrote the forthcoming Jobs bio, reportedly reveals that Jobs argued that Obama was jeopardizing his re-election prospects because of what Jobs took to be a pervasive anti-business climate in his administration. Jobs cited excessive federal regulations and operating costs for businesses as harmful legacies of the Obama White House."
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/steve-jobs-predicted-obama-one-term-president-144644675.html
The liberal media has already dismissed US manufacturing years ago.. they rather not see as they call it.. "dirty air and dirty water".
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robertoaribas says
yes, you should suppress and eliminate illegal votes by many foreign citizens.
Im sure neither Germany, Brazil, Australia, or Japan would like non-citizen foreigners voting in their elections. Any of this make sense?
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oB'yomama claims he wants "insourcing" but god forbid he diesn't want any of them to succeed. Success is demonized by him and his adminsitration.
Liberal mantra: PUNISH SUCCESS, REWARD FAILURE...its the American way, for democRATS.
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Madison, WI
Well, for starters, we only elect the already rich.
Lol, you own equities you own company that ships job over seas.
What a nation of hypocrites.
It's funny, besides the communists, the U.S. is just about dead last from a social standpoint.
This is what decline of a nation looks like, people turning on themselves.
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Ruki says
It's amazing that there are people who don't understand the difference between an index fund and actively managed portfolio. That's a pretty sad commentary on the state of education in America.
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thomaswong.1986 says
What percentage of votes are from verified non-citizens? How many citizens have been denied the right to vote, or will be discouraged or dissuaded from voting?
A fundamental principle of America is voting and the idea that we'd rather let a criminal go free than put an innocent citizen in jail. We should err on the side of full participation in the system, especially at a time of low voter turnout.
You don't see the goal is to suppress minority voter turnout?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factions_in_the_Democratic_Party_%28United_States%29
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bob2356 says
But it does make money for all of those portfolio managers that can't even beat an index fund.
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Ruki says
You have no idea what a mutual fund is do you.
AT&T, GE, and FORD all outsource jobs.
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CL says
no one is being denied their legal right to vote. its just good practice to have safe procedures in place for any operation to run properly. Its no different in the private sector... fact is its required.
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ADP who processes Payroll for many is an outsourced firm... but its all in the USA.
No one uses their owner Payroll staff anymore... so o/s makes sense.
Ford has customers in Europe, and it makes its own former Opal cars for that reason... its overseas but not outsourced...
All car companies outsource their tire procurement... some domestic and some international.. so that makes sense.
Few or no tech companies manufacture their products... its outsourced to US companies (Solectron, Flextronics and other contract mfg)... some maybe domestic, but the vast number of Flextronics plants are overseas...
So going after HP, Cisco, or others make little sense since its Flextronics, Jabil, Celestica that also use overseas operations... seems few if any politicians understand the difference. Many in the public are also unaware of this.
so who invests in US contract manufacturers with overseas operations, like Flextronics may be a better question.
http://www.edn.com/electronics-news/4315992/2007-top-100-contract-manufacturers
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HRHMedia says
when you do have a real understand outsourcing and contract mfg.. you will find Bain had very little in the way of outsourcing jobs outside of the US. Most went to US based service industries.
and frankly Obama is deflecting the real criticism from his own VC friends who have much deeper ties to outsourcing US jobs overseas...the ubber Democratic Party supports and founders at Sequoia Capita and Kleiner & Perkins. But you dont hear about the real facts... just the attacks from Obama.
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thomaswong.1986 says
And you've provided so many specific examples.........whoops, no, that was me providing specific examples of just the opposite.
Blind assertion after blind assertion after blind assertion.
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Dublin, CA
Investing in an index fund that as part of its holdings is surely to have companies that "outsource" job is not anywhere close to being morally equivalent to running a private equity firm that does this on your behalf. Furthermore, many people don't even know what holdings an index fund has - all they know is that it "represents the market", has low expense ratios and rarely trades which keeps costs low. Whether the president should not invest in an index fund which as part of its holdings has companies that offshore jobs is a matter of debate. Personally, I don't think it's a big deal, if we were to uniformly apply this standard, we would conclude that over 50% of America supports outsourcing.
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dublin hillz says
Remember the movie Idiocracy where everyone loses their 401k because so much of it is invested in the Brawndo Corporation? "Brawndo. It's what plants crave!"
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wthrfrk80 says
Obligatory link to this thread:
http://patrick.net/forum/?p=1206607