These 10 Largest Nebraska Corps generated Total Pretax Income in 2011 which was up a very impressive 50% from such amount two years earlier in 2009.
Now I wanted to see if these incredibly strong earnings also applied to the even smaller Nebraska Corps, which file with the SEC.
I found 8 Nebraska headquartered Smaller Corps filing with the SEC, which had Pretax Income or Pretax Loss of $10 mil or more in any of the most recent three years, and which weren't included in the 10 Largest Nebraska Corps. Thus, these 8 Smaller Nebraska Corps also did not have Pretax Income or Pretax Loss of $100 mil or more in any of the most recent three years.
How did they do? Well, these 8 Smaller Nebraska Corps generated total earnings growth in the most recent two years of an even substantially higher 124%, or 2.5 times the 50% total earnings growth of the Largest Nebraska Corps.
Clearly, Nebraska citizens should be very proud of their many superb Nebraska companies, of all sizes.
And yeah, the Obama Administration created a very robust US economic environment, which permitted these superb Nebraska companies of all sizes to do just fantastically on the earnings front in the most recent two years.
And just check out how much better both these Nebraska Largest and Smaller Corps performed in 2010, when the country was clearly more under Democratic control nationally, than in 2011, when the country was more under Republican control nationally:
Total Pretax Income % Change in 2011 over 2010 (Move to More Republican Control)
.....10 Largest Nebraska Corps............+3%
.......8 Smaller Nebraska Corps..........+20%
Total Pretax Income % Change in 2010 over 2009 (Democratic Control)
.....10 Largest Nebraska Corps..........+46%
.......8 Smaller Nebraska Corps..........+87%
So, why is it that companies of all sizes, all throughout the country, have performed so much better on the earnings front under more Democratic control?
It is pretty clear to me that in 2010, a Moderate Democratic President, coupled most importantly with a US House in Democratic hands, but also having a US Senate in Democratic hands, and further with having more State Governors and State Legislatures in Moderate Democratic hands, did wonders for corporate earnings growth in 2010. With this political structure, economic stimulus, both much needed business income tax stimulus and wise, carefully-vetted US Government investment spending, can occur on a robust scale. And this very strong economic stimulus was in full throttle starting in the 4Q 2009, and did Corporations ever reap the benefit of this by generating exceptionally strong profits.
The worse thing that can happen after a financial meltdown, and near depression, is a US government that just waits for the free markets to correct themselves.....a laissez-faire approach, so favored by so many Republicans. Fortunately for the country, the exact opposite to that wisely happened in 2009 and 2010.
But then in 2011 and the first half of 2012, the US government was unfortunately forced into a laissez-faire economic approach, due to an uncompromising Very Conservative US Congress stopping nearly every economic initiative of the Obama Administration. The focus of the US Congress was almost singularly on austerity, when the improving, but still clearly struggling, US economy was shouting out for more economic stimulus, wisely designed.
This sharp earnings growth deceleration starting in 2011 was driven by a Republican-controlled US House, coupled with the very frequent use of the filibuster strategy by the Republicans in the US Senate, which both stopped cold, with devastating consequences to the middle class, and those trying to get into the middle class, nearly every economic initiative of the Obama Administration.
In deriving Ongoing, Core Pretax Income, I start with Pretax Income under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), and then exclude several clearly unusual very large items relative to Pretax Income, such as Asset Impairments, and Gains and Losses on both Debt Retirements and Asset Dispositions.
I use Pretax Income rather than After-tax Net Income, since so much of the change in effective income tax rates just happens due to financial engineering.
I excluded Corps in the Development Stage.
Let me first show each of the 10 Largest and 8 Smaller Nebraska Corps, and where they are Headquartered.
| Nebraska Largest Corps | Headquarters |
| Berkshire Hathaway | Omaha |
| Union Pacific | Omaha |
| ConAgra Foods | Omaha |
| TD Ameritrade | Omaha |
| NelNet | Lincoln |
| Buckle | Kearney |
| Valmont Industries | Valley |
| Cabelas | Sidney |
| West Corp | Omaha |
| Werner Enterprises | Omaha |
| Nebraska Smaller Corps | |
| Amcon Distributing | Omaha |
| Ballantyne Strong | Omaha |
| Bond Laboratories | Omaha |
| Gordman Stores | Omaha |
| Green Plains Renewable Energy | Omaha |
| Lincoln Benefit Life | Lincoln |
| Lindsay Corp | Omaha |
| National Research | Lincoln |
And below here is the Ongoing, Core Pretax Income (PTI) and Pretax Loss (PTL) of these 10 Largest and 8 Smaller Nebraska Corps for each of the most recent three years, along with the related percentage changes.
| US House | US House | Obama | ||||
| Republican | Democratic | Bump | ||||
| Control | Control | Two | ||||
| PTI(L) | PTI(L) | Year | ||||
| % | % | % | ||||
| Change | Change | Change | ||||
| PTI(L) | PTI(L) | PTI(L) | 2011 | 2010 | 2011 | |
| 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | vs | vs | vs | |
| mils $s | mils $s | mils $s | 2010 | 2009 | 2009 | |
| Nebraska Largest Corps | ||||||
| Berkshire Hathaway | 16,144 | 16,705 | 10,765 | -3% | 55% | 50% |
| Union Pacific | 5,264 | 4,433 | 2,974 | 19% | 49% | 77% |
| ConAgra Foods | 1,225 | 1,081 | 908 | 13% | 19% | 35% |
| TD Ameritrade | 1,016 | 912 | 1,059 | 11% | -14% | -4% |
| NelNet | 322 | 302 | 216 | 7% | 40% | 49% |
| Buckle | 240 | 215 | 204 | 12% | 5% | 18% |
| Valmont Industries | 234 | 153 | 226 | 53% | -32% | 4% |
| Cabelas | 214 | 167 | 77 | 28% | 117% | 178% |
| West Corp | 205 | 174 | 148 | 18% | 18% | 39% |
| Werner Enterprises | 175 | 136 | 99 | 29% | 37% | 77% |
| Total all 10 Largest Corps | 25,039 | 24,278 | 16,676 | 3% | 46% | 50% |
| Nebraska Smaller Corps | ||||||
| Green Plains Renewable Energy | 62 | 66 | 20 | -6% | 230% | 210% |
| Lindsay Corp | 57 | 37 | 21 | 54% | 76% | 171% |
| Gordman Stores | 40 | 25 | 25 | 60% | 0% | 60% |
| National Research | 18 | 13 | 13 | 38% | 0% | 38% |
| Ballantyne Strong | 15 | 12 | 3 | 25% | 300% | 400% |
| Amcon Distributing | 14 | 14 | 14 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Lincoln Benefit Life | 14 | 13 | 13 | 8% | 0% | 8% |
| Bond Laboratories | 0 | 3 | (11) | -100% | 127% | 100% |
| Total all 8 Smaller Corps | 220 | 183 | 98 | 20% | 87% | 124% |
