When the US House was under Republican control in 2011, these 7 West Virginia Corps had their Total Pretax Income in 2011 decline by 1% from 2010.
On the other hand, when the US House was under Democratic control in 2010, these 7 West Virginia Corps had their Total Pretax Income in 2010 increase by a robust 31% over 2009.
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 negative earnings reversal 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 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.
First, here is the headquarters location of each of these 7 West Virginia companies.
| West Virginia Corporation | West Virginia HQs |
| United Bankshares | Charleston |
| American Public Education | Charleston |
| City Holding | Charleston |
| Wesbanco | Wheeling |
| Premier Financial Bancorp | Huntington |
| Energy Services of America | Huntington |
| MTR Gaming Group | Chester |
And below here is the Pretax Income (PTI) or Pretax Loss of each of these 7 West Virginia Corporations for each of the most recent three years, along with the related percentage changes in earnings.
| 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 | |
| West Virginia Corps | ||||||
| United Bankshares | 110 | 104 | 78 | 6% | 33% | 41% |
| American Public Education | 63 | 50 | 40 | 26% | 25% | 58% |
| City Holding | 61 | 57 | 63 | 7% | -10% | -3% |
| Wesbanco | 54 | 40 | 23 | 35% | 74% | 135% |
| Premier Financial Bancorp | 11.0 | 13.0 | 12.1 | -15% | 7% | -9% |
| Energy Services of America | (8.2) | 10.1 | 8.8 | -181% | 15% | -193% |
| MTR Gaming Group | (12.4) | 6.3 | (10.1) | -297% | -162% | -23% |
| Total all 7 | 278.4 | 280.4 | 214.8 | -1% | 31% | 30% |
