Last November the government came up with the horrendous idea of bailing out private companies. Most of these organizations, particularly the auto manufacturers, were not were not victims of the economy. During the good economic periods of the 80s, 90s, and the first 7 years of this decade these company plodded along, making money despite their poor business models and ever growing union debt. Once the economy collapsed, brought in in large part by government over-regulation of the economy, the house of cards these companies were collapsed.
Instead of allowing the auto manufacturers to declare bankruptcy and renegotiate the union contacts, outstanding debt, outstanding payables, white collar compensation, etc the government offered a bailout. Two of the three automakers jumped on the offer, Ford stayed clear.
Last week we saw state and federal government officials threaten, harass, persecute and generally f*ck over private citizens, most of them non-management employees who were receiving deferred compensation and retention bonuses, not performance based bonuses. The government showed everyone what was in store for entities that accepted bailout monies.
Today President Obama asked the CEO of GM to step down, an he agreed to do so effective immediately. For those who don't appreciate why government entry into the boardroom is a bad thing we have a Columbia and Harvard educated former lawyer, who worked as a community organizer and briefly as an adjunct law professor before getting into the Illinois Senate and serving briefly as a US Senator... a man who never ran a company, never was an executive, never exercised any sort of leadership... assuming leadership of the United States of America AND the world's largest auto maker within three months.
Today President Obama asked the CEO of GM to step down, an he agreed to do so effective immediately. For those who don't appreciate why government entry into the boardroom is a bad thing we have a Columbia and Harvard educated former lawyer, who worked as a community organizer and briefly as an adjunct law professor before getting into the Illinois Senate and serving briefly as a US Senator... a man who never ran a company, never was an executive, never exercised any sort of leadership... assuming leadership of the United States of America AND the world's largest auto maker within three months.
Most disingenuously, Obama says these bailouts, a/k/a stimulus packages, are necessary to make sure America doesnt suffer the stagnation and dire economic situation suffered by Japan in the 1990's. What he fails to either mentio, or perhaps even know about, s that the Japanese economic contraction and stagnation was caused by excessive government spending and "stimulus", not by "big business" and "greedy investors".
We are in trouble because Obama is letting his ideology distort reality.
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