Posted on 12/07/2008 4:59:52 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
It’s bad news when politicians replace markets
American Account
Irwin Stelzer
Now we know what it must have been like for the manager of a Soviet steel mill called before Joe Stalin to explain why he had not met his production quota. We know that not because we have gained access to still-secret Russian archives, but because we watched top automaker executives abase themselves before Congress in an attempt to get $34 billion (£23.2 billion) in emergency loans, in addition to the $25 billion already promised to subsidise the development of greener vehicles.
First comes praise for the leader. The executives began by thanking Congress for guiding them in the preparation of their long-term restructuring plans. Second come signs that contrition is real. The executives will work without pay - well, for $1 per year - and sell off their corporate jets. Third come excuses. No, it was not bad management but the decline in sales that brought out the begging bowls. Finally, veiled threats - workers will be laid off, families will turn against the government, the entire economy will be adversely affected unless the loans are made.
Uncle Joe probably puffed his pipe and then had the manager shot; congressmen huffed and puffed, preened before the cameras, and will dole out enough money to tide the companies over until the new president and Congress are installed next month. After that, bailout cash will come in instalments, with the companies required to meet performance targets to keep the cash flowing.
(Excerpt) Read more at business.timesonline.co.uk ...
I wonder where Irwin has been all these years. It was ugly lobbying days then. Corporations at the mercy of politicians doling out bailout money now is ugly scene, too.
If you are not happy, let every bankrupt corporationsl collapse, and market sort it out, with D.C. off the picture. However, you don't want it, either, do you?
Ping!
“(they did long time ago, you slow learner)”
Exactly. Where do you think the money comes from to fund bubbles? The hard work of millions of Americans? Ha! We have a central bank that controls our money supply, and no one should be allowed to forget it.
The country has been incrementally going the way of socialism thanks to the gradual acceptance of socialism in the GOP and resulting merger of its ideology with the socialist Democrats. Consequently we have a one party Republicrat system.
Speaking of slow learning, Republicans should be SHOUTING out these statistics. Assuming each $1 dollar drop translates into $140 billion dollars of consumers' buying power, the current $2 dollar drop should equal $280 billion dollars in extra buying power, and another dollar drop would kick that up to $420 billion in extra buying power. Over ten years, if gas stayed at a low level, that would come out to $4.2 trillion dollars. One would think that with reasoned planning that some of the bailouts might be unnecessary or might be mitigated somewhat. But one has to assume that Republicans would be SHOUTING and Democrats would be in reluctant but sullen agreement.
For my part, I assume that the Democrats will continue their moronic anti-energy nonsense and keep the middle class on the path to impoverishment.
For my part, I assume that the Democrats will continue their moronic anti-energy nonsense and keep the middle class on the path to impoverishment.
Now that we have a democrat president coming into office I believe the dems will change their opinion on drilling. They won’t have a republican to blame anymore.
I hope you are right. But there is no real way to predict what these buffoons will do. Faced with the obvious, they will continue their destructive policies. It's the old definition of insanity.
Kipling's The Gods of the Copybook Headings states it best.
So the annual bailout for the Big 3 Unions (and the companies they leech from) will be added to the annual emergency Alternative Minimum Tax one-more-year-delay push-back; the amount of paper used to document bad decisions will take out all our forests.
Great! So if you own a large, successful business...they first create rules you must play by...and when you fail, they then assume control.
The law saying the we must accept dollars. If the government was always good, we wouldn't need force to accept dollars.
Dollars backed up by gold. This way the government had to control its self, as citizens could extract gold. This happened during the Depression when FDR made gold illegal. This was done after, about, 35 years of big banks, and big government getting together because they were both sick of little people with their little lives doing what they wanted in this country. Who did those then people think they were? Pshaw, said the banks!
GM is just one giant HMO. Why should I pay for someone’s life time pension? Life does not come with such guarantees.
The Gov’t is socializing risk. The foreign auto companies made better decisions and that is why they are surviving.
The Gods of the Copybook Headings - R. Kipling
AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race, I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place. Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall, And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all
We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn: But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind, So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.
We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace, Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place, But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.
With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch, They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch; They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings; So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.
When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace. They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease. But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe, And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “Stick to the Devil you know.”
On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life (Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife) Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith, And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “The Wages of Sin is Death.”
In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all, By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul; But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy, And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “If you don’t work you die.”
Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.
As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man There are only four things certain since Social Progress began. That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire, And the burnt Fool’s bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire; And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins, As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will bum, The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return. ————————————————————————————————————————
The drop in crude oil prices will be used as an excuse to continue to study the oil drilling controversy. The DemonRATs are not going to allow us to become energy independent, they are going to throw money down the green rat hole in search of “new” eco friendly sources, while they see to it we all freeze to death.
Wow, Kipling’s poem sure is timely. We just “progress” from one stupid thing to another.
They produce misery for masses and help the powerful. And on every level of human decency they corrupt. Command systems hurt industry and the people who must deal with products made through power trade-offs and outright bribery.
Letting DC take over is a higher price to pay than simple bankruptcy. What are they thinking?
The Gods of the Copybook Headings - R. Kipling
AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race, I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place. Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall, And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all
We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn: But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind, So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.
We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace, Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place, But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.
With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch, They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch; They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings; So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.
When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace. They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease. But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe, And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “Stick to the Devil you know.”
On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life (Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife) Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith, And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “The Wages of Sin is Death.”
In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all, By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul; But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy, And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “If you don’t work you die.”
Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.
As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man There are only four things certain since Social Progress began. That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire, And the burnt Fool’s bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire; And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins, As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will bum, The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return. —
Thanks, NaughtiusMaximus - great reply
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