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“Ask not what your country can do for you,” John F. Kennedy famously told Americans in his inaugural speech after he defeated Richard Nixon in the 1960 presidential election. “Ask what you can do for your country.” That one line caught fire in the American imagination, spurring a surge in volunteerism and public service. In [...]
As an editor I get to choose what goes into my newspaper. My e-mail box is loaded with press releases, especially as the political season heats up. Like everyone else, I’m excited that Presidential election season is almost over, and am counting down the days on campaigncountdown.com . In the meantime I have to decide [...]
I really liked the Presidential Debate. That is, I liked the local version that took place between Tompkins County party chairs Mike Sigler (Republican) and Irene Stein (Democrat) last week. Going in I thought that unltra-liberal downtown Ithaca would be a tough room for Sigler, but the event was well planned, nicely moderated, respectful of [...]
Just because ‘Car Czar’ rhymes and sounds catchy doesn’t make giving $14 billion to three companies with years of really bad business plans a good idea. Congress has had a lot of bad ideas that seemed like good ones when they repeated them enough. How about that great idea in the late 1990s to encourage Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to promote questionable loans? The idea was to promote affordable housing. $700 billion later that was a great idea alright!
Now Congress is at it again. Even though $14 billion is less than the auto executives asked for, it is a nice prize for companies that have plodded along for years making themselves uncompetitive in a field they dominated before they got fat and comfortable. 237 congressmen thought it is a great idea. 170 had their doubts. Now it goes to the Senate where it will face more scrutiny, but I won’t be surprised if it doesn’t pass. After all, it’s the Idea du Jour. Read More…
December 11, 2008
I am sure it is politically incorrect of me to think what I do about the proposed auto industry bail out. I think that even considering it is a travesty. While executives are flying to Washington on private jets and probably spending millions on lobbying campaigns and television commercials to garner sympathy, they are doing their darndest to obscure the central issue — these companies have had a bad business plan for years, and now they want us to give them an exorbitant so-called loan so that they will have more money to misspend without changing that plan. When they run out of money they will boo-hoo for some more.
If Congress falls for this line of hooey, we all get to throw the money down the toilet, along with the $700 billion we just threw in to bail out financial experts who evidently didn’t understand the most basic concepts of finances. While I get the argument that shoring up the basic underpinnings of our economy will foster an environment in which other industries can prosper, I think these auto executives have a lot of nerve. Read More…
November 20, 2008
