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Obama’s “Pro-Business�? Policies Are Killing the Free Market

February 24th, 2010 . by TexasFred

Obama’s “Pro-Business�? Policies Are Killing the Free Market

Last night President Barack Obama held a behind-closed-door dinner with 17 chief executive officers from major U.S. corporations including Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan Chase, Verizon Communications’ Ivan Seidenberg, and General Electric’s Jeffrey Immelt. According to Bloomberg, the President made the case to his select guests that his administration is “fundamentally business-friendly.�? This comes almost two weeks after the President told BusinessWeek: “[T]he irony is, is that on the left we are perceived as being in the pockets of Big Business. And then on the business side, we are perceived as being anti-business.�?

What the President fails to understand is that there is no irony here. It is entirely consistent for big government policies that favor select and politically connected big corporations to hurt the economy as a whole. In fact, almost all well-intentioned government interventions in the market place do exactly that. In a July 2009 interview with BusinessWeek, President Obama spoke of an earlier behind-closed-door meeting he had with top corporate executives:

The last lunch that I had, I guess we had the CEOs of Xerox (XRX), AT&T (T), Honeywell (HON), and Coke (KO). We talked about the fact that, in the 1980s, when everybody was afraid Japan was going to eat our lunch, a lot of companies did a 180 in terms of quality improvement, efficiency, increasing productivity. There was a change in corporate culture that significantly boosted corporate productivity for a long time and helped create the boom of the ’90s. What they pointed out was, there were a couple of sectors that were resistant to that: health care, education, energy, and government.

…

[What we're saying] matches up almost perfectly with what those CEOs were saying: Can we introduce the same sort of productivity in the health-care industry, which we know is going to be a growing sector because of the aging population? Can we use the need to transition our energy economy in such a way that it ends up being a huge engine for economic growth? Can we revamp our education system so that it’s producing the kind of workers we need? … we need to get beyond this notion that somehow government is always just the problem.

But as others have pointed out, the reason the health care, education, and energy sectors all failed to improve quality, efficiency, and productivity in the 80s is because those sectors were, and continue to be, the sectors most dominated by government intervention: our education system is a near total government monopoly; the federal government controls the majority of health care spending in this country, and our environmental laws make new energy development in this country virtually impossible. But President Obama seems completely oblivious to these facts. He is supremely confident that his government “pro-business�? interventions will be ahistorically successful. And so he confidently tells BusinessWeek: “You would be hard-pressed to identify a piece of legislation that we have proposed out there that, net, is not good for businesses.�?

Never mind that President Obama’s cap and trade proposal would be worth billions to select power companies but cost the U.S. economy as a whole trillions of dollars. Never mind that his health care plan would turn health insurance companies into public-utility like monopolies at tremendous cost to small businesses. Never mind that the President’s big labor-friendly tax hikes would cripple American competitiveness. President Obama’s “pro-business�? TARP related actions helped lower the United States rank in the 2010 Index of Economic Freedom, from “free�? to “mostly free.�? The President must stop having behind-closed-door meetings with his favorite CEOs and start pursuing an economic agenda that helps everyone.

Full Story Here:
President Obama’s “Pro-Business�? Policies Are Killing the Free Market

I am not a financial wizard. I never have claimed to be. My expertise is focused in *other areas*. But I do have friends that ARE financial wizards. They have been involved in the business of finance and so forth for many years and I value their opinions greatly.

I wanted to post this earlier in the day but I sent it to my friends for their perusal and opinion on it’s accuracy before I posted it to the blog. They say the accuracy of this piece is 100 percent on the money!

« Read the rest of this post HERE! »


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In Tuesday speech, Obama to promote new job ideas

December 5th, 2009 . by TexasFred
In Tuesday speech, Obama to promote new job ideas

WASHINGTON – In his latest job creation effort, President Barack Obama is trying to find practical and politically feasible ways of spurring hiring among skittish employers.

Among the ideas expected in his economic speech Tuesday is an expanded program that gives people cash incentives to fix up their homes with energy-saving materials, senior administration officials have told The Associated Press. Obama is leaning toward new incentives for small businesses that hire new workers and new spending on roads, bridges and other public works, the officials said.

The president also is open to a federal infusion of money to cash-strapped state and local governments, considered among the quickest and most effective — though expensive — ways to stem layoffs.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the package and Obama’s speech were being developed. The officials emphasized that Obama probably won’t mention in his speech every job idea he will eventually support, and that his address is meant only as one step in a debate that’s sure to keep going.

Full Story Here:
In Tuesday speech, Obama to promote new job ideas

Let’s take a look at poverty in our cities and what the Democrats have done to alleviate it so far.

City, State, % of People Below the Poverty Level

1. Detroit , MI 32.5%
2. Buffalo , NY 29.9%
3. Cincinnati , OH 27.8%
4. Cleveland , OH 27.0%
5. Miami , FL 26.9%
5. St.. Louis , MO 26.8%
7. El Paso , TX 26.4%
8. Milwaukee , WI 26.2%
9. Philadelphia , PA 25.1%
10. Newark , NJ 24.2%

The above numbers are from the U.S. Census Bureau, 2006 American Community Survey, August 2007

What do the top ten cities (over 250,000) with the highest poverty rate all have in common?

Detroit , MI (1st on the poverty rate list) hasn’t elected a Republican mayor since 1961;

Buffalo , NY (2nd) hasn’t elected one since 1954;

Cincinnati , OH (3rd)…since 1984;

Cleveland , OH (4th)….since 1989;

Miami , FL (5th) has never had a Republican mayor;

St. Louis , MO (6th)….since 1949;

El Paso , TX (7th) has never had a Republican mayor;

Milwaukee , WI (8th)…since 1908;

Philadelphia , PA (9th)…since 1952;

Newark , NJ (10th)….since 1907.

Albert Einstein once said, ‘The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.’

It is the poor who habitually elect Democrats, yet they are still POOR.

“You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot build character and courage by taking away people’s initiative and independence. You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves.” ~Abraham Lincoln~

« Read the rest of this post HERE! »


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Vista struggles to bust out as business customers snub it

April 30th, 2008 . by TexasFred

Will Weider is just the kind of customer Microsoft (MSFT) needs to keep its Windows computer operating system franchise growing.

He oversees tech for a chain of Wisconsin hospitals, 14,000 computers’ worth. But Weider has no desire to upgrade to Vista, the latest version of Windows.

“I wouldn’t put on Vista if it was free,” says Weider, chief information officer for Ministry Health Care. “In the past, there’s always been an important reason to upgrade, but XP (the previous version of Windows) is perfectly acceptable.”

Even as it pursues Internet icon Yahoo to create a more potent online-advertising rival to Google, Microsoft is facing increasing pressure on its Windows cash cow. Corporate customers such as Weider are staging a rare revolt over upgrading to Vista, which launched with much fanfare in January 2007. Last week, Microsoft reported a 24% decline in Windows sales in the third quarter.
(snip)
Online magazine InfoWorld is waging a Save XP campaign. More than 175,000 signatures have been gathered. “Why pull the plug on XP when there’s clearly a lot of people who still like it?” says Galen Gruman, InfoWorld executive editor.

Influential analyst Michael Silver at research firm Gartner calls the Vista launch a “disaster.” Other critics have been no kinder. CNet called Vista one of the “biggest blunders in technology.” PC magazine chronicles Vista’s “11 Pillars of Failure.” The Christian Science Monitor likened it to Coca-Cola’s disastrous New Coke experiment in the 1980s.

Vista, not Windows, is the butt of jokes in Apple ads.

Full Story Here:
Vista struggles to bust out as business customers snub it

Love em or hate em, Microsoft is a major player in the PC world, and even though there are other options, many of us really like Windows.

I was 1st introduced to Win95, a great system for it’s time, then Win98 came out and it was impressive, and Microsoft did a lot of upgrades along the way and made it even better, but then Microsoft did what they are becoming infamous for doing, they took a perfectly good operating system and threw it away for a piece of junk.

Case in point, WindowsME, then Win2000, both were pieces of crap, and you know, a smart guy like Bill Gates should have figured it out after he came out with XP, all the PC users were relatively happy, XP made PC users a happy crowd for the most part.

Leave it alone, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, an old axiom that goes a long ways.

We’re a 2 computer household and both of us have XP, and if Microsoft drops support for XP in the future, I will no longer be a Windows person, there are too many people that are very happy with Apple and their systems, and it appears that Apple does listen to their customers, if Windows won’t, hit em where it hurts the most, hit em in the wallet.

Microsoft can tout Vista until hell freezes over but they know it’s a piece of crap and I know that they already have their new system ready to hatch soon, it’s called Vienna, and it’s waiting in the wings right now.

I hope Gates and his crew of eggheads took the time to get it right, they seem to prefer pushing a product off on the public before it’s ready, and if Microsoft has a downfall, that will be it, and there is one other thing that Gates and crew need to consider, the CUSTOMER is always right, keep XP, bring out your new stuff but keep XP, for some of us it IS the perfect system.


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Government Waste?? Play Ball Mi Amigos!!

February 14th, 2008 . by TexasFred
Ya know, Dirty Harry was right, a good man knows his limitations, and my area of expertise is NOT the financial world, I have never claimed it was, but I do understand waste, the wanton waste of OUR tax dollars, money that we all work so hard to pay in, and I have to wonder how can the Senators and Congressmen of this nation can justify such waste??

One good thing that came out this morning was this, Trade Deficit Falls After 5 Record Years, that’s a bit of a surprise and even to my business challenged mind it’s a good thing, but then you turn around and a story like this pops up, The White House wants a $1.4 billion stimulus/national security package for Mexico

Now I can’t prove nor disprove the above link, it comes from a site that has been known to be VERY hysterical in it’s reporting, reactionary may be the best word, in any case, if it is true, that’s a waste of OUR dollars, we can’t even secure our own border with Mexico but supposedly we’re going to give them almost a BILLION and a half of OUR dollars to secure their southern border?? What’s wrong with this picture??

And then you turn around again and all you see is MORE waste, when did it become the business of the U.S. Congress what a baseball player did to his own body something like 7 years ago?? The story says Clemens Takes Lumps, Denies Accusations and I suppose that if your a big MLB fan that’s a good deal but how many millions of OUR dollars were spent so that this little theater could be played out for the American public??

Doesn’t the Congress of the United States have something better to do than waste their time and OUR money on the personal business of Roger Clemens, business that if it should be addressed, should be addressed by Major League Baseball?? Congress needs to work very hard at putting their own house in order don’t you think??

Waste of OUR tax dollars is a never ending endeavor for Congress and the Senate, we are an open checkbook for these clowns and they take full advantage of us at every opportunity, and here is another prime example of that waste, Senator Arlen Specter, R-Pa., wants to know why NFL destroyed Patriots spy tapes, again I ask, when did the actions of sports teams or their players become the business of the U.S. Senate or Congress?? Specter’s time would be better spent dealing with the issues of this nation in MY opinion…

But never fear, just as the worst president in recent U.S. history is telling the nation that everything is OK, the chairman of the Fed tells us that it just isn’t so, Bernanke Says Economic Outlook Is Worse and signaled a readiness to keep on lowering a key interest rate to shore things up”…

The Fed can keep lowering interest rates for just so long, and there’s only so far the rates can go down, they are so low now that retired folks, and those that make a living on investments are already losing their shirts, and the housing market still sucks…

For some time I have tried to tell people that George W. Bush was a failure and that his entire administration was a failure, now, here we are, on the brink of a major recession, and we’re still pouring BILLIONS into Iraq and other regions of the world, it seems that Bush may well be defining that legacy he so desperately wants, he can be known throughout history as the president that saved the world and destroyed the USA in doing so…


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