THE ENTERPRISE--"TELLING IT LIKE IT IS"
For those who don't know, the title of this edition of THE ENTERPRISE is also the title of my blog http://mariotti.blogs.com/my_weblog/ where you can find past editions going back several years. If anyone ever has trouble reading the emailed version I send you, just visit the blog, where I post it at the same time.
----I MUST OPEN WITH THE MOST IMPORTANT TRUTHS:
MY FELLOW AMERICANS: WE CANNOT CONTINUE TO SPEND AT THE LEVEL WE HAVE BEEN SPENDING WHEN IT IS GROSSLY IN EXCESS OF OUR INCOME. (Simply look at the graph below.) IF YOUR FIRST REACTION IS THAT WE MUST EITHER RAISE TAXES OR CUT ESSENTIAL SERVICES, THAT IS WRONG.
THERE IS MASSIVE WASTE IN GOVERNMENT--WASTE OF OUR TAX DOLLARS IN THE PROCESS OF PROVIDING US SERVICES WE DO NOT EVEN WANT, PART OF THE TIME, AND SPENDING TO REGULATE, CONTROL AND LIMIT OUR FREEDOM, THE REST OF THE TIME.
THERE IS ENOUGH WASTE IN GOVERNMENT AT ALL LEVELS, THAT OUR BUDGET CAN BE BALANCED WITHOUT INCREASING TAXES. THE PROBLEM IS THAT NO ONE IN OUR LEADERSHIP HAS THE WISDOM AND COURAGE TO DO WHAT MUST BE DONE--ROOT OUT THE WASTE, FIRE THOUSANDS OF UNNECESSARY, INEFFICIENT GOVERNMENT BUREAUCRATS; ELIMINATE ENTIRE DEPARTMENTS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.
THE WAY TO DO THIS IS SIMPLY "SHUT OFF THE FUNDING" AND FORCE THE BUREAUCRATS OUT OF EXISTENCE.
(EVEN OUR DEFENSE SPENDING CAN BE CUT SUBSTANTIALLY--WITHOUT REDUCING OUR SECURITY. WE NEED TO QUIT BUILDING 20TH CENTURY MASSIVE WEAPONS SYSTEMS TO FIGHT 21ST CENTURY WARS AND TERRORISM.) MEDICARE AND MEDICAID FRAUD COSTS BILLIONS--WHY IS IT THAT NO ONE WILL FIND IT AND CRACK DOWN ON IT?
THIS WILL REQUIRE CHANGING LAWS FOR CIVIL SERVICE EMPLOYEES. THIS WILL REQUIRE THE ELIMINATION OF "SACRED COWS"--THAT HAVE EXISTED FOR YEARS--BECAUSE SOME POLITICIANS HAD THE POWER, THE INFLUENCE, AND THE MEANS TO EXTORT THEM FROM THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AND THEIR ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES.
I AM CONFIDENT THAT A TEAM OF EXPERIENCED COMPETENT BUSINESS PEOPLE (SUCH AS I HAVE TAKEN INTO COMPANIES) COULD WALK THROUGH THE HALLS OF GOVERNMENT AND FIND 30-50% WASTE IN PEOPLE, SPACE, AMENITIES--AND MORE. SOME FUNCTIONS AND DEPARTMENTS ARE TOTALLY UNNECESSARY.
WORSE YET, FEDERAL EMPLOYEES EARN PAY LEVELS THAT ARE MUCH HIGHER THAN SIMILAR PRIVATE SECTOR JOBS PAY. THUS, NOT ONLY DO WE HAVE TOO MANY, DOING TOO LITTLE, BUT THEY ARE BEING PAID TOO MUCH AS WELL.
WE MUST GET THE GOVERNMENT OFF THE BACK OF THE PEOPLE, AND ALLOW THE ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT AND FREE ENTERPRISE SYSTEM WORK. GROWTH IN OUR ECONOMY WILL GENERATE THE TAX REVENUES WE NEED TO PAY FOR THE LEVEL OF SERVICES WE WANT.
THAT REQUIRES THAT WE ELECT ENOUGH NEW PEOPLE INTO OUR GOVERNMENT TO WORK WITH THOSE ALREADY THERE WHO KNOW THIS, SUCH THAT THEY WILL PASS THE LAWS, THE ENACT THE POLICIES AND BEHAVE IN WAYS THAT WILL RETURN OUR COUNTRY TO PROSPERITY AND FISCAL SANITY.
The decision of Evan Bayh (D, IN) to retire from the Senate is perhaps as meaningful as Scott Brown's victory. Here is an accomplished, experienced Senator stepping down (and he's not the first one, hopefully will not be the last either) because he is feeling the heat of change. This is no time to relax. Rather it is a time to intensify efforts to find and support new candidates.
DON'T THINK A FEW RETIREMENTS AND THE WIN IN MASSACHUSETTS SPELLS A COMPLETE REVERSAL OF CONTROL
==================
An excerpt from this week's The Kiplinger Letter brings reality to the picture
Just because one Democrat steps down, whether it's Dodd or Bayh, there is no guarantee another one won't be elected. We, the people have to vote in the new candidates. WHO ARE YOU SUPPORTING--IN YOUR STATE?
WASTING MONEY IN THE NAME OF "STIMULUS"
My home state of Ohio is about to become an accessory to a "crime." It has taken $400 million of taxpayers money from the Federal Government to spend on a "not so high speed" train from Cleveland to Cincinnati by way of Akron, Canton and Columbus. Without belaboring all the details, the ridership projected for this train, which will take longer to make the trip than driving from Cleveland to Cincinnati on Interstate 71, is ludicrous--500,000 riders per year--or to put it another way, an average of 1400 per day for all 365 days of the year. While the fare is projected to be modest, the annual cost just to maintain the train will equal or exceed the proposed fare, thus requiring a continuing subsidy from day one--forever.
This is just what Ohio needs--NOT! It has a $3-4 billion budget shortfall already, so what's another $20 million to support a train that few will ride, that takes too long to get where it's going, etc. etc. Of course jobs will be created to "build or improve" the train's route, but the $400MM won't even fully cover that and more state money must be added. To be honest, I may be off a bit on a few of these numbers, but the orders of magnitude are right. It's just that my vision blurred from high blood pressure as I read about this debacle. This is your government at work for you--Federal and State--wasting your tax dollars as if it just didn't matter. This is why we must replace the misguided politicians in DC and the Governor and his associates in Ohio.
NOT EVERYONE CAN AFFORD A HOUSE, NOR SHOULD EVERY YOUTH GO TO COLLEGE
In days gone by, it was common for entire families of 2-3 generations to share a rented house. Why? Because they couldn't afford to own houses individually. Where the idea that everyone deserves to own a house came from is a mystery. IT'S WRONG. Some people can't afford houses--the sub-prime crisis has already proven that. Others shouldn't tie up all of their wealth and assets in one, very illiquid investment called a house. Houses cost money to own, even after purchased. Taxes, maintenance, utilities, etc. typically can double the monthly outlay. Some hopeful homeowners who are poor people don't realize this.
The same goes for the idea that everyone should go to college. Everyone who wants to, and is qualified, should have a chance to go to college--but that is far from all the college age youth in America. Many of them neither want to make the commitment college requires, nor do they have the intellectual capacity for college (unless it is "dumbed down" to make it possible for them to get a degree which is devalued). What many young people need to do is what we used to call "learn a trade." Vocational and technical schools abound to help them do this. So do Junior Colleges and Community Colleges. We need non-degreed nurses and medical technicians. We need young people to come up in many, many trades. The housing bust has dampened the job market in construction trades, but not in the medical field. We also need more young people to join our military and serve. It's time to "get real" in America about who can do what, who should have what, and why.
THE "CLASS SIZE" MANIA IS DRIVING UP EDUCATION COST--BUT NOT QUALITY
Schools have become glorified babysitting services paid for by taxpayers. They start early and offer breakfast. They end late and offer supper. They let substandard students coast along because teachers are either afraid of getting sued for demanding good behavior and study habits. Grades are dumbed down because someone's feelings might get hurt. Some teachers are too lazy to do more than show up and "tend the class," because they know their unions will protect them from getting fired.
Now the mania is that early grade classes shouldn't be larger than twenty students because it offers too little time for individualized attention. When I grew up, that's what parents were for--individualized attention. Driving class sizes down by mandate adds teachers, adds school buildings, and that adds staff--which seems to grow and remain no matter what happens to enrollment. I agree that excessively large classes can be hard to handle--and to teach--but whether that size is 25 or maybe even 30... and that 25-50% difference in class size makes a huge economic difference and for a supposed, but unproven qualitative improvement in educations. Want individualized help for your kids? Take responsibility as a parent!
WHEN THE PUBLIC SECTOR EMPLOYEES BECOME THE "ELITE PAY" PEOPLE--SOMETHING IS WRONG
Recently a school district in the Columbus, OH area cut out all athletics and many other extracurricular activities. This may or may not have been a wise move. The excessive drive for participation in non-academic school-based activities has gotten out of hand too. But a year later, when "auditors" went in to carefully dissect the school district's spending and operation, they found almost $3 million of potential savings that could have been realized. This would have reduced or eliminated the hatchet job that was done. The cuts were made, in my opinion, because school administrators presumed that using the "scare tactic" of eliminating athletics would cause a voter approval of a higher tax referendum. Wrong! What auditors found was that pay for many jobs was much higher than prevailing private sector rates for comparable jobs, and benefits were similarly much richer. There were many other wasteful practices including underutilized fleets of buses, underutilized school buildings, wasteful practices, etc., etc.
CLIMATE STUDIES FLAWS CONTINUE TO BE REVEALED
How's this for experts on climate change: a student's paper, a report by the World Wildlife Fund misinterpretation of an study in the journal Nature and one side (only) of a study by a climatologist (where the other side of the finding was equally likely), a study that was never "peer reviewed," and on, and on. This is just slightly more authoritative than asking the "man on the street" or conducting a poll of the audience of the Jay Leno or Oprah shows. None of this means global warming is not a problem. It means that all of those sensational claims by Al Gore and others were based on the flimsiest of "pop science" or flawed science. Maybe a retraction is in order, huh, AL? Will AL GORE give back the Nobel Peace Prizes and Oscar because his topic was all an elaborate hoax?
WILL THE SNOWSTORMS STALL MORE THAN CARS--LIKE THE RECOVERY?
There is little doubt that job hunting and hiring is impacted by three large snowstorms that blanketed most of the Northeastern and Central US over the past ten days. Will this glitch cause other problems. Certainly retail suffers from snowstorms. Will the inventory building show a time-delayed lull? This is all possible. Manufacturing activity is up handsomely and inventory rebuilding goes on apace. For now, that is. But today's systems allow that inventory rebuilding to be shut off as quickly as it was turned on. Watch carefully to see what happens.
IS TOYOTA'S QUALITY A REAL PROBLEM--OR IS IT THE LATEST "SCAPEGOAT" FOR LAWYERS AND CLIENTS
It seems that Toyota has real problems. When you get very large and introduce a lot of newly designed vehicles in relatively short time frames, bad things can cascade. Complexity of unrelated items affecting the outcome is certain. Unintended consequences of one good idea conflicting with another good idea increases. (A thicker, more durable floor mat and a more sensitive gas pedal design, for example; or a new hybrid that senses changes in braking to trigger shifts between two power sources.) Or, could this be another rerun of the Audi situation of a couple of decades ago, where most of the problems are user error--compounded by sensationalism and voracious attorneys smelling blood (money)? If I had to bet, I'd bet the Toyota part of the problem is less than the greedy lawyers and faulty plaintiffs--but that's just an opinion. Why? Toyota uses statistics and highly regimented processes. Attorneys and clients who smell settlement money are driven by emotion and fear of bad publicity.
DO DEFICITS MATTER?
Yes, they do. Right now, the US economy needed a shot of government spending. But like many "junkies" who need a fix, the Democratic Congress and President Obama gave the economy a drug (deficit) overdose. And if drugs cause dependency, and require higher doses for the same efficacy, this same scenario is playing out in the runaway deficit spending coming out of DC. If a Billion wasn't enough, make it tens of Billions, and if that's not enough, how about a Trillion?
WHAT'S HOLDING BACK THE REALLY BIG RECOVERY?
In a word, housing! Too many unsold houses, too many houses that are worth a fraction of their price, and going into foreclosure, too much uncertainty about the direction of the stock market to really fuel new starts, too many unemployed and underemployed people with big house payments and growing taxes. Until the housing industry flushes its foolish, irresponsible and in many cases downright stupid practices down the drain, housing will remain stalled--and the recovery will be a slow, tortuous one.
BUT ALL THIS IS JUST ONE MAN'S OPINION.
As usual, I don't hold back. I tell it like it is--or at least like I perceive it to be. What do you think?
Best, John
For those who don't know, the title of this edition of THE ENTERPRISE is also the title of my blog http://mariotti.blogs.com/my_weblog/ where you can find past editions going back several years. If anyone ever has trouble reading the emailed version I send you, just visit the blog, where I post it at the same time.
----I MUST OPEN WITH THE MOST IMPORTANT TRUTHS:
MY FELLOW AMERICANS: WE CANNOT CONTINUE TO SPEND AT THE LEVEL WE HAVE BEEN SPENDING WHEN IT IS GROSSLY IN EXCESS OF OUR INCOME. (Simply look at the graph below.) IF YOUR FIRST REACTION IS THAT WE MUST EITHER RAISE TAXES OR CUT ESSENTIAL SERVICES, THAT IS WRONG.
THERE IS MASSIVE WASTE IN GOVERNMENT--WASTE OF OUR TAX DOLLARS IN THE PROCESS OF PROVIDING US SERVICES WE DO NOT EVEN WANT, PART OF THE TIME, AND SPENDING TO REGULATE, CONTROL AND LIMIT OUR FREEDOM, THE REST OF THE TIME.
THERE IS ENOUGH WASTE IN GOVERNMENT AT ALL LEVELS, THAT OUR BUDGET CAN BE BALANCED WITHOUT INCREASING TAXES. THE PROBLEM IS THAT NO ONE IN OUR LEADERSHIP HAS THE WISDOM AND COURAGE TO DO WHAT MUST BE DONE--ROOT OUT THE WASTE, FIRE THOUSANDS OF UNNECESSARY, INEFFICIENT GOVERNMENT BUREAUCRATS; ELIMINATE ENTIRE DEPARTMENTS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.
THE WAY TO DO THIS IS SIMPLY "SHUT OFF THE FUNDING" AND FORCE THE BUREAUCRATS OUT OF EXISTENCE.
(EVEN OUR DEFENSE SPENDING CAN BE CUT SUBSTANTIALLY--WITHOUT REDUCING OUR SECURITY. WE NEED TO QUIT BUILDING 20TH CENTURY MASSIVE WEAPONS SYSTEMS TO FIGHT 21ST CENTURY WARS AND TERRORISM.) MEDICARE AND MEDICAID FRAUD COSTS BILLIONS--WHY IS IT THAT NO ONE WILL FIND IT AND CRACK DOWN ON IT?
THIS WILL REQUIRE CHANGING LAWS FOR CIVIL SERVICE EMPLOYEES. THIS WILL REQUIRE THE ELIMINATION OF "SACRED COWS"--THAT HAVE EXISTED FOR YEARS--BECAUSE SOME POLITICIANS HAD THE POWER, THE INFLUENCE, AND THE MEANS TO EXTORT THEM FROM THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AND THEIR ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES.
I AM CONFIDENT THAT A TEAM OF EXPERIENCED COMPETENT BUSINESS PEOPLE (SUCH AS I HAVE TAKEN INTO COMPANIES) COULD WALK THROUGH THE HALLS OF GOVERNMENT AND FIND 30-50% WASTE IN PEOPLE, SPACE, AMENITIES--AND MORE. SOME FUNCTIONS AND DEPARTMENTS ARE TOTALLY UNNECESSARY.
WORSE YET, FEDERAL EMPLOYEES EARN PAY LEVELS THAT ARE MUCH HIGHER THAN SIMILAR PRIVATE SECTOR JOBS PAY. THUS, NOT ONLY DO WE HAVE TOO MANY, DOING TOO LITTLE, BUT THEY ARE BEING PAID TOO MUCH AS WELL.
WE MUST GET THE GOVERNMENT OFF THE BACK OF THE PEOPLE, AND ALLOW THE ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT AND FREE ENTERPRISE SYSTEM WORK. GROWTH IN OUR ECONOMY WILL GENERATE THE TAX REVENUES WE NEED TO PAY FOR THE LEVEL OF SERVICES WE WANT.
THAT REQUIRES THAT WE ELECT ENOUGH NEW PEOPLE INTO OUR GOVERNMENT TO WORK WITH THOSE ALREADY THERE WHO KNOW THIS, SUCH THAT THEY WILL PASS THE LAWS, THE ENACT THE POLICIES AND BEHAVE IN WAYS THAT WILL RETURN OUR COUNTRY TO PROSPERITY AND FISCAL SANITY.
"WE, THE PEOPLE, CAN DO THAT." "IF IT IS TO BE, IT IS UP TO ME"--TO ALL OF US!
FOR THOSE WHO DON'T SEE HOW WE GOT INTO THIS MESS, LOOK AT THIS CHART
The decision of Evan Bayh (D, IN) to retire from the Senate is perhaps as meaningful as Scott Brown's victory. Here is an accomplished, experienced Senator stepping down (and he's not the first one, hopefully will not be the last either) because he is feeling the heat of change. This is no time to relax. Rather it is a time to intensify efforts to find and support new candidates.
DON'T THINK A FEW RETIREMENTS AND THE WIN IN MASSACHUSETTS SPELLS A COMPLETE REVERSAL OF CONTROL
==================
An excerpt from this week's The Kiplinger Letter brings reality to the picture
The decision by Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN) to retire shocked party leaders in part because he was considered a solid bet to win reelection.==================
Plus it came only a month after a similar decision by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND), another strong candidate. The departures lift GOP prospects, with gains of at least five Senate and 30 or so House seats probable.
But we still don’t think GOP control is likely. Last week, we gave the Republicans a 1-in-3 chance of taking the Senate. Their House odds are the same. One reason is the Democrats’ big lead now: 59-41 in the Senate and 255-178 in the House.
Another is the huge power of incumbency. Being in office is a double-edged sword. Democrats bear the brunt of voter anger
because they dominate Washington. But incumbents have offsetting advantages: Better fund-raising prospects, more name recognition, a record of constituent service, districts shaped to their advantage and experienced statewide campaign organizations.
Consider this: Over the past 10 elections, 95% of House incumbents won. Even in 1994, when the Republicans gained 54 House seats, 90% of the incumbents seeking reelection won. The problem for Democrats that year was 49 open seats. This year, there are only 34 (so far), and 19 of those are currently held by Republicans. [MY EMPHASIS ADDED]
Just because one Democrat steps down, whether it's Dodd or Bayh, there is no guarantee another one won't be elected. We, the people have to vote in the new candidates. WHO ARE YOU SUPPORTING--IN YOUR STATE?
WASTING MONEY IN THE NAME OF "STIMULUS"
My home state of Ohio is about to become an accessory to a "crime." It has taken $400 million of taxpayers money from the Federal Government to spend on a "not so high speed" train from Cleveland to Cincinnati by way of Akron, Canton and Columbus. Without belaboring all the details, the ridership projected for this train, which will take longer to make the trip than driving from Cleveland to Cincinnati on Interstate 71, is ludicrous--500,000 riders per year--or to put it another way, an average of 1400 per day for all 365 days of the year. While the fare is projected to be modest, the annual cost just to maintain the train will equal or exceed the proposed fare, thus requiring a continuing subsidy from day one--forever.
This is just what Ohio needs--NOT! It has a $3-4 billion budget shortfall already, so what's another $20 million to support a train that few will ride, that takes too long to get where it's going, etc. etc. Of course jobs will be created to "build or improve" the train's route, but the $400MM won't even fully cover that and more state money must be added. To be honest, I may be off a bit on a few of these numbers, but the orders of magnitude are right. It's just that my vision blurred from high blood pressure as I read about this debacle. This is your government at work for you--Federal and State--wasting your tax dollars as if it just didn't matter. This is why we must replace the misguided politicians in DC and the Governor and his associates in Ohio.
NOT EVERYONE CAN AFFORD A HOUSE, NOR SHOULD EVERY YOUTH GO TO COLLEGE
In days gone by, it was common for entire families of 2-3 generations to share a rented house. Why? Because they couldn't afford to own houses individually. Where the idea that everyone deserves to own a house came from is a mystery. IT'S WRONG. Some people can't afford houses--the sub-prime crisis has already proven that. Others shouldn't tie up all of their wealth and assets in one, very illiquid investment called a house. Houses cost money to own, even after purchased. Taxes, maintenance, utilities, etc. typically can double the monthly outlay. Some hopeful homeowners who are poor people don't realize this.
The same goes for the idea that everyone should go to college. Everyone who wants to, and is qualified, should have a chance to go to college--but that is far from all the college age youth in America. Many of them neither want to make the commitment college requires, nor do they have the intellectual capacity for college (unless it is "dumbed down" to make it possible for them to get a degree which is devalued). What many young people need to do is what we used to call "learn a trade." Vocational and technical schools abound to help them do this. So do Junior Colleges and Community Colleges. We need non-degreed nurses and medical technicians. We need young people to come up in many, many trades. The housing bust has dampened the job market in construction trades, but not in the medical field. We also need more young people to join our military and serve. It's time to "get real" in America about who can do what, who should have what, and why.
THE "CLASS SIZE" MANIA IS DRIVING UP EDUCATION COST--BUT NOT QUALITY
Schools have become glorified babysitting services paid for by taxpayers. They start early and offer breakfast. They end late and offer supper. They let substandard students coast along because teachers are either afraid of getting sued for demanding good behavior and study habits. Grades are dumbed down because someone's feelings might get hurt. Some teachers are too lazy to do more than show up and "tend the class," because they know their unions will protect them from getting fired.
Now the mania is that early grade classes shouldn't be larger than twenty students because it offers too little time for individualized attention. When I grew up, that's what parents were for--individualized attention. Driving class sizes down by mandate adds teachers, adds school buildings, and that adds staff--which seems to grow and remain no matter what happens to enrollment. I agree that excessively large classes can be hard to handle--and to teach--but whether that size is 25 or maybe even 30... and that 25-50% difference in class size makes a huge economic difference and for a supposed, but unproven qualitative improvement in educations. Want individualized help for your kids? Take responsibility as a parent!
WHEN THE PUBLIC SECTOR EMPLOYEES BECOME THE "ELITE PAY" PEOPLE--SOMETHING IS WRONG
Recently a school district in the Columbus, OH area cut out all athletics and many other extracurricular activities. This may or may not have been a wise move. The excessive drive for participation in non-academic school-based activities has gotten out of hand too. But a year later, when "auditors" went in to carefully dissect the school district's spending and operation, they found almost $3 million of potential savings that could have been realized. This would have reduced or eliminated the hatchet job that was done. The cuts were made, in my opinion, because school administrators presumed that using the "scare tactic" of eliminating athletics would cause a voter approval of a higher tax referendum. Wrong! What auditors found was that pay for many jobs was much higher than prevailing private sector rates for comparable jobs, and benefits were similarly much richer. There were many other wasteful practices including underutilized fleets of buses, underutilized school buildings, wasteful practices, etc., etc.
CLIMATE STUDIES FLAWS CONTINUE TO BE REVEALED
How's this for experts on climate change: a student's paper, a report by the World Wildlife Fund misinterpretation of an study in the journal Nature and one side (only) of a study by a climatologist (where the other side of the finding was equally likely), a study that was never "peer reviewed," and on, and on. This is just slightly more authoritative than asking the "man on the street" or conducting a poll of the audience of the Jay Leno or Oprah shows. None of this means global warming is not a problem. It means that all of those sensational claims by Al Gore and others were based on the flimsiest of "pop science" or flawed science. Maybe a retraction is in order, huh, AL? Will AL GORE give back the Nobel Peace Prizes and Oscar because his topic was all an elaborate hoax?
WILL THE SNOWSTORMS STALL MORE THAN CARS--LIKE THE RECOVERY?
There is little doubt that job hunting and hiring is impacted by three large snowstorms that blanketed most of the Northeastern and Central US over the past ten days. Will this glitch cause other problems. Certainly retail suffers from snowstorms. Will the inventory building show a time-delayed lull? This is all possible. Manufacturing activity is up handsomely and inventory rebuilding goes on apace. For now, that is. But today's systems allow that inventory rebuilding to be shut off as quickly as it was turned on. Watch carefully to see what happens.
IS TOYOTA'S QUALITY A REAL PROBLEM--OR IS IT THE LATEST "SCAPEGOAT" FOR LAWYERS AND CLIENTS
It seems that Toyota has real problems. When you get very large and introduce a lot of newly designed vehicles in relatively short time frames, bad things can cascade. Complexity of unrelated items affecting the outcome is certain. Unintended consequences of one good idea conflicting with another good idea increases. (A thicker, more durable floor mat and a more sensitive gas pedal design, for example; or a new hybrid that senses changes in braking to trigger shifts between two power sources.) Or, could this be another rerun of the Audi situation of a couple of decades ago, where most of the problems are user error--compounded by sensationalism and voracious attorneys smelling blood (money)? If I had to bet, I'd bet the Toyota part of the problem is less than the greedy lawyers and faulty plaintiffs--but that's just an opinion. Why? Toyota uses statistics and highly regimented processes. Attorneys and clients who smell settlement money are driven by emotion and fear of bad publicity.
DO DEFICITS MATTER?
Yes, they do. Right now, the US economy needed a shot of government spending. But like many "junkies" who need a fix, the Democratic Congress and President Obama gave the economy a drug (deficit) overdose. And if drugs cause dependency, and require higher doses for the same efficacy, this same scenario is playing out in the runaway deficit spending coming out of DC. If a Billion wasn't enough, make it tens of Billions, and if that's not enough, how about a Trillion?
WHAT'S HOLDING BACK THE REALLY BIG RECOVERY?
In a word, housing! Too many unsold houses, too many houses that are worth a fraction of their price, and going into foreclosure, too much uncertainty about the direction of the stock market to really fuel new starts, too many unemployed and underemployed people with big house payments and growing taxes. Until the housing industry flushes its foolish, irresponsible and in many cases downright stupid practices down the drain, housing will remain stalled--and the recovery will be a slow, tortuous one.
BUT ALL THIS IS JUST ONE MAN'S OPINION.
As usual, I don't hold back. I tell it like it is--or at least like I perceive it to be. What do you think?
Best, John
Comments