When I first saw that John McCain was pushing failed CEO Carly Fiorina as his frontperson on business/economic issues I figured it was a little weird. There are a lot of successful business/CEO types who are happy little soldiers for the GOP, I can’t for the life of me figure what the upside of picking Fiorina is.
She was brought on board to grow HP, but instead laid off people then pushed the company into a merger with Compaq that turned into a mess and was opposed by Walter Hewlett, son of HP co-founder and tech pioneer Bill Hewlett. A little after that she was effectively fired by the board of directors.
And yet, this is the leading voice on the Republican side for business and economics. She must have some freaky pictures of someone or something, because even the McCain people can’t be this stupid.
Here is a chart of HP’s stock performance during Fiorina’s tenure (July 19, 1999 - February, 10, 2005):
And here is HP’s chart post-Fiorina (July 19, 1999 February, 10, 2005 - present):
Newsweek calls her “McCain’s Economic Brain”. Perhaps a lobotomy is in order.
In the wake of last week’s terrorist attacks involving hijacked airplanes, Congress Friday passed a measure for a $15 billion financial aid package to help the crippled airline industry and set up a government compensation fund for victims to help deter lawsuits.
The House approved the measure late Friday night, 356-54. The Senate passed the package earlier in the day, 96-1.
The White House response was quick with press secretary Ari Fleischer saying in a statement: “A safe, viable and effective commercial air travel system is important to America’s economy and to our way of life.”
“The president commends the Congress for its quick bipartisan passage of the Air Transportation Safety and System Stabilization Act.
“This legislation will help ensure the safety and stability of the nation’s vital commercial airline system.”
The measure gives the nation’s airlines $5 billion in immediate cash assistance and $10 billion in loan guarantees in an effort to keep several major carriers from collapsing. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, R-Ill., was the only senator to vote against the bill.
Like they did on almost everything for the year following 9/11, the President proposed really stupid and damaging stuff and the Congress rubber-stamped it. We continually deal with the fallout of that age of compliance and will for the foreseeable future. I can already guess that some lobbyist somewhere is prepping a campaign to go to Washington and yet again snooker us about the most recent airline disaster.
More than almost any other industry the airlines have gotten away with running a shoddy business while treating their customers like a stain on their shoes. It’s high time we let them just sink on their own and thin the herd for the businesses who perform well and respond to their consumers.
I was thinking about this but then someone actually did the work. One of the major issues I wrote about on this blog back after 9/11 was about the free money congress and the president handed to the airlines. Just let them die. Trust the market, and let them die. I fear that my sentiments about Bear Stearns are going to work out similarly.
Big Wall Street investment companies are taking advantage of the Federal Reserve’s unprecedented offer to secure emergency loans, the central bank reported Thursday.
The lending is part of a major effort by the Fed to help a financial system in danger of freezing.
Those large firms averaged $13.4 billion in daily borrowing over the past week from the new lending facility. The report does not identify the borrowers.
The Fed, in a bold move Sunday, agreed for the first time to let big investment houses get emergency loans directly from the central bank. This mechanism, similar to one available for commercial banks for years, got under way Monday and will continue for at least six months. It was the broadest use of the Fed’s lending authority since the 1930s.
Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley said Wednesday they had begun to test the new lending mechanism.
On Wednesday alone, lending reached $28.8 billion, according to the Fed report.
Wall Street and the right want to eat their cake and have it too. They want vital financial institutions to be left alone, given free reign to do as they wish - but when they screw up and cause a ripple effect throughout the economy they come running to the government for a no-strings-attached bailout.
Eh-eh.
You want the government to have a hand in the game, you have to play by the rules. You need oversight, regulation, a catchers mitt over the invisible hand. The crisis we’re facing now is a product of our government abandoning its watchdog role and becoming nothing more than a cheerleader on the sidelines. It’s time once again for our government to put on its referee’s uniform and get this game back under control.
I fail to understand what the purpose is of the free market if we’re going to engage in socialism and bail out companies like Bear Sterns who claim to be masters of capitalism. This reminds me of the free money the government gave to the airlines after 9/11 that they subsequently used to make their service even worse. Let these companies fail so that they don’t live another day to screw up the economy again. Spend that money on helping the people who work for them, rather than to line the overpaid CEO’s pockets. If he or she were so smart why’d they get them in such dire straits?
weird. There are a lot of successful business/CEO types who are happy little soldiers for the GOP, I can’t for the life of me figure what the upside of picking Fiorina is.
Recent Comments