Leaping Tall Orders in a Single Bound

Super President Obama wants to save GM.  Enter the era of the Auto Czar.  Arrogant meddling is how Carlin described such things.

For the past eight years, this country has been under the yoke of a President who spent and governed with reckless abandon.  Now we are faced with a new challenge, an all too willing to prove - who's better politic - pent up congress.  A body that actually had control of the nation for the last two years and did nothing with it.  No one can hide from it. At least since 2006 the U.S. Government has been in possession of highly reliable information about the housing market, the brewing bank crisis and yes... they, the majority House and Senate Democrats, did nothing.  

Somehow, now, they're acting out to save us from something terrible, corporate mismanagement, fraud and economic collapse brought on by their own failed oversight and irresponsible spending.  But that was Bush's fault according to the Democrats.  Now the Democrats want some spending of their own with the American Taxpayer footing the bill. 

So I understand this clearly, the Republican leadership, the one that spent like a drunken sailor and regulated so loosly, such that it has brought us to this, now want to tell Democrats, nothing doing.  The Democrats want to jump into this and save America.

Look! It's a bird!  No, it's a plane!  OH NO! IT'S SUPERMAN! Don't worry, he'll save us from ourselves. And he's coming to clean things up. 

Hurry! Now everyone is in a rush. All at once, something must be done immediately to restore confidence, stop the bleeding, and begin the economic healing process.  It starts with the pardon of all pardons... Henry Paulson's TARP and fraud upon the American Taxpayers.  The system continues today with the BARF plan (Bankrupt America Relief Fund).  The Republican mindset, a trifle of mairzy doats under President Bush, now wants to redeem itself with by going to work eight years too late in a quantum leap towards fiscal conservancy.  Apparently, no one cares. No one wants to hear it anymore.  Sadly, because they're right about one thing - Americans had no time to discuss the issues in the package - its falling on deaf ears. 

American's Can't Win for Losing

Both sides of the aisle knew the score since 2006 when noted Economists, Drs. Nouriel Roubini, Nassim Taleb, Karl Case and  Robert Shiller warned of the pending collapse and wash out.  The good part is, that in times like these, frauds and poorly run companies come to the surface quickly.  And General Bloaters is one such example.  Bernard Madoff, another.

So, the President wants to appoint an automobile czar. What a waste of time and money.  As for GM, they should shut the company down immediately and stop wasting taxpayer dollars trying to keep the 2nd largest welfare provider in the U.S. from failing. If the U.S. Government wants to be charitable, the only thing it should consider is insuring the GM pension and letting the rest of this doomsday machine finally get put in its grave.

GM is going to lobby hard on Capitol Hill in the coming weeks.  I would urge every American taxpayer to threaten boycotting measures if our elected officials fail to listen to the taxpayer.  In times like these, the American people should be voting in a special referendum to determine directly the fate of poorly run corporations.  It is absurd that the American taxpayer had zero votes on the $819 billion stimulus crackage that was  passed last week. Zero. Not a single taxpayer was given the right to vote such a thing.  Where are these dollars going?  How is proper representation being made when the majority of Americans urged their representatives to "no vote" the  TARP in October '08 and a let-the-banks- fail mentality.  Last week the majority of Americans didn't want the stimulus crackage passed without a full and transparent review. 

Again our elected chose to rush in for fear that we will wind up like Japan, in a protracted deflation.  So by that logic, Japan and its auto industry have managed to stay afloat and prosper during a horrible deflation in Japan.  The success of their auto industry is simply a matter of better QC/QA and business sechel.  

If President Obama wants czar for the auto industry, perhaps he can finally go to corporate America, an area he has kept away from his cabinet, and look for a realist to run the industry after he privatizes GM and lets Ford take care of its shareholders.  President Obama might want to consider enlisting the services of Mike Jackson, Chairman of AutoNation (AN-NYSE).  Jackson's company, despite being on the retail end of the auto supply chain, has nevertheless managed to steer AutoNation to a profit year after year and understands how crippling it is to be on the ends of whips, a masochistic dependence on foreign oil.

It's All About The Moon Walk 

About eighteen months ago or so, Jackson suggested on the air at CNBC that he believed gasoline should be taxed to the point of conversion.  I understood the extreme of $7.00 gasoline.  He wanted to put an end to the endless gamesmanship of oil jockeying.  We have before us a global slowdown and reduction in aggregate supply and capacity utilization. If there ever was an opportunity to cut into the deficit with a real smart tax, it’s in the pure consumption of fuel.  When China and India get back to the business of growth in output and consumption, expect oil prices to rise accordingly. Add a few measures of seasonal adjustments to U.S. consumption and before you know it, oil is back over $60 and gas is at $3.00 or better. 

At a national average benchmark of $2.00 per gallon of unleaded gasoline, and considering the stimulus bill is riddled with welfare benefits, an additional regressive tax should be considered to par the price of gasoline at $3.00.  At a natural price of $3.00, which seems to be touching on nuisance pricing, a benchmark can be established for the continuity of R&D towards the functional commercialization of alternative and hybrid energy vehicles in the United States. 

I believe the majority of Americans want to see the inevitable extinction come and be done with itself once and for all.  Let these dinosaur giants of industry die like some of the ne'er do well robber barons of the 30's.  Proclaim GM a total loss and give us Ford. It isn't pretty, but they've earned the right to survive. General Bloaters needs a good send off now.  And what's GM's reprieve, should they get one?  What's their argument?  The same as before. They needed $25 billion immediately (November 2009 from the TARP) and they said they'll take it but it wasn't enough.  Six weeks after taking TARP money, GM, a modern day symbol of what Free Market capitalism looks like when it runs its course, is now telling DC either put up or BK.   Please let them die already. 

Yes, perhaps it is time to drop companies like GM, long buyers of many an election favor and jamming of the lobby function.  Throw the bums out of Detroit and DC and stop wasting time and money.  This idea of an auto czar is idiotic to say the least.  If anything, leading up to the inevitable, we need to appoint a pension manager and trustee for the liability of welfare benefits accrued on GM's balance sheet.  Yes, save the snails.  I think that's where I have to draw the line.