A Right-on-the-Marc Opinion
By Marc J. Rauch
Exec. Vice President/Co-Publisher
Democrats are blaming the Republicans; Republicans are blaming Democrats; and the pretentious experts on the news programs are blaming Americans for speaking up and letting their elected representatives know that they disagree with a plan that is, at best, a wild guess at how to fix the economic problem. These geniuses say “The public doesn’t understand,” “The public doesn’t know what this is all about.”
If anyone doesn’t understand, it’s the thieves and liars on Wall Street that let all this happen, starting by allowing garbage DotCom companies to go public and conning their clients into pouring money into entities that had no operational history, no profits, and no management with business experience.
“This is the NEW ECONOMY,” they all said, “Management doesn’t need experience, profits don’t matter.”
All that was needed was a dot com after the company name and the Wall Street firms threw billions of dollars at them (that is, their clients’ billions of dollars). Well now it’s all come back to roost, and who do they have heading up the begging brigade? The former Chairman of Goldman Sachs. Excuse me, but if I remember correctly Goldman Sachs was as responsible for the excesses as Lehman Brothers, or Bear Sterns, or Montgomery Securities or Robertson-Stevens. Why should we trust Henry Paulson? It’s like the wolf guarding the hen house.
THE PUBLIC understands the situation better, even if they don’t have economic degrees. Why does the public know better? Because we actually work for a living, we actually have to go out and make things, and sell things, and pay for things, and pay taxes on what we earn. Maybe the public doesn’t want to help Paulson’s neighbors in Connecticut or Palm Beach or Beverly Hills or wherever he has his mansion(s).
I watched 60 MINUTES Sunday night and the interviewer, Scott Pelley, said that Paulson is worth $500 million dollars. $500 million from selling bad investments! I think we should start by liquidating Paulson’s assets.
Paulson acts like the crisis just happened, as if it’s the surprise aftermath of some errant hurricane that caused more damage than anyone expected. As a result of the DotCom bubble-bust the economic crisis began in the Spring of 2000, and it was swept under the rug until recently while we’ve dealt with Afghanistan and Iraq.
The $700 billion that is being asked for is absurd for two reasons: First, where does that number come from? No where, Paulson pulled it out of his rear end. Second, when and how much will be the next round require? And you have to know that there will be another round, whether it’s next month, or the month after, or the month after that. Then what?
Last night David Gergen had the audacity to say “…a ton of bricks needs to be dumped on the heads of those who voted against (the plan)…” Hey, Mr. Comb-over, Congressmen and women voted against the plan because their constituents screamed for them to reject it. Constituents, that means THE PUBLIC, you know the same people that will foot the bill. Our republic is founded on the idea that the people can voice their opinion and make changes based on what they like or dislike. Have you forgotten this or did you just not know it?
Another CNN clown, the bald one (whatever his name is), said on Monday night, “There are plenty of things not to like about the plan, but we shouldn’t cut our noses to spite of faces.” What? If there are plenty of things not to like about the plan, why don’t those bad things get fixed before we get pushed into giving away nearly a trillion dollars or more. (I call this guy a clown because he feels the need to wear a suit and tie – to give him a professional look – and then he chooses to wear a stripped Bozo suit with a goofy tie.)
This is the time to assess blame, and to make those responsible pay for it.
Regardless of what plan is decided upon, it will not solve the current crisis nor will it prevent the next crisis round. Only one thing will take the world out of this economic mess we’re now in: a new and sustained economic boom. However, that boom won’t happen until the automakers build and release non-gasoline powered vehicles en masse, until Congress refuses to take illicit money given to them by the oil companies, until the oil companies are prevented from getting control of the alternative fuel sources, until the oil companies and the Saudis are made to pay for the defense of the Mid-East oil wells (and any other war the U.S. fights for them), and until our lawmakers enact State and Federal laws that permit small business people to participate in the energy revolution (for example by allowing existing vehicles to be easily converted to CNG and propane fuel). At the earliest we will not be on an up-swing for two years.
We also have to change how Wall Street operates, and I don’t mean the window dressing of not allowing “short selling.” When the first stock markets appeared a couple hundred years ago, the idea was to permit enterprises to raise capital for discovery and expansion, and to allow the common man to participate in ventures that would normally be beyond their ability. That’s it; that was the intention. It was never meant to create a new gambling arena or to replace betting on who can spit further.
But that’s what the stock markets have become, an alternative to gambling casinos. People are buying and selling shares of stock without any relationship to what the company does or what they’re accomplishing. So for that reason all short-term buying and selling of shares should be outlawed.
Rules should be put in place to mandate that shares be held for a protracted period of time before they can be sold. If they’re sold before the allotted time the revenues from the sale would be severely penalized, just like other investments.
Finally, I don’t think that any plan should be enacted until the next President takes office. Obama or McCain’s first task after inauguration should be to put a plan to work. The plan should start to be formulated immediately after Election Day. That will give them a bit more than three months to come up with something that might actually work and that has the blessing of the majority of U.S. citizens.
And if McCain is elected, I hope he not only fires the Chairman of the SEC but that he insists on Paulson’s immediate suicide.
The Saab 9-4X has been caught in these new spy shots without the Keith Haring tape job it was wearing the last time we saw it. Features like the converging window lines on the side, the rear lights, and the Saab grille, give away its lineage. From the side, especially from the A-pillar back, you could be forgiven for confusing the Saab with a lot of other CUVs, while lines that are quite distinctive on the smaller 9-3 and 9-5 look to have been stretched into rather bland expanses on the 9-4X. It’s still early, so we look forward to seeing the fully Saab-ified retail version. If Saab’s managing director is to be believed, what won’t be bland is one of the engine choices: a diesel with 250 hp and 406 lb-ft. That’s the kind of quirky we can get behind. 
We were pretty excited when we saw the first shots of a transforming Nissan GT-R toy in 1:24 scale, but after seeing the final product, it looks as if the supercar makes a pretty poor Transformer. If only it morphed into Godzilla, maybe that would be an improvement. Take a look for yourself at the pictures in our gallery in both regular and transformed versions. While in its hidden alt-car-mode, the ‘bot has quite a few ill-placed seams, and when in native robot form the GT-R looks like it has insect wings. Still, it’s pretty cool to see a Transformer made from the R35, and we wish we could see it do its transforming in the upcoming movie, but not in this form. Convoy is what they call Optimus Prime in Japan, and to our eyes, Prime can only be a Big Rig. Thanks for the tip, 94 Taurus owner!
