Where’s Bucky now?

R. Buckminster Fuller tried decades ago to teach us that bigger is not always stronger. True, his application was in buildings, but it applies to businesses as well.

I firmly agree with Professor Don Holley of Boise State University who was quoted in the Statesman yesterday regarding the mega-mergers in our banking industry: “If they are too big to fail, they are too big to have.”

Agreed!

Then in another small article tucked away in the Statesman we read:

“Pfizer to buy Wyeth for $68B; 20,000 jobs to be lost”

We continue our path of allowing bigger companies and simultaneously eliminating jobs. This should have been capturing our attention for the past 20 years and especially today, doesn’t it hurt your eyes (and heart) to read “20,000 jobs to be lost”?

Legislative leaders utilize “tender negotiations”

Get outta town!!

In Dan Popkey’s article today about Governor Otter’s decision to not mention local-option taxes in his State of the State address, the Governor explains it was removed because the leaders of our state legislature preferred to use “tender negotiations”.

Our leaders describe arm-twisting in their secret, closed caucuses “tender negotiations”?

Representative Mike Moyle perhaps is the “leaders”:

“I told him I was concerned about that being brought up,” Moyle said Monday. “I’d much rather work it out rather than fight it in the State of the State or the newspaper.”

Wouldn’t want to discuss this big issue in public now would we Mister Leader[s]?

Idaho’s lobbying tainted (again) by bribe (kinda)

The Statesman’s Dan Popkey reports that the realtors’ lobby pulled a sizable, pledged contribution from a candidate who voted contrary to the realtors’ wishes. The good side of this story is the candidate, Joan Cloonan, worked in the light, not in the dark alley where the lobbyists are often found. She reported it to the Attorney General’s office and also consulted other legislators.

More good news is that Representative Raul Labrador is “drafting a bill” to make such an action a felony.

Indicating support for such action from the Senate is Senator Kate Kelly who for years now has been attempting to reform ethics in our legislature. She refers to the present law as “pretty toothless.”

Hopefully, Rep. Labrador will deliver a bill that will give our state some teeth.

Governor Otter selects Senate replacement with close lobbyist ties.

The “ties” don’t get much closer than those used to form the wedding “knot”.

Governor Otter selected Melinda Smyser to replace Brad Little (who was ejected up into the Lt. Governor’s office).

Smyser’s husband is “Charles ‘Skip’ Smyser, a former state House and Senate member who is a lobbyist for private prisons, tobacco companies, the Idaho Trucking Association and mining companies.”

However, Melinda assures us, “I’m independent. I’m going to represent my constituents in District 11 and the concerns they have.”

Thanks for the assurance, Melinda. I feel so much better.

Taxation Without Representation

Yup. Taxation Without Representation. We pay taxes, our elected officials do not represent us. They give money away and then turn their backs to the Treasury Department who is chummy with Wall Street.

Where are the representatives we voted into office, those we want and need to protect us? Where are those that get paid (handsomely, with regular raises) to have the title “representative”?

Our Bailed-out Corporations still using Tax Havens

From The Washington Post:

The new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, released today by Sens. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), lists Citigroup and Morgan Stanley as having set up hundreds of tax haven subsidiaries, along with American International Group and Bank of America. Also in the tax-haven list are well-known companies and such federal contractors as American Express, Pepsi and Caterpillar.

Our Invertebrate Elected Representatives cannot stop this? Even after they deliver funds on the silver platter? Get real!!

Quantitative Easing clearly explained

Marketplace Senior Editor Paddy Hirsch has a superb video that clearly explains Ben Bernanke’s Plan B to jump-start our sagging economy. The term Quantitative Easing is graphically defined.

Despite this better understanding what Bernanke is trying to do, the plan seems similar to Plan A (providing cheap money to lenders) in that Ben is coming in through the back door. It seems a bit feeble when I think we really need a hammer over the heads of the lenders to make them loan this money.

If these plans do not work, as Hirsch mentions in this video, the dollar will have become greatly devalued and this will be curtains for many of us.

GM Gets its loan, then hires foreigners

General Motors begs for a loan to survive. They secure the money and promptly sign a contract with a South Korean company.

Selfish.

The banks are provided cheap money and they do not loan it to us on Main Street.

Selfish.

It is hard to argue in support of the capitalist system when our government allows selfish corporate leaders to continue behaving as they have for the past couple decades. Almost tempts me to want nationalization of these banks and manufacturers. Scary, scary thinking for a capitalist fundamentalist.

Think twice about Offshoring

Fortune published 10 suggestions for companies to follow to weather this drastic economic downturn. These were gleaned from Marketplace. I include one of the ten that incites encouragement for this Main Street citizen:

Think twice about offshoring.

Manufacturing costs aren’t the only factor in an offshoring decision. Taxes, tariffs, speed, and transition costs can make a big difference. But at a time when costs count more than ever, don’t assume that offshoring is still your best option.

BRING THE JOBS BACK HOME!

Federal Reserve pulling some risky moves and spending lots of our money

From Marketplace:

The auto industry just got the last few billion left of the first half of the bailout money. It’ll be up to the new Obama administration to ask Congress for the second $350 billion. But that’s not the half of it. Literally. While the country has been focused on that highly publicized $700 billion rescue package, the Federal Reserve has quietly spent more than a trillion dollars behind the scenes to rescue a long list of industries. This shadow bailout has gotten little attention and even less scrutiny. But, piece-by-piece the Fed has taken over huge chucks of America’s financial system. And as Marketplace’s Steve Henn reports, it has also taken on enormous and unprecedented risks.

Ben Bernanke’s open checkbook makes Hank Paulson’s piggybank appear quite small.