[khnyny]

One of their competitors was being shut down till a closed door meeting with the maker and government. Now the competitor will remain open.

Exactly - a political "connection" got the meeting with the govt officials and GM. Presto, changeo, they get what they want and stay open. This is one of the big stories that needs to be investigated, imho. What, exactly, was the methodology used to calculate these closings?? What strong arm tactics have been implemented that may be illegal?

Business can only survive in a society which is basically ethical and honors contracts.

[Richard Kimball]

Business can only survive in a society which is basically ethical and honors contracts.

I've thought the same thing for a while, and would expand it to state that society can only survive when it is ethical and honors contracts. While it's tempting to simply blame the lawyers, and yes there is blame there, lawyers generally represent the wishes of their clients. Every time you see an unethical lawyer, he's representing an unethical person.

A society that behaves ethically needs few rules. A society that is unethical cannot have enough rules, because no one will follow them anyway. This was the conundrum that Franklin and the other founding fathers expressed when they established the Constitution. They were quite aware that the freedoms enumerated in the Bill of Rights could be used to destroy those same freedoms.

[Betis70]

The Aristocracy of Pull. Unreal how close this is all following Atlas Shrugged. Did Obama use it as his training manual, but only reading the Wesley Mouch and looters part of it?