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Posted on 07/12/2009 6:46:07 AM PDT by reaganaut1
First President Bush, then President Obama poured billions into General Motors and Chrysler to keep the companies alive but barely breathing. That was just for starters. Next came Obama's creation of an Auto Task Force to oversee the auto companies. To head the task force, the president picked Steve Rattner, a Wall Street investor with no experience in automaking but lots in raising campaign money for Obama and Democrats.
GM and Chrysler were quickly restructured, mostly to the benefit of the United Auto Workers, the union which spent millions in 2008 to elect Obama and Democrats. The UAW now owns 17.5 percent of GM and 55 percent of Chrysler--quite a return on an investment of zero dollars. Obama said all parties should "sacrifice," but only bondholders did. They got a fraction of what they were legally entitled to receive. UAW retirees, in contrast, got a gift of $9.5 billion at GM and $14.2 billion at Chrysler.
There's an epilogue. Delphi, the auto parts manufacturer once owned by GM and still its biggest supplier, has been in bankruptcy for four years. To acquire its assets and run the company, Delphi and Obama's Auto Task Force picked an affiliate of the private equity firm Platinum Equity. There was no auction or competitive bidding, though Platinum stands to make millions in the deal. Why Platinum? The UAW favored it, sources said.
There's a name for all this: crony capitalism. Obama insists he believes in capitalism, but it's not the free market variety that he's been promoting since he became president. Obamanomics is a different strain entirely.
Crony capitalism is usually identified with Third World despots, like Hugo Chávez, who reward their friends and allies in the business and financial communities. Some might be appointed to top government jobs, as Rattner was.
(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...
“Crony capitalism” is another way of saying “socialism.”
National Socialism, at that.
Just as soon as stock in the new GM starts trading we will learn the truth about how much money the taxpayers have lost on this venture. They say they will have the IPO soon, but I bet they will delay until the pubic forgets.
You are both right. Crony capitalism is fascism.
The purpose of the IPO is to cash out the UAW so they can pocket the cash and get back to their primary role as extortionists and looters. The IPO is all about getting cash to the UAW as soon as possible.
This thread warns us of more Croony Capitalism coming from the 0b0z0 thugs:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2290672/posts
Obama IRAs Could Raise $100 Billion in Five Years (nothing about medical savings accounts)
Financial Planning ^ | 7/08/09
Posted on Saturday, July 11, 2009 7:11:20 PM by Libloather
Obama IRAs Could Raise $100 Billion in Five Years
By Money Management Executive
July 8, 2009
One of President Obama’s proposed financial reforms would require employers that do not offer a 401(k) to automatically enroll their employees into an IRA. If implemented, it would give the biggest boost to the retirement savings industry since the creation of the 401(k) in 1980, enrolling 40 million new investors, and attract more than $100 billion within five years, The Wall Street Journal reports.
It would require companies with 10 or more workers that have been in business for at least two years to participate. It would deduct 3% of workers’ salaries and invest it very conservatively, in inflation-indexed savings bonds, money market mutual funds or stable value funds. Once the portfolio reaches $3,000, it would be moved over to a target-date funds.
Experts estimate that it would cover 40 million of the 75 million Americans who do not have access to a 401(k) or other defined contribution plan. Naturally, they applaud the retirement protection the measure would offer, but they fear that small businesses could balk at the cost of having to hire a payroll service or accountant to manage the IRAs. Others criticize the plan for not investing the money aggressively enough.
I hear these pin-head liberals constantly philosophizing that fascism is “the merger of the state and corporations” as though this were some sort of great leap in understanding. I heard a caller on Hannity once who was trying to make that point. He said it over and over, and Hannity just hemmed and hawed, not sure what to say in response.
What he should have said is “And curiously, that is also the definition of socialism. Just think about it. Socialism is when the government owns and controls the means of production. It’s just another way of saying the same thing.”
Basically, each locality can provide the zoo that they want. What shouldn’t be done is some master plan applying the same standard to all local zoos (such as yours for instance!).
Sorry about my last response — somehow it was in the wrong thread!
I agree 100% with your post.
So called, “Crony capitalism” is a misnomer.
The proper term is “Crony statism.”
Thank you Great One Mark Levin for reintroducing the terms “statist” and “statism” back into our vocabulary.
Sometimes “statism” is spelled “state-ism.”
Statist are control freaks. Lobbyists get rich thru statism.
Basically, statism means too much government.
disagree...I'd call it plain old fascism, particularly since the lawyer for the bondholders was directly and personally threatened.
read my other post. socialism and fascism are also the same.
Rule by man rather than within the confines of Natural Law as our Declaration of Independence professed is tyranny.
See, crony capitalism poisons the well of “letting the market settle things”. From housing to cars to food to higher education, the market can’t settle things anymore. The government is involved in all of it. One wonders if the mythical “free market” still exists. I think only exists at levels where the government (fed, state, local) hasn’t found it sufficiently profitable to meddle in it (such as your lawn mowing service).
In the early 20th century, the government crusaded against monopolies. Today, government IS the monopoly.
Free enterprise is all too often happy to go along with government management, and taxpayers get caught in the collusion. Businesses buy in because they know they are guaranteed a certain level of income by letting Uncle Sam sit on their board, and they also buy in because they know the government will pass on their losses to the taxpayer. Airplane cost $22 billion? No problem - we got money. DCid that genetically modified seed corn not turn out like you hoped? No problem - we’ll just rewrite the rules by which we manage agriculture and/or restrict people’s ability to sue.
It is cheaper to buy off key legislators and get them to to regulate the market in your favor than it is to actually compete and succeed.
What’s the answer? Get rid of federal micromanagement and then cut off all the state and local directives that meet endless reams of regulations just to get their precious pennies from Uncle Sam. So long as state and local gov are so anxious to get their precious pennies from the FedGov, they will represent the federal interests and not yours.
>socialism and fascism are also the same.<
Exactly.
Funny how the liberals didn’t mind calling Bush a fascist or Nazi, but then they elect one and they forget what the term really means eh?
Yep.
Statism
"Collectivism holds that the individual has no rights, that his life and work belong to the group (to "society," to the tribe, the state, the nation) and that the group may sacrifice him at its own whim to its own interests. The only way to implement a doctrine of that kind is by means of brute force -- and statism has always been the poltical corollary of collectivism." -- Ayn Rand, HERE
"STATISM is that particular form of collectivism in which individuals are forced to be subservient to government (as distinguished, if possible, from a religious or cult leader, roving invader or local gangster). Anyone in government who wants to extend his power, or anyone else (who has political influence) with agendas to advance, monopolies to secure, axes to grind or revenge to take -- can make claims that certain governmental actions would be in the national, state, society or even family interest and must 'therefore' take precedence over any individual interests whatsoever. With this 'justification' the people in government can proceed to enforce such claims, often enthusiastically, sometimes brutally, but always with impunity." -- Rick Gaber
"The policy of seeking values from human beings by means of force, when practiced by an individual, is called crime. When practiced by a government, it is called statism ..." -- Nathaniel Branden, HERE
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