Leading us straight into bankruptcy and a future nation of uninspired drones that must rely on its tyrannical leaders for their very survival. Hold up you hammer and sickle and rejoice! Oh Joy!

John – your put in the position to run a company that multiple previous leadership and board of directors has mis-managed for years. And you have to make very tough decisions…because the company is going to fail big time, horrendously. What do you do?

I certainly wouldn’t make radical changes to a company that has for the most part has built itself into the best company in the history of the world. Reaching into a company handbook that has proven itself to fail a number of times over the course of history would not be my move either.
A Free market capitalist system (with oversight!) will provide a better life for everyone every time. It is sad to see us throw it away.

I don’t hear you speaking in this…I hear “demagoguery” that you’ve been listening to from foxes and whales. I want to hear your deep, thoughtful words – not just repeating catch phrases from folks who make money on causing disturbances. (Media makes money on how many listeners and viewers they generate – not on what they say. Newspapers are failing because the advertising revenue from ‘classifieds’ has gone to Craig’s List. To my thinking there is no difference between the tactics of Howard Stern, Lou Dobbs, Rush, Sean or Glenn – they all pander to lowest common denominators to generate emotions and get ratings which turns into $$$ for themselves.)

And by the way…how did you get off on this financial conversation when the original post was on being a statesman – initiating conversation and calming the uproar – by addressing Iran and the Iranian people? In the previous administration(s) there was only just saber rattling…he’s taking a different approach, one that would seem to be based upon the principals by which we are agreed upon as people. Heck, some might even call them ‘Christian-based.”

Speaking of which, you write: “Leading us straight into bankruptcy and a future nation of uninspired drones that must rely on its tyrannical leaders for their very survival. Hold up you hammer and sickle and rejoice! Oh Joy!”

Uh – that would be somewhat of a theocracy – kinda like the religious movements that have strict guidelines on what proper behaviour is, how citizens conduct themselves in public and who is in charge of the family, the community and the pocket book. Like Iran, Taliban or like many of the contemporary Christian Evangelical churches, the Roman Catholic Church in lesser developed countries (and historically the world) and the Morman’s, Jehovah’s Witnesses, etc. – the list goes on. I counter-point your broad stroke statement by saying I don’t see any of that in this administration, rather the tyrannical leaders were just in office – bypassing constitutional law, treating the rights to privacy and due process like pieces of paper, rather than tenets of our lives. I see a president and administration that has vision for the future and making a case for why we need to have a plan for when the “oil runs out” – which we all agree it will. Making a case for fundamental changes in health care so that small businesses, individuals and even large businesses can not spend so much on it, and making a case for asking families and children to be more involved in school, more dedicated and that school system be re-vamped to fit the current world and what we all see as more competition in the future.

Honestly – tell me – You don’t see that? His answers may not be what you want to hear, but by getting the process started, finally, aren’t we on the right track? Isn’t this country about deliberate and intelligent thinking turned into action?

Oh and as for taking over companies – the big criticisms I’m hearing now from the pundits is that the government didn’t take the normal investor options for the investments made, you know like if it wanted to continue to have shares in the company when the company gets back on it’s feet – like private investors do. Nope – the government only took shares that will allow it to be paid back with reasonable interest and no future options to own the company. Doesn’t sound like there is a master plan here.

If your warehouse were wiped out by flood and FEMA or some other local, regional or local government agency could invest low interest or free interest money in your business to get it re-built, re-tooled, re-stocked with merchandise – would you take it?

If there were a well thought out way for you to not pay the high premiums on your health care – would you do it?

If there were a school system in place that held parents, teachers, admin and children accountable – would you support it?

If there were a huge financial crisis with an impending depression, that banks were failing – and the government could step in and clean up the balance sheet and save the funds of average depositors, stabilize the bank and sell it or close it orderly – would you support it? (By the way, the FDIC is not government funded – it’s funded through insurance premiums paid by banks.)

If credit were suddenly non-existent for your business because the huge volumes of non-existent ‘on paper only weath’ had vaporised nearly overnight – what would you want the government to do? Not spend, as the GOP leadership has recommended a ‘spending freeze’ or infuse the system with capital and some regulations to get it going, free up the money for small, medium and large businesses – and consumers – in kind of an emergency ‘triage’ and then ask congress to figure out new and better ‘guidelines’ or regulations to prevent this type of thing from happening again.

What would you do? I hear the criticism – but don’t see any action. The previous admin and congress shoved $750 billion into the system without any paperwork or agreements it seems…and it didn’t do a darn thing. Now we’re ‘forced’ to do something more and it’s in the press and the public, the president is open to questions and making as many transparent decisions as possible…what do you want?