Getting it Wrong -- Again

Here we go again, except that this time both the government and The New York Times is getting it wrong.

Remember Solyndra, the solar-energy equipment company that received a half-billion dollar loan from the federal government two years ago and is now bankrupt? Of course, there should be a post-mortem, but not if it's led by a businessman, and certainly not by Herbert M. Allison, Jr., the same former executive who headed TARP under the Bush and Obama administrations to "rescue" the collapsed and corrupt financial system. (Rescue was the word that The New York Times used. Ask anyone who is outside the financial system and he or she will agree that the word "rescue" is woefully inaccurate as a word choice.)

As everyone knows by now, TARP didn't work out as well as Bush promised or as people grudgingly accepted and expected. It turns out that the banks that were too big to fail became even bigger, and the smaller ones didn't do so well, either. As a friend of mine, who is a management consultant noted, they may be too big to fail, but they're also too big to succeed. Better still, as Bob Herbert, suggested, the government should just "break 'em up."

But let's go forward and let's be realistic. Chances are that no one is going to be prosecuted for any wrongdoing that happened at Solyndra. These days, half a billion dollars is nothing, certainly when compared to the TARP funds that went to regional banks such as Emigrant Savings Bank. (I'll bet most people outside the New York Tri-State area never even heard of Emigrant.) Why even bother? The only thing that's worth doing is having OW (Occupy Wherever) demand that there is either free enterprise with NO government help or nationalize energy and other national resources such as oil. That may be heresy to some people, but to others, it's akin to eating one's cake and having it, too.

A few observations about the mystery man behind TARP: He is one of those Ivy League whiz kids who helped destroy everything in his path. Among them was TIAA-Cref, a company that once had a good reputation in helping employees of non-profits reach their financial goals. Good old Herbie fired 500 employees, about eight percent of the workforce. (Employees called it Herbicides.) I know one of its victims. She claims -- and she is someone I trust implicitly -- that she was let get in favor of a man who had a wife and two children to support. Her husband was working at the time, but they also have two children to support. Looking back, I can't help but wonder if the sexism of her supervisor wasn't influenced from the very top down. I have no evidence to say this; I just don't feel that the choice of Allison is the right one. He comes with too much baggage.

Solyndra was founded in 2005, no doubt with the most noble of intentions, but I can't help but think that it was somehow tainted with the no regulation, get rich quick mentality that has permeated the U.S. for the past 30 years or so, and peaking with the Bush era.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/29/us/solyndra-inquiry-to-be-led-by-herbert-m-allison-jr.html?_r=1&hp