Vulture or Crony - Pick Your Poison

This President seems to have a knack for being on the wrong side of the argument on most issues and the fact that his campaign is continually on the defense bears this out. His recent attack on Governor Romney’s so called “vulture-style” of capitalism as opposed to his “crony-style”, as he moonlights as CEO-in-Chief, is a futile attempt to justify the fact that an economy driven by political favoritism is preferable to one run by the pursuit of profit.

Of course, the scientists who work for the Energy Dept (their leader is a Nobel Prize winner) were a bit turned off by this profit thing, and decided to hand Solyndra a $535M loan guarantee even as government accountants said this was a loser. So the White House said let’s have the IRS triple the tax credit for Solyndra customers which would offset the fact that they were not competitive, not recognizing the fact that when you are in a global market this doesn’t work! So 1,100 people get laid off, no severance, no vacation back pay, but there still was room for $370,000 in bonuses for 20 “selected” employees.

In another flagrant case of crony capitalism, let’s look at Obama’s Detroit venture. The campaign is crowing about the success of saving GM and Chrysler. Yes, they are both still operating but they arguably would be at the same place if they went through an orderly bankruptcy like the steel and airline industries did which made them more competitive. Instead, with Obama’s capitalism we hand a total of $83B to both firms and give the UAW union controlling ownership as a prize for causing the bankruptcies in the first place. In turn, the UAW bars 2,500 non-union laid-off workers from transferring to other plants. Wow, this is beginning to look somewhat vulture-like! Also, let’s forget about contract law and screw the unsecured bondholders in favor of the union. All those bonds go belly-up and all those people who invested in GM and Chrysler for their retirement, well, they just have to work a little longer. That is, if they can keep their job.

Also, lets subsidize GM’s electric car and give everyone who buys one a $10,000 tax credit. No wonder GM is doing well, they have a gigantic loan for which they don’t have to make a payment for another two years, and all their money-losing activities are subsidized by you and me. Even Barney Frank can run that company and make it look good, at least, for a while.

OK, now you decide. Do you want Obama crony capitalism, which is driven by political favors, subsidies, mandates, and tax credits or Romney vulture capitalism driven by profit? At least when vulture capitalism fails its private money that suffers, not you or me. I don’t know about you, but I’ll take vulture every time.