Obama Stop Pussyfooting!

Okay it’s time for Obama to imitate former President Truman’s “give em hell speeches.” Yes, start a fight for your chance at change. It is interesting to note that when it came to saving the banks the Republicans were oh so mild in their opposition. At any rate, the trillions went out and we are not even sure who got what. Nor have I seen an accounting of how much of these banks we, the taxpayers now own.

I did notice that we, the taxpayers, will be major stockholders in GM, together with the UAW. Now there’s an opportunity to try some new ways to run a company. Having spent many years of a long life trying to figure out a model of “Industrial Democracy” here's a real opportunity to experiment. I don’t know who might still be around who knows how to make Industrial Democracy work. The late Walter Reuther and Irving Bluestone leaders of the UAW believed in it. Forgive me as I am drifting away from my subject. More of this in another blog.

Grasping at straws the GOP has found what they think is a wedge issue. Guess what? Closing Guant’anamo. This only indicates their bankruptcy in the ideas department. I am sorry Obama got himself cornered in this mess. When you consider all the really critical problems out there Guant’anamo is pretty far down in the urgency agenda. But when cornered, the only thing to do is “give em hell.”

GOP desperately trying to come up with an opposition starts a NIMBY campaign, (“Not In My Backyard”) against moving prisoners out of Cuba to the US. Mr. President, would you please remind the folks out in Colorado at the Maximum Security lock up that it’s the Federal Payroll that keeps that town at a very comfortable economic level. If they don’t want the prison there, just ask for volunteer towns across the country: “who would like to have a brand new maximum security prison in their backyard and be on the Federal payroll for the rest of their lives.” I mean the rest of their lives cause when they retire they get the niftiest benefits until the day they meet their maker. Lot better then those GM auto workers who could lose their whole retirement when GM goes belly up. (Just ask the folks in upstate New York if they would like a Federal prison in their backyard. If you ask be ready to build it.)

I know Mr. Obama, that you are very committed to this reaching across the isle stuff. Thats fine as long as you don’t find yourself reaching for hands that aren’t even there. Long ago they have decided there was no way you were going to find a hand to grasp when you reached out. Overwhelmingly the folks across the isle from you have gone hunting to find any way they can to bring you down. So when you reach out and there’s no one there to take your hand and run with you, then it’s time to go after what you want and give the opposition hell. Look, they have made it clear that there is no way in heaven or earth that they are gong to support anything that you want on the “Change” agenda. Another Truman quote might be appropriate. “If your looking for a friend in Washington get a dog.” Mr President If your reaching out and they just ain’t there, I’m sure Bo will always be at your side. Thank Truman for that.

Mr. President one final observation. If you look carefully at how your opposition is scratching around to find issues that might energize the nutpack in the GOP back to life, it becomes exasperatingly clear they don’t have a program of their own. They are looking for some dirt, they hope will wake up the, “Grand Old Party.” Go to think of it that’s a very apt name. Go get’em Mr. President.

Thanks kate N.H.W.Y.

PS. After being rear ended at a red light a week ago, we are both beginning to feel better. Thanks for your concerns. RS

The Fish and the Tern

For many years I have watched the schools of fish bubbling the water in the bay. Out of the sky comes a flock of attack birds diving for the fish. The birds hit the water, grab the poor fish, and its gone. I have long seen this as a metaphor of our lives. I am sure I have been influenced by my mother’s sudden disappearance when I was just a kid. We were poor. There were three kids. She didn’t want anymore. And so in some back alley she bled to death. That was the biggest adversity that I ever had to face.

So here we are driving along Route 25 in Ridge, Long Island. We are stopped for a red light. Both Kate and I are relaxed, enjoying our days accomplishments when out of nowhere comes the tern, a Cadillac Escalade slams into us. Before we know what is happening the emergency vehicles are there. Both Kate and I are strapped onto boards, totally immobilized, put into an ambulance, and taken to an ER. Luckily we are not seriously hurt, just banged up enough to bring on the trauma of one’s mortality. A trauma I am very familiar with.

I believe that early childhood experience has very much shaped how I have lived. Life could be snuffed out in an unexpected moment. Like the fish swimming along minding his own business, one swoosh from the sky and he’s gone. That has made my living intense. I simply am never sure when my walk down this beautiful road might suddenly end. None of this is very conscious. I do believe that makes me want to take as much advantage as I can of this wondrous journey.

Our little trauma has no impact whatsoever on the unfolding drama in the nations capital. Pelosi weaving and ducking on the torture problem. Obama unable to make up his mind to release the torture pictures or not. I see so many of these issues as sidebars or ways to prevent focusing on some of the fundamentals, like “the economy stupid.” I have asked my Congressmen and Senators why they don’t just reintroduce the Glass Steagal Act. (No reply yet.) That would separate our Savings Banks from Investment Banks. That’s what FDR did during the 1930’s depression. It was the repeal of that law that permitted Citibank to buy Travelers’ Insurance and send it on the road to bankruptcy only to be saved by the tax payer.In the meantime, one of the major players in the old derivative stunt crowd, Mr. Geithner, is expected to now make certain that everything the bankers do is transparent. Fat chance. But this story is disappearing from page one. We are losing sight of the issue--”It’s the economy stupid.”

I have noticed of late that there are other voices beginning to ask what happened to all that grass roots support that elected Obama? While he tries to find a place from which to lead, it would be very helpful if our professor President heard more from his constituents. Perhaps that would help him to understand that leading means committing yourself to a position and fighting for it. If your major objective is to have everybody agree with you, that can end us up compromising away all the things we believe in. At some point you may have to fight. Maybe he will learn that as he nominates a justice for the supreme court. Obviously his opposition doesn’t give a hoot who he nominates, they are about to give him a lesson how to fight. Hope he learns from it.

In the meantime keep in mind the fish and the tern, and don’t waste any time being bored.

Thanks Kate. N.H.W.Y.

A Week With a Fox

Remember Isaiah Berlin’s notion of the difference between a Hedgehog and a Fox? The hedgehog does one thing very well, like building a hegehog fence. The fox does lots of different things, some well and some just so-so. I have always felt like I fall into the latter category. Now that’s both a curse and a blessing. This week is a good example:

1. Kate and I went to Broadway to see a play, “Mary Stuart” by Fredrick Schiller, a German poet circa 1700. The play is about the struggle between two women for the crown of England. Schiller was one of my father’s favorite poets. Beethoven used a poem of his for the 9th symphony. He was a champion of freedom. I think that was the idea of the play, two women caught up in the struggle for power. Stuart is held prisoner for 19 years to make sure she does not win the crown from Elizabeth. Underneath the struggle for power there are the Protestant men who don’t want the Catholic men and the Pope telling them what they can and can’t do. The women are caught up in different power groups vying for control.

2. Sunday night we are watching 60 Minutes. There is a segment on the Drone pilotless aircraft and hosted by a new young “glamorous” reporter, Lara Login. She is in absolute awe of this wonderful new weapon of war that can be flown anywhere in the world. It is controlled from Creech Air Force Base in Nevada. It can dump its bombs, kill a lot of people, and return home without a soldier getting scratched. Lara thinks it’s just so nifty that we don’t need any pilots to risk their lives while the bombs are falling. I am beginning to seethe. Don’t they know that it has also killed lots of civilians who just happen to be near the target zone!? All 60 Minutes had to do was go on Google and ask, how many civilians are killed by Drones? Over 516 known. And we wonder why people in the Middle East don’t like us?

I’m up half the night sending e-mails to 60 Minutes asking whatever happened to serious reporting? Or are we just going to be subject to obsequious, glamorous women asking cute questions?

3. Before getting to sleep I notice that the outdoor front censor light is staying on. It is suppose to only be on when there is motion in front of it and go off after 5 minutes. I trace the circuits to see what could be causing the malfunction and decide the car parked in front of it is reflecting light; confusing the signal. I move the car, the light goes out. Thinking about the photo electric cell in the motion light, I remember Einstein played a major role in its invention. Back to bed to try get some sleep.

4. Next morning I wake up thinking about drawers on a writing desk I am making in the shop. Assembling the parts is always the most telling part of furniture making. The drawers are not sliding smoothly. Take off a little here, a little there, and finally we are on a smooth ride. Then I think about finishing. What kind of stain, varnish, or maybe a wax finish? We’ll see.

5. I want to do a blog on Social Security (SS). I get so mad when I hear the pundits with their dire predictions of when SS is going to run out of money. The Government in Washington has been taking money out of the SS trust fund for the last 25 years. Remember the 2000 campaign when Gore and Bush were promising the SS lock-box. It never ever happened. Okay, so you want to know how much the Government owes SS? How about 2.2 trillion dollars! Put that money back in and we have many more years to go before it would run out of money. Funny how we could get up all the dough in a hurry to bail out the banks, but we don’t seem to be able to put the money the government stole or borrowed back in the SS. trust fund.

6. I am reading the Atlantic Monthly article on “Happiness.” It is based on an extensive lifetime study of men and what they did with their lives. It’s very interesting, but I will have to put off commenting because I need to go back and take a look at what others have had to say on the many subjects covered in the piece.

7. It’s morning. The sun is shining. Time to cut the grass. The damm lawn mower battery is dead. What could be draining it? I figure there has to be a grounded wire somewhere. Spend the next hour checking each and every circuit. Ahaa, here it is. A wire with the insulation ripped off needs to be replaced. Recharge battery, put in new wire, and off we go.

8. I have started on a series of poems about life in the early 20th century for my great-grandson Soren. It’s not pressing for him since I am sure he’s very smart and it’s going to be some time before he’s reading. But I am never sure how much time I have, so there’s the pressure to get it done.

9. Keep playing the guitar and singing otherwise you lose it. Especially the hands are getting stiff from arthritis and your vocal chords need exercise same as your legs.

An old therapist friend said I suffered from a “divine curiosity syndrome and that can be a blessing or a curse.” For sure it doesn’t make sleeping easy. So goes the life of a Fox. Sometimes I wish I was a Hedgehog and just did one thing perfectly.

Thanks Kate. N.H.W.Y. (Even when she has a nasty cold.)

Obama: Time to Act

“My Papa dun told me” while growing up during the Great depression that I should always try to have a years pay in the savings bank. Eight to ten thousand dollars a year was about what the average person could earn thirty years ago. I had an account at the Emigrant Savings Bank.The other notable savings bank at the time was The Bowery.

During the hight of the depression the Glass-Steagall Act was passed by Congress. That legislation forbid savings banks from going into the investment business. Why? Because prior to 1933 banks were making investments in all kinds of adventures including the stock market. There were occasions when a bank would lend money to a commercial enterprise and then buy their stock. Obviously if the stock went down, the bank lent them more money to help boost their investment. That kind of behavior is what lead to the Glass-Steagall Act.

Unfortunately, in 1999 during the Clinton administration when he was promoting the “Third Way” dream, that Glass-Steagall Act was repealed. And guess what? The banks went right back to what they were doing prior to 1933 and started to do that very same crap all over again. Lets say that I had my years savings in Citi Corp. They would use my savings for all kinds of weird investments, including some new fangled stuff called derivatives. This might be a bundle of mortgages that some other bank sold to people who could no way afford to pay for them. Now it’s true that my savings of up to $100,000 would be secured by the FDIC (also passed during the Great Depression), but while that took care of me, it did not take care of the bank whose investments are now eating away at the heart of the banking system. The banks are not in a position to lend because nobody trusts anybody else. In a nutshell that’s our present dilemma.

During the campaign when folks were coming down hard on Obama, I wrote a blog titled “Cool It On Obama.” At the time I suggested that we give the man a while before we start going down his throat. Well, here I am about to go down his throat. Obama, you said it, “Take advantage of the crisis to create change.” Well here's something that was screwed up under Bill Clinton that needs fixing right away.

I don’t believe that Summers and Geithner have a hair on their collective heads that is interested in putting some brakes on their old Wall Street pals. Their frame of reference is the world of financial whirligigs. They simply don’t know anything else because they never spent time anywhere else. Oh yes, I am reminded of Summers at Harvard when he made that “sage” observation that “girls can’t do science.” Right there that should have alerted Obama to a man with a very limited view of the world. Hmmm, I wonder if he ever asked Michelle what she thought of Summers observation about the gender of scientists?

What does the President need to do now? He should call Pelosi and Reid over to the White House for lunch and just lay it on the line. You want Glass-Steagall to be resubmitted to the Congress and put on the fast lane to passage. It can be called the Schumer-Waxmen Act or whoever wants to sponsor it. The important thing is some action that makes clear that you are going to reign in the Wall Street jockeys who are smacking their lips for another go at a bubble market so they can get back to buying their Lamborgines.

One more thing Mr. President, I remember when as a middle-aged man I was going to college and I met some pretty smart teachers. When I suggested they might try to put some of their great knowledge into practice as a public servant, I was told on more than one occasion that “some teach and some act.” Mr. President, I know that you used to teach; but now, precisely because you are the President, it’s time to act. Lets get started with the reenactment of some controls over the bonus boys so the rest of us don’t have to bale them out again under the ruse “that we can’t let the banks fail.” I never understood why the average soul who bought a house and is now losing it, can be left to fail; but not the bonus boys who sank the banks. I keep scratching my head over that one.

Thanks Kate. N.H.W.Y.

On Worker Ownership

First let me say I am a very old car buff. I owned my first car when I was about 15 years old and guess what it was, a 1926 Chrysler Roadster with the first hydraulic brake system that failed as often as it worked. It occurs to me that since then in my entire life I have never been without a car. They were my first and most endearing love affair. I also loved fixing them. For many years Chrysler was a favorite primarily because of its superior engineering.

With the UAW receiving a 55 percent stake in Chrysler, that makes it the majority stockholder. Technically it owns the company. God I wonder what Walter Reuther would say to this? He was a firm believer in Industrial Democracy. Well, this may or may not be a good way to demonstrate its effectiveness.

I am reminded of our efforts back in the seventies helping workers gain all or partial ownership of their places of employment. I was at the Ford Foundation at the time and we were in a position to assist in employee buyouts. One of my responsibilities was to keep track of the buyout activities so we could learn more about them.

I remember a quarry in Vermont like Chrysler it was also going broke and was finally saved by an employee buyout. What this usually meant was that each employee would put up X number of dollars to be a part or complete owners of the enterprise. We asked a local newspaper reporter to keep track of how things developed at the Quarry. His earliest reports indicated, “not much change.” The former management team remained in place and the employees continued beefing about them pretty much as they had done before they were the owners. As reported, employees complained that things were just about the same. The employees had real difficulty in understanding their new role as the owners. Old habits do not change with a shift of titles. Eventually the Quarry went belly up anyhow.

Part of the problem back then with employee ownership was it almost always happened in companies that were seriously failing.Very much like the Chrysler buyout today. ODay boats was a perfect example of the failing company syndrome. ODay was a famous sailboat name. (I owned three different ones back in my sailing days.) There was a real interest on the part of the ODay employees to buy it. By the time I learned that it was going broke it was simply to late for an employees buy out. It was already being sold off piece by piece by Lear the company who had bought it only to sell off the pieces.

There were some plans for employee ownership that still exist. A most popular one was the Scanllon Plan. That is basically a stock purchase system. Employees can put aside X number of dollars a month from their paycheck to purchase company stock. As stockholders they then could be represented on the company board. What I find in common with the present Chrysler plan is the employees anteing up to try to save the company. The scenario is not that complicated. Diamler Benz who owned a majority share of Chrysler could not make a go of it. Cerberus a private investment holding company couldn’t make a go of it. Now Fiat, whose track record I wouldn’t brag about is a 30 percent part of the save Chrysler prescription. So it’s probably a pretty sick cookie. Time to give it to the employees.

The employees who are now majority stockholders are going to have to make continuous sacrifices in order to try to keep the ship afloat. To stay afloat a number of variables have to change. 1.The market demand for automobiles has to start to grow again. Presently even the market for popular cars is at a standstill. 2. Chrysler has to come up with a product that people are going to want to buy. In the crowded highly competitive market that is a very big order. Toyota, Nissan, Honda and yes even GM, next candidate for bankruptcy has some potentially interesting cars out on the test track. So you can see this is quiet a big challenge for the UAW as the new Chrysler majority stockholder.

What I find so sad in the Chrysler scenario is a company in bankruptcy is taken over by the union of the employees. They are now expected to somehow or magically to pull it out of the dumps and make it once again a profitable enterprise. If they do it it will probably be at great cost to the UAW members who work there. If they don’t the wise asses out there will say, “see we told you worker can’t run a company that’s proof that socialism never works.”

Without going to into the socialism issue which is erelevant to the present discussion I could point out that there are a number of cooperative employee owned Plywood Mills in the Northwest that have been operating very successfully for many decades. They are profitable and pay handsome dividends to the employees who own them. By industry standards they are considered the most efficient plants operating in the US. Anyhow they are not comparable to the Chrysler problem. I wish they were.

Thank Kate N.H.W.Y.