In 1988, I invested most of the earnings from this lecture circuit acquiring the leasehold on Connecticut’s Stratford Inn. Hotels, inns and restaurants have always held a special fascination for me. The Stratford Inn promised the realization of a longtime dream to own a combination hotel, restaurant and public conference facility — complete with an experienced manager and staff.
In retrospect, I wish I had known more about the hazards and difficulties of such a business, especially during a recession of the kind that hit New England just as I was acquiring the inn’s 43-year leasehold. I also wish that during the years I was in public office, I had had this firsthand experience about the difficulties business people face every day. That knowledge would have made me a better U.S. senator and a more understanding presidential contender.
Today we are much closer to a general acknowledgment that government must encourage business to expand and grow. Bill Clinton, Paul Tsongas, Bob Kerrey and others have, I believe, changed the debate of our party. We intuitively know that to create job opportunities we need entrepreneurs who will risk their capital against an expected payoff. Too often, however, public policy does not consider whether we are choking off those opportunities.
My own business perspective has been limited to that small hotel and restaurant in Stratford, Conn., with an especially difficult lease and a severe recession. But my business associates and I also lived with federal, state and local rules that were all passed with the objective of helping employees, protecting the environment, raising tax dollars for schools, protecting our customers from fire hazards, etc. While I never have doubted the worthiness of any of these goals, the concept that most often eludes legislators is: “Can we make consumers pay the higher prices for the increased operating costs that accompany public regulation and government reporting requirements with reams of red tape.” It is a simple concern that is nonetheless often ignored by legislators.
A Politician’s Dream Is a Businessman’s Nightmare: A 1992 column on the realities of running a business, by George McGovern, the 1972 Democratic presidential candidate, who passed away at the age of 90 in October.
Timely read.
People think they’ve voted for Obamacare, more lavish food stamps, higher minimum wage, greater Social Security/Disability payments, etc. The trouble is there’s NO. MONEY. for this. America has outspent the planet. The official Congressional Budget Office estimate of a Washington-sized government requires the rest of the planet to put a fifth of its GDP into buying U.S. Treasury debt. Now, and forever. That is NOT. GOING. TO. happen. At some point, some guy nobody’s ever heard of on the other side of the planet is going to decide that now is the time to yank the rug out from under the U.S. dollar, and the minute that happens, we’re Greece. And, if we don’t apply the brakes quick enough, we’re Zimbabwe. There’s nothing holding up the joint anymore except the U.S. dollar’s status as global reserve currency, which is basically a decades old legacy from when this was a functioning, commercial republic in which people did not loot the future…
Mark’s latest tome: After America: Get Ready for Armageddon [Amazon link]
Related:
It is now left to the international bond markets to bring discipline to American governance. In due course, they will.
Little Election Day fun!
Saw this in line at the elementary school where I voted in 2008.
Let’s play ‘choose the caption:’
“They may need to add a chapter if __________ wins.”
Cover image: Disaster! Catastrophes That Shook The World
George Will on ABC’s This Week, August 26, 2012: With most politicians, the problem is their inauthenticity. [Romney’s] problem is that he’s authentically what he is. He spent his formative years in the Middle West in the middle of the last century. He’s a child of the 1950’s. I speak as one myself, from both places in time and geography. He has the reticence of someone raised by the people who were raised by The Depression and The War. He has a low emotional metabolism. That’s who he is. He can’t turn to the country and say ‘I feel your pain’ because the pain isn’t his. It’s other people’s. What he can say is ‘I can fix your pain’ and that should be enough unless we’re electing a talk show host.
Very astute commentary.
But please don’t put your life in the hands / Of a Rock ‘n Roll band / Who’ll throw it all away
Ahem, or a rock ‘n roll politician.
Oasis - Don’t Look Back In Anger
Timely exchange from the 55 year-old pages of Atlas Shrugged
“He didn't invent iron ore and blast furnaces, did he?”
“Who?”
“Rearden. He didn't invent smelting and chemistry and air compression. He couldn't have invented his Metal but for thousands and thousands of other people. His Metal! Why does he think it's his? Why does he think it's his invention? Everybody uses the work of everybody else. Nobody ever invents anything.”
She said, puzzled, “But the iron ore and all those other things were there all the time. Why didn't anybody else make that Metal, but Mr. Rearden did?”
A message from kids of #Syria to Obama’s daughters
Malia and Sasha Obama,
Tell your father that we are being assassinated.
— Zabadani, Children of Syria
Tweet via @monakareem
Infographic: The Obama Economy - By The Numbers
I mostly consider myself a libertarian and I was inspired to create the infographic out of a general frustration with the current economic environment. While I don’t solely blame President Obama for this, I do believe his policies have lengthened (and in many ways worsened) this downturn. Although the infographic is implicitly critical of President Obama, I wanted to avoid opinions and evaluate the hard numbers set against statements and promises he has made in the past.
— Web designer and developer John Ekdahl
Been making the rounds.
Empirically, pretty damning.
Recall:
If I don’t have this done in three years, then there’s going to be a one-term proposition.
— Barack Obama, 2009
Just For Reference™
Click through for the high-res version.
![[Infographic] The Obama Presidency - By The Numbers](http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6028/6196456311_6b68be17bb_o.png)
(Source: The Atlantic)
Chris Christie: Comedian, Pragmatist
But he has four children, ages 8 to 17, he will not abandon for presidential politics. When he visited a workaholic aide during her difficult labor before her daughter was born, he said, “Put away your BlackBerry, you are in the middle of a miracle.” As subtle as a linebacker, as direct as an uppercut, Christie, explaining why he will not run, demonstrates why many wish he would. When supporters argue, “You can’t say you’re not ready — look at Obama,” he replies: “Yeah, look at him.”
Hilarious!
I have no problem with folks saying Obama cares. I do care. If the other side wants to be the folks who don’t care? That’s fine with me.
President Obama on “Obamacare.” (via kileyrae)
Jesus Christ, Tumblr. 2,000+ notes for that?
President Ned Flanders, everyone:
Well, tippety-top of the A.M. to every-good-body here. As chairman of the PTA, I am de-diddley-lighted to take over here and I think I can put the “pal” back in “principal!”
