Lynn Tilton for President!
I’ll say that again, “they,” as in their personal choice, don’t all want to be the big shots; they want to be themselves. Perhaps our kids want to be a river guide or a carpenter. Maybe they want to be a truck driver or a bank teller or play in a band.
Quite possibly their interests lie in becoming a waitress or a seamstress or house painter. Pray tell, they may even become so delusional that they want to be a farmer and feed us, or work in a factory that produces the goods that maintain our daily lives! I have an idea; maybe we should ask them?
I’m going to qualify my stance yet one more time; I’m an education junkie. I hold education in the highest regard, but there are a thousand ways to become educated that do not include four years of conventional college and the associated costs of that endeavor.
We’ve made it tough for kids these days to want to consider anything other than college. They are hammered daily to believe that without a college education, they will become the dregs of society. They are told that a four year college education is the equivalent of our former high school educations. What a shame.
The blue collar worker is painted as nothing short of a necessary peon class in a society that has jettisoned our industrial and diverse farming employment, for that of the high-minded world of financial services and information technology.
Parents are brow beat daily to begin sacrificing at a young age to pay for their kid’s college. Mr. Obama recently stated, “You don’t blow a bunch of cash on Vegas when you’re trying to save for college.” I watch the TV ads where a couple is holding a little baby and ask one another, “Is it too early to start saving for her college?”
There is something very, very smelly about this whole college push. For one, where do the $Billions of college savings go during all of those years before the young kids actually use them? Surely not into stock and bonds? Surely not to Wall-Street or the big banks that have drug our nation to its knees?
What did Mr. Obama say during his state of the union speech regarding school loans? Our president told Americans that he wants to pass a law that requires paying back student loans in an amount that does not exceed 10% of the of the debt holders gross annual income. No income, no pay. He wants to forgive any remaining student debt after 10 years for those who chose public service. Those who chose employment in the private sector will have to wait for 20 years to be forgiven.
I’ll translate the president’s message, “You won’t earn enough from the job that you will receive after college to repay your student loan. And public service is more deserving than employment in the private sector.”
We need to remember that when our Vice President, Mr. Biden, was campaigning, he stated that we should require 16 years of mandatory government paid education!
I suppose that our government and their owners, big business, had to spin some type of propaganda in order to move our industrial base to the cheapest factory floors on the planet. After all, they pulled it off in broad daylight.
The spin was that we were moving away from a manufacturing basis. We were moving away from the ignorant factory workers and dirty job of farming that built this country. We were moving on to a 100% college educated citizenry that would find perpetual work in the fictional world of services and information.
Do you know what factory workers have in common with engineers, professional management, Information technology personnel, research and design personnel, scientists, human resource professionals, professional trainers, and accountants? A factory! Looks like the baby was thrown out with the bath water huh?
The result of this misguided adventure is 27 MILLION Americans who are either unemployed or underemployed and that number will continue to climb. The results of our little experiment aimed at allowing U.S. Corporations to move offshore for greater profits is millions of Americans losing their jobs, their homes, and their hopes and dreams.
PLEASE take the time to view these two videos. This, my friends, is the only answer to putting America back to work. I think we should impeach Obama and elect Lynn Tilton to the presidency by next Monday!
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Good work! Those are great video clips.
She will have to cherry-pick the places to invest if she is to make a profit, but did indicate that she knows that and is also willing to settle for thinner margins.
It is marvelous that she is putting her money on the line to help grow the domestic manufacturing base. I noted in the first one that she briefly mentioned tariffs in other countries. Our government could magnify her efforts by imposing tariffs against the countries with the enormous trade deficits while the rebuilding takes place.
When you consider the fact that the planet has a labor supply that greatly exceeds the demand, it becomes a dog-eat-dog battle for the jobs. We must join the battle and stop subsidizing foreign payrolls with our “free market” policy. It has proven to be a one way ticket to economic disaster.
She is truly an amazing person. Like I indicated yesterday, there are very few folks, like you and here, amongst us who have most all of the dots identified and can maintain focus on all of our core issues simultaneously. And make sense of the insanity.
We can and should do what we can (not what the present administration is doing) to turn our situation around, by paying attention to folks like Folkerth and Tilton and a handful of others; but going one step further and initiating action to further the causes identifed by the few amongst us who actually understand the truth and can verbalize it and more importantly; substantiate what they profess. -bb
Lynn Tilton is spot on. I see that today another 480,000 joined the ever increasing Unemployment line. Add to that the 860,000 that Uncle Sam overlooked in their counts and even Ebenezer Scrooge is going to be hard pressed to make a penny.
Can you believe this headline!
What planet is the Associated Press on?
First-time jobless claims rise unexpectedly:
New jobless claims rise unexpectedly to 480,000 as layoffs continue, jobs remain scarce.
-Associated Press
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Firsttime-jobless-claims-rise-apf-106391038.html?x=0&.v=8
Wow! The hits just keep a coming today.
Here’s another problem that wasn’t projected to hit until 2017 or was it 2019?
“A report from the Congressional Budget Office shows that for the first time in 25 years, Social Security is taking in less in taxes than it is spending on benefits.
Instead of helping to finance the rest of the government, as it has done for decades, our nation’s biggest social program needs help from the Treasury to keep benefit checks from bouncing — in other words, a taxpayer bailout.”
http://finance.yahoo.com/focus-retirement/article/108747/next-in-line-for-a-bailout-social-security?mod=fidelity-readytoretire
More unemployment means more people taking early retirement and drawing from Social Security at age 62 and not waiting until 65 or 67.
More unemployment also means less and less people paying into Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Federal Income Taxes, State Income Taxes, etc, etc, etc…..
Stupid government you’d think they would have seen this as the end results of NAFTA and WTO. Anyone with an ounce of common sense and 8th grade math abilities could have connected the dots.
I’m curious about how this tax payer bailout of Social Security will work.
Let’s see, under normal circumstances, the taxpayer and his employer send withholding to the US Treasury, then the US Treasury cuts a check on the SS account and mails it to a retiree, OK so far.
Now the taxpayer becomes unemployed and there is no withholding, still the US Treasury keeps cutting the checks to the retiree.
The Treasury runs out of money and for replacement, taps the unemployed taxpayer - and here is where the minor miracle happens, I suppose.
When will the realization occur that we are tapped out?
Mike, you regularly use the exponential explanation. Here is a graphic example of disaster occuring at an exponentially growing pace.
They moved up the break date for Social Security to 2016 in 2007. I’ll bet the end of tax season will reveal another unpleasant “surprise”.
Mike, getting our children apprenticed to real occupations so they gain real skills is a much better idea in our day than plunging kids and parents into massive debt.
I am beginning to think that gardening should be the new required course at schools - at least that way our unemployed offspring will be able to feed themselves.
We have two children in high school and four who have graduated college (thankfully, all employed). We are encouraging our young ones to get jobs after high school in some occupation they have an interest in, starting at the ground floor and learning the business from the bottom up.
Amazingly, in our small town, Home Economics and Shop are still taught! Our son is gifted in woodworking, he could easily go on to make useful products. Our daughter is a food artist and is learning nutrition at home. She could be part of the real food movement and help people stay away from fake food.
We need to get practical very, very quickly. College is a rip-off, not to mention they turn our children into socialists. Time for something better.
Thank you for these columns! We appreciate your wit and wisdom.
I work for Lynn Tilton and one of the main reasons I left a comfortable job elsewhere to work here was because of her philosophy of enlightened self-interest as applied to finance and capitalism. I think it’s great and I want to be a part of it.
That’s just my personal opinion; I’m in no way authorized to speak on her behalf or her company and would never try to do so.
“I am beginning to think that gardening should be the new required course at schools - at least that way our unemployed offspring will be able to feed themselves.” - Country Lady
Fantastic Idea! In my neck of the woods the local 4H Clubs teach children how to shoot, how to ride horses, and how to preserve food. Skills that are good to have. Last time I checked Playstation 3 and X-Box 360 skills that most kids have are useless when it comes to providing food and shelter.
“Feb. 4 (Bloomberg) — Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania, will consider Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection along with tax increases and asset sales as options to address $68 million in debt service payments due this year, the chairwoman of a City Council committee said last night.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aRLYN3..REz4
Good thing the recession is over. Anyone really believe that? I do!! But that’s because I believe the Depression is just getting started.
Pennsylvania, birth place of Liberty now bankrupt. Pennsylvania, home to the Great American Steel Mills now bankrupt. Pennsylvania, once a manufacturing Juggernaut, now bankrupt.
Country Lady,
I agree that education should have a more practical focus. I make my living with tools in my hands and a pick up truck.
My experience with public education differs from yours somewhat, though. I’ve always felt the educational system is too CONSERVATIVE, too invested in the status quo, too intent on training automatons to provide a compliant work force for the corporatocracy. The last thing they want to do is teach children how to think for themselves, to master the art of critical thinking. If more of the citizenry could think critically, we would not have tolerated the governmental nonsense we have had for the last 50 years, regardless of which political party was in power.
Socialism is not a dirty word. I have close friends who live in Canada and Europe. They have FREE health care. FREE college education. Six months of paid maternity/paternity leave. Pensions. 6 weeks of vacation a year. Almost no homelessness. Yeah, they pay 50% of their wages in taxes, but look at their quality of life.
If a government serves the people, it’s good government. Our capitalist “democracy” fails miserably.
‘Stocks tumbled more than 2 percent Thursday and the Dow fell beow 10,000 for the first time since last October amid worries about the US job market and Europe’s ability to get a grip on its debt.’
Can you show how FREE is working out well in Europe?
http://www.cnbc.com/id/35234593
Canada is fortunate to have a small population with still abundant natural resources. Socialism is a great system until it runs out of other peoples money. In my humble opinion Local Capitalism is a better route to take. Local Investment, Local Government is also far more accountable to the people.
I am neither a capitalist nor a socialist.
I believe in free enterprise - lots of family-owned small businesses that serve their local communities. I believe that if you put your name on what you produce you will put quality and pride into it also. I do not believe in large corporations, the stock market or international bankers.
Free enterprise can only flourish when governmental powers are kept strictly in check - which was the goal of our Founding Fathers. They gave the greatest liberty to the individual, second to the State and, third, with strong limitations, to the Federal government.
Those of us who go back to the original principles of free enterprise may survive, but it is very difficult to practice free enterprise when the government has its nose (and hands) into everything.
George,
The Harrisburg bankruptcy consideration is frightening. How many cities must be right behind them? Nearly every state is running out of unemployment funds and are attempting to borrow the same from the Feds.
Our Federal government was forced to borrow a full 1/3 of their annual budget and plans to continue to borrow at extremely high levels for the foreseeable future.
College educations are subject to the LAW of supply and demand. As we push record numbers of kids through college, they now find that college level jobs are saturated with applicants. Therefore the value of their education is compromised by a purposeful oversupply.
Wordherder,
You may have been referring to healthcare and education only, but Canada is not a Socialist state nor are there any in Europe.
While at one point there were many, most Socialist nations have failed and only five remain, those being Communist China, Laos, Cuba, North Korea, and Vietnam.
There are other countries with extremely high levels of taxation who provide socialized services, such as Sweden and Canada.
I unfortunately disagree with stating that these nations have a high quality of life as compared to the U.S.. There is nothing free, and the citizens of those nations pay a heavy social toll. I lived and worked in Sweden and would be happy to discuss the differences with you.
When I went through Canada in September there was quite a stir in Vancouver about tents and belongings taken from parks while the homeless were out trying to find day jobs.
http://no2010.com/node/871
I have no idea how this will work itself out. I hope in the brave new worlds of those who think they can force a solution, I will be allowed to retain ownership of land and some rights of access to any surface water on that land.
Thanks to all for thoughtful responses.
I feared my comments would cause a stir, but in a vigorous debate everybody wins.
I don’t favor large centralized government no matter what the system. But we get taxed at almost the same levels as Canada and the EU, when you factor in federal, state, FICA, medicaid, property, sales, road use taxes, etc., but get much less in return.
Centralized government will be impossible as we see the end of affordable petroleum, and we’ll be the better for it, though I expect that it won’t go down without a fight.
Local government is theoretically more responsive to the people, though in practice they set themselves apart from their constituents, and have accrued the power to tax and seize assets and property, in NC from state statute.
I expect that post-collapse governing will devolve into some form of feudal war-lord arrangements.
I find it amazing that we are thrilled to death to watch Lynn simply speak common sense. What a load of crap we have been sold all these years by the so-called experts. I distinctly remember the shellacking Ross Perot took when he said that NAFTA would result in a “giant sucking sound of jobs leaving” Who’s laughing now?
Foxfire is a series of books that I have read and reread since my youth. I am updating that old collection and highly recommend them to one and all.
http://www.cumberlandbooks.com/foxfiregroup.php
This just came across the wires more financial troubles for Europe:
“Portugal moved towards a political crisis on Thursday night as its finance minister appealed to opposition parties not to defeat the minority Socialist government over a regional finance bill that he said would undermine the country’s international credibility.”
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/76aa4a50-11d9-11df-b6e3-00144feab49a.html
So many dominoes are falling I can no longer keep track of what one will be next…….
Towns going bankrupt, States going bankrupt, now European Countries on the the brink of political and economic meltdown. Best to focus on our own communities, neighborhoods, and family, as Country Lady was recommending earlier.
Hotrod,
“While common sense is not common, enough common sense is equal to genius.”
George,
Is there some kind of global meltdown going on that the 10 O’clock News forgot tell us about?
Hutch,
The Foxfire books are a real piece of history with valuable information regardless of how this thing come down.
Is there some kind of global meltdown going on that the 10 O’clock News forgot tell us about?
I’m not sure but it looks bleak in Greece as well.
“Greek tax collectors and customs officers walked off the job on Thursday, kicking off a spate of strikes against government austerity cuts designed to halt a financial crisis caused by massive debt.”
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.5b6a37fcdd25faa823b7f90e1a8417b5.2e1&show_article=1
So let’s see the country has massive debt and the tax collectors just quit. How’s that going to work out????
You know with 2 or 3 shots of Bourbon I’m finding the days news amusing. Here’s one that reinforces what Mike has been saying for years.
“Moody’s Investors Service fired off a warning on Wednesday that the triple A sovereign credit rating of the US would come under pressure unless economic growth was more robust than expected or tougher actions were taken to tackle the country’s budget deficit.
In a move that follows intensifying concern among investors over the US deficit, Moody’s said the country faced a trajectory of debt growth that was “clearly continuously upward”.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a82cfe04-10f5-11df-9a9e-00144feab49a.html
Good thing our President and our Government says the recession is over.
One last bit of interesting news. China is experiencing Dust Bowl conditions much like the US did back in the 1930’s. One thing different though over a Billion Chinese could be affected by food shortages and continued drought and topsoil erosion. Darn Exponential Growth sure does have unintended consequences.
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1738165_1585074,00.html
George,
It really is good that the recession is over, otherwise can you imagine how bad this thing would be by now? Heck, who knows, cities, towns, counties, states, and even entire countries could have gotten into trouble had the recession not ended.
Thankfully we have a president who understands all of this economics stuff and is going to get us back on the track riding the exponential express bullet train.
Surely if we go faster with more people crammed into the same train, things are bound to get better. It worked well for Japan. Do you know what a train packer is?
Tillton is a rising star and her DMH story is impressive but I am just naturally suspicious of seeming Noblesse Oblige.
Noblesse Oblique - “With power, position, and wealth, come responsibilities.”
Taking the factories away from the American Middle class was similar to taking the buffalo away from the Indians; both groups depended them for their very survival.
I found an interesting and informative site in my wanderings along the Worldwide Web and just wanted to share it with you all:
Portal Seven, has some very interesting charts and tables.
http://portalseven.com/employment/unemployment_rate_u6.jsp?fromYear=1994&toYear=2010
She may be the next Warren Buffett. I have not found much information on the degree of leverage she has used and the remaining debt levels of the companies she has acquired. She is advocating direct government loans for her businesses. She may get them and they may help keep those companies healthy, providing much needed jobs in this country.
All of the debt forgiveness and repayment plans that Obama mentioned in his state of the union speech already exist.
10 year debt forgiveness for public service
http://go2.wordpress.com/?id=725X1342&site=parentstudentloans.wordpress.com&url=http%3A%2F%2Fstudentaid.ed.gov%2Fstudents%2Fattachments%2Fsiteresources%2FLoanForgivenessMarch18.pdf
Income based repayment plan
http://www.finaid.org/loans/ibr.phtml
I wonder why he didn’t mention the fact that these programs already exist? Could it be he wants to take credit for them.
Hotrod,
Good find and excellent question. Perhaps Obama is planning to extend these programs to all types of student loans.
As you can tell by reading the content of your posted links, the imbalance between education costs and income was fully recognized and officially subsidized beginning in 2007.
That’s our government in action, if it doesn’t work…subsidize it. If it does work, tax it.
Wonder why Obama didn’t give Bush the credit…?
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-miserable-cramped-slums-of-beijing-college-graduates-2010-2
Mike,
I’ve got a question. After further spin and manipulation the US Department of Labor released a report saying that the overlooked 600,000 Unemployed Americans in 2009. They also stated that only 20,000 more Americans filed for first time Unemployment benefits in January 2010. Some how this allowed U3 Unemployment to drop from 10% to 9.7%. It also caused the U6 Unemployment to drop from 17.3% to 16.5%
What am I missing?? I see 620,000 total added to the ranks of the unemployed yet the % unemployed drops? Did more than 620,000 unemployed die or move out of the country? What about the additional 125,000 that are added to the labor force each month? With my 8th grade math abilities these numbers aren’t adding up!!
http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=201002050845dowjonesdjonline000354&title=data-snapus-jan-jobless-rate-falls-to-97-payrolls–20k
$100 Million Bonuses and with the HUGE Blizzard hitting the North East this weekend you are seeing headlines like this coming out of Philadelphia:
Storm costs may break city budget
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20100205_Snow_taking_toll_on_Phila__city_budget.html
If basic city services can not be met how can people make it to work to earn those $100 Million Bonuses?
I think I may have found a more accurate measure of Unemployment/Underemployment than the U3 and U6 numbers. Here it is:
Food Stamps!
From a Feb. 5th report. I see numbers jumbled up in it but it ranges from 32.8 million to 38.2 (I think one of them is a transposed number) to this staggering quote!
“USDA estimates up to $58 billion will be spent on food stamps this fiscal year, which ends Sept 30, with average enrollment of 40.5 million people.”
The latest US Population estimate I could find was: 308,624,000
So if you do the RAW math
308,624,000/40,500,000 you come up with 1 in 7.6 Americas on Food Stamps. Or 13.1% of the population on Food Stamps.
What is unclear is if the 40.5 Million figure that the USDA provided includes children or just the adults that are receiving the food stamps.
I forgot to add the link:
http://www.forexyard.com/en/news/food-stamps-set-ever-higher-record-328-million-2010-02-05T223642Z-US
Here’s a better link on Food Stamps and American Families struggles to put food on the table.
Nearly one in five U.S. households ran out of money to buy enough food at least once during 2009! That’s 20% of the population!
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60P65N20100126
George,
Unemployment is calculated on such a rank system that literally millions are never counted. As people lose unemployment benefits, they are simply not counted!
Those entering the workforce are more like 200,000 per month. Remember, 1.5 Million kids graduated from college alone. But, since they have never had a job, they aren’t counted.
The last number that I saw was 27 Million at some level of unemployment.
Your food stamp example would support that higher number.
Food stamps are not a good measure of unemployment.
I thought you had to prove that you have no money to qualify for foodstamps.
Many people have ample savings.
Many people have a spouse that they can rely on.
13% unemployment seems like a conservative number.
Lynn Tilton is a con artist. PERIOD!
Her dust to diamonds theory has left a huge amount of blue collar workers on the unempolyment line.
I worked for a company that she purchased a few years ago for pennies on the dollar. This 275 year old company was only further destroyed after her chapter 11 circus show. Two years later, about an 1/8th of the empolyees remain. Vendors will not sell to them, dealers have exited in a hurry and no one will buy from them.
What is the gain?
She is a propaganda machine with deep pockets and sagging DD cups. She isn’t doing anything for anyone except herself, which she is allowed to do. Hopefully, someday a few federal agents will find a nice shiny pair of wrist bracelets for her.
Tim,
Please provide additional info regarding Tilton’s bad dealings and con artist past.
My agreement with Lynn Tilton’s interview is that industry must be brought back to the U.S. It is the ONLY possible way out at this point…period.
Other than that, I know little about her business dealings.