Transparency

Obama has talked

(Constantly)
about Transparency.

But the Facebook grassroots campaign and the "openness" of the new administration seem to be a thing of the past. Immediately after being elected, Obama hedged on his promises to do a great number of things quickly within his first term. His "transparency" allowed only 4 reporters to the re-do of the oath Wednesday.  Senior officials refused to be referenced by name (until the Press Secretary made a blunder and referred to one by his first name.)  Only one outlet was given an inauguration interview: one that donated to his campaign. Does this sound like Change and Transparency?

But this is not the first time a leader has come in with promises of Change, promises to fix a broken economy. To change the standing of a people in the international world. Think of 1933 Germany.

Transparency was the unique promise Obama gave to the American people: we could follow the change in our country like we were a part of it, somehow. It was part of the reason Obama became the media's darling. Now that the campaign is over, so is that Transparency. But people are still following, some blindly, without thought to the Change within Obama himself and all his previous promises.

Right now, the only transparency for Obama are ice sculptures like the one Wash. U. commissioned for its campus.

(picture taken by me, outside the Student Center)

The sky is falling: The automotive industry

The sky is falling. At least, that's what we are made to believe, with bailouts requests coming from all sides of the economy. The latest one comes from the perpetually ill automotive industry, with Ford, GM and Chrysler asking for a portion of the $700 billion bailout.

Usatoday.com posted an article yesterday about the bailout of the automobile industry that read:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said in a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson that the Bush administration should consider expanding the $700 billion financial rescue to include car companies.

"A healthy automobile manufacturing sector is essential to the restoration of financial market stability," they wrote.

I think most of us can agree that a healthy automobile manufacturing sector would be beneficial to market stability. But unfortunately we do NOT have a healthy automobile manufacturing sector in the United States.

If I have been alive 28 years ago, I think I would be having deja vu right now. Unfortunately, the people currently in power cannot remember the government bailout of Chrysler in 1980, which only postponed the crisis until now. (Obama was only 19 then, remember.)

Yes, it would be unfortunate for all the people in the three main Detroit companies to lose their jobs, but GM, Ford and Chrysler do not have a profitable business model. A bailout only delays the inevitable fall; in fact, it augments the future impact by taking tax payer dollars to patch a failed business. They are taking money that could be aiding current, profitable businesses that would grow the stagnant economy and instead throwing them at the union-tied auto industries.

The U.S. auto industry has failed because it refused to focus on the future of the industry and instead focused mainly on SUVs and trucks. The auto industry failed because it is locked into an unprofitable relationship with unions. People are paid, under the union regulation, to not work. How can the American people be expected to be the crutch for these companies?

Innovation should be rewarded, and that is what a free market does. Sadly for the current American economy, the continual propping of the auto industry has impeded upon the free market and has in turn created a greater crisis. Had the auto industry been allowed to fail organically twenty odd years ago, it would have been a gradual process that would not have such an impact.

President Obama needs to take a look at history... the current auto industry in the U.S. is going to fail at some point. Throwing money at the auto industry only postpones the problem for future generations to deal with.