Cincinnatus BLOG *** Political Commentary - Social Commentary

  Start small: dispose of a pesky corporate CEO, who is not compliant and objects to your grand design for the U.S. automobile industry. Who could object to the summary dismissal of the unpopular Mr. Wagoner, after all he was just getting in the way of the grand plan. Never mind that President Obama had no such legal authority. By simple fiat, he fired a sitting corporate CEO, and overrode those with the legal authority to make such decisions, the GM board of directors. Like so many politicians before him, he instinctively knows that in an opportune economic crisis, it is only a small step from being the duly elected "President" to being transformed into a charismatic leader with the power to bend the will of the people to his own. It… Continue reading | 113 Comments

  No institution, including city and state governments, should be permitted to grant a new defined-benefit pension. A defined benefit plan is a plan in which the benefit on retirement is determined by a set formula, rather than depending on investment returns. We do not have Nostradamus's ability to prognosticate and we can't know if today's iconic companies will be mere shells when those pensions come due 30 years hence. Do we need to be reminded of those great icons of the Airline industry like TWA, Pan Am and Eastern to understand how empty those pension promises can become? Yesterday it was the Airline industry today it is the Automotive industry. GM's pension system had a $20 billion shortfall as of Nov. 30, 2008, based on numbers the company provided the… Continue reading | 25 Comments