Michelle Bachmann said it, along with a bunch of other simply crazed comments, but she said it, "This country is running out of rich people!"  The suggestion is that rich people have been carrying the load and are tired of doing so.  The private sector is so burdened with this poor economy they just can't go out and have dinner with champagne every night anymore!  {Sigh}  Woe is they!!! Woe!!!

What Bachmann should have said is, "Rich people are running out of the country!"  What was their first sign, the very first sign, that sticking around was a bad idea?  Oh, I'm no economist, but when Bush was continuing with tax cuts while getting the nation into two wars, that might have been a clue that management was incompetent.  After all, no President in the entire history of the United States had ever thought reducing revenues when war time expenses were demanded of a country was a good idea.  I'm pretty sure it's not a local phenomenon either. I believe this concept of cutting taxes during war time is something globally recognized as somewhat less then wise.

The rich people, those share holders who feel that a company owes them a piece of the action in perpetuity, have fled the country and taken their money with them. By last report, the US was requesting 50,000 names from people with Swiss Bank accounts.  The very example of rich people leaving and taking their money with them.  It is not the job of rich people to clean up after anyone, even themselves.   They eschew the toil of working to make companies profitable, preferring to leave when things go south and finding another host to support the lifestyle to which they have become acustomed.

Then karma came.  What goes around comes around, and this flat world is in fact round.  In their efforts to avoid the uncomfortable task of righting the party of the Right, they shirked their duty to country.  They are citizens of the world and their loyalties are to multinational corporations fighting to prevent the UN from interfering in their unethical and immoral colonial-esque practices.  It's hard not to make a profit when you can manufacture sneakers for about $10 in one country and still return to the US and sell them for $100.  But when the global economy collapses, what good are boat loads of $100 sneakers when no one can afford them?

One has to wonder what would this nation be like if those regal refugess who could not bare to take a stand against the absurdities of the Bush Regime had actually remained to fight.  What if they had taken the bold step of confronting the Bush Regime and demanding he refrain from the deeds that were destined to failure?  Where would we be now?  What if they had realized that their silence, bought by lucrative contracts in the wars, would lead to this gloabal collapse?  Had they fought him then, within their own party, would we have been able to fight and defeat them now?  Would their fortunes be greater if they might have seen how the entire system was in jeopardy and that their fortunes would share the turmoil they allowed to be unleashed, even though the easy money of military contracts might ease their pain?  Guess we will never know, but there is a part of me that still resents their cowardice for letting Bush run wild.  This collpase was predictable.  

[That title?  It's just troll bait.  I was fishing for lots of comments so this post stays up on the board for a while.]

As I was reading the excellent post by Miguelitoh2o, "Are we all Keynesians now?" it occurred to me that we should value people with a mind set like the teacher from my small engine repair class.  This old-timer, pushing 80 and still working on small engines and teaching others to do so, could diagnose and repair any small engine.  He enjoyed taking junk from people's yards and making it run.  He was also proud of the age of his car because he never passed anyone on the road with the same car.  His pride was in the fact that he kept it running long after everyone else's had been run into the ground. 

What struck me about the post by miguelitoh2o was the observation that all these financial people were interested in short term gains.  But that interest is inherent to unbridled capitalism.  It's the natural goal of every business out there because competition demands profits each and every quarter.  The free market expects nothing less and will not abide for long the business that fails to produce profits consistently.  Not only must there be profits, but they must be commensurate with what others are achieving at the same time, produce or perish!  This is how the markets all were drawn to the sugar of mortgage derivatives.  They had performed exceptionally for a time  However, the present state of affairs is grim. 

Here is another analogy that I like to reference as an observation of management styles.  There are two ways to work with a horse.  One can beat the horse and win that one race.  But the horse will then only run when it is beaten and it will not win as many races over its career.  In addition, the horse will resent the trainer.  Or you can work with the horse such that it enjoys running.  If it does, it will run all day and all night, resting as needed.  It's career will be long and successful as it will keep itself in shape.  But beware, by request, because it likes the trainer and loves to run, it would also run itself to death.  Better to bridle the horse that loves to run then to beat a horse into the ground.  Here we are now with a beaten horse.  It now loathes running and is spent for having done so.  The market demanded it run its fastest.  There's nothing left for it to give.  Oh, that we could just get another horse.

The practice of business these past few years has been about the same.  Run their employees at a sprint and replace them when they fade.  They had to make profits equal or better to their competitors just stay in the game.  Now the game is near over and there are pretty much no competitors left who can run.  The investors are loathe to feed the horse or water it anymore.  They are still vibrant!  They are merely sitting in the stands ordering their mint julips and waiting for more horses to enter the field so they can play again. 

If we had been more like the small engine repair guy, this would never have happened.  If we had kept our eyes and ears tuned to how things were running, we would have taken the time to adjust and maintain things more consistently.  We would have spent the money to change the oil and filters.  We would have taken it apart occassionaslly to see inside and clean things up so that they could run efficiently for another few years.  The repair guy is not the market.  The repair guy is government and how it should be.  The government is the trainer who observes his horse and knows when it is time to take a race off to extend its career.  

It seems to me that we should all take to heart these repairmen and trainers.  We need to get back to appreciating what we have.  Rather then replacing things, we should maintain them.  We should evaluate our investments for what is going to go the distance, not who or what will win the sprint.  It will be thousands of small engine repair people and trainers who will return this country to prominence.  Creating these behemouths is how we came to be in the mess we find ourselves presently.  We put all our eggs in one basket.  We made companies and banks "too big to fail".  Well, they can fail and they are failing and we have no other horses/ engines then this one.  We have to address the whole problem and many small people working in many areas at once will get us back in shape.  

Rush Limbaugh is the leader of the GOP.  Well, Is he right?!?!?  I mean, there was this announcement he made, which was not news to me, that Rush Limbaugh was the leader of the GOP.  It was a few days ago on his show, the show that airs from coast to coast, on more then one station in some markets, in areas where there is no alternative voice.  Rush Limbaugh came right out and said he was the leader of the GOP.  The $33 million dollar man announced he instructs the entire Republican Party on what direction they will take, right there on his show, heard by people in all 50 states and overseas. 

What a deal!  Rush is free from the burden politicians have to hide any ties they may have to any corporation or organization.  He does not have to hide where he gets his money.  He gets unspeakable amounts of money, and he isn't even on steroids.  Quite the opposite really.  His drugs of choice impair their abusers, to the point where they might lose their hearing.  But why would it matter?  Rush doesn't need to hear what anyone else has to say.  They can write it down for him or give him an outline and then just let him work his mesmerizing magic.  It's working real fine.  Maybe his magic is mind reading.  I mean, I don't know if they prompt him at all, except that they love what he's been saying and he makes millions of dollars each month for doing it, so it is not a stretch to assume he must be making them happy. 

An entire Party is abstaining from participation in a crisis of national importance.  What is shocking is that the greatest losers in this predicament continue to extol his heroism.  Rush is not some altruistic diviner of truth and justice.  He's somebody's tool, a very well paid tool, who will survive what calamaties may come because once you get enough zeroes in your salary, if you're fired tomorrow, it will matter not.  He will never miss a meal for the remainder of his life, which will probably be somewhat shorter then expected given his abyssmal diet and losing battles with addiction.  What will be curious is to find out is what will happen to the extra money because he lacks an heir and still remains without having managed to survive so much as a marriage.  He has failed at that bipartisan effort three times, so far.  But I guess that's what happens to people who don't care what anyone else has to say, or whether they will miss any meals in the remainder of their lives. And they love him for it! 

Limbaugh wants President Obama to fail.  He said so.  He wishes the President of the United States fail in his effort to revive the economy.  Here we are, with four years to go in his term, and Rush is already making his views known across the nation, he wants that nation to fail.  The Republican Party, those survivors of the Bobbleheaded Congress under the Bush Regime, are in lock step with their fearless Leader. 

What?  You disagree Rush is the Leader of the GOP?!?!?  As I stated at the outset of this post, Rush Limbaugh said he is the leader of the GOP.  That fair and balanced channel reported it.  Every other network reported it as well.  Oh!  That's the mainstream liberal media conspiracy and FOX is in on it too, you say?  FOX, really?!?!?  Well, I could see your point if there was someone, anyone, anyone at all from within the GOP who said it was not so, but there has not been a single denial that it is so.  In fact, there was one voice who questioned it, but then he made an impassioned call to Rush to beg his forgiveness during on-air time no less.  So, he does not count.  That leaves no one.  No one within the GOP has stated that Rush Limbaugh doe snot lead their party.  Even Michael Steele, the Chairman of the Republican National Committee has not denied that Rush is the Leader of the GOP.  So why should anyone believe it is any different? 

What has become the reality of the GOP, is that they are now led by a radio talk show host who gets paid $33 million dollars a year to scream about his desire that this economy not recover.   He's never been vetted.  He's never been elected.  He's never held a single public office of any kind in his known existence.  We don't even know if he pays his taxes, also.