Of Grants, Sailing, and the Current Political Situation
8 Comments Published by Dr. Beyster September 30th, 2008 in FED, Politics.On Wednesday I had lunch with President Weber, Joe Passaretti, and Sandy Ehrlich — all of San Diego State University (SDSU) — and Mary Ann Beyster. The folks at SDSU appear to be quite happy with the grant funds provided by the Foundation for Enterprise Development to support graduate students on their studies of employee ownership. I believe that with the funds provided they will be able to bring along four or five students for a year. As you may remember, we are doing a similar thing with USD, UCSD, Carnegie Mellon, Rutgers, and MIT. I have great expectations for this program.
On Friday I went out sailing on Solutions and we made a routine trip to Oceanside and back. Saturday we were invited to attend a gathering at the home of Pauline Foster in Rancho Santa Fe. This was a thank-you gathering for those who had made contributions to UCSD in the last year.
I’m tempted to shut up about the political situation facing this country at this time. I’m an old guy but I’ve never seen anything like this. It reminds me most of what I remember happening during the Great Depression. Maybe not quite as bad, but getting there. I’m personally not convinced that either candidate has the charismatic characteristics of an FDR or a Kennedy necessary to bail us out in this time of crisis. However, it’s been my experience that this country always finds a way. I think I will hear a few more debates before I make my mind up, and I personally intend to vote, even if I choose a losing candidate.
– Bob
Safe at sea, that’s the place for me. Unfortunately, I’m not there.
I saw an AP report in the Washington Post this morning that said consumer confidence is up a little bit.
I’m on the frontlines of capital spending, and, for now, I see healthy capital spending. My largest customer is experiencing increased sales. Their product is a large and essential component of their OEM customers’ products. Given what I know about their customers, someone is forecasting pretty healthy growth in Server sales. I won’t pretend to know anything about the future of the economy, this is just my report from the frontlines.
Best regards,
Bill
Bob:
You will no doubt vote for the Republican candidate as so many of my reflexive Republican colleagues do. But, before you do, please think about the advisors that surround Sen. McCain. His campaign manager is Rick Davis, who, as the lobbyist for AIG for five years (at $35K per month!), helped remove any regulation against their wild investments. McCain’s security advisor is Randy Schueneman, again an ex-lobbyist, but he lobbied on behalf of the country of Georgia (of recent fame). There are about eight other lobbyists around McCain who lobbied against all sensible regulation of the financial markets – just like they did during the savings and loan fiasco in the 80′s. That one cost us all about $400B, and John McCain was at the center of the “Keating Five”; the five Senators that tried to protect Keating.
Bob, I learned from you the value of preserving and building value, and of conservative management. McCain is impulsive; he is a gambler (literally and figuratively). His selection of Mrs. Palin would be a joke if it wasn’t so serious. McCain has had four encounters with melanoma, a very serious ailment. He stated that Palin was the best candidate for Vice President: does he really suggest that she is more capable that Governor Romney, Governor Huckabay, or Mayor Guilliani (who managed a city of 7 million, whereas she had 700,000 in Alaska)?
If he wanted to have a conservative woman, he could have chosen Sen. Olympia Snow or Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. Palin is a frightening joke, and would make an appallingly bad President. McCain is – again – gambling, only this time with our future as a great country. I appaeal to you and other conservatives to put Country ahead of Party and vote for Obama. Obama is very smart and is certainly capable.
Sincerely,
Dick.
Separate from party persuasions and views, I think that everyone can be heartened that Obama’s incredible ability to seed and grow a grassroots organization on nearly every college campus is inspiring future generations to become informed and involved participants in our political process. Students attending the very same California colleges and universities Bob just visited are hosting fundraising events, handing out voter registration information, making calls and even taking buses to Nevada to knock on doors.
Bill: Thanks for your message and for the report from your perch that capital spending is picking up. I hope that others in business are finding the same thing — especially in rural communities where many companies have been driven out of business. — Bob
Dick: You’re probably right on your rendition of the facts about the present financial catastrophe, that both Obama and McCain through their votes in Congress influenced the outcome. I however disagree with you about Obama — I think he is all show and no experience. Unless something dramatic happens in the upcoming debates I believe I will vote for McCain. I await the debates. — Bob
B. McClurken: I think your efforts to improve voter response for Obama are commendable and I’m sure they will help and maybe even put him over the top in November. I have however chosen another candidate — John McCain. It’s my opinion that he is better qualified to be president in view of his national defense and counterterrorism credentials and his role in trying to pass legislation that would have avoided the kind of financial catastrophe we are facing now. If Wall Street had listened to him then, we wouldn’t be in such a pickle. It’s a free country, and may the best man win. — Bob
Dr. Beyster, as way of clarification in my prior message I did not align myself for or against Obama, nor did I write that I was campaigning on college campus (or anywhere) on his behalf. I was writing about how he has energized the younger generation to become more interested in, and educated on, political history, government policies and spins. I personally believe this speaks well for America’s future. In fact, I have not seen such interest in a Presidential election (incidentally, by both Obama AND McCain supporters) since my own days on campus during the time of Vietnam, Watergate, the women’s movement and the ERA. Then again, my classmates included many with strong Washington ties – including Bay Buchanan and a Nixon-Eisenhower family member — so perhaps my college campus, tiny as it was, was among the more politically aware. That said, with all due respect to your comments on McCain, the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac debacles, while certainly noteworthy contributors to today’s economic crisis, are not the primary reasons for why we find ourselves in such a mess. The real culprit is a total disregard for the founding principles on which our country is based – especially Alexander Hamilton’s recognition and insistence that our banking system be based on a system of checks and balances. If you are voting for McCain for his position on these two government-sponsored enterprises (in addition to counter-terrorism), fine. As you noted, this is a free country (though those that questioned whether going into Iraq was worth the governmental expense and the best use of our troops to defeating terrorism when Iraq was not responsible for 9/11 were made to feel otherwise at the time). But if the best man (or, in the case of Palin, the best woman) means voting for someone who supports deregulation, accountability and oversight, please let me bring your attention to the following McCain quote, which is a matter of Congressional Record (1993): “This (banking) legislation takes a small but important step toward eliminating the tremendous regulatory burden imposed on financial institutions… One principal reason banks are unable to make loans is the bewildering array of statutory and regulatory restrictions and paperwork requirements imposed by Congress and the regulatory agencies. While a case can certainly be made that every law and regulation is intended to serve a laudable purpose, the aggregate effect of the rapidly increasing regulatory burden imposed on banks is to cause them to devote substantial time, energy and money to compliance rather than meeting the credit needs of the community.â€
B. McClurken: I hope you’re not right about McCain removing the various regulatory constraints on banks that we so desperately need now. I’ll check around — if it’s true, then that will affect my opinion on how I will vote. On the other hand, it’s not clear to me what the track record of Obama and Biden were on these same deregulatory measures. They may be as guilty as you say McCain is. One of the overwhelming reasons I will vote for McCain is his attitude on the Iraq War. He felt that Saddam Hussein was up to no good. Obama appears to feel we should have ignored Saddam and focused on Afghanistan. Can you imagine a world where Saddam remained dictator of Iraq, threatening the use of nuclear weapons? What would Obama have done about it? It’s not as though there was no Al-Qaida presence in Iraq. Why McCain doesn’t ask Obama what he would have done about Saddam Hussein is beyond me. It’s a tactical error. — Bob