Stimulus And Jobs

More good news today out of California regarding Green Technology and the creation of jobs in that sector through Obama’s stimulus:

Solar company to file for bankruptcy

Knowing what we know about Obama’s business acumen the story here isn’t that he was wrong about a company and it’s ability to flourish.  While interesting, THAT aspect of the story has been told and retold.

No, the REAL story here is the fact that the company failed even though it received some money, a LOT of money:

A California-based solar company that received a $535 million loan guarantee from the Obama administration announced Wednesday that it will shut down.

The company, Solyndra Inc., said Wednesday it would suspend its manufacturing operations and lay off 1,100 employees effective immediately. The company said it intends to file a petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Another one bites the dust.

I’m interested though, what were the details surrounding the company’s decision to throw in the towel?

“Regulatory and policy uncertainties in recent months created significant near-term excess supply and price erosion,” Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison said in a statement. “Raising incremental capital in this environment was not possible. This was an unexpected outcome and is most unfortunate.”

Oh.  You mean that laws being passed make it difficult to predict the future?  And this inability to predict the future is creating a situation where banks don’t wanna lend you more money?

Weird.  Who woulda thought THAT?

6 responses to “Stimulus And Jobs

  1. Government just isn’t any good at picking winners.

    • Government just isn’t any good at picking winners.

      Nope. Government is horrible.

      Everything is, or should be, rationed. Be it by time or money. God help us when the rationing technique is political pull.

  2. I see Obama the Great caved to Republicans after his stupid stunt of scheduling his speech opposite the Republican debate . This has got to anger his supporters because once again he looks weak, instead of really sticking it to Conservatives .

    • see Obama the Great caved to Republicans after his stupid stunt of scheduling his speech opposite the Republican debate .

      To the extent that Obama needs to deliver another speech, I don’t see the value, he should not have scheduled it during the debate; pure politics.

      That he didn’t correctly access the Republican response, which was to simply not convene Congress, demonstrates that “thing” that I have been lamenting for years;

      This man doesn’t know how to lead.

      Were I Boehner I think I would have accepted an invitation from the President of the freaking United States. But I also am unaccustomed to wielding power. An interesting power struggle for sure.

  3. I think Obama looks far classier than Boehner on this — Boehner looks like a spoiled brat who wanted to play tough. Obama realized it wasn’t worth fighting (it would be silly to make the day of the speech a major issue) so he probably rolled his eyes, smiled, and said, “whatever.”

    I continue to be impressed by Obama, and as I noted in my own blog a couple days ago, the signs are good that he will be re-elected. There is also renewed evidence that the stimulus overall worked. That a company that was involved went bankrupt is hardly a major issue in an economy like this — that’s cherry picking in a way that hides the overall analysis. There have been numerous reports recently about how economists do see the stimulus as having been effective at preventing a major contraction and starting a slow recovery.

    Presidents Bush and Clinton governed during economic good times, and they were roundly criticized by the other side (remember all the stuff hurled at Clinton by the right, or at Bush by the left). That’s happening to Obama too. Yet he remains personally popular, much of the negative job approval ratings recently have come from people on the left who have come to recognize that Obama is not the progressive they wanted but a pragmatic moderate — they’ll vote for him next year though.

    • I think Obama looks far classier than Boehner on this

      This comment may be on the wrong post….but I’ll answer:

      I think they both look bad. Obama for two reasons, Boehner for one:

      Obama looks bad because:
      1. He engaged in poor form scheduling the speech on the debate.
      2. He looks like a wimp.

      Boehner looks bad because:
      1. When the President of thee U-nited States of Ameri-fuckin-ca schedules a meeting with you, you attend.

      Managing organizations is a skill like any other skill; it takes natural aptitude combined with 10,000 hours to become world class. Obama has nether demonstrated aptitude OR 10,000 hours. What he HAS done is thunk about a lot of stuff.

      I would be curious if Obama had any experience what-so-ever in even managing a weekly staff meeting that involved him meeting individual goals within the constraints of organizational limitations. I have never even heard ANYone mention that he had.

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