Outsourcer-In-Chief: Obama Of General Motors

At a Colorado pep rally, President Obama praised his GM bailout as an example for American industry to follow.

“The American automobile industry has come roaring back…So now I want to say what we did with the auto industry, we can do it in manufacturing across America. Let’s make sure advanced, high-tech manufacturing jobs take root here, not in China. And that means supporting investment here. Governor Romney … invested in companies that were called ‘pioneers’ of outsourcing. I don’t want to outsource. I want to insource.” Applause!

According to Obama, GM does everything right. It offers high-paying jobs to American workers. It invests at home. GM put American manufacturing back in the high-tech race on American soil. The new GM is good for America, and America is good for GM, as a former GM chairman declared in 1953. GM is back where it should be.

We need to look no further than General Motors’ own figures to  learn that GM outsources almost two thirds of its jobs overseas. Less than one in five GM vehicles are manufactured in the United States.


go to forbes.com

Award for Best Defenses of Bain Capital Goes To John McCain and Steve Forbes

If Mitt Romney is the Republican nominee, he will somehow have to explain to American voters what private equity  is and its positive contribution to growth and prosperity. Because private equity and venture capital are complicated businesses, this task is not easy. I credit John McCain and Steve Forbes for coming up with the easiest-to-understand explanations.

Number 1: John McCain

Blitzer (Situation Room): How do you rebut that (claims that Bain cost jobs) in the general election?

McCain:  Well I’d compare that with the half billion we put into Solyndra with the 5 million they put into Staples which hires, I don’t know, ten thousands people or more. Unfortunately in the free enterprise system, there are winners and losers, and there is competition in the free enterprise system. When you total up what Bain capital did, the successes far outweigh the failures. And if you are not willing to allow, as tragic as it is, for some enterprises to fail, well obviously that is the essence of socialism.  Source

Number 2: Steve Forbes

In terms of Bain itself, I've not looked at the particulars but that whole nature of that business -- most businesses eventually succumb and if you can save it, that's great.
If you can start one that succeeds, that's great. But it's like baseball. Seven times out of ten you're not going to get that hit. The same is true with what he did in terms of equity capital. But the key thing is -- did he create jobs overall, because a lot of those companies that are going to portray him as killing jobs and that kind of thing would have gone under if they didn't have someone to save it. Sometimes you have to tighten the belt to save the company. Source