Fisker Flashback: Ray Lane Touts Obama As Greatest Venture Capitalist-In-Chief Using Solyndra as Evidence
You can't make this up. Ray Lane, the very nicely politically-connected investor whose connections to Obama are often credited with Fisker scoring millions of taxpayer money, made a video several years ago praising Obama as a great new model of venture-capitalist-in-chief.
I can't believe any intelligent human being would think that the right role for the President is to be a venture capitalist with taxpayer money, or that even if this were so that Obama would be the right person with the right skills to do it well, but I suppose trying to score hundreds of millions in taxpayer money changes your perspective.
But the funny part is the example he uses - he thinks the best evidence of Obama being a swell investor is ... Solyndra. Obviously filmed before Solyndra failed (and the US government allowed all the remaining assets to go to another set of Obama cronies), this video is hilarious.
SamWah:
Well, hilarious if you love crying and sobbing "I'm/we're broke."
April 1, 2013, 5:28 pmmesaeconoguy:
You hit upon a bigger point there, Coyote – these aren’t intelligent people.
Obama, his followers, and likely everyone around him are mindless half wits, with zero knowledge of economics and “the real world.” They are, in very many ways, completely disconnected from reality.
Then they make statements like that.
April 1, 2013, 6:43 pmRaymondbyEllis:
They are however well-connected politically. Writing that, I'm not a real fan of Ayn Rand, but sometimes real life is a parody...
April 1, 2013, 8:35 pmmarque2:
" mindless half wits, with zero knowledge of economics and “the real world.” They are, in very many ways, completely disconnected from reality."
Where is Larry on this subject?
April 2, 2013, 3:22 pmmesaeconoguy:
He's out scouting for the next Solyndra.
April 2, 2013, 5:11 pmmarque2:
Hmm, they must have laid him off at the DNC haven't seen him post lately. Well, hope he finds another job soon - or as he prefers, hopefully he gets years of government welfare benefits.
April 2, 2013, 5:22 pmbigmaq1980:
We agree on many things, but I don't think these people are half wits at all, nor are they disconnected from reality.
Only in the lotteries do I see real fools handed hundreds of millions of dollars to personally control.
Guys like Lane know unbelievably darn well what the reality is and what they are doing. Their single aim is to take money that essentially belongs to you and I and funnel it to their pockets in any way they can. And they are smart enough to know how to do that.
His was/is a typical crony/political entrepreneur response - complement the President for his insightfulness and "obvious" intellect.
In lesser political circles this is called "brown nosing".
Lately, along these lines, I've heard a lot of talk about the "brilliance" of the "new" "PPP Model" - another crony scam - Public/Private Partnership. It is often used around discussions about infrastructure spending. Watch for it, if you haven't heard it yet!
April 2, 2013, 7:08 pmDick Gillette:
And think about this: Who is the Chairman of the formerly great Hewlett Packard? Ray Lane.
April 2, 2013, 7:50 pmmesaeconoguy:
If what you are saying were correct, that would constitute fraudulent/criminal behavior.
This moron, like Obama, actually believes his own bullshit enough to think that 1) this technology will revolutionize things, and 2) he’s helping change the world.
He’s completely clueless that you can’t bend the laws of economics to fit a crap, uneconomic business model. That’s what I mean by mindless half-wit.
But I agree, he thinks “Hey, I’ll give it a shot, and it if fails, I can line my pockets a bit, and look good doing it.” So that thinking is somewhat part of the calculus.
Re: PPP – correct, it is another engineered way for rent-seekers to scam the taxpayer. See Jim Johnson, Fannie Mae, 1990s.
April 3, 2013, 5:48 pmmesaeconoguy:
Update:
Ray Lane (moron above) has resigned from the HP board:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/hardware/hp-chairman-ray-lane-resigns-ralph-whitworth-takes-over-for-now/articleshow/19391059.cms
April 4, 2013, 4:03 pmbigmaq1980:
I don't think this happens directly as one favor for another, but government is too big to ignore and many "play the game" largely for their personal interest. This often leaves everyone else "holding the bag".
Unlike the possibility for politicians who get elected, from reading his resume (Chairman of HP, COO of Oracle, VP EDS), I highly doubt Ray Lane is a moron.
It is not a lack of intelligence or intellectual laziness that someone like him behaves/says things like this.
People like him are amongst the most dangerous. They wear capitalist clothing, but are cronies at heart.
April 4, 2013, 5:30 pmmesaeconoguy:
Disagree. Judging from the way HP has flailed and scrambled the past decade, I’d say he’s at least inept, and at worst corrupt or completely incompetent.
And I think it was Bill Hewlett himself who is well known as a far-left wacko, plowing money into all manner of idiotic left wing causes (which fail). Corporate groupthink is unbelievably corrupting and powerful.
So I think it’s very likely Ray Lane is in fact quite stupid.
But agree completely about his danger – he is a member of the ruling cabal.
Slight correction: Ray Lane is ex-Chairman of the Board, HP:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/hardware/hp-chairman-ray-lane-resigns-ralph-whitworth-takes-over-for-now/articleshow/19391059.cms
April 4, 2013, 7:25 pmbigmaq1980:
I think we have a different definition of intelligence, which I gather is what you are addressing when you mention "half wits, moron, stupid," etc., if the standard is failing to turn around HP.
Where does that put people who never even make it to such a lofty position?
While HP is a failure under his reign, I don't see that as an intelligence problem, per se.
I do think it is important to make a distinction. The ruling cabal is dangerous precisely because they have the smarts to manipulate the "low information voters" for their own purpose.
April 10, 2013, 7:41 pmmesaeconoguy:
I get your point. I tend not to make that distinction, and being in corporate America, I see how unintelligence/stupidity gets replicated - and to varying degrees, rewarded - every
day via corporate groupthink. That’s how they get there.
I’ll make some surprising admissions here:
Corporate America is destroying itself from within, and much of it has to do with the infusion of politics into corporate operations. These politics result in advancement of people like Mr. Lane, who probably doesn’t offend anyone, says the right things at corporate gatherings and cocktail parties, and puts a good “face” on the company. Trouble is, he is likely borderline incompetent, and that manifests in HPs near implosion over the past decade. But because he is well connected, and reasonably well-liked, he gets a pass.
It is image over substance, and lack of critical thinking writ large.
Many, many companies suffer from this disease, and many more will go under because of it.
Mr Lane, being a leftist, doesn’t understand economics (otherwise he wouldn’t be a leftist), and consequently fails. That’s my main criteria for intelligence.
Once the Lane’s of the business world get connected, it’s very hard to oust them, because true competition has been replaced with crony capitalism.
Under more "true market-based" economics, the Ray Lane's of the world get flushed out pretty quickly.
April 11, 2013, 3:32 pm