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CEO’ OH: Business Leaders who Ignored Warnings and Facts about Obama are Speaking Volumes with their Actions in Response to his Policies
If ever there was a CEO that seemed to fully endorse the economic policies of the Barack Obama administration, it was GE’s Jeffrey Immelt, who has enjoyed time on Obama’s Economic Advisory Board as well as a heightened profile as a result of his closeness to the president. That’s why it raised eyebrows when he was rather overtly, if mildly critical of Obama’s regulatory policies at a private dinner party for Italian businessmen.
The potential for that incident to have a significant ripple effect throughout the private sector likely contributed greatly to the White House reaching out to Immelt almost immediately in order to minimize the PR damage. The reality is that if Immelt holds those views, what about CEO’s with far less of a connection to the president?
As a lead writer for HotAir.com, Ed Morrissey is available for interviews to discuss what he sees as a potential awakening among private sector leaders as well as the impact Obama’s policies are having on their decision making. As Morrissey points out, the facts about Obama’s record and inexperience were always available to business leaders that voted for him. Perhaps it’s a testament to how far charm can take you.
Someone once famously said, “If you want to get to the bottom of something, follow the money.” The same holds true if you set out to determine why business owners are not investing in expansion or the hiring of new employees. What you’ll find is that instead of investing in such things, business owners are hoarding their cash. The reason? A perception that is gaining traction within the private sector: Obama is anti-business and the uncertainty that ensues from such a perception is causing business leaders to play it safe.
In a recent post, Morrissey takes issue with solutions to this problem posed by Washington Post writer Fareed Zakaria who amazingly prescribes another stimulus to solve the problem.
Says Morrissey: “Oddly, Zakaria offers a hair-of-the-dog solution in the short term, demanding another government stimulus package in the summer.” He then takes the alcoholic metaphor one step further, demonstrating the blatant illogic of such a position.
“Zakaria spends most of his column showing how destructive the government interventions have been, and then argues we can’t live without just one more round, like an alcoholic who promises to swear off the bottle tomorrow.”
In a way not too dissimilar from CEO’s who voted for Obama and are likely regretting it in large numbers, proponents of Keynsian style economics are being confronted with cold hard realities. The one difference is that the latter doesn’t seem prepared to change course and act according to those economic realities. Whether pride, ignorance, naiveté, or just good old fashioned stubbornness, there’s one thing these CEO’s seem to have that advocates of endless government spending don’t – an ability to make decisions rooted in laws of economic physics.
THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE FROM HOT AIR MAY HELP DURING SHOW PREP:
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/07/05/the-ceo-problem/
HERE IS A LINK TO THE ARTICLE BY WAPO’S FAREED ZAKARIA
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/04/AR2010070403856.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns
ABOUT ED MORRISSEY…
Ed Morrissey is one of the top writers for Hot Air, a politically conservative website that has become widely recognized as one of the most insightful and popular when looking for news in politics. Morrissey's work is frequently mentioned by the likes of Rush Limbaugh.
When Morrissey first launched the conservative political blog "Captain's Quarters" in October 2003, he could hardly have predicted the impact that his venture would have on the media and political debate. As the New Media emerged as a counterbalance to established media sources, "Captain Ed", as he is known to his readers, rode his prolific essays about national politics, foreign policy, the presidential election, and the failings of the mainstream media to the vanguard of the New Media movement. Edward Morrissey's efforts as a leading blogger have tremendous reach; most recently, his revelations about secret testimony in a Canadian political scandal threatened to topple the Liberal Party government. Captain's Quarters has led the effort to bring accountability to mainstream media sources such as CNN and its former head of programming, Eason Jordan, who resigned under pressure from the New Media for his unsubstantiated allegations about assassination plots by the US military to target journalists in war zones. Ed Morrissey also writes extensively on First Amendment issues for the blogosphere and is one of the original signatories for the Online Coalition, a nonpartisan group of bloggers which demands equal treatment for New Media citizen journalists as their corporate brethren of the mainstream news outlets.
Edward has helped to create a model for success and expansion of the influence of the blogosphere into other communication channels. His essays have appeared in the New York Sun, the New York Post, and the Daily Standard. Ed Morrissey also co-hosts a weekly talk-radio show in Minneapolis with a group of Twin Cities bloggers, and has appeared on television and radio in the United States and Canada for his commentary on breaking news stories. His breadth of experience, engaging style, and cultivation of loyal readership – between 900k-1 million per weekday on Hot Air - give him unique insight into the past, present, and future of the New Media.
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