Goldman Sachs is in control of our economy. People can call it Wall Street and that doesn't do this situation justice.
Lehman Brothers was taken out because they were a competitor of Goldman Sachs. Goldman Sachs has been the frontman and pointman of the New York City Banking syndicate. If we look at the individuals at the helm our country's financial cornerstones, then you will see this syndicate's representatives in charge or near the core. Washington Mutual was forced into the hands of JP Morgan and an attempt was made to force Wachovia into Citigroup. Hmmm, seems like they were trying to consolidate several banks into New York financial control to me. And who was the head of the New York Federal Reserve? Our current Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
Who was our last Treasury Secretary? Henry Paulson. And two Treasury Secretaries from the Clinton administration who were at the forefront of the derivative debacle were Larry Summers and Robert Rubin, who both were employees of Goldman Sachs. They both also have an association with Citigroup. This tangled web isn't really deceiving. It is just unbelievably blatant and redundant. These people have so many conflicts of interest that it becomes annoying to go through them all.
At last weeks House Oversight hearings, we saw startling testimony which had Timothy Geithner and Henry Paulson looking like kids who had gotten caught with their hands in the cookie jar. Below are videos of those hearings. I hope you will watch the testimony - look at their body language and listen to them. Rationally defined, the appearance of impropriety is impropriety.
Congress Lady Marcy Kaptur questions Geithner about Goldman Sachs, while Geithner answers condescendingly.
Watch Paulson stumble and bumble over Geithner's conflicts of interest.
Congressman Stephan Lynch Democrat Massachusetts questions Geithner about AIG and Goldman:
Monday, February 1, 2010
Sunday, January 31, 2010
January 30, 2010 Blizzard
Video of the blizzard of January 30, 2010 that occurred in Hickory, North Carolina. We had over 8" of snow that started on January 29th at about 5:30pm and did not stop until this afternoon around 2pm. The roads are compacted with ice and it looks like this stuff will be here for a while.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Free Enterprise versus the boys of Goldman Sachs
Voluntarily or Through a Subpoena, Issa and McHenry Call on Towns to Bring Geithner Before Oversight Committee - I would like to thank Congressman McHenry for calling for Congressional hearings involving the Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner. I think we are starting to gain traction on this issue. Geithner, Henry Paulson, Larry Summers, and Robert Rubin all ran Goldman-Sachs and have held positions at the higher echelons of our government and the Federal reserve. It is time for the clowns of today to be brought to the realization that most of us live with. The appearance of impropriety is impropriety.
It is time to end this. These people think that we are their servants. They think they are better than us and we are here for their disposal. They are criminals. Why does someone rob a convenient store and get seven years and these people have stolen trillions, played games with their tax bills, facilitated insider trading, arrogantly displayed blatant conflicts of interest, and diluted the value of our currency. Sociopaths never think they will ever be held accountable. It is time to pay the piper!!!
As you can see, I attended the Town Hall meeting on Free Enterprise this past Tuesday. I truly do believe that this was one of the most important events that we have seen in this area's history. This event ranked right up there with Congressman McHenry's Town Hall from this past August. Like that meeting, this wasn't really about local issues. It was about how national policy is having a direct effect on Hickory's Economy.
Danny Hearn, the President of the Chamber of Commerce, has hit it out of the ballpark several times this year. No one can state that the man has been resting on his laurels. He has brought forth a lot of innovation over the past year and people can see the passion he exudes when they listen to the inflection of his voice as he addresses the issues of today. I know that this era can be quite stressful and overwhelming, but people can see he is facing these issues in the trenches head on. He is right there with us. He keeps saying, "Where's the Urgency?"
This meeting wasn't about a bunch of people jumping on the bandwagon, like we saw at McHenry's Town Hall in August. That was a spectacle to behold and it definitely served a purpose, but I fear that many of the people that were there that August night have gone back to the six pack and the recliner. That night there were 1,500 people in P.E. Monroe auditorium and question after question was asked pertaining mostly to healthcare. That event lasted over 3 hours. I believe that most of those people from that night feel that the battle has been won, but this is not some simple matter. I believe that it is true that people do get the government they truly deserve.
The meeting on Tuesday was great, because it was mostly the business people and stakeholders of the Hickory area. These are the people who have the most to lose. The subjects broached here were not dumbed down or sanitized to the least common denominator. This was an event where adults addressed one another as adults. This was about getting down to the brass tax.
Danny Hearn opened this forum by talking about the virtue of Free Enterprise, but in the end I wish that someone would address what we are truly talking about here. We are talking about Capitalism. We are talking about allowing market forces to dictate commerce. That has been given a bad rap, because of the corruption that has been allowed to permeate its way throughout our capitalistic foundation. That is the reason why so many have bought into the nanny state, because they feel that they have been cheated.
Danny talks about American's trusting entrepreneurs more than CEOs. That might be because the average person can relate to the small businessman. Americans understand that a successful small businessman works hard just like they do, many times right beside them, and they realize that our country was built upon such egalitarian principles. It is the essence of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Ask the average employee, all things equal, who would you rather work for and they would choose small business over a huge corporation most every time.
Danny says that you cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. Yes, we have long been ruled by divisions and this is where we have gotten off track. This goes back to the days of Teddy Roosevelt and the Robber Barons. The vitriolic class warfare that he exuded was unnecessary. All we needed was equal protection under the law, but instead we got more laws and the beginning of the precedent of having law stacked upon law without real and equal enforcement of the laws - like in the book Animal Farm when it talks about "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."
Now we see how divisions rule our lives. We see men pitted against women, white vs every minority, natural-born citizens vs immigrants, divisions by sexual preference. One can go on and on. It has become a part of our everyday lives. At one time, we were called the melting pot, but can that be said any longer? We need to get back to being Americans.
Americans do want freedom, but freedom has just become a word. People have been all to willing to sacrifice liberty in the name of security. I like when Danny talks about the sense of possibilities. It's like the old saying that if you work hard, then you can obtain your dreams. We cannot obtain our dreams, if the government is always going to stand in the way and tell us how to direct our lives. It seems like now that if you work hard, then the great American succubus is going to come along to see what it can get out of you. That is what has happened to the dynamism of our economy. This succubus has its tentacles in every aspect of our society. It must be removed to restore the energy and ability to grow to our nation and its people.
I think that David Chavern and Congressman McHenry had a focused and clear message. Mr. Chavern talks about the role of the Chamber in explaining why free enterprise is important - business is the answer and not the problem. Businesses need some assistance from the government, because so many elements of our society are out of control. In the current environment, people look at business and capitalism as evil. The political environment is not conducive towards getting the economy back on track. We don't have too little regulation, we have too much and it isn't effective. We need regulatory reform. We need effective regulations.
Mr. Chavern talks about the need to get back to basics. People keep looking to the government to solve their problems and they are hostile towards business. They believe business is tied into the government and pitted against the average individual. He says that we need people to understand that Free Enterprise is you. We need 20 million jobs over the next decade and it isn't going to come from the government.
Mr. McHenry talks about small business being the lifeblood of our economy. People make us strong and give us the capacity and the way forward. We (government) need to stop making the problem worse. We need to put a cease and desist order on new regulations. This is creating an uncertainty in the economy that keeps businesses from making investments. Government has been soaking up capital that businesses can use. We need to have trade policies that back up the American workforce. We don't need to have trade just for the sake of a trade agreement. We need a level playing field that will help us to have a stronger economy. We have to have people involved and engaged. How do we make this possible?
I think the bottom line is that we need to get back to the best of what this country used to be. Some people don't want to turn the clock back, because they were hurt by the old system. We have to admit there was racial and gender discrimination in the past, but would our nation be better off to throw our whole system out or to bring the best of the system to everyone?
We cannot do this by spreading the wealth. We cannot divide the pie. We need to grow the pie. We need to be more productive. We have to remove the American Succubus from our lives. That Succubus has been fostered by a rogue element within our government that does not live of, by, and for the American People. These people are pushers who want to get you addicted to government largess, while siphoning off monies for their personal enrichment. This element lives of, by, and for the themselves in the name of the bureaucracy.
These individuals look to empower themselves by empowering government as a corporate entity, for in doing so they become a syndicate that answers to no one. They are no better than the mafia. They are supposed to be accountable to the people, but as long as they work with one another within the bureaucratic system, they can basically protect one another and do whatever they want. They have built a structured subsystem as part of an empire, with cronyism as a base, that has permeated throughout our governmental infrastructure at every level.
My question about Goldman Sachs is a prime example. We have to get to the bottom of this situation to ensure that it does not happen again. The whole derivative structure is fraudulent. We do not owe these people this money. They have this ever growing scheme of digital money that is supposed to represent insurance on assets, but what we see is that the assets that the derivatives are supposed to insure are worth less, if not worthless. So the people (investors in corporations) who invested in these assets have assets that are worth less. They still have the assets, but the markets have come back towards equilibrium from the lofty bubble values that they were at. So the government is protecting, and paying off, the ill gotten interests of these too big to fail organizations at the expense of the future wealth of the American people.
We see corporations like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, who have representatives that have infiltrated our government to represent their (company's) personal interests at all levels, at the heart of this matter. From the three past administrations, we have had Larry Summers, Robert Rubin, and Henry Paulson who have been at the highest positions of Goldman Sachs. Our eyes show us that there are definitive conflicts of interest and insider trading taking place.
Empirical evidence shows that these companies made money in creating the credit bubble and now they are making money as the bubble deflates and the economy crashes. They (these officials) own stock in their companies (such as Goldman Sachs), which are supposed to be in a blind trust, but they are making decisions that blatantly represent their company's interests.
They are doing this through fear. They tell us that we don't need to study the information, they will take care of that; if we don't act fast, then the country will become a financial debacle. The bottom line is that the country is already financially failing, but these people are going to make sure they take care of themselves, before our currency collapses and they are basing decisions about their personal welfare on information that only they are privy to. It's a rigged game folks.
We have to make these people accountable. The guilty have to be punished. These are offenses that have destroyed people. People have lost their houses. People have lost their livelihoods, all for the sake of these people's greed. These people need to be incarcerated for the crimes they have committed. Paulson and Geithner had the gall to provide themselves waivers which allowed them to facilitate functions (payouts of government money) involving real, statutory conflicts of interest.
These people are not better than us. They are not above us. They are subject to the same laws as the rest of us. If there is not equal justice, then we are subject to anarchy.
We want our money back. We want every single red-cent of our money back. We are in real trouble if this is allowed to stand. Can you not see that we have to demand this? We cannot rebuild an economy amongst thieves. People you better realize that your future is at stake. This is identity theft at the highest level. Did you give these people permission to do this? If someone personally robbed you or a family member, what would you do? Do you understand that this is no different and we, the American people, are going to be slaves to this fraudulent scheme, if we don't do something to bring the people involved in these schemes to justice. You better wrap your mind around it, because THIS IS REAL!!!
It is time to end this. These people think that we are their servants. They think they are better than us and we are here for their disposal. They are criminals. Why does someone rob a convenient store and get seven years and these people have stolen trillions, played games with their tax bills, facilitated insider trading, arrogantly displayed blatant conflicts of interest, and diluted the value of our currency. Sociopaths never think they will ever be held accountable. It is time to pay the piper!!!
As you can see, I attended the Town Hall meeting on Free Enterprise this past Tuesday. I truly do believe that this was one of the most important events that we have seen in this area's history. This event ranked right up there with Congressman McHenry's Town Hall from this past August. Like that meeting, this wasn't really about local issues. It was about how national policy is having a direct effect on Hickory's Economy.
Danny Hearn, the President of the Chamber of Commerce, has hit it out of the ballpark several times this year. No one can state that the man has been resting on his laurels. He has brought forth a lot of innovation over the past year and people can see the passion he exudes when they listen to the inflection of his voice as he addresses the issues of today. I know that this era can be quite stressful and overwhelming, but people can see he is facing these issues in the trenches head on. He is right there with us. He keeps saying, "Where's the Urgency?"
This meeting wasn't about a bunch of people jumping on the bandwagon, like we saw at McHenry's Town Hall in August. That was a spectacle to behold and it definitely served a purpose, but I fear that many of the people that were there that August night have gone back to the six pack and the recliner. That night there were 1,500 people in P.E. Monroe auditorium and question after question was asked pertaining mostly to healthcare. That event lasted over 3 hours. I believe that most of those people from that night feel that the battle has been won, but this is not some simple matter. I believe that it is true that people do get the government they truly deserve.
The meeting on Tuesday was great, because it was mostly the business people and stakeholders of the Hickory area. These are the people who have the most to lose. The subjects broached here were not dumbed down or sanitized to the least common denominator. This was an event where adults addressed one another as adults. This was about getting down to the brass tax.
Danny Hearn opened this forum by talking about the virtue of Free Enterprise, but in the end I wish that someone would address what we are truly talking about here. We are talking about Capitalism. We are talking about allowing market forces to dictate commerce. That has been given a bad rap, because of the corruption that has been allowed to permeate its way throughout our capitalistic foundation. That is the reason why so many have bought into the nanny state, because they feel that they have been cheated.
Danny talks about American's trusting entrepreneurs more than CEOs. That might be because the average person can relate to the small businessman. Americans understand that a successful small businessman works hard just like they do, many times right beside them, and they realize that our country was built upon such egalitarian principles. It is the essence of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Ask the average employee, all things equal, who would you rather work for and they would choose small business over a huge corporation most every time.
Danny says that you cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. Yes, we have long been ruled by divisions and this is where we have gotten off track. This goes back to the days of Teddy Roosevelt and the Robber Barons. The vitriolic class warfare that he exuded was unnecessary. All we needed was equal protection under the law, but instead we got more laws and the beginning of the precedent of having law stacked upon law without real and equal enforcement of the laws - like in the book Animal Farm when it talks about "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."
Now we see how divisions rule our lives. We see men pitted against women, white vs every minority, natural-born citizens vs immigrants, divisions by sexual preference. One can go on and on. It has become a part of our everyday lives. At one time, we were called the melting pot, but can that be said any longer? We need to get back to being Americans.
Americans do want freedom, but freedom has just become a word. People have been all to willing to sacrifice liberty in the name of security. I like when Danny talks about the sense of possibilities. It's like the old saying that if you work hard, then you can obtain your dreams. We cannot obtain our dreams, if the government is always going to stand in the way and tell us how to direct our lives. It seems like now that if you work hard, then the great American succubus is going to come along to see what it can get out of you. That is what has happened to the dynamism of our economy. This succubus has its tentacles in every aspect of our society. It must be removed to restore the energy and ability to grow to our nation and its people.
I think that David Chavern and Congressman McHenry had a focused and clear message. Mr. Chavern talks about the role of the Chamber in explaining why free enterprise is important - business is the answer and not the problem. Businesses need some assistance from the government, because so many elements of our society are out of control. In the current environment, people look at business and capitalism as evil. The political environment is not conducive towards getting the economy back on track. We don't have too little regulation, we have too much and it isn't effective. We need regulatory reform. We need effective regulations.
Mr. Chavern talks about the need to get back to basics. People keep looking to the government to solve their problems and they are hostile towards business. They believe business is tied into the government and pitted against the average individual. He says that we need people to understand that Free Enterprise is you. We need 20 million jobs over the next decade and it isn't going to come from the government.
Mr. McHenry talks about small business being the lifeblood of our economy. People make us strong and give us the capacity and the way forward. We (government) need to stop making the problem worse. We need to put a cease and desist order on new regulations. This is creating an uncertainty in the economy that keeps businesses from making investments. Government has been soaking up capital that businesses can use. We need to have trade policies that back up the American workforce. We don't need to have trade just for the sake of a trade agreement. We need a level playing field that will help us to have a stronger economy. We have to have people involved and engaged. How do we make this possible?
I think the bottom line is that we need to get back to the best of what this country used to be. Some people don't want to turn the clock back, because they were hurt by the old system. We have to admit there was racial and gender discrimination in the past, but would our nation be better off to throw our whole system out or to bring the best of the system to everyone?
We cannot do this by spreading the wealth. We cannot divide the pie. We need to grow the pie. We need to be more productive. We have to remove the American Succubus from our lives. That Succubus has been fostered by a rogue element within our government that does not live of, by, and for the American People. These people are pushers who want to get you addicted to government largess, while siphoning off monies for their personal enrichment. This element lives of, by, and for the themselves in the name of the bureaucracy.
These individuals look to empower themselves by empowering government as a corporate entity, for in doing so they become a syndicate that answers to no one. They are no better than the mafia. They are supposed to be accountable to the people, but as long as they work with one another within the bureaucratic system, they can basically protect one another and do whatever they want. They have built a structured subsystem as part of an empire, with cronyism as a base, that has permeated throughout our governmental infrastructure at every level.
My question about Goldman Sachs is a prime example. We have to get to the bottom of this situation to ensure that it does not happen again. The whole derivative structure is fraudulent. We do not owe these people this money. They have this ever growing scheme of digital money that is supposed to represent insurance on assets, but what we see is that the assets that the derivatives are supposed to insure are worth less, if not worthless. So the people (investors in corporations) who invested in these assets have assets that are worth less. They still have the assets, but the markets have come back towards equilibrium from the lofty bubble values that they were at. So the government is protecting, and paying off, the ill gotten interests of these too big to fail organizations at the expense of the future wealth of the American people.
We see corporations like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, who have representatives that have infiltrated our government to represent their (company's) personal interests at all levels, at the heart of this matter. From the three past administrations, we have had Larry Summers, Robert Rubin, and Henry Paulson who have been at the highest positions of Goldman Sachs. Our eyes show us that there are definitive conflicts of interest and insider trading taking place.
Empirical evidence shows that these companies made money in creating the credit bubble and now they are making money as the bubble deflates and the economy crashes. They (these officials) own stock in their companies (such as Goldman Sachs), which are supposed to be in a blind trust, but they are making decisions that blatantly represent their company's interests.
They are doing this through fear. They tell us that we don't need to study the information, they will take care of that; if we don't act fast, then the country will become a financial debacle. The bottom line is that the country is already financially failing, but these people are going to make sure they take care of themselves, before our currency collapses and they are basing decisions about their personal welfare on information that only they are privy to. It's a rigged game folks.
We have to make these people accountable. The guilty have to be punished. These are offenses that have destroyed people. People have lost their houses. People have lost their livelihoods, all for the sake of these people's greed. These people need to be incarcerated for the crimes they have committed. Paulson and Geithner had the gall to provide themselves waivers which allowed them to facilitate functions (payouts of government money) involving real, statutory conflicts of interest.
These people are not better than us. They are not above us. They are subject to the same laws as the rest of us. If there is not equal justice, then we are subject to anarchy.
We want our money back. We want every single red-cent of our money back. We are in real trouble if this is allowed to stand. Can you not see that we have to demand this? We cannot rebuild an economy amongst thieves. People you better realize that your future is at stake. This is identity theft at the highest level. Did you give these people permission to do this? If someone personally robbed you or a family member, what would you do? Do you understand that this is no different and we, the American people, are going to be slaves to this fraudulent scheme, if we don't do something to bring the people involved in these schemes to justice. You better wrap your mind around it, because THIS IS REAL!!!
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Town Hall meeting about Free Enterprise sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce - January 26, 2010
This meeting was held at the SALT Block auditorium on January 26, 2010. Approximately 350 people showed up to the Rally that lasted from 8:15am until 10:00am. Below are recording that I placed on Youtube that you can listen to by pressing the links. This was a very interesting meeting, in which many pertinent current topic were discussed.
This meeting was held at the SALT Block auditorium on January 26, 2010. Approximately 350 people showed up to the Rally that lasted from 8:15am until 10:00am. Below are recording that I placed on Youtube that you can listen to by pressing the links. This was a very interesting meeting, in which many pertinent current topic were discussed.
“Planning for Extraordinary Change”
Our economic stability has been challenged!
The Hickory Metro area had the 2nd largest unemployment increase in the country in 2009. We are the highest unemployed Metro area in North Carolina. 35,000 job losses, since 2000 in Hickory Metro, 18,000 in Catawba County alone.
Metro area manufacturing employment was 56% in 2000, now it’s 29% with projections to lose another 10% in the next 10 years.
$450 million dollar decrease in retail sales from 08’ – 09’
Educational attainment levels of our citizenry in the Hickory Metro area are some of the lowest in the country
Do we have a plan for economic stability again? Are you ready for change and what it might bring? Is there a collaborative effort in Catawba County that can make this happen?
The moment you hand power over to people… You get an explosion of curiosity, innovation and effort. You discover benefits that you couldn’t have imagined in advance…We must look deep, focus on things that move and change… And never ask the usual questions. We must transform this economy and society…
And develop suggested changes that will help the county prepare for a different kind of economic era. If we do not accept or embrace this new economy. We will continue to rearrange the deck chairs. And wonder why enough jobs are not being created
“A willingness to depart from the familiar has distinct survival value.”
Peter Drucker.
Then what is our Economic Stability Plan for Catawba County?
1. Jobs at all levels
2. “Greater Hickory Area” Branding and Marketing
3. Education and Workforce Preparedness
Our local economy will only get better based on our ability to attract, cultivate and retain “knowledge workers”
Are we preparing our students for 21st Century job skills? Is business sending a loud and clear message to our young people that dropping out of school is not an option in Catawba County if you want to find a quality job?
Are we creating a community mind set that life-long learning is a course of study in which we are always enrolled. Higher educational opportunities here in Catawba County are greater than most Metro areas our size in the country. How can we help Appalachian State University, Lenoir Rhyne University, CVCC and the NC Center for Engineering Technologies fill up their classrooms, by adding more non-degree, degree and graduate degree programs.
How do we connect and partner with the most envied and successful research campus in North America, the Centennial Campus at NC State University. What can we learn from putting world-class researchers and corporate and institutional partners together in close proximity? so we can prepare for our own Millennial Campus of ASU?
What connections/referrals can our new Manufacturing Solutions Center develop with the Centennial Campus in Raleigh? for new business growth and expansion of existing companies
How do we recruit, market and brand our area and its quality of life as a destination point for new residents, tourists, convention business, sporting events, furniture shopping, new businesses? How do we grow our population base?
How do we market and brand Highway 321 as North Carolina’s Data Center Corridor? Did you know that Catawba County received 42% of all the economic development investment announced in the state of North Carolina in 2009?
Do we have the investment dollars committed for new infrastructure to keep that momentum going? Small business will create more jobs than any other business sector in America. What are we doing to recruit and retain these entrepreneurs in Catawba County?
Are we ready for action?
It will require harder truth telling than our leaders are used to… And possible experimentation right up to the very edge of collapse. It will involve moments, even of useful panic! But it also means understanding that our policies, dreams and ideas
can be combined to release new and unexpected power.
It’s not unthinkable that we too can grasp, from what seems a very dangerous and unstable world around us, a more prosperous, stable and better future. With the understanding that to get things we’ve never had we’ve got to do things we’ve never done
“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” Drucker.
Danny Hearn opens the Town hall on Free Enterprise
David Chavern of the United States Chamber of Commerce (Part 1)
David Chavern of the United States Chamber of Commerce (Part 2)
Scott Millar of the Catawba County Economic Development Corporation (Part 1)
Scott Millar of the Catawba County Economic Development Corporation (Part 2)
Congressman Patrick McHenry presentation to the town hall(Part 1)
Congressman Patrick McHenry's presentation to the town hall (Part 2)
My (Thom Shell) question about conflicts of interest with Goldman Sachs
and JP Morgan-Chase
Steve Ivester and Jay Adams ask questions - Ivester is concerned about the fact that the Chamber of commerce aided the cause of Scott Brown in Massachusetts with commercials they ran on the weekend before the election. Adams posed a question about whether the Republicans had changed since 2005.
Question about the fact that we still need to see reform of healthcare - At the end of the day, this legislation that no one likes has not passed, but we still need to see healthcare reform of costs and coverage.
This meeting was held at the SALT Block auditorium on January 26, 2010. Approximately 350 people showed up to the Rally that lasted from 8:15am until 10:00am. Below are recording that I placed on Youtube that you can listen to by pressing the links. This was a very interesting meeting, in which many pertinent current topic were discussed.
“Planning for Extraordinary Change”
Our economic stability has been challenged!
The Hickory Metro area had the 2nd largest unemployment increase in the country in 2009. We are the highest unemployed Metro area in North Carolina. 35,000 job losses, since 2000 in Hickory Metro, 18,000 in Catawba County alone.
Metro area manufacturing employment was 56% in 2000, now it’s 29% with projections to lose another 10% in the next 10 years.
$450 million dollar decrease in retail sales from 08’ – 09’
Educational attainment levels of our citizenry in the Hickory Metro area are some of the lowest in the country
Do we have a plan for economic stability again? Are you ready for change and what it might bring? Is there a collaborative effort in Catawba County that can make this happen?
The moment you hand power over to people… You get an explosion of curiosity, innovation and effort. You discover benefits that you couldn’t have imagined in advance…We must look deep, focus on things that move and change… And never ask the usual questions. We must transform this economy and society…
And develop suggested changes that will help the county prepare for a different kind of economic era. If we do not accept or embrace this new economy. We will continue to rearrange the deck chairs. And wonder why enough jobs are not being created
“A willingness to depart from the familiar has distinct survival value.”
Peter Drucker.
Then what is our Economic Stability Plan for Catawba County?
1. Jobs at all levels
2. “Greater Hickory Area” Branding and Marketing
3. Education and Workforce Preparedness
Our local economy will only get better based on our ability to attract, cultivate and retain “knowledge workers”
Are we preparing our students for 21st Century job skills? Is business sending a loud and clear message to our young people that dropping out of school is not an option in Catawba County if you want to find a quality job?
Are we creating a community mind set that life-long learning is a course of study in which we are always enrolled. Higher educational opportunities here in Catawba County are greater than most Metro areas our size in the country. How can we help Appalachian State University, Lenoir Rhyne University, CVCC and the NC Center for Engineering Technologies fill up their classrooms, by adding more non-degree, degree and graduate degree programs.
How do we connect and partner with the most envied and successful research campus in North America, the Centennial Campus at NC State University. What can we learn from putting world-class researchers and corporate and institutional partners together in close proximity? so we can prepare for our own Millennial Campus of ASU?
What connections/referrals can our new Manufacturing Solutions Center develop with the Centennial Campus in Raleigh? for new business growth and expansion of existing companies
How do we recruit, market and brand our area and its quality of life as a destination point for new residents, tourists, convention business, sporting events, furniture shopping, new businesses? How do we grow our population base?
How do we market and brand Highway 321 as North Carolina’s Data Center Corridor? Did you know that Catawba County received 42% of all the economic development investment announced in the state of North Carolina in 2009?
Do we have the investment dollars committed for new infrastructure to keep that momentum going? Small business will create more jobs than any other business sector in America. What are we doing to recruit and retain these entrepreneurs in Catawba County?
Are we ready for action?
It will require harder truth telling than our leaders are used to… And possible experimentation right up to the very edge of collapse. It will involve moments, even of useful panic! But it also means understanding that our policies, dreams and ideas
can be combined to release new and unexpected power.
It’s not unthinkable that we too can grasp, from what seems a very dangerous and unstable world around us, a more prosperous, stable and better future. With the understanding that to get things we’ve never had we’ve got to do things we’ve never done
“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” Drucker.
Danny Hearn opens the Town hall on Free Enterprise
David Chavern of the United States Chamber of Commerce (Part 1)
David Chavern of the United States Chamber of Commerce (Part 2)
Scott Millar of the Catawba County Economic Development Corporation (Part 1)
Scott Millar of the Catawba County Economic Development Corporation (Part 2)
Congressman Patrick McHenry presentation to the town hall(Part 1)
Congressman Patrick McHenry's presentation to the town hall (Part 2)
My (Thom Shell) question about conflicts of interest with Goldman Sachs
and JP Morgan-Chase
Steve Ivester and Jay Adams ask questions - Ivester is concerned about the fact that the Chamber of commerce aided the cause of Scott Brown in Massachusetts with commercials they ran on the weekend before the election. Adams posed a question about whether the Republicans had changed since 2005.
Question about the fact that we still need to see reform of healthcare - At the end of the day, this legislation that no one likes has not passed, but we still need to see healthcare reform of costs and coverage.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
My Goldman-Sachs question at the Town Hall meeting this morning
I asked the following question at this morning's Town Hall about Free Enterprise held at the SALT Block here in Hickory:
Egregious Goldman-Sachs
Goldman Sachs-AIG: It's Likely Worse Than You Think - RealClearPolitics.com - James Keller - January 13, 2010
Goldman Fueled AIG Gambles - Wall Street Journal - December 12, 2009 - Serena NG & Carrick Mollenkamp
Goldman Sachs had bigger role in AIG than realized - BloggingStocks - Tom Johansmeyer - December 14, 2009
Egregious JP Morgan
(JP Morgan and Goldman-Sachs) - Two Giants Emerge From Wall Street Ruins - New York Times - Graham Bowley - July 16, 2009
Why Goldman Sachs Is JPMorgan’s Biggest Asset - Bloomberg - David Reilly - December 4, 2009
Lets see where this all started
AIG seeks $75 billion in loans to stay afloat - Los Angeles Times - September 16, 2008
The Real AIG Scandal - It's not the bonuses. It's that AIG's counterparties are getting paid back in full. - Slate.com - Eliot Spitzer - March 17, 2009
Hound: I can go on and on, but I think you get the drift. I talked about Goldman Sachs' Treasury - The Biggest Conflict of Interest Ever on October 9, 2008 when this whole mess started.
I think that the Republicans are misreading the tea-leaves if the think that they can come into office and continue business as usual with the people who have these conflicts of interest running our financial markets. We have seen straight-up insider trading. We have seen blatant conflicts of interest. We have seen these companies getting money on the way up and on the way down.
We need full scale congressional hearings. We need to know who knew what and when, There will be no immunity. They will answer the questions or be held in contempt of Congress. We want every red cent of money that was made from ill-gotten gains. People know that our future is at risk. This cannot be allowed to stand.
That is where the anger comes from. If this is not acted upon, then we all know what the ramifications are. The Republicans let us down during the beginning of this century, so they lost control. The ball was handed over to the Democrats and look what they have done. If the Republicans are given back control and it remains business as usual, then what alternative will the American people have?
Who is Cyveillance and why should you care?
Cyveillance + Goldman-Sachs
One of the biggest issues that we face as a nation is the problem we see with investments and the cronyism with a company such as Goldman-Sachs and I don't see anything happening on the national level. The Republicans got us into this situation with Goldman-Sachs. Mr. Obama comes into office and it's business as usual with companies such as Goldman-Sachs and JP Morgan and they have their tentacles in everything. How do we get their tentacles out of everything, because I don't think until we get these two companies out of what they are doing that we are going to be able to restore the economy to what it was. I asked Congressman McHenry what his thoughts were on that process?I will display Congressman McHenry's answer in an article that I am doing about this Town Hall. I don't think people understand how Goldman-Sachs (as the frontman) and JP Morgan (who was the primary force behind the creation of the Federal Reserve) have hijacked our Government. I would like for you to understand the context and reasoning behind asking this question, which are displayed in the links below.
Egregious Goldman-Sachs
Goldman Sachs-AIG: It's Likely Worse Than You Think - RealClearPolitics.com - James Keller - January 13, 2010
Goldman Fueled AIG Gambles - Wall Street Journal - December 12, 2009 - Serena NG & Carrick Mollenkamp
Goldman Sachs had bigger role in AIG than realized - BloggingStocks - Tom Johansmeyer - December 14, 2009
Egregious JP Morgan
(JP Morgan and Goldman-Sachs) - Two Giants Emerge From Wall Street Ruins - New York Times - Graham Bowley - July 16, 2009
Why Goldman Sachs Is JPMorgan’s Biggest Asset - Bloomberg - David Reilly - December 4, 2009
JPMorgan Said to Trim AIG Role on Possible Conflicts - Bloomberg - By Zachary R. Mider and Hugh Son - December 4, 2009
Lets see where this all started
AIG seeks $75 billion in loans to stay afloat - Los Angeles Times - September 16, 2008
The Real AIG Scandal - It's not the bonuses. It's that AIG's counterparties are getting paid back in full. - Slate.com - Eliot Spitzer - March 17, 2009
Hound: I can go on and on, but I think you get the drift. I talked about Goldman Sachs' Treasury - The Biggest Conflict of Interest Ever on October 9, 2008 when this whole mess started.
I think that the Republicans are misreading the tea-leaves if the think that they can come into office and continue business as usual with the people who have these conflicts of interest running our financial markets. We have seen straight-up insider trading. We have seen blatant conflicts of interest. We have seen these companies getting money on the way up and on the way down.
We need full scale congressional hearings. We need to know who knew what and when, There will be no immunity. They will answer the questions or be held in contempt of Congress. We want every red cent of money that was made from ill-gotten gains. People know that our future is at risk. This cannot be allowed to stand.
That is where the anger comes from. If this is not acted upon, then we all know what the ramifications are. The Republicans let us down during the beginning of this century, so they lost control. The ball was handed over to the Democrats and look what they have done. If the Republicans are given back control and it remains business as usual, then what alternative will the American people have?
Who is Cyveillance and why should you care?
Cyveillance + Goldman-Sachs
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