Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Reads This

Another Monday, another wild week in the financial markets, more decent, not exceptional economic data and here we are again my friends, back to read more Mega-Doom because there is this perception that the blogosphere is full of bored, ignorant souls who do nothing but short the financial markets and talk them down. Not in the case of this particular blogger though, as I do not participate in the equity markets, sell anything at this time, nor produce high dollar glossy reports marked “TOP SECRET” which tell the future in the financial markets. This particular blog is an open book and I think to answer the title of this particular entry, an open book is what is desperately needed. Thus let us all put our Executive Armani suits on and lean back behind our oak desks with a cigar in one hand and a resume in the other and review the qualifications of the people who have now had just over five quarters to create an economic miracle and solve the structural issues which are gnawing away at our economy’s foundation like termites in a Floridian wood framed home.

1. President Barrack Hussein Obama

BORN: August 4, 1961

EDUCATION (COLLEGIATE): Columbia University B.A., Harvard Law School J.D.

PRIVATE INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE:  One year.  Worked with Business International Corporation in 1983.

PRIVATE SECTOR EXECUTIVE OR MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE:  ZERO

President Obama has never signed the front of a check for a corporation he has founded or worked for. I could pile on to this fact alone but his one year of experience with BIC was in a non-managerial role with no major supervisory or executive level decision making involved. He has never been required to nor created a budget for a private corporation. He has never hired or fired an individual at the private level. From current records available on the internet, he has never opened a bank account for nor created a private enterprise in his life.

2. 14th Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Benjamin Shalom Bernanke

BORN: December 13, 1953

EDUCATION (COLLEGIATE): Harvard B.A. Economics; M.I.T.  Ph.D.

PRIVATE INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE:  ZERO

PRIVATE SECTOR EXECUTIVE OR MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE:  ZERO

As an outstanding academic, Professor now Chairman Bernanke is getting the chance to test theories and thesis which were created based on an America when the Gold Standard was still part of our monetary system, yet derivatives and exotic banking concepts such as 125% LTV, Option-ARMs, and zero down CRE loans were not. The issue is obvious; the largest central bank in the world has a man who has never worked as a teller, much less as a banker, in charge of its operations. Theory is nice. The implementation of realistic policies to allow a gradual deflation or prevent a sudden hyperinflation at the behest of the political class are totally different animals and I do not envy Chairman Bernanke’s mark in history nor what he will have to endure in the years to come. Sadly I fear his role will be remember as another Chairman was:  Arthur Burns.

3. 75th Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, Timothy Franz Geithner

BORN: August 18, 1961

EDUCATION (COLLEGIATE): Dartmouth, A.B. Government and Asian Studies; John Hopkins University M.A. East Asian Studies and International Economics

PRIVATE INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE:  3 Years

PRIVATE SECTOR EXECUTIVE OR MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE:  ZERO

The private industry experience was within a corporation known as the Kissinger Associates, a private consulting firm run by Henry Kissinger, Brent Scowcroft, and Lawrence Eagleburger which primarily focuses on government relations and strategic investment opportunities. There is no record of Secretary Government serving in a management or partner capacity at the firm. Due to the quasi-government relationship of the Federal Reserve and I.M.F. I have elected not to count that experience as part of the private sector review. Mr. Geithner was President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York despite never working in the banking environment in any recorded capacity. He has never signed the front of anything until his signature began gracing the currency of the United States with his appointment as Secretary of the Treasury in 2009.

4. Sheila Bair, Chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

BORN: April 3, 1954

EDUCATION (COLLEGIATE): University of Kansas B.A.; University of Kansas Law School J.D.

PRIVATE INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE: 5-6 years*

PRIVATE SECTOR EXECUTIVE OR MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE:   5

*-The amount of information as to her employment as a bank teller between receiving her B.A. and her J.D. is unavailable.

The Executive level position held by Ms. Bair was as the Senior Vice President for Government Relations of the New York Stock Exchange. Other than her job as a bank teller, her entire career has been spent either in academia or in an intergovernmental role with an organization (the NYSE) long known for its coordination and alleged compliance with the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets (aka, the Plunger team or PPT). She has never created an organization from scratch, been an entrepreneur nor run her own corporation, much less managed a bank branch.

5. Lawrence Summers, Director of the President’s National Economic Council

BORN: November 30, 1954

EDUCATION (COLLEGIATE LEVEL): M.I.T. S.B. 1975; Harvard University Economics Ph.D. 1982

PRIVATE INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE: 3 years, part time (D.E. Shaw & Co. as a part-time managing director)

PRIVATE SECTOR EXECUTIVE OR MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE: ZERO

FYI, a managing director is not a management nor executive position of any relevance with regards to the structure of any corporation. D.E. Shaw & Co. is a private equity and hedge fund organization which focuses on technological innovation and financial structure.

Mr. Summers, when awake, has played a role from the Citigroup-Robert Rubin school of thought dating back to his days in academia at Harvard through his first trip in government with the Clinton administration.  He has never signed the front of anything other than during his reign as Secretary of the Treasury when he signed the currency and in the capacity of the private sector has been somewhat irrelevant.

6. Senate Majority Leader, Harry Masson Reid D-NV

BORN: December 2, 1939

EDUCATION (COLLEGIATE): Southern Utah University; Utah State University B.A.; George Washington School of Law J.D.

PRIVATE INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE: ZERO

PRIVATE SECTOR EXECUTIVE OR MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE:   ZERO

One of the two central figures in ushering such brilliant legislation as the TARP and other financial reform bills, here we have another individual who has never signed the front of a check in his entire life. He has no business experience whatsoever. He has never balanced books, created nor instituted a budget nor monitored a P&L statement at the behest of a private corporation or institution. Yet his power gives him the oversight to determine the future of Capitalism for millions of Americans and hundreds of thousands of corporations who deal with these decisions on a daily basis.

Thankfully he is for sale and the right corporation with the right amount of compensation can maintain their competitive advantage if need be.

7. Speaker of the House of the United States Representatives, Nancy Patricia D’Alesandro Pelosi

BORN: March 26, 1940

EDUCATION (COLLEGIATE): Trinity College B.A. Political Science

PRIVATE INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE: ZERO

PRIVATE SECTOR EXECUTIVE OR MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE:   ZERO

Speaker Pelosi started as a homemaker with volunteerism in her heart and after internships in Congress and years of work for the DNC and Democratic Party causes seized the day and took he chance to become a Congresscritter in 1987 thanks to the appointment well, by another Democrat(So much for “earning” your position nonsense). Ms. Pelosi has never signed the front of a check in a private enterprise capacity nor does she have any practical nor working business experience.

These seven people are in charge of so much of the American economy it should terrify any sane person. If there were other, more responsible adults in charge it might make you sleep better at night. The reality is that these souls, all of them, have a grand total of about 13 years total when you sum it all up as one group over decades of working experience in the private sector. To make matters worse, the entire collection have only 5 years executive level experience and that individual is only in charge of the insurance portion of the banking system! This means that the people who are in charge of the “recovery” and making sure that this gigantic ship turns back out to the sea of capitalism and profits with reasonable growth is being run by a bunch of academic yahoos who have barely worked or never worked an honest day in their entire freaking life.

When you look at companies like Goldman Sachs, Federal Express, Apple Computer, etc., you see executives and hard working individuals who not only took their employees into account for the ability to expand their corporations, but in fact used every ounce of effort to expand their personal success by guaranteeing their company’s success, be it from a CEO or ownership role. The seven individuals above have no vested interest in a capitalist success story because none of them have had to build, grow, or develop anything in their entire lives. It was handed to them by Mums and Dad.  Did they have to break a sweat outside of academia? No, usually not. Did they have to worry if their “theories” failed in the practical world? Not until now. All the papers, all the ideas, all of the qualities you would NOT want in a leader during the greatest national problems  in American history since the Civil War,  are now in charge of curing this crisis.

Thus I felt a review of their resumes was fitting. If this doesn’t scare the hell out of you, nothing will; they have an alternate plan and that is becoming obvious with each passing day.