Middling Musings From A Wobbly Table

Ok, I'm still awaiting my assignment so...I've returned.

Let's see. Ah. Louise Harel wants to be Mayor of Montreal. Sweet. Just what this city needs in trying economic times: A uni-lingual separatist who cares little about ethnic communities. She once referred to Ville St. Laurent as an "Arab city".

The strange paradox is despite parochial musings from Quebec nationalists, Montreal is a city with an international and cosmopolitan outlook.

People like Harel don't represent my outlook on life.

And she certainly doesn't reflect what Montreal truly is: A city that lives in bilingual and multi-ethnic peace - except in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district in the east-end. She fits right in over there.

I quiver at the very thought of Harel and her cronies running this podunk town further into the ground.

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A judge sided with Chrysler (when do they go on Italian courses?) that it's not liable for future mechanical problems that cause injury or death. Of course, victims are not happy but it looks like they've been frozen out since it's been described as "conventional bankruptcy proceedings".

And so it is.

However, it makes me wonder. What's to stop President Obama from intervening here? Can it be victims don't represent a powerful voting block? After all, he had no problems publically threatening bondholders in the name of "saving a corporation and jobs". That set a dangerous precedent on the investment landscape.

Victims? Bah! This is why I never like government intervention in business of any kind. They pick and choose where they will stick their nose and it's not always for the right reasons.

What can I say? I'm skeptical of the whole bail out thing. There are too many agendas and interests all working at the same time to be remotely beneficial to the economy and taxpayers in the long run.

Alas, I'm no bean counter or tax expert.

Spins beanie.

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Speaking of corporate hand outs and deadbeats, how long before Bombardier asks (and gets) their usual subsisdy- grant (who knows what to call it at this point?) to "preserve" jobs?

***

More spending nonsense.

I keep hearing how I now "own a part in GM".

Really?

Where are my shares? My voting privileges? Do I own common stock? Preferred shares? A bond? Short-term note?

Oh, right. Yes. Through my tax dollars I "own" the company. My "vote" now lives vicariously through a government official. Gotcha. Wink.

Licks popsicle.

This all seems so pathetic.

If I wanted shares in GM I would have purchased the stock on the stock exchange. But this entails a free-enterprise rational decision on my part. Can't have that. No way.

Instead, I'm forced to throw cash at a company that may not survive and worse cover the pensions of its workers! And the reasoning behind why we need to do this is shockingly simplistic and short-sighted.

I hope the idea of "stimulus packages" dies a slow painful death with this experiment.

$13 billion (described as a loan to be paid back by a fixed date...yes, I know...stop laughing) and growing.

Personally, wouldn't it be better served if we gave it all to profitable business owners and emerging entrepreneurs? Or just buy out the pensioners of GM?

Snaps suspenders.