Copper Wars and the case for sensible regulation

The era of the Robber Barons is a fascinating time when the rich would cheat, steal, sabotage and even murder people in order to get rich.  The accounts from this era are sketchy and although the dynamics of the town of Butte in particular are rather interesting, the town itself gives a great look into what life is like without regulation and what regulation can do when applied properly.

But without going into a great detail on the robber baron angle, there are many great places to read about the politics and the fortunes being made in the town which was the king of copper in the US for a time I highly recommend this book for this endeavor if one is interested:

CB, Glasscock, “War of the Copper Kings”, copublished by Montana Historical Society Press and Riverbend Publishing. http://montanahistoricalsociety.org/pub/press/warcopperkings.asp

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Obama: I declare war on the rich, but it is not class warfare.

For anyone listening to the president recently, he seems to like to repeat that lie that his plan “to tax the rich” is not class warfare. I guess the assumption with him is that if he repeats this lie enough times it makes it true and perhaps he is a hero in his own eyes from the novel 1984 where double-speak is normal and where everything done is good by the Government.  Really odd that supposedly a well-educated person could think like this.

What are we supposed to do with a president who is so far from reality that he has no clue what normal Americans deal with?  While the president is giving away barrels of money to solar companies and other cronies, the rest of us have to have a balanced budget that is not in the trillions of dollars.  He will not balance a budget or pay down what is owed like American’s are forced to.  So what do we do?  Well the solution like in 1984 is to put the truth out for the world to see.

GE: A green company or just another crony corporation?

First, some basic facts about the CEO who has lead GE
down into the gulley of problems.  The data here is straight from ge.com as you can see by the link provided.

http://www.ge.com/company/leadership/ceo.html

Jeffrey R.
Immelt is the ninth chairman of GE, a post he has held since September 7, 2001.

Mr. Immelt has
held several global leadership positions since coming to GE in 1982, including
roles in GE’s Plastics, Appliance, and Healthcare businesses. In 1989 he became
an officer of GE and joined the GE Capital Board in 1997. A couple years later,
in 2000, Mr. Immelt was appointed president and chief executive officer.

Mr. Immelt has
been named one of the “World’s Best CEOs” three times by Barron’s,
and since he began serving as chief executive officer, GE has been named
“America’s Most Admired Company” in a poll conducted by Fortune
magazine and one of “The World’s Most Respected Companies” in polls
by Barron’s and the Financial Times.

Mr. Immelt is
the chair of President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. He is also
a member of The Business Council.

Mr. Immelt earned a B.A. degree in
applied mathematics from Dartmouth College in 1978 and an M.B.A. from Harvard
University in 1982. He and his wife have one daughter.

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