Please Make Howie Go Away!!!

Apologies for not having written in awhile. I've been watching a lot of sports of late, March Madness, late NBA and NHL playoff pushes, MLB, etc. I do have my priorities. Anyhow, as I've been watching TV, upon the 477th time Howie Long came on the screen to talk about Chevy and how it compares to Honda, a funny thing struck me.

GM is using MY MONEY to advertise TO ME to buy a car I WAS NEVER INTERESTED IN. I know this is probably obvious, but I need to dissect it further. People we elected voted to take our money and invest in a car company we weren't investing in and whose cars we weren't buying. Apparently, our elected officials know better than we do about how we should spend our money. Anyhow, they took our money, invested in GM, and what does GM do? Advertise to us that we should buy their car. I know this expression got a lot of use and misuse during the last election. But talk about lipstick on a pig.

I would have loved to have been in the executive conference room when the leaders at GM were deciding what to do with the bailout money. "Hey guys, nobody is buying our cars. Our cars are getting out-done by our foreign competitors. Nobody is investing in our stock. What should we do?"

And the solution? Hire Howie Long to tape dozens of commercials in an attempt to convince me that the cars are actually good. Don't change the labor practices that cause your prices to be too high. Don't change the product choices that make your products impractical for the everyday consumer. Instead, let's advertise our way out of this mess. Let's take the bailout dollars we received FROM YOU and advertise TO YOU that you should have been giving us your money all along through purchasing our cars. They didn't get our money the old-fashioned way, i.e. by earning it. They got it the same way any other panhandler gets money for their fix, by sticking their hand out and begging for it. And to say that I'm surprised that they are misusing my money would be like saying I'm surprised that the crackhead who got a dollar from me used it towards his next purchase of smack.

Past performance is the best indicator of future performance. It applies to dating, working and yes, spending. But apparently, our government seems to think that past performance is NOT a good predictor of future performance. Thank goodness they stepped in and took my money and did the right thing with it. And to think I would have invested in companies that have proven successful track records. How very foolish of me. Thank goodness we elected people who know better.

Inhospitable to Hospitality Industry

Well, here we go again. Government intervention begets government intervention. And around and around we go. Last week, I posted a blog here that conveyed the expected ripple effects of increasing taxes on small businesses, not the least of which is reduced revenues for other critical businesses crippled in this current economy, including the catering and hospitality industries (i.e. restaurants, hotels, etc.). The more money you take away from people who could have and would have spent it, the less they will have to spend. This seems so obvious, and like I've said many times before, this is simple math. I'm not quite sure how I can help stimulate the economy if my government (through its words and actions) encourages me to cook for myself, do my own ironing, etc. instead of dining out every so often or utilizing a dry cleaners. Do they not realize that reducing my dispensable income translates into less revenues for the businesses I use? Do they not realize that less revenues for these businesses translates to unemployment for workers in those industries? Unfortunately, the answer is no. They don't realize it.

We all have heard by now the backlash engineered by Congressman Barney Frank (D - Massachusetts) when he criticized what seemed like every financial institution for spending money on marketing (e.g. stadium naming rights), client satifaction (e.g. hosting clients at golf events) and employee retention (e.g. bonuses to the highest performers). Subsequently, we have seen a dramatic (and I mean jaw-dropping dramatic) decline in season ticket renewals, hosted quarterly meetings and sales-incentive trips. And guess what has happened, hotel leaders have petitioned to Congress (Link to Article on Hospitality Industry backlash.) to "ease up" on the rhetoric. Why, you ask? Because their industry is being crippled by the REACTION to Barney Frank's REACTION!!! Companies are spending less out of fear of perception issues.

Side note and perhaps a future blog topic: the best employees are not being adequately rewarded by their employers, which means they are now less-incented to be the best.

So what will our leaders do to resolve this? Perhaps a "bailout" for the hospitality industry? Print some more money, sell some bonds to China to keep the hotel business afloat? Maybe we could mail out vouchers to everyone making less than $30,000 a year for a one-night stay at the hotel of their choice, and our government can reimburse the hotels with their freshly printed money? Mark my words, there will be a government reaction to this problem. It might be embedded in some future "stimulus package" and may not get the publicity of the auto bailout. But it will happen.

My Dad and I think our ancestors in our family tree may have had a candle business. But when electricity came along, the candle industry was crippled. Perhaps we can apply for a retroactive bailout. On my Mom's side, we think that our ancestors ran a buggy business. When Henry Ford, that evil entrepreneur who didn't like the status quo, invented an automobile, our buggy business went under. Another retroactive bailout for me.

When does this end? When will we elect leaders who actually read our Constitution? When will we elect leaders who actually adhere to our Constitution? Perhaps we can host a convention at a resort hotel to discuss the merits of the principles of our founding fathers' view of free enterprise and free markets. Ugh. We can't do that just yet. We're not sure if the hotel industry will survive long enough to host our little delegation. Perhaps they need a bailout.

Will someone please invite me to a tea party? In Boston, perhaps?