Earlier this week, Stimulus beneficiary Evergreen Energy bit the dust. Then, Ener1, a manufacturer of batteries for electric vehicles and recipient of Stimulus largesse, filed for bankruptcy. And today, the Las Vegas Sun reports that Amonix, Inc., a manufacturer of solar panels that received $5.9 million from the Porkulus, will cut two-thirds of its workforce, about 200 employees, only seven months after opening a factory in Nevada.
I foresaw this spate of bad news last November. As I explained yesterday,
In a previous post, I compared renewable energy spending in the 2009 Stimulus to a green albatross burdening the President. I argued that Stimulus spending was inherently wasteful, because politics invariably corrupts government’s investment decisions. The result is taxpayers losses on bankrupt companies that existed only by the grace of political favoritism, a la Solyndra. I predicted the green stimulus would haunt the President, in the form of a slow drip public relations nightmare, as a litany of bad investments go belly-up in the run up to the 2012 elections.
Mr. President, are you still sure you want to “double down” on renewable energy giveaways?
RSS Updates 
RSS E-Mail Updates 
CEI.org 
OpenMarket.org 
WorkPlaceChoice.org 
DriveInnovation.org 
CEI On Demand Video 
Liberty Week Podcast 
← Previous Comments
Next Comments →
And the worst part of all this waste is that He will get away with it all and have Billions with a T tolive on and be considered the best .
Damn, the only way you can ger government money now a days, is to be in the bankruptcy court filing for bankruptcy, then there is a guy standing tehee , going, pssst…hey you come here….. want some free money?????
The bottom line is there will never be any substitute for Petroleum, period. Be it oil or natural gas nothing comes close to the energy/heat BTU potential locked inside Petroleum. All this talk of alternative energy, apart from Nuclear Power, is all expensive and not practical at the present time.
Somehow I would hope this information gets to the average person. It is a scandal that is massive.
I believe the rule of thumb among venture capitalists is they hope to hit pay and lose or break even 80% of the time. Bureaucracies are organizationally and psychologically incapable of adjusting to such a rate of success. The voters can’t be persuaded to accept such a failure rate for public expenditures. Congressmammals will only be interested successes in their jurisdictions and can be depended on to defend the failures from termination. Presidents will never even acknowledge the 80% rates of failure.
Failure is utterly predictable and completely unavoidable.
“…hope to hit pay and lose or break even 80% of the time.”
What do they do the other 20%?
They get liquidated. Even though VC’s take the risk they dont waste good money after bad. Cut the losses and move on to the next. Thats the risk you take with startups.
How much of that “seed” money goes back into a VC’s pocket for political purposes? Seems many of these companies
Obama is investing in has ties to major donors to his/his friends political campaigns, i.e. Soros.
“Seems many of these companies
Obama is investing in has ties to major donors to his/his friends political campaigns, i.e. Soros.”
SEEMS? The facts are they ALL are Poison obumbler buddies.
Ummm, if 80% failure rate is acceptable to you, how’s about investing with your money, not mine. When the 20% hits, you too can become a 1-percenter!
You obviously don’t understand venture capital. Let’s say you invest $1 M into 5 different businesses. 4 of them fail and the money disappears. The other one is a huge success and earns you $10 M next year. You don’t think that was a good investment?
Venture capital is high risk/high reward. The risk of failure is much larger than a typical investment, but the rewards are immensely greater. Saying that an 80% failure rate is unacceptable is meaningless without understanding the consequences of both failure and success.
Yes, that is what venture capital is all about. So why then not leave these investments to the venture capitalists, and leave the government out of it? Is it because these businesses were so flawed, that not even the biggest risk-takers of them all, venture capitalists, dare touch them?! So in marches dumbledorf, showering these companies with our money, because he deems them worthy. Please. Government is not suited to be an allocator of capital or take on risk with the public’s tax money. The government’s job is to let the rest of us be free to allocate our own capital, protect property rights, and ensure liberty. Dumbledorf needs to have the keys to the castle and the treasury permanently removed.
Well said P. Where were the venture capitalists if these investments had any shot at being lurative?
The real question is was the decision to invest in this manner decided by sound venture capitalism or an attempt to raise the political stock of the administration. Were any of these investments chosen with the potential to greatly succeed and increase the initial investment 10 or 20 fold? If so, I just don’t see it. What I see is an attempt to look good politically by holding up floundering, non-profitable companies that are in the “Green” sector to attempt to appease democratic voters. This is all well and good, just don’t do it with taxpayer funds. Do it with private DNC money.
OK, so when this government hits one out of five out of the ballpark, then we can think that it knows how to do capital ventures … waiting … waiting … and I’d say the chances of success would be a lot greater if a REAL venture capitalist were running the show. You see, can’t you guys get it? The government is incapable of really making good business decisions, as demonstrated by the mess we are in!
Joe, I think you missing the greater point. Venture capitalist are investing their own money. Obama is investing OUR money without OUR consent. Also, the investment will never return a single profit to the American people. The best scenario is that one of these companies find a cheaper way to make a product we are willing to PURCHASE. The American people will not see 1$ profit under any scenario. Obama’s expected return is 0%.
So Obama invests 5 million to loose 5 million in 5 companies run by a high value donor of Obama. Any success will create a product that THEY can sell for more $$, not return any profits to the American People.
Actually the government is not INVESTING . With most of these ventures the government does not obtain an equity position for the public funds that are made available. These monies are loans and grants for the most part (GM being an exception).
The government assumes all the risk of never being repaid and does not get any reward. It is all a political favor game. If the selected companies are ever successful they only payoff will be in the form of political donations.
Joe, Usually, investors are not so dumb as to invest in five different companies that are in the same industry. Not so with Obama’s team.
Actually, most investors do invest in a single area. They become experts in software, real estate, energy and they stick with what they know.
Where is the big success that makes up for the Solyndra and all the other losses. We’re about a $1trillion in the hole. Not even counting the “investment” in GM which we are the largest shareholder and our break even price is around $50. GM is trding arond $24.
The best hitters in baseball fail 70% of the time.
I have been an investment banker and working in the venture capital industry for over 20yrs. Venture capital is not “high risk/high reward”. It’s low risk/high reward. The only people that make high risk investments are gamblers and apparently the Federal government. An 80% failure rate( on well vetted companies) IS unacceptable. Your example of investing 1m in 5 different companies with one making 10m and the others failing is naive at best. Your assuming the one succesful company will earn a 1000% return in one year! If the Federal Government has money to invest in private enterprise, they have too much money.
The Problem is that when government puts money into a company and it hits, it only gets back the amount it invested. When a company goes bust, the government loses all it invested. Therefore, the government takes all the risk with none of the rewards. That is why government has no business in venture capital.
You didn’t actually read his post did you?
As someone who has invested in start ups, I can assure you that about 3 of 4 startups do not make it. But, I have never made anywhere close to getting my losses back. If you think anyone makes 10 Mil on a small investment, you have never done any venture capital investing. It is a loser’s game for most investors. The Government has no business using tax money for start ups. They have no idea what they are doing and have no right to be doing it in the first place. Next thing they may want to do is go to the crap table with tax money and hope they will win a few bucks to reduce the deficit. Never happen.
Joe you are right on about venture capital. But I strongly object to the Government being the one supplying the capital. Especially when not one member of this administration has had successful private business experience.
Joe this administration has made venture capitalism look really bad—–name me just one success.
No, most successful VC groups target 70%
Investment companies that are looking for new businesses to fund, wont be in business at 80% failure rate
Then, perhaps, a serious question might be, why is the federal government playing venture capitalist with OUR money?
The government has ALWAYS funded ventures that were too risky for private industry. In the past, it tended to be done via university funding and institutes like NIH or the national laboratories. In the past 30 years, it has started shifting toward government/private industry partnerships.
It is entirely appropriate for the government to invest in something where the payoff is immense but risk is more than an individual company is likely to bear. For example: the polio vaccine.
Your argument falls apart on the math. VC investors usually demand equity. That’s the only way your 80/20 works. Loans and loan guarantees can’t make up for losses. Novice VC investors, or gov’t officials with another agenda, might accept only debt, but they face long odds of ever breaking even.
Excellent posts Joe. Unfortunately not all of the responders will comprehend the points you are making, but someone needs to explain the facts to them.
There is a big difference between investing in research like the polio vaccine and what is going on here. The government already invests in alternate energy research through the D.O.E. and grants to universities. All President Obama is doing here is throwing our future money (it is borrowed) at companies producing products that are not viable and not marketable. Sorry Joe, but your argument does not hold water.
???? what was the $ pofit for the polio vaccine? Careful think about it. If it isn’t for profit then is it venture CAPITALISM or another animal altogether?
Joe, clearly you are an Obama apologist. The kenyan marxist is destroying our economy and way of life piece by piece, at an ever accelerating rate. The government’s role is to protect it’s citizens and let the free market system function. The government isn’t a innovator, a job creator and certainly has no justifiable role in funding select companies who line the pockets of the DNC and his campaign coffers. The governments appropriate role is not to play venture capitalist with taxpayer money is situations with a 80% failure rate. It’s role is to not impede the private sector in instances like the Keystone Pipeline, drilling in ANWAR and off our coasts. Those are 100% home run opportunities that create tens of thousands of jobs immediately and reduce our dependence on foreign oil & energy for decades to come. And lets not even talk about Hussein Obama’s destruction of the American coal industry, another crippling blow to our economy and energy independence. Wake up!!
Joe: Really? What constitutional authority does the federal government have that authorizes them to “fund ventures too risky for private industry.” Does that sound like that was in the Founder’s plans? That doesn’t even make common sense to me.
Joe: Did you really attribute the curing of POLIO tot he federal government? I will quote Jonas Salk: “If the federal goverment was left to cure Polio we would have the best iron lung int he world!”
Because the IDIOT LEFT has voted in a REALLY GREAT EXPERIENCED SUCCESSFUL GENIUS OF A BUSINESSMAN!
ANY OTHER QUESTIONS? CALL ME AT 1-800-FREE MONEY
I have another quesion Ritch. Is it only Independents and Republicans out of work, or are Democrats out of a job too? And, can you picture yet another 4 years of waste of yours and my tax dollars? The billions thrown out like candy is gone my friends.
You miss the entire point about venture capital success ratios. There will be the inevitable failures. However, the goal is still to make 10x money over 5 years based solely on the winners. That implies making large profits on winners. Per the government model, the best the government can do is break even, the worst is lose 100%. It’s a one way bet in the wrong direction. That is why the taxpayers will object. There is no mathematical, practical or possible way to break even on the money as a whole and it is essentially guaranteed to lose 80% by the definition you posited. So, under real accounting rules, the government would have to immediatley write-down its so called “investment” by 80% on the day it was made and treat the money as being a loss. That is why there is no company or individual on earth that would make the same decision except a bureaucrat playing with someone else’s money and no accountability.
It isn’t the rate of failure that is disturbing. There is risk in any investment. Taking this risk with tax payer money is unconscionable. Additionally, this president is attempting broad redistribution of revenue and is using our money under the guise of “green energy” as his personal piggy bank to finance his own ideology regardless of public opinion.
The tax payers are not willing investors, their investment is extorted from them at the end of a gun or threat of a long prison stay.
Plus what is the ROI?
If the Volt or Solyndra had been successful what would the return be to me, the tax payer/Investor be?
The short answer is less than zero.
If the Government made cell phones, we would have At&t bricks if we could even afford them. But, the free market and competition has provided us with Iphones and Androids SO CHEAPLY THAT EVEN OUR POOREST CITIZENS HAVE THEM.
The difference between venture company money and government money is that venture capitalists risk their OWN money. Government risks money that has been extorted on pain of punishment from the taxpayer.
@John Farry… John, the problem isn’t that the government is not “organizationally or psychologically incapable of adjusting to such a rate of success.” The problem is that the government has no buisness pissing away taxpayer dollars as venture capital, period – especially not on companies run by big political donors. Private VCs can do whatever they want, because it’s THEIR MONEY. The government’s money is not their money – IT’S OUR MONEY!!!
Gubmint Porkulus, Spendulus, Scamulus is nothing more than a wasteful mis-allocation of capital to political cronies.
No group of central planners, however smart, educated and experienced, can substitute for the collective brilliance and stupidity of millions of suppliers and consumers.
it’s the best money laundering scheme i’ve seen in my lifetime.
let’s pay attention to who got stimulus money…and who contributes, and how much, to BHO’s re-election campaign.
Pay attention folks this is what obama is doing to the entire country. to vote for obama is to vote to destroy america. ever thing he has touched has died a miserable death
Duh! Green energy is a democrat scam with fat Al-gore being the first scammer. What a freaking joke!
A lot of what Obama doesn’t touch dies too! Think mandatory support for abortion -coming soon to a neighborhood near you.
This crony capitalism sucks. There is no way the President of the USA, ever, should have treasury money in his hands to hand out as he sees fit. Congress and only congress pays the bills. This stuff has to stop. What a waste. Shameful by leaps and bounds.
Obama should help fund the development of a solar powered teleprompter manufacturer. He would save a lot of energy if he used them.
We’re awash in stupidity. ANOTHER BAILOUT! How many billions does this one cost us. Worse, his koolaid Klan keep drinking every drop he throws at them and continues to throw us further in the sewer with his ”I’m bringing Green Energy to you Americans no matter the cost. Can we survive another 4 years of this mess?
If I didn’t know better, I would think that something crooked was going on with these gov’t “green” stimulus companies going under. I would think (if I didn’t know better) that they are using these new companies to make a statement about renewable energy for the future and their regulations are all over them. How else could they fail so frequently? (But, I probably don’t know better)
If there was any money to be made on this someone would have started it up in their garage. This is just more of the Peoples money thrown around to the obama supporters. Enough already this guy is spending like there is no tomorrow.
The problem with all of these solar panel companies was the same problem we always run into: China and its near illegal trade practices.
With their labor and monetary model they can make the panels for about 1/10th what we can in terms of labor and materials, they then dump them for about 50% US prices and drive the US companies out of business then slowly mjove prices up until they get to a stable profit. Add to that they ignore patents and copyrights and you have a trade policy that needs to have more attention drawn to it.
Government should have never gotten into the industry. They should have instead placed tariffs on China on particular high tech manufacturing areas so these businesses can get off the ground without government subsidies. Im not usually in favor of protectionist policies but China is making it impossible not to employ them against it with their own trade policies.
Don’t you love seeing all those taxpayer BILLIONS go straight down the toilet?
One of the things missing is that venture capitalists usually hold equity positions. Convertible debt positions also work, but non-convertible debt positions, such as loans or loan guarantees are not very bright. The math is against you. If you lose, you lose our money. If you win, our country’s money comes back with interest, however most of the “profit” goes to the equity holders. So with loans & loan guarantees the 80/20 argument is absurd.
What is it called when you lend our money to a venture so the equity holders have less risk and they have the chance of a larger profit? I call it stupid. At least when we used to fund research at colleges, the gov’t would often keep a piece of the equity.
Each of these seems to have a common thread, using much of the money to build facilities. And how do the common thugs (mafia, unions) steal money most often, via building stuff. It is consistent with the state of Illinois. Bankrupt, via their open corruption and union theft, they are out of money so the toll roads need a big jump in tolls so they can………. build stuff. How dumb are the voters?
Wired Mag has a good article on the failure of the ‘green’ movement: they were counting on the price of fossil fuels skyrocketing. But those clever Americans figured out how to extract natural gas from the ground in a new way, and now we find we have over 100 years worth of cheap gas right here in the US. Solar and wind can’t compete on price, so why put them in?
We should have a ‘space program’ worth of effort on fusion power so it can take over in 50 years.
Please remember that the POTUS in his SOTU speech told how the government invested in horizontal fracking to discover how to recover these natural gas fields. A bald face lie! Private industry developed this tech break thru, how do I know? I live in the Barnet Shale where it was pioneered. Our POTUS is a liar and a fraud!
The “Venture Capital” analogy is a bad one for the government investment in these so called green energy companies. With Venture Capital, the investor takes a high risk for a high reward. With these green energy companies, the government is offering loans and grants, so there is no “upside” to the government. So the 80% failure rate is what the government loses, and all the government can win, at best, is its original investment.
So far there is no such thing as ‘green’ energy. Let’s shoot for photosynthesis or nothing. That alone is green energy.
Oops! Then CO2 will have to be reclassified again….
The adventures of venture capitalists belong in the private sector. The polio vaccine; that’s all you got? That example is proof that government- private partnerships are an urban myth proposed by the very people who get rich in schemes like Solandra. CEO’s, accountants and attorneys and ELECTED OFFICIALS. One could talk about the economic spin off created but that is offset by the fact that Uncle Sam borrowed 100% of the money for this and the rest of the feel good, bananna-rama inside deals that this administration negotiated in exchange for generous campaign contributions. If the market finds it too risky then government has no business getting involved. Less regulation, and less interference by government equals lower taxes and more jobs.
I see a lot of comments debating rate of the success or failure of the government-sponsored projects/companies, but from my perspective (and the free market individual liberty CONSTITUTIONAL perspective), success or failure is irrelevant. The issue here is whether or not one group of people should be supported by the confiscation of wealth from others. The answer is no. It is fundamentally wrong to take money from someone who has earned it, and then to give that which was taken to another, who has not earned it.
We have two cases, and both are unacceptable and promote injustice:
1) If the subsidized party is successful, it has enjoyed success due to an unfair advantage over any entity in business for profit who did not receive a subsidy. Further, if the person whose wealth was originally confiscated is in business in the same industry, he is forced to fund his competitor. This is obviously wrong and evil, and could ultimately lead to his failure; this is akin to forced suicide.
2) If the subsidized party’s business venture fails, then it 0nly serves to compound the wrong of confiscating wealth from the rightful owner. His money was stolen from him, and then utterly wasted in support of a venture that clearly did not merit investment of capital from the free market.
If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidize it.
Anyone who does not believe there isn’t going to be an audit on what the current Administration spent on “Green Energy,” and what happened to those investments, and if the real owners of the companies that went bust were heavy contributors to President
Obama’s campaign is not going to be run through all the Press this year is living in the clouds. Oh for those who did not see it – after in ran in British newspapers yesterday:
Met Office releases new figures which show no warming in 15 years
By DAVID ROSE
Last updated at 5:38 AM on 29th January 2012
Comments (675)
Share
The supposed ‘consensus’ on man-made global warming is facing an inconvenient challenge after the release of new temperature data showing the planet has not warmed for the past 15 years.
The figures suggest that we could even be heading for a mini ice age to rival the 70-year temperature drop that saw frost fairs held on the Thames in the 17th Century.
Based on readings from more than 30,000 measuring stations, the data was issued last week without fanfare by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit. It confirms that the rising trend in world temperatures ended in 1997.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2093264/Forget-global-warming–Cycle-25-need-worry-NASA-scientists-right-Thames-freezing-again.html#ixzz1kxQC3ReQ
I’ll be glad when summer gets here, and it gets back into triple digits. 60 degrees is too cold for me.
Yet again not one mention of the Trillion dollars thrown at the nuclear industry as they poison the water, air, milk, vegetables, fish, cattle, etc. with nuclear Effluent. Look it up. Every nuclear power plant releases cancer-causing radiation into the environment during their daily operations. There are increases in cancer of children living near nuclear power plants. And huge amounts of radiation were released during nuclear plant meltdowns at Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and now Japan. The radiation will continue contaminating the environment for centuries and causing increases in cancer. Radiation from Japan’s meltdowns was found in the air, milk, water in the U.S. because the radiation travelled on the jet stream winds. You can google “Jeff McMahon Forbes radiation” for good blogs on the subject, or www dot enenews dot com
It’s time to wake people up about the truth of what’s going on!
Good grief, you think you can fool us with this nonsense? After millions of dollars spent on redundant studies and inexpressive costs added to nuclear plant operations, nuclear power has been found safe and reliable. Take your economy and job killing “investments” to another sugar daddy because Uncle Sam is crying ENOUGH.
The current administration’s understanding of ‘venture capitalism’ is not the point. It is the Fed’s use of taxpayer money, without taxpayer approval; and the taxpayer (you and me) getting any return on their investment Nor is it palatable for this Administration to publicly castigate CEO’s of companies for loss of money, while it continually does so with no explanation to the investors; again, you and me.
The article should have stated how many of Obama’s top advisers were on the Board of Director’s at Amonix Inc. and which adviser was CEO and how much did Amonix donate to Barack Hussien Obama re-election campaign. These things would have been nice to know.
If any of you actually read the article the ideological tool sites, you’d see the lay offs are only temporary while the plant retools for it’s newest product….duh.
This is what you people who wasted your vote for a slow motion train wreck get for actually believing what you THOUGHT you heard in the campaign. Do you have any hope left? How about that amount of change you have in your pocket, especially after these scams that have robbed you of your hard earned form the meager jobs that are still running this economy. Still enough for you to do what you want in life? Your hero and his appointed group of theives are working overtime to destroy the greatest country on the face of the planet. Have youhad enough yet?
If you are one of those people who spent your vote on this disaster, please admit – at leats to yourself- that you lack the capacity to cast an intelligent vote and do not do it again.
Obama and his thugs used taxpayer money to fund ventures they KNEW were destined to fail because they got cash back to themselves. The union payoffs by Obama were the biggest theft in US history. When a REAL investigation is done on the crimes of Obama and his criminal constitution flouting regime, I hope they all end up in prison.
All of this money thrown away here is not actual “investment” , it is simply political payoffs using tax money. You’ll most likely find that each of these companies were run by buddies of Obama and the DNC. The money was simply pocketed for the most part by the company honchos. The actual success by any of these companies would have been strictly coincidence.
Americans are such suckers for scams. As long as you allow yourselves to be told what to think and believe instead of doing a little work to think for yourselves, America will continue to be on the decline. Get ready to speak Chinese and give up those civil rights!
“… politics invariably corrupts government’s investment decisions. ” Absolutely, I would say most every decision is corrupt. This is why the U.S. Constitution set up government to be a mediator and provide a framework for a level playing field under the Rule of Law. Rule of Law requires that there is no specific entity that benefits from the law as much as possible. The moment laws are made to “do some something for someone” corruption is what follows until what we have today, a 100% corrupt, criminal gang of 537 dictators in Washington vs. 300 million Americans. There is something seriously wrong with this picture.
I think many of you fine ladies and gentlemen are missing the point here. The reason the american taxpayor is getting soaked is quite simply because…..obama is an idiot.
I don’t mind if they fail 80% of the time…as long as it is with their own “F-ing” money and not mine!!
Assuming one has two similar newer businesses available for investing and each is judged to be of equal risk, which one gets the investment capital? The investment goes to the company deemed to have the best people. Effective, dedicated MANAGEMENT will win the day.
In short, an investments is best made by considering the prospects of qualified people running with a good idea. And the idea should not be one based on emotional attachment to political idealism and the people should not be rewarded for their political support.
Simply put, government investing in businesses will turn out like most everything that government meddles with in the private sector … predictable failure. Period.
The ethanol debacle illustrates government waste and cronyism best. How many ethanol plants are owned by political cronies? I know of at least three in WI. What has ethanol done for food prices? Up and up. What has ethanol done for our energy independence? Zero. What has ethanol done for political contributions? . . .the answer is almost obscene.
Is there any investigation into what happened to the stimulus, or is this yet another billion thrown into the black hole of yet another failure. How many more billions will this administration waste to their rich supporters. How about the jobs?? Dream on America. Dream on job seekers (or should we say, suckers).
Most are good comments, but someone please show me the big winners the government has had in their “venture capital” adventures in green energy with our money. Anyone?
Well, we got that Hope and Change didn’t we? Now we can only Hope for a Change and get rid of the wasteful administration who plays games with our tax dollars. You know, easy come, easy go! By the way, THE THIRD FAILED BAILOUT just in a week! More layoffs and they keep the koolaid flowing with the ”progress” PUTUS is creating more jobs. Our resources are being eaten away Drip by Drip only it has become a flood of failure.
To everyone who has rightly pointed out all the shennanigans of the “Great Unifier” and the “Nobel Peace Prize Winner”.
What do you expect from a “community organizer”? Here in Oakland, CA, we count our very own “community organizers” as shakedown artists – and they actually give a bad name to the real shakedown artists who actually have some leverage to shakedown with. Now our esteemed president comes from the apex of the “community organizer” pyramid – Chicago. To expect him to do any different would be foolishness. Instead of spewing outrage, make it a point to send him back to “organize the community” in Chicago, or Kenya or Hawaii by VOTING HIM OUT. Then once he starts his “organizing”, investigate and expose ALL THE FACTS. Let the public decide on the facts (like who got the money, who paid what to whose re-election campaign or party, who lost the money, etc. etc. – all irrefutable data points). Then let the left wing press send in Lenny Davis to “spin” it. Poor Lenny. He will have a heart attack.
Not to be too cynical but…could these green companies be simply funnels for all that money to go into behind-the-scenes coffers to enact Obama-care? Think about it. The Gov’t has already spent 5-trillion during Obama’s 3-years much of it on so-called “stimulus”. Do we have any indication of where all of it has been spent? Some of it was supposed to be for shovel-ready infrastructure jobs…new roads and bridges…and yet there was Obama in his State of the Campaign, er Union Speech saying that America needs to get to work building infrastructure! What the $%#!?! did he spend the stimulus on? Obama and the Dems are so very shady and cavalier with money…it truly is criminal.
The public deserves and should demand a full accounting of how EVERY penny of the stimulus was spent.
When will the people of this country stand up against the idiocracy of this Democratic controlled pile of doggie doodoo and let the people decide which direction our energy focus goes? This administration is forcing so called GREEN down our throats just like Obamacare not a very democratic thing to do more like a DICTATOR thing to do.
Yet, more proof that Obama and the liberals desire for a “green jobs” economy is a mirage because the technology is not there yet and you can’t force this on people. Who wants to spend their hard earned money on something that’s not proven or trustworthy?? If the new “clean energy” cars and products are so good, you wouldn’t be able to keep them on shelves!! The fact that very few are buying them tells you where we are at. I’m going to be in the market for a new car soon but I’m not even considering buying an electric car or hybrid! I’m going with a good old fashioned gas engine because it’s proven to work and it doesn’t cause global warming!! There is no such thing as global warming caused by humans. The temperature goes up and the temperature goes down that’s life and God controls it not us.
What you are actually witnessing is criminal fraud being committed by Obama, his cronies, and the corrupt ‘executives’ of these bogus companies… against taxpayers.
All these people did was set-up front operations to fleece the funds from DOE. Nothing but greed and corruption from top to bottom. The ‘execs’ take millions, and then fold.
The ‘green jobs’ economy is a liberal FRAUD, created to pay-off Obama supporters.
The problem with the Obama attempts to pick green energy winners is that he is set on manufacturing green energy components, at a time when US manufacturing is getting rocked by cheaper production centers. The green energy push for the US has to be market-driven and based on engineering and technical advances…not trying to make what the Chinese make so cheaply. Even the Danes have pulled wind turbine manufacture out of Denmark…due to higher costs.
Green energy is also capital-intensive – replacing to some extent labor-intensive traditional energy. So the whole “green jobs: concept is bogus from the get-go.
Randy Mott
President of renewable energy company
Joe – trying to defend the spending on these high risk ventures just doesn’t cut it. You are totally misinformed and don’t appear to know a thing about investing. A 20% success rate for a venture capitalist would be beyond pathetic. These ventures are only lasting months before going belly up – you just can’t squander taxpayer money like this. These backdoor deals are not obviously being pushed thru by someone as the due diligence would have pointed out that these companies were not going to make it long term.
Is anybody going to jail over this?
There are two differences between a government investment and one made by a knowledgeable venture capital company. The investment company has the expertise to evaluate all the variables associated with the company and its products and management. The government has no such expertise and as Obama has shown, lets these gov’t. investments be driven by a political agenda. Wake up America.
← Previous Comments
Next Comments →
Comments on this entry are closed.
{ 44 trackbacks }