Watching the incumbent adamantly refuse to sensibly negotiate the upcoming fiscal cliff reminds me of dealing with family businesses that offspring inherit or take over from predecessors for whatever reason. In those cases, it's fairly common to find the one’s newly in charge to be considerably different than those they replaced, sometimes for the better, but most often they aren't very good at it at all.
And most often the greatest lacking in those that fail is unfamiliarity with, or lack of respect for, the talents and knowledge of those who’d gone before and an absence of appreciation of how and why those businesses were built. And when this shortfall in knowledge is coupled with arrogance or stubbornness to learn, it usually leads to eventual deterioration, sometimes quite quick and other times slow and painful.
I mention this today because as I think about how difficult it is to simply take over an existing enterprise, which may be as small as a local service business, manufacturing site or retail establishment, and I consider all that's involved to maintain continuity smoothly and successfully, I can’t even begin to imagine what kind of capabilities are required to truly comprehend the economy of the United States.
Nonetheless though, we presently have someone who’s nothing more than a political hack, with no financial acumen whatsoever, making decisions that affect our entire population without a clue as to how any part of the budget actually works.
As for myself, I haven’t that level of financial sophistication either, but I do know this much. If our fiscal system was the smallest of enterprises and a new management requested financing from an organization such as those I represented, the first thing I’d demand was a very specific, finely detailed business plan. And then I’d want to know how much experience management had with successful operations of a similar size. And after that, I’d require a personal guarantee of the contract, just in case things didn’t work out as planned and perhaps, cash collateral besides.
And the reason I’d demand all the preceding is because when you know you’re dealing with unseasoned operators in business, the smartest thing you can do is decline the deal. But if for some reason you’re stuck with an odds on loser, don’t ever let the borrower have a dime that you aren’t absolutely sure will be paid back as promised and on time.
So, if that’s the case with the smallest of business transactions, exactly how ludicrous is it to have the totally unskilled incumbent involved in something as financially complex as the fiscal matters of the United States? To me, it's beyond comprehension.
That’s it for today folks.
Adios
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