Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Letting CEOs Speak

We always applaud those who stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves. We especially admire those who speak for those whose voices have been silenced by leaders who abuse their authority.

Today, one minority that feel especially oppressed by the current is: CEOs.

As the Obama administration tries to ride to re-election on the backs of CEOs, this group has decided that the better part of valor is to remain silent.

You do not want to criticize an administration that will punish you for speaking your mind.

And not just for speaking your mind. The Obama administration will also hate you for making too much money.

So, we are happy to say that we are all indebted to Jim Cramer for allowing the silenced CEOs to speak their minds, anonymously, in his column.

Cramer is a loyal Democrat. Until recently he counted himself as a generous donor to Democratic causes.

From his many conversations with CEOs Cramer has come away with the strong impression that all of them see the current administration as their enemy. They are more than happy that Washington is gridlocked and focused on the coming election campaign.

For them, the less government interference, the better. They have figured out that Obama only supports labor unions and environmental causes. Capitalism, in his mind, is the enemy.

In Cramer’s words: “… the CEOs … believe that the president is ideologically committed to hurting them either because their businesses involve some level of pollution -- or a build out of a fossil fuel system in some way or another -- or because labor is not going to do as well as capital in their successes. There is a ‘plague on your house’ attitude from the White House rather than any encouragement, unless they are all green or the workers own more of the means of production, which, alas, isn't really a true capitalist doctrine.”

While the stock market seems to be keyed onto what is happening in Greece and what might happen in Spain and Italy, CEOs see a different problem.

Cramer writes: “It's funny, as much as we on Wall Street fret every day about Europe, mostly about the imminent collapse of Italy, these execs, and I ask them all, are far more worried about the president and the Democrats and the obstacles they place on success.

“They think there is a deep-down anti-success bias.

“They think that the president is so anti-profit that he is the biggest hindrance to their successes, not Europe. They feel they can work around Europe but they know, in their hearts, that the president does not want them to succeed.”

2 comments:

Dennis said...

Once one gets in bed with the devil they have to expect that the devil is going to want his due. Government will always turn into an extortionist if one allows it to "do favors" for them and will take far more than it gives.
One has to ask why these people, who one has to assume can read, ever donated money to those who would do them damage? Even a tertiary examination of Obama's background would have demonstrated his anti-business ideas. One had to look no further than the people he surrounds himself with as friends and advisors.
Maybe that Harvard MBA isn't worth the paper its printed on if these people were so easily taken in. They have done us and themselves a disservice by feeding the devil. They can correct it by not feeding the devil anymore. There are a thousand ways to starve the devil and these people ought to be smart enough to know them or develop them. A little Atlas Shrugging might be in order.

Stuart Schneiderman said...

One thing I liked about Cramer's piece is that he did not add his opinions... he allowed himself to present the CEOs opinions, unedited.