Comments on: “No Easy Answers” for Wyoming Economy http://wyofile.com/2009/06/no-easy-answers-for-wyoming-economy/ Wyoming Politics & Policy Wed, 16 May 2012 21:25:48 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: Dewey http://wyofile.com/2009/06/no-easy-answers-for-wyoming-economy/comment-page-1/#comment-9 Dewey Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:02:58 +0000 http://wyofile.com/?p=628#comment-9 Sam---- perhaps the best thing we could achieve in getting Wyoming's classic economy updated to the 21st century business models is something you yourself can do. Consider updating your seminal "Pushed off the mountain , Sold down the river" book , and see to it that every member of the Wyoming Legislature, every lobbyist, every bank officer statewide, every County Commissioner and City councilperson, and their staffs, and the Wyoming Business Council all recieve a fresh copy . Not only that , tell them they will be given a pop quiz. Your book never leaves my desk. Sam—- perhaps the best thing we could achieve in getting Wyoming’s classic economy updated to the 21st century business models is something you yourself can do. Consider updating your seminal “Pushed off the mountain , Sold down the river” book , and see to it that every member of the Wyoming Legislature, every lobbyist, every bank officer statewide, every County Commissioner and City councilperson, and their staffs, and the Wyoming Business Council all recieve a fresh copy . Not only that , tell them they will be given a pop quiz.

Your book never leaves my desk.

]]> By: Mark Junge http://wyofile.com/2009/06/no-easy-answers-for-wyoming-economy/comment-page-1/#comment-6 Mark Junge Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:54:54 +0000 http://wyofile.com/?p=628#comment-6 Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President, Thomas Hoenig, makes some provocative comments that stimulate the reader into thought about Wyoming's future. Only one of Hoenig's ideas bothered me. It's his thought that we should allow companies to fail. Macro-economists, it seems, perceive the economy as a chessboard and that, given the presence of certain factors in the equations, human actions are predictable. If we allow companies to fail, our entrepreneurial system being what it is, will right itself. The problem, as Hoenig also indicates, is that in the long run we are all dead. In the short run if we cavalierly allow companies to fail then we are also consigning the workers, not just greedy CEOs, to perdition. Anybody who works for these companies also should be allowed to fail. Further, smaller companies and their workers who depend upon those large companies, need to fail, as well. The problem is that we're talking about people here, not just impersonal corporate entities. Some say that World War II was the reason why we pulled out of the Depression, not Franklin D. Roosevelt's alphabet soup agencies. But wasn't the war funded by money supplied by a government that was trying to protect its citizens? Prior to the war, had Roosevelt simply said, "Let's just let this thing work itself out", what would have happened to all those people to whom he gave hope and jobs? How were they to obtain their daily bread without some help? A great country not only protects its citizens in time of war, it also assures their welfare in times of relative peace. If some choose to see this as paternalistic, so be it. Right now the government, as a countervailing force to private enterprise gone amuck, needs to take a strong hand to right the ship of state. Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President, Thomas Hoenig, makes some provocative comments that stimulate the reader into thought about Wyoming’s future. Only one of Hoenig’s ideas bothered me. It’s his thought that we should allow companies to fail. Macro-economists, it seems, perceive the economy as a chessboard and that, given the presence of certain factors in the equations, human actions are predictable. If we allow companies to fail, our entrepreneurial system being what it is, will right itself. The problem, as Hoenig also indicates, is that in the long run we are all dead. In the short run if we cavalierly allow companies to fail then we are also consigning the workers, not just greedy CEOs, to perdition. Anybody who works for these companies also should be allowed to fail. Further, smaller companies and their workers who depend upon those large companies, need to fail, as well. The problem is that we’re talking about people here, not just impersonal corporate entities. Some say that World War II was the reason why we pulled out of the Depression, not Franklin D. Roosevelt’s alphabet soup agencies. But wasn’t the war funded by money supplied by a government that was trying to protect its citizens? Prior to the war, had Roosevelt simply said, “Let’s just let this thing work itself out”, what would have happened to all those people to whom he gave hope and jobs? How were they to obtain their daily bread without some help? A great country not only protects its citizens in time of war, it also assures their welfare in times of relative peace. If some choose to see this as paternalistic, so be it. Right now the government, as a countervailing force to private enterprise gone amuck, needs to take a strong hand to right the ship of state.

]]>