In today’s continuing Perfect Storm of financial implosion, foreclosures and tightening credit, all the CEOs that bragged how they were going to drive up profits, make companies more efficient and create wealth for stockholders have missed the boat. They should be walking the plank and not be looking for a bailout to secure bonuses.

Talk is cheap from the captains of finance and industry.  When the first 80-foot wave of financial implosion hit, many did not see it coming.  Their economic navigators gave them bad advice saying that they only hit a minor squall of the sub-prime mortgage market instead of realizing they hit the tip of the multi-wave giant financial Tsunami of staggering defaults on car loans, student loans, credit and residential and commercial real estate implosions.

The next huge wave of diminishing profits hit all these organizations no thanks to the out-of-touch economic navigators that kept cheering the captains to continue full speed ahead instead of slowing down to figure out a new course.

Now, they are all trying to jump on the $700 Billion lifeboat that the government has thrown out into the Perfect Storm, but the problem is that there are only so many seats on it and now everyone is trying to secure a position.

OUR ECONOMY IS UNSINKABLE 

So many engineers of the economy thought that whatever they did, whatever they financially designed would hold up even in the strongest adversity.  Well they were wrong and instead of acknowledging that their ships are stuck in the water and sinking fast, they want to have a complete luxury liner to walk into and this is not how the economy can and should be run.

On the high seas when your luxury ship goes down, you are very fortunate if you have a lifeboat that you can survive in.  It may not have a formal buffet, a rock band or a 50-inch flat screen TV, but it’s meant to keep you afloat.

You don’t walk off from a sinking luxury liner expecting that the Queen Mary II is going pull up and bail you out with a platinum stateroom.   It doesn’t work that way on the high seas and it should not work that way on the high seas of finance and capitalism.  That means no bonuses, no $400,000 banquets and no $40 Million salaries.

TRANSFORMING ORGANIZATIONAL TITANICS INTO STARSHIPS

There are many manufacturing companies stuck in the industrial age that they may not be able to transform into a post-information age organization.  Years, if not decades, of inaction in trying to set a new course and jettisoning obsolete strategies have made the auto industry a potentially huge casualty in this Perfect Storm.

“Giving them a $25 Billion bailout will only prolong the inevitable,” as stated by Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama.  I agree.  There needs to be some radical transformation if GM, Ford and Chrysler are to survive.

Doesn’t anyone realize that just because GM or Ford gets bailout money, no consumer is going to run out and buy a new Tahoe or an Expedition.  The consumers are still laid off or they have taken a lesser-paying job because their good-paying jobs were outsourced or their former company brought in cheap labor to replace them.  The abuse of the H1B program is a whole other issue, but it has also worked on the soundness of the hull of the economy by putting in holes on it like Swiss cheese which would also make the ship sink.

CITIES WANT BILLIONS TOO

Now in addition to the automakers, Detroit is looking for $10 Billion for itself and Atlanta, Philadelphia and Phoenix are looking for some bailout as well.  Many states, including Wisconsin, have multi-billion deficits and everyone is trying find a seat on an already crowded lifeboat.  Just like on the high seas, put too many people in one lifeboat and it will sink under the burden of weight.

Another means must be used to bail out all these other ships of state.  It’s called handing them lots of buckets and telling them it’s “All hands on deck” and everyone has to help bail the wastewater off their ship.

CUT SPENDING.  Too much bloat won’t keep you afloat.  CUT SPENDING.  Sink or swim.  CUT TAXES.  Get businesses to want to locate in the state.

We should be hearing that echo in Illinois as well “Bail…Bail...Bail”.

CARLINI-ISM :  Cut out the bloat and you might stay afloat.