Two from The Economist:
The White House and American business
Don’t bully Boeing, Barack
Want to prove you are “pro-business”? Condemn a loony-left complaint against America’s biggest exporter
High-speed trains
The Difference Engine: Fast track to nowhere
The naked avarice and corruption of the Boeing dilemma make me worry for the US. A Labour Board that shows no regard for it’s own rules is deserving of a smackdown but I’m not seeing that happen in any branch of the current administration. From Justice to Immigration to Environment I have never witnessed such a spectacle of willingness to drive the country into the ditch.
I used to invest in the US but no longer.
Well glory be! Is The Ecommunist changing its tune?
Canada’s wide open for aircraft production. Hi Boeing, welcome!
Commentary from TheFreemanonline.org by Jacob Steelman on 11 May 2010:
Laws and the regulations implementing the laws accomplish exactly what they are intended to accomplish – intervene in the efficient functioning of the free unfettered market in order to benefit various members of the ruling elites. The laws and the regulations are developed by the politicians (and their staffs) and bureaucrats with the aid of lobbyists, lawyers, economists, accountants and sometimes even corporate executives. The laws and regulations are pored over by the lobbyists and specialists within organizations and outside specialists retained by organizations. This cadre of experts then provides comments and suggestions to the politicians, their staffs and the bureaucrats on drafting of the laws and regulations. There is very little in the way of unintended consequences left once the experts finish their analysis. The laws and regulations are designed and intended to benefit members of the ruling elites and prevent the marketplace from functioning efficiently. This is the only purpose of government. The politicians are the power brokers for various members of the ruling elite. In order to obtain their objectives and enforce their laws and regulations the politicians and their agents – the bureaucrats -must resort to fraud, theft (taxation), violence (police) and murder (war). They always seek the sanction of the victim by invoking the concept of democracy and majority vote – the individual be damned.
Boeing wouldn’t touch Canada again . . they got burned badly by CAW when the bought DeHavilland in Toronto and couldn’t sell it off soon enough.
Paul, “very little in the way of unintended consequences”? Really? If this were so, wouldn’t central planning work better? You have way more faith in the legislative process than I do. If icemen were still around, the NLRB would be preventing fridge makers from selling their product on the grounds that fridges were specifically designed to do the job for less, thereby depriving the unionized icemen of their right to a living wage.
I used to be a fan of high-speed trains simply because they seemed to be inherently sensible. But I’ve never seen a rigorous analysis of their economic viability or even their “green” credibility. Top Gear cited an analysis which pointed out that the pollution created by a high speed train was higher per passenger than modern automobiles. I’m beginning to think that for passenger service, the train is a transitional technology, now rendered redundant by the modern passenger vehicle. You want high speed connections? Why not toll autobahns i.e. modern four lane highways with no speed limit, strict enforcement of vehicle safety and safe driving rules, paid for by their users?
The real news here is that The Economist has been infiltrated by sane people.
Calvin – As you, I also had a quarrel with the phrase “very little in the way of unintended consequences”, but chose to post the author’s comment in its entirety because he does make some very salient points. IMO he should have said “unintended consequences be damned”
Truth be known legislators and their sycophants are not the best and brightest amongst us and are just as lazy as the worst of us.
Just reading the book “Snakes in Suits” – while primarily focused on business, the authors’ observations are likely even more pervasive in government at all levels.
http://www.harpercollins.com/browseinside/index.aspx?isbn13=9780061147890
Lyin’ Brian Mulroney did the same thing with the CF-18 maintenance contract. Let’s hope this has similar results politically.
The unmitigated gall of the NLRB is incredible. What the hell kind of country has the U.S. become? (Canada as well in many aspects). Boeing has built the factory and hired many workers. They should simply open for business and challenge the lawsuit later.
High speed rail on the other hand is something, not unlike Obamacare, that is not affordable at this time no matter how many jobs it creates. You just KNOW that the majority of money to build and sustain the route(s) will have to come, ultimately, from the taxpayer.
Do you really want to travel on a high speed rail this day and age of nutzo’s and terrorists?
No thanks. Slow moving train is good enough.
Heck it is sad testament in country as large as Canada do NOT have a rail service. VIA is for tourists. $240 from Edmonton to Vancouver? Cheaper to fly.
When I was in Japan, I took the shinkansen and loved it to bits. It wasn’t cheap, however.
I don’t have a problem with train service but it must be made affordable and efficient or it’s not worth it.
I honestly believe that historians will view what the Obama regime has attempted with Boeing to be one of the most egregious domestic oversteps of any U.S. gov’t in recent times.
From the Media Party we here almost nothing about this story. 🙁
?
was boeing really allowed to build the plant and fill the personnel requirements beforehand?
mendacity. (first time I heard that word was Burl Ives in ‘Hot Tin Roof’; certainly applicable here).
Lyin’ Brian Mulroney did the same thing with the”
oooooohhhhhh. a CONSERVATIVE ???
Hey ping, he was a conservative with strings pulled by the Demarais family, nothing more. They have little influence now. Understand history dude, or stick to sniping at the Kos.
Dr. D: “Top Gear cited an analysis which pointed out that the pollution created by a high speed train was higher per passenger than modern automobiles.”
Has to be. Drag increases by the -square- of velocity. To overcome drag costs horsepower, horsepower costs fuel. A high speed train drinks as much fuel per passenger as an aircraft, possibly more because the train is heavy and it has rolling resistance too.
If your car went 300mph it’d be thirsty too. 300+ mph Bonneville cars have fuel pumps with capacity measured in gallons per second. Usually alcohol plus nitrous or gasoline plus nitromethane.
Which give you some of how realistic this whole high-speed rail concept is. About as likely as a nation-wide power grid based on windmills and solar.
And don’t we lose -normal- trains to derailment all the freakin’ time? Can you imagine one of these 200-300mph suckers leaving the rails? KaBOOM. Even mighty Shinkansen has been off the rails once. Going slow on a straight piece of track, nobody died. Going fast in a corner? KaBooooom.
The Japanese have Shinkansen because they -have- to, not because its such an awesome thing.
Oh, and it went bankrupt too. Got bought out at a fraction of its cost and all the investors got a big ol’ haircut. Japanese taxpayers, mostly.
Is it any wonder that the DEMOCRATS are the ones pushing for bullet trains? Nope. All the better to fleece you with my dear.
Boeing should tell them to pound salt and move the whole fricking works to Mexico. I bet they could get a smokin’ deal from the Mexican guys. Put it right across the border from San Diego, just to tweak the Dems.
Top fuel dragster fuel pump test.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGTbQuhhluY&NR=1
300+ mph, quarter mile in 4 seconds, nitro-methane fuel coming out -really- fast.
Most cars have two (2) pumps like this. 20 gallons in four seconds.
I can’t imagine what the frickin’ fuel pump looks like on a 300mph train. Probably looks like the engine in my truck.
I doubt that’s possible, Phantom. Boeing needs highly skilled workers that Mexico just can’t supply.
I’m not optimistic about any reversing of the NRLB’s position. Obama owes his presidency to organized labour. I expect Boeing is waiting out this term in office, hoping for a new President and also hoping that they don’t lose too many customers to Airbus.
Turbo train, T.O – Montreal, mid-seventies. Supposed to be faster than driving. It did crack 100MPH at times. Smell of kerosene in the bar car.
Yum!
“he was a conservative with strings pulled”
my point exactly mr bart simpson.
once a conservative always a conservative.
who’s pulling harper’s strings? we will find out one day.
I have ridden trains in Canada a few times and they are a complete non starter, now that we have cars and planes. Toronto to Thunderbay was a 24 hour train tide. I can drive it in 16 or fly it in less than two. I guess high speed would drop that 24 hour trip to 12. Toronto to Ottawa by train probably was a great trip 100 years ago, when both cities were a lot smaller and you could walk from down town to the train station at both ends. Now the fair is about four times what the gas costs, The rail time is about the same as the drive time, except It would take me the best part of an hour to get to the train station in Toronto, and in Ottawa the train station is now a 40 $ taxi ride from down town. To take a train to Ottawa is an hour trip to the train station, four hours by train then half an hour to get down town from the train. Or I could just drive, be there in four hours and have my own transport available when I get there.
The article misses the point of commanding heights intervention into the market place.
Boeing is like the auto industry, it is a slippery slope of subsidies that cause unionized labour of these oligopolies to take advantage of a business model that would not work without various government abatement programs.
In this case the US government’s Export/Import bank finances the sale of Boeing planes (as does our government’s Export Development Bank for Bombardier planes and trains).
This all leads to the crony capitalism of planes trains and automobiles with the excuse that all countries do it so we have to as well in order to compete.
cgh said: “I doubt that’s possible, Phantom. Boeing needs highly skilled workers that Mexico just can’t supply.”
Maybe. But you know, that’s what they said about the car companies. Who have been successfully in Mexico for a loooong time now. If you can assemble a car you can assemble an aircraft.
“Highly skilled” is one of those buzz phrases that isn’t actually true. Particularly in view of the quality of worker graduating from American high schools these days.
Boeing Canada is located near the Winnipeg International airport in Winnipeg, it is the largest composite aircraft manufacturer in Canada, supplying precision parts to numerous Boeing airplanes. In addition Boeing contracts with major aerospace firms across Canada to supply parts and service for its various designs from the Dreamliner to the stealth F-35.
Mikewa, that’s good to know. So screw Mexico, let Boeing come to Weinerpeg.