I will never understand the popular habit of presuming that business has a greater corrupting influence on Republicans.

I've fairly given up on Americans as a people who can understand anything at all. It's bad enough that Keynesian economics has pervaded our system so completely, but to add insult to injury, the average American is someone who literally believes the President is someone who can create jobs in a meaningful sense (he can create jobs in a meaningless sense, witness the TSA, but that's another story).

Economic illiteracy is killing this country...and fast!

The free market is killing Solyndra, as it should. If the feds had stayed out of it, we'd be $528 million richer, and the results would be essentially the same, except that Solyndra's inability to compete would have been corrected much sooner, and at lower cost.

Here's the money shot from the article Amy linked to:

"Under terms of the February loan restructuring, two private investors — Argonaut Ventures I LLC and Madrone Partners LP — stand to be repaid before the U.S. government if the solar company is liquidated. The two firms gave the company a total of $69 million in emergency loans. The loans are the only portion of their investments that have repayment priority above the U.S. government.

Argonaut is an investment vehicle of the George Kaiser Family Foundation of Tulsa, Okla. The foundation is headed by billionaire George Kaiser, a major Obama campaign contributor and a frequent visitor to the White House. Kaiser raised between $50,000 and $100,000 for Obama's 2008 campaign, federal election records show. Kaiser has made at least 16 visits to the president's aides since 2009, according to White House visitor logs.

Madrone Partners is affiliated with the Walton family, descendants of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton. Rob Walton, the eldest son of Sam Walton, contributed $2,500 last year to the National Republican Congressional Committee."

What chafes my hide, is the fact that the news barely made a comment about this. Bush shelved this and no one makes mention of that. All the Bush bashers would be tripping over themselves had this been introduced and accepted during his tenure.

The hypocrisy continues to STINK to high heaven. Count me in as being sick of bloody politics the way it stands today.

Welcome to a situation where we cannot see the forest for the trees. Trust me, it ain't over till the fat lady sing, just ask the three Muslim Brotherhood members who have Obama's ear in the White House!!!!

Think I'm crazy? I suggest everyone start paying attention - close attention.

dervish: "The free market is killing Solyndra, as it should."

And that is the problem. Solyndra is just another proxy fight between Obama and free markets. He will lose.

> He will lose.

I admire your optimism.

Dirty Little Secret: The Commies won the Cold War.

Dirty Little Secret: The Commies won the Cold War.

How do you figure?

Because in ramping up to beat the Soviets, we became them, so to speak. Sure, we're not living on collective farms, per se, and there aren't lines for staples (yet), but we've sacrificed an enormous amount of our liberty to achieve this victory.

No-knock raids, strip searches, massive eavesdropping and concentration camps would have been anathema to our grandparents... yet here we are.

Our generation tolerates armed raids on the Amish, and police closures of lemonade stands for crying out loud!

> How do you figure?

Lil' birdy told me.

> we've sacrificed an enormous amount of our
> liberty to achieve this victory.

I agree, except I don't know what victory you're talking about. Whose life is going better because of a thoughtful step America has taken, collectively rather than by markets, since the wall came down? What one- or two- (three max) word do you give to this achievement?

Did all of us gather in a circle and hold hands and agree to bail the banks a couple years ago? Because that's not how I remember it.

I hear you, loud and clear Crid! The one word I would offer is FAIL!!

Regarding the banks, I am assuming that everyone here fully realizes that our country is run by a criminal syndicate. Metals are sky-high, not that they won't go higher, but I hesitate to recommend them in light of other options. Buying property is the best option in most markets right now. We have a rare window for slow arbitrage, as it were, in the sense that prices are depressed at the same time that interest rates are low. This has never happened in my lifetime.

Real estate is a great hedge against inflation, less so against deflation,thus the market's current confusion, but interest rates make it so attractive, it almost doesn't matter which way it goes (within limits, and depending upon your market). Here in KY, the best strategy is to buy fairly solid cheap properties, and rent 'em out under Section 8 (yeah, it's dealing with the devil, but it has the best ROI, do we act in our own self-interest or not)?

From higher up in the thread, we find this:

"The loans are the only portion of their investments that have repayment priority above the U.S. government."

Why the Hell are citizen's taxes going to guarantee private loan agreements? It's an issue of supply and demand, if all risk is removed from loans, maximal amounts of money will be loaned to minimally qualified people and institutions. This one's a no-brainer... and solid evidence of the fact that we are governed by thieves.

"I wish I could ask every person who complains bitterly about some policy whether they'd still complain if it were enacted by somebody on their team."

You already know the answer: they support "their guy", no matter what, because there's an emotional investment, not a reasonable one.

Haliburton worked its magic under the Ron Brown Commerce department, in the Clinton administration. That was OK until Mr. Bush won office. Bush policies suck until they are magically transformed by the Obama administration. Voila, again. The exact same behavior is now OK.

Solyndra was a waste of money--but sill, they are amateurs.

They should have applied for permanent, not one-time, subsidies from the USDA to "harvest" the sun.

So this is sort of the opposite of the GM situation, where the secured boldholders got screwed by being put in line behind the UAW. But there's one thing in common: in both cases, the taxpayers came in last.