Priorities: Job Creation, Job Retention
Immediately following my swearing-in this afternoon as California’s
47th Lieutenant Governor, I convened a meeting with regional economic
development leaders statewide to let them know how important it is that
their needs are met and to communicate that spurring jobs, and creating
a prepared, skilled work force are my highest priorities.
California
families have worked hard over the past two years to put food on the
table, provide for their children, pay their mortgages and live within
their means to survive the current recession. I have been tremendously
moved by the stories I have heard about the second and third jobs
people are taking so that their households stay afloat.
Now that our
economy is showing signs of recovery, now is the time to act to
stimulate the economy and help households who have been hard hit. We
are at a critical cross-roads and efforts to stimulate our economic
growth are the priority of the day. This meeting was my first order of
business as Lieutenant Governor, and it will persist as my focus.
The Seinfeld Campaign and Goldman Sachs
Since California doesn’t have any governance problems that require action or merit discussion, isn’t it nice that the race for governor is focused on the question of: who is more tied to Goldman Sachs?
The answer to that is easy: Meg Whitman was on the board and got favorable treatment in IPOs. But I’ve been reluctant to weigh in. Like everyone else, I have so many conflicts of interest that I wonder if I too am a Goldman stooge. A close friend works for Goldman. Another friend did a real estate deal with some Goldman guys. The co-author of my new book is a former shareholder. One of my first editors at the Baltimore Sun has edited terrific stories for McClatchy’s Washington bureau that have exposed Goldman’s bad dealings. And Goldman is my fellow creditor in a bankruptcy fight over my former employer, the Tribune Company.
Plus, as an American taxpayer, my money was used to help save Goldman.
If You’re Going to Arizona (Be Sure to Have Your Papers) …
Whether you "like it or not" as one of our Lieutenant Governor candidates is fond of saying, Arizona’s tough new immigration law is a flash point in our national conversation on immigration and a catalyst for reform.
Despite tiptoeing ever-so-slowly into the punditocracy, two things have become readily apparent: (1) there is no indigestion for having to eat your own words; and (2) there is no penalty for making unfulfilled prognostications. But like that phrase in most of our public servant oaths, there is often a little mental reservation.
While noting that chances were slim for comprehensive immigration reform this year in my first Fox & Hounds Daily piece, it would have been prudent on my part to say it would not happen in 2010 unless there was some galvanizing event (i.e. the Mass Immigrant Marches of 2006 or the signing of Arizona’s SB 1070).
The U.S. Space Program: Looking for the Right Stuff
On April 15, after two months of speculation, President Obama gave a
speech at the Kennedy Space Center outlining his new ambitious plans
for NASA and the American space program.
It’s a bold plan with a number of positives, not only nationally, but
in particular for the state of California. Its emphasis on unmanned
missions and private rocketry contractors can only help the state,
which is home to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Ames Research
Center, plus contractors such as Space X and Scaled Composites.
However, the long-term risks for California under this plan threaten to
undermine any true benefits the state might see. There are two
significant factors that raise concern: the shifting of risk from the
public to the private sector, and the continued failure of the
government to establish clear, achievable goals for the manned space
program. One of these two factors will invariably cause a future crisis
for our space program, but the other may have more profound impacts on
our overall competitiveness, both in aerospace and in other scientific
sectors.
Abacus 2007-AC1 – Finally, Goldman Sachs’ Alamo?
The recent news cycle has featured a story about a civil lawsuit filed by the SEC against the insanely profitable Wall Street Master (Of All Masters) of the Universe, Goldman Sachs ("Goldman"). The SEC charges in the Complaint initiating this soon to be titanic litigation, made public last Friday, that Goldman created some 25 ‘Deals’ (like the one from which this piece derives its title: "Abacus 2007-AC1").
These Deals enabled Goldman and some of its most beloved clientele to literally bet against the housing market, at a time when those bets could pay off BigTime.
Now, Goldman vehemently denies all of this (in a press release within minutes of the filing, Goldman called the allegations: "completely unfounded in law and fact"). I want to make it very clear at the outset that what I am about to discuss further here are but allegations in a new lawsuit, neither proven facts nor adjudicated matters found true by any court anywhere. It does not take much to file a lawsuit – in fact, even a Rhesus Monkey, armed with a typewriter, about $300 (here in the Los Angeles Superior Court) and a stack of papers, who can find his or her way to the Courthouse, can file a lawsuit!