Shedding Light On The Solyndra Failure.

Posted on September 21, 2012 by Gary LaMaster

Our editorial board member, Bill Timberman, has a unique ability to research a subject in depth and clearly explain his findings to others. So Democratic Perspective asked him to tell us what happened to Solyndra.

For the complete Solyndra story, I highly recommend that you listen to the program on podcast. However, following are some of the highlights:

Solyndra was founded in 2005 when the silicon needed for solar panels was $400 per pound, a fact that made solar uncompetitive with fossil fuels with regard to price. However, Solyndra developed solar panels that were made of a less expensive, more efficient material. The company also developed a more efficient shape for its panels. As a result, Solyndra panels were 7 percent more efficient and benefited from less expensive installation costs.

By 2007, Solyndra had working prototypes and applied for a federally-backed loan. By the end of the Bush administration, the loan was in the works but had not yet been approved. The company needed a new manufacturing plant in order to compete. But since it didn’t receive the federal loan until 2009-2010, it began having cash flow problems.

Solyndra seemed like a promising company right up until the loan was approved. But almost simultaneously, the Great Recession led to a dramatic drop in the price of silicon which led to the loss in Solyndra’s competitive price advantage. Around the same time, China ramped up production and flooded the world markets with less expensive solar panels.

All of this led to the bankruptcy of Solyndra and its default on the federal loan. Of course, Republicans led by Darrell Issa wanted to turn the failure into a story of crony capitalism committed by the Obama administration.

That proved to be entirely false. Indeed, there were many Republican investors in Solyndra, including the Walton family which controls the WalMart fortunes.
Moreover, not all of the federal money used to back the loan to Solyndra was lost. Of the $530 million loan, the government will get more than $135 million back. The loan to Solyndra represented just 1.3 percent of all of the Obama administration’s loan guarantees for alternative energy. And it was the only failure.

Indeed, Bill concluded that the technology developed by Solyndra will eventually become more viable as the economy recovers and the price of silicon increases.

The show has much more to offer, so please listen to it in its entirety.

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The Real Solyndra Story — Podcast September 17, 2012

Posted on September 18, 2012 by William Timberman


The Real Solyndra Story: Why Republican Opposition to Government Loan Guarantees Is a Threat to America’s Future. Bill Timberman, from the Editorial Board of Democratic Perspective, joins co-hosts Mike Cosentino and Steve Williamson to discuss the Solyndra bankruptcy, the economics of renewable energy development, and the role of Federal loan guarantees in supporting the development of new energy technologies. Why the Republican Party, in its steadfast opposition to a U.S. industrial policy, is sabotaging our country’s future.

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The History Of Our Economy And How To Fix It.

Posted on September 13, 2012 by Gary LaMaster

Democratic Perspective was again fortunate to host Thomas Palley, economist, author and Schwartz Economic Growth Fellow at the New America Foundation.

Asked to comment on the issues confronting the US economy, Palley responded, “The argument that I’m making in my book is that around 1980, we put in place a new economic model – call it trickle down, call it Reaganomics, call it supply side, call it corporate globalization. What that did was that it hollowed out the economy. That’s when we start to see the emergence of wage stagnation. That’s when we start to see the explosion in income inequality. That’s when we start to hear about outsourcing and the downsizing and disappearance of manufacturing. That eroded the American middle class. And it created a problem – we’re short demand.”

“But the demand shortage was then covered up by this process of finance,” he continued. “So we had bubble after bubble after bubble. Using finance in this way was a sort of Ponzi scheme. And that’s the problem why we’re not having a recovery despite all of the stimulus and low interest rates. Until we get our hands on this basic problem and bring back the middle class, we’re going to have ongoing stagnation.”

We then asked why he is opposed to tax cuts for the wealthy as a means of job creation. “I’m fundamentally opposed to them on two levels,” he responded. “We’ve really pushed tax rates to the lowest they’ve been in the era since the Second World War. And we’ve had, during this whole time, a continuing worsening of economic performance. We saw a widening of income inequality, which again is part of this structural problem. And then the worst piece about it is that it has produced year after year of deficits.”

“The idea that lowering taxes solves deficits is absolutely amazing,” Palley continued. “It just can’t possibly work and we see it in the numbers. Of course Romney and Ryan say that they are for balanced budgets, and then immediately propose to cut taxes at an enormous, fantastic rate, it fails the arithmatic test.”

“If you really want to understand these guys,” he offered. “When they say they’re for balanced budgets, they exploit peoples’ good will. But the reality is they’re never for balanced budgets. When you cut taxes, you create a deficit. You then use the deficit as an excuse to cut every single program that government does. You go after Medicaid. You go after Social Security. You go after education. You go after health. You go after all the things that government does to make us a rich and happy society to contribute to our well-being. They never really want balanced budgets. All they want to do is cut taxes and actually destroy government.”

When asked why we can’t strengthen Social Security, instead of cutting it, Palley said, “Well that was the history of the program until the early 1980s – 1983, the Greenspan Commission when Reaganomics took hold of people’s imaginations and we started to use economics to hurt ourselves. But if you go back and look at how much of the national pie was taxed to provide for Social Security, back in the late 1970s it peaked. But since the 1970s we’ve been running down the taxes that we pay into Social Security as a share of the pie.”

We then asked for his thoughts on the job creators. “Well, I think we’ve heard enough of that,” said Palley. “Yes, no jobs were created without business, but on the other hand you have to have the right type of business. There is a lot of business in this country that is about job destroying and making profits off the job destruction. So I’m completely with people who say we can only do this working with business and we have to put in the right rules for business so that business interest is aligned with the country’s interests and is aligned with the middle class.”

As for the auto bailout, Palley said, “It is an amazing, amazing accomplishment. What he (President Obama) did is that he kept together one of the major manufacturing centers in the US. All of those manufacturing jobs that go into making the parts the assemblers use. Without that bailout, it’s scary to think what places like Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Detroit, Michigan would all look like. It’s not just about GM, Chrysler and Ford. All of the other car companies here use those same parts suppliers. It would have been a domino effect with one company pushing down another.”

“It’s one of the amazing successes of that time,” he continued. “I think there was a tremendous amount of misunderstanding about what happened. And I think the Republicans purposely fueled that misunderstanding because its success was political poison for them. I think they were out to sabotage this president and they don’t give a damn about the American people. As long as they eventually got back into power so they could begin again this regimen of tax cuts for the richest.”

Asked for his thoughts on strengthening our economy, Palley offered three keys. “First, we’ve got to get wages connected to productivity,” he said. “That was the secret of the period from 1945 to 1975 when we had shared prosperity. That means we’re going to have to raise the minimum wage to bring up the floor of the economy and we’re going to have to make it possible for workers to share in their productivity growth by building unions again. Number two, we have to deal with our trade deficit and our problem of our overvalued dollar. And then we’re going to have to do something with our public investment. We need to put some juice in the economy while we wait for these other measures to take effect. Now’s the time, when interest rates are low, to invest in the infrastructure we need.”

To learn more, visit http://www.thomaspalley.com/.

Posted in Economic Policy, Economic Stimulus, Financial Crisis, Fiscal Policy, Government, Interviews, Jobs and Employment, Monetary Policy, National Politics, Offshoring, Social Security, Tax and Investment Policy, Taxes and the Deficit, U.S. Budget | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on The History Of Our Economy And How To Fix It.

Thomas Palley Interview — September 10, 2012

Posted on September 12, 2012 by William Timberman


The Economic Crisis and What We Can Do About It: Economist Thomas Palley, whose most recent book, The Economic Crisis: Notes From the Underground, was published this May, returns to Democratic Perspective to discuss the structure of the U.S. bubble economy, and the reasons for its collapse. He reviews the history of the current financial crisis, explains why a strong middle class is essential to genuine prosperity, and details what the Federal Government must do to help restore a more equitable distribution of income.

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When the Truth Has No Defenders — Podcast September 3, 2012

Posted on September 5, 2012 by William Timberman


Doing Your Job and Paying the Price: Why the Obama Administration Won’t Defend Its Own. Democratic Perspective co-hosts Mike Cosentino and Steve Williamson discuss the case of Daryl Johnson, former Senior Domestic Terrorist Analyst at the Dept. of Homeland Security, Office of Intelligence and Analysis, whose department was disbanded after Republicans complained about a well-documented report he authored on the potential threat of right-wing domestic terrorism.

He’s not the first Obama Administration official to be disciplined or even fired outright for telling the truth, and he may not be the last. Mike and Steve examine why Democrats seemingly won’t defend their own against the media frenzies generated by Republican lies and disinformation.

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Of Terrorists, Bullies and Lies.

Posted on September 4, 2012 by Gary LaMaster

On Labor Day we were expecting to interview Daryl Johnson, former senior domestic terrorist analyist at the Dept. of Homeland Security, Office of Intelligence and Analysis, but he had to reschedule at the last minute. Without a guest, Steve and Mike forged ahead by explaining the unexpected controversy that stemmed from a relatively routine report written by Mr. Johnson and released in early 2009.

The report, called “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Radicalization and Recruitment,” was intended for law enforcement. But it was immediately leaked by the far right in order to attack the new administration.

Since many of the potential terrorist groups and militias consist of former members of the military, the right characterized the report as an attack on the military and the 2nd Amendment. They even threatened a Congressional investigation. The obvious intent was to hurt the new administration before it had a chance to get its feet on the ground.

With its plate full of more important issues inherited from the Bush administration such as the economic crisis it, the Iraq War, the Afghan War and more, the new administration chose not to fight back. So Democrats stopped all investigations and reporting of potential domestic terrorist groups.

Moreover, the DHS apologized for the report and disbanded Johnson’s department.

Too often this is the Democratic reaction to right wing attacks, said Mike and Steve. For example, Democrats also failed to fight back against to the fabricated and unjustified attack on Shirley Sherrod. More recently, the administration has seemed slow to respond to Republicans’ false claims that President Obama cut $740 billion from Medicare.

Steve and Mike asked why Democrats don’t fight back. After some discussion, they answered their own question by concluding that attacks are simple and often memorable, while honest explanations are complicated and often boring.

They also discussed the media’s reluctance to use the word “lie” with regard to the Republican National Convention. Ryan’s and Romney’s speeches were filled with false and misleading statements, yet the media has refused to describe them as such. Mike had compiled a list of euphemisms used in reporting the convention, such as “factual shortcuts,” “factually shaky,” “double-speak,” “demonstrably misleading,” “prevarications,” etc.

Perhaps if the media actually called a lie a lie, Republicans might tell fewer of them.

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Dean Baker Interview — Podcast August 27, 2012

Posted on August 29, 2012 by William Timberman


The Republican Flim-Flam: Bain Capital, the Ryan Budget, and Federal Deficit Hysteria. Progressive economist Dean Baker, co-founder and co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, returns to Democratic Perspective to debunk some of the popular Republican myths about our economy:

First, he explains what private equity funds like Bain Capital really do. (Very often their investments are less about rescuing failing companies than about cannibalizing them for the benefit of the fund owners — not so different from what the Mafia does when it invests in a New Jersey liquor store.)

Next, he explains what the Congressional Budget Office’s analysis and scoring of the Ryan budget proposal actually says –perhaps not surprisingly,  the CBO concludes that the Ryan budget would actually increase the deficit, reduce taxes on the 1% while increasing them for the middle class, and do away with all government expenditures except those for the military.

Finally, Dr. Baker proposes a responsible way to address the federal budget deficit, and explains what the Republicans really mean when they talk about reforming Social Security.

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A Pollster’s View Of The Upcoming Elections.

Posted on August 22, 2012 by Gary LaMaster

Once again, Democratic Perspective was privileged to host Democratic pollster and strategist, Celinda Lake. Her clients include the Democratic National Committee (DNC), the Democratic Governor’s Association (DGA), The White House Project, AFL-CIO, Human Rights Campaign, EMILY’s List and the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Along with Republican pollster, Kellyanne Conway, she co-authored What Women Really Want, a book that examines the way women are changing the political landscape in America.

We began by asking for her insights on the presidential race. “The numbers are very unique for this point in the race,” she said. “Romney is having much more trouble with the base at this point than a Republican usually has. A quarter of his voters said they would consider someone else. Only a third of his voters said they are voting for him. And Republican enthusiasm is actually declining. The Romney pick (of vice-presidential candidate Congressman Paul Ryan) produced the least bounce we’ve had in the last nine presidential elections.”

“It’s energized the Democrats as much as it’s energized the Republicans, she continued. “But you have a very tough economy and it would be very foolish to take for granted Obama’s re-election in such a tough economy.”

“There are very few undecided voters,” Lake added. “You have 15 percent of Obama voters who say they’d consider someone else and you have 25 percent of Romney voters who say they’d consider someone else. So that’s what’s undecided. There are a quarter of the voters who are still up for grabs. I think it does help explain why this campaign is as negative as it is. They are concentrating on anywhere from 12 to 15 battleground states.”

Asked to predict the race; whether it’s going to be very close, or if it will break one way or the other at the last minute, she responded, “I think either one could happen. But right now, I think you have to be set on it being pretty close. In the last few years, Republicans have taken a page out of the Democratic playbook and are very focused on GOTV (Get Out The Vote). They know how to do it.”

Addressing the war on women and Ryan’s stance on abortion, Lake said, “He has a very strict interpretation and he would have a Constitutional amendment on personhood. It would mean you would be in a situation where invitro fertilization would be outlawed, many forms of birth control would be outlawed, you would have miscarriages being investigated by the police…it’s ridiculous.”

As for the overwhelming amount of money being spent in this campaign, she said, “There’s talk now that the race is going to cost between $3-4 billion. We have to get an amendment passed. This is not free speech. This is paid speech, and that’s different. The Koch brothers alone will spend more on this campaign than John McCain spent on his entire presidential campaign. That’s wrong. That’s just plain wrong!”

Turning to the Senate race in Arizona, Lake said, “It’s a very exciting race. And I’d be interested in your listeners’ opinions about it. Nationally, people think this race is great; that Carmona is a fantastic recruit; that he is not a typical politician; that he has a record of public service and people are very excited. The primary is getting stranger and stranger with Flake coming out to do away with the 17th amendment…in Arizona of all places. To tell voters that they’re not going to get their say on something as important as a US senator? That’s not going to fly.”

Asked what’s behind such ideas, Lake replied, “First, it’s the emergence of the Tea Party which you have seen emerge in Arizona. The Tea Party has really been taken over by the right now – the kook faction – and they are so extreme.”

“Another thing that is fostering this conservatism is that so many moderate Republicans are scared to death of losing their primary,” she said. “It’s why Olympia Snow is not running.”

“The other thing behind this is this right wing money,” she added, “the Koch brothers, for example.”

We ended the interview by asking what one message she’d like to give to listeners. She replied, “The most important thing at this point, when we’re less than 80 days out from the election is to make sure we get the Democratic base out to vote. Tell your family and friends to vote. Don’t vote alone.”

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Celinda Lake Interview — Podcast August 20, 2012

Posted on August 22, 2012 by William Timberman


The 2012 Elections: Where Are We Now? Last on our show on in late May, Celinda Lake, one of the Democratic Party’s leading pollsters and consultants, returns to Democratic Perspective to review the issues, the candidates and the Democratic Party’s prospects for the 2012 elections. With co-hosts Mike Cosentino and Steve Williamson, she discusses what has changed, what races are in play, and what the polling results show so far.

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The End Of Arpaiocracy?

Posted on August 16, 2012 by Gary LaMaster

This week, Democratic Perspective hosted Paul Penzone who is running against Joe Arpaio, self-proclaimed as “America’s Toughest Sheriff.”

Penzone studied criminal justice, graduating from Northern Arizona University before joining the Phoenix Police Department in 1998. During his 21-year career, he began as a patrol officer and rose through the ranks to manage the successful Silent Witness program. He has been recognized for capturing high value criminals.

We began by asking why he’s running for sheriff. He answered, “What I’ve seen is a change in leadership over the years where there’s a loss of focus on serving our community and, because I believe so much on what law enforcement represents, I just couldn’t stay on the sidelines when I knew I could make a difference to bring it back to where our community feels galvanized and safer as opposed to fragmented as we are right now.”

Turning to Arpaio’s record, we asked about reports that 75 percent of the cases in Maricopa County are cleared without arrests. “What’s happening there is just a lack of fundamentally sound law enforcement,” Penzone said. “It’s not easy to solve cases, but at the same time, if you’re seeing cases cleared without any arrests whatsoever, what that’s telling you is that there’s not a thorough enough investigation, the deputies are not trained effectively enough to be accomplishing the things that we need. If three-fourths of the cases that you’re engaged in have no arrests, yet there are criminal implications, you’re really failing in your effort to keep the community safe.”

Asked about the 40,000 felony warrants in Maricopa County that have not served, he replied, “We went back and forth on those numbers. It was 40,000 at one time, but now I think the number is around 30,000…because other agencies have gotten engaged.”
“It’s really important that everyone understands that the majority of crimes are committed by a small percentage of the population,” he continued. “And unfortunately, those are the felony cases that we’re speaking about. If you want to reduce crime, you must hold those accountable who are already responsible for crime. If not, they’re back out on the street repeating their behaviors. The sheriff is the only leader, or at least one of the few in our county, that has not committed full-time deputies to a task force focused solely on the recovery of wanted fugitives. That tells me that he’s not focused on the biggest threat to our safety.”

We then asked about MCSO’s failure to investigate sex crimes and child molestations in El Mirage. “I’m very familiar with a lot of these cases,” he said. “As a matter of fact, when the sheriff’s office was removed from that contract, El Mirage started its own Police Department. It was two former assistant chiefs of the Phoenix PD who went out there to – the only thing I can say is to clean up the mess – because, unfortunately, that community was neglected. If we saw that in other communities, I don’t think it would have gone quietly into the night.”

Addressing the estimated $6 million spent on lawsuits defending Arpaio, Penzone said, “Well, actually the number is far higher. The number in the lawsuits is upwards of $50 million of costs and payouts. To put it in perspective, that is about the equivalent of the budget for an entire moderate-sized police department such as the Scottsdale Police Department. That is their annual budget.”

“It’s bad enough when we see a person we elected to public office abuse their authority,” he continued. “But when you add to that law enforcement powers it is a very intimidating, destructive force that can do a lot to tear apart our community. We have a great opportunity here. We, literally overnight in one election, can change the course of the reputation of our community across the nation and send a message that our community will no longer tolerate this. We don’t need the Department of Justice to step in on our behalf. We can get the ship righted.”

Questioned about his own priorities, Penzone responded, “Fugitives must be a priority. We have a severe challege as it relates to drug trafficking, human trafficking and human slavery. There are young people within our community, not just those who are immigrants from Mexico or other countries, but US citizens who are being victimized and treated as slaves and prostitutes on our streets. We have a challenge with crime against children as well as families, in general. We have to protect the core value within our communities, which is our families.”

“For me the priorities would be ensuring that detention centers are being run properly, safely and efficiently, that the areas under the jurisdiction of the sheriff…patrols and the investigative resources dedicated there must be properly allocated for the safety of deputies as much as for the communities,” he continued. “Fugitives and crimes against children will always be a priority for me because they’re our future, our most precious asset, and we must protect them.”

Asked if immigration should be a priority, he stated, “We only have so many resources and so many dollars that can be allocated as relates to illegal immigration. We have to make a decision if we want those dollars spent on criminals in our community…I understand that being in the country illegally is a crime…but I’m speaking of those responsible for robberies and burgalries and sex crimes and other issues. If we spend our resources on immigration and neglect other areas, we are not safer because of it.”

As for Arpaio’s national fame, Penzone said, “I’m a firm believer that the best law enforcement is the one that draws the least amount of attention. The only time we should be seen in the community is when we need help solving a crime or when we need to provide information so you can be safer in your life.”

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