Boeing Loses tanker contract – Out come the Lobbies!
It is all about a contract worth thirty-nine billion dollars in about 10 years. A consortium of Northrup Grunman and EADS (Airbus) beat Boeing in a sealed bid process. Analysts were surprised. Boeing has been making the tanker for decades. Boeing has even set up facilities across the world to feed parts back to California and Washington for the baseline production. Wall Street is outraged. Even the most adamant supporters of offshoring US jobs were outraged. Nancy Pelosi, Representative of California, announced an investigation. The big politician on the Appropriations Committee said, “We [in the committee] hold the purse strings. If we do not like it then it will not happen!” Therefore, it is ok to rip apart the basic US infrastructures, allowing millions of jobs to transfer to countries that allow slave labor and unsafe working environments in the name of profits but touch Boeing’s project and the world is coming to an end.
Why would Ms. Pelosi be so concerned about one contract, and the purported loss of jobs, and not care when Boeing is moving most of its production facilities to China and Vietnam?
The new production of the 787 will be executed outside of the US only to be “assembled” by US workers. Just because Boeing is incorporated in the US does not mean that it is a US company yet the rhetoric coming out of Washington DC is that the US military is giving US jobs to a European company.
Boeing has a long history of paying off politicians. They have been convicted of this several times in the past. It is obvious that Boeing is now calling in its markers. Some politicians have gone so far to say that it is a question of national security. These individuals indicate that given Europe’s disagreement with the warmonger policies of the Bush Administration that European suppliers will slow down the production of certain pieces necessary to make the tankers. “America will no longer be master of its own destiny!” is their fear based rhetoric.
It could be valuable to remember that Boeing is under investigation for sharing sensitive technology with China and the basis of their new facilities in China is the sharing of technology.
Our question should be, “Do we prefer to share technology and work with countries that have interests similar to our own or do we want to continue to send technology and jobs to a country that has shown and continues to show that they are not our friends nor do they share common future goals?”
Boeing is no longer a US company. China is not our friend. Politicians are corrupt. The choice of Northrup Grunman over Boeing is the best solution.
Labels: China, Corruption, Military, Trade Agreements
posted by Small Business USA at 2:27 PM
7 Comments:
David, this comment has nothing to do with this post.
Is there any way that you can set things up to look at past posts by date? I wanted to go back to check some of the things that you had said.
Jim On the right hand side, right under CATEGORIES, there is a drop down box "posts by month". You can find everything in cronological order.
I have been a bit lazy but am creating a category index like View Italy.
I guess those millions of dollars of lobby money didn't help too much this time.
I just wrote a report about an attack upon my right to honestly blog about teaching. Please read it and give me your comments.
David, everything you mention is part and parcel of globalization. There are winners and losers. The winners being the corporations and the losers being everybody else.
Lexcen I agree. The underlying questions I am always struggling with are:
Are corporations citizens?
Are corporate interest more important than the interests of living breathing people?
Should governments intervene to protect corporate interests even though these actions negatively influence the quality of life of real people?
David, thanks for the advice. You know, while I sometimes disagree with you, when I look at the US economy I fear that you might have a case for a real burst of "I told you so"!
Jim Thank you. It may seem that I am too negative but this is what I do for a living. I look at dislocations (usually in companies or market segments) and try to determine how the future will look. The purpose is to determine if there is a way to increase the value of a company and whether or not there is an investment opportunity.
Economies are just REALLY big companies. When dislocations exist there will be consequences.
Unfortunately to fix the problems it is necessary that those who control the company (in the case of the US economy, US citizens) understand that they have a problem.
If we continue to not recognize that we have structural dislocations in our economy we will bankrupt. We can deny the evidence but the future will play out.
Australia, while stronger because of its commodity based assets, will follow the path of the US as your Mr. Howard has followed the smoke and mirrors economy of Reaganomics (supply side economics for those who love Reagan).
You should be watching what is going on here in the US closely. It is about to get very bad.
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