William Jefferson Clinton: A Business Genius or Scammer?

As promised in the last blog posting Scott Riddle (local cattleman, insurance tycoon, Texas Holdem expert, occasional investor in anything of interest, and nephew of Hall of Fame Baseball Player, Tris Speaker) was asked to discuss the Clinton Boom Years of the 90's. His remarks follow.

"Many folks rewrite history by giving Bill Clinton sole credit for a robust economy, creating jobs, and generating a federal government surplus (by raising tax rates). Clinton's economic metrics were benefited considerably by what is called a 'bubble' in the Internet sector of the economy. What was the Internet Bubble? It was an orchestrated assault on America's investors by Wall Street investment bankers, venture capitalists, and the Clinton administration led by one, Robert Ruben (Clinton's Secretary of the Treasury and former CEO of Goldman Sachs, but of course). This collusion literally flooded the IPO (Initial Public Offering) stock market with high tech Internet start up stock offerings. Most of these companies were heavily funded by venture capital firms, many of which were also funded by the venture investor organizations of the investment bankers who would 'take these companies public'."

"Most of the IPOs (Initial Public Offerings) went public at huge valuations and most of the companies were operating at huge losses at the time of the public offerings. In this crazy Internet world all former rules based on revenues and profits were thrown out in this race to Internet 'gold'. Those hyping these companies convinced investors that profits weren't important. A term called 'eyeballs' replaced profits. The companies spend huge sums of money enticing visitors to their web sites while convincing public investors that this would convert to revenues and profits sometime in the future (sounds a lot like GREEN INVESTMENTS DOESN'T IT). The end result was the company employees, the venture capitalists, and Wall Street investment banking companies all made out handsomely, and the Clinton economy produced jobs and wealth for those who were lucky enough to 'cash in' before the BUBBLE POPPED. And when did it pop? In Clinton's last year of office (of course) dumping the country in a recession at the expense of the nation, and particularly at the expense of the shareholders who thought they had made investments in real companies with long term futures. Very few companies lived up to this expectation. Companies that did not make the IPO window shut down losing the investor's money and the jobs of many employees. The High Tech Industry has still not recovered."

"Another big loser of the Clinton Bubble was the whole concept of Initial Public Offerings. This method of rewarding successful high tech start up companies with liquidity and growth capital had been largely responsible for this countries' world leadership in innovation, technology, and worker productivity. Clinton's outlaws basically KILLED INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERINGS! This may be the greatest cost of Clinton and his cronies GREED."

"So what did Wall Street move to after the Clinton Internet Bubble? They colluded with Washington (Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, Black Caucus, Fannie, and Freddie) to create a huge REAL ESTATE BUBBLE. Using the government and taxpayers to bail out their bad loans they packaged things called 'instruments' and played a game passing off the hot potato (they called these sub-prime loans) hoping they weren't the last to be holding these instruments when the bubble popped. With the un-able (Dennis Miller calls a race between Obama and Cain a race between Cain and Un-able) assistance of Obomb-us we are still suffering from this criminal act."

"While Bush didn't stop the Real Estate Bubble, he did get the economy moving again after inheriting the Clinton recession by eliminating Clinton's tax increases and not doing the insane government interference of the Obama crowd. Bush, however, did allow his obsession with the nation's security to blind him into allowing the Democratic Congress to overspend. Bush's weakness in reigning in Democrats lost his conservative base and enabled the election of Obama in my opinion. His approval ratings as he left office was in the thirties because he lost conservatives."

"And what Bubble would the Libs like to replace the real estate mess with? THE GREEN REVOLUTION, of course. If they can sell the world on 'man caused global warming', they can use government regulations to create an artificial market for all types of GREEN SCAMS. They can through regulations force consumers and companies to buy and use any products they choose whether it is window shades, solar panels, roofing materials, electric cars, or public transportation to name just a few. This could be the biggest scam of all if they can pull it off."

"Lastly, if of course when you get under the covers of the surplus during the Clinton years, he had no choice. The Clinton policies created an environment begging for the Gingrich Revolution. Newt and the Republicans forced Clinton to move to the right and balance the federal budget, thus creating a surplus."

Mom had a question, "Scott, how do you know so much about this Internet Bubble?"

Good question, Maxine, "I actually invested in some of these Internet start up companies, and one in particular in Austin, Texas."

"Right, Scott. I think I know that company. The IPO window closed real tight right before they planned to go public, thank goodness! A failed start up company is one thing, a failed public company is much worse; I am told by a close member of my immediate family."

Lots to think about as Americans determine whether Hillary would be any better than Obama,

Jim