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The Grizz Talks Economy
Posted Jun 27th, 2008

We have problems folks, but as Americans with can-do attitudes, we can straighten this mess up if we collectively wake up all of the politicians through this blog. We are going to talk about the problems in the economy and how the Grizz believes we can fix the problems. If you have a better idea, please let me know.

The first problem to tackle is the price of oil and gas. This problem has been coming down the tracks for a long time and at least 80% of Americans paid no attention until it hit us smack in the face. We don’t have a real national energy policy. The second problem is we have let a bunch of intellectual elites screw everything up. They want you to ride buses while they drink bottled water that uses 37 million barrels of oil to produce. So what do we need to do now?

1. Congress should pass a law including the following:
a. Open drilling in Alaska, off shore and anywhere there is a chance to find oil.
b. Open land to mine shale oil in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming.
c. Pick four ocean ports to receive liquid natural gas shipments.

2. Set up a task force to establish policies on all of the above and exempt any environmental, endangered species or state laws from interfering with construction of the above.

3. Set up a task force and give them three months maximum to pick the best method and safeguards for nuclear reactors. Once this is done the government should issue 100 licenses to build nuclear reactors. Again, they would be exempt from any lawsuits. Since water is required, these reactors should be built around the country. For instance, put 5 facilities on Lake Superior in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan; along Lake Michigan in Wisconsin, put 5; along Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, put 5 each; along the St. Lawrence River, put 20; down the Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio Rivers there could be 20 each. The rest could be around the Red River. By the way, nuclear power is very low cost, so over time your power bills would go down. Now with new oil production we will need some refining, so let’s pick some spots that aren’t densely populated because refineries do not look pretty. We must be sensitive to those who drink their bottled water.

4. We need Congress to set one blend for gas. We have too many states setting their own standards, so Congress needs to step in. We need Congress to set a 20% ethanol blend in gas and add an 85% ethanol pump at each gas station. This, folks, is what Brazil did to drop all the subsidies. Since the Grizz is in the farm business, I know it is cheaper to produce ethanol from sugar cane, but for that process the fields are burned, and who wants all that smoke? And, for you fools who worry about food and the cost of feed, the bi-product of ethanol is super-charged feed. While I’m at it, that is 50 cents a gallon subsidy that goes to blenders (oil boys for you who don’t know). Let’s just drop all subsidies. Now what would happen if Congress did what the Grizz suggested?
a. There would be the biggest boom in construction this country has seen since World War II.
b. Oil prices would drop fast. Why? Because they don’t want us Americans producing our own.
c. The U.S. Government would receive a 20% royalty on pre-income tax. This is for oil, gas and electric. Each state that has a producer would receive 7%. Now look at all this money coming to the great bureaucracy of Feds and States, maybe they could lower our other taxes (but don’t count on it).

5. We need to tackle pay and bonus issues for top officers at public corporations. All public companies started as private. The Grizz did—and I owned 53% of the company. But there were a lot of things we wanted to do as a company, and we always had to ask our bankers for approval since they had loaned us the money. We then decided to go to the public market and sell stock to pay off banks, but this also made the Grizz rich by bear standards. The Grizz believes the most money any corporate chairman, CEO or president should ever receive is 50 times his or her lowest paid employee in the U.S. His/her bonus should be a max of two times salary, and retirement pay should never be greater than 80% salary if they worked for the same company for 20 years. Now every top guy is mad at the Grizz, but if you are real good, take your company private and put your rear on the line. I also believe corporate boards shouldn’t have professors, foundation directors, museum directors, etc. on them. Put real business people and never a politician. It also wouldn’t hurt to have a union guy or gal. Also, all public corporations should only pay 20% Federal tax and be allowed to pay out up to 50% of their earnings before taxes. This would be deductible to company. All shareholders would pay their take on dividends at 10 points under max tax. Today that is 35% so their tax would be 25%. Reward and risk. And for the CEO’s pay I would allow them to receive units per salary dollar that would peg to the stock on day given and five years later they would get paid the difference in stock appreciation that shareholders receive. This amount would be paid out in equal payments over four years.

6. Our trade policy sucks. Free trade means Americans lose. The elite and politicians don’t understand we are the largest market in the world. The Grizz believes in fair trade. Korea puts a duty on American-made cars of 15% and the U.S. puts 4% on Korean-made cars. Why the big difference? No company can survive if it has to compete with government owed subsidized business. Also remember every company is really people.

7. Before the Grizz forgets, if Congress agreed to pass the energy policy, we would be short of workers, so bring our troops home from Japan, Korea, Germany, England and everywhere else. Let’s just build a few more carriers, more bombers and if anyone screws with us, we can just blow them away. It’s stupid for us to keep protecting these countries. The Grizz is getting mad now and I don’t want to start a new topic yet, but why do we have a State Department? What have they done in the last 60 years? Don’t think too hard.

The next topic we’ll talk about will be how to get rid of politicians, but first for all of you climate and Earth worry warts, here are the facts:

• The Earth is spinning at 1,000 mph.
• The Earth is rotating around the sun at 64,000 mph.
• The North Pole will be at South Pole position in 500,000 to one million years since the Earth is over 4.5 billion years old. You figure how many times that has happened already. Those polar caps have melted and refroze many times.
• When you see the moon above you, the ocean tide is up. You don’t see the pull of gravity (man, is it powerful), but the tide is low on the other side of the Earth. That power is greater than everything man has ever done.
• The worry of all worries is that on average every 100 years a meteorite greater than 5 feet in diameter hits the Earth’s surface. If it hits anywhere near New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, or Los Angeles -- bye, bye.

The story ends with the fact that humans are not that important to Mother Earth.

I almost forgot -- the Grizz wants to tell all of you who worry about nuclear power and what to do with the waste, don’t have the dentist x-ray your mouth, don’t have an MRI, don’t let any new medical machine close to you because when those isotopes lose their power, they are nuclear waste. You took the big blast. Those who think too hard never get anything done.

In closing, let’s shut down all the colleges of law. We already have too many lawyers. We need doctors and engineers. Why waste smart young minds. Remember, the law profession has been sending their rejects to be politicians.

The Grizz

P.S. Let’s hear from you, but no “Save the Lawyers” please.
I will be here at 2 p.m. ET on Tuesday, July 1, to respond to your comments.