Carlyle to Buy Out Banks and Insurance Companies

The latest version of money changers will soon acquire its predecessors. Private equity firm The Carlyle Group plans on targeting global banks and insurance companies in addition to aerospace and defense, energy & power, telecom and media, automotive & transportation, health care, real estate, consumer and retail, industrial and tech & business services.

Nearly two years ago the politically connected firm announced a division targeting public infrastructure investments. Just yesterday it announced the establishment of its Financial Institutions Group targeting banks and insurance companies.

With over $58.5 billion in assets managed, Carlyle has grown like crazy during Bush's term in office. In 2001 The Guardian suggested the firm was "unofficially valued" at $3.5 billion. If that's true during Bush's time in office the private equity company rose by $55 billion, a nearly 1600% increase. The Guardian piece called Carlyle the "ex-President's club". Is it a coincidence they lived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue or that they located their corporate office just down that same street?

Rather than throw them out of the hallowed halls of government, the Bush administration regularly invites them in and sends millions to billions of contracts their way. The most recent version of modern day money changers have their eye set on their predecessors. Will some things ever change?

Buyer Beware: Toothpaste Now, What's Next?

Over a week ago I suggested the combination of America's Bush gutted FDA and China's quick study of substituting low cost ingredients to maximize profits would be dangerous to consumers, a recipe for disaster. What happened since?

The Food and Drug Administration is now testing Chinese toothpaste for a poisonous ingredient used in anti-freeze. It found product on shelves in Miami with the toxic ingredient. This follows poisonous dog and cat food where the manufacturers conducted a huge recall.

The news reported no recall in the toothpaste case, but the FDA did suggest consumers throw away low priced toothpaste made in China. Bargain retail stores frequently sell the product under a variety of brand names.

The chemical is diethylene glycol. “It does not belong in toothpaste even in small concentrations,” said the FDA’s Deborah M. Autor.

How did the Chinese react? Let's just say they haven't studied the Tylenol case often used as a model for ensuring product safety while maintaining customer loyalty.

Calling the FDA warning "unscientific, irresponsible and contradictory," China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said in a statement posted on its Web site late Saturday that low levels of the chemical have been deemed safe for consumption.

It also said European Union standards allow for a certain amount of the chemical and cited a 2000 Chinese study that found toothpaste containing less than 15.6 percent diethylene glycol was not harmful.

I hate to tell China, but we aren't the European Union and I don't particularly trust a country's science when a not long ago news story reported a handful of people died in a Chinese hospital from drinking the water.

Given the Bush administration's disdain for telling corporations to do anything other than make boatloads of money (and send some of that to Republicans) and China's new obsession with the profit motive, it's back to buyer beware in America.

The Peace dividend is long gone, food safety is now up in the air, the country struggles with widespread illegal immigration; is it 1917 instead of 2007?

Bush Restricts Meat Packer's Product Safety Efforts

The Bush administration abandoned its free market diatribe in its efforts to stop a meat packer from testing all its cows for Mad Cow Disease. While the Japanese understand 100% inspection is not a way to ensure quality, it does prevent some bad products from getting out the door. The best method is to design in quality in the production process and continually improve it.

While company management may be at different levels of the quality spectrum, the country in which they operate has a rich history of product differentiation and advertising. The Bush team's holding back several meat packers from marketing their beef as "Mad Cow free" or "100% tested" seems at odd with his stated free market ideals of voluntary compliance.

A recent court judgment gave the company the right to conduct the testing but the government may appeal. Stay tuned for life down the Bush rabbit hole!

America's New Lying, Cheating Role Models

It appears college age kids suffered greatly from their learning of Bill Clinton's episode of oral sex in the Oval Office while impressionable young children. Nevermind that CEO's cheated on their stock options on a widespread basis for over the past decade, the Enron implosion, and the Bush team lying if they choose to actually answer questions posed to them. Young adults poisoned by Bill Clinton's sordid sexual escapade soared past the epidemic stage according to a college cheating expert.

A study published last fall by Donald McCabe, a Rutgers professor who has studied cheating for decades, and two co-authors found 56 percent of MBA students admitted cheating, along with 54 percent of graduate students in engineering, 48 percent in education, and 45 percent in law.

McCabe emphasizes the difficulties of measuring trends in cheating, but the undergraduate numbers at the same 32 universities he studied appear even worse: 74 percent of business students, and 68 percent in nonbusiness fields admitted to some form of cheating.

It appears the current President has a ripe group of potential recruits as he tries to finish his drooling, knuckle dragging last year and a half in office. Maybe a replacement for Paul Wolfowitz will be found in the ethical cesspool. Should Alberto quit covering for his low brow boss and leave the InJustice Department? Another cheating lawyer can't be far away (as 45% admitted cheating).

In a case of Presidential limbo, Bush continues lowering the bar on ethical behavior to beat "Sinful Bill". Meanwhile American youth follows along blindly. Of course no one will note the long standing proven relationship between extrinsic reward systems and widespread cheating. As the Bush team has another round coming in education and health care, how high can he drive unethical behavior? My guess is through the roof...