President Obama spoke at The Business Roundtable, last week.
And from the reaction, it seems like that most Business Leaders are on-board with Obama's goals of investing in the Future:
Video Clip
Video Clip on CSpan
President Obama spoke to business executives and said that the current economic crisis was no excuse to postpone costly federal investments in health care, energy and other areas. He also said that the country could not keep ignoring long-term threats to the nation's prosperity, which he listed as medical costs, the U.S. dependence on oil, and an education and fiscal deficit.
(emphasis added)
Could it be that they are finding out Obama actually supports Free (and Fair) Market Principles? Could it be, dare I say it, Obama actually believes in Capitalism too -- (gasp!)
I watched this Business Roundtable event and was mildly surprised at Obama's common sense approaches to using Free Markets principles and the Inventiveness of Entrepreneurs to play a key role in solving America's long term Structural Economic problems.
Transcript
Obama’s Remarks to the Business Roundtable
By WSJ Staff -- March 12, 2009
Here are a few excerpts from that Transcript that highlight some of Obama's confidence in practical Free Market principles. Quotes are from President Obama, speaking to the Business Roundtable. My emphasis is added. The "Cliff Note" summary Principles are my interpretations, as well.
QUESTION AND ANSWER SEGMENT
Principles:
- Focus on Long Term structural solutions.
- Stop the reliance on Market Bubbles.
- Return to steady, long-term fundamental growth.
- Real Wealth is not created by borrowing and leveraging.
Barack Obama:
So I am very confident about our long-term prospects. We live in such a rapid-fire information-rich environment that people’s attention spans go like this. And that makes for volatility in confidence. A smidgen of good news, and suddenly everything is doing great. A little bit of bad news — oh, we’re down in the dumps. And I am obviously an object of this constantly varying assessment. (Laughter.) I’m the Object-in-Chief of this varying assessment. (Laughter.)
...
The market is going to be responding to all this information out there and, you know, the whole issue of animal spirits in the marketplace and when suddenly a rally catches, you know, you guys know that better than I do. But my focus has to be on the long term. And my long-term projections are highly optimistic — if we take care of some of these long-term structural problems.
The one thing I don’t want to do is to replicate the false confidence that was premised on bubbles. And I think that we’ve really got to think through — and all of you, as critical captains of industry, have to help us think through — how do we prevent this froth that builds up and go back to steady growth, fundamental growth that’s based on making things, providing good services, innovating, exporting -- as opposed to just borrowing and leveraging? And that is going to be a challenge, and there’s going to be some adjustment.
QUESTION AND ANSWER SEGMENT
Principles:
- Cap and Trade system will rely on Pricing structure.
- Cap and Trade solutions will rely on Business know-how.
- Cap and Trade pricing solved the Acid Rain problem before.
Barack Obama:
Now, the experience of a cap and trade system thus far is that if you’re giving away carbon permits for free, then basically you’re not really pricing the thing and it doesn’t work, or people can game the system in so many ways that it’s not creating the incentive structures that we’re looking for. The flip side is, you’re right, if it’s so onerous that people can’t meet it, then it defeats the purpose — and politically we can’t get it done anyway.
So we’re going to have to find a structure that arrives at that right balance. We want to create a price structure. Keep in mind that the reason that I’m interested in a cap and trade approach is precisely because I think the market makes decisions about these technologies better than we do. You know, for those who are concerned about some heavy-handed command and control regulations coming down the pike, cap and trade is designed to say, you know what, here’s a target, here’s a price, you guys go figure it out and if you can make money on it, all the better.
So that’s the — that’s our goal. That’s what we want. And how that pricing mechanism works most effectively to actually influence incentives, but also be sufficiently realistic that industries are thriving as opposed to groaning under the weight of it, I think is going to be the trick. I’m confident that we can do it. We’ve done it before.
I mean, keep in mind that when — I’m trying to remember, this was back in the ’70s or early ’80s — I’m getting old enough now where I can’t remember — but, you know, the issue of acid rain was around. Everybody thought all your trees were going to be dying; you couldn’t make any paper. And we put in an auction system and a trading mechanism and, lo and behold, American ingenuity and American entrepreneurship and inventiveness created options that ended up being much cheaper than anybody had imagined — much cheaper than anybody had imagined.
PREPARED SPEECH SEGMENT
Principles:
- Cycles of bubble and bust does not create lasting wealth.
- Recovery must be based on 21st century long term investments.
- Businesses must be free to invest, invent, and discover.
Barack Obama:
You see, we cannot go back to endless cycles of bubble and bust. We can’t continue to base our economy on reckless speculation and spending beyond our means; on bad credit and inflated home prices and over-leveraged banks. This crisis teaches us that such activity is not the creation of lasting wealth — it’s the illusion of prosperity, and it hurts us all in the end.
Instead, we must build this recovery on a foundation that lasts — on a 21st century infrastructure and a green economy with lower health care costs that create millions of new jobs and new industries; on schools that prepare our children to compete and thrive; on businesses that are free to invest in the next big idea or breakthrough discovery.
PREPARED SPEECH SEGMENT
Principles:
- Free markets are the engine of America's growth.
- Jobs are best created by Businesses, rather than Government.
- Wealth must be encouraged to expand its reach.
- Markets must be primed for creativity and innovation.
- Government must not replace private enterprise, but catalyze it.
Barack Obama:
I’ve always been a strong believer in the power of the free market. It has been and will remain the very engine of America’s progress — the source of a prosperity that has gone unmatched in human history. I believe that jobs are best created not by government, but by businesses and entrepreneurs like you who are willing to take risks on a good idea. And I believe that our role as lawmakers is not to disparage wealth, but to expand its reach; not to stifle the market, but to strengthen its ability to unleash the creativity and innovation that still makes this nation the envy of the world.
But I also know this: Throughout our history, there have been times when the market has fallen out of balance. There have been moments of economic transformation and upheaval when prosperity and even basic financial security have escaped far too many of our citizens. And at these moments, government has stepped in not to supplant private enterprise, but to catalyze it — to create the conditions for thousands of entrepreneurs and new businesses to adapt and ultimately to thrive.
Hardly sounds like Socialism to me. It sounds like the reliance on the individualist American Spirit to invest in, work towards, and create our own prosperous future. And Business definitely will play a major role in getting us there.
Obama believes in the principle of free markets to create real solutions -- THAT BUSINESS can create even better solutions, than government can. And if you, as an Entrepreneur, can make a profit in the process, all the better. (Nice Re-framing of tenants of the American Engine of Growth, by Obama... These tenants of "making a living", to "pursue the American Dream", belong to us all -- NOT just one very noisy Party.)
Could it be we're entering into the "next golden age" of the Small Business Entrepreneur? Afterall, we all have something to contribute -- it certainly would be nice to get fair compensation for all that hard work, sweat, and tears -- that WE ALL contribute daily! Just maybe, Green Tech, will end up being one of "Engines" of long term 21st Century growth? (The Industrial Age afterall, has seen better days, and seems to be on the wane, lately.)
Growth built on our long-term Future Health and Wealth, NOT, on short-term, short-sighted speculation and leveraging -- What a Concept! (Sooner or later someone has to account for, and pay for, all the hidden costs, of that reckless "Industrial Frat Party" going on for the last 150 years -- NOW may just be the perfect time, to finally pay the "tab".)
Maybe the world's best days are indeed, still ahead of us?
Let's hope so ... for all our sakes.