The Real Legacy of Solyndra
The scandal du jour in Washington designed to allow cynical politicians to do everything but worry their pretty little heads about losing an entire generation to permanent joblessness revolves around the Obama administration's loan to the now-defunct solar panel maker Solyndra. I haven't dug too deep into the weeds of the Solyndra collapse, but anecdotal evidence suggests this was a high-risk venture with plenty of early warning signs that it was doomed. Obama's coziness and fund-raising history with the CEO's make for bad optics, but it seems unlikely anything criminal was occurring.....it just seems like a bad investment taken on by an administration that oversold itself and the country on a "green energy revolution".
Now I'm skeptical about solar panels having any more of a long-term presence in our energy future than they had back in the 1970s during Phase I of the alternative energy fad, but the neglected topic in the discussion about Solyndra is that the entire American solar industry is on its heels because it can't compete with China. In just the last few years, China has consolidated 54% of global solar panel production due to lower production costs. So the real lesson would appear to be than any good-faith attempt to reignite a production-based economy here in America is doomed to the race-to-the-bottom abyss of globalization.
For decades now, politicians from both parties have assured us America's economic future involved endless expansion of the financial industry and binge consumption of low-cost goods manufactured in the Third World by middle-class American consumers, and they scoffed at those of us who raised red flags about forfeiting our industrial base to the globe's lowest bidders. After the entire house of cards collapsed with the bursting of the housing and credit bubbles in 2008, even "new economy" politicians started to see the light, scratching their chins and assessing that just maybe it would be good if America actually started making things again.
But this green energy revolution was our first experiment in testing whether America is capable of being a competitive manufacturing economy again, and the collapse of Solyndra and Chinese consolidation of solar panel production suggests we're not. Yet politicians across the spectrum continue to tell us we need to think "outside the box" for creative ways to more broadly reinvigorate manufacturing in America. How exactly do they propose to do this?
Solyndra's unique solar panels were a classic case study on this front, and it was not only a failure, but a failure that has led to speculation of pernicious motives on the part of Obama administration. Since this outfit donated to Obama's campaign and was later given a government-supported loan to start up with stimulus money, then it must be a payola, is the implication. With this allegation in mind, who's gonna be the next politician to sign up for financially supporting American manufacturing knowing that there's a large likelihood it will fail, and you will be accused of criminal conspiracy if it does?
Nobody. Which means our renewed commitment to reviving America's production economy has come too late. Which means the American economy will continue to be a paper tiger offering an employment base to its citizens that consists of financial industry marionettes aiding and abetting Wall Street's next round of wreckage, writing out recision letters for the insurance cartel, and wiping old people's asses. Economic superpower indeed.
Now I'm skeptical about solar panels having any more of a long-term presence in our energy future than they had back in the 1970s during Phase I of the alternative energy fad, but the neglected topic in the discussion about Solyndra is that the entire American solar industry is on its heels because it can't compete with China. In just the last few years, China has consolidated 54% of global solar panel production due to lower production costs. So the real lesson would appear to be than any good-faith attempt to reignite a production-based economy here in America is doomed to the race-to-the-bottom abyss of globalization.
For decades now, politicians from both parties have assured us America's economic future involved endless expansion of the financial industry and binge consumption of low-cost goods manufactured in the Third World by middle-class American consumers, and they scoffed at those of us who raised red flags about forfeiting our industrial base to the globe's lowest bidders. After the entire house of cards collapsed with the bursting of the housing and credit bubbles in 2008, even "new economy" politicians started to see the light, scratching their chins and assessing that just maybe it would be good if America actually started making things again.
But this green energy revolution was our first experiment in testing whether America is capable of being a competitive manufacturing economy again, and the collapse of Solyndra and Chinese consolidation of solar panel production suggests we're not. Yet politicians across the spectrum continue to tell us we need to think "outside the box" for creative ways to more broadly reinvigorate manufacturing in America. How exactly do they propose to do this?
Solyndra's unique solar panels were a classic case study on this front, and it was not only a failure, but a failure that has led to speculation of pernicious motives on the part of Obama administration. Since this outfit donated to Obama's campaign and was later given a government-supported loan to start up with stimulus money, then it must be a payola, is the implication. With this allegation in mind, who's gonna be the next politician to sign up for financially supporting American manufacturing knowing that there's a large likelihood it will fail, and you will be accused of criminal conspiracy if it does?
Nobody. Which means our renewed commitment to reviving America's production economy has come too late. Which means the American economy will continue to be a paper tiger offering an employment base to its citizens that consists of financial industry marionettes aiding and abetting Wall Street's next round of wreckage, writing out recision letters for the insurance cartel, and wiping old people's asses. Economic superpower indeed.
posted by Mark at 3:26 PM
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