New Study Shows Britain's Leadership Structure is Elitist.What About America's?

A recent study shows England is elitist. Really? What About the United States? The Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission study of 4,000 British leaders shows the “deepest elitist” background of England’s leaders. Cambridge and Oxford, jointly referred to as Oxbridge, dominate the leadership positions in politics, business, media, and the public sector. 75% of the senior judges have Oxbridge degrees, as do 59% of the Cabinet, 57% of the permanent secretaries, 50% of the diplomats, 47% of newspaper columnists, 38% of the House of Lords, and 24% of the MP’s. Not all British prime ministers graduated from college, but of those who did, only 5 failed to attend Oxbridge. Of the past 13 Prime Ministers, two )John Major and James Callaghan did not attend college, Gordon Brown, a Scot, went to the University of Edinburgh, and Winston Churchill graduated from Sandhurst, the Royal British Military Academy. The other nine, Conservative or Labor, including Margaret Thatcher, graduated from Oxford. We Americans like to think that America is not as elitist as England. That is generally true in business and state governments, but not at the highest levels of goverment. Beginning with President George H. W. Bush, our recent Presidents have undergraduate or law degrees from Harvard and Yale. President George W. Bush received his Bachelor’s degree from Yale and MBA from the Harvard Law School. President George H. W. Bush attended Yale undergrad. Presidents Ford and Clinton have law degrees from Yale while President Obama attended Harvard Law School. Losing Presidential nominees Dukakis, Gore, Kerry, and Romney also have Harvard or Yale degrees. The United States Supreme Court is more elitist than the top British courts. Five of the justices attended Harvard Law School (Roberts, C.J., Breyer, Kagan, Kennedy, and Scalia) while three graduated from Yale (Alito, Sotomayor, and Thomas). Justice Ginsburg graduated from Columbia Law School, but only after transferring from Harvard. Nowhere does our Constitution list Harvard or Yale as requirements for high public office. Leadership is more diverse at the state and local levels with public universities and private, often religious institutions, providing the public officials. Admittedly, the United States still provides substantially more upper mobility than England. Several of our recent presidents have climbed from humble beginnings (Ford, Clinton, and Obama), Upper mobility in the United States comes through higher education, led by the public universities, masters colleges, and community colleges. Scholarships, Pell Grants, and fellowships open the doors for many economically or racially disadvantaged high school students. America is a more open economic society. Thus the opportunity for entrepreneurs from all backgrounds to achieve great success in America. The key to Oxbridge, Harvard and Yale is not a monopoly on great professors or students. The key is opening the door, especially the first door, after graduation. The alumni network will help fellow grads who impress them, as will the “elite.” The trite saying is true: “It’s not what you know, but who you know.” The cost to society is that these leaders come a narrow segment, the “meritocracy” in America, and do not represent the people of America or Great Britain.

President Obama: "We Have No Strategy Yet." Really?

Remember the Chiquita Banana jingle? “Yes, we have no bananas. We have no bananas today. President Obama’s strategy is: “Yes, we have no strategy, we have no strategy today.” Or yesterday. Or tomorrow. He has two fundraisers in Westchester County today. That is the saddest indictment to date of the President. A strategy is not developed playing golf. Nor is it created in fundraisings. Nor apparently does he engage in strategizing during vacations. President Obama is disingenuous. He has a strategy, a failing strategy, but one he cannot honestly reveal to the American public. His consistent strategy is to disarm, defang, and neuter the American military while retreating from the world. America’s role is not to lead. He believes America has used its military to force its rapacious will upon the world. American exceptionalism does not exist, but if it does, then his view is that it was acquired through American imperialism. He is a believer in the gospel of the New Left, the gospel of Liberation Theology. He believes that America is the root of evil in the world. Iran, and Russia, and the Moslem Brotherhood are simply misunderstood. Stalwart allies, such as England and Israel, are to be dissed. Hamas is, at the least, the equal of Israel. He cannot admit he’s been wrong because he cannot, will not, see it. Our President is ignorant of history, as well as economics, and human psychology. He believes Afghanistan and Iraq were mistakes of the Bush Administration. He was elected to get American boots off the ground. Thus the unilateral snatching of defeat from the jaws of victory in Iraq by unilaterally pulling all troops out – an act which he still intends to repeat in Afghanistan. His response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine is to offer MRE’s to the Ukrainian troops. He lacks a strategy because he lacks a vision of the strategic interests of the United States. Our President does not learn from his mistakes because, in his eyes, he does not make mistakes. He sees the truth clearer than us mere mortals. The polls tell him the American people do not want boots on the ground. He fails to realize that Neville Chamberlain’s Appeasement was popular until Hitler invaded Poland. President Obama does not understand that President Roosevelt knew the American public was opposed to entry into World War II, but that FDR did what he could to prepare America for the inevitable war. FDR built up the American military prior to Pearl Harbor. President Obama continues to shrink it. FDR had leadership. The President said a year ago that we need a strategy for Syria. He called ISIS the jayvee’s six months ago. He was AWOL during Benghazi. He still seems out of the loop on ISIS. The military is always preparing contingency plans. They always have a range of options. All the President has to do is request them. Instead, he is relying upon his national security team, which includes Ben Rhodes, a political hack, and Susan Rice as his National Security Advisor.

Michigan's Football Season Begins Tomorrow With Appalachian State: Questions, Questions, Questions

Where were you on September 1, 2007, the day the music died? Where were you on September 1, 2007, the day The Victors sounded flat? Where were you on September 1, 2007, the day the Era of Bo ended? Where were you on September 1, 2007, the day Davis slew Goliath? Where were you on September 1, 2007 when the Mountaineers defeated the Mighty Wolverines? Will Team 135 restore the glory of Michigan Football, or will the Wolverines continue 7 years of frustration with six years of mediocrity and one year of glory? Will Devin Gardner achieve his potential? Has Michigan solved the offensive line problems? Will the quarterbacks and running backs thereby survive the season without crippling injuries or concussions? Will it be running back by committee? Is the new Offensive Coordinator Doug Nussmeier the answer? Will the defensive line remember how to pressure the quarterback? Will Michigan blow out Appalachia State by the 35 point spread? Wasn’t that the point spread seven years ago when the Mountaineers in a monumental upset the Wolverines 34-32? Will the Michigan players wait until after the game to celebrate their victory rather than the night before? Will a victory over the Mountaineers reverse the monumental decline that began seven years ago with the Appalachian state loss? Will a Wolverine victory mean we won’t have to listen to the haunting chant “It’s great to be a Mountaineer” after the game? Can Michigan regain its swagger? Why did Appalachian State’s Athletic Director fire Jerry Moore, their great coach, at the end of the 2012 season? How did the 4-8 record under their new coach work out? Where are Jerry Moore, Armanti Edwards, Julian Rauch, and Dexter Jackson today? Michigan paid Appalachian State $400,000 seven years ago to be a sacrificial lamb. Is the Appalachian State rematch worth $850,000? Can Michigan sweep the home season? Will Michigan win at least one of the three tough road games: Notre Dame, Michigan State, or Ohio State? Will Big Brother defeat Little Brother on the road? Will the regular season record be 10-2, 9-3, 8-4, 7-5, or worse? When did Michigan last return a punt or kickoff for a touchdown? Has Brady Hoke rebuilt the football team? Will Brady Hoke return if the season record is no better than 7-5? Is Jabrill Peppers the second coming of Charles Woodson? Will 100,000 fans show up for the Appalachian State game? Will students continue to stay at home or fraternity parties during the games? Is Michigan becoming a basketball school? Are there any wild Wolverines in Michigan? I was at the Appalachian State seven years ago. Why am I staying in Orange County to watch the rematch on a big screen instead of being at the game?

The New York Times Tees Off on President Obama, And So Should Florida State

The Presidency of the United States is a stressful job. Presidents need to relax. President Obama loves playing golf. Presidents need to decompress. President Obama likes to fund raise. Presidents need to clear their thoughts. President Obama likes to vacation. The President has his priorities. President Obama has mastered the art of combining all three at once – a trifecta with a three iron. What President Obama does not like to do is get involved with the nitty gritty of governing. He’s a big picture guy – leave the details to others. He has his priorities. The New York Times and other media outlets have publicly ignored to date his jaunts, rounds, and fundraisers. Thus, if he was at a dedication for Ground Zero, followed by two fundraisers on the Upper East Side, only the dedication ceremony received coverage. That changed last week with the beheading of James Foley, the kidnapped reporter. President Obama publicly delivered a statement of outrage, and then immediately skedaddled to the Farm Neck Golf Course for a 1:00pm round of golf with Alonzo Mourning. The President spent almost the whole afternoon on the course. The President knows his priorities. The media was incensed at the President’s seemingly callous behavior. James Foley was not a “no one.” He was a reporter. ISIS beheaded a fellow member of the Fourth Estate and the President treated it as business as usual. That is part of the problem. It is business as usual for the President because the media had never called him out on his schedule until this one time – almost six years into his presidency. Maureen Dowd, the New York Times great and sometimes acerbic columnist, savaged him Sunday on the Presidential golfing. She entitled her column “The Golf Address,” patterned after President Lincoln’s great Gettysburg Address. The column starts “Fore, score ….” She is a weather vane of the New York Times and of the eastern establishment. He spent two weeks on Martha’s Vineyard. Nine days were on the links. Indeed, he was golfing 30 minutes after landing on the Vineyard. The president knows his priorities. He took two days off from the Vineyard to return to D.C. for a bachelor’s party and fundraiser. The President’s golfing escapades are costly to taxpayers – not in the green fees, but in the transportation costs of the President entourage to the world’s golf courses. Air Force One has seen more golf courses than most Americans. Florida State Seminoles won the national football title last year. The winning teams in many sports traditionally get a meet and great visit to the White House to commemorate their success. Not Florida State! The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that the President’s schedule did not have a window of opportunity to salute the Seminoles. The President has priorities: fundraisers, golfing, fund, vacation, foreign jaunts – hundreds and hundreds of days and nights. If he can’t squeeze in the time to govern, then how should we expect him to salute Florida State? The Seminoles should have proposed a date on or back from a golf course in Key West – a date which would allow the President to host a fundraiser at the clubhouse on a Tallahassee golf course.

SoCal News is Going to the Dogs

Dog Chase on the 710: Live on NBC News! Southern California, the land of cars and freeways, is notorious for high speed chases. They became a ritual on the noon and evening news. The pit maneuver and spike strips are part of the SoCal lexicon. Alas, the high speed chase is trite and mundane. The thrill is gone. The news stopped broadcasting the chases, unless something different was involved, such as a dump truck. NBC4 in LA devoted much of the 6:00pm news Thursday to a dog chase on the 710 through Bell. A Channel 4 helicopter broadcast the drama from the air. The dog took all the local, state, national, and international developments off the news cycle. NBC national news replayed a clip during the Friday Evening News. It would not let a sleeping dog lie. A medium sized black dog was nonchalantly trotting along the side of the 710 during the height of the evening rush hour, seemingly oblivious to the motorists. The drivers acted erratically for experienced freeway drivers. They did not honk. Nor did they flip the bird at the dog which was stalling traffic. Instead, they slowed down, forming a two lane convoy led by a Bimer convertible. Traffic was backed up, but the sounds of silence came from the cars. The California Highway Patrol was conspicuous by its absence. No CHIP was to be seen. Finally, the dog slowed down and three motorists pulled onto the berm, jumped out of their cars, and tried to corral the errant mutt. They were so brave, and yet so foolish. The bitch was subsequently described as of pit bull ancestry. This pit bull, officially known as the American Staffordshire Terrier, did not put up a fight. Andie Valerio seized the occasion, and the dog, and took her home. Animal Control Friday morning retrieved the black mutt, who currently resides in a Downey shelter for homeless. She deserves better than a shelter; she has panache. The true owner has not come forward. The dog has a collar, but neither a tag nor microchip. We don’t know her name. She deserves better. She’s the only recent dog in LaLa Land with 15 primetime minutes of fame. The owner should claim ownership since this dog is the most famous pit bull since Spuds Mackenzie. She has commercial value. 20 million people in Southern California, and the only news is a stray dog out for a walk along the freeway. No Ferguson, no ISIS, no Obama golf match. Just a nameless stray! Live!

The Feds Look Upon the Bank of America As a Piggy Bank

The Federal Government Loots the Bank of America The government announced yesterday a $16.65 settlement with the Bank of America to settle mortgage securities claims. The Bank did the federal government a large favor in 2008 by acquiring Countrywide Financial and Merrill Lynch. It keeps paying and paying. Let us go back to the near collapse of the nation’s financial markets in 2008. The United states, indeed much of the world, was facing an economic collapse on the levels of the Great Depression. The real estate market collapsed, and with it over a trillion dollars in mortgage based securities, often referred to today as “toxic loans.” A run on the banks was threatening every major financial institution in the United States. The United States on January 1, 2008 had five large, independent investment banking companies: Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs. Only Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs were left on January 1, 2009. Bear Sterns failed in March 2008. It was acquired by J.P. Morgan Chase at a fire sale orchestrated by the Feds. It had heavily pushed securitization of mortgage backed securities. It had an unsustainable debt to capital ratio of 35.6 – 1. Lehman Brothers collapsed 6 months later with a leverage rate only slightly lower than Bear Stearns. It was sold off in pieces in bankruptcy. Barclays Bank paid $1.35 billion for most of the bankruptcy “stripped clean” United States assets. A run on the banks, as in 1932, ensued. WaMu went under Wachovia, then the nation’s fourth largest bank, lost $5 billion in deposits in one day, September 26, 2008. IndyMac was soon to follow. Merrill Lynch was hemorrhaging. Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs would follow. The situation was so perilous, so reminiscent of the Great Depression, that the Bush Administration pushed the $700 billion TARP (Troubled Assets Recovery Plan) stature through Congress. Kenneth Lewis, CEO of the Bank of America, arranged for BofA to acquire Countrywide Financial, the largest mortgage issuer in America and the largest mortgage supplier to Freddy Mac and Fannie Mae. Countrywide was sinking fast. Kenneth Lewis had visions of emulating A. P. Giannini, the founder of the Bank of America, who led the small, but highly solvent, Bank America in buying up failing banks throughout California during the Great Depression. Lewis then agreed on September 4, 2008 to acquire Merrill Lynch, which had lost $19.2 billion from July 2007 to July 2008. It soon became clear shortly that Merrill Lynch was in worse shape than thought. It lost $51.8 billion in the last quarter of 2008. Bank of America told the feds that it would not complete the merger, whereupon Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson told the Bank that he would fire BofA’s management and that the Bank would have regulatory problems. Kenneth Lewis also was barred from telling shareholders of Merrill Lynch’s declining financial s before they voted to approve the merger. Kenneth Lewis resigned on December 31, 2009. The Countrywide and Merrill Lynch mergers saved the feds at least tens of billions of dollars, if not hundreds of billions, that would be needed to clean up the bankruptcy mess and pay of depositors. Thus, the federal shotgun marriage between Bank of America and Merrill Lynch. The Bank of America has now paid out $74.58 billion to settle claims against mostly Countrywide and Merrill Lynch. BofA, Countrywide and Merrill Lynch issued $965 billion in mortgage securities between 2004 and 2008, of which ¾ were by Countrywide. $245 billion went into default or are seriously deficient. Only $9 billion of that originated with the Bank of America. WaMu was failing fast. It was placed in receivership by the FDIC and acquired from the FDIC by JP MorganChase on September 25, 2008. The shareholders, as in normal in a bank receivership, were wiped out. The Justice Department reached a $13 billion settlement with JP MorganChase on November 9, 2013 for the mortgage backed securities issued by WaMu. Wachovia was acquired by Wells Fargo at the end of 2008. Wachovia was choking on the mortgages held by Golden West Financial (World savings), which it acquired for $24 billion in 2006 at the peak of the real estate market. It failed within 2 years. President Obama cried out against the “Fat Cat bankers.” His Justice Department is now looking upon them as a piggy bank for the federal treasury. As of this morning, again according to the Wall Street Journal, BofA has paid out $75.48 billion so far, JP Morgan Chase $27.09 billion, CitiBank $12.4 billion, Wells Fargo $9.9 billion, Morgan Stanley $1.91 billion, and Goldman Sachs $.88 billion. I just saw that Goldman Sachs may have settled claims earlier today for $3.15 billion I understand the laws of successor liability. The mistakes of the banks were not to receive from the federal government a “hold harmless and indemnification clause” in the shotgun marriages. The large banks will not step up next time, and there will be a next time, unless they receive a guarantee against future liability. (By way of full disclosure, I have owned shares in the Bank of America, especially predecessors Nations Bank and Citizens & Southern Bank of Georgia for decades, and currently a few shares in Wells Fargo and CitiBank)

Thoughts on Ferguson, Missouri

It would be easy to jump into the Ferguson fray over the past nine days, but we are taught that there are two sides to every story. No video exists, to the best of our knowledge, of the actual confrontation between Michael Brown and Officer Darren Wilson. The facts still remain sketchy. This recent case of alleged excessive force is unusual. Apparently we do not have a real time video or audio of the incident. Thus, the initial image is one presented by eyewitnesses. The most important witness is Michael Brown’s companion, Dorian Johnson. We think we know one side of the shooting of Mike Brown on August 9. An unarmed Michael Brown was shot to death by Officer Darren Wilson while Brown had his hands up seeking to surrender. Dorian said that Michael was turning around with his hands in the air, saying “I don’t have a gun. Stop shooting.” That was the initial eyewitness account, and was accepted by the community and media. Mike Brown was shot in the back with his hands up while seeking to surrender. That awful image was portrayed as yet again a senseless shooting of an African-American teenager by a white, presumably, bigoted cop. That is the national image from August 9 in Ferguson Missouri. There are two sides to a story. Other eyewitnesses are telling a different story, and we have yet to hear the Officer’s account of the tragic incident. The Officer may have been severely injured in the confrontation, which brings up the issue of self-defense. Then we learn that Michael Brown and Dorian Johnson had strong-armed a merchant a short time earlier. We learn that Dorian has a rap sheet. Perhaps Dorian is not telling the truth. Media and civil rights leaders may have rushed to judgment. The Reverend Al Sharpton, an outside agitator, rushed to Ferguson. Regardless, the city of Ferguson erupted. One commonality about communities erupting after a police shooting of an African-American, such as in Ferguson, Cincinnati, or Lexington, Kentucky is that the shooting is the catalyst, the spark, that ignites a community ready to erupt, like the bubbling magma under a volcano. A history of unredressed police brutality, systemic discrimination, high unemployment, low paying jobs, lack of political power, a feeling the community is not being heard, leads to racial tension. Missouri is a border state with a long history of divisive racial relations. Michael Brown, the innocent, hands in the air, Michael Brown, became a cause celebre for the African-American community. He became a martyr for Civil Rights. The city erupted. The police may have overreacted at the beginning by using excessive force against demonstrators. Peaceful demonstrations became violent. The local police lost control of the situation. The Sheriff’s Office became the primary police force. Then came a showing of militarized police. Looting broke out at night. Governor Jay Nixon became hapless. First, he put the Missouri Highway Patrol in charge under Captain Ron Johnson, an African American trooper from Ferguson. Captain Johnson did his conciliatory best to calm the situation. He got relative peace for one night. He mixed with the demonstrators during the day. These protests were peaceful. Then the looting resumed at night. One night Captain Johnson had the police stand by as the looting continued. “Standing down” is not an answer to looters. Instead, it emboldens them because they have a green light to steal for free and get away with it. The Governor announced a curfew. The rioting, looting and arson began again at night. The Governor called out the National Guard, but not to control the streets, but to protect the command center. Riots, looting, arson. Senator Claire McCaskill, not exactly a paragon of virtue, decried the presence of a militarized police force. Governor Jay Nixon Tuesday afternoon threw Officer Wilson under the bus. He demanded the prosecution of Officer Wilson as we “come together” to seek justice for Michael Brown and his family:” “Second, a vigorous prosecution must now be pursued. “The democratically elected St. Louis County prosecutor and the Attorney General of the United States, each has a job to do. Their obligation to achieve justice in the shooting death of Michael Brown must be carried out thoroughly, promptly and correctly; And I call upon them to meet these expectations….” So I ask that we continue to stand together as we work to achieve justice for Michael Brown….” He basically demanded that Officer Wilson be criminally prosecuted. Defense attorneys now have a wonderful argument. The Governor irrevocably contaminated the jury pool. Officer Wilson will be unable to get a fair trial in the State of Missouri. The former Attorney General of Missouri had to know better, but he also knows that if he runs for future office, then he must secure the large African American vote in St. Louis and Kansas City. The Governor’s press office walked back these remarks Wednesday, recognizing that the Governor experienced a quick backlash. Our first African-American President has not resolved the Black teenage unemployment policy. Young men, regardless of race, are volatile, especially when unemployed. England, for example, attempted to resolve the problem of unemployed Irish teens, by enlisting them in the British Army or Royal Navy, or getting them to migrate to the United States, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand. A rising black teen unemployment rate correlates to a rise in the minimum wage. The long term victims in Ferguson will be the 20,000 residents. The looted stores will probably not reopen, and small business operators will be leery of opening up shop in the community. Ferguson’s citizens are not the rioters and looters. The residents are peacefully demonstrating during the day, as is their constitutional right. They help clean up stores after lootings. They are decrying the violence. Ministers and community elders attempt to forestall the criminal acts. They understand the long term costs to Ferguson. The perpetrators are not the peaceful citizens of Ferguson, but intruders from outside. Of the 51 recent arrests, only one was from Ferguson. Rioters may reflect rage, but looters are simply opportunistic thieves. A century ago, as in the looting immediately following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the military was given orders to “shoot to kill” looters. We don’t issue those orders anymore, but they do stop looting. Some community leaders and media are demanding that Robert McCulloch, the white District Attorney, step aside to ensure justice is done. They define “justice” in terms of Officer Wilson being indicted, convicted, and jailed with the keys being thrown away. We have a strong presumption in America of innocent until proven guilty. Many of the loudmouths believe Officer Wilson is guilty, even if he is innocent. DA McCulloch is allegedly biased because 1) he is tough on African-American defendants, 2) he works closely with the police, and 3) his father, a police officer, was killed in 1964 by an African-American when DA McCulloch was 12. These statements sound like talking points prepared in a political campaign – not the pursuit of justice. Prosecutors have a bias. They dislike criminally prosecuting police officers for the use of excessive force. They also know that criminal juries will often acquit the police officers. The drive to recuse DA McCulloch heated up when facts started appearing that could justify the shooting as a justifiable shooting. Officer Wilson apparently needed hospital treatment after the altercation. He may have a valid claim of self-defense, and a grand jury consequently unwilling to indict. President Obama on Monday was remarkably subdued and low-key as he addressed the death of Mr. Brown, almost as if he were disinterested. President Obama had twice before injected himself into black-white relations, and then backed off. The first was a confrontation between Professor Henry Louis Gates of Harvard and Sgt. James Crowley of the Cambridge, Massachusetts Police Department. Professor Gates had trouble unlocking his house when he arrived home at night. A neighbor called the police, saying she thought that perhaps two men were breaking in the house. Officer Crowley was one of the responding officers. Professor Gates finally identified himself as the homeowner, but was highly confrontational. The officer finally arrested the professor for “disorderly conduct.” The President on July 22 in a news conference said the “Cambridge Police acted stupidly.” He subsequently backtracked when the full set of facts emerged and the public sided with the police. Then came the Trayvon Martin shooting by George Zimmerman. The President said “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.” More facts came out, and the jury acquitted Zimmerman. The President again backed down, saying he meant he could have been Trayvon 35 years earlier. This time, with Michael Brown, President Obama was not going to get ahead of the facts. The President, true to form, will now lead from behind.