Bernie Marcus says it's time to fight

  • Thread starter Thread starter LoveHorns
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What does he know? He's not an academic. He's never taught a class or gotten tenure. He's certainly never received any academic recognition for his ability to come up with theories on why the business community does what it does. All he does is run a company.

Try to stick to the experts on this, ok?
 
Is every successful business owner qualified to look over the shoulder of the POTUS? If so- I guess I can too as can many others here.

I have a buddy who runs a Baskin Robbins pretty well- maybe he should offer his 2 cents on the debt reduction strategy.
 
I think the Baskin Robbins guy could explain he has to take in more money than he pays out or he's out of business. Pretty basic but if you don't run a business maybe you don't know that.

I also think the BR guy could explain that when he wants to hire someone it is a big step. It is hard and government can make it harder still.
 
George W. Bush used to run a baseball team. And, an oil venture that didn't work out.

How was the economy after his 8 years in office?
 
If my memory is correct, Ronald Reagan was an actor- and then he jumped into politics.

He did very well with the economy despite never running a business.

Jimmy Carter, a peanut farmer- not so much. GW Bush, also in business, and an MBA from Harvard to boot- not so much. In fact- I could probably make a list of POTUS who had zero business experience yet oversaw great economies and vice versa. Clinton- zero business experience yet a great economy. It goes on and on..
 
Bernie Marcus doesn't care about job creation. He wants demand. Demand that has fallen off especially in the home repair business. Who is flipping houses these days? Buying and selling has dropped off considerably. There isn't the mobility that there was 5/10 years ago.

I was at Home Depot a lot when i bought my house. I rarely have a reason to go there anymore.

Let me re-phrase that. He wants job creation in the sense that, the more people are working and or feel secure in their jobs, the more they will be willing to extend themselves to buy his products.

trust me, i can understand why Bernie is bitter or frustrated, the housing boom was a boom to his business. That ain't going so well right now. Bernie is looking out for number 1. I don't think he is offering particularly charitable advice.
 
as an aside, brett, I think GWB did pretty well on the Rangers transaction. Pocketed something like a 15x return in about a decade of partial ownership. I'd be willing to listen to someone that had that kind of experience, even if I didn't agree with his politics.
 
What's hilarious is that no one ever seems to want to actually address the issues that these guys bring up - they're just dismissed as greedy businessmen who just want to make more money.

Funny thing is - when they make more money and business goes up, that means the economy is doing better. So I'm kind of rooting for Home Depot sales to go up too, and those of you who can get past the class envy and anti-business rhetoric should be doing the same.
 
The interview linked in the OP demos nothing other than frustration. No ideas about how to get out of a tough situation, a situation in part brought on by deciding that profiteering and business-worship were the way into the future. Doesn't even bother to include as stab at clarifying just how Obama is holding business back.

For christ's sake, he blubbers on about the IRS and the SEC. Really? Blow me. He just wants a clear field so business can do whatever it deems necessary for the short term, regardless of the long term.

This view that business people have some special insight into how the world works needs vetted a bit, i.e., does knowing how to run a business help you run a country when the economy is in the **** in no small part because of business?
 
Thomas Jefferson ended his life with millions (adjusted for inflation) of dollars of debt. He never ran a business other than his tobacco farm. Lifelong bureaucrat.

Yet he's on Mount Rushmore.

There are all kinds of measures of a successful presidency, apparently.
 
He started Home Depot during a terrible economy, in 1981. His point was that he could not do the same with the regulations businesses face today. Thus, if 70% of the jobs in the country come from small businesses, then the government is killing job growth. Some people don't want to hear that, but the truth hurts sometimes.
 
The interview was regarding small business. Clearly Home Depot would not qualify as a small business.

Is this guy qualified to talk about small business? Well, he started one 30 years ago FWIW.
 
Maybe I missed the part where Marcus discussed how he got his business off the ground, why it flourished over time, and how government has killed or is killing the types of opportunity or the atmosphere that allowed him to succeed.

At present all I see is generic whining mixed in with a little paranoia (still laughing at the idea that voicing unhappiness with whatever government plan will get the SEC or IRS on you in attack mode -- where did that come from?).

I'm all for this guy fighting the good fight so long as I can tell what he is on about and how it meshes with our present circumstance.

Maybe the interview is just an excerpt of a much more in-depth set of considerations. Would like to see.
 
If this guy were the only one perhaps it could be said he is a whiner
but he is one of many business leaders and the list is growing It includes many who supported him for elections.
take the CEO of Verizon. he supported Obama but last year he said that Democrats in Washington are pursuing tax increases, policy changes and regulatory actions that together threaten to dampen economic growth and "harm our ability . . . to grow private-sector jobs in the U.S."
is he whining?
how about the CEO of Catepillar? who continued to support Obama even after obama lied about what the CEO had said> he now gives Obama a failing grade.
heck even Buffet criticized Obama's obsession with corporate jets pointing out Obama included the depreciation in his stimulus package.

Are all these ( and more ) whiners?
 
If Bernie Marcus would just shut down Home Depot, more small business would form. That goes for all the big boxs in my opinion. Instant business boom.

American = mom and pop
Big Box = china

Bigger is not better!
 
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