Kodak? Bankrupt? Too bad they're not the government.

Kodak, the huge, monster-sized comany in Rocheser, New York, has filed for bankruptcy. The name Kodak needs no explanation; we all know who they are. Bankrupt? Means they don't have any money. Right? Yes, they've got no money honey. Kodak? How?

Some would say, rightfully so, that Kodak didn't adapt to the digital age until too late. However, Kodak had the same corporate culture that has evolved in other American companies that got too big for their britches and didn't bother to stay "hungry." The Irish have a saying, "Hunger makes a good sauce." Other good examples of companies not remaining "hungry" are NCR Corp. and Ford Motor Co.

The NCR cash register was a wonder of mechanical engineering. It was the best in the world. They, like Kodak, developed a corporate culture out of their success. Wooden headedness evolved. After all, they were the best analog cash registers in the world and they knew it. In the process however, they began to lose the market share. They, too, didn't recognize the digital age. They kept cranking out wonderful analog cash registers. Unlike Kodak, however, they made the right moves for themselves in the nick of time.

NCR hired a Director of Engineering who was given the OK to chop the collective heads of people who were "hangers on." They were not near sighted nor were they far sighted. Let's just say they were neither sighted.

With the new engineering leader, into NCR came contract packaging designers, printed circuit board designers, computer programmers and systems analysts. Lo and behold, NCR came into the digital age before they had to close their "analog" doors.

If we go back a little further, Ford Motor Co. developed the same mentality. Only in their case, Henry Ford, as leader of his company, was the culprit with tunnel vision. He was the visionary who conceived the assembly line. Before that cars were individually made. Henry Ford made a great automobile. With the assembly line concept he brought down manufacturing costs that allowed the general public to finance or purchase a Ford. Henry's success was enormous.

Henry made an automobile that transported people. It was black and functional. THAT'S what people want. Cars of color? Are you kidding? People want transport; they could care less about whether their car is red or green or whatever. It's gonna remain BLACK. Well, as you can guess, while the competetion was making cars of color, Ford Motor was not. And, the company almost went down because they didn't read the tea lives and adapt.

There's a lesson to be learned here for American electorate and the most important election in our lifetime, the 2012 presidential election. I would opine that American government, like NCR, Ford Motor Co. and Kodak, has developed a fat cat corporate mentality. Unlike corporate America, however, our federal, state and local governments have had a way out.

Rather than filing bankruptcy, our governments simply borrow money from foreign governments, raise taxes, sell bonds and/or print paper money without anything to back it up, i.e., gold et al.

It really hasn't mattered which of our two American political party has been in control. Both have been deficit spending. However, the current federal administration has shown they are more reckless than former administrations. And what's so scary about them is they don't give a damn.

It's time for another American Revolution - via the ballot box.

Nationalizing American Banks - You can fool some of the people...

If they can't get it by going through the front door, they will try the back door. That's this writer's opinion of the proposed "National Infrastructure Bank".

Warren Buffet recently put 5 million bucks into the Bank of America. Do you think he did this because he sees BoA as a good investment? Maybe, but I believe he's done it to ward off the "nationalization" of one of America's banks by the current White House.

What is "nationalization"? I can best describe it by a cartoon I saw when Fidel Castro was at the height of his power in Cuba. He had just hit a fly ball to the outfield. Before it could be caught he shouted, "Quick, nationalize the outfield!"

Janet Kavinoky, director of what is being called "infrastructure issues at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce", believes the best incentive for "job growth" in the short term is for Congress to pass long-stalled bills to fund aviation and highway programs. She goes on to say we're one of the few large countries that lack a "central source of low-cost financing for constructon projects". Hmmm, does that translate to "union" jobs and central planning?

Who else is on board while there are continued attempts to move our nation to communism?
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. is one of 'em. He's already sponsoring an infrastructure bank bill. Spouting a leftist theory, he says such an endeavor would have moola flowing as early as next year.

Michael Likosky is a senior fellow at the NYU Institute for Public Knowledge, an impressive-sounding title. He's written "Obama's Bank: Financing a Durable New Deal." He says that states with transportation agencies, like California and New York, are frothing at the mouth as they wait for Uncle Sam to come up with the money. What am I missing here? He's talking about the same federal government that has NO money? Abracadabara....

A slick endeavor such as what will be proposed is another step towards the socialization of America in the guise of a new banking system that would be controlled by the Federal Government. Uh uh!

We can expect our government-controlled media to fully support this not-so-blatant attempt to nationalize our economy. If one reads between the lines we can see it's another small-step by the federal government towards "seizing" capital that is now unreachable, i.e., pension funds, private equity funds and sovereign wealth funds that are reportedly worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

For the little money I have, I'm waiting until the election of 2012 is over. The outcome will either make us or break us. A better approach will be to encourage capital to flow back into the U.S. by creating every incentive available to allow it. The federal government has to get out of the way, not create avenues to control more of what's left of our economy and free-enterprise system.

Our system of government and economy is what produced the greatest nation in history. To quote President Reagan, "Government is not the answer. Government is the problem."