A Hysterical Overreaction to Solyndra
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on October 4th, 2011 4:31 am by HL
A Hysterical Overreaction to Solyndra
James Surowiecki, The New Yorker
Two years ago, the solar company Solyndra was a darling of the Obama Administration. The company had received more than five hundred million dollars in loan guarantees from the Department of Energy, and was building a factory to manufacture a revolutionary new successor to the solar panel—one that didn’t require expensive silicon and came in a convenient tube format. It seemed like an ideal show horse for the Administration’s green-jobs strategy. Vice-President Joe Biden spoke by video at the plant’s groundbreaking ceremony, saying that the company was…
Eric Cantor Plays Role of Obama Nemesis
Jason Zengerle, NY Magazine
On a stormy evening in early September, a couple of hours before Barack Obama would present his new jobs plan to a joint session of Congress, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor was huddled in his Capitol office with a handful of aides, kicking around a question: Why does the president seem to hate him so much?Various theories were floated. John Murray, Cantor’s deputy chief of staff, argued that it had something to do with his boss’s eloquence. “Eric articulates very strongly and aggressively a principled stance that’s conservative,” he said,…
Solyndracracy
Matthew Continetti, Weekly Standard
In happier times, the firm had been celebrated as a harbinger of the future. The political connections it enjoyed were the fruit not only of well-placed contributions but of a self-imposed ideological mission: It was going to deliver cheap energy in amazing ways. Top executives had dismissed accounting irregularities. The normal rules, it was said, did not apply.Then came the reckoning. Bankruptcy. Layoffs. An FBI investigation. Subpoenas. And the guard dogs of the press—always ready to sniff out a good scandal—leaped into action. What you read in the news was…
