(Background: first posted in my Parabolica blog. Concerns Erin's proposal for a "Dutch" auction of GM's IPO, giving the "little guys" access to the IPO at "big guy" prices. Great idea that no one took up on...)
I'm going to let you in on a little secret. For the last year or so, I've quietly been using my assorted blogs to access the minds at CNBC, albeit in the most benign ways conceivable. After watching them in action for years now, I wondered if I could harness their collective brainpower for good. The first fruit of this endeavor has been borne.
My girl Erin (as she will someday call herself) has chosen to enter the fray. As the GM Initial Public Offering (IPO) looms, she has proposed a public Internet auction of the shares giving the American public access to the 80% of the offering that normally would be consumed by institutional traders. (View video of proposal.) Everyone would have a chance to get in at, or near, the IPO target price. Being in debt to the taxpayers for, I want to say, $50 Billion, GM owes the great unwashed at LEAST a crack at that sweet, sweet upside Ed Whitacre keeps going on about. Even more than that, the potential for the concept of ownership in the corporation bodes well for future GM sales generating a virtuous cycle. The nuts and bolts of it could still be a problem but getting the government to try anything outside the box is formidable in and of itself.
Be assured she won't get any credit for the idea, that's not how these things work: she'll have to be satisfied with knowing she tried to do the right thing. She didn't get any credit for "Cash for Clunkers" (after suggesting it based on the Chinese appliance credit) so she should be used to that.
And welcome to my world; I wish it was a nicer one. The idea is a thoroughbred but Washington will turn it into a mule (if they don't just cart it off to the slaughterhouse.) Simple and elegant with great hidden potential,it's the kind of idea I would be proud to call my own but never would have come up with. Toughen up and get ready to be called every name in the book; you never find out who is on the other side of an issue until you stand up, alone, and speak.
The primary reason I blog is I just want to make sure my ideas are out there in a world that seems so utterly out of ideas. I push relentlessly left because no one else does (and that makes my job secure.) I write to provoke, to initiate a conversation, to agitate, to confront and from that confrontation, fight for progress. We've tried all the old ideas and they're just old. So maybe we try something new and, if we're going down anyway, we go down swinging.
Here's the good news: if it all goes bad you're still left with a bit of pride and a warm glow for trying.
I'm going to let you in on a little secret. For the last year or so, I've quietly been using my assorted blogs to access the minds at CNBC, albeit in the most benign ways conceivable. After watching them in action for years now, I wondered if I could harness their collective brainpower for good. The first fruit of this endeavor has been borne.
My girl Erin (as she will someday call herself) has chosen to enter the fray. As the GM Initial Public Offering (IPO) looms, she has proposed a public Internet auction of the shares giving the American public access to the 80% of the offering that normally would be consumed by institutional traders. (View video of proposal.) Everyone would have a chance to get in at, or near, the IPO target price. Being in debt to the taxpayers for, I want to say, $50 Billion, GM owes the great unwashed at LEAST a crack at that sweet, sweet upside Ed Whitacre keeps going on about. Even more than that, the potential for the concept of ownership in the corporation bodes well for future GM sales generating a virtuous cycle. The nuts and bolts of it could still be a problem but getting the government to try anything outside the box is formidable in and of itself.
Be assured she won't get any credit for the idea, that's not how these things work: she'll have to be satisfied with knowing she tried to do the right thing. She didn't get any credit for "Cash for Clunkers" (after suggesting it based on the Chinese appliance credit) so she should be used to that.
And welcome to my world; I wish it was a nicer one. The idea is a thoroughbred but Washington will turn it into a mule (if they don't just cart it off to the slaughterhouse.) Simple and elegant with great hidden potential,it's the kind of idea I would be proud to call my own but never would have come up with. Toughen up and get ready to be called every name in the book; you never find out who is on the other side of an issue until you stand up, alone, and speak.
The primary reason I blog is I just want to make sure my ideas are out there in a world that seems so utterly out of ideas. I push relentlessly left because no one else does (and that makes my job secure.) I write to provoke, to initiate a conversation, to agitate, to confront and from that confrontation, fight for progress. We've tried all the old ideas and they're just old. So maybe we try something new and, if we're going down anyway, we go down swinging.
Here's the good news: if it all goes bad you're still left with a bit of pride and a warm glow for trying.
