George W. Bush is beginning to realize he made some mighty big mistakes. He admitted today that he's sorry the stock market and economy have collapsed because it happened under his watch. And he thinks that there was an intelligence failure when it comes to those Iraqi WMDs.

He'd like us to believe that he was just a passive victim of all this bad stuff that happened around him. If he is really that clueless, I need help understanding how he got "elected" twice. In any case, there's plenty of evidence that Douglas Feith created the WMD evidence to please Dick Cheney.

And Bush repeatedly ignored warnings that subprime mortgages were being abused and that securitization was creating a huge risk for the economy. He also failed to apologize for two other memorable events during his presidency -- his August 2001 decision to ignore that President's Daily Brief called "Osama bin Laden determined to strike in U.S." and his famed New Orleans Katrina flyover, capped by his heck of a job Brownie comment.

Bush has left the U.S. in a sorry state -- and I'm sorry, but sorry won't cut it.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter.

Bush says sorry, a little too late originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 01 Dec 2008 15:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Toast: The Bush legacy

Toast: The Bush legacy originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 03 Nov 2008 18:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This post is part of a feature on companies and products that our bloggers think are in need of a makeover. See all 26.

Remember Dick Cheney? He hasn't emerged from his spider hole since shooting his buddy in the face at a quail hunt. But last time I was in Washington, I was walking along the street near George Washington University Hospital and suddenly all the cars disappeared and an armada of police cars and black suburbans whizzed by. I was later told that it was Cheney getting his stent checked up.

Prior to his stint in the administration of the 43rd president, It turns out that Cheney's heart beat for Halliburton (NYSE: HAL). In 2004, for example, taxpayers provided Halliburton's KBR subsidiary with $7 billion to provide services in Iraq while it took hundreds of millions of dollars in improper charges. With its 2% profit over costs, the more taxpayer money Halliburton spent, the higher its profits. Fortunately, Halliburton spun off that pesky KBR subsidiary in April 2007.

But it has other problems. The SEC is investigating Halliburton for paying bribes in Nigeria; its KBR subsidiary did a lousy job replacing bolts on an undersea pipeline that will cost Halliburton up to $220 million; the SEC investigated Halliburton for bogus contract revenue accounting; it settled asbestos litigation; a competitor of Hallburton accuses it of antitrust violations; and it received a $108 million judgment for dumping hazardous waste.

Continue reading Makeover needed: Halliburton

Makeover needed: Halliburton originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

George H. W. Bush famously called Ronald Reagan's idea that you could cut taxes and balance the budget "voodoo economics." And his son's vice president, Dick Cheney, is also well known for reinforcing Reagan's values when he said "Reagan proved [that] deficits don't matter."

Well, now Bloomberg News reveals that the current president will leave his successor with a record Federal Budget deficit of $490 billion in fiscal 2009. Why such a big deficit? Bloomberg speculates that "dwindling tax receipts because of the U.S. economic slowdown, the cost of payments distributed under the $168 billion economic stimulus package and the continuing cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan" could all be contributing factors.

Disturbingly, the non-partisan Tax Policy Center in Washington suggests that both candidates have tax cut plans that would add to future deficits. Bloomberg reports that McCain's may cost "$4.2 trillion over 10 years and Obama's about $2.8 billion." Meanwhile, those wars the current president started cost "$10 billion to $12 billion a month." With the dollar down 72% since the current president took over, I think deficits do matter.

And the current president's legacy for his successor will determine just how much.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter.

$490 billion federal deficit to make a record in 2009 originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Dick Cheney's wisdom on the mortgage mess originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 26 Nov 2007 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.