Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Trying to Pick Winner, Feds give $535M to Loser


Mercury News: Fremont solar tech firm Solyndra to shut down, lay off hundreds of workers
Solyndra, a Fremont-based solar panel manufacturer that flared then sputtered, abruptly ceased operations on Wednesday and immediately laid off all 1,100 of its workers.

The shutdown marks a high-profile collapse of a company that received more than $1.6 billion in federal and private funding in recent years.
Even with $535 million of taxpayer money, Solyndra could not compete in the solar panel industry. Think about that. Then think about the interest you and will be paying on that "investment". Unreal.

Update: Corrected title and copy to reflect the $535 million figure that Zerohedge ran.

2 comments:

Joe Steel said...

First of all, the $535M may have been a loan guarantee not a grant. News reports are unclear. If it was a loan guarantee, some or all of it might not have been lost.

Secondly, the company couldn't compete against Chinese imports funded by the Chinese government. That's a problem for conservative ideologues. Trade destroys jobs. We never should allow imports of anything we can make in the US, especially if it's being subsidized but our stuff isn't.

Finally, the whole incident is a good illustration of the folly of relying on capitalists to implement public policy. If the government wants new technology, it should develop it rather than trust capitalists to do it. If the government wants jobs, it should hire workers rather than rely on capitalists to do it. Capitalism has failed. It's time we faced that fact and moved-on.

Tim.McNabb said...

"Secondly, the company couldn't compete against Chinese imports funded by the Chinese government. "

So, Joe, are you acknowledging that the Obama Administration is so incompetent that they could not see a problem with "green jobs" that you were able to figure out?

Uncle Sam has no business choosing which industry ought to be advanced int he free market.