My thoughts on Governor Richardson as Commerce Secretary… it’s not a bad choice.
It goes without saying that I’m no fan of Governor Richardson; however, to the extent that the primary goal of the Commerce Secretary is to “to foster, promote, and develop the foreign and domestic commerce” of the United States, there could be worse choices than Bill Richardson. The Governor’s actions, which have put us down the road of financial disaster here in NM, have more to do with his spend, spend, spend approach to government, and less to do with his ability to promote New Mexico to outside businesses – both foreign and domestic.
Quite to the contrary, he has done a pretty good job of promoting New Mexico – albeit because it was in his own self-interests to do so. With Bill Richardson as Commerce Secretary, New Mexico will land on the radar of many global companies. On the other hand, if Bill Richardson were up for Treasury Secretary, I’d be scared.
Although, to be honest, I don’t believe it matters greatly who President-elect Obama appoints to his cabinet with regard to economic policy. My personal feeling is that we are in for an extremely rocky ride for the next three or four years, and there is no quick fix. It has very little to do with which party is in office, and everything to do with us paying for an economic boom fueled by debt that has now collapsed.
Ironically enough, the answer coming from Washington is to bailout financial institution after financial institution – CitiGroup is the latest to receive $306 Billion. The rationale being to put money back into the system for the banks to lend. However, that makes no sense when you consider the fact that the banks need the bailouts because they made bad lending choices, but hey, what do I know? It’s not like I’m a banker or economist.
In my humble opinion, anything that gets Governor Richardson out of New Mexico as soon as possible is a good thing. With Richardson out, we’ve got a chance at trying to cut the waste out of government to get the budget back to where it can be supported. Of course, if the budget is not cut, there is only one option left – raiding the permanent fund once again. Something Bill Richardson proved very adept at doing in the past.