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    Who are the NERD fund donors Mr Snyder?

    Raise the curtain.

    Technology Transfer Complete


    By JGillman, Section News
    Posted on Wed Jan 30, 2013 at 08:38:42 AM EST
    Tags: Michigan, Batteries Not Included, Chinese, Technology Transfer, A123, Millions, MEDC, Ripping Off The Taxpayer, China, Competitive Nations, Once 30 years Behind Us, Failure Of Leadership, Cronyism, Graft, Payoff (all tags)

    Taxes paid into the crony capitalist federal bureaucracy, as well as into our own state coffers gave an assist to a tech transfer to a competing nation.

    The MEDC usually has simple results of failure, highlighted by jobs claims not materializing, eventual bankruptcies, and occasionally giving our money away to fraudsters.  Channeling the zen masters in Lansing's sacred halls of executive investing excellence, it provides a leg up to those who know how to play the system for their advantage over other businesses. Countless photo opportunities for politicians who 'bring home the bacon' can be counted on, as long as the MEDC efforts are funded with millions of our hard earned dollars.  Photo ops equal exposure, equals career doors opening for friends and family, and through the entire process equals some serious bling for those actively participating in its promotion.

    Picking winners has never been so lucrative.

    This time its potentially more dangerous. Last year, after my failed bid in the Republican primary, I produced a radio spot which predicted the A123 situation's end quite accurately.

    Continued below

    The ad was essentially designed to point out the flaws in redistributive schemes such as the MEDC and business grants in general.  However, with regard to A123, it didn't make sense that Chinese would be willing to assume certain debt that came with its buyout, unless there was a significant advantage in doing so.

    The radio spot: (click on the image to open)



    "A battery maker runs out of juice

    I'm Jason Gillman, and this is your free market minute

    A123 Systems, a Michigan manufacturer of batteries for electric vehicles has said it may be selling an 80 percent stake to a Chinese firm, in order to remain viable.

    Normally, this would be simply a story of a business that risked, yet failed to profit enough to survive. Risking capital to seek reward is a function of free and open markets, and has been the foundation of the freest civilization on the planet.

    In 2009, A123 received millions in federal and state funds, for the creation of jobs for Michiganders. Taxpayers  unwillingly, or unwittingly saw their paychecks shrink for promises never realized, and now they may have ultimately subsidized a technology transfer to a competing world power.

    As the picking of winners and losers continues in Lansing, Should we wonder what opportunities have been missed? What if money taken by Lansing would have been left in the registers of Michigan jobs creators who need no incentives?

    For business seeing its pockets being picked, the answer is clear.

    Government is not an energizer.

    I'm Jason Gillman, and this has been your free market minute."

    And [hang]bang! goes the gun.

    The ponies are off at the races. Rounding the first corner, Could-Woulda-Shoulda leads by a nose, but wait! Cant-Spend-Fast-Enough is coming up from the rear! Trailing far behind is I-Heart-Michigan, with It-Used-To-Be-Us somehow even further back!

    And the surprise winner by a nose is  ... Mao's-Red-Rider!

    A123 is gone.

    ""If the (CFIUS) has any doubt about what's going on here, it need only look at its own annual report to Congress, which it filed last month. For the first time in the history of the committee, it warned that `there is likely a coordinated strategy' underway by unnamed foreign powers `to acquire U.S. companies involved in research, development, or production of critical technologies for which the United States is a leading producer.'"

    A retired Navy vice admiral, Barry Costello, echoed those apprehensions in his own commentary for Politico. The former commander of the Navy's Third Fleet noted how A123's batteries - developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - performed well in extreme weather conditions and how it "serves critical military applications like satellites, communications, unmanned aerial vehicles, high energy lasers, advanced armor and tactical vehicles." And Costello agreed with Skelton and Hunter that simply selling the military contracts to a U.S.-based company wasn't good enough.

    "...The core technology will still belong to Wanxiang and is potentially available to the Chinese military," Costello wrote. "Furthermore, that American company will still have to rely on Wanxiang's manufacturing assets and willingness to share future intellectual property. In other words, the sensitive technology today will be exported, and our future military supply -- and troops -- will be dependent upon a Chinese entity."

    Uhhhh ...

    No one can say they haven't been warned.

    Ron Brown Would Be Proud.

    < Tuesdays Divertere: Litmus Test - Will You Fire On Americans? | Wednesdays Divertere: Why So Serious? >


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    Display: Sort:
    This is colossally stupid (none / 0) (#1)
    by Bruce on Wed Jan 30, 2013 at 10:21:18 AM EST
    The Obama administration is all about "leveling the playing field" globally... which usually means either giving away U.S. technology or lowering U.S. capabilities.

    One might well suggest... (none / 0) (#2)
    by Corinthian Scales on Wed Jan 30, 2013 at 10:34:06 AM EST
    ...that A123 was just another nominal remittance going towards interest on a maxed-out credit card held by very serious, but anxious lenders, couldn't they?

    Nah.  



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