Lean Thinking
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Paul Bayer Premium Member Group moderatorThe company name is only visible to registered members.Obama's Speech: We will rebuild, we will recover, we will emerge stronger than before
Hi,
I'm not in politics. But I must say, US president Obama's speech yesterday evening is one of the best things I heard about the value system of "Lean" for a long time. He got it definitely. I'm really impressed.
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Excerpts from President Obama's address to a joint session of Congress 2/24/09:
"While our economy may be weakened and our confidence shaken; though we are living through difficult and uncertain times, tonight I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before.
"The weight of this crisis will not determine the destiny of this nation. The answers to our problems don’t lie beyond our reach. They exist in our laboratories and universities; in our fields and our factories; in the imaginations of our entrepreneurs and the pride of the hardest-working people on Earth. Those qualities that have made America the greatest force of progress and prosperity in human history we still possess in ample measure. What is required now is for this country to pull together, confront boldly the challenges we face, and take responsibility for our future once more.
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"We have lived through an era where too often, short-term gains were prized over long-term prosperity; where we failed to look beyond the next payment, the next quarter, or the next election. A surplus became an excuse to transfer wealth to the wealthy instead of an opportunity to invest in our future. Regulations were gutted for the sake of a quick profit at the expense of a healthy market. People bought homes they knew they couldn’t afford from banks and lenders who pushed those bad loans anyway. And all the while, critical debates and difficult decisions were put off for some other time on some other day.
"Well that day of reckoning has arrived, and the time to take charge of our future is here.
"Now is the time to act boldly and wisely – to not only revive this economy, but to build a new foundation for lasting prosperity. Now is the time to jumpstart job creation, re-start lending, and invest in areas like energy, health care, and education that will grow our economy, even as we make hard choices to bring our deficit down. That is what my economic agenda is designed to do, and that’s what I’d like to talk to you about tonight.
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"The recovery plan and the financial stability plan are the immediate steps we’re taking to revive our economy in the short-term. But the only way to fully restore America’s economic strength is to make the long-term investments that will lead to new jobs, new industries, and a renewed ability to compete with the rest of the world. The only way this century will be another American century is if we confront at last the price of our dependence on oil and the high cost of health care; the schools that aren’t preparing our children and the mountain of debt they stand to inherit. That is our responsibility.
see;
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/02/24/The-Presidents-addre...
- 25 Feb 2009, 05:47 am
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Dirk Fischer Premium MemberThe company name is only visible to registered members.Re: Obama's Speech: We will rebuild, we will recover, we will emerge stronger than before
Hi Paul,
He is definately a good speaker and he is talking about the right things.
I hope he has surrounded himself with people helping him doing what he has announced.
Regards
Dirk
- 25 Feb 2009, 09:23 am
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Gerold Keefer Premium MemberThe company name is only visible to registered members.Re: Obama's Speech: We will rebuild, we will recover, we will emerge stronger than before
hello paul,
thanks for that posting.
while i have been appreciating the innovative qualities of the US for years
and obama has certainly an assertive personality, we have to look at the
actions, too.
the US has lead western governments by issuing a 800 billion
package. it is unclear to me if those packages will help or if it just implements the
short-term thinking the speech is attacking.
where are the structural innovationsb that will bring us out of the mud?
where is the real change? has GM transformed in any way or aren't they
playing their old tricks, only harder? what have we gained if the hyporealestate
becomes a government entity?
we create a fail safe economy for some and the rest has to dearly pay for it.
i see nothing substantial happening here, not in the US and not in germany.
what i see is lots of frogs promissing to dry the quagmire.
this sounds not particularly convincing to me.
are governments really that much better in spending money than private
businesses? after all, at the end of the day governments only redistribute the wealth
created by businesses. in effect they are currently distributing the wealth from
the bottom to the top. guess who will receive the largest share? those who
somehow need it (currently close to every company) or those who happen to
be in the same golf club?
look at close to everything governments do and you will see huge heaps of muda.
the US _government_ has started two completely unnecessary -muda only- wars.
you can certainly say the same thing with regards to major private businesses
(HRE, Citibank, AGI, etc.) but don't forget that monetary policy is made by
governments.
obama's decision is to double the troops in afganistan (it might be his
life insurance agains the industrial-military complex in the US, though)!
to conlude: yes, we need visions and inspiring leaders, but we also need
actions in line with those visions.
best regards,
gerold
This post was modified on 25 Feb 2009 at 08:15 pm.- 25 Feb 2009, 11:07 am
