The FBI arrived at Solyndra, a solar company in Fremont that just filed bankruptcy, at 7 am executing search warrants. A spokesperson for Solyndra said they were surprised but cooperated. Currently it is confidential, so no one really knows what they were really looking for. However, many believe it has to do with their political association.Remember that time last year when Obama was in the area and everyone was talking about the lines of cop cars in the Bay Area? Well, he was here to visit this failed company. At that time, Obama was promoting the creation of "green" jobs and such to help with unemployment and stimulate the economy. This company seemed to be his main hope for that. Thus, the US Department of Energy loaned the company $535 million. That was March of 2009. Now, they are filing for bankruptcy. Solyndra put out a statement, saying China was too fierce of competition and caused them to stop production and lay off a thousand employees. Those who were laid off recieved no severance pay and had their health benefits ended. Where did all that money go? They couldn't even save some to provide for their employees or now ex-employees?
Wasting away $535 million in a little over two years seems hard to do. How do you spend that kind of money if none was even saved for their employees? In addition, the government actually agreed to this. They loaned the company money and then what? They gave them money and seemed to do little to sustain the company's success. Really? Half a Billion dollars? At least their headquarters look pretty.
3 comments:
Sounds sketchy. That reminds me of a recent finding that hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars that were supposed to help the US soldiers in Afghanistan actually went to Taliban members and others that the US is fighting against. I hope that the money given to Solyndra didn't end up being used by some anti-environmental company.
Why are we putting all the blame on "outsourcing to foreign countries"? It doesn't make sense that such powerful American companies just seem to fold so easily to foreign competition. Or they using this as a scapegoat to cover some other hidden motives? It makes me feel uncomfortable when companies such as this one can't take responsibility for their own actions and bad investment/spending and point fingers.
It's kind of funny seeing another blog on the folding of Solyndra. I read a post on the economist regarding president Obama's job speech to congress and how his proposed bill would fund a "national infrastructure bank" that would set up funds on projects that meet "two criteria: how badly a construction project is needed and how much good it would do for the economy." The economist later goes on to say how the massive funding of Solyndra really went nowhere since the folding of the company. So is funding similar programs a bad idea? Personally, i think it's a good way to help kick start the economy. The big question though, is who to give loans out to. I'm glad that president obama was willing to take a risk on Solyndra and i hope that its failure does not deter the funding of other potentially lucrative companies. I also hope to see some republicans willing to take the same risks, given many of the nominee's business backgrounds such as those of Herman Cain and Mitt Romney.
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