Yesterday Investors.com posted an editorial entitled, "The Cabinet From Another World." I love the title.
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis has worked for the government all of her life. She was part of Carter White House's Office of Hispanic Affairs, Los Angles County insurance commissioner, served in the California Assembly and Senate, and then went to Washington, D. C. to represent California's 32nd District.
After three years in the private sector, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner went to work in 1988 for the Treasury Department. He worked for the International Monetary Fund from 2001 until 2003. In 2003 he took over as President of the New York Federal Reserve.
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke was the governor of Washington from 1997 to 2005. Prior to that he was a criminal prosecutor. Later he served in the state legislature. He did have limited private sector experience as a rainmaker for Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, an international law firm from 2005 to 2009.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu has been in the public sector since 1987. According to the article:
"...the Berkeley physicist is hostile to private enterprise to the point of blaming "free market forces" for not cutting carbon dioxide emissions."
President Obama has only one year of experience in the private sector (immediately after college graduation). The American economy is not a place for on-the-job training. I firmly believe that leadership comes down from the top. If no one in the President's Cabinet has ever run a business or has practical knowledge of how to run a business, chances are that the perspective of a businessman will not be represented in Cabinet meetings. Businessmen are not evil--they are the backbone of the American economy. Until those in the current administration begin to respect the contributions made by the average businessman, they will probably not be able to improve the economy. They are simply looking in the wrong place.
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