We're Republicans; We Don't Need to Know Nuthin'!Herman Cain: More Republican Pro-Ignorance, Anti-Education Politics and Economics

Herman Cain has touted how smart his economic advisers are.  Initially he kept their identities 'secret'.

Now we know why they were such a big secret; it's because his economic advisers aren't economists at all, much less economists recognized for their knowledge and understanding of economics and our economy.

Real economists, of the variety who are sought to advise Congress and the President - and usually CEOs of very large companies - are expected to be conversant with macro and micro economics.

So....who does Herman Cain have filling that role?

According to Bloomberg News and the San Francisco Chronicle:

Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain's 9-9-9 tax plan stems from basic economic principles and didn't need a professor to develop it, said the suburban Cleveland investment adviser who did.

Rich Lowrie of Gates Mills, Ohio, who is Cain's senior economic adviser, developed the plan with Cain based on "pro- growth economics" and in consultation with economists including Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore, whom he calls friends.

"When people say, 'Well, you're not an economist, you've not even set foot in a faculty lounge, what could you possibly know about economics?' I'm not holding myself out to be that," Lowrie, 47, said in a telephone interview yesterday from Cleveland.

Now it would be one thing if either Cain, or Lowrie, were whiz-bang success stories, but they are not either of them successful on the order of magnitude of someone who IS an exceptional self-made man - someone like Warren Buffet.  And his performance as CEO of Godfather's Pizza didn't create a lot of jobs - quite the opposite, per this Bloomberg Businessweek article,

The new CEO initiated deep cuts to bring down expenses. He closed 20 percent of the company's 640 restaurants and fired 300 to 400 people.

...it's not at all clear that Cain's efforts made that much of a difference in Godfather's fortunes. He says the company was losing $8 million a year when he took over and turned a profit of $4 million two years later. You'll have to take his word for it. Cain, who declined to be interviewed, has not released details of the company's performance under his leadership. Publicly available figures show Godfather's sales fluctuated from about $225 million to about $275 million during his time there, sometimes rising, sometimes falling, never surging. Godfather's didn't go out of business; neither did it become a major combatant in the pizza wars, and Pillsbury sold Godfather's to Cain and a group of investors in 1988. In a November 1987 interview with Restaurant Business, Cain predicted Godfather's would "exceed 1,000" restaurants within three years and take on its larger rivals.

By the time Cain left the company in 1996 to head the National Restaurant Assn., the industry's powerful lobbying group, the number of Godfather's restaurants had dwindled to the low 500s. Today, Godfather's Pizza is the nation's 10th-largest pizza chain by sales, according to PMQ Pizza Magazine. The company's current officials would not reflect on Cain's leadership there—or say whether they are rooting for their old boss in 2012. Godfather's "takes no position on political candidates," the company said in a statement. "But we do make great pizza."

The bottom line: Though Cain says he would revive the economy as he did Godfather's Pizza, it's not clear the chain improved much when he was CEO.

So, Cain clearly has a track record of making claims about his own wonderfulness that he doesn't back up with facts and figures, and he makes big promises about what great things he is going to do........and then makes equally big excuses about why he didn't do those big things after all.  But new management does appear to have been more successful with the same company than Cain while he was in charge.

And that isn't the only problem with Herman Cain's record of leadership.  He doesn't appear to have done all that well at another company where he was a top executive either, Aquila Energy, according to this review of his executive credentials:

Herman Cain's spot on the board of directors at Aquila, a high-flying energy company that crashed to earth, may be a blotch on his record.
The Kansas City-based company and Cain faced allegations that employee retirement funds were heavily invested in company stock when the company was changing to investments to "high risk enterprises." The complaint states, "...the risk profile of the Aquila Fund drastically transformed from a conservative utility investment to a high risk growth stock."
The company settled the suit for $10.5 million.

And then there were the factually erroneous economy-related statements made at the debates hosted by the Washington Post / Bloomberg earlier this month, where Herman Cain was busted by the WaPo fact checkers.

In one of the most entertaining articles I've come across in researching this post, "Republican Debate: Viewer's Guide to Economic Jargon", maybe both Cain and his non-economist economic adviser should review it, along with anyone who skipped any study of economics in college, or who may have forgotten the econ classes, if they were too long ago.  Because ONLY if we have consensus about the terminology and the concepts can we begin to form any kind of consensus.

By Bloomberg News, Published: October 11 (ed note - prior to the debate)

Oct. 11 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. presidential debates are an occasion for voters to size up the would-be leaders of the world’s largest economy.
To do so, though, viewers will need to translate the jargon, acronyms and bureaucratic talk that become a native language on the campaign trail.

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This presidential campaign has developed its own lexicon.
What happens if you dial 9-9-9? Who’s Ponzi? How do you get a
tax holiday? What’s a permitorium? Want to dance the Operation Twist?
Here’s a viewers’ guide to 25 words and phrases likely to be heard at Tuesday night’s Bloomberg/Washington Post Republican presidential debate at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. Coverage begins at 7 p.m. New York time on Bloomberg Television, and the debate will be streamed live
beginning at 8 p.m. on Bloomberg.com and washingtonpost.com.
This debate will focus on the economy, debt, deficits, taxes, trade and jobs.
CRONY CAPITALISM: Critics on both ends of the political spectrum
have decried what they call government’s penchant for helping favored companies. On the political left, the criticism is that the government propped up financial institutions such as Citigroup Inc. during the financial crisis of 2008, while doing little to buffer homeowners and workers suffered. Some Republicans have seized on that term and used it against President Barack Obama, arguing that his 2009 economic-stimulus plan poured funds into politically connected companies, especially in renewable-energy technology and the auto industry.
CURRENCY MANIPULATION: Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has said he would officially label China a “currency manipulator” and impose duties on its goods until that nation raised the value of its currency to “fair value.” China takes steps in the market to hold down the value of its currency, giving its exporters a cost advantage over companies in other countries and contributing to the U.S. trade deficit. The U.S. Treasury Department releases a report twice a year in which it is supposed to identify any country that it believes is manipulating its currency. Treasury hasn’t labeled any country a manipulator since 1994. Under current law, there are no consequences for a country named a manipulator.
DEBT LIMIT: The debt limit is the total amount of money the federal government can borrow to meet its obligations, including interest on the debt, Social Security and Medicare benefits, military salaries, tax refunds and other payments. The debt limit allows the government to finance existing legal obligations that Congress and presidents have made in the past.
Since 1960, Congress has raised the threshold 78 times, including 49 times under Republican presidents and 29 times under Democrats. On Aug. 2, Obama signed into law a bill to instantly give Treasury $400 billion in additional borrowing power.
DEFICIT: Deficits are the government’s total expenditures that
exceed the annual revenue it receives. Deficits differ from debt, which is the accumulation of yearly budget shortfalls. At 8.5 percent of gross domestic product, the $1.3 trillion budget deficit that the Congressional Budget Office projects for 2011 will be the third-largest shortfall in the past 65 years. This year’s deficit stems in part from the financial crisis and its effect on the economy, according to CBO. Although economic output began to expand again two years ago, the pace of the recovery has been slow and the economy remains in a “severe slump,” the CBO said.

The office of President of the United States  requires the skills of someone who both has experience and knowledge.  The track record behind Cain, including his cutting jobs, his failure to grow the business to the numbers he promised, and his problems with bad choices relating to risk at the energy company Aquila in his corporate background, combined with his disdain for a more expert adviser on economic issues, does not meet those criteria, in my opinion.  He appears to have inflated and hyped his credentials, while showing a uniquely right-wing attitude that one doesn't need an education or expertise in a subject, that dumb is good enough.

It isn't good enough, not nearly good enough, and that was never more true than in our current national and global economic crises.