One of the most fascinating things for me in Steve Feilmeier’s presentation at yesterday’s annual economic outlook conference were a couple slides that showed how carried away America has gotten with financial manipulation.
Last year, roughly 21 percent of our GDP came from the earnings of the financial sector. And another slide showed that the world’s financial assets — stocks, savings, bonds, derivatives, etc. — went from about 120 percent of the world’s actual production in 1990 to 356 percent last year. That tells me there was too much manipulation of the world’s money.
Bill Warren has a message for customers angry that Bill Maher’s anti-religion movie, “Religulous,” isn’t being shown in Wichita.
Take off the tin-foil hats.
Warren, admittedly no fan of the Libertarian comic whose “Real Time With Bill Maher” runs Friday nights on HBO, said the decision to pass on the movie comes down to dollars and cents.
“There are six or seven movies that came out at the same time, and most of them are making money,” he said. “That one isn’t. I don’t have the screens anywhere to be able to afford to do that.”
That hasn’t stopped customers from complaining, a fact of movie theater life, Warren said. He expects more when Josh Brolin as “W” premieres soon in Wichita.
“There will be people upset about that movie, too,” Warren said. “But it’ll make money. People will want to see that.”
I read with great interest Roy Wenzl’s story this morning about Wichita business leaders who have formed a PAC to oppose Karl Peterjohn for Sedgwick County Commission.
Peterjohn, a Republican, said the group’s criticism and endorsement of Democrat Marcey Gregory in the race for the District 3 seat was disappointing.
I found this quote from Harvey Sorensen, the chairman of the chamber board, especially telling:
“That committee is basically a room full of Republicans,” Sorensen said. “And we went in there with the assumption that we’d probably come out of there supporting Karl for election, because he’s well known for supporting low taxes. But we were frankly shocked at what he told us.”
I understand where the business leaders are coming from, that Peterjohn’s anti-tax stance would go beyond fiscal conservatism and harm local businesses and future growth.
However, I wonder if this public stance will do more harm than good. Might Joe Sixpack, as Sarah Palin would say, do the opposite of what business leaders think should be done just out of spite?
I’d be interested in your opinion.