There's been some real game-playing going on between the government and the Federal Reserve for roughly the last decade. With the kind of numbers that have been shuffling around, there's been a number of things that should have happened but didn't and didn't happen but should've that nobody's talking about.
A few notable oddities are things like inexpensive money but a lack of availability. What's up with that? Another would be an unimaginable increase in the national debt, but nothing tangible to show for it. Then, there's the massive jump in the monetary supply with no corresponding increase in inflation. How can that happen? Somebody's been cooking the books, big time.
The biggest surprise is nobody's talking about it, although that's probably understandable when people think guys like Paul Krugman know what they're talking about. As a Nobel prize-winning economist and university professor, I'm pretty sure he spends his days in competition with the pigeons and ground squirrels trying to understand how things like supply and demand work, all the while making proclamations and recommendations in the fog of his ignorance. He spends more time saying obviously stupid things right out loud in the NYT than Obama spent golfing, and people who should know better just lap it up like cream. It's mind boggling. I suspect the only reason he's not a politician is there are far too many skeletons in his closet for him to get elected. It certainly can't be because he's not stupid enough.
But, I digress.
In the meantime, cheap money lets guys like Mr. Juszkiewicz (who probably isn't as dumb as he looks, more likely he's just too egotistical and narcissistic of a sociopath to know when he's out of his depth) to make moves that otherwise wouldn't be available to him. All businesses follow certain general rules, but each has subspecialties that make or break them. He's been cranking the portfolio using OPM and waiting on the percentages, which usually works. But, he's applying general rules in a specialty field, so in the case of Gibson he's failing. Put him in charge of a retail commodities company like Proctor & Gamble, Agra or International Paper, and he'd probably kick ass. But a musical instruments company? No. Not gonna work. You see the same thing happening on the distribution end with Bain Capital and Guitar Center. BC made all the standard moves they learned at Harvard, the company bloomed like a rose planted in pure radioactive fertilizer, and now what? GC's the biggest musical instrument distributor on the planet and they're going bankrupt. WTF?
Gibson might bounce back if they're cut loose, but I'm not gonna hold my breath. Times have changed and a lotta irreversible damage has been done, not just to their brand but to their market.
