BALTIMORE, MD – Robert Ehrlich, Jr., a Republican who served as governor of Maryland from 2003 to 2007, says President Obama’s stimulus bill “is clearly not a stimulus package.
“There is some stimulus in it, some pork, and safety net programs that will help states meet their budget shortfalls.
“But it’s not a stimulus package. says Ehrlich, one of more than 50 speakers and panelists at the Southeast Venture Conference March 11-12 at the Intercontinental Buckhead in Atlanta (see: seventure.org).
Ehrlich says the banking/AIG bailouts have been “partly successful.”
They prevented large bank failures such as those of the Great Depression. “It has steadied some fear and clearly saved some banks, at least in the short term,” he says.
“But, they failed to unfreeze the credit markets,” he says, a problem central to many of our current economic difficulties.
On top of that, he adds, “The new administration is coming in with a really bad tax plan, where small business people are hit with a double whammy: they can’t get credit but they’re hit with tax increases.”
Prior to serving as Governor, Ehrlich represented Maryland’s 2nd Congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives for eight years, where he served on Budget, Energy and Commerce, Government Reform and Oversight, and Banking and Financial Services Committees along with subcommittees on telecommunications and the internet, among others.
Ehrlich, a long time proponent of the high tech industry, also served as co-chairman of the Congressional Biotechnology Caucus. In February 2007, Governor Ehrlich joined Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, as a founder of the firm’s Baltimore office.
While Ehrlich admits that regulators did not stay on top of financial system abuses, he says, “There were a number of fault centers.”
Not the least was the idea supported by politicians on both sides that “Everyone should own a home. In fact, everyone cannot afford to own a home.”
Also, he says, regulators allowed such things as insurance products with “nothing backing them up.”
On Wall Street, he says, “There was a lot of greed. People saying ‘I want my bonus now,’ creating markets out of nothing. Markets work when there’s value.”
The point is, he emphasizes, “There is a lot of blame to go around.”
The result, he says, is that we’ll see a much higher level of requlation and “The federal government tends to be heavy-handed,” he says.
Politicians who want the government to be larger and more powerful are in the majority on Capital Hill now, he points out. “Elections have consequences,” he says.
Ehrlich remains bullish on Maryland, however, noting that its proximity to the federal government, its military bases, top universities and skilled workforce mean it traditionally does not suffer as much from a recession and frequently “leads the way out.”
Southeast Venture Conference, February 29 – March 1, 2012 at the Ritz Carlton in Tysons Corner, VA – Where Smart Money Meets Smart People.
www.seventure.org
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