I continue to try to highlight smart takes on Solyndra, and was pleased to see one in The Boston Globe today by Joshua Green. Please take the time to read the whole thing. Here’s a taste:
In the business world…It’s assumed some companies will fail, but that enough will prosper to merit the broader portfolio of investments. But in politics, it’s a very big deal — no one considers the broader context and failure is automatically assumed to be the result of incompetence or malfeasance. That’s especially true, and especially damaging, when the opposition party can launch hearings and investigations, as House Republicans are doing now.
So far, the investigation has only turned up e-mails showing how eager the White House was to tout the Solyndra deal. Last year, Obama cited the company as an example of “American ingenuity and dynamism.’’ That’s embarrassing now that Solyndra has gone bust. But it’s the only company of the 28 that received loans to have failed. Meanwhile, the program has funded the world’s largest wind farm, its largest solar thermal plant, and its largest photovoltaic solar array. In other words, it has performed very much as intended.
Obama’s problem is that any real advance toward a green economy probably won’t be apparent for years, whereas failures like Solyndra’s register immediately. In this way, the loan program has the same shortcomings as Obama’s health care law and bank reforms. However good they may be as policies, they exact great political costs in the here and now.
