Thinking about the Boeing assistance situation today? If they need $60b & are valued at $71b, then people should own it outright. This happened in transportation before with Conrail. The government formed it for $7m in ‘76, sold for $1.65b in ‘87. Return profits to taxpayers.
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A very brief Conrail background: Congress passes & Nixon signs Regional Rail Reorganization Act in '73, after Hurricane Agnes brought the already-reeling northeastern private railroads to their knees. Conrail combined the freight legacies of the following railroads into one:
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NY Central (and its derivatives), Pennsylvania & New Haven (which had previously merged into Penn Central); Erie-Lackawanna (previously separate companies), Lehigh Valley, Reading, Central of NJ, Lehigh & Hudson River and the Ann Arbor RR. Passenger service all went to Amtrak.
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ok, but why sell it? just run it in the public interest. federal contracts are already one of the major profit centers, and airlines (the other big customers) seem to come asking for federal bailouts ever 15-20 years.
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We knew airline bailout was fishy.
Now you've given the American public the "receipts". Who are the Hill targets?
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Everything's moving so fast up there now, it's hard to tell. But we know will do whatever she can to get the best outcome for the people on this matter:
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Airline executives spent billions on stock buybacks and are now asking taxpayers for billions. We need to help airline workers, but that money should come with serious long-term change to the companies—no more buybacks, a $15 minimum wage, and more. cnbc.com/2020/03/17/cor
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At a minimum, we should get stock that will start creating a sovereign wealth fund.
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