Congratulations Buckeyes

You all have just voted resoundingly to bankrupt your state, while you kicked a really good governor in the face. You have allowed the public sector unions to run roughshod over you. Who in their right minds would want to start a small business or any other form of business in Ohio? Have you looked into who funded the charge against Senate Bill 5?

I am truly sorry to sound so sour. I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, watching Otto Graham, Lou Groza and Dante Lavelle play football for the Browns on freezing cold Lake Erie Sundays. Today our family investment office in Naples, Florida, is dedicated to Paul Brown and the great Browns teams of the fifties. Since we opened the Naples office nearly a decade ago, the sons of both Lou Groza and Otto Graham have visited. Before he passed away, Dante Lavelle and I had a couple of wonderful phone discussions about the glory days of the Browns. Bet today’s Browns wish they had the old Jimmy Brown back. I was in attendance at the old Cleveland Stadium to watch Brown set records. So, yes indeed, there is no one alive with a more hopeful wish for the future of Ohio than Dick Young.

For nearly five decades, my business has been advising conservative small business owners and retired and soon-to-be-retired investors planning for a comfortable and secure retirement. I know what I am talking about when it comes to fiscal responsibility and investing for the future. I am certainly not a politician and, in fact, neither a Republican nor a Democrat. My sole interest in politics is how our government governs in the interest of my family and my clients. You then can only imagine the sickness I feel as I read with despair the defeat of Ohio’s public employee labor rules bill.

When it comes to fiscal irresponsibility, no group does it worse then the public sector employee union crowd. Do you know that 90% of Long Island Rail Road workers retire with a disability? Wow, it must be a dangerous job working for the LIRR. The scam is, retire with a disability and add $36,000 to your annual retirement pension. Come on, you’re thinking, this a joke, right? No joke. Here is The Wall Street Journal link laying out the whole ghastly mess.

You read all about the neat job California state troopers have for themselves. Unlike the LIRR crowd, the troopers indeed have a dangerous job. But not so as to allow a stunning 82% to be conveniently on disability just pre retirement. Under the Obama watch, America’s credit rating has been downgraded for the first time in our country’s history. The federal government can cover its deficits by simply cranking up the printing presses, not withstanding Mr. Bernanke’s jive to the contrary. But you Buckeyes and your fellow profligates in California have no printing presses. And when the rating agencies wake up and downgrade your credit rating to junk, poof will go any future muni sales. All of which leaves the cupboard bare and default and bankruptcy at hand. All those pensions your unions promised workers will be reneged on because there simply will be no cash. The jig, as they say, will be up. It is written in stone. And you folk vote to slit your and your pension receiving neighbors’ throats? You may as well be planting mines in the backyard where your kids play.

Am I overstating the problem here? Check with the Greeks and the Italians for the first two acts of a long running financial horror play. You Buckeyes are lockstep in line for catastrophe, and you have let the hobnobbing Barack Obama and the public sector union leaders light the fuse to the time bomb. Honestly, I do not know why a good guy like John Kasich would want to stick around any longer. He was willing to risk his own career to straighten out Ohio’s fiscal mess, and you all have given John a resounding thumbs down. America must pass a National Right To Work law. Buckeyes can gain some redemption by leading the way for such a law. Check out what Rand Paul, the flag bearer in the Senate, is up to, and seek redemption by helping to avoid bankruptcy and default for Ohio. It is darn late in the game, and I, for one, am terrified for you all.

Warm regards,

Richard C. Young,

Chairman, Richard C. Young & Co. Ltd.