Love thy Lobbyists and Business Analysts

The DIFFERENCE between LOBBYISTS, Business ANALYSTS and real CONSULTANTS

1. When our Government needs some information an army of lobbyists is called in. These lobbyists are happy to come in town and give their input to any issue at hand and then leave the town. However, they have a strange business practice as they do not bill for their service. However tiny miracles happen elsewhere as cash appears in the coffers of major political parties and often also on the election accounts of the most receptive and influential politicians in the town.
2. The Businesses have used the same process with the Wall Street Business Analysts almosts forever (see Finacial Times article on front page on July 27, 2007). Only this time the "rewards" go the other direction to the Analysts. Real money never changes hands but almost miraculously those who understand - that negative news from a Company does not need to be that negative, nor does it need to surface immediately - will advance over their peers and will become highly "respected" and sought after by the businesses.
3. However, the same Businesses act differently when they need to know something for real. This time they study hard, and additionally most of them hire highly skilled experts on specific fields to give their opinions of issues at hand. These experts are rewarded well but the businesses are happy to pay as almost every time the value of their opinions exceed multiple times the expense.
4. The large Banks do the same whenever they consider a large loan to any business. They know lareday the story from the Wall Street Business Analysts and they wonder if that is the real story. They solve this a simple weay and hire a group of highly skilled and seasoned engineering professionals to analyze in all, in and out, at the facilities of this "borrower". This is a real analysis covering in addition to money flows everything physical that the facilities: their efficiency, expected life span, maintenance, raw materials, markets, competitors and their cost structure, etc... The added questions sometimes include even personal opinions of the management, etc...

So, if the Businesses and Banks do this when they are serious, why can we, the voters, not get our Government real and frugal on spending our tax dollars? Are we doped so deeply by the system that we are incompetent to steer our ship any more?