BREAKING NEWS - NPR Praises Wal-Mart

1. Things in Katrina-land are really bleak.
2. The government must have really done a bad job.
3. The current administration must be Republican.

I'm confident each of those three statements is true because last night I heard, on NPR's All Things Considered, positive remarks being made about Wal-Mart. You can hear it for yourself by clicking here. When you hear what they have to say in that story, consider this is the same bunch (or was it the Corporation for Public Broadcasting folks?) that a few months ago was basically nominating Wal-Mart executives for the hangman's noose. But that was at a time when it was popular to complain about "outsourcing" and companies having their goods manufacturered in China. Now that Wal-Mart's incredibly low cost structure and elegantly organized distribution chain made the Bush administration look bad, Wal-Mart is a hero.

I was going to write a bunch of other stuff and say a few other things about it, but luckily for me, Gary North has done it for me (and better than I would have). Read his comments here. He is smarter than I am and better read, so his column ties a few more topics together; the stuff on Wal-Mart is towards the bottom of the column linked above.

• Wal-Mart could respond rapidly because (1) it runs a profit and can pay for a small loss (a truck load of water); (2) Wal-Mart is flexible because it is so profitable; (3) someone in charge at Wal-Mart can say "do this," and the chain of command responds. None of this is true at FEMA.

One last comment. And I may be wrong about this. But I can't find any reports that Wal-Mart held any press conferences or went out of its way to make sure to publicize its generosity and efforts. Contrast that with the basically 24/7 press conferences and bulletins emanating from the government actors.

Here's links to some other articles I found about Wal-Mart and Katrina (you might have to log in to read some of these; on-line newspapes should quit requiring log-ins, but that's obviously a different topic):

• Salt Lake City Tribune
• Houston Chronicle
• Philadelphia Inquirer