Are Company Offsite Meetings Now Boondoggles?

The discussion of offsite company meetings has been a nice distraction from the fact that Congress is trying to spend close to $1 trillion or 7% of U.S. GDP, on their favorite political causes.

As even the LA Times points out about the cancelled Wells Fargo meeting in Las Vegas, it's not going to be helpful to local economies if companies have to cancel their legitimate business trips. Second, Las Vegas is typically a more cost-effective destination than somewhere like Albany.

This is getting silly. Wells Fargo was supposed to hold a sales conference to help their employees get better and more efficient at underwriting loans and improving credit worthiness. Isn't this something the government should like to see? Second, wouldn't it be a good idea to convince companies to spend productive dollars to help hotels, airlines, restaurants, retailers and the like? Even if the conference were a junket, it would do a heck of a lot more stimulus than Congress' spending plan.

Meanwhile, the Democratic caucus is at a 3-day retreat at the luxurious Kingsmill Resort in Williamsburg, VA.