Why Are So Many Big CEOs Complete Losers?

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- It was refreshing to watch Chevron (CVX) CEO John Watson tell CNBC's Maria Bartiromo that his company will spend $32 billion in 2012 and probably a bit more in 2013.

While Watson acknowledges "great anxiety," referring to "concern" over the fiscal cliff as warranted, he's not slowing down. Chevron will spend money and create jobs in the face of not only economic, but regulatory obstacles.

Watson tells Bartiromo that his company's biggest problem is access to markets. But, again, that's all part of doing business. It's never been easy to be great.

As a really important aside, if you're ever going to invest on the basis of a price-to-earnings ratio, you might as well do it with Chevron. Things might seem stagnant over there now, but, if you're a long-term investor, there might not be a better stock to invest a few bucks in on a periodic basis.

Chevron models great behavior for long-term investors. Sometimes you have to save for a rainy day; at other times, you need to spend when it's raining.

Fiscal cliff freaks, geeks and worriers will call Chevron an exception. It's a cash cow oil company. It's easy for it to spend through gloom, doom and pending catastrophe.

That's a loser attitude.

You cannot talk about this issue without bringing up Jeff Bezos at Amazon.com (AMZN) and Howard Schultz at Starbucks (SBUX).

Both businesses depend on the allegedly fragile consumer, yet both CEOs lead spending charges of relatively epic proportion. Shoot, at Amazon, you can't call it relative. Outside of resource conglomerates such as Chevron there's really no comparison case for the level of investing (don't call it spending!) the company does.

But, it doesn't stop there. You can't forget about fantastic CEOs such as Patrick Doyle at Domino's Pizza (DPZ). Here's a guy who not only took the chance of a lifetime when he beat his own company down publicly as part of its now-famed turnaround, but he turned a pizza business into a tech business.

Order some 'za from Domino's online. Play with its iPad app. You'll see what I mean. Digital sales at Domino's have been huge. We're talking a billion dollar revenue stream here.

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