CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo has a must read interview with Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) in Business Week. Bartiromo asks:
Should GM (GM) acquire Chrysler?
I’m not competent to say. I try to resist the temptation that too many of us in politics and the media fall into, which is telling people a good deal more than we know.
But earlier in the interview Frank knew exactly how to run the auto industry:
How do you make sure the government doesn’t meddle too deeply in day-to-day operations and bring politics—like a push for green cars—into the equation?
Oh, well, a push for green cars is very much a part of what we’re involved in. We don’t think that’s politics.
Why you try to wrap your head around the concept that forcing auto companies to build specific types of cares is not meddling in day-to-day operations, enjoy this Frank promise to:
Is Obama going to raise taxes on the highest earners?
Not in the first year, I believe, because the economic situation is what it is. I do think it is appropriate: Bill Clinton raised taxes on higher-income people, and we went on to have a very prosperous economy.
Congress running car companies today, and higher taxes tomorrow! No wonder economists are predicting a long recession.
