GM’s Bankruptcy, Barney Frank on CNBC and Internet Poker Persecution
The bankruptcy of General Motors is expected to proceed quickly in the wake of Chrysler’s reorganization.
House Finance Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) storms off camera while being interviewed about executive pay and the influence of individual shareholders.
The federal government seizes over $30 million from the bank accounts of online poker players.
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1. BUSINESS
The bankruptcy of General Motors is expected to proceed quickly in the wake of Chrysler’s reorganization.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Eli Lehrer on the causes of GM’s financial failure:
“General Motors has declared bankruptcy as a result of a number of things – bad management, poor products and screwy labor relations. But in the end, the biggest problem that GM couldn’t solve concerned the company’s retirees. GM had about 240,000 workers the day it filed for bankruptcy but had responsibility for the health care of more than 1 million people and owed pensions to more than 650,000. Even with GM’s very real product and work-rule strides of recent years, these obligations made bankruptcy inevitable.”
2. LABOR
House Finance Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) storms off camera while being interviewed about executive pay and the influence of individual shareholders.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Editorial Director Ivan Osorio on the influence of unions in investment decisions:
“This begs the question: What role does Barney Frank envision for institutional investors in corporate decision making? One large category of institutional investor comprises union pension funds, which, as Diana Furchtgott-Roth of the Hudson Institute notes, are seriously underfunded, in part due to union bosses using those funds to advance political causes that do nothing to increase shareholder value. The fact that the unions that control these funds are major donors to Democratic politicians make that question awkward, but especially worth asking.”
3. TECHNOLOGY
The federal government seizes over $30 million from the bank accounts of online poker players.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Policy Analyst Michelle Minton reacts to the seizures:
“The seizure is outrageous and potentially unlawful itself. The actions of those involved should be condemned, and the law enforcement officials themselves punished if probable cause was not definitively established. The Department of Justice should be defending Americans from real crimes, not committing injustices against them.”
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