Corporatist Heebie-Jeebies
I get the heebie-jeebies any time a politician makes a business decision.Andrew Sullivan ought to be afraid of people who claim moral authority on the basis of rigged popularity contests determining how others conduct their economic lives.
What he forgets is that the state and the economy are fatally intermingled today and barring superficial time-waste like resolutions expressing the chamber's sense that cancer's bad, m'kay, every bill brought forth by politicians is an attempt to make business decisions for someone else. Situations like GM and AIG are just the painfully obvious examples of market intervention. Pick a popular cause or political clause: 99% of the time, someone is looking for a price control, a trade constraint, or monopoly power...all of which involve the coerced transfer of business decision-making power away from legitimate actors and towards the system establishment.
[UPDATED 2:17pm]
Barack Obama embraces the bold-faced lie by stating "Let me be clear: the United States government has no interest or intention of running GM" immediately after stating:
...my administration will offer General Motors adequate working capital over the next 60 days. During this time, my team will be working closely with GM to produce a better business plan.They must ask themselves: have they consolidated enough unprofitable brands? Have they cleaned up their balance sheets or are they still saddled with so much debt that they can't make future investments? And above all, have they created a credible model for how to not only survive, but succeed in this competitive global market?
That's running GM, Obama. That's calling the shots, explaining what's acceptable and what isn't. Deciding what financial numbers are preferable to others. Providing not just the money but the final authority on how it's spent.