WashingtonExaminer.com
In this opinion article by Don Watkins and Yaron Brook, the authors reveal some behind-the-scenes players that may be fueling the fire of the Toyota recalls.
Quotes from the story:
In February, Toyota executives were hauled in front of Congress, purportedly so that renowned auto experts like House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman of California could determine the cause of reported cases of unintended acceleration and evaluate Toyotas alleged failure to respond. The hearings had the fingerprints of politics all over them.
The Detroit lobby is hard to distinguish from the government itself now that the government holds a 60 percent stake in General Motors. Even if concerns about an electronic problem in Toyotas vehicles turn out to be baseless, domestic manufacturers stand to benefit by prolonging the parade of bad publicity.
Anyone who thinks Toyotas executives were summoned to Congress to discuss the evidence concerning Toyotas vehicles has missed the point. Regardless of what we ultimately discover about Toyota, this was about a horde of pressure groups seeking to impose their economic agendas via political power.
The cause is the governments power to intervene in the market to pick winners and losers. In the auto industry alone, the government controls everything from whom car companies can hire (unionized employees) to what kind of vehicles they must build (hybrids). The truth is Toyotas troubles should not be a political issue.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/OpEd-Contributor/Don-Watkins-and-Yaron-Brook-Whats-really-driving-the-Toyota-controversy-89271207.html
