Okay. There’s no other way to say it …
A Car Czar is a stupid idea.
Every time we are faced with a major problem, some bonehead gets the idea that we need a czar.
Who do they think they are – the Romanoffs?
[img]239|left|||no_popup[/img] Czars don’t work.
Take the example of the American Drug Czar.”
We’ve had one since Nixon was President. They’ve headed up various ad hoc agencies from the Special Drug Action Prevention Office to the current Office of Drug Control Policy.
Dragged or Drug Through the Years
Despite their best efforts, the drug problem in America today is no better, and probably statistically worse, than it was 30-years ago.
In feudal Russia, Czars had sweeping powers. With a simple gesture, armies of Cossacks could be dispatched to wipe out an enemy.
But modern czars are nothing more than figureheads that provide the illusion of stern action.
Former Fed Chair Paul Volcker is on everyone’s short-list to get the post of Car Czar. At 6-foot-8, the cigar chomping Volcker may be a hulking giant of a man, and have a reputation for being a no-nonsense disciplinarian. But even Paul Volcker is not suited to this herculean task.
While Volcker may have guided the economy through one of its darkest post-war periods,from the late 1970s through the mid-‘80s, he has no direct experience in the manufacturing industry. As Car Czar, Volcker may have the power of the purse strings, but he will lack the real authority and know-how to preside over a true reorganization of the American auto industry.
How About a Stronger Force?
What Detroit really needs is someone with the power of god.
Forgive the allusion; but the closest thing we Americans have to a god on earth is a federal bankruptcy judge.
A judge in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court is imbued with broad and nearly unlimited powers.
With the sweep of a robed arm, he can modify or even wipe out contractual obligations to suppliers or unions. A bankruptcy judge can dictate limits on salary and compensation packages, or hack away at the “dead wood” in management.
The American auto industry does not need a czar encumbered by politics.
It needs the wrath of god!
John Cohn is a senior partner in the Globe West Financial Group[ based in West Los Angeles. He may be contacted at www.globewestfinancial.com
