The NY Times reports:
President Obama has dropped the idea of appointing a single, powerful “car czar” to oversee the revamping of General Motors and Chrysler and will instead keep the politically delicate task in the hands of his most senior economic advisers, a top administration official said Sunday night. . .
The automakers had been expecting the appointment of a car czar to break the logjam of negotiations with the United Auto Workers over the finances of a retiree health care trust, and with bondholders about reducing the companies’ debt. . .
Another senior administration official said that Mr. Obama had considered appointing a car czar, and among those considered for the job was the private equity executive Steven Rattner. It was not clear why the administration changed course or whether Mr. Rattner would have a role on the task force.
I’m not sure what to make of this. Not long ago, having a car czar was supposedly central to the whole plan. Now it’s dropped. Why? Here’s my guess (and it’s only a guess):
The car czar idea was asinine in the first place, but a panel doesn’t seem much better, and might be even worse in one regard. As the NY Times article points out, a car czar might have had some ability to “break the logjam” in negotiations for UAW concessions. (Those negotiations are troubled, to say the least.) Perhaps that’s the entire point. This might be simply a payoff to the unions, giving them more strength in the negotiations.
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