The most telling remark from an Obama administration official about the Chrysler bankruptcy came a week before the Chapter 11 filing, when President Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency Administrator, Lisa P. Jackson, told a radio interviewer: “What this country needs is a single national road map that tells automakers who are trying to become solvent again what kind of car it is they need to be designing and building for the American people.”
Of course, foreign car makers operate very successfully in the United States without such a road map from government. But never mind. Jackson doesn’t understand the car business any better than our president does. But she does understand the power of the federal government. So since she and President Obama aim to dramatically increase the miles-per-gallon requirements of American cars, the President and his auto advisors put together a rescue deal for Chrysler that gives Italian-car maker Fiat a big stake in the bankrupt automaker in exchange for Fiat’s technologies for producing fuel-efficient cars.
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