MacFadyen: InterGrowth Update
May 12, 2009
I had the chance to shoot a couple questions off to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich as he exited InterGrowth. He was concise, but he was able to offer a few thoughts on issues impacting deal pros.
On antitrust regulation and the prospect for tighter oversight...
In this environment, in the world economy I don't see monopolies as being a major threat in the United States. I may be missing it, but i don't see why it's a major threat.
On capital gains and the proposed tax hikes...
They are going to be very, very destructive and the fact is, in this economy, to raise taxes is to kill jobs and to slow down or weaken dramatically the recovery.
The problem with the way the Bush [administration] wrote the tax cuts is that they expire, so something has to go through next year. If they don' t go through, you'll have a catastrophic falling off of a cliff. I think that the instincts of the left are so anti-jobs, so anti-capital and so anti-investment that there is a grave danger they'll cut off the recovery just as it begins.
On the possible "card check" legislation currently being debated in Congress...
The union legislation is a huge threat for two different reasons. The first is if you eliminate the secret ballot and get down to just signing cards, you enable unions to pressure people socially so they sign a card even if they don't want to... The second is that the other half of the bill is that the government replaces free negotiating over a contract with a binding arbitration by the government and most people who I know think that is actually as dangerous as the loss of the secret ballot.
On inflation...
I think the danger you've got now is when you have a projected $9 trillion increase in the Federal debt during the Obama years -- coming on top of the Bush spending of last year -- you really face a profound challenge of how much inflation could suddenly explode. I think that's a very big question.
On how the Republican Party remakes its image...
The Republican Party has to do three things: focus on the country, not on the party; focus on solutions, not on opposition; and focus on including people when designing policies, not on having outreach once they've designed the policies. If they will do that... I think there is going to be a very big desire among many many people to have an opportunity to participate in repudiating socialism and repudiating the massive increase in government that you're seeing.
On the Obama Administration...
They have been very, very effective at doing the wrong things, but they've been very effective. Nobody is underestimating how effective they are. I happen to think that what they are doing is wrong and will be very painful, but they've been successful.
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