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At The Deal's M&A Outlook 2009 conference, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP partner Jamie Gorelick said President-elect Barack Obama would like his administration to be diverse and offer competitive ideas. He won the presidency because the economy is the No. 1 issue on Americans' minds.
Gorelick, a former deputy U.S. attorney general, said three points are pertinent to buttress the economy:
"Healthcare, I believe, is the No. 2 issue to the economy," she said, noting Obama likes the Massachusetts plan where employers provides coverage. As far as M&A goes, she said, there are regulatory issues -- like antitrust -- that could make or break deals. "If you have lots of startups in technology and pharma who don't have access to the next round of funding and you have cash-rich larger companies, you could imagine that in a really rapid time frame there could be new business models within industry consolidation. Regulators need to look at things -- like if Microsoft buys 10 small companies or if Pfizer acquires 10 -- what does it mean for the respective industries? Those regulators also have to look at how the deals affect jobs." Then there's the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, she pointed out. Inbound investment went through regulatory change last year that is not set up well for M&A. Yet we have money coming in from abroad, and dealmakers must understand sensitive issues and how to handle them politically. Gorelick is co-chair of defense and national security and chair of public policy and strategy at WilmerHale. - Baz Hiralal See related post: Gorelick sees major challenges for Obama administration See all M&A Outlook 2009 posts CategoriesComments Deal Video
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A different type of stimulus programs that President Obama should consider is the Trans-Global Highway, proposed by Frank X. Didik a number of years ago. Didik, if you recall, was the founder of the Electric Car Society, in the early 1980's and has been a strong advocate of electric cars for years. According to Didik, the proposed "highway", which would contain roads, rail roads, water, oil and gas pipes as well electric and communication cables. The highway would use and standardize the existing road networks and build new roads as well as a number of key tunnels. Interestingly, the longest Tunnel in the proposal, would still be shorter than the longest existing tunnel today. It would seem that there are many advantages to the construction of the Trans Global Highway including vastly lower cost and faster shipping, better allocation of resources, the ability of utilizing raw materials and much lower carbon emissions, than the existing transportation system. The highway would open up a new era of international cooperation. The Trans-Global Highway site is located at www.TransGlobalHighway.com