BulletProofBlog the blog on crisis communications

Each week, Bulletproof Blog features exclusive interviews with thought leaders on issues of critical importance to companies and countries. In this Bulletproof Interview exclusive, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich shares his thoughts on the most significant issues arising at the crossroads of government and business today. From healthcare reform to the new federal pay czar, Speaker Gingrich has his finger on the pulse of the latest legislative and regulatory developments coming out of Washington, D.C. – and, today, he provides Bulletproof™ readers with a his insights on how what’s happening inside the Beltway is impacting businesses across the country.

What is your assessment of the new role of pay czar and how do you see it impacting the marketplace and the economic recovery as whole in the months to come?

Speaker Gingrich: The pay czar is a terrible idea and should be abolished on three grounds.

First, the concept of a White House czar without Senate confirmation is unconstitutional and the offices should be abolished on constitutional grounds. No one should have this level of power without legislative scrutiny.

Second, the idea of any one man being wise enough to know exactly the right salary and compensation for this many people in this many different companies is absurd. It is the sort of centralized control Hayek wrote about in The Road to Serfdom and that we warned the Soviets about.

Third, the destructive impact of a political appointee controlling compensation will drive away first class people and lead to Shanghai and London replacing New York as the center of finance.

In your estimation, what is going to happen with the public option on healthcare? Do you anticipate a reform package of some form passing this year?

Speaker Gingrich: The left is desperate to get to a bureaucratic government health plan – or the misnamed public option – as an interim step to a government takeover of healthcare. Such a plan is increasingly unpopular with the American people and faces substantial opposition among Democrats in the Senate. Health reform on the left is about bigger government, not about better health. The leadership of the socialist wing of the Democratic Party wants this so badly that its passage has to be considered a 50-50 possibility despite intense public opposition.

As someone with more than 1.1 million followers on Twitter, what advice would you give to those, both in the private sector and in the political public service sector, that might still be reticent to use online social media as a primary messaging platform?

Speaker Gingrich: Imagine a bank without telephones. Imagine a bank without Internet connectivity. Imagine a bank without ATMs. Social media is part of an ongoing evolution and every bank should learn how to use it effectively. You might check out my and Nancy Desmond’s book, The Art of Transformation for how to best plan for and manage this scale of change.

You have just spoken to the American Banking Association. What do you see next for the banking industry? Are there issues emerging on the horizon that all banks or financial industry leaders need to be aware of either from a regulatory or legislative stance?

Speaker Gingrich: There are three profound challenges to banking: How to aggregate modest resources for effective loans at the lowest possible cost to small businesses; how to build an effective, nationwide, multipurpose finance system with reasonable stability; and how to compete in a rapidly growing world market with powerful and growing competitors.