Another Failure of the State
By now, all of us know about troubled Toyota Motor Co. and its massive recall issues. But on Tuesday, we found out that way back in late 2007, officials at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) actually knew about this problem.
According to an Associated Press story, State Farm insurance said it noticed an uptick in reports of unwanted acceleration in Toyotas from its large customer database and warned the NHTSA in late 2007. NHTSA officials said the report was reviewed and the agency issued a recall later that month.
But according to the AP report, NHTSA received complaints about acceleration problems in Toyota vehicles as early as 2003, and now congressional investigators are looking into whether the government missed warning signs of the problems.
The news came on the eve of a scheduled congressional hearing into the Toyota recalls planned for today, but that hearing was postponed because of the snowstorm slamming the Washington, D.C., metro area.
What I think we are seeing here is yet another failure of the state to act in defense of its citizens. Certainly, the bulk of the blame for Toyota’s problems should be placed squarely on the shoulders of Toyota. But why do we have an NHTSA if it fails to act on something as serious as stuck accelerator pedals?
Jim Woods is a 30-plus-year veteran of the markets with varied experience as a broker, hedge fund trader, financial writer, author and newsletter editor.
His books include co-authoring, “Billion Dollar Green: Profit from the Eco Revolution,” and “The Wealth Shield: How to Invest and Protect Your Money from Another Stock Market Crash, Financial Crisis or Global Economic Collapse.” He’s also ghostwritten many books and articles, as well as edited content for some of the investment industry’s biggest luminaries. Read more about Jim Woods.
