I was just reading an article on the Partnership for New York, a ruling class group made of people like Rupert Murdoch, Henry Kravis, Stephen Schwartzman and Chuck Prince (head of Citigroup). The goal of the group is to make New York more business friendly. And in passing they mentioned that this group was the leading force lobbying for the recent congestion pricing that Bloomberg proposed. And I was wondering if anyone could explain why these guys would think it was such a great thing. Is there an immediate business benefit I'm missing? This group is mainly devoted to getting making regulation lighter. They model themselves in part on the Think London group, and their raison d'etre in part is trying to wrest back IPO market share from London. So since London has a congestion plan, I can see how it might have crossed their minds as a difference between the cities. But I still don't see what they would see in it -- why they would think it would be a competitive advantage. Does the limousine set in London rave about how great it is?
Michael