Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | T | The American (Washington, DC)

'If there's nothing to do, do nothing': James Tisch of the Loews Corporation explain his conservative management style, why he doesn't like leverage, and why cutting capital gains taxes will flood the U.S. Treasury with money.

Article Excerpt
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The Loews Corporation is a conglomerate holding company with several lines of business including property and casualty insurance, oil and gas drilling, natural gas pipeline transmission, and hotels and hospitality. Loews CEO James Tisch recently sat for an interview with THE AMERICAN Editor in Chief Nick Schulz at the Loews headquarters in Manhattan.

What do you think of the prospects for using natural gas as a transportation fuel for passenger cars?

It sounds good when you say it fast. But there's a big capital investment that has to take place, in terms of getting the gas into the car either at home or at a filling station, and also a big capital investment for the car itself because Detroit still isn't producing cars with natural gas tanks. So I don't know if it's going to happen or not. I'm not relying on it.

You believe the electric car is coming to market soon. Some skeptics might say, "People have been talking about electric cars coming to market for years and it has never really materialized." What's different now that's going to make electric cars commercially viable?

Number one, the technology has advanced dramatically. Number two, back then, there were only plug-in electrics. Now there are plug-in hybrids where you can go the first 40 miles on the battery and thereafter you can use an engine. So it's just that the technology has evolved and, over the next ten or 20 years, is going to evolve much more.

The batteries are going to get better, not worse. I think battery-operated cars, at some point in time, will be marketed not just because they save the environment but because they're much cheaper to operate. That's the reason that they're going to be so prevalent, over the next one to two decades.

Do you think Washington should regulate greenhouse gas emissions in the form of a tax on carbon emissions or through a cap-and-trade system?

Not yet. I know that the case for global warming being associated...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!