Barney Frank: “There are, in our midst, people who believe in the free market so firmly that they believe in it the way other people…”

“There are, in our midst, people who believe in the free market so firmly that they believe in it the way other people believe in unicorns. They believe in it even when it does not exist. There are people who oppose terrorism risk insurance from the outset and continue to because they say it should be up to the market. No one involved in the market thinks that makes sense. Indeed, we received a letter from the head of Goldman Sachs in 2005 saying there is no evidence that this can become a market item. His name was Henry Paulson, and he quite clearly said at the time the market wouldn't do it. We then proceeded with a bill that took that into account. By the way, if the market could do it, it shouldn't because here is what the market would do, and we are talking about the insurance market: If you left this to the market or if you try to phase this out so the market would take it over, the principle of insurance says it should be more expensive to do business in those parts of the country which are likeliest to be hit by terrorists than not because that's the insurance principle. If there is a higher risk, you charge people more. We should not allow murderous fanatics who seek to damage this country to dictate what the cost of doing business is in different regions. That's not a market decision; that's a national security decision.”