Barney Frank: “I am disappointed in the gentleman's naive economics. No, you cannot by statute affect this economic question. My point…”

“I am disappointed in the gentleman's naive economics. No, you cannot by statute affect this economic question. My point is that is a measure of where the pricing power is, and it is impossible to sort out where it comes from when you are talking about profits. A corporation will maximize profit. One of the restraints on that will be competition. My belief is that there is sufficient competition in this field so their ability to put all the costs on the customers and not have much on the company shareholders is far less than the gentleman from New Jersey thinks. That is not something you do by statute, as in every other context he would recognize.”