What Did the Car Czar Know and When?

Amid all the extensive press coverage of GM's decision to recall vehicles because of an ignition problem and take a $300 million charge, there's been little attention paid to the question of what, if anything, the federal officials who were overseeing GM through its taxpayer-funded rescue knew about it. I emailed Steven Rattner to ask what, if anything, he knew and he didn't email back, even just to say no comment. The whole story — company covers up known flaw that causes cars to stall mid-trip, causing fatal crashes — doesn't really match the "Detroit is back" narrative that was a feature of President Obama's re-election campaign.