Google CEO: Energy Bailout Is a Must, Too

Google CEO Eric Schmidt thinks the government needs to fund a massive reinvention of America’s energy infrastructure, opening up the grid to startups and funding innovation, Information Week reports. It’s crucial “that small startups with funny names get founded and funded in the new regime,” said the adviser to President-elect Barack Obama. “That’s where the wealth will be created.”

Like the Internet, the energy grid must become an open network where “anyone can play,” Schmidt argues. “The alternative is the case of Ma Bell. You can have any telephone you want as long as it’s big, heavy, and black.” Schmidt thinks the economy needs to be a balance of capitalism and socialism, with the government funding innovation, “because no one else does.” (More Eric Schmidt stories.)