Re: Big three bailout

Posted by Owen_Dyneto On 2008/12/16 11:14:58

Some insight can be obtained by going back and reviewing what happened in Britian when their government tried to bail out their several automakers. After perhaps a 100 billion or so, they still all went belly-up or were sold to foreign owners, even finally Rolls-Royce/Bentley though some years later.

Certainly the repercussions of Ford and GM failing would be huge though softened perhaps if the failure could be spread out over a decade or so. But I don't think GM can survive (I've already written of Chrysler except for Jeep) unless two problems can be addressed, (1) the labor and legacy costs, and (2) American's desire, growing and continuing to grow, to buy foreign cars; it's damn near a genetically inbreed trait it seems, even in the (not enough) cases where US and foreign cars and comparable in cost and quality.