To prove it, I’m linking to one of the noirest, if not bêtest, of my bête noirs, the Weekly Standard, to bring you Irwin Stelzer’s words of wisdom re the economics and the politics of the auto industry. Bottom line: Let GM go Chapter 11, and provide government backing for GM warranties. “Throw in government guarantees of pension obligations, some retraining and other protection for older workers who might be adversely affected by rulings of the bankruptcy courts, and you have a compassionately conservative solution to the auto industry’s problems.”
Of course, there’s a publication that I like even less than the Weekly Standard, and that’s the Wall Street Journal. Michael Levine also explains why Chapter 11 is the only way for GM to go.
One can only hope that eventually this is what will happen. It’s all too easy to believe that we’re more likely to get a Pelosi-Frank—massive subsidies to cover benefit costs to UAW retirees while the Big Three slowly go bankrupt building expensive, impractical, environmentally sound cars that no one wants to buy.
