I recommend David Brook's November 14 New York Times Op Ed column, Bailout to Nowhere. It is indeed sorely tempting to politicians of both parties to try to save all those Detroit jobs (and votes), but in fact the government should not be in the business of saving inefficient and uncompetitive companies. The Detroit Big Three were in trouble long before the current recession pushed them to the wall, as their declining market share over the past decade proved. Pouring taxpayer money into them isn't going to solve their fundamental problems; it's just going to keep them on life-support longer.
Still, now that Congress has found that it can print money at will (eg: the first $700 billion bailout), I suppose they will be eager to buy votes everywhere they can, and no doubt the line of CEO's applying for Congressional welfare for their uncompetative companies will get quite long.
Thoughts and observations about the world condition.
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