Economics

I'm not as upset as some people about Chrysler taking out an ad in the Wall Street Journal to thank us for the money. Sure, they're thanking us by spending $100,000 of our own money, but really, that's a drop in the bucket. Besides, they'll pay it all back, in theory. On the other hand, Mark Cuban has a great idea how to get our money back if they give us trouble: I could … [Read more...] about When It’s Time to Collect…

I've been wanting to write a bunch of posts about the crisis in the auto industry and why I think a bailout is a bad idea, but I haven't had time, so here are a few quick observations. Automakers are not like power companies. One of the arguments for bailing out the financial sector was that banks are like the electric power companies: Everything else depends on them. … [Read more...] about Solving the Auto Industry Crisis

A parable: A few days ago, I was mugged by a white guy who stole about $300 from me. Then just yesterday, a black guy tried to mug me, but I got away. Am I a racist for not letting the black guy mug me? Some people say that since we bailed out the fatcat investment bankers, it's unfair not to bailout the labor-intensive Detroit auto industry. I disagree. It's not about … [Read more...] about Should We Bail Out the Auto Industry?

In response to my brief hand-off to Moby Kip's post about why we shouldn't bailout the big three automakers, somebody calling himself an Authentic Connecticut Republican (I'm assuming they're rare there) posted a long pre-written screed, complete with bold text. I was about to delete it when I realized...it wasn't all as crazy as it looked. Here we go: While the sanity of … [Read more...] about If We’re Going to Bail Out the Detroit Automakers…

I was planning to write a post on the foolishness of bailing out the big domestic auto makers, but Kip Esquire has already written it for me. This is an important point to remember: "Bankruptcy" is not the same as "liquidation." No one is seriously suggesting that General Motors be liquidated, all its plants shuttered, all its equipment left to rust and all its employees let … [Read more...] about On the Calls for an Auto Industry Bailout