A Day That Will Live In Infamy!
For Whom The Bell Tolls!
The Day The Earth Stood Still!
The Thing That Ate Detroit!
Where Have All The Car Guys Gone? Long Time Passin’!
I know, I know, that’s just a bit melodramatic. You already knew that Government Motors (formerly General Motors) had formally declared bankruptcy. But, it’s still a spectacular event any way you look at it.
Growing up in the shadow of the Big Three, I believed the auto business to be the most dynamic, stable, and exciting industry in the world. In the 60’s and 70’s GM produced 1 out of every 2 automobiles on the road in the U.S. Since then their market share had slipped to 19% and their debt to equity ratio had climbed to more than 2 to 1.
That reminds me of the old cowboy movie where the guy gets shot again and again. But, he just keeps staggering on and on until he finally collapses in a heap. GM had become a walking corpse, but no one at the top of the Ren Cen seemed to know it. The world changed, but GM didn’t. The old culture within just wasn't flexible enough in this fast changing world.
GM will probably stagger out of bankruptcy a pathetic shadow of its former self. Despite CEO Fritz Henderson’s scripted optimism, GM will have a huge stigma to overcome in the eye of the public for quite some time. Full recovery, if ever, won’t be quick.
With the government running GM it’s unlikely that future profits will ever provide an ROI on those billions of (our) tax dollars being poured down its gullet. It certainly isn’t Washington’s job to run companies and as we all know, the government shouldn’t be running anything.
In the current administration’s rush to Eurofy us and with encouragement from the militant environmentalistas, GM will be pumping out tiny little gas-sipping vehicles before you can say, “No thanks, I don’t want one”. But alas, that will not discourage them. Your government will just slap a $5.00 per gallon additional tax on gasoline and you will have no choice except to buy one. "You will be assimilated"!
Oh, I’m sorry, what’s that you say? You thought Washington was working for you? Yeah, that’s right. Silly me, I must have forgotten.
