Series of Links relating to "Detroit"

Here are several links from the previous week as now GM heads towards bankruptcy.

Not that I support the management decisions of the "Big Three" but are politicians more competent to decide what we will drive?
I would much prefer changes in taxes (gas tax) and let consumers decide.
Small, "green" cars are fine for urban areas, those that may have insufficient public transit, but up here I see most folks in trucks or SUV's.
In part it's called winter, in part it's distance.

One size does not fit all.
Note that I have also blogged about hybrid trucks and SUV's making more sense than small cars, they just don't have the same image.

Why Government Can't Run a Business - WSJ.com

"Capitalism isn't perfect. Indeed, to paraphrase Winston Churchill's famous description of democracy, it's the worst economic system except for all the others. But the inescapable fact is that only the profit motive and competition keep enterprises lean, efficient, innovative and customer-oriented."

Mr. Gordon is the author of "An Empire of Wealth: The Epic History of American Economic Power" (HarperCollins, 2004).

Car Crazy - WSJ.com:

Bankrupt companies making 39 mpg autos. Are we nuts?

"We wish these folks luck 'working together' with the Obama auto-design team. One thing seems certain by 2016: Taxpayers will be paying Detroit to make the cars Americans don't want, and then they will pay again either through (trust us) a gas tax or with a purchase subsidy. Even the French must think we're nuts."

Obama at the Auto Buffet - WSJ.com:

"With his latest installment of ever-higher fuel mileage requirements for the auto industry, Barack Obama embraces a momentary, crisis-spawned expansion of the art of the possible, unleavened by any art of the rationally desirable."


In U.S., Steps Toward Industrial Policy in Autos - NYTimes.com:

"“By any coherent definition, this is industrial policy,” said Marcus Noland, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Industrial policy refers to government programs tailored for a specific industry instead of actions whose effects are felt across an economy, like monetary policy or tax rates."