This is the hard reality facing automakers: their failure would be devastating to their executives, workers and suppliers - but probably not to the broader U.S. economy.Automakers and the couple million or so jobs they represent are apparently expendable compared to the entire financial system collapsing. Nice of Bush to leave that problem to Obama. Amputation vs. fatal infection is always a fun choice to make.
Obama is convinced that if AIG or some of the big banks collapsed, the economy could go down with them. That’s not the case with Chrysler, for sure, and probably GM, too.
The president’s budget plan is focused on building a new transportation system, one dominated by a new brand of vehicles running on new kinds of fuels. The U.S. auto industry has gotten its clock cleaned when it comes to producing hybrid cars Americans are willing to buy. The Obama plan forces both companies to move faster to catch up.
“While the impact of the auto industry is huge, it doesn’t touch everyone who needs to get credit or hire someone, like the banks do,” said the Democrat close to the White House. “The optics aren’t good, but the autos are a more discrete problem that can be dealt with on a targeted basis.”
Banks on the other hand? Too Big To Fail. One would imagine that it would be time to break the banks up if they are that large.
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