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2 Responses to “Obama on Big Three “Strategic Mistakes””

1. adamwhite Says:
   December 8th, 2008 at 1:38 pm

   So Obama’s calling for two things:

   1. Any bailout must be conditioned on the Big Three re-formulating business plans to ensure that another bailout isn’t needed in 6 or 10 years;

   and

   2. The Big Three must “get their heads out of the sand” and move toward more environmentally-friendly vehicles.

   Of course, President-Elect and Automotive-Industry-Analyst Obama doesn’t get around to explaining what will happen if those two goals work at cross-purposes.

   Here’s my guess: Rather than admit their own mistakes, Obama and his supporters in Congress will simply “level the playing field” by increasing the regulatory burdens on imported cars, making *all* new cars (and not just the government-directed American cars) too expensive.

   And if that fails, they’ll just move on to Plan B: blame CEOs and Republicans.

2. JustOne Says:
   December 10th, 2008 at 7:30 am

   It is of course the auto maker’s fault for not planning for a financial system collapse after credit default swaps became a huge unregulated “insurance” business without the usual rules and regulations of insurance. It is of course the auto maker’s fault for not planning for the collapse of the financial system after the SEC allowed excessive leverage for a few investment banks. It is the auto maker’s fault for not planning for the market response to the price of oil to spiking to $140 per barrel (more than 3 times what they are at this time). It is the auto maker’s fault for not planning for a collapse of trust in the financial system when mortgage backed security markets panicked after congress insisted on loans being made that were not viable to borrowers in markets that were overheated and after rating agencies “fibbed” about the related risks.

   Fire the management. They are ignorant, over-paid buffoons that operated with a “Goldilocks” view of the world and let the unions hood wink them into unsustainable contracts and ignored the horrible impacts of carbon dioxide on the environment. Skewer the stock holders that aided and abetted auto company management.

   Never mind if another million or so people loose their homes after loosing their jobs. Don’t worry about the domino effect in the continued downward spiral as more become greeters at big-box discounters, stockers at grocery stores and burger flippers (those jobs are expanding and will continue to do so ad infinitum even in a receding economy).