Jeez Andrew, I thought you were pretty well dialed in.

The problem with "protecting" the unions is that it creates a catch-22. The big-3 cannot compete even with the southern non-union plants as things now stand, let alone imported cars.

Are you really calling for a permanent subsidy?

(I suspect that what we really need from the UAW is unfettered use of robots and automation, rather than further wage reduction - but one thing is certain, prolonging the catch-22 is not a solution)

What I saw GM do was pre-sell a bunch of business with 6 year, no interest, loans. What that gave them was a bubble, a slump on the downside, and an ongoing interest cost.

How many low down, zero interest, loans do you suppose are defaulting right now?

Management and the unions built themselves into a catch-22. If that wasn't true, they would have had (a) genuine profits, (b) a sustainable model, and (c) growing market share, before the credit crisis.

I bought a Prius because at $22k it was cheaper than most new cars. It has had no repairs and given me 48-50 mpg ever since.

Are you saying that if I don't support a Washington bailout of Detroit I am in it for the UAW busting?

Is everyone who bought a foreign car, or a southern non-union car, out to get unions as their primary motivation?

Should I (as was suggested in another thread) happily pay my tax dollars to Detroit because "ask workers where they'd rather work?"

I have sympathy for anyone in the path of history, I really do ... but it just doesn't work to bail everybody out. We aren't that rich. We have a $10T+ national debt. We really should be looking for the fewest things we can do with the maximum leverage to reinvent our economy. We should not put everybody and his uncle on life-support.

You don't want Wall Street to get a better deal? Start calling on Obama to nationalize some of them (for the short term). That might be a path to reinvention too.

Basically I was talking about the Scandinavian solution much-discussed a few months ago. Seize failing banks which are too big to fail, give their shareholders their haircuts, fire management, unwind their obligations, and spin them off again.