The imminent demise of General Motors (GM) will be a nail in the coffin for the commercial real estate market, which I believe will be the financial crisis of 2009. Some 2,000 dealers are being axed, dumping hundreds of millions of square feet on to a market that least wants it. These were the guys who sponsored the local baseball team and Girl Scout cookie sales, and their absence will rip the hearts out of hundreds of American communities. Much of this is prime space, near dense populations, with great frontage, adjacent retail space, completed site work, mitigated environmental work, and already zoned for commercial use. Some might get turned into mini malls, but I’m afraid more will end up as indoor climbing walls and paintball battlefields. Commercial real estate sales are off 73% this year, while vacancies have catapulted to 16.7%. Banks have seized 464 properties so far in 2009, including $7 billion worth in March alone, and thousands more are on the brink.www.madhedgefundtrader.com

Is there anything to prevent the management of GM to outsource its auto manufacturing to China?

re: A new era of transportation is upon us - one that by necessity needs to be cheaper, more efficient and cleaner.

That's called "mass transit".

Paranoid are ye? Does the USP force you at gunpoint to use only their services, or did UPS, FedEx, and others rise to profit under the oppressive boot of a guv'mint-owned bidness? Some people cling to religion, some cling to guns, and some, dear Rangoon, cling to simplistic paranoid nightmares rife with paltry truisms about Evil Guvmint. Puh-leeeeeez!

Normally, the US owning 70% of anything is a recipe for disaster - just look at Amtrak. But, if we are to succeed as a nation in the future, then the govt. needs to invest in a manufacturing base, and with auto's, the infrastructure is there. We did it with the railroads in the 19th century and that paid huge dividends. Opponents will say "but we did not own the railroad companies", but if we did not fund the construction of the line (the largest single investment in the system), there would have been no rail companies. This is basically the same thing. A new era of transportation is upon us - one that by necessity needs to be cheaper, more efficient and cleaner. Since we already have the factories and the trained workers, if we look at this as creating a new business rather than saving an old one, we could once again lead the way. I know readers of this magazine think of big business as evil, but there is very little good done in this world without significant herlp from industry - whether you are liberal, conservative, moderate or progressive, a strong economy makes everything easier, and a healthy working middle class has always served as a breeding ground for entrepeneurs and leaders. At least now we have one of the more competent governments in recent history, so a large ownership stake in GM just might work.

You assume of course, that a 70% government ownership will result in brilliance, profit, full employment, freedom, peace, unicorns, good sex, gay marriage & rainbows. If history is any benchmark that's not necessarily guaranteed. Now ALL of the problems that brought GM down are YOUR problems. Including the MASSIVE debt overhang brought on by lavish and unaffordable UAW pensions and pensioner benefits.

But good luck with all that. I'm sure you'll do fine. And when you invoke a law compelling people to buy GM cars at gunpoint, you may actually show progress.