Detroit Bailout Updates ...

Various links and stories.

Cafe Hayek: Harsanyi on the Czar: "Why can't these companies go bankrupt and
reorganize like everyone else? ... Well, the auto industry spent nearly $50 million lobbying Congress in the first nine months of this year while unions spent hundreds of millions to put Democrats in Washington. Those are two reasons."

Dear Baltimore Sun: Nationalizing Auto Industry Means Sacrificing Others: "It is impossible to know if the future benefits of electric cars are worth what could be lost by subsidizing them."

CrunchGear - Telsa Motors needs a bailout, too: "Telsa Motors is discovering that it cannot build cars on hopes and dreams alone; real capital is required, too. The forward-thinking company is stating that they will not be able to produce their 4-door, Model S electric car without a $350 million dollar US government loan."

The End of the US Piano Industry by Jeffrey A. Tucker: "Today government is even more arrogant and absurd, and it actually believes that by passing legislation it can save the US car industry. It can subsidize and pay for uneconomic activities, and pay ever more every year. The government can also pay millions of people to make mud pies because mud pies are deemed to be an essential industry. You can do this, but at what cost and what could possibly be the point? Eventually, even the government will have to accord itself to the reality that economics reminds us of on a daily basis."

UAW Workers Actually Cost the Big Three Automakers $70 an Hour: "The United Auto Workers (UAW) wants Congress to bail out General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler to prevent their undergoing restructuring in bankruptcy proceedings. In bankruptcy, a judge could order union contracts to be renegotiated to reflect competitive realities"