Obamanomics
GM-USA

We are all familiar with government bailouts since last fall. Along with the stimulus spending, our children, their children and their children’s children will be saddled with debt without benefit except saving a system now owned and controlled by the US government. Now, the US government is going into the car business. That should be a comfort. Last Friday they ousted GM’s CEO because his plan did not go far enough to save GM in the opinion of the Obama Car Czar Committee. Is this not the same government that is running a bankrupt postal department? Interestingly, the same government poured untold billions into the banking system without ousting any executives. Maybe running car companies is easier that running banks for bureaucrats. My only anticdoatoal evidence of government cars is when I was in Germany a couple years ago. I saw the last few of the East German cars, and they were not prized antiques. They were sitting in fields and yards rusting away to nothing.

It would be nice to understand the “plan” the Obama administration has to make all this bailing, spending and now firing work together to right the economic ship that is listing and taking in sea water. I cannot escape the notion that they are making this stuff up as they go while trying to placate the Democrat legislators who what to spend more than Bush to ensure their re-election for years to come.

The nice thing for politicians is that they do not have to meet a payroll and make a profit. All they need to do is get re-elected. And, those things are mutually exclusive. As the government becomes more involved in business and the taxpayers are the shareholders what will happen?. Maybe all our politicians will have to stand for re-election each year as boards of these companies. That way, everyone in the US would be able to vote on everyone. There would be no more save districts. Wouldn’t it be fun to vote on whether Barney and Chris should return to their positions every year instead of leaving that up to citizens in MA and CN?

Obamanomics gets stranger and stranger as the months roll past. They are doing things that will finally put them past the “Bush caused this problem” response. Telling GM to get new management and Chrysler to merge in 30 days is ambitious and novel ways to merge government with business. Lets say this all happens. What modifications in the business plan of US automakers will be satisfactory to the policy folk in DC? How many more billions will be poured into those compliant with Big Brother? What happens if government managed autos does not solve the problem? US automakers are not competitive. Until they are, they are doomed to failure, with or without government dollars. Does anyone seriously think the government can “plan” successful automaking?

The marketplace has spoken but Obamanomics is not about the marketplace. The real question is whether Obamanomics is anything more that ad hoc solutions to keep things going until BO can be re-elected so that his big plans for education, health care and generating power can be put in place. GM-USA may just be a foretaste of what is to come.