Posted by
Always To The Right on Monday, February 23, 2009 3:18:13 PM
Instead of a car czar, Barack Obama and Tim Geithner have settled on a
committee to manage the domestic auto-industry bailout. But do the
members of the team have an issue with American automobiles? No more than the rest of American drivers
Only two of eighteen own American cars? Include the Treasury Secretary
and Obama economic adviser Larry Summers among import aficionados
The people tasked to rehabilitate the American auto industry and
convince Americans to fund that rehabilitation largely avoid their
products. That certainly sends an interesting message, although one in
consonance with the buying public. It underscores the reason Detroit
is in trouble — people with the funds to choose buy other products. They can’t solve their economic problems without solving that problem first.
But this could be a stroke of genius, rather than a disaster on the
optics. Would we trust people who bought Detroit’s product to tell
both the automakers and labor the truth about their predicament? A
panel of skeptics sounds like a better idea than a panel of true
believers.