All Posts Tagged With: "Auto industry"
Political Bankruptcies: How Chrysler and GM Have Changed the Rules of the Game
The topic of corporate bankruptcy law scarcely titillates the imagination of ordinary citizens, even those with a deep interest in constitutional and public affairs. Harried people treat bankruptcy almost dismissively as a useful way of winding up firms that cannot keep their financial heads above water. In practice they sense rightly that the corporate bankruptcy [...]
18Nov2009 | Richard A. Epstein | 12 comments | ContinuedThe “I Hate the Poor” Act of 2009
So I was shaving the other day, and the man on the morning talk radio show was on a roll. Cash for Clunkers was being temporarily shut down, or so declared the PR flack in the Department of Waste that administers the program, and Talk Show Guy thought this taught great lessons. “This was a good program! [...]
23Oct2009 | Christopher Westley | 4 comments | ContinuedEconomics Reporters Ignorant of Economics
I just watched David Mark of Politico say on MSNBC that there is no positive side to the closing of auto dealerships. No positive side? What about the freeing up of labor and resources for projects that will create — rather than destroy — value?It is outrageous — though hardly new — that major news [...]
14Jun2009 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedThe NRA: How Price-Fixing Perpetuated the Great Depression
The National Industrial Recovery Act (NRA) dramatically altered America’s traditional free-market system. Under the NRA, a majority of firms in any industry had government approval backed by force to determine how much a factory could expand, what wages had to be paid, the number of hours to be worked, and the prices of products. Whether or not a businessman helped write the code for his industry, he was bound by the terms and subject to a fine or jail term if he violated them.
1Apr2009 | Burton W. Folsom Jr. | 26 comments | ContinuedNew, from Congress Motors…
This little video is hilarious (and frightening!). With the New Year here let’s resolve to continue working for liberty so we can laugh at videos like this, not live them.”We’ve subsidized the features you want and taxed away the rest””Made right here in the USA by fully card-checked unionized workers and Detroit’s famous visionary jet [...]
1Jan2009 | Ben Stafford | 0 comments | ContinuedWhere Will It Stop?
From today’s New York Times, regarding the impending auto bailout from the Bush administration: In addition to the emergency loan package, officials are working with the finance arms of G.M. and Chrysler to convert them into government-regulated financial institutions, a designation that could make them eligible for separate loans from the Federal Reserve. The administration [...]
18Dec2008 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Knowledge Problem
The first in an occasional series exposing the “pretence of knowledge” of government officials.President Bush’s press secretary, Dana Perino, on the possible bailout of GM, Chrysler, and Ford: I don’t think that there’s any possible way that this president would agree to allow taxpayer financing to go toward firms that are not willing to make [...]
17Dec2008 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedRepublican Betrayal on the Auto Bailout
The Senate Republicans who killed the auto bailout betrayed the free-market principles they claim to embrace. (I know what you’re saying: Is this really news? No, it’s not.)Why betrayal? The Republicans did not say they opposed a bailout on principle under all circumstances, which is what free-market advocates would be expected to say. Rather they [...]
13Dec2008 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedBankruptcy Doesn't Equal Death
Good article on the more honorable option of bankruptcy for the failed auto companies in the WSJ today by Freeman columnist Don Boudreaux:Bankruptcy Doesn’t Equal Death
11Dec2008 | Mason Drake | 0 comments | ContinuedGovernmental Logic
Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate leader, had this to say in connection with the auto bailout: We will not let the taxpayers spend their hard-earned money on ailing carmakers unless these companies are forced to reform their bad habits — either inside or outside bankruptcy. So the way McConnell sees it, we taxpayers want to [...]
11Dec2008 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Case Against the Auto Bailout
1) If no conditions are attached, then the taxpayers would be forced to aid unaccountable companies.2) If conditions are attached, then the taxpayers would be forced to aid (quasi) nationalized companies.3) Both scenarios are objectionable.4) Ergo, the bailout is objectionable.(The New York Times today discusses the implications of nationalization.)
9Dec2008 | Sheldon Richman | 4 comments | ContinuedLong Live the Czar
It appears that Congress will bail out the Big Three of Detroit. But don’t worry. We are assured that taxpayer protections will be built into the rescue plan. This includes appointment of a “Car Czar.” The rumored candidate for the position is pictured below Feel better?
8Dec2008 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedTGIF: Auto-Destruct
The Big Three automakers got a cold reception in Congress this week when they asked for a bailout loan of $25 billion. But I wouldn’t count them out just yet. After appropriating over $700 billion to bail out the financial industry — with nothing to show for it but an ominous precedent and a scary [...]
21Nov2008 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedBail Out Detroit?
It seems certain that the taxpayers will be forced to save GM and the rest of the Big Three, if not during the lame-duck session of Congress, then some time after January 20. The bailout backers say the United States can’t survive as an economic power without them, but why should we believe that? About [...]
17Nov2008 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedUnion Pension Bailouts
One of the many downsides of an auto-industry bailout is that we’ll rescue the very defined-benefit pension plans that are killing the industry. From the Washington Post: … the United Auto Workers plans to press next year for an additional $15 billion in public funds to cover the first payment the three companies are due [...]
12Nov2008 | Mike Van Winkle | 0 comments | ContinuedHenry Ford, Upton Sinclair, and Limits on Consumer Choice
Richard Coffman and Ashley Lyman are associate professors of economics at the University of Idaho. Early in the twentieth century two prominent Americans, one a capitalist, the other a socialist, enunciated surprisingly similar views on the relationship between product differentiation and consumer welfare. The capitalist, Henry Ford, had revolutionized the young automobile industry, using mass-production [...]
1Feb2003 | and Richard B. Coffman | 1 comment | ContinuedHow Henry Ford Zapped a Licensing Monopoly
Melvin Barger is a retired corporate public relations representative and writer who lives in Toledo, Ohio. More books have been written about auto pioneer Henry Ford than any other person in the car business. Though he had critics, the judgment of history is that he put the world on wheels with his famous Model T. [...]
1Dec2001 | Melvin D. Barger | 0 comments | Continued-
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