I'm All Right, Barack

[Toler]

I’m All Right, Barack
The perils of a nationalized car maker.

By Iain Murray

President Obama’s takeover of General Motors is a disaster in the making. Not only is it bad for GM, it also sets terrible legal precedents and rewards the president’s political allies in a brazen display of political patronage. Taken as a whole, the so-called rescue belies the president’s promise to end politics as usual and undermines the values of the free-enterprise system that has fueled American prosperity.

Last year, GM’s management team argued strenuously that the company could not go through normal Chapter 11 bankruptcy, because no one would buy a car from a bankrupt company, and therefore a bailout was needed. This proved to be a terrible mistake. It was like an individual trying to avoid bankruptcy by going to a loan shark; the federal government has taken a shark-like, extortionate bite.

GM has been forced into a change of ownership by the administration’s auto task force, which was supposedly set up to negotiate a rescue plan but instead has imposed one of its own design. Virtually the first thing it did was to fire former GM chief executive Rick Wagoner. Since then it has done everything it can to impose political control over the company.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MmI5MzdkOTQ5YmQzZDczZjdhMjU5N2EyNGE2NDQyMmE=

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