We Need Better Rants About Automotive Bailout

Ahhhhh....it's frustrating.

The PM RadioMouth went into full-bore/screaming rant over the Big 2.0034 Bailout today.

A couple of notes:

1) While the UAW pension/healthcare deal gets a lot of notice, it escapes the attention of the self-proclaimed "expert" on automotive matters that the white-collar retirees get basically the very same deals as do the blue-collar folks.

2) The very same self-proclaimed "expert" on automotive matters demonstrated his "expertise" by remarking that (if there is a loan of some sort and GM goes away), 'all that's left is a bunch of old buildings in Detroit.'

Even allowing for the rhetorical "Detroit" error (GM has old buildings from coast to coast and from Canada through Texas, not to mention overseas), that offhand comment is remarkably inane.

The dies, molds, jigs, fixtures, casting machines, molding machines, finishing apparatus, testing and calibration equipment, CAD and Pro-E systems, mainframe computers, woodworking and maintenance tools, transfer lines, and MRO supplies necessary to run any ONE of the Big 2.0003 is collectively worth more money than all the radio station equipment in the entire USA.

Period. No questions asked.

Further, any venture capitalist with an IQ greater than room-temperature would be standing in line, naked, for 7 days straight in a Detroit winter to purchase those items just so he could make and sell the spare parts for Chevrolets currently on the roads. Forget the Caddies, 'Vettes, GMCs, and Pontiacs; just the Chevy parts (engines and body panels) would be lucrative almost beyond the dreams of avarice.

Yah. Those secured debtors would really be sorry-ass losers, alright.