Malicious thoughts of the day

Tom Donlan, Editorial Page Editor for Barrons Magazine http://www.barrons.com/ is responsible for today's malicious thoughts.

Mr. Donlan is a student of capitalism and the author of a couple of very worthwhile books http://tinyurl.com/donlan . He strongly opposes a bailout of the automobile industry but, being a realist, he recognizes that three large and grossly mismanaged companies will soon be the recipients of cash that, if not just created out of nothing, is extracted, under duress, from the long suffering taxpayer.

Mr. Donlan also accepts that, having thrown cash at the Detroit Three, the Administration and Congress will create a so-called Car Czar to supervise the waste of our hard earned money. Mr. Donlan - and here is where the malicious thoughts are found - offers some names to fill this post. He starts with former Vice President Al Gore on the grounds that Mr. Gore might come to understand, at first hand, that Detroit doesn't build fuel efficient cars because the average citizen is not yet interested in paying through the nose for undersized and underpowered mini-boxes.

As an aside, the [Hybrid] Toyota Prius is ugly. It is bought mostly by the trendy 'see how green I am' crowd. Evidence for the nature of the Prius's owners is found in the fact that the Honda Civic Hybrid is just about as fuel efficient, a little larger, no more expensive compared to its gasoline engined cousin than is the Prius, and is much better looking. Sales, however, are nothing special because the Civic fails to do a decent job of advertising the green credentials of its owner. In this case, being ugly appears to be one of the Prius's critical design features.

Having offered up Mr. Gore as the sacrificial lamb, Mr. Donlan then provides the names of some very competent executives (Jack Welch, Lee Iacocca and Ross Perot) before suggesting a person for whom 'paybacks are hell' is an appropriate description. Mr. Donlan's reasoning is that, since the United Auto Workers Union is at least fifty percent responsible for the automobile industry's current mess, it would be only fair that UAW President Ron Gettelfinger be given the fruitless task of trying to sort out the industry.

If new loans would help the Detroit Three get their acts together, why won't the private sector provide the money? Even though the U.S. economy is suffering from a serious credit drought, the answer to that question should be obvious.

How hard is it to understand that new loans to the Detroit Three fall into the category of 'throwing good money after bad'? Since it doesn't really matter who is appointed to supervise the delayed death of three once proud companies, we might as well allow ourselves some small entertainment as yet more of our cash goes up in flames.