Opinion: General Motors becomes Government Motors
What seemed inevitable five months ago is finally about to occur. General Motors, once the largest corporation in America, the largest employer, and the first one to make $1 billion (1955), is about to enter bankruptcy. I always felt that bankruptcy was inevitable due to the conflicting interests of various parties (such as current employees, retired workers, shareholders, bondholders, auto dealers, and governments.) Like most liberal governments, the Obama administration tried its best to avoid bankruptcy but was unable to do so. My Canadian government also pumped money into these failing enterprises with questionable results. I think what the US government attempted was fine, but I would have liked to see less heavy-handedness directed towards the bondholders (the GM bondholder situation doesn't seem so bad since all of them are supposedly unsecured creditors, but the Chrysler situation where the US government was playing hardball with secured bondholders hurts everyone in the lo