When the financial rescue bill was proposed, we were told it was $700 billion to buy troubled assets. We’ve since learned that the $700 billion was for just about any damn thing the treasury feels like. (I may owe Tim Murphy an apology.) First it was for banks ($159 billion so far), which sort of made sense, but then there was talk of a bailout for automakers.
Bailing out GM would serve no purpose in regard to the stated aims of the rescue bill (to get credit flowing again), and it’s hard to think of another company more richly deserving of bankruptcy than GM. Nevertheless, I assumed it was going to happen. Now, however, the AP is reporting that prospects of a GM bailout are fading. I sure hope so.
The Intrade contract seems to concur. It’s trading around 33, well down from the 80 or so it was at on Friday.
POSTSCRIPT: This Heritage Foundation article on the 1979 Chrysler bailout is germane as we consider an automaker bailout. If we do it a second time, there’s no way it will take another 30 years for the next.
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