Auto Update

So, Bank of America suggests that GM might need $30 billion to survive, which is still about 1/10 of what AIG has gotten.

In any case, Bush and Paulson and their Evil Minions^™ are considering a Car Czar who would have the power to force bankruptcy on the automakers, and an auto analyst is predicting that the Bush Administration will use this for crass political gain, and demand concessions, which Obama would likely overturn, because not all the stake holders are involved in those concessions.

Particularly in the case of GM, one issue is concessions from the local dealers, and that scares every member of Congress, because auto dealers have always been extremely aggressive political donors and political forces in the districts.

In any case, as more reports emerge that Bush and Paulson are close to a deal, I am again compelled to make the repeat the wisest thing that I've read this century:

But it does inspire in me the desire for a competition; can anyone, particularly the rather more Bush-friendly recent arrivals to the board, give me one single example of something with the following three characteristics:

1. It is a policy initiative of the current Bush administration
2. It was significant enough in scale that I'd have heard of it (at a pinch, that I should have heard of it)
3. It wasn't in some important way completely f#$@ed up during the execution.

Seriously. I've yet to see anything wiser yet, and I'm using the loose definition of the 21st century which includes the year 2000.