G.M. Wagoner No Longer in Production

Obama has moved to fire the head of General Motors, likely to get in front of any criticism when he gives the company additional bailout funds.

This dictate from Washington is causing alarms among conservative throngs who see this as just another sign of creeping socialism that will lead to our ruin (and ignoring the previous existing ruin that should have caused similar outburts but didn't and doesn't).

We think the car companies should be allowed to fail, aside from perhaps a generous line of credit to Ford. But you save car companies for populist reasons, not practical ones. The problem is that you need to save your banking system so that companies will have the necessary loans, securitization and day to day cash necessary to function. But nobody wants to save typically well paid Wall Street types, nor does the average person realize how important it is to the country's success to make sure the credit markets function smoothly.

Instead, you throw the masses a bone by saving something they can understand. After all, we all drive cars and have seen enough truck and beer commercials to know that all auto workers are sufficiently American, salt of the earth, and hardworking.

Wagoner at G.M. was part of the non-solution, and thus had to go, but the real directive from Obama should have been to send G.M. on its way into its own unfathomable future.