America Just Bought a New Car for 80 Billion Dollars

America just bought a new car for 80 billion dollars but no one should think of driving it. The U.S. Government is the only driver, and Fritz Henderson is merely its mechanic.

The U.S. government is now competing with Ford and with the Japanese makers for market share. There is no dearth of money to lend to car buyers with shaky credit, no lack of money for legal fees in bankruptcy (the bankruptcy lawyers have a sunny disposition), and no regulatory obstacles to acceptable performance except for free market capitalism.

I wouldn’t expect that free market capitalism would be any sort of problem for the Obama administration. Obama went on television yesterday to tell people he didn’t want to have anything to do with the car business but still found time to make a personal phone call to reassure Detroit’s mayor that GM headquarters would remain in Detroit and not move, as many had said. It was so decreed by the man who wants nothing to do with the car business.