MICKEY KAUS:

I wanted to hate Obama’s UAW speech, but it’s undeniably powerful–aided by the White House policy of not dropping “g”s in the transcript, thereby eliminating one of the President’s most annoying, condescending tics. Note, however, Obama explicitly boasts that he’s helped fix Chrysler and GM “in the long term,” so they won’t “run out of money” in the future. Doesn’t that mean we can’t judge whether his bailout is a success based on current short-term appearances? You’d be successful in the short run too if the government gave you $80 billion dollars.

Toyota and Honda are coming back online after the tsunami and Southeast Asia floods crippled production. VW is building roomy American-style cars in Tennessee using $14.50/hour non-union workers instead of $28/hour UAW workers. Hyundai is expanding rapidly. Competition is going to be vicious–it’s widely believed there’s still overcapacity in the industry. A new oil price spike could crimp sales of high-profit trucks. Will GM still be making money in 5 years? Or, I should say, will GM still be making money building cars in the U.S. (as opposed to importing them from China) in 5 years? I’m skeptical. I don’t think deficient corporate cultures change that easily. Normally we rely on the market to simply kill them off.

That’s very old-fashioned. Now we place enlightened members of the apparat at the helm!