The law of unintended consequences rarely operates to the good but on this occasion…..
Unless you have been snoozing since Thanksgiving you will know that Chrysler and GM took the Fed’s shilling in order to keep themselves in business until the next hand out. Remarkably Chrysler ran a full page ad in The Times on December 27th ‘thanking America for investing in our company’. The ad was signed by Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli a man whose lack of self-awareness boggles the mind.
The ad reaffirms the company’s commitment to ‘continue’ building cars that America wants to buy and own. If nothing else that would be a good idea. One wonders if such public hand wringing was the intention of the Fed but at least The Times got some much needed revenue which in turn makes one wonder……
It’s clear that there are many institutions that are struggling. The media industry is struugling against both an unhelpful economy and a destruction in value driven by the internet which allows idiots like me to publish like we were Charles Foster Kane himself. If America lost Chrysler it would be unfortunate but there would still be plenty of cars to buy. If America lost the New York Times it would be a tragedy. Ironically of course the newspaper industry has no effective political lobby so the chances of an intentional bail out of these vitally important national assets is remote.
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December 30, 2008 at 10:42 pm
[...] Unless you have been snoozing since Thanksgiving you will know that Chrysler and GM took the Fed’s shilling in order to keep themselves in business until the next hand out. Remarkably Chrysler ran a full page ad in The Times on December …[Continue Reading] [...]