I had some thoughts coalescing in my caffeine-fueled brain about the spectacle being exhibited today in the Senate as the auto industry execs and the UAW are forced to bow, scrape and justify bridge loans to the tune of $34B to keep their companies and employers from failing, but then I read dday and discovered most of it has been said already.
I think one difference here is that Congress actually understands how auto companies make money, while they can't fathom the financial industry's complex arrangements, and tend to just trust the "very serious people" that the banks need hundreds of billions to survive. Also, if Detroit contributes to campaigns, Wall Street bankrolls them. And there's the skillful PR campaign from the right that the carmakers' struggles are all the fault of the unions, when that doesn't come into play with the financial industry.It's still pretty shameful that an industry that pushes paper back and forth and pretends to create wealth can ask for and receive hundreds of billions of dollars by snapping their fingers, while companies representing working people that make things for a living have to grovel and beg. A deindustrialized America is an America that will not function as a first-rate power in the future.
Read the rest.
Why does Congress think the titans of Wall Street deserve billions of dollars in "capital injections" with very little oversight but the industry which directly or indirectly employs some 3 million people has to justify every penny it asks for?
Posted by Linkmeister at December 4, 2008 10:17 AM | TrackBack For the very reasons you and your commentator cited: Most members of Congress don't trust themselves that they understand the financial business, and auto unions, like every other union in this massive transfer of power from labor to capital, make a convenient target.
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