And the next bailout goes to...

Cheer up:

This should clear it up for those of you who don’t understand why Lex likes Karl Rove. Rove dropped this bomb on V-P-E Biden in an upcoming NY Times Magazine article:

NYTM: Do you like Joe Biden?

ROVE: I think he’s an odd combination of longevity and long-windedness that passes for wisdom in Washington.

Bailouts beget bailouts

Nobody likes to hear, “I told you so.” So I won’t say it but I did mention that bailouts beget bailouts. So when the long-serving long-winded class that populates Washington D.C. thought it was a good idea to put up $700 BILLION of tax payer’s dollars to bailout certain banks and other favored financial institutions, who knew others would soon be standing in line for handout? Everyone with a brain knew, that’s who - which ironically excludes the long-serving long-winded class that set up the whole scheme.

So now the “Big 3 auto makers” are standing in the bailout line with their hats in hand. The idea is to offer up $25 BILLION in loans to the Big three. Without fundamental changes in how the companies build and sell cars, the auto bailout is like throwing a glass of water into an Olympic size swimming pool. It’ll make no difference. The new argument is, it’s not a bailout. It’s a loan. It’s a loan that’ll never be paid back. It’s like giving your 11 year old an “advance” on his allowance to be worked off in chores. It never happens.

Besides, it’s not an auto bailout. It’s a UAW bailout. Unless the automakers seriously rework their contracts with UAW, throwing $25 BILLION at the big three will only require another $25 BILLION in six months. But it’s not just the UAW.

Management, in unsound moves to avoid strikes, caved into unreasonable union demands. Management also over expanded dealerships, sacrificed quality control for expediency and was slow to adapt to changing tastes in autos.

Oh yeah, and the long-serving long-winded buffoons on Capitol Hill also contributed to the collapse of the big three. CAFE standards are arbitrary idiocy that stifles creativity and creates artificial barriers for fair competition with other auto makers around the world. Only the long-serving long-winded Washington doofusses could so successfully cripple an American industry then hold hearings on why that industry is failing.

But yeah, it’s mostly the UAW’s fault. One thing we know for certain is that you cannot continue to do the exact same thing and expect a different result. Something has to change.