Oil: Side Effects May Include...

The Times reports today that automakers (Ford and GM, in particular) are hemorrhaging money because they've relied so heavily on SUVs and pick-ups. I have no sympathy here: they must have known this day was coming and they chose to ignore it. The fact that their factories are not equipped to make hybrids or even better technology vehicles is their own fault. But, of course, this being the Bush administration, we'll bail their butts out: we can't have major corporations fail on his watch... hundreds of thousands of small, family-owned businesses? Sure, but not the industries that are the bedrock of our economy!

The sad thing, as Ralph pointed out the other day in my post on Exxon and Shell, is that they are the bedrock of our economy, much more than they ought to be. The CEO who gets his firm out of that interconnected mess would be, to my mind, the one who actually earns one of those multi-multi-million dollar salaries... except that's also the MegaCorp that won't be bailed out by the government when the market suffers a downturn (and, c'mon folks: there's always a downturn—nothing goes on forever!) and will lose out to their competitors who are.

Thank you, Joseph Heller, for giving this paradox a name...