Not quite 29 years ago the Chrysler Corporation asked the US Government for $1.5 billion in loan guarantees. $1.5 billion sounds like chump change now, but it was a pretty big deal in 1979:
The United States Congress reluctantly passed the "Chrysler Corporation Loan Guarantee Act of 1979" (Public Law 96-185) on December 20, 1979 (signed into law by President Jimmy Carter on January 7, 1980), prodded by Chrysler workers and dealers in every congressional district who feared the loss of their livelihoods. The military then bought thousands of Dodge pickup trucks which entered military service as the Commercial Utility Cargo Vehicle M-880 Series. With such help and a few innovative cars (such as the K-car platform), especially the invention of the minivan concept, Chrysler avoided bankruptcy and slowly recovered. (Wikipedia)
It's worth noting Chrysler paid back the loans and made it through one of the worst recessions up to the present, the infamous period of stagflation (economic stagnation and rampant inflation). I'm not sure it will work again. Today we are facing the specter of deflation and economic stagnation and the auto industry is again at the door with their hands out again. Not just one of the Big Three. All of them. Meanwhile the rest of us are either in or facing a world of economic hurt. So it's time to resurrect the original Tom Paxton ditty with his sage economic advice: change your name (there's already a new version featuring Fannie and Freddie but I like the original better; this is Arlo Guthrie's version of Tom's song):
Politics
Comments
What Lee Iacocca did for Chrysler, the K-Car and bringing the minivan idea over from Ford, is still pretty amazing, even if the nationalism was distasteful. Capitalism is strange sometimes.
Posted by: Beth | November 23, 2008 5:11 PM
Posted by: llewelly | November 23, 2008 7:37 PM
llewelly: Whoops. Thanks. Corrected.
Posted by: revere | November 23, 2008 7:52 PM
OH wow, Tom Paxton is my paternal great-uncle. I love that song, been thinking about it a lot lately myself. =D
jen paxton
Posted by: tendrel | November 24, 2008 7:40 PM
tendrel: Well you have a helluva great uncle. He's one of my favorite singer-songwriters. I have many of his albums and they are among my most cherished. I couldn't find a verson of him doing the original or that's the one I would have used (although Arlo's version is pretty good).
Posted by: revere | November 24, 2008 8:30 PM
Yep, I think that it was pretty good too Jen.
I fear what all of this bailout is going to do for our children because the latest number is beyond comprehension. It adds another, yes another 5 trillion and change to the national debt. Its really the foreign debt and default is going to be the end result.
300 million Americans... Divide 59 trillion by the 300 million. It means that everyone of us has a 196,667,67 bill to pay to the government. Better not put that song away Revere...We are going to need it again in about two years when the AMT gets slipped in. The Obama Nation will tell us that they didnt raise taxes.That wont be incorrect, they will just let us all get socked with an existing one that has never been repealed.
Posted by: M. Randolph Kruger | November 25, 2008 12:37 AM
urps... mistake made and it was brought to my attention.... The numbers shown are not correct. Microsoft Excel will not do numbers beyond 1 trillion.
Kind of makes you wonder how they will pay for it if they cant even count it up.
It comes up by long hand to be about 5.5 million per person if my long hand is correct.
Posted by: M. Randolph Kruger | November 25, 2008 11:32 AM
COOL! so glad to hear of more fans of Tom's =) can't wait to hear his sure-to-be-coming new material. hehehehee
Posted by: tendrel | December 1, 2008 7:12 PM