The Bailout

The bailout is upon us.  GM, a one-time symbol of America and Chrysler have receive bailouts.  It is good news if you work for those companies; however the Bush administration did give them quite a few conditions to meet including renegotiating with the unions.  Ford, meanwhile, got nothing.  For a good article on how getting nothing could be a good thing, read this: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/20/business/20ford.html

The End of Chrysler?

Chrysler is shutting down all of its plants for at least one month...maybe forever.  All they promise is that the plants will not reopen before January 19.

Also, if you haven't heard they will likely be out of cash before then.

America's Third World City In Pictures

It is truly stunning what has become of Detroit when you consider its history; although since I was young it has always looked pretty run down.

Time has a photo slideshow.

The End of the AFL? And NASCAR?

The Arena Football League is cancelling the 2009 season due to the economy.  

They aren't quite a major league, but they are somewhere between hockey and soccer.  Pretty sad state, when sports leagues are going under.

Sure, the AFL says it will be back, but I doubt it.  Especially with the UFL going to start up soon.  Can our country support 3 professional football leagues?  Maybe, but I doubt it.  Look at the XFL.

In related news, NASCAR is hemorrhaging as their corporate sponsors (GM, Toyota, Ford, Chrysler, et. al) start cutting their advertising dollars.

The Spending We Need

Soon to be President Obama plans to spend between 500 and 700 billion dollars on public works projects.

While this figure approaches all of the money spent on economic bailouts of financial institutions, I believe it is a debt we must incur.  If you take a look at many roads and bridges within America, particularly in areas that are not economically prosperous, things are bad.  Whether it is a pothole or a structurally unsound bridge, the public's safety is at risk.  

The last time we spent such a large amount of money on infrastructure was likely in the 50's when Ike created our Interstate System.  Since then, time has taken a toll on our roads.  We aren't building any new ones but desperately need to maintain those that we have.  It is inconceivable for a non-government entity to fix all these roads, unless we created a private toll road system that would rival any government bureaucracy.

The good news is that these are construction jobs that will not be outsourced and that the extra work may be able to help a good amount of the unemployed construction workers (who lost their jobs after the housing bust) get back to work.

This is a win-win for all.