GM'S BLEAK FUTURE - AT 5:48 P.M. ET:  From the Washington Post:

The U.S. Treasury would own at least a 50 percent stake in General Motors under a plan the company released today to avoid bankruptcy.

The strategy would essentially formalize the government's control over one of the icons of corporate America.

"I'm a believer in dealing in reality," GM chief executive Fritz Henderson said in announcing the new plan. "We've gotten great support from the Treasury. It has viewed this matter from day one as a kind of private equity investment. It has pushed us in a lot of ways."

The announcement came as the company said it would further shrink the number of workers, dealers and types of cars in an attempt to prepare it for a United States shrunken by the recession.

COMMENT:  Could you have predicted this a year ago?  We will have Washington running our largest car company.  And the Washington Post informs us that all this will happen to prepare GM for an American "shrunken by the recession."  Really?  When has America ever been "shrunken" by a recession?  Recessions are temporary.  America has always come back larger and stronger.
But in the new Obama world that may not be the dream any longer.  We must be punished.  We must be more modest in our ambitions.  We must learn from our
European betters. 

Do Americans understand what is happening?   Do they care, or has a generation of post-sixties miseducation prepared them to love this not-so-brave new world? 

April 27, 2009