GENTLEMEN, DON'T START YOUR ENGINES - AT 7:16 A.M. ET:   This is the fateful day for GM.  Washington Post:

The Obama administration plans to take the next step toward resuscitating the American auto industry today, sending General Motors, the storied manufacturer, into bankruptcy protection.

The court filing will mark the end of financial independence for the 100-year-old industrial leviathan that once conflated its interests with the country's and that employed well over 1 million people, counting jobs at the company and at its suppliers.

COMMENT:  Myths die hard, don't they?  The story says that GM "once conflated its interests with the country's..."  That is a reference to a statement made by GM's chief, Charles E. Wilson, at his confirmation hearings for secretary of defense in the Eisenhower administration.  A less-than-responsible news report quoted Wilson as saying that what was good for General Motors was good for the country.  The quote produced an immediate uproar.  What was left out is that Wilson also said that what was good for the country was good for General Motors.  By the time the whole quote came out, Wilson's reputation was damaged.

We can only read this story with dismay, but we should be asking questions that the mainstream media is not asking.  If anyone told you a year ago that this would be happening, would you have believed it?  How did all this economic damage occur so quickly, culminating in a remarkable, if fearful opportunity for the most leftist president in American history to remake the economy of the United States?  I am not engaging in a conspiracy theory, but I've noted before that the economic meltdown of last September occurred right in the middle of a presidential campaign, and could only have helped Obama.  Now we have the Obama crowd running car companies.

Another question, unasked:  How will the operation of GM by the federal government impact the rest of the auto industry, and the design of its products?  Remember, Ford is functioning.  So are Honda, Toyota, Nissan, and European companies.  All can take up the slack.  But what if Washington, under pressure from radical environmentalists with a lock grip on the Democratic Party, reshapes the GM product line and is able, with an infusion of taxpayer money, to cut the prices of the cars and knife the competition?  Will other companies be forced to follow, making Washington the decider of what America buys, rather than the American customer?

That is not a "cute" question about choices in upholstery and CD decks.  It goes to a fundamental issue of economic freedom and the discipline of the market.  Milton Friedman made the point that you cannot have political freedom without economic freedom.  Think about that today.

June 1, 2009