Tuesday

Today is the third anniversary of Brian and the Judge. Thanks for all your support! Also today, GM is offering the U.S. Government a majority, yes a majority, stake in its company. Here’s what I think – Here we go again. The same government that can’t run the Post Office or Amtrak now wants to run GM. If the federal government acquires 50% of GM common stock, it will represent the not-so-subtle transition from fascism (private ownership and government control, a-la Bank of America and Citibank) to socialism (government ownership and control) in time for the one hundredth day of President Obama’s presidency. The government knows nothing about running businesses. Every time it does so, it makes decisions based on politics, not economics. Witness its management of AIG: The House of Representatives voted to seize its assets, voted to “condemn” it, and generally so trashed the company as to dissuade folks from doing business with it; this, notwithstanding the federal ownership of 78% of AIG. The federal ownership of GM is doomed to fail. GM should suffer, or enjoy, the natural free market consequences of management’s long-term decisions. When the government gets into the business of deciding who wins (shareholders) and who loses (bondholders), that means that the government’s heavy thumb is on the free market scale. Thus, it has stolen the free choices and the property rights that consumers and investors once had.