American Agora

This week's Economist has two great articles (here and here) on the Big Three (Big Two really).

Something that really caught me was this (from the second article):

A further reason why Chapter 11 might not work for the carmakers, says Mark Oline, an analyst at Fitch Ratings, is that they have very little scope for further cost-cutting. “They’re not being crushed by wage and benefit costs—it’s about revenue and products now,” he says. Bankruptcy would do nothing to speed up the introduction of vital new models.

Interesting. I said in the previous post that health care costs and union agreements ARE the reason GM and Ford are struggling. Yet, it's simply because they cannot remain competitive in the market? Can't build decent cars? My, what a market to be in if you are an inefficient company.

-Andrew