The establishment of Government Motors has everyone wondering what will become of the American automotive industry.  Peter Brookes has an acerbic take on it in today’s Times of London, which hits close to home:

Brookes has a lot going on in this cartoon.  Obama and his allies have a sepia-tinged nostalgic ideal of the auto industry, back when Americans didn’t face competition and the unions could call the shots.  Now, the US has global competition, and the problem with the American auto industry is huge overhead, caused at least in equal parts by bad management and union decisions.  Obama’s takeover of GM essentially puts all the wrong people in charge (including himself, a position from which he demurs — for the moment) on a path to a 1940s economic model that has long since passed.  The end result: a GM that looks pretty but is essentially immobile, thanks to a government-union cabal that will make the company into a museum piece sooner rather than later.

For more on this topic, read “Nostalgianomics” by Reason’s Brink Lindsey.