Economy

nytimes.com
October 1, 2011
Bill Vlasic
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/02/business/once-upon-a-car-on-the-road-to-detroits-big-pileup.html?pagewanted=1&ref=business

Summary-
    The article is based on a book written about the inner workings of the companies GM and Ford during the economic downturn last decade. It is revealed that GM had been having such issues that their executives had suggested a merger with Ford, which Ford turned down. Both companies began to have huge financial difficulties shortly after the meeting, and new strategies were devised to cope. GM drastically cut many of its areas of spending, while Ford attempted to buddy up to then presidential candidate Barack Obama. Both companies created new, more fuel efficient cars to keep business.

Connection-
    Happenings in the American car industry are extremely important to the economy. If any of the major car companies in the country collapsed, the economy would take a huge hit. The government would have no choice but to get involved, and its actions would probably be more drastic than the steps it took to prevent these issues from happening.
    This connects to class through one of the political ideology quizzes, which revealed some people to be more liberal or more conservative. Part of the criteria for identifying who was what, was whether people thought that the government should interfere in the economy.

Personal Reaction-
   It seems to be a good thing that these companies were saved, but perhaps a few billion dollars could have been saved for ordinary citizens. The economy would be much better off if the general population had more money to put into small businesses, and to spend on necessary items. If people no longer want what is being sold by large corporations, in a capitalist nation those businesses should fail.