The Once and Future Auto Bailouts
You’d think the Obama campaign had confused Michigan and Ohio with Iowa and New Hampshire. As his 2012 Republican challengers flooded early primary states last month, the President instead headed to where he could stand beside beaming auto executives and watch proud workers toiling on once-idle assembly lines. The Obama administration and the industry have been making a hard media push this summer, celebrating the auto bailout as a big win — for the politicians who supported it, for the economy that they claim needed it, and for the taxpayer who still begrudges it.
July 6, 2011
BP, Toyota, and the Illusion of the Car System Tech
Last Christmas, an Oregon couple driving with their baby in the
backseat followed erroneous GPS instructions and got stranded on
wilderness roads in a Cascades snowstorm. Twelve hours later, they had
given up hope and taped a farewell video. While a rescue party
fortunately was able to save them, they no doubt wished they hadn’t
allowed their belief in modern electronics to override their own clear
eyes and good instincts.
August 5, 2010