Steeped in GM: My Fascination with a Fallen Icon

I just got bumped from my 7:06 am appearance on the Early Show about GM. I'm so steeped in the GM bankruptcy that I didn't even know about the breaking news story that replaced me: a Pennsylvania mother staged a fake kidnapping and went to Disney to celebrate. Or something like that.

I guess this isn't a big story for my morning media buffet of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times and Bloomberg. "Maybe you should expand your horizons," noted one of the producers. I didn't have time to explain my fascination with the auto industry. It's not just the impending bankruptcy of GM. There's something so compelling about the fall of a 100-year old brand that helped define this country.

In must be in my blood. My father told me "Your great-grandfather loved General Motors. He only bought GM cars and his largest stock position was in GM... he'd be sick about this bankruptcy." It wasn't just my great-grandfather -- there were millions who adored their US-made cars and the companies that built them. Just listen to the great Dinah Shore croon about Chevrolet's -- it's practically like the national anthem!

But the auto industry no longer defines American capitalism. In the early sixties, GM accounted for over half of all car sales in this country. Today, its market share has dropped to under 20%. And when GM files for bankruptcy on Monday, it will be removed from the Dow Jones Industrial Average and replaced by a soon-to-named company. I'm lobbying for Google, but that's unlikely.

As we say to goodbye to ol' GM, it's worth noting the winners and losers in this fiasco (this was the topic of my bumped segment).

Winners:

• Institutional bondholders: does anyone else have a sneaking suspicion that some of the unsecured bondholders are going to make money in this transaction?


• Foreign car makers: Toyota and Honda face an injured opponent and will gain market share.


• Lawyers: Bankruptcy lawyers are the new black in corporate firms. They waited through a long expansion and will now be rewarded with big fees.

Continue on moneywatch.com to see the losers

Comments

[neoprimordial]

Welcome to the superficial world of everyday America, where the idiocy of the one outweighs the idiocy of the many--just as long as it's really flashy and outrageous, or really tear-jerkingly touching. I suppose CBS was thinking, "who needs another story about GM's failure? Let's see if we can boost our ratings...." The worst of it is that they probably did get more viewers watching. What a wonderful world.

[noaxe397]

There was a time to get teary eyed over GM. Like when employees knew if they did a good job for 40 years at whatever the company asked of them they would have a comfortable retirement. When gas was 30 cents a gallon and a burger, fries and shake were a buck.
Like when, on a quiet night, you could hear your GM product rusting in the driveway, but that did not matter, you were going to buy American to support your country. And besides those foreign cars didn't have the va-va-voom or the trunk space of your GM product. Harley and Engine Charlie and John Z, they were American royalty.
Then the Germans and Japenese recovered their industries from the ruins of WWII and in the 1970s GM lost its way forever. It just didn't know it until the 90s.

[newwvdem]

Yes, it's sad and important but it's the way of the world. It's an inherent part of capitalism. The fact is that GM did NOT compete as vigorously as they should have against the Japanese and they maintained a lazy, bloated posture for far too long.

I bought two crap cars from GM in the seventies and never went back. I'm sure there are many like me.

They will be reborn in some form and will have a second chance to compete as a twenty-first century company. I wish them well.

[Jill Schlesinger - Huffpost Blogger]

I love this response--all about American creativity and entrepreneurial spirit. You just lifted my spirits--thank you!