Michael J. de la Merced and Bill Vlasic of The New York Times report:
On Wednesday, the nonprofit Center for Automotive Research released a study saying that government aid to G.M. and Chrysler saved more than 1.1 million jobs in 2009 and 314,000 jobs this year — the highest figure yet reported.
What most people, including the pundits, don't actually understand about the industry is the nature of the supply chain. There tends to be an anachronistic view of automotive manufacturing, that GM has GM's suppliers, etc. That's not how it works. If Company X makes stater motor housings and other associated widgets, they sell to everybody as they win bids. I've been to companies that were selling to GM, Ford, Honda and Toyota at the same time.
ReplyDeleteSo yes, if GM and Chrysler had been liquidated, the fallout would have been a cataclysm, and not just for those UAW THUGS that RepubliCorp was so mad about, either.