The protestations of the Big 3 Automakers that all their current problems are due to the financial meltdown show them to be running a Ponzi scheme that dwarfs anything done before.

As long as they were selling enough big cars to pay their legacy expenses and cover the fact that could not afford to build small cars and make a profit they were fine. When that scam hit a bump it all fell apart.

And relative to Wretchard’s No.4 comment, I quote Robert Heinlein: “The guy who goes broke in a big way never misses a meal; its the guy who is short half a buck that has to tighten his belt.”

Back in the 80’s a friend who had recently completed his Masters at USC observed that the engineering department had a predominance of foreign students but that “the people studying to be investment bankers were all Americans.” I am hoping that the financial meltdown – and non-meltdown of foreign carmakers – will at last end the mystique of the people who use other people’s money to become rich but produce nothing on their own. Let them all end their careers saying “Do you want fries with that?”