December 11, 2008

Big Three Bailout

So, doing some simple math: if there are 100 million households in the U.S., a $25B bailout is $250 per household. Note that a bailout would be on top of $25B ALREADY given to the Big Three in the form of a "green car rescue" to help them transition from SUV's to hybrids. That would be $500 per household in the last few months for US car makers -- even if you didn't buy a US car.

... funny how the Japanese car makers managed the transition to hybrids on their own, and funny how startups like Tesla are doing even more w/o any government aid at all.


Here's an idea, take the $25B and use it to start a fund-of-funds to invest in venture funds who want to back new car companies and technologies. Instead it appears that we will be throwing good money after bad by squandering it on the big, dumb incumbents who fail to innovate or even compete.

Posted by rick at 04:21 PM