Begging door by door

The problem with an addict is that if you don’t cut the supply of the addiction, it will grow exponentially. Something similar happens with General Motors.

The American carmaker has seen how its policy of begging for credits to the institutions has worked in the US. Twice. It was an easy job, in fact. First with Bush, always willing to help CEOs in trouble. Then with Obama, always willing to help Chicago and Detroit neighbors.

Someone said at the beginning of this that giving credit to solve a credit crunch is like extinguishing a fire with gas. That it is like rewarding those who bring us in trouble first because of their incompetence. But nobody listen to him, or they didn’t want to listen to him.

However, since new President approved the new law that limits the salaries of the executives of those firms that are rescued by a bailout -without retroactive application-, General Motors has changed its target. Now it looks east into Europe, home of Opel/Vauxhall and Saab, two of GM’s worst nightmares together with Hummer y Ford.

But the way it does it is not the appropriate. As any other desperate addict, GM is not asking anymore; it urges now. Its priority target is Germany. Only Angela Merkel had already been asked for €1b, and for all Europe, the bill is slightly bigger. And it is that or they will cut 3,500 jobs in Opel.

However, Europe has just refused to help Eastern European economies with a rescue plan. Even though there is a risk involving the collapse of Eastern economies, that could take down with it Western European economies as well. Nowadays, surely GM will get a piece of cake at the end.

Next step can be going further east, to Japan. If they are lucky and take the Minister of Finance in a good day, they may be go home with more than they expected. Unfortunately, Shoichi Nakagawa is already out of office, and his sucessor looks like someone more reliable.



Photo: far-left (only in the photo), George Richard Wagoner Jr., GM CEO. AP Photo/Gerald Herbert.

.