President Obama has to make a choice. Nationalize these companies that are “too big to fail” or keep his hands out of their business. By ousting Rick Wagoner, the CEO of GM today, the current administration is showing its inability to handle the current economic crisis. You can’t have it both ways, trying to keep these companies afloat without nationalization but making sure the mob isn’t upset about how they spend the money and getting rid of those that are to “blame”. Since nationalization might not go over so well with an economy based on capitalism, the President needs to lend these companies money and leave them alone or don’t lend them money at all. Personally, I would choose option B.

Granted, without government stimulus money, some of the companies would fail. Imagine that, a company FAILING. A large majority of startup companies fail each year. It’s called survival of the fittest and that’s exactly how we end up with efficient, powerful, economy driving companies like GE, Exxon, Wal-Mart etc. Right now, the auto companies are not providing what Americans are looking to purchase and therefore should be allowed to fail. The question is, if they didn’t have TARP to fall back on, would they even be telling their shareholders that they are about to go bankrupt? Probably not. Most likely, they would figure out where to cut costs, a division to sell off, and whatever other changes they would need to make in order to survive. This might initially mean layoffs, but eventually they would need to fill the void with newer more efficient cars including hybrids and all-electric models. This would lead to more jobs and innovations that might even, believe it or not, make American automobiles competitive in a world market. Now that’s not something to laugh at.