Prediction as Destiny

[jducoeur]

Y'know, I originally found the claim "nobody would ever buy a car from a technically bankrupt company" a bit strange. It presumes that the consumers are stupid -- that they don't understand the concept of Chapter 11, and that it's not the same thing as "out of business". And the claim that this is because you wouldn't be able to get parts or service for these cars if they were to go under seems odd: with millions and millions of those cars on the road, *somebody's* certainly going to provide for them. The economy is not so broken as to eliminate basic supply and demand.

But now? Well, after weeks of the company CEOs *saying* that nobody will buy from them if they go Chapter 11, I kind of suspect that they've created a self-fulfilling prophecy. It's now conventional wisdom that you *shouldn't* buy a car from them if that happens, and it's entirely their own fault.

Replacing these idiots as a condition of any sort of bailout seems more and more necessary...