Fumes

It's done. General Motors, once the greatest industrial colossus on the planet, is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy tomorrow. When the smoke clears, Pontiac will have been shuttered, several plants will be closed, and Opel - the Old World jewel in GM's crown - will be sold to a Russo-Canadian consortium (??????????) involving the Russian automaker GAZ and the Canadian auto parts manufacturer Magna.

Although it's sad to see a company that has made such wonderful cars end up like this, I can't help but feel a little glee in GM's predicament. The company has behaved like a bully for so long, using its influence to bend laws and federal policy to its own advantage, from buying streetcar lines and tearing them up to make people buy their products to opposing various safety and emissions regulations. The General could only rig the game for so long, but when they unexpectedly got competition from German and then Japanese automakers who knew how to reset the rules of the market on their terms, GM first failed to respond, then fought back with product that turned out to be inferior, and proved to be ineffective in reforming its business practices.

I obviously feel sorry for the workers who will be affected, but I don't really pity the top brass that allowed this to happen.