Oh how quickly things change. A very short time ago the media was full of articles about the wonders of the market. Bush was calling the Western Europeans "old Europe" as they were resistant to pressure from the US to reform their economies by making it easier to fire workers, reduce vacations, increase work hours and weaken worker's right on the job.
"New Europe" were the former Soviet states of Eastern Europe who were adopting the free market policies pushed by the US, privatization of public assets, reduce public spending, no hindrance to capital formation or movement etc.
Carlos Ghosn, the CEO of Renault as well as Nissan is not so fond of the market these days and supports government intervention. Bailing out US auto is "the right thing to do" he says in an interview in Business Week, "...the car industry by itself cannot find enough financing to do that alone."
So the US taxpayer will borrow money from bankers and investors who also own a fair share of the auto industry but refuse to invest money in it. They are blackmailing the US working class with the threat of catastrophe if the industry isn't bailed out. The taxpayer will invest this money and pay the owners of the auto industry interest. We have done the same with the bankers who won't lend it to private individuals and have turned to the safety of public debt. We've borrowed from the bankers who won't lend in what they see as a risky market and we invest that money in the banks in order to coax them to lend.
The Union leaders are all on board with this Ponzi scheme as witnessed by Ron Gettlefinger of the UAW pleading for public money in Congress along wiht the auto execs. This team has waged a vicious war against the auto workers driving down wages and eliminating jobs. The whole auto industry needs to be nationalized under workers control and managment and the resources can then be turned to more socially useful public transit.
Ghosn has no problem with Union leaders like Gettlefinger and the leadership of the entire US trade Union movement. When asked by Business Week if the Unions are killing the American auto business he makes it clear that Unions aren't the problem as long as they represent the employer's interests: "I don't think the question is Unions" he says, "The question is: Do you have the flexibility to operate and be competitive. If the Union helps you be flexible, then the Union is an asset. If the Union forbids or handicaps this flexibility to operate, then you have a problem."
You can't be clearer than that and the leaders of the Unions have taken it to heart, delivering the standard of living of US workers to the employers in the process.
The capitalist class was very clear about its intentions as Business Week explained some time ago:
"It will be a hard pill for many Americans to swallow--the idea of doing with less so that big business can have more...Nothing that this nation, or any other nation, has done in modern economic history compares with the selling job that must be done to make people except this reality." Business Week 10-12-74.
We should pay attention to them. Its best to know what your enemy's plans are if you intend to piut a stop to them and implement your own.
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