Published: May 03, 2009 09:53 pm      

Weekly wrap - Monday, May 4, 2009

On GM:

The latest proposal to save General Motors marks yet another deep intrusion by the federal government into the marketplace to save a company considered too important to fail.

The new plan undercuts almost all of the arguments GM and its supporters put forward a few months ago in pleading for federal aid to stave off bankruptcy.

Is it about saving jobs? GM, if it proceeds with the plan, will have shrunk from once employing more than 500,000 workers to a little more than 40,000 by the time the latest cuts are made. Is it about protecting dealerships? The automaker says it will pare about 2,600 dealerships by the end of 2010, a decline of 42 percent from a year ago.

Two clear winners would emerge from the new proposal: big government and organized labor. The federal government would own a majority share of the company. The United Auto Workers would own a 39 percent stake in the company, the result of GM paying off $20.4 billion it owes for retiree health care.

The biggest losers under the proposal would be bondholders, who would receive only a 10 percent share of the company on $27 billion in investments.

Analyst Shelly Lombard told USA Today that creditors should learn a key lesson from the GM debacle: “If there’s a hint of bankruptcy, walk away.”

It’s unfortunate the federal government didn’t heed that advice months ago, before billions of dollars were wasted and the free market was distorted beyond recognition.

– The Indianapolis Star

On teen driver safety:

It’s prom season, school will soon be out and graduation is just weeks away. There is so much for teens to celebrate. But celebrations — when they combine alcohol and driving — can quickly go wrong.

In 2005, a daily average of 12 teens, 16 to 19 years of age, died in motor vehicle crashes in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As inexperienced drivers, sometimes without a fully developed sense of judgment, teens are more prone to accidents than most other drivers. When you add the presence of young passengers in the car, the incidence of traffic accidents rises. When you add the presence of alcohol, the prevalence of tragic accidents skyrockets.

So the message to teenagers is a familiar one: Don’t do it. Don’t drink and drive. It’s a recipe for disaster.

But sometimes parents miss the point. Some parents actually supply alcohol to their kids for graduation parties and proms. A greater number of moms and dads either turn the other way or don’t take the risks of underage alcohol consumption seriously.

These parents should face the facts — and talk to their kids about the risks of drinking and driving. If the teen suffers from a sense of immortality, put it another way: What if you drink and drive and slam into a car carrying a baby?

– The Herald Bulletin, Anderson