Reason Writers on TV: Peter Suderman Talks GM Bailouts, Debt Uncertainty on Freedom Watch

On January 15, 2012, Reason Associate Editor Peter Suderman appeared on Freedom Watch with Judge Napolitano to argue that the recent surge in the sales ranking for General Motors vehicles doesn't prove that the auto bailout worked. Approximately seven minutes. 

Comments

[You just do not get it]

But they're big. Huge, even. Like India Railways or China's PLA. Ginormous! What other measure of success would you use?

[shrike]

TARP - the bill that brain-damaged more Americans than any bill in my lifetime - except perhaps the Civil Rights Act.

[Mackays novel The Anarchists]

In essence: would you, in your proposed society, permit those who so wished to have private property, to engage in free market transactions, to hire workers in "capitalist' relations; etc.?

[Barry D]

I think it's even more fundamental.

Sales rankings do matter, of course, but absent a lot of other data, they don't tell you about the health of the company.

Say Samsung wants to have a bigger market share than Apple, with its recently-introduced iPad competitors. They can do this overnight. Just sell them for $1 on every street corner.

They're pretty nice. I'd bet that Samsung would exceed Apple's current near-monopoly market share in a week or less. Samsung would be number 1!

And they'd soon drive the company to bankruptcy, if this continued.

With dot-coms, it was obvious that many companies were following the Underwear Gnomes business plan. It's equally possible to do this with a bunch of big factories, as well, particularly with massive taxpayer subsidies. Then it comes crashing down...

[Heroic Mulatto]

Underwear Gnomes

Underwear Gnomes?

You can't fool us with that pseudonym, Dr. Cantor.

[Loki]

the recent surge in the sales ranking for General Motors vehicles doesn't prove that the auto bailout worked

...but it does prove that a lot of peopl have shitty taste when it comes to cars. GM sucks.

[wareagle]

I am surprised the judge found time in his non-stop campaigning for RP to address another topic.

Memo to Napolitano: you love Paul; we get it. You think the others are pinheads; we get that, too. Lots of folks even agree with you. But this non-stop shilling makes you look like Fox's version of the MSNBC Obama cheerleading team.

[ryan]

Because there's no difference in cheering for Obama and cheering for Paul and his ideas...

[Rubicon]

Napolitano is the only reason to watch Fox. A lone voice crying out in the barbaric neocon wilderness is better than the deafening roar of stupidity we would otherwise be subjected to. Not that it's a counterbalance but it is a step in the right direction.

[marya]

My sister has a longchamp and she likes the Longchamp Bag very much. When people ask her why she likes her sac longchamp Bag so much, she just answers like that thee is no reason and because she likes my Longchamp Bag, so she likes it.