The View Through the Bushian Looking Glass

GM got a stern dressing down when it showed up in Washington with Detroit's other suffering automakers, hat in hand, seeking a bailout. Would you rescue an outfit with these characteristics:

The company is on shaky financial footing, perhaps insolvent. It is guilty of overpaying workers (blue-collar employees got generous union contracts that provided unsustainable benefits). Its core business suffered from stunningly bad decisions (not developing enough good high-mileage or green vehicles, for example, leaving the company with unpopular products it has trouble selling).

The verdict: Let it perish! But what about the following supplicant:

The company is on shaky financial footing, perhaps insolvent. It is guilty of overpaying workers (white-collar executives got outrageous bonuses and salaries that didn't reflect the long-term viability of the operations they oversaw). Its core business suffered from stunningly bad decisions (taking on too much leverage and acquiring risky, complex securities, leaving the company with unpopular products it has trouble selling).

The verdict: Save it at any cost!

Of course this second example is Citigroup. The financial giant not only received a bailout, but the terms were astonishingly generous. First Citigroup gets a $20 billion loan. Then the federal government agrees to backstop its losses on $306 billion of potentially crappy mortgage-backed securities. That's billion with a “b.” Worst-case scenario, taxpayers would be on the hook for roughly $250 billion on the backstop provision alone. That's more than ten times how much the embattled Big Three automakers sought to borrow, only to be rebuffed.

To be clear: GM shouldn't get a rescue package, not without a tough shakedown. But what about Citigroup? I know it's large. I know letting it fail would be akin to letting die the guy in the science-fiction film whose body is teeming with highly virulent viruses that, if he expires, will explode into the air and perhaps wipe out civilization.

But can’t the Bush team knuckle down and drive a hard bargain with at least one of these financial companies, especially since they’re bargaining from a position of weakness? It’s really baffling.