Times certainly are "a changin!" GM Bankruptcy Probable as Obama Shields UAW Benefits

Read Bloomberg article here.

The paradigm shift is now in full swing.

Whether you like it or not, the paradigm of the past 30 years, which featured massive deregulation and free trade, and favored businesses (mostly large corporations) and investors over wokers, wages and benefits, is shifting. As the former loses its influence in Washington, the latter is taking on a new position of high importance.

No one should be surprised by this as Obama telegraphed it from the early days of his campaign. It just took 100 days for it to happen.

Many will lament that this marks the end of the American economy, but such statements may be nothing more than grand overstatement. Over the course of the past 220 years this country has witnessed far more pronounced swings in political ideology and the economy has survived and even thrived.

While the "Free to Choose" crowd probably had the right idea back in the mid-1970s, it seems pretty clear that the concept was taken to an extreme in recent years and its intent became perverted. The bust we just witnessed was due in no small part to a distortion of what was once a good philosophy. At least that's my opinion.

Shifting the playing field back toward workers and wages now is probably not a bad thing and the markets seem to agree, regardless of how intensely the financiers of Wall Street rail in protest.