Late to the car park

David Brooks (who I am trying to read more of- as an act of exposing myself to thoughtful opposing viewpoints) has an insightful column today. What struck me most was his characterization of GM as being in the restructuring business. To wit,

Some companies are in the steel business, some are in the cookie business, but General Motors is in the restructuring business. For 30 years, G.M. has been restructuring itself toward long-term viability.

It reminded me of a course I took many, many years ago as an undergraduate back there in the Middle West where I grew up. I cannot remember the exact course title, it was one of those upper division special topic courses. It might have been the course on the history of capitalism, not sure. In any event the course reading list included Brock Yates masterful account of Detroit's major business entitled The Decline and Fall of the American Automobile Industry. Published in 1983, it is almost eerie how little has changed. Which is odd considering that all of the managers who drove GM off that particular road are long since retired. In fact most of the new guys running the place are in their early 50's. Perhaps it cannot all be blamed on the management, after all, the share holders, unions and board own some of this. But, I am reminded of a definition of insanity that remains popular: repeating the same experiment, the same way and expecting different results.