The Crystal Ball Speaketh: GM

Outsourced to Russ Roberts of Cafe Hayek (left):

You could do a survey on whether people think GM is going to improve its products and profitability with the help of the government’s steadying hand. Or you could just turn to the invisible hand for a measure of how people think it’s going at GM. The WSJ reports:

Ford Motor Co. posted a 33% rise in December U.S. light-vehicle sales, ending a stellar year for the auto maker compared with its rivals. Ford recorded its first full-year market-share gain since 1995.

Meanwhile, Chrysler Group LLC posted a 3.7% decline compared with a year earlier and said its full-year sales were the worst the auto maker had seen in 47 years.

The largest U.S. auto maker—General Motors Co.—posted a 5.7% decline, but said its process to sell down Pontiac and Saturn inventory was ahead of schedule and reported a 2.2% increase for the four brands GM will keep after its streamlining.

Toyota Motor Corp. of Japan said its U.S. sales rose 32% to 187,860 vehicles last month.

Crazy new business strategy: convince the government to take control of your competitors. It works until the government can no longer deny it's losing. When that happens, sell. Governments tend to be poor sports about such things.