Business World

In Defense of 'Old General Motors'

Congress is talking about ratcheting up penalties, but auto recalls already outnumber new car sales.

April 4, 2014 7:04 p.m. ET

Though it was not her intention, Mary Barra's Congressional testimony this week probably buried for good the idea that bankruptcy brought forth a "New GM."

In any real bankruptcy, General Motors would have been brutally downsized. Its labor contracts likely would have been voided. It likely wouldn't be led now by a 30-year veteran of the GM bureaucracy. What actually occurred under the Obama administration has been...

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