As a pretty smart guy once said: "Everything's relative"

Which brings us back to Wagner's original point. $25 Bln is some serious coin, but in the context of a $700 Bln bailout for irresponsible behemoth-investment-banks, $25 bln is chump change. It basically goes to show that the investment bank lobby has a lot more clout on Capitol Hill than the automakers...

I'm no fan of the American auto industry or the UAW. Ask any lawyer and they'll tell you that half the case law they learned in Law School was "Mr. xxxxx vs. Ford Motor Company". Ford executives going back to the 1960s have more blood on their hands than the Sicilian mafia. Time and again they have been shown to put profits ahead of safety, whether it's exploding gas tanks on pick-ups, or Ford Explorers flipping over on a whim.
But even with all that, I'd rather see Washington put $$$ towards something that you can see and touch and drive, instead of the speculative black hole Investment Banks that deal in papers, wire transfers, and loansharking.