Sweden might have set a horrible example in nationalizing it's banks, but in the case of Saab, needing to be bailed out, or taken over.... the answer is NO way, no bailout.
Saab Automobile may be just another crisis-ridden car company in an industry full of them. But just as the fortunes of Flint, Mich., are permanently entangled with General Motors, so it is impossible to find anyone in this city in southwest Sweden who is not somehow connected to Saab.
Which makes it all the more wrenching that the Swedish government has responded to Saab’s desperate financial situation by saying, essentially, tough luck. Or, as the enterprise minister, Maud Olofsson, put it recently, “The Swedish state is not prepared to own car factories.”
That is the exact answer AIG, our banks, our car companies and any other privately run business that fails, should be getting from our government.
TOUGH LUCK.
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