Professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton University
Position:
Pro to the question "Should the Big Three car manufacturers be bailed out by the US government?"
Reasoning:
"[I]f it were any kind of normal time, the answer would be clear. Let the thing go into bankruptcy, Chapter 11, continues to operate, restructure a lot of stuff. There are two reasons why this is a big problem now and why I'm kind of very reluctantly screaming in favor of some kind of bailout. One is that the credit markets are frozen. So normally a company can keep operating, declare Chapter 11 but keeps operating but that depends on being able to continue to get credit lines to do business. And you can't do that right now. So Chapter 11 quickly becomes Chapter 7 which is liquidation. So we actually see the thing disappear and then we're talking about a million plus jobs probably disappearing. The other is we're in the middle of this terrible, terrible slump and letting GM go under is an enormous anti-stimulus policy. It would be working towards a major negative blow to the economy... You know, this is not a good time to stand on principle and say we shouldn't bail these guys out."
Interview on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Nov. 16, 2008
Experts
Individuals with JDs, PhDs, other relevant advanced degrees, CEO's of major car manufacturing companies, and government officials with significant involvement in, or related to, automotive, business, and bankruptcy issues. [Note: Experts definition varies by site]
Involvement and Affiliations:
Recipient, Nobel Prize for Economics, 2008
Op/Ed Columnist, New York Times, 1999-present
Professor of Economics and International Affairs, Princeton University
Former Ford International Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Formerly taught at Yale University and Stanford University
Recipient, John Bates Clark Medal, American Economic Association
Education:
PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 1977
