I've been dissing General Motors for years, baffled as to why anyone would choose a GM car over a Japanese model unless out of pure patriotism. Lately, the auto manufacturer has been busy rearranging the deck chairs on the Lusitania, preparing for a day when it will have to compete not only against the Japanese, but against a Chinese assembly line capable of cranking out well equipped luxury cars for under $25k. It seems obvious at this point that GM -- and Ford, and Chrysler ' will not be able to shrink fast enough to meet the threat head-on, even in bankruptcy. It's inevitable that they will dump their pension obligations onto some corporate shell owned by the taxpayers and cut healthcare amenities to the bone, but even that won't be enough to pare overhead to levels competitive with the exurbs of Shanghai. With the demise of GM looming in the middle distance, the denizens of Wall Street were doing exactly what we might have expected of them on Friday ' i.e., scrambling to cover short positions lest the squeeze begun a month prove financially fatal. They are still on the ropes, as the chart below makes clear, but there is surely no reason for them to take heart in the fact that GM shares held their own on two consecutive days when the Dow Industrials fell more than 100 points. (Click on chart to enlarge) As it happens, a Rick's Picks subscriber is well placed within the trucking business to see GM's problems up-close. Here's a dispatch from 'Driver Dave of London Ontario' that you may find interesting. I received it during Wednesday's regular Q&A session: 'I am a new month-long subscriber and I look forward to your daily comments and recommendations. I'm hoping you can guide me towards a
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