When Lawyers Make Cars

The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) has an article describing how secured creditors in the Chrysler bankruptcy gave up their place at the head of the line for claims on Chrysler assets. At one point, an anonymous Obama flunky (the remark appears to have Rahm Emanuel all over it) notes:

"You don't need banks and bondholders to make cars," said one administration official.

Hundreds of car companies, based in dozens of countries and dozens of cultures, some of them the world's largest and most successful companies, somehow have in over a century of making and selling cars all managed not to figure this out. But our lawyer president, our lawyer vice president, our lawyer presidential chief of staff, and the other highly credentialed fellows not willing to speak on the record have finally got it all figured out. Thank goodness.