Date of Submission
Spring 2016
Academic Programs and Concentrations
Economics
Project Advisor 1
James Felkerson
Abstract/Artist's Statement
This paper examines the developments that lead up to the government bailout of General Motors and Chrysler in 2009. The purpose is to examine and discover the historical, industrial and financial factors that drove American cars into the ground. In today’s society, the perception is that foreign automobiles are superior to domestic vehicles. This comes half a century after culture in the United States circulated around the American automobile. The American big business techniques built a manufacturing empire, differentiated the US from the foreigners and then weakened the long-term development of the automotive industry. Financialization became a support in an attempt to support a crumbling system. Each individual strategy was successful in the short term but came together to negatively influence the long-term industry. These elements conclude a self-destructive fate of the US automobile manufacturers. The bailout was not the fault of the nation but rather the responsibility of the Big Three.
Access Agreement
Open Access
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Ellenbogen, Max Samuel, "A Decade of Downfall: The Industrial and Financial Self-Destruction of the American Automobile Industry Through 2009" (2016). Senior Projects Spring 2016. 243.
https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2016/243
This work is protected by a Creative Commons license. Any use not permitted under that license is prohibited.
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Accounting Commons, Business Administration, Management, and Operations Commons, Finance and Financial Management Commons