What I learned as a Car Czar

Wall Street Journal ^ | 6/1/09 | Ion Mihai Parcepa

[SueRae]

By ION MIHAI PACEPA They say history repeats itself. If you are like me and have lived two lives, you have a good chance of seeing the re-enactment with your own eyes. The current takeover of General Motors by the U.S. government and United Auto Workers makes me think back to Romania's catastrophic mismanagement of the car factories it built jointly with the French companies Renault and Citroen. I was Romania's car czar.

When the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu decided in the mid-1960s that he wanted to have a car industry, he chose me to start the project rolling. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. I knew nothing about manufacturing cars, but neither did anyone else among Ceausescu's top men. However, my father had spent most of his life running the service department of the General Motors affiliate in Bucharest.

My job at the time was as head of the Romanian industrial espionage program. Ceausescu tasked me to mediate the purchase of a minimum, basic license for a small car from a major Western manufacturer, and then to steal everything else needed to produce the car.

Three Western companies competed for the honor. Ceausescu decided on Renault, because it was owned by the French government (all Soviet bloc rulers distrusted private companies). We ended up with a license for an antiquated and about-to-be-discontinued Renault-12 car, because it was the cheapest. "Good enough for the idiots," Ceausescu decided, showing what he thought of the Romanian people. He baptized the car Dacia, to commemorate Romania's 2,000-year history going back to Dacia Felix, as the ancient Romans called that part of the world. In that government-run economy, symbolism was the most important consideration, especially when it came to things in short supply (such as food).

[SueRae]

I read other articles from this man. Coming from a former Communist country, his insights are always interesting. I wish the sheeple were paying attention...

[hoosiermama]

bump

[Perdogg]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/search?s=What+I+learned+as+a+Car+Czar&ok=Search&q=quick&m=all&o=time&SX=4a23a574efa1443857ef5062b2f77126a363742b

[hoosiermama]

thanks...just wanted to bump to read later....more comments on the other thread and this one will probably get locked as a duplicate.

[Last Dakotan]

In 1945, the British voters, tired of four years of war, kicked out Winston Churchill and elected a leftist parliament led by Labour's Clement Attlee. Attlee nationalized the automobile, trucking and coal industries, as well as communication facilities, civil aviation, electricity and steel. Britain was already saddled by crushing war debts. Now it was sapped of economic vigor. The old empire quickly passed into history. It would take decades until Margaret Thatcher's privatization reforms restored Britain's place among the world's top-tier economies. The United States is far more powerful than Great Britain was then, and no American Attlee should be capable of destroying its solid economic and political base.

Whistling past the graveyard are we?

[brownsfan]

“I wish the sheeple were paying attention...”

Me too. But then again, if they were, we wouldn’t be in this mess.

[Lost Highway]

“I hope that the U.S. administration, Congress and the American voters will take a closer look at history and prevent our automotive industry from following down the Dacia, Oltcit or Jaguar path.”

That’s gonna happen.

[Quix]

BTTT

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

In 1945, the British voters, tired of four years of war, kicked out Winston Churchill and elected a leftist parliament led by Labour's Clement Attlee. Attlee nationalized the automobile, trucking and coal industries, as well as communication facilities, civil aviation, electricity and steel. Britain was already saddled by crushing war debts. Now it was sapped of economic vigor. The old empire quickly passed into history. It would take decades until Margaret Thatcher's privatization reforms restored Britain's place among the world's top-tier economies.

John O'Sullivan on Thatcher Palin comparison

[razorback-bert]

they replaced the metal body with one made of plastic-covered cardboard

Coming soon.