Posted by Jed Lewison on Sun Nov 16, 2008 at 8:17 PM Pacific

Sunday Evening & A Random Thought

I've been heads-down most of the day working on a video-related project that is still a few weeks away, but that I think you'll enjoy when it's finally ready.

As you probably know, President-elect Obama and Michelle Obama gave their first post-election interviews to 60 Minutes. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem as if 60 Minutes has posted the video yet, but I'm sure it will be coming soon, and I'll put it up when I see it online.

I had a random thought about the auto industry bailout being discussed. What if instead of bailing out the industry, the U.S. government decided to replace not only its entire fleet of roughly 400,000 cars, but also fund the replacement of most state and local government cars -- and gave the contract to U.S. automakers?

Of course, the replacement cars would have meet strict efficiency standards. That would probably require some R&D work, so perhaps the government would both pre-pay, and offer up a premium, but the idea would be that automakers would be forced to deliver something tangible for the economic assistance, and it would be something that would keep people working.

It also would encourage the auto industry to build better cars without creating a huge new fight about regulation.

One important caveat would be that the existing government fleet would have to be recycled somehow, which would be a major undertaking.

If you combined such an approach with merging health care reform and the stimulus plan, you might be able to save the auto companies without just giving money away, and more importantly, you'd be keeping people working, and making sure they get health care.

As I've said before, I'm no expert on this stuff, so please, feel free to tell me if my idea is total bunk.

Sunday Evening & A Random Thought

I've been heads-down most of the day working on a video-related project that is still a few weeks away, but that I think you'll enjoy when it's finally ready.

As you probably know, President-elect Obama and Michelle Obama gave their first post-election interviews to 60 Minutes. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem as if 60 Minutes has posted the video yet, but I'm sure it will be coming soon, and I'll put it up when I see it online.

I had a random thought about the auto industry bailout being discussed. What if instead of bailing out the industry, the U.S. government decided to replace not only its entire fleet of roughly 400,000 cars, but also fund the replacement of most state and local government cars -- and gave the contract to U.S. automakers?

Of course, the replacement cars would have meet strict efficiency standards. That would probably require some R&D work, so perhaps the government would both pre-pay, and offer up a premium, but the idea would be that automakers would be forced to deliver something tangible for the economic assistance, and it would be something that would keep people working.

It also would encourage the auto industry to build better cars without creating a huge new fight about regulation.

One important caveat would be that the existing government fleet would have to be recycled somehow, which would be a major undertaking.

If you combined such an approach with merging health care reform and the stimulus plan, you might be able to save the auto companies without just giving money away, and more importantly, you'd be keeping people working, and making sure they get health care.

As I've said before, I'm no expert on this stuff, so please, feel free to tell me if my idea is total bunk.

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