Omigod!!! GM was the biggest

When I was a kid I derived great pleasure just from knowing the name of the largest corporation in the world. General Motors was the answer. So what happened? I think a few things happened along the way to today. Rising gas prices happened, energy efficient cars happened, foreign competition happened and internal complacency, internal politics and greed happened. But I don't understand why nobody at GM noticed fifty years ago that those little "beetle" cars were being bought in droves.  And, how did they miss the Japanese and German and Korean invasion?  And, where did the quality go Dr. Deming?  And, why wasn't anyone trend watching as a 10-year-old could have predicted the rise in energy prices 30 years ago.  So why bail them out?  Well, our total national unemployment rate would rise dramatically as all of those autoworkers go on the government dole along with the employees of all, or at least most, of their many suppliers who provide steel, and plastics and glass and etc. etc. etc.  And, the reason I'm even thinking about this...what about all of the lawyers???  Omigod...how does a law firm go from representing the former largest corporation in the world to being one of the creditors of the largest bankruptcy in global history?  And, what effect is this going to have on the IP community that represents the auto industry???  Stay tuned folks as the world is changing.