i woke up this morning and my neck hurt like hell. i think it has something to do with the GM bankruptcy and how relatively sudden it seems. i know they were talking about it all last week, but it doesn’t seem that long ago people were sort of freaking out that toyota’s global sales topped GM’s (1/21/09, to be exact). things weren’t rosy, but they weren’t banner-headline terrible.

it reads like absurdist comedy now:

Still, Mr. DiGiovanni said that G.M. remained upbeat about the latter part of the year, when it believed a recovery could begin. “The fundamentals are in place for a second-half recovery,” he said. “We’re starting to see the positive signs that we thought we would see.”

sure it’s corporate mumbo jumbo, but it’s still a long way from slipping to #2 to where we are now.

i’m also suffering from severe number fatigue. 3,000 white-collar workers, 2,100 dealerships, 21,000 hourly workers. gah. i know i’m going to business school and should love numbers and stuff, but i’m waiting for an episode of this american life to bring it all together.

Tags: economy, gm, this american life | Comments (1)