Business Writer Says GM Should Survive

The United States will be better off if General Motors survives, says a journalist who visited Carnegie Mellon University today. Bill Holstein wrote the book "Why GM Matters: Inside the Race to Transform an American Icon." He says most people think losing GM would just mean losing some jobs in Michigan and Ohio. Holstein says the effect on GM going out of business would be much more far-reaching; the company is the nation's largest private buyer of information technology and world's largest buyer of steel. He says countless businesses that support GM would face financial hardship at a time the economy is already hurting.

Holstein says he believes GM's leaders are moving in the right direction to turn the company around. But he thinks the government will force the company into bankruptcy. If GM survives, he says he believes it will become much smaller and more globalized, and will return to profitability once consumer confidence picks up.