Amazing

For a lifelong Democrat (recently) turned Libertarian, my discovery of Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. has been a revelation. Judging by his name, he may have actually been here at Plymouth Rock guiding the Mayflower into port. I have never seen a "Holman" or even a "Jr." writing for the Times.

You never hear stuff like this outside of the Journal. Really amazing- makes perfect sense. I always wondered why there were hardly any foreign pickups in the US.

For more than 40 years, a 25% tariff has kept out foreign-built pickup trucks even as a studied loophole was created in fuel-economy regulations to let the Big Three develop a lucrative, protected niche in the "passenger truck" business. [read: SUV]

This became the long-running unwritten deal. This was Washington's real auto policy.

For three decades, the Big Three were able to survive precisely because they skimped on quality and features in the money-losing sedans they were required under Congress's fuel economy rules to build in high-cost UAW factories. In return, Washington compensated them with the hothouse, politically protected opportunity to profit from pickups and SUVs.

Doesn't sound much like what you hear incessantly from your Congressman, about how Detroit's problems are all due to management "incompetence" in deciding to build "gas guzzling" SUVs, does it?

Kinda makes your head spin if you're a lefty, assuming this makes any sense to you.