Earnhardt Economics

Those looking to bolster the efforts of GM to get loans from the government to weather the economic crisis got a voice to raise expectations: Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

The most popular driver in NASCAR had this to say:

Earnhardt doesn’t believe GM will go the way of failed banks.

“They’re too big,” he said. “The government won’t let them fail.”

For those that don't follow NASCAR, this would be akin to Derek Jeter saying something like that about NY politics. Earnhardt has a national following so large he runs his own social networking site.

If NASCAR nation is expecting the government to give the loans, it will be harder for those who depend on their support to reject the idea. Back when the bailouts began, Representative Scott Garrett often would ask how we define "too big to fail". Well, Earnhardt may have just defined that for Washington. It should be interesting to see how the debate plays out down there.