Seems to me that if you want Mom-n-Pop stores around, you support them by shopping there... I do not expect G.M. or Ford to succeed until someone buys their products, why wouldn't Uncle Sugar buy a butload of trucks from them instead of GIVING them money ? Uncle Sugar could then build some big-o wharehouses to park the thousands of new trucks in (stimulating some construction and material sales), then trickle these trucks into the free market AFTER the economy gets back on it's feet. Same could be said for other markets...sending the top guy at Weyco a few billion won't stimulate lumber nor paper market, but buy a few billion dollars worth of paper and lumber and people will be working the next day...

So far the "bail-outs" and "stimulus" looks like theft on a biblical scale...

Bush, Obama, and largely ignorant/empathetic voters all to blame.