The New York Times asked a number of economists to respond to the question, “do we need a domestic auto industry? Many American manufacturing industries, like textiles and electronics, long ago moved to other producing countries. Why is the auto industry different?”

I know this is a few weeks old, but it took me awhile to get through it all.
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Chrysler will soon be closing almost 800 of its dealerships.
Those on the chopping block represent almost 25 percent of the company’s dealers, the Detroit Free Press reports. “Some of the 789 dealerships slated to close have survived world wars, recessions and Chrysler’s 1981 federal loan guarantee. Many are family owned.”

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Today’s New York Times has a story on how the auto-industry downturn and layoffs have even impacted some of Detroit’s wealthiest suburbs.
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Submitted by New York Times readers:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/04/02/business/economy/economy-user-photos.html
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Here’s more confirmation that not all areas of the country are suffering equally in this recession:
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/24/how-some-places-fare-better-in-hard-times/
“Unemployment today, as in previous recessions, is strongly linked to manufacturing. Old-line industries, like car manufacturing, have been declining for decades, and such industries are also more likely to lay off masses of workers during a downturn.”
We already knew places like Ohio and Michigan are worse off; this blog post has some interesting charts that show how bad the disparity is.
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