Nothing concentrates a man's mind more than his execution.

No surprises then that The Wall Street Journal reports that GM is now in talks with Chrysler about a merger. If the merger goes ahead, and shrinks the Big Three auto firms to two, it might have massive ramifications for Ford. Still, it's not a done deal. All eyes will be on Cerberus, the private equity firm which last year acquired 80.1% of Chrysler from Daimler which, at the time, was all too happy to jettison the US auto firm.

Obviously, things are bad for GM at the moment and there's talk of bankruptcy, something I already covered in yesterday's blog entry. But what's disturbing is that Chrysler has been struggling in the car industry's downturn and has been losing money. That brings to mind the observation of the great Peter Drucker who said: "Too many mergers resemble the marriage of two cripples who become twice as old, twice as bureaucratic and twice as undynamic."

Tom Walsh from the Detroit Free Press sums it up well when he says it will create even bigger problems. "With two years of extremely weak sales staring the U.S. industry in the face, Chrysler - the company most dependent on the U.S. market and with the weakest lineup of oversized vehicles - is in dire straits. GM and Ford Motor Co., of course, aren't in much better shape. And maybe GM sees in Chrysler some minivans it can sell, and a Jeep brand that might still have a bit of international cachet. But the headaches? All the plants to close, all the tortuous discussions with the UAW, all of the possible litigation with dealers. It's too horrible to contemplate."

The Autoblog has a similar warning. "The merger of GM and Chrysler would put Cerberus in charge of an "unspecified equity stake" in the corporation, making the two-headed General-Chrysler (or Chrysler Motors?) the world's largest automaker, controlling over 35 percent of the U.S. vehicle market, causing rifts among brand faithful and offering more potential (vehicle) cannibalization than the Donner Party. Not to mention both automakers' labor contracts, supplier dealers and slipping market share. Shocked? Don't be. We give it a snowball's chance on the Sun."

Maybe, but these are desperate times. And when times get tough, people panic and make stupid decisions