In all my years of geopolitical writing and analysis, this has to be one of the more topically different, difficult articles I have penned on a pressing news item at such an economically troublesome hour.

Why? Like, former Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, I grew up in Detroit. In fact, though the Romney family left the city of Detroit for suburban Bloomfield Hills when Mitt was still a boy, his childhood home still sits, now twice foreclosed, just a backyard away from my boyhood home where my parents still reside in Detroit’s historic Palmer Woods neighborhood. Growing up around the block from the Romney Detroit home, we were both the privileged sons of automotive executives (in Mitt’s case – a chief executive of American Motors Corporation and later Michigan Governor and Republican presidential candidate, George Romney and in mine – an industry renown, talented designer for General Motors for over 40 years, Jerry Brochstein) whose fathers worked tirelessly for company and family in pursuit and establishment of the American Dream. Needless to say, despite our vastly different professional roles and achievements in life, it is safe to say that if it were not for the industry commonly known as “Detroit”, Mitt Romney and I would not be where we are today. Which is why it is so difficult for this writer to painfully, but mildly concur with as I am sure it was for Romney to write his op-ed piece yesterday in the New York Times, entitled "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt".

While it personally pains me that my father’s retiree GM health care benefits expire January 1, 2009 as a result of corporate cost-cutting measures coupled with the terrifying prospect of bankruptcy of not just GM, but Ford and Chrysler and the hundreds of companies, communities and millions of hard working people it might adversely affect, Romney has stuck to his “turn around failed organizations” guns by calling a spade a spade contending that “Detroit needs a turn around, not a check”.

In all fairness, Romney’s piece did overlook some valid industry positives and anti-bankruptcy arguments as the Detroit Free Press’s Stephen Henderson duly notes: What he (Romney) gets most wrong, though, is the assumption that bankruptcy will somehow fix the problems he cites rather than exacerbate them and cause a raft of others. In fact, the Big Three have not only already taken significant steps to restructure their operations but they have also stripped away excess capacity so that they'll be able to more competitively price cars in a way they haven't for decades.

However, a painful fact remains in current management's generosity and their stubborn unwillingness to rein in salaries and perks which border on the absurd in the current economic environment. The Big Three's management made this point perfectly this week when they flew separately in private jets to Washington to ask for the bridge loans. Appearances don't get any worse; decision making doesn't get any dumber. The fat-cat, splurge culture is still way too alive and well in Detroit.

While the Big Three have indeed made significant cost cutting strides in recent years, Romney clearly emphasis the differences between Chapter 11 and Chapter 7 bankruptcy “"A managed bankruptcy, not a liquidation may be the only path to the fundamental restructuring the industry needs.”

Now living and working in South Florida, I am reminded of all the discussions and exchanges I had with family, friends and acquaintances back in Detroit. Some knew these current troubled times were inevitable. However, some were downright delusional, insisting that the Big Three, UAW and an eventual government safety net would ultimately save the day. This is now in serious, imminent doubt. Please say a prayer for and keep the hard-working, everyday people of Detroit and the American automotive industry in your thoughts.

Copyright by Jeffrey Brochstein

With over six years of working and living in the Middle East, Jeffrey Brochstein earned two Masters Degrees in International Relations as well as Economics from the University of Birmingham’s (UK) Department of Political Science and International Studies. Jeff can be reached at jeffbrochstein@yahoo.com