In Which We Explore the Possibility That Some Businesses Fail for a Reason

I don't know how I missed this, but a couple of weeks ago struggling American auto manufacturer General Motors announced that it was exploring the possibility of selling its "Hummer" brand.

Had they done so three years ago, they' would have realized billions of dollars in profits. Now, with gas prices headed up up up, the powerful symbol of "fuck you" consumption will sell, if at all, for nearly nothing. The reason for that is obvious:

Oil at $130 a barrel, the messy conflict in Iraq, the crash in housing prices and a sluggish economy have taken the sizzle out of Hummer's sales. It takes 99 days for a dealer to sell one, more than twice as long as five years ago. And if sales continue at their current rate, only 8,000 H2s will sell this year, less than a quarter of the 34,529 sold in the U.S. in 2003.

Pardon me a moment, but anyone paying even a little attention could see that gas prices, long-term, were going to go up. They've been going up, in fits and starts, for years, and the amazing thing is how long behemoths like Hummer were able to hold on. Any company with an ounce of awareness would have unloaded the brand years ago.