By the time the red alarm started ringing—that is, when GM lost $82 billion in the three and a half years leading up to the federal bailout—it was too late. The auto industry’s collapse has left the Motor City in dire straits. “The great thing about living in America’s most abandoned city,” deadpanned Walsh, the local columnist, “is that there is never any traffic at any hour.” Abandoned is certainly the word that comes to mind if you walk the streets just outside of the main downtown drag in Detroit. You can go blocks without seeing anybody. Empty houses languish. Some are professionally
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