Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World

by Adam Tooze

Amid the banking crisis of 2008, the American motor industry had been collateral damage. With sales collapsing, GM and Chrysler were knocked to their knees. In December 2008 a truculent Congress voted down an emergency aid package, but neither Bush nor Obama thought they could let GM and Chrysler fail. These once great powerhouses of American industrialism were rescued by diverting funds originally allocated to the bank bailout. By 2013 both GM and Chrysler were back in profit. Like the rest of American big business, they weathered the storm and Chrysler celebrated its recovery in the way that corporate America does, by booking a slot to run a headline-grabbing commercial during the Super Bowl in February 2014. They wanted something that would make a splash and they commissioned the man to do it. The spot was written, directed and acted in person by Bob Dylan, the wizened bard of offbeat Americana. Against a backdrop of Hopperesque noir, Dylan delivered a striking piece of high-caliber nationalist kitsch: Is there anything more American than America? ’Cause you can’t import original. You can’t fake true cool. You can’t duplicate legacy. Because what Detroit created was a first and became an inspiration to the . . . rest of the world.