Sperling: COVID rescue plan shows lessons learned in other crises Gene Sperling has had a front-row seat to the decline of the U.S. automotive industry and more than one economic meltdown. He’s also played instrumental roles in the needed repairs. The Ann Arbor native has held economic advisory roles in the Clinton, Obama and now Biden administrations. He’s been charged on more than one occasion with the federal response to crises that roiled his home state: the 2009 automotive bailout and the 2013 city of Detroit bankruptcy. Now, the economist is serving as a special adviser overseeing the implementation of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan relief package, signed by President Joe Biden in March. Sperling, who was a speaker at this year’s Detroit Homecoming, spoke with Crain’s on his role in the 2008 automotive industry bailout, and what it means in today’s climate. | BY NICK MANES As a key player in developing the recovery package from the Great Recession, what are the lessons learned there? I will always be proud to have been part of the team for President (Barack) Obama that pushed very hard for saving the automobile industry, and particularly Chrysler. While of course that was the right thing to do for Detroit, more importantly, it was the right thing to do for the future of American manufacturing. The lesson that taught is that when you allow a failure like that, it’s not just about temporary job loss. You kill the supply
chain, the skill set that you need to be competitive in the future, in that area. I think when people look at American manufacturing, they’ll look at consumer electronics, when people sat by and let the industry collapse. And then later, when the smartphone revolution happened, we had no supply chain or capacity to compete with China, and we lost hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of jobs. The counter is, we didn’t let the American automobile industry go under.
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See SPERLING on Page 22
American Rescue Plan special adviser Gene Sperling at Detroit Homecoming at Mike Ilitch School of Business in Detroit . |NIC ANTAYA FOR CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS
