General Motors

For most of the 20th century, General Motors was the largest corporation on Earth. 'What's good for General Motors is good for the country,' its president told Congress in 1953, and it wasn't hyperbole. GM employed over 600,000 people, operated in dozens of countries, and its brands (Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick, GMC, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Saturn) defined American car culture.

GM's decline was decades in the making. It ignored the Japanese quality revolution. It fought fuel efficiency standards. It maintained too many brands making indistinguishable cars. It negotiated pension and healthcare obligations that became crushing as the workforce aged. By the 2000s, GM was losing billions per year while building cars nobody particularly wanted.

When the 2008 financial crisis froze credit markets, GM ran out of cash. On June 1, 2009, General Motors filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the fourth-largest bankruptcy in American history. The US government invested $49.5 billion in bailout funds. GM emerged from bankruptcy in 40 days, shed Pontiac, Saturn, Hummer, and Saab, and has since returned to profitability. The government eventually recovered most of its investment.