Automotive parts suppliers can now take their turn at the bailout trough. The Treasury Department has opened the spigot to the tune of $5 billion. Companies rejoiced. The backdrop, however, is much darker; more like a game of musical chairs with the lights turned off. A week before the parts-maker bailout was announced, an analyst with Grant Thornton warned that 500 auto suppliers were at serious risk of failing, and with them much of the supply chain.

LOUD music, fog machines and an often blinding light show. You’ve either stumbled into a Van Halen tribute band concert or you’re at an auto show press conference. Exuberance began and ended with the theatrics of unveiling cars.

The dire circumstances that General Motors finds itself in have been compared to the English-speaking peoples’ favorite epic failure–the sinking of the Titanic. While that tragedy and GM’s troubles to date share such similarities as the rush of water through the luxury liner’s hull and the gush of red ink from the Renaissance Center, the latest turn of events is more like a submarine sinking toward inevitable implosion.