Prices are hitting rock bottom, there is global overcapacity and there are no apparent prospects for a change in this dismal combination.

In another respect, though, concerns about global overcapacity in auto production are industry-specific and, by most accounts, well justified.

This merger wave was brought on by global overcapacity for aluminum and prices that have plunged to five-year lows.

The inflation rate in the United States has fallen in part because of global overcapacity, and business people everywhere complain that they can't raise prices.

Q. The conventional argument for mergers is global overcapacity.

Thanks to global overcapacity and a reluctance by European consumers to spend money, competition has been brutal for the last several years among producers of midsized or small cars.

Given the existing global overcapacity (frequently reported in your pages), stock prices could not rise forever.

As Mr. Lamy notes in his letter, the root problem is the global overcapacity of steel production and resulting stiff competition.

But all this talk about global overcapacity suggests that automakers see themselves as all making the very same thing.

That is the fundamental problem right now - market saturation and global overcapacity.