It's not just a matter of a lag. The Big 3 owe auto suppliers around $10 billion for parts already delivered. These suppliers need payment soon to avoid their o

It's not just a matter of a lag. The Big 3 owe auto suppliers around $10 billion for parts already delivered. These suppliers need payment soon to avoid their own bankruptcies - payment they won't receive with a Big 3 collapse. If many suppliers go bankrupt, presumably parts will become more expensive for all domestic carmakers, including the Japanese companies, leading to more layoffs across the industry. All these layoffs - a number potentially around 3 million jobs - represents a significant drop in aggregate demand within the entire economy, and puts even more pressure on state and local governments already struggling to raise revenues, to say nothing of unemployment insurance. The bottom line is demand is not constant. A Big 3 failure would push demand down in the form of people who can't afford things because they don't have jobs. That can cascade in unexpected ways.