The "Big Three" U.S. market share has declined from 70% in 1998 to 53% in 2008. They have lost market share to imports and "transplants" (cars made in U.S. factories owned by foreign makers).
Hyman Minsky has proposed a simplified explanation that is most applicable to a closed economy. He theorized that financial fragility is a typical feature of any capitalist economy. High fragility leads to a higher risk of a financial crisis. To facilitate his analysis, Minsky defines three types of financing firms choose according to their tolerance of risk.