John D

A Fed About-Face on GMAC?

The TARP monies were to be used for exactly what GMAC is using it for - to give customers a chance to borrow the money to buy a new vehicle,by the way, has anyone seen where the $350 billion went on Wall St. - bonuses you say - I can only hope that there is some kind of a paper trail and that the money gets to where it needs to be to get things moving forward again. It's not right to hammer the auto sector because of the way they got caught in the credit crunch and even after all the pounding they ARE doing the right thing by getting the economy moving by using the funds for what they were intended - I hope the next is that the financials do the same for businesses to borrow & mortgages to be dealt out RESPONSIBLY and help get through this mess with their lessons learned so we don't have to witness the same mess in the future. Here's to 2009 and hopefully a chance for everyone to prosper.

What Do We Need In 2009? More Failure

It's hard to believe that so many look at the auto industry as a bailout - duh - you should all be looking at it for what it is. The financial sector screwed up royally which Wall St & the government watchdogs all allowed to happen and all of the attention to the auto sector is nothing more than a "smoke & mirrors" show to distract the public. If anything the government allowed the financial sector to collapse - gave them $350 billion with NO accountability (bonuses ???), don't know where most of it went and the only thing that the auto industry did was to get caught in the middle of the credit crunch which they all rely on to sell their products. Wagner & the boys should not have been in Washington answering questions - the government should have been in Detroit telling them how they screwed it up so bad and instead of bonuses on Wall St. the attorney general should have been laying charges to those that abused the system enough to set off a crisis of GLOBAL proportions. If GM - Ford & Chrysler are in financial trouble it's only because of FREE trade instead of EQUAL trade which is another government funded blunder - "come & take ours jobs and profits - we're big enough to handle it - NOT" Hopefully a new government will take the bull by the horns and make changes to an unfair policy to allow the DUMPING of cars and many other products. Time to level the playing field!!

GMAC: A Perfect Sign of the Times

· BRAVO!!! ... GM (GMAC) lending money to start sales moving and people are buying cars !! Perhaps those old fella's in Washington will note what is happening and push Wall St. to do something constructive with the $350 billion they got instead of bonuses for the #^%%$&^'s that caused the CRISIS like use the money for what it was intended like get the economy in a forward motion again.
Wall St. really didn't have to pay huge bonuses to have the financials straighten out the mess, the government just needed to show them that if they would like to face prosecution for mismanagement & the alternative would most definitely would have motivated them - then of course there are people in the government that were put in place to control this as well that should have been doing a song & dance for Detroit and the rest of the country instead of burying the heads of the Big 3 in a smoke and mirrors show.
Now lets just hope that they look at EQUAL trade as opposed to FREE trade and fix a few other issues as well !!

GMAC: Happy to Lend You Some of Your Own Money

BRAVO!!! ... GM (GMAC) lending money to start sales moving and people are buying cars !! Perhaps those old fella's in Washington will note what is happening and push Wall St. to do something constructive with the $350 billion they got instead of bonuses for the #^%%$&^'s that caused the CRISIS like use the money for what it was intended like get the economy in a forward motion again.
They really didn't have to pay bonuses to have them straighten out the mess, the government just needed to show them that if they would like to face prosecution for mismanagement the alternative would seem much less attractive - then of course there are people in the government that were put in place to control this as well that should have been doing a song & dance for Detroit and the rest of the country instead of burying the heads of the Big 3 in a smoke and mirrors show.
Now lets just hope that they look at EQUAL trade as opposed to FREE trade and fix a few other issues as well !!

General Motors Fights Uphill Battle with Double Edged Sword

BRAVO!!! ... GM (GMAC) lending money to start sales moving and people are buying cars !! Perhaps those old fella's in Washington will note what is happening and push Wall St. to do something constructive with the $350 billion they got instead of bonuses for the #^%%$&^'s that caused the CRISIS like use the money for what it was intended like get the economy in a forward motion again.
They really didn't have to pay bonuses to have them straighten out the mess, the government just needed to show them that if they would like to face prosecution for mismanagement the alternative would seem much less attractive - then of course there are people in the government that were put in place to control this as well that should have been doing a song & dance for Detroit and the rest of the country instead of burying the heads of the Big 3 in a smoke and mirrors show.
Now lets just hope that they look at EQUAL trade as opposed to FREE trade and fix a few other issues as well !!

General Motors Fights Uphill Battle with Double Edged Sword

BRAVO!!! ... GM (GMAC) lending money to start sales moving and people are buying cars !! Perhaps those old fella's in Washington will note what is happening and push Wall St. to do something constructive with the $350 billion they got instead of bonuses for the #^%%$&^'s that caused the CRISIS like use the money for what it was intended like get the economy in a forward motion again.
They really didn't have to pay bonuses to have them straighten out the mess, the government just needed to show them that if they would like to face prosecution for mismanagement the alternative would seem much less attractive - then of course there are people in the government that were put in place to control this as well that should have been doing a song & dance for Detroit and the rest of the country instead of burying the heads of the Big 3 in a smoke and mirrors show.
Now lets just hope that they look at

Economic Efficiency Cannot Be Calculated

CONSTRUCTE .... No doubt you must be involved in POLITICs you seem to write with the same arrogance as those speak of in congress. You think that the politicians could do a better job of running a corporations - and yet they have a hard time showing the discipline to do what is right for the country without letting their almighty emotions cloud there judgment. The GM, Ford & Chrysler fiasco was nothing more than SMOKE & MIRRORS to divert the attention away from the actual source of the problem ... politicians throw $700 billion at a problem that THEY never should have allowed to happen in the beginning and make the auto industry do a song & dance for a few billion in LOANs so that they can survive the CREDIT CRISIS - and you ask why they were so low on cash ... because the SAME politicians allowed the Asian car companies to dump cars here under FREE TRADE but had they have been doing their jobs properly would have been EQUAL TRADE where they take the same amount of cars to their countries but that didn't happen either. The auto companies no longer provide a set pension for new employees, they get 4% annually and they invest it how they see fit - they no longer provide health care, the union will look after it and when that dries up the government will need to take over (you forget the BILLIONs the tax payers saved when the Big 3 were paying for YOU) - it's nice to see how patriotic you and the other politicians are but I think you all should get out the Webster’s dictionary and look up the term PATROTIC again - I believe it has to do with looking after your OWN country.
If anything the politicians should be in Detroit doing a "Song & Dance" with how they neglected to do their job which lead to financial problems on a GLOBAL scale - that my friend is called ARROGANCE !!


On Dec 28 08:38 AM constructe wrote:

> As always almost 100% with you on your posts. With all the mass unpredictable
> Fed and Treasury moves it will be extraordinarily hard to determine
> the effects of any one or combination of actions taken by them. It's
> like treating a patient with a fever with flue shots, antibiotics,
> ritual bleeding, depessants to make them sleep, and and stimulants
> to wake them up. The cure is more likely to kill them than the disease.
>
>
> Thanks for the quote Confucius quote. High salaries for bailed out
> execs do make us all sick. Catapillar is still profitable and their
> execs took a voluntary pay cut. I'd be happy to bankrupt GM and put
> it under their management any day. The big question has always been,
> how do we replace the management without harming the business and
> industry. So far management's refusal to leave, cut their salary,
> or do anything else but hold their employees and companies hostage
> for taxpayers ransom has left no other option but bankruptcy to solve
> this issue.
>
> Poor GM and poor America who has to bail them out. I doubt it will
> solve anything. I didn't in the 70's. That's why they are still in
> this predicament 30 years later.
>
>
>

If Toyota Is Projecting a Loss, Imagine the Pain Detroit Is in For

AP
Indiana mayors hope fed loans preserve auto makers
Tuesday December 23, 10:33 am ET
By Rick Callahan, Associated Press Writer
Mayors from Marion and Kokomo in Indiana hope federal package can save their cities' auto jobs

Clam - as I said they are way to greedy - if you flood a market when it's already saturated this is the result - google the article above and see the other side of the coin - you also have a great dependecy on NORTH AMERICAN manufacturers as well in Indiana - don't forget where most of the profits go from the Toyota's & Honda's - Back Home! not on mortgages here.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- The mayors of two of Indiana's automotive powerhouses -- Marion and Kokomo -- said they hope $17.4 billion in federal loans can stabilize General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC and safeguard their cities' large number of auto-related jobs.

On Dec 23 10:30 AM clam75 wrote:

> John D, our Big 3 here in Indiana are Toyota (Princeton truck assembly),
> Honda (Greensburg assembly) and Subaru (Lafayette assembly). My neighbors
> DO make these "foreign" brand vehicles. For the most part, they're
> high-quality cars that get decent gas mileage. Though I currently
> own a Saturn and Ford Focus, I'd have no qualms about buying one
> of these "foreign" vehicles.
>
> Moreover, the Big 3 helped create their own demise. I've read about
> consumers in the late 70s to early 80s questioning whether a car
> was made on a Monday or Friday for fear that it was put together
> shoddily. Growing up in Latin America, I actually saw the Big 3 cede
> market share to the Japanese and Koreans in the early to mid 80s
> simply because they did not produce smaller vehicles. Finally, I
> saw the Big 3 during the late 90s and early 00s put a lot of money
> and marketing into SUVs instead of building consumer loyalty to their
> higher mileage models.

Fast Money Recap - AIG Bonuses Just Business as Usual (12/22/08)

If the North American auto industry was not laying off 100's of 1000's of workers all of that money generated would still be going back into the economy, people would have the money to make the mortgage payments more houses would need to be built, but we as North Americans figured we were invincible and started to buy more & more imports,(has anyone noticed where the electronics industry, the textile industry just to name a few have gone) which as we now know was just shooting ourselves in the foot while we were holding the gun when it went off.
If the economy is to be turned around we must educate the people and this is a hard lesson learned. We need to suck it up, realize we are not as strong in the global market as we all thought and start buying what our neighbors, friends and relatives all build or we will find ourselves in a hole that we will take decades to get out of. Just think of all the jobs and futures of our children that will not happen if we don't. The governments have all signed DEALs with other countries (not enough thought put into them for the long term) that they cannot get out of but we as the people are free to buy as we want so we now know to buy NORTH AMERICAN and help OURSELVES survive the economic crisis. "BUY AN IMPORT AND DRIVE NORTH AMERICA INTO DEPRESSION"

If Toyota Is Projecting a Loss, Imagine the Pain Detroit Is in For

If Toyota, Honda, Kia & Hyundai had been more like the European car companies which have their corner of North American market which they are content with, the global car market would not be in the sad state it's in - the Asians were WAY to GREEDY and kept dumping cars here - oh sure they built a few plants here as well but they came with the intentions of taking way too much of the North American auto turf and now all of them and us are paying for it.
If the North American auto industry was not laying off 100's of 1000's of workers all of that money generated would still be going back into the economy now but we as North Americans figured we were invincIble and started to buy more & more imports, which as we now know was just shooting ourselves in the foot and we were all holding the gun when it went off.
If the economy is to be turned around we must educate the people and this is a hard lesson learned. We need to suck it up, realize we are not as strong in the global market as we all thought and start buying what our neighbors, friends and realitives all build or we will find ourselves in a hole that we will take decades to get out of. Just think of all the jobs and futures of our children that will not happen if we don't. The governments have all signed DEALs with other countries (not enough thought put into them for the long term) that they cannot get out of but we as the people are free to buy as we want so we now know to buy NORTH AMERICAN and help OURSELVES survive the economic crisis. "BUY AN IMPORT AND DRIVE NORTH AMERICA INTO DEPRESSION"

GM and Chrysler Get Their Bailout: Will It Save Them?

I'm quite sure that the UAW & CAW must both realize now that they are no longer barganing with the companies but with the government and that they will have to reconsider some of the points of the contracts that were hard fought for. The only way you can look at it right now is that it would be better to give up on certain items such as wage reductions, some benefits in order to keep a job rather than fight the government and not have a job. Perhaps now would be a good time to negotiate with the government to take another look at FREE trade and push for EQUAL trade so that the Asian car companies can't keep DUMPING cars here unless we are allowed the same numbers in those countries, one for one or invoke a tarriff on all those over the limit (2007 the Koreans shipped 750,000 vehicles in North America - we shipped 5000 to them in return) - this would put things on a level playing field and also contribute to turn the North American auto sector to a profitable, viable business once again.These are most definately trying times and cooler heads will hopefully prevail.

Automaker Bailout Is Just Buying Time

I'm quite sure that the UAW & CAW must both realize now that they are no longer barganing with the companies but with the government and that they will have to reconsider some of the points of the contracts that were hard fought for. The only way you can look at it right now is that it would be better to give up on certain items such as wage reductions, some benefits in order to keep a job rather than fight the government and not have a job. Perhaps now would be a good time to negotiate with the government to take another look at FREE trade and push for EQUAL trade so that the Asian car companies can't keep DUMPING cars here unless we are allowed the same numbers in those countries, one for one or invoke a tarriff on all those over the limit (2007 the Koreans shipped 750,000 vehicles in North America - we shipped 5000 to them in return) - this would put things on a level playing field and also contribute to turn the North American auto sector to a profitable, viable business once again.These are most definately trying times and cooler heads will hopefully prevail.

Why Is U.S. Transportation a Losing Investment?

BRAVO Well Said !! It's too bad you weren't in congress to lets them know - i'm pretty sure they've had the doors closed a long time and have no idea whats going on in their own backyard - "Buy an Import and drive North America into Depression"



On Dec 17 11:09 AM 67 Valiant wrote:

> The Japanese government has been subsidizing all their major industries
> in the form of lower taxes, kickbacks, tariffs, etc. since 1946.
> We can't LOAN, (yes loan, it's not a REAL bailout, it's a frickin'
> LOAN for chrissake) a little operating cash to any of our major industries
> without a major amount of screeching and wailing, which is why the
> Japanese and Germans are going to be the only car companies left
> for us to choose from. The big three have repeatedly made the cars
> that all the loudmouth Ralph Nader, tree-hugger types have screamed
> for over the last three decades and nobody ever buys them. Talk about
> quality is at least two decades behind the facts. It's just the media
> selling newspapers and getting TV ratings.
>
> Something else to chew on:
>
> The fastest growing automobile market on earth is China.
> There are currently 30 some odd car manufacturers in China.
> The average market share of most of these companies is less than
> 2%.
> The car company that is far and away viewed by the average Chinese
> car buyer as having the highest quality is.......General Motors.
>
> The car company with the largest market share, 30 percent, yes that
> is NOT a typo, 30 percent of the Chinese market is......GM.
> And who is American car companies greatest competition? The Japanese.
> Why don't the Japanese have the biggest share of the Chinese market?
> Well, they inconveniently invaded China in the 1930's, created a
> holocaust that the Nazis would have been impressed with, (anybody
> here remember Nanking?) and no adult Chinese in his right mind will
> buy a Toyota, no way, no how. Who was the only country that came
> to their rescue? The good old US of A, flying Curtiss P-40 Warhawks
> powered by GM Allison engines firing Oldsmobile built cannons. <br/>
>
> And America, dumb idiots that we are, is going to allow this industry
> to go down when we could simply loan them some cash and MAKE MONEY
> DOING SO LIKE WE DID WITH CHRYSLER IN THE 1980's. Pitiful. Just pitiful.
> We will save investment banks but not our largest and most American
> industrial base. Morons.
>
> Something else to think about:
> The country with the healthiest industrial base has won pretty much
> all the major armed conflicts in history. Those countries that let
> their base erode have a name: Losers.
>
> One more thing:
> One of the main gripes quoted in the major media these days (and
> we all know how diligent and accurate they are) is that GM got where
> it is by making cars people don't want.
> If this is so, then why is it that GM vehicles in aggregate have
> consistently sold more volume than any other car manufacturer in
> the world EVERY SINGLE YEAR since they took over the lead from Ford
> somewhere in the 1940's ? INCLUDING THIS YEAR!!!

Is the U.S. Economy Running Out of Options?

Jonathan .... Not one to correct but GM has been an icon for 100 years this year 1908 - 2008 .

Why Is U.S. Transportation a Losing Investment?

So basically, the credit and financial sectors screw up ROYALY - the government throws BILLIONS at them - No Questions Asked - the Auto sector gets caught in the middle after taking much burden off the tax payers for the last century - now that they cannot support the workers with health & pension anymore - we should just throw them and all of those families that will lose everything to the dogs ....Hhhmmm - More weapons of mass destruction right here in the good old USA - Help the world BUT screw our own - "Buy an Import and drive North America to DEPRESSION"