Vienna

I Was Wrong About GM Bankruptcy

One thing that you should always keep in mind, that when companies restart, it goes into hype and all are celebrating the new start, fine.
But don't forget, all the old minds and habits are still there. I have seen this in CEE many times, old state companies that where taken private in the 1990's still work in their old fashion, due to management, development, production etc. still working according to their habits. It takes generations for change, and not just a few weeks.
Keep good track on what is going on, since a few years ahead you might see GM in the news again. And please don't tell me the US is significantly different in this. I have read a lot about the history of GM, Unions, management etc.

Do You Believe Borrowing Leads to Prosperity? (Part 2)

Mr. Quinn ist one of my favorite writers and I do fully agree with him.

Debt and Fiat money in itsself is not so bad, it is only the hight and the responsibility that is required to work and control it. Much of this approach and insight was presented to me in a video called money from debt. This supposingly seems to be something everybody knows, but I still recommend looking at it.

video.google.com/video...

I would enjoy any comments on the video.

Geithner to Put Chrysler in Bankruptcy Next Week

Maybe there has to be a new scheme for pension and social security.

In europe we have a schema where verybody pays into one general pool together with something called a generation contract. If one party goes down it will be covered.

You might call this unamerican and tell us that we have a bad communistic system - but we just consider it to be like one big security agency for pension funding.

TARP: A Self-Reinforcing Accounting Sham

Where will it End.

This scheme is being done by banks all the time, no difference to government.

YOU MUST Look at the "Video Money from debt", and ask yourself, what is the difference if banks just create money from debt or the government if banks stop doing so. It is a never ending cycle.

video.google.com/video...

The Bailouts Are Doomed - All of Them

When the first bailout plans where laid down, Germany was still working on the concept. And of course, US was again shouting: what are you waiting for !!

It always seems to be the same case.

One of the most ridiculous things this this lobbying, which unfortunately is also starting to get around in Europe. We are starting to implement laws against this, and I hope it will catch.

I hope the US will find laws to eliminate this to some extent.
e.g. each politician has to show his personal income during and yearly audit.
In Europe parties are by absolute no means allowed to receive funding by private companies

Politics have to be strongly isolated from the industry.
It is not our European social system that is not working, it is the US political system.

Preview from Europe: Bailout or Bankruptcy for the Big Three?

Socialism is competitive in the long run.

Wait till you have 10 million rich, greedy people with yachts etc, and 100 mio very poor people.

Will the White House Bail Out Detroit?

Finally I read something that should been said long ago.

Make small companies from big three, believe me, I am from Austria. Small countries work much better than the large ones. We still have personal interest in what happens, large systems become too anonymous. There is also Switzerland, Luxemburg etc., maybe you don't hear too much of a 8 mio country, but we live very fine here.

big does NOT have to be good !!!!!!


On Dec 12 03:58 PM L Moore wrote:

> The government should buy a large number of cars from detroit and
> give them to taxpayers. It would be just as good as any infrastructure
> stimulas package that might get passed for Obama.
>
> You want to stop losing jobs? Put a ban on M&A. And, take big
> companies, break them up, and make several smaller ones of of them.

Save the Bailout Drama

Maybe the long believed system of true capitalism has ended, there is always time for change.
In Austria have have long long tradition concerning capitalism and greed (review the theroy of Austrian School of economics, from 1880 and later - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... ).

I think it is a very easy balance - produce, earn spend cycle - take a few corporations with major tax benefits, and corrupt politicians that create free world trade. Now take 300 mio US citizens that just like to shop and eat mac

No put a line below this and you will see a big minus, now multiply this with 20 years - bang.

You can not leave the system uncontrolled by its self, people will screw it, you need independent control by government.

But how can this work if corporations pay money for campaigns ????????????, and you always have statistics on how much each party was funded ??????????

The US system has killed its self through greed.

Trade Deficit Rises, Destroying More American Jobs

Nice article.

However, we Europeans we have often talked with US citizens about fuel reduction, and where constantly given a little smile. In fact nobody was interested in these small little cars. Don't always blame someone else, US citizens have themselves created the dilemma.

Chinese products as far as I know are not subsidized, it is always a nice excuse, since obviously chinese are able to make the same goods as US companies at a much far lower price. US companies and the end consumers have preferred to buy cheap chinese goods. This was not influenced by the government, but rather than the american system of free enterprise.

It wa the US that promoted WTO and it was also the US that created a creditr system for end users called basel, which was finally implemented by Europe to rate credibility of borrowers, but again was not at all implemented by US.

It is time to change your system as a whole. I personally have a very high degree of socialist ideal like many Europeans, and for this reason we in Europe do influence these events.

I find it quite interesting how all of a sudden the government is to blame for everything. Welcome to the communist approach.

Automaker Bailout Fails: This Is Not Good

dg314

I fully agree with you. I am from Austria/Vienna where we consider ourselfs to be very social.

But don't mistake us for being stupid. We also know about this problem, and the system has adapted to it in a good way. Read the article about compromises above.

e.g. We have lower social insurance paying from GDP than the states, even though everybody is insured !!!! with higher live expectancy !!!
We heard, somebody once said to Schwarzennegger that he does not want to pay medical for some bum. Arnie said that the US constitution guarantees that everybody will receive medical treatment in the US.

We all work hard here, cause being social does not mean that somebody that is getting social wellfare lives good, it is the bottom baseline, nobody wants it. We also have 50% max Tax, so that the system stays in balance. I am sure that people that work hard don't want to pay tax, but I am also sure that normal people also have to work hard.

The problem with your system is, that at some people greed starts to grow over common knowledge.

Find a good way between both systems, it is the hard way, and not the way I encountered people in the US industry. US is NOT the high productive, high quality country you are always being told, which does not mean that it is bad.

Automaker Bailout Fails: This Is Not Good

This article reads more like the typical comments about other idiots.

I do not think that government is pig headed. I think they have a hard burden to carry, nobody wants them to intervene, but now everybody is blaming them for doing nothing, other are telling them to keep on doing nothing.

Fact is that the US has been screwing up many industries in the recent years, and (tries to) keep on forcing their system onto the rest of the world.

Surely the current situation id bad. In the forum I with my very socialist point of view am getting around 50% + votes, which is fine. This does not mean that all US are little capitalist that are screwing up the world with their system (democracy ?? haha )

As for many things in live (work, marriage, friends) one always needs a form of compromise to make things work - live and let live ( the US version is, lets live and screw everybody else).

I hope that due to the fact, that nobody trust anybody after many years of brutal capitalism, the people will get back down to solid ground.

Conclusion: Giving them money is probably not the best solution, not giving them is probably also not the best solution.

Jump over your shadow and find a median way - e.g. give them 15 bill to give the rest of the industry at least a few month to get things settled out before shutting them down.

Will Detroit's Loss Be Japan's Gain?

UH2L

Sorry for being so direct about the arrogant part, in fact I am not German, but have the same language, but we do not get along well with them due to what you mentioned.

It was rather pointed towards the fact, the this time needs quick heavy changes, and that there will be no space for any personal idealistic prospectives.

To the health care:

I do not know about it in Canada, in central Europe it works quite fine, and I dont feel that I am not treated fine.

Maybe at some point it will not be as good as the one in the states, but everybody will be sure to receive 98% of the possible medical treatment. since this risk is spread over all industries and all people, the threat of a single collapse in one industry is very unlikely. No one, simply no one can not be without it. it costs approx. 30% of net Wage, with max. of approx. 7000$/month as calculation baseline.

For a general baseline - from net wage to full cost for corporation, people with low income have approx. 70% additional cost, people with higher wages up to 100%. Highest tax rate is 50%. We drive BMW and Mercedes and have beautiful old style high cost decorated towns.

For US perspective, just call it a medical fund of fund of funds being operated by an NPO NGO.

I read a lot about the greed thing here, maybe the rich US got a little to rich and too greedy.

Half of U.S. Consumers Delaying New Car Purchases

I think that they partly deserve it yes - but how to deal with the secondary effects.

In Europe we always had very tight rules on which people where allowed to found a company. If you would want to be a constructor you would have to pass quite a few test. In the US you would shout government regulation, communism - remove it.

BUT - we consider it is better to have the people tested that work, than rather to have to fix a lot of houses and find out that someone was not performing.

This could be done with regulations, like higher tax for non fuel efficient cars, or higher gas prices since 20 years as in EU (we realized that oil is a limited resource). Well now this has to be fixed.

I hope that the US stop behaving like arrogant world leaders as they where doing while I was in the US working in Automotive Industry. Will you take the time available to adapt the production lines and technology (no it is not health or pension, in Europe we pay 1€ social cost for every 1€ the employer receives).

And do not do the same old procedure - hope that price of oil will go down to speed up economy - NO - you will need to do this with a lot of energy and now-how by the people involved, and not bet on any external force to help you.

Will Detroit's Loss Be Japan's Gain?

Thank you for the nice article. I am from Europe and have been auditing US auto plants for some time.

The cause is that the people from GM etc I have met where so arrogant and convinced about their system, that they would not listen to any thing. I was always being told about technological leadership and US world power.

I was always quite amused since to my opinion the production systems to my opinion where technological not very advanced and very inflexible.

e.g. the production lines from GM are built to produce one type of car. If you have 3 plants and 2 types of vehicles go down and one up then 2 plants lay dead and the 1 can not cope with production capacity.

Why is this: Well setting up a flexible line is more costly and requires much more coordination. It does not suit the John Wayne management style I encountered.

In fact I would like to join GM or Ford now, since I think this can be a very interesting time.

Obviously the US auto companies need new heads with different approaches, that people who are fix minded at the US corporations have a hard time to cope with these changes.

Don't look at Toyota, do it - this is probably the greatest challenge, telling people that what they have been doing was wrong and that the people copying them are doing it better.

On Dec 07 04:33 AM bs_o_meter wrote:

> A Japanese company ( Toyota ) and an American company (Ford) decided
> to have a canoe race on the Missouri River . Both teams practiced
> long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race.<br/>
>

Automakers: A Pitiful Trio

Who is to blame. Since I am from Europe, but have been to the US many times, for certification of the automotive industry I would like to place my opinion from an external point of view.

First of all, this is not the first industry which is going bust. We have constantly noticed that the steel industry, power industry and many other have had sharp declines.

What i personally noticed was the poor shape everything was in. My conclusions

1. As in an other article of mine, I noticed that private companies are driven by profit and not quarterly reports. I have seen investment plans being dropped since investors did not want any programs longer than 1 year or more. The question is, are private companies better than state ones in the long run?
2. The way government works. As with the example of the GM that baught the public transport network in LA and shut down everything to promote its vehicles and install normal buses. You must realize that US is major corrupt. Look at the people sitting in government, Bush, Bush, Bush, Kennedy, Kennedy and so on. Its a clan that support its self, and it gets even better, they are being paid by private companies.

For all people that are going to scream at me. I do not propagate communism, and for the CIA that is monitoring my post, I do not wish to change your system or get blacklisted for entry, it is just my personal opinion.

The Auto industry, like other industries got its self into this through arrogance and greed (of company CEO and shareholders and everybody buying a car).

Everybody always puts the blame on the government, but that is just too easy. You voted bush, you wanted the war, you wanted tax cuts, you want good roads, you want good schools.
But the companies failed.