First the Big Three CEOs told Congress they needed $25 billion in federal loans. Then they told Congress they needed $34 billion. Then two of those CEOs ”” from General Motors and Chrysler, not Ford ”” told Congress they needed an upfront $14 billion compromise package before year’s end. No wonder those guys are in so much balance-sheet trouble: They don’t even know how much money they need.
If they did, maybe they could have convinced the Senate to pass that $14 billion compromise approved by the House Wednesday night. Instead, the Senate effectively killed it on Thursday.
It’s a shame our auto industry is in such dire shape and that the rest of our nation’s economy will feel painful ripple effects from its meltdown, with or without a bailout. But while the Bush administration said Friday that it will provide that $14 billion from the $700 billion financial-sector bailout or “other sources,” it’s difficult to see how Detroit can rally without a comprehensive overhaul. It’s also difficult to generate confidence in the Big Three bosses and in those Treasury officials who pushed through that other bailout in October by charting a “rescue” course that soon took major detours.
If Bush does it, then it’s our money wasted and we’ll be right back in the same place within a few months. They need to use the Bankruptcy laws for protection and to restructure without UAW.
The best thing would probably be Chapter 11. Reorganization without the parasite unions should work. Lets face it, at one time the unions were needed. Now laws offer the protections that the unions created. Unions times have passed, they are a dinosaur weight around the neck of the big 3. Let a bankruptcy judge have it and then let the chips fall where they will. We all should have known that the free spening had to stop somewhere and now is a good a time as ever to get back to some sensible fiscal policy personally, commercially and governmentally. That is the only true answer. We cannot continue with the fantasy island policies of the past few years.
I wonder how the editor will do writing blogs when the subscriptions to his paper dry up as the traditional media gets passed by for other sources of information.
[i] I wonder how the editor will do writing blogs when the subscriptions to his paper dry up as the traditional media gets passed by for other sources of information [/i]
I wonder how people who get their information only from ideologically congenial blogs and talk shows will respond when blindsided by untidy reality.
Newspapers, news magazines, and television news programs face a bleak future for reasons having little to do with bias or other moral infirmity.
Teenagers and young adults have even less interest in politics and public affairs than their parents. They have shorter attention spans. They want to be entertained.
This is the same mentality that cares more about celebrity gossip than about genocide in Darfur or Orissa. Nothing to gloat over.
I hope that our present-day teen-agers et al don’t wind up growing in a depression like our my family in the 1930’s had to experience. It is a horrible way to get you to open your eyes as the handouts grow less in number.
Can someone legal enlighten me? If they are forced into bankruptcy, will that void union contracts? I live in Michigan, and there must be a way out of this mess without us going deeper into the dismal state of affairs here. To those who live elsewhere: You had better think twice. Many, many jobs and livelihoods are linked directly or indirectly to automobile manufacturing.
Charles [#7]: Contracts can be modified or terminated in a chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding.
If you want to get away from the incessant spin in the media and congress about the auto industry and get some truth and common sense, take a look at Ed Wallace’s latest columns over at Business Week online. Let’s see if I can get this code right: [url=http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/dec2008/bw2008122_535275.htm]Can America Survive Without Detroit?[/url] and [url=http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/dec2008/bw20081212_127244.htm]Detroit: The Real Battle is Politics[/url]. Wallace was one of the first to blow the whistle on the folks who claimed oil prices were escalating because of market forces (i.e. “demand”) and is now blowing the whistle on those who are spreading disinformation by the megabyte about the current crisis. For example, why isn’t the media reporting that foreign automakers are in as much trouble as the domestics and are quietly being bailed-out by their home governments. In fact, some of our domestic automakers are actually receiving more bridge-loan assistance from foreign countries than the U.S. is considering. This is being done quietly in foreign countries because of the obvious marketing ramifications that result from a public airing of the problem. Not so in the U.S. where congressional hypocrites excoriate domestic companies publicly while quietly wining and wooing foreign investment in their home states. Take a look at this revealing column in the Nashville Tennessean about how [url=http://alexander.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Articles.Detail&Article_id=f1af12ba-cd12-4e43-9822-7de25a5abb33&Month=7&Year=2008] Tennessee Senators Corker and Alexander tag-teamed to kissed up to the Volkswagen boys.[/url] Quite informative. The story seemed like a charming little vignette at the time, but in light of the vitriol Corker has poured on the domestic automakers, one wonders, really, what the heck is going on here?