Free Republic

Bankruptcy Is Option to GM Board By JOHN D. STOLL DETROIT -- Members of General Motors Corp.'s board of directors are willing to consider "all options" for the ailing auto maker, including an eventual filing for bankruptcy protection, a stance that puts them in rare disagreement with Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner, people familiar with the matter said. As part of his push to win a federal bailout for the company, Mr. Wagoner told Congress this week that GM management believes bankruptcy protection is not a viable option for the company. Instead, GM is focusing on persuading lawmakers to...

The day after the 2016 election for president, General Motors announced it was laying off another 2,000 workers in plants in Ohio and Michigan, two states that gave President-elect Donald Trump a major victory on Tuesday. GM said the layoffs will affect the third shifts in the plants in Lordstown, Ohio, and Lansing, Michigan, which build the low-selling cars sold under the Chevrolet and Cadillac brand names. “The Lordstown plant builds the compact Chevrolet Cruze, whose U.S. sales through October were down 20%,” Fortune magazine reported. “The Lansing Grand River plant builds the Cadillac ATS and CTS, whose sales were...

CE car sales are down and EV sales are up. Most people know this much. Also, EV sales are not up by as much as ICE car sales are down. The two metrics are believed to be independent of one another. I believe they are related. When someone purchases a Tesla Model 3, that car sale is an EV and not a new ICE vehicle. So that is a first sale the ICE industry loses. Next, the new EV owner often trades in a used ICE car and someone else will purchase that car. Some number of car buyers will...

Florida Congressman Carlos Curbelo is getting ready to introduce a bill repealing the gas tax in exchange for a carbon tax. It seems rather odd the Miami Republican wants to chart this path, especially after the House GOP overwhelmingly denounced the notion of a carbon tax last week, but Curbelo isn’t backing down from his proposal. He told Miami Herald his proposal is just a “first step” in the discussion. When you ask this question in a vacuum, is any tax detrimental to economic growth? It’s usually going to be yes…But when you put it in context and you...

WASHINGTON - Exxon Mobil Corp. and other large oil companies are backing a carbon tax proposal put forward earlier this year by a group of former Republican leaders including James A. Baker III, the former secretary of state and a Houston attorney. The Climate Leadership Coalition, a group that includes Baker, former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, and former Secretary of State George Shultz, announced a list of "founding members" Tuesday that includes Exxon Mobil, BP, Shell, Total, General Motors and Johnson & Johnson. "We support @TheCLCouncil as a founding member and are working to support its policy development process," Exxon...

After nearly a century of building vehicles powered by fossil fuels, General Motors — one of the world’s largest automakers — announced Monday that the end of GM producing internal combustion engines is fast approaching. The acceleration to an all-electric future will begin almost immediately, with GM releasing two new electric models next year and an additional 18 by 2023. At a media event at GM’s technical campus in Warren, Mich., on Monday, Mark Reuss, the company’s chief of global product development, said the transition will take time, but the course has been set. “General Motors believes in an all-electric...

General Motors has put six of its cars under review, including its once breakthrough Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid, and is evaluating whether to cancel them in the coming years, according to a report from Reuters. The news comes as sales of cars continue to plummet in the U.S. and as consumers increasingly turn to SUVs and pickups. Besides the Chevrolet Volt hybrid, other vehicles believed to be under consideration for elimination iinclude the Buick LaCrosse, Cadillac CT6, Cadillac XTS, Chevrolet Impala and Chevrolet Sonic, according to Reuters. GM spokesman Jim Cain declined to comment on the report. UAW President Dennis...

Built in China, sold in the U.S.: It's a first for GM and any U.S. automaker. GM said it will sell the Chinese-built Buick Envision, a crossover SUV, in the U.S. market starting next year. The UAW attacked the plan, saying it was "a slap in the face." It said GM should reconsider its plans and instead build a version for the U.S. market at a U.S. plant. "The men and women of GM and the American taxpayers who invested so much in GM's future deserve better," said the union. GM agreed in its latest labor deal to invest $8.3...

Daniel Akerson, former CEO and chairman of General Motors, says that he has always voted Republican. That is, until Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, came along anyway. In an op-ed article for the Washington Post, Akerson explains why he will vote Democrat for his first time ever this year:

General Motors was under fire this weekend after a casting call for Cadillac sought members of the controversial alt-right movement. According to an image of the casting call posted by the news agency Reuters and many, many others, the notice said an agency filming the ad was looking for "any and all real alt-right thinkers/believers." "This is a beautifully artistic spot that is capturing all walks of life of America," the casting call says, adding that it would be filmed later this month. "Standing together as a union. This is not meant to be offensive in anyway. Just a representation...

Its easy to feel good about security enhancement at the southern border to keep people from Mexico and points south from getting into the country, people who may be criminals, people who may take jobs from Americans. But then along comes General Motors announcing a "restructuring" which will close down four plants in the US and affect more than 10,000 jobs in America. They plan to move those jobs to Mexico and even China. So the jobs are lost to Americans anyway because of the machinations of a multi-national corporation. President Trump is not happy and is talking about cutting...

FULL TITLE: 'This is the THANKS we get!' Trump warns General Motors he'll cut ALL its government subsidies in retaliation for closing U.S. auto plants President Donald Trump threatened to punish General Motors following the company's decision to shutter Midwest manufacturing plants and lay off thousands of U.S. workers. A day after the news of the layoffs rattled the industry and raised a potential political problem for the president, the president followed up on an earlier threat that the automaker 'better damn well' open a new plant. He threatened to yank subsidies for electric cars – as GM seeks to...

Shame on Trump for ordering General Motors to “put something else in” Reuters just published this article about General Motors planning to close a plant in Ohio due to there being less demand for small cars.Trump responded by saying:“They better put something else in.”It’s not the job of the President to tell private companies what products to make or how many kinds of products to make.Shame on Trump for trying to give himself powers that are not authorized in the Constitution!

DETROIT (AP) — General Motors will lay off up to 14,000 factory and white-collar workers in North America and put five plants up for possible closure as it restructures to cut costs and focus more on autonomous and electric vehicles. The reduction includes 8,100 white-collar workers, some of whom will take buyouts and others who will be laid off. Some U.S. factory workers could transfer to truck or SUV factories that are increasing production.

TORONTO, Nov 25 (Reuters) - General Motors Co is planning to close all operations at a plant near Toronto and an announcement is expected on Monday, a local TV news channel reported on Sunday Citing multiple sources, CTV News reported that the plant closure in Oshawa in the province of Ontario was expected to affect “thousands” of high-paying jobs. GM builds sedans on one assembly line and pickup trucks on another. The plant closure is part of global restructuring, the report added. A Canada-based GM spokesman declined comment. GM employs about 2,500 union staff and roughly 300 salaried employees in...

That was then: Over six years ago, then-vice president Joe Biden (D) was campaigning for a second term for the Democratic administration of Barack Hussein Obama and himself with this proud theme: If you are looking for a bumper sticker to sum up how President Obama has handled what we inherited, it's pretty simple: Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive.  He was referring, of course, to the assassination of terrorist Osama bin Laden, indicating a successful American foreign policy during the Obama administration, and simultaneously the government bailout of General Motors indicating a successful domestic policy of providing...

When General Motors announced it was cutting up to 14,000 jobs and idling five automotive plants, it justified the massive cuts by citing long-term savings. The cuts would free up $6 billion in cash, for a net savings of $4.5 billion in cash by 2020. The move will "make General Motors more agile, resilient and profitable" while the economy's still revving, CEO Mary Barra told investors Monday. Wall Street seemed to believe her, with GM's stock rising nearly 5 percent and one analyst on the call congratulating her "on getting in front of the curve here." But GM hasn't exactly...

Faced with the bad news from GM — which is discontinuing several passenger-car lines, shuttering five North American factories, and laying off thousands of workers — President Donald Trump responded with his habitual bluster, telling GM they “better damn well open a new plant” in Ohio, and boasting that he was “very tough” on the automaker’s CEO. As is often the case, President Trump’s bluster is unhelpful. General Motors almost certainly is doing the right thing, as painful as that is going to be for the workers who lose their jobs and for the communities that had relied on —...

Political power couple Bill and Hillary Clinton are in Toronto today, spending a very special evening with their supporters to the north. Toronto is part of the small handful of cities on their North American tour. The tour is a series of conversations called "An Evening With The Clintons" - guests are invited to buy tickets and sit down with the Clintons as they tell stories and discuss important issues of today and the future.

President Donald Trump threatened on Twitter to end government subsidies for General Motors in retaliation for layoffs the company announced Monday. What layoffs? General Motors announced that it would be laying off 14,700 workers, including 6,000 factory workers, and closing down four plants in the United States and one in Canada. While GM, and other car companies, have spoken out against rising production costs caused by the Trump administration’s protectionist tariffs, a spokeswoman for the company told TheBlaze that the layoffs and plant closures “are being made as part of our ongoing transformation and are not related to recent trade...