Atlas Puked...
Posted on 12/12/2008 7:04:08 AM PST by meandog
Bush changes mind, may save auto giants
Facing the potential bankruptcy of iconic American firms, President Bush on Friday abandoned his longstanding objection to using using the Wall Street bailout fund to help save G.M., Ford and Chrysler.
A frustrated Republican congressional official said: "If only they had said this last week, we could have saved ourselves a full week."
Ten hours after the Senate rejected a separate lifeline for the automakers, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said in a statement it would be "irresponsible" to let the companies crash. So she said Bush will "consider other options," including the $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program that Congress created for the Treasury Department in October.
"Under normal economic conditions we would prefer that markets determine the ultimate fate of private firms," Perino said in a statement. "However, given the current weakened state of the U.S. economy, we will consider other options if necessary – including use of the TARP program — to prevent a collapse of troubled automakers. A precipitous collapse of this industry would have a severe impact on our economy, and it would be irresponsible to further weaken and destabilize our economy at this time."
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
They'll show up and call us some names in a minute. Or you can always head over to one of their segregated worship threads here, where no one is allowed to disagree with them. That's how they like it.
OK. Now I'm beginning to think that you're on the wrong forum. This is UAW propaganda. The GM wage and benefits package works out to $71/hour, and that's not even including the ridiculous retiree benefits.
Switchboard backed up. KEEP CALLING!
The Corker plan, in the Senate.
The UAW can agree any time they want.
Then... the Chicago gangster gets his turn in the White House!
Why do we even need a Federal government. Return political power to local people.
Oh, one like Russia or China??? I declare Atlas Shrugged,, I will layoff my 10 employees and go on vacation. Enjoy your new socialist country. It not mine! Patriot of the USSA maybe!
I declare myself a patriot.
Patriots stand for principle not paternalism!
If we let the big 3 die, I wonder whether they Regress will drop all regulations that have killed the industry, to encourage new industry.
I love to dream.
No, it doesn't. Current wage/benefit payments are approximately $55/hour, the remainder represent payments to retirees that the taxpayers will need to assume, at least partly, if GM goes bankrupt. The new 2007 UAW contract does introduce a two-tier wage system, in which new hires receive $14/hour in wages and reduced benefits.
You are absolutely correct.
All you gotta do is look at the air. There has to be a happy medium between Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, and this Brave New World thing we’re waddling into.
Atlas Puked...
I would imagine as more older line guys take packages and are replaced with the Tier 2 guys it would drift towards the Toyota benchmark of $48.
What Corker tried to do is force the issue. In a way I agree, if you need radical surgery and you'll die in 3 weeks if you don't get it, you better do it. This waiting until 2010-2011 like G-Finger wanted it was a bit arrogant.
I also spoke with one of my auto engr "gnomes" today.
What Corker tried to do was act in one fell swoop like the bankruptcy judge with wage and price controls without negotiations and that was a deal breaker.
> The UAW can agree any time they want.
The impression that I get from New Zealand is that most of your large unions in the US run very close to the wind, just a razor-thin distance away from being racketeering influenced criminal enterprises. I do not know if this is a fair assessment, but it is the impression that they give.
The other impression I get is that the union bosses probably have never actually worked on the assembly lines themselves, or done an honest day’s work in their lives. They are sorta like the pigs in Orwell’s “Animal Farm”. The days of the courageous union-organizing shop floor steward who shuts down his drill press and goes on strike for fair wages are long, long gone. Again, I don’t know if that is a fair assessment either.
The distinct impression I get is that the UAW would be quite OK with running the Big 3 into the ground: they’d just go infect another business. Sorta like varroa mites on busy honeybee hives.
How close to accurate are these observations from halfway ‘round the world?
> Suggest bankruptcy! It is that simple.
OK, it’s possible that I don’t understand bankruptcy in the US: I didn’t work on that side of the Firm. Correct me if I’m wrong, but wouldn’t the process be to seek Chapter 11 protection from creditors, as a first step?
(What’s that going to do to your supply lines? Creditors won’t want to trade much with someone who isn’t in a position to pay them)
Then, doesn’t the business get run by a receiver, who will decide whether to “trade thru” and continue doing business, or “liquidate” and wind up the company, depending upon what is best for the shareholders (the creditors being held off via the Chapter 11 protection)?
(As automotive ought to be a strategic industry, shouldn’t this decision be made in the best interest of the Nation, with the shareholders and creditors be dam’ned?)
I don’t see how this process has been of any great benefit to the airline industry: they’ve just staggered along for many years and it has been a long time since any of them did anything strategic, except trying to kill each other off by ridiculous price undercutting.
I think airline and automotive are two industries where the Free Market perhaps doesn’t produce the required outcome. What is good for shareholders may/may not be good for the Nation as a whole.
In New Zealand we have definitely seen that in the telecommunications and electricity markets, which were privatized about a decade ago. The result was an under-investment in infrastructure plus price gouging for what increasingly became shonky product and service, plus a bleeding of Value from onshore to large offshore investors — whose only interest is ever-increasing returns on investment.
Not a particularly brilliant way to operate strategic assets.
Yeah that’s crux but before this is said and done we will need to March on Washington. If we don’t take action then something much worse will happen.
Irresponsible? Hypocrisy alert!!! Some cartoonist needs to illustrate the irony. Bush could replace the donkey:
yahole means
you
ass
hole
I don't know about anyone else, but as far as I'm concerned a Nissan made in Smyrna, Tennessee is no less American than a "Big Three" auto.
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