Posted on 12/19/2008 6:11:11 AM PST by WackySam
Edited on 12/19/2008 6:14:22 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC will get $13.4 billion in government loans to keep operating in exchange for a restructuring under a rescue plan that President George W. Bush will announce this morning.
The money will be drawn from the Troubled Asset Relief Program and the automakers will get an additional $4 billion from the fund in February, according to a statement from the Bush administration. The money would allow GM and Chrysler to keep operating until March.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I’m so done with cars from GM, Ford, and Chrysler. No longer will I pay more for inferior products simply for patriotism.
So we should all go down to the local GM or Chrysler dealship and ask for our free car. /sarc
Tell them you will gladly return the car when they pay back the bailout loan. ;)
Repo guys job just got a bit more dangerious.
If you strip out health care, pensions, union dues, other payroll deductions and payroll and income taxes (that is take home pay), THEN I think that is a right number.
I made space in the garage and sold stock to pay cash for the motorcycle. That didn't get the 914 sold or make extra garage space, but it did convert some stock into something of value before the economy tanks a bit more.
I lived in San Diego from 1969 until finally coming to my new home in Idaho in April 2002 after finishing a contract. I did most of my riding in canyons that are now wall to wall houses (along H St in Chula Vista from 805 east to beyond present day Eastlake). The city streets and freeways are irritating traffic jams from early morning until early evening. That was the tipping point that made my decision to move to Idaho. My commute was 7 miles. It took 90 minutes each way. Total BS. Now I have a zero commute. I agree that riding a motorcycle on the streets and freeways around San Diego is asking for trouble.
I work for GM in management...there are no fringe benefits. Retirement is gone. You get what you paid into it (maybe). Our health plan is an old fashioned 1250-1500 deductible catastrophic plan. The transplants have more generous benefits...believe me. Of course they are subsidized by American taxpayers and their own countries. I know people who work in both areas of auto manufacturing. They hate working for the transplants because American engineers are treated like dirt...the few that work there. All important R&D is done in Japan. Americans are too stupid you see.
This idea that the union received hidden benefits is total bs. Many lied or were mistaken and breathlessly reported the $73.00 figure. This was debunked as a lie-so now you report some ‘hidden fringe benefits’. Not true-I would love to know why none of you asked about the wages of Citi, AIG, Wachovia and also their bonuses-paid out of tarp I might add.
You guys are such hypocrites. When the truth doesn’t serve your union hatred (UDS), you make stuff up. No one gets retirement except what we pay into a 401K. And you know what the financial geniuses on Wall Street have done to the 401K while receiving 300 billion in bailouts.
We have some of the crappiest health benefits around-I pay out of pocket mostly because my wife and I are fairly healthy and only take the kids to the doctor when they are at death’s door; It cost to much and I pay for it until the deductible is met; most years we just pay out of pocket. We don’t get bonuses and have not received raises-this is the truth. We wouldn’t expect it anyway. The company has to make money in order to give raises and bonuses...we are not Wall Street after all. Our CEO will work for a buck a year in bad times...unlike Wall Street crooks.
What has brought GM to the brink of financial disaster unfair competition-trade and of course subsidizing the transplants with taxpayer’s money. Toyota gets 1500 per car for everyone sold in the US from Japan...they keep American cars our of Japan. We had to build factories in Europe to get our cars in because of trade barriers. The other problem is the credit crunch. GM was already restructuring which is why I have been in three plants in three years. We had our credit lines pulled and could not continue. No one will finance cars for those buyers courageous enough to buy in this market. You have to have at least a 750 credit score to even be considered. Even then, the rates are not good.GM did not have enough cash on hand to weather this because of the restructuring. We have great products coming and those of you who don’t give us a chance will lose out on some really nice cars at great prices. Are quality is higher than Toyota you know. They have had some serious issues and recalls.
You guys think you are bashing the union...but you are really anti-American in that you want to destroy and American company and support foreign transplants who have been screwing the big three with help from certain southern Senators for years. The transplants home countries have trade barriers. There is no free trade except in America. Our markets are wide open...other countries have trade barriers in place-more will come despite their lies to Bush at the stupid meeting. This is the truth...though your fiction is more fun for you I suppose.
I am so sick of the lies. Do you not read the papers or listen to the news? Every car company in the world is in trouble.They are being bailed out by their countries. There was a big story yesterday that Toyota will lose money in the 4Q for the first time since 1949. One thing that helps them is that their countries are behind the financing arm of this industry so they can make loans easier. Even so, they are not doing well. No one is doing well-not Toyota or Nissan or BMW-no one.
And, when they go belly-up in March, don’t you think W will have to answer for throwing our good money after bad?
Cars are rated higher than the foreign transplants...so you are incorrect. Also, no one would mistake you for a patriot based on this post.
Is Obama in office early? Seems like it.
And watch Obama change the parameters.
This could be a disaster.
Another $17B poured down the RAT hole.
Bush SHOULD have left this mess for Obama. After all the UAW are his voters.
I agree. What they’ve done today is at most (a) make themselves appear to be better than the other two; (b) position themselves to POSSIBLY garner more consumer confidence in their company and its products than have their two counterparts; (c) ensure that come Spring they will be first in line for a handout.
This is not about finance at all; it’s 100% politics.
VERY INTERESTING and timely reading from 1998:
“General Motors — A Political Strike Confronts the Global Economy”
http://dbacon.igc.org/Strikes/13GMStrike.htm
You what, if you work for a company that loses billions a month, you should have lousy compensation or be fired.
That is what happened to most employees at the closed/merged banks. Ask the former employees at Lehman, Washington Mutual, Bear Stearns, etc. They are all fired or had much reduced compensation. That is what happens when you screw up.
For the UAW to say, “there is no way in hell we are giving back anything” (which is their right) AND also ask for a taxpayer bailout, well that does not fly with me.
I have always bought GM cars in the past. READ MY LIPS, I WILL NEVER BUY A UAW MADE CAR AGAIN. THEY ARE TRAITORS FOR TRYING TO BLACKMAIL THE UNITED STATES WHILE REFUSING TO BUDGE AN INCH ON CONCESSIONS OF ANY KIND.
I dont think they want or can afford them right now. Bailout bad idea from day one.
This is really stupid. They will be back in April for another loan. First thing you do if you are in a hole is quit digging. Cut loose from the Bloodsucking Unions. All of these “Bail Outs” are doomed to failure, nothing is going to work until you get the money to the public. If you took that money and split up among 300 million citizens, they would start the economy, some would drink it up and some lose it gambling,some would put it in the bank and save it, but the large percentage would do something good with it buy a house, buy a car pay off college loans, etc, anything to get the money circulating in the general population. Bailing out GM and Chrysler is a never ending quagmire
Words escape me. The unimaginable horrors that we bequeath them are beyond thought of civilized man. Our Constitutional Republic is decades gone and rather than put a halt to our slide into serfdom, we take the passive road.
My our children's children curse the mention of our treason to them.
I’ve never been a fan of shipping US jobs overseas, or of so-called free trade in which foreign cars are “made in/shipped to” the US from countries who wouldn’t even consider the same in their markets, but on the other hand I’ve never been a fan of union supremacy distorting a market or of union idiotic rules that lead to idiotic rules/regulations tying the hands of those who would adapt to changing ideas/technology.
IF YOU HAVE a free market, then the government should keep their cotton-pickin’ hands off the markets and let companies sink/swim on their own merits.
The ONLY way a government should ever intervene in distorted markets is with tariffs/taxes of foreign competitors engaged in market distorting practices. They shouldn’t be in the business of shoveling taxpayer money to businesses.
The monthly payment demanded is usually much more than my clients can afford, so we work out a lower payment in exchange for an agreed judgment that isn’t filed unless the client becomes delinquent in making the agreed payments. It works pretty well if the client is motivated. Thanks for letting me explain.
“Is it the suppliers fault that the automakers are run poorly?”
It is their fault for dealing with poorly run businesses.
>Probably the same that were put on the banks. <
Reminds one of the tale about the farmer that was going broke, about to lose his farm and continuing to feed his two mules that refused to work, yet ate twice what normal mules did each day.
The farmer could no longer afford to feed the mules.
The farmer went to the local banker and begged for money to buy more hay (just to get him by until spring)...
Moral of the story ... you want to continue farming, trade those mules in on a tractor.
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