Posted on 06/03/2009 10:36:17 AM PDT by arthurus
On Monday, after a painfully long death spiral, General Motors (GM) finally filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Oftentimes, bankruptcy portends rebirth. Unfortunately, the politically-inspired GM plan holds no such possibilities.
Under the current deal, the restructuring of GM will cost taxpayers some $100 billion (after the hidden costs of interest and refinancing are included). Even then, it is highly unlikely that GM will ever be competitive or that its debts will ever be repaid.
(Excerpt) Read more at seekingalpha.com ...
The Republic is practically dead with nary a whimper.
The only thing I would disagree about in this article is putting almost all the blame for GM’s failure on its unionized workforce. Oh, they did their part, all right, but GM’s management also made one bad decision after another - in product planning, and also in their “diversification” by ill-conceived acquisitions of other companies. GMAC and its subsidiaries were totally out of control. GM did not need Saturn to compete with its own existing brands. And so on.
I certainly do agree, though, that the main reason for this bailout was to save the UAW workers of GM and Chrysler, and will not otherwise achieve anything that couldn’t have been just as well achieved by reorganizing these companies without gov’t intervention when it first became apparent that they were no longer viable.
It is a stampede.
With the media basically acting as a pr branch of govt.
5 months in office, and all they have left to ram thru are Cap N Tax and Obamacare.
One take I read was that GM had to go out into other areas in a big way just to try to earn the money needed to meet their obligations to retirees for health and pension benefits. It still relfects foolish management in having made these commitments in the first place. Their “Di-Tech” outfit seemed to get heavily involved in the residential mortgage market and, back in ‘07, when I saw that begin to head south, coupled with lagging GM sales, I doubted whether they could last. I wish I had been “crazy” as many said I was at the time. I would much prefer to have been wrong.
Saturn, the new kind of car company, turned into the same old Sh**, in six months.
Gm business model, a small town has 2 hookers and ten johns, Gm management would double the number of hookers for the ten johns.
You forgot the gun ban.
Another bold faced LIE. It has already cost some 50 billion up to this point, the multi 100's of billions that the UAW's pension fund and health benefits represents is a unfunded debt that must also be funded soon, unless the government plans to leave this albatross hanging around taxpayers necks like old age security, paid out of general revenue for all eternity.
GM is going to cost 100's of billions each and every year for the next 8 years, which is about how long it will take for this government to be overthrown by a massive armed revolt by a starving and desperate population.
LOL! And they would be twice as fugly, diseased and cost twice as much.
Are we going to need a passport for the move to China?
Correct and feel free to repeat the GM business model wherever you wish.
Things may not go as smoothly as the o administration would like...breaking:
Chrysler June 5 Sale Put on Hold by Appeals Court
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ais9w0DG6JKE
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