Posted on 12/08/2008 5:36:33 PM PST by Jet Jaguar
WASHINGTON -- Congress and the White House inched toward agreement on legislation that would throw a financial lifeline to the Big Three auto makers, giving the government a substantial ownership stake in the industry and a central role in its restructuring.
Under the terms of the draft legislation, which continued to evolve Monday evening, the government would receive warrants for stock equivalent to at least 20% of the loans any company receives. The company also would have to agree to limits on executive compensation and dividend payments, much like those contained in the government's $700 billion rescue of the financial industry.
Assuming congressional Democrats and the White House come to agreement on the plan, the car industry would be the latest to submit to strict government scrutiny in return for a bailout, joining most prominently the banking sector.
The auto industry would undergo a restructuring process akin to bankruptcy reorganization, only with fewer rigors and with the government, not a judge, in control, and with many associated political complications.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Why is our Congress holding the Big 3 hostage? They aren’t the others.
Either way, it's anathema to a free society.
What's really scary is that a$$hats like Chris Dodd and Barney Frank will be trying to tell the auto companies how to run their businesses. Barney and Chris did such a good job keeping a check on fannie mae and freddie mac!
How much money were the house and senate "dining rooms" (restaurants) losing every year while the house and senate were running them? Anybody else remember that after the IRS seized The Mustang Ranch Brothel, the government tried to run it, AND THEY LOST MONEY!!! Boy, the jokes pretty much write themselves over that one, but honestly, how can you lose money selling SEX???
And let's talk about these "eagle eyed" congress-critters that are going to keep a sharp eye on the executives, so there's no "hanky panky" going on! I have so much confidence in them after fannie mae and freddie mac. Heck, Barney didn't realize that his very own homosexual lover was running a prostitution ring out of his own home! HE'S someone I want running oversight! How about you all?
Mark
“We call this the barber shop, Car dealers?”
Let me tell the bitch Pelosi that the car dealers are not getting one damn penny from this bailout. For those who do not understand, let me state the facts. The DEALERS are the manufacturers CUSTOMERS. They make their money when they sell their product to the DEALERS. For the last decade, cost transfers from the MANUFACTURERS to the DEALERS have allowed them to survive. The DEALERS PAY FLOOR PLAN ON THE UNITS THEY BUY FROM THE MANUFACTURER. The MANUFACTURER DOESN’T PAY ONE DAMN CENT OF THE DEALERS OVERHEAD COSTS. Today I read that Senator Dodd JUST THIS WEEK found out that the dealers pay interest every month on their INVENTORY FLOORPLAN to the manufacturers. How in Gods name can a Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee understand so little about the business model that the taxpayers are being asked to finance? I have been a rural Ford Dealer for 26 years. Screw the government and the corporations. The small dealers of America are the backbone of the Big 3 and their story is a story of hard work, cusomer satisfaction, and a hope that someday corporate management will understand that small dealers deserve the same treatment that Metro, publically owned whores do. We understand what hard work, personal investment and faith in free enterprise mean.
Chris Dodd and Barney Frank “feel” your pain...
Congress and the White House inched toward agreement on legislation that would throw a financial lifeline to the Big Three auto makers, giving the government a substantial ownership stake in the industry and a central role in its restructuring.Oh yeah, that'll work. The Congress runs its own business so bleepin' blankin' well. This proposed bailout is supposed to be *loans* btw, not just a check for $15 billion and laissez faire.
or "Big Daddy" Don Garlits!
Mark
Thank you for those links. I just watched all of them. You could do a search and replace to insert GM for Leyland, or any of the others.
Sad.
Sad.
Sad.
FYI, Bosch is the new Lucas.
Yup. And despite what ALL the pro-bailout people here say, we already KNOW where a bailout or nationalization leads. It only delays the inevitable and largely destroys the investment pool for that industry.
To this DAY, nobody will invest in a native Brit startup motor company. NOBODY. That well has been totally poisoned.
Their OEM parts aren’t. On the other hand, it’s now a tossup between Visteon and Delphi’s electrical parts for second place. First place is now proudly occupied by Borg Warner, supplier of the most defective crankshaft position sensors ever seen by man.
The others don’t employ the unions that paid money to elect them.
As long as I can stay away from that new burnt harness smell.
Sigh. That is where we are going to be. It is the labor unions that will have poisoned the well, though.
What investor in their right mind would go there in the USA, especially after BO gets pro-union, protectionist legislation in place.
As the former owner of an MG Midget, I can only say that is one of the harshest judgements passed today on anything.
“The Father of Darkness is dead! Long Live The Father of Darkness!”
>>>>FYI, Bosch is the new Lucas.
>>Their OEM parts arent.
I beg to differ. Being acquainted with their work in the VW/Audi world, they’ve had disasters with ABS controllers (there’s a cottage industry in doing rebuilds on those), coilpacks, and instrument clusters, in the 98-04 MY time frame.
Strangely, on the Jags, Mercs, and BMWs that employ Bosch to make the same parts, those same problems do not appear.
I think it’s a “VW spec error” thing rather than a “Bosch sucks” thing.
Though I wouldn’t buy any Bosch non-OEM platinum plugs....
BMW, I know, has the same issues with Bosch ABS modules as Audi. They were the same units.
I cannot hardly wait, the government done a great job on the house post office, and the house bank, the senate just had to close its restaurant because it did not know how to run it and make a profit.. so they should be good at making cars....sarc
I think the unacknowledged thing here is that already the largest group of union worker in the U.S. are government employees. What do you suppose is going to happen when the UAW joins that unholy mess?
“Workers of the world, unite. We can import new chains from China so you won’t even have to make them!”
Or maybe they’ll set it all up the way Hitler did with the Volkswagen. You make payments for however long and then they put you on the list to get a car whenever they get around to making one for you. Oh, yeah, it’s gonna be great. Weren’t those Soviet-built Zils in enormous demand for the export market? They must have been because I don’t know of one that ever left a Soviet-bloc country. Of course, the Yugo was an engineering marvel, too. Of course, ours will be better because they’ll be “green”. They’ll just update Henry Ford’s old line, “You can get any color you want as long as it’s green”.
We are soooooooooo screwed!
I have driven American made when it didn't make sense...and when it did. I am a loyal idiot, I guess. (I even have a 1966 Mustang that, even today, rocks. Find me a 1966 Honda or Kia...) The Mustang is a toy, my everyday dependable vehicle is a Chevy, and has been for years.
If the government takes over these companies..I will be forced to leave them. And that is a really big hurt.
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