Free Republic

One of the best reasons why Detroit automakers should not receive a bailout can be found in a General Motors "Jobs Bank" program that, bizarrely, pays employees not to work. A beneficiary of that program was someone named Jerry Mellon, who worked for GM until his division merged with another in 2000 and he was no longer needed. Except for a brief period in 2001, Mellon received his full salary for not working, which reached $64,500 a year by 2006. Include benefits, and the annual cost to GM exceeds $100,000. To earn his pay, Mellon was given the formidable task...

That beeping sound you hear this week is the semi-truck being backed up to the Federal Treasury in Washington. After being filled with taxpayer billions, it's on its way to Detroit. A heaping bailout for the Big Three automakers - currently losing millions every day theyproduce cars no one wants to buy - feels like it's being gift-wrapped for the holidays.But the beeping sound you should be hearing is the heart monitor of the Big Three, slowing downto flatline. General Motors, Chrysler and Ford are such horrific financial wrecks that not even the Jaws of Life - and certainly not...

The scuttlebutt: banks still willing to make new car loans are more so when the make is foreign. The meme has been traveling around for a while by net, got an unsupported mention on NPR this week and spurred me into making a few phone calls. Off the record, wink-wink, nudge, nudge, it’s easy to get you bought on a car from a company not headquartered in Detroit. In other words, the gangrene of bankruptcy has already set in.

General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. took another hit as Moody's Investors Service downgraded the corporate debt of both auto companies to junk status, following similar moves by Standard & Poor's Corp.The moves come as the top two U.S. auto makers by market share struggle with intense competition, high costs and the decline in sales of their biggest and most profitable sport-utility vehicles. Moody's downgrades, affecting about $150 billion of debt, will ratchet up pressure on GM and Ford to confront their cost problems in the U.S. before contract talks with the United Auto Workers union are to begin...