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WASHINGTON -- Congress and the White House inched toward a financial rescue of the Big Three auto makers, negotiating legislation that would give the U.S. government a substantial ownership stake in the industry and a central role in its restructuring. Under 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.

General Motors Corp on Monday unveiled an unusually frank advertisement acknowledging it had "disappointed" and sometimes even "betrayed" American consumers as it lobbies to clinch the federal aid it needs to stay afloat into next month.

Let’s just say I’m a business behind the times. I’ve repeatedly ignored requests to make my product cost consumers less money to use and operate. I’ve created products in foreign countries that foreign countries can make better here in America – and sell cheaper. I’ve thrown cash around my business, and burned it, like I had a direct supply to the Federal Reserve. I’ve propped up union bullshit like “job banks” and “retirement” benefits such as Viagra prescriptions and full health coverage to retirees to the point of impending bankruptcy.

Richard Wagoner Jr., Chairman and CEO of General Motors (L) arrives in a prototype electric vehicle for a Senate hearing with Rep. Sander Levin (D-MI) (R) in Washington, DC. Chastened bosses of the Big Three US automakers beseeched Congress for a 34 billion dollar bailout Thursday, steering into a raging debate about the wisdom of rescuing the crippled firms. Richard Wagoner (R), chairman and CEO of General Motors, and an aide arrive to testify before the Senate Banking Committee hearing on the financial assistance package for the big Detroit automakers on Capitol Hill, December 4, 2008 Auto executives, from left,...

NEW YORK (AP) - General Motors' November U.S. sales plunged 41 percent, while Ford's dropped 31 percent, dashing hopes that the industrywide drop in vehicle demand might be easing as Detroit's automakers prepare to state their second case for a federal bailout. Their overseas rivals posted abismal (???) results as well. Toyota's November sales tumbled 34 percent, and Honda's fell 32 percent. A dreary economy, swooning consumer confidence and tight credit markets have combined to keep consumers out of vehicle showrooms this year. On Monday, the National Bureau of Economic Research said the U.S. entered a recession in December 2007,...

The residents of this town are learning to enjoy Korean barbecue, and are wary of bailing out American automakers. 'The foreign cars took the lead, and they deserve it,' says one. This attractive old mill town along the Chattahoochee River, with its brick downtown and streets of cozy, unpretentious homes, could be the backdrop for a patriotic American car commercial -- lacking only the plaintive croak of a Bob Seger or John Mellencamp. But America's Big Three automakers, which are teetering at a financial abyss, shouldn't expect much sympathy here. Kia Motors, the South Korean automaker, is building a plant...

Ford retirees worry about future BY ANDREA HOLECEK holecek@nwitimes.com | Friday, November 28, 2008 | No comments posted. Local Ford Motor Co. retirees say they are worried about the fate of U.S. auto makers and how the industry's problems could affect their comfortable retirements. "I'm very much concerned," said Charles Cupp, 50, of Morocco, who retired in 2007. "It's very concerning for every one of the retirees I've talked to. It seems like the first place they always cut is on retirees." Cupp, who worked as an hourly employee at the Chicago Ford Assembly Plant for 30 years, and other...

With the collapse of mediation talks between the major Hollywood studios and the Screen Actors Guild, the warring parties wasted little time launching campaigns aimed at discrediting each other while courting the sympathies of actors who will cast ballots in a strike referendum next month. In a letter sent to the union's 120,000 members Wednesday, SAG President Alan Rosenberg blasted the studios for seeking to impose "one-size-fits-all demands" on the union and accused management of using the depressed economy as an excuse to dismiss the needs of actors, especially when it comes to securing their future in the burgeoning world...

We got dozens of emails yesterday to Nealz Nuze saying that I must see this video about a Ford plant. Okay you are probably thinking "big deal, Boortz." But if you watch the video it explains how Ford has created a new, innovative manufacturing plant that streamlines production and makes operations much more efficient. They can make 5 different types of vehicles at this plant. It does this by allowing Ford suppliers to be integrated into the assembly line process. So the suppliers making the seats, the dashboards, the fuel systems ... they have assembly lines right inside the Ford...

10 Cars That Damaged GM's Reputation (With Video) GM's current precarious situation didn't come about overnight. There are arguments to be made that various government regulations led to the disaster and that management can't escape much of the blame, and there are plenty who contend it was a series of disastrous union labor contracts that have put the company at risk. But there's one thing everyone agrees on: Over the past few decades GM put some truly terrible products out on the market. Unreliable, uninteresting and flat ugly, these were cars that simply destroyed GM's reputation.... 1. 1971-1977 Chevrolet Vega...

Screen Actors Guild to seek to authorize strike By MarketWatch Last update: 5:53 a.m. EST Nov. 23, 2008 TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) - The Screen Actors Guild, representing some 120,000 actors in movies, TV, the Internet, commercials, new media and more, said on Saturday that it would ask its members to authorize a strike after a federal mediator failed to bring the union and management to terms. The guild said that it had been optimistic that a mediator's intervention would move the talks along but that after two days of mediated talks, management "continues to insist on terms we cannot responsibly...

<p>DETROIT---- General Motors Corp.'s board of directors does not consider bankruptcy protection a viable option to solve the company's financial troubles, but it has discussed Chapter 11 because it has a legal duty to do so, a spokesman said Saturday.</p>

The New Plan? Cripple Honda! Save Detroit with Card Check! Eliminating the secret ballot and making it easier to organize U.S. Honda and Toyota workers (and imposing contract terms via binding arbitration) would "level the playing field," says Dem. Congressman Tim Ryan. ... Then when Honda and Toyota responded by importing more cars from abroad, we could have import quotas! Eventually the whole automotive sector could be planned by Congress in conjunction with existing business and labor interest groups. Red State has seen the future and it is corporatist. ...12:21 P.M.

Memo to CEOs: Ask for a bailout, and your company will be reduced to a caricature. Recent congressional hearings on the plight of GM, Ford, and Chrysler have illuminated a few important issues—like how the Detroit executives travel when on business. Populist politicians and gotcha journalists delighted at the prospect of rich CEOs riding corporate jets to ask for taxpayer money. There was a little talk about jobs and cars and the foundering economy, too. But you might have missed that part, or gotten confused by a welter of misperceptions that emerged from the spectacle of supplicant CEOs trying last-ditch...

Who killed the U.S. auto industry? To hear the media tell it, arrogant corporate chiefs failed to foresee the demand for small, fuel-efficient cars and made gas-guzzling road-hog SUVs no one wanted, while the clever, far-sighted Japanese, Germans and Koreans prepared and built for the future. I dissent. What killed Detroit was Washington, the government of the United States, politicians, journalists and muckrakers who have long harbored a deep animus against the manufacturing class that ran the smokestack industries that won World War II. As far back as the 1950s, an intellectual elite that produces mostly methane had its knives...

NPR's Morning Edition featured a very interesting interview with Chairman Barney Frank this morning. In it he asserted that the $25 billion that the Big 3 is now seeking is definitely not enough to keep the companies going, and it will be followed by tens of billions more if the companies come up with a 'plan' that seems promising. Although if you listen to the interview, he gets awfully agitated at the NPR host for trying to hone in on this point: Steve Inskeep: I want to ask you about something mentioned in that report from an economist from the...

UAW’s ‘No Concessions’ Policy Killing Big Three, Expert Says Friday, November 21, 2008 By Tiffany Gabbay United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger (CNSNews.com) – The Big Three automakers are forced to pay 85 percent of union benefits to members of the United Auto Workers union who aren’t working – even if their plants have been closed. Industry analysts say union labor agreements that obligate the Big Three to pay millions of dollars to workers who are no longer working are a major reason why the automakers are in trouble – a problem that no short-term bailout can fix. During hearings...

Who killed the U.S. auto industry? To hear the media tell it, arrogant corporate chiefs failed to foresee the demand for small, fuel-efficient cars and made gas-guzzling road-hog SUVs no one wanted, while the clever, far-sighted Japanese, Germans and Koreans prepared and built for the future. I dissent. What killed Detroit was Washington, the government of the United States, politicians, journalists and muckrakers who have long harbored a deep animus against the manufacturing class that ran the smokestack industries that won World War II. As far back as the 1950s,

WASHINGTON - Congress returns after Thanksgiving to decide whether to approve a $25 billion loan to General Motors, Chrysler, and Ford. The future of United Auto Workers members in Michigan and other states is at stake. “It appears to me we possibly have one too many auto makers,” said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who opposes the loan. But he said, “even if they went through Chapter 11, there will be U.S. auto makers in this country. I don’t think there’s anybody in this country that really thinks if they went through some re-organization that we’re not going to end up...

GM to return two leased jets amid criticism By Poornima Gupta Poornima Gupta 12 mins ago DETROIT (Reuters) – General Motors Corp will return two of its leased corporate jets amid intense criticism in Washington this week on the luxury travel arrangements of its chief executive even as the company pleads for federal aid. CEO Rick Wagoner was in the capital to testify on the company's dire financial situation but his testimony was overshadowed by irate lawmakers who blasted him for flying on a private jet to ask for public funds and failing to make personal sacrifices in exchange for...