So now Ford has to compete with Government motors. Instead of letting GM fail we might end up with 0 American auto companies with Government Motors ends up failing eventually and the Ford as well.
But, the fat lady hasn't sung yet. The Supreme Court may still invalidate the TARP funds used for the auto bailouts and may stop the Chrysler restructuring all together. Obama is breaking the law. Too bad they won't be putting him in jail so we would be rid of him. I'd rather see an inept Joe Biden running things. Maybe he wouldn't spend so much money and monkey with our capitalist system.
If gov't run enterprises are as bad as many believe, this should actually be a positive opportunity for Ford.
Not this time. Expect to see lots of money being dumped into Govt Motors, probably even cost subsidies etc.. and Ford will penalized. GM should never have been bailed out period. The slack would have been taken up by Ford. What the hell is wrong with this country. What a joke.
If the assumption that gov't can't run a business is true - the more money they sink into it - the better off Ford will be.
But look at Amtrak. The government gave them favors so no one dared to compete with them. Their service is lousy but competitors are kept out of the market. On a side note, I've only ridden an Amtrak train once. It was a 500 mile overnight trip. In the middle of the night I woke up and we were stopped on a side track waiting for a freight train. When we got to Denver it took 2 hours to get the train over to the station after we arrived in the yard. In all, we were about 5 hours late. None of the train crew seemed to care. I vowed never to ride Amtrak again.
I would not agree that Ford will be better off due to the gov't urinating money away into GM but that doesn't mean Ford won't still be able to do well. UPS and FEDEX (along with anyone else) are not allowed to ship first class mail as the post office has a monopoly in that business. The post office also along with that monopoly competes with packages as well. the USPS loses money and UPS and FEDEX makes money. I read in the wall st journal today (might of been fridays paper as it was pretty slow today) that Barney Frank talked GM into keeping a MASS distributor from being shut down after it was slated to be shut. It appears that Rep Frank was able to show GM the 'value' in keeping it open. I think that's just the warm up rehearsal for things to come. That's as good of an example as I can give on my first bottle of wine. In the mean time I am looking at buying Canadian bonds as a hedge. Not because they are more free market then we are but rather their govt spending/debt is less in comparison to us. (we may soon not be able to afford the natural resources of Canada but Asia will be able to IMHO) Its gonna get ugly folks. REAL ugly as the boys and girls in DC are way over their collective heads. Taxes are going to go higher and the economy is not
I like how the willy Mulally-fish swam up, sniffed the bait and swam away. I wanted a GM back in December but bought a Ford instead due to the uncertainty with GM and some dealer shennanigans with ordering what I wanted. I'm sure there is alot of that going on. Ford may have troubles with government subsidized competitors in the long run but right now they are selling cars and trucks that would have otherwise gone to GM.
Yes. Their piece of the domestic pie is going to keep growing. The funny thing is, and I agree with the OP on Fording getting screwed over, Ford's CEO went to Washington to support a bailout for GM and Chrysler. I know the companies share supply networks, but it still seems like an odd thing to do, supporting your competition that is.
There is a difference between subsidizing a service that the private sector won't provide because there's no money to be made, and subsidizing a competitor in a highly vibrant market with a great deal of profit potential.