This has to be a strong contender for Worst Idea Ever. Shovel billions at Detroit without addressing what everyone knows is the real problem, ruinous union contracts. Democrats in congress know it as well as anyone else but can't risk offending one of their prime sources of funding. So they come up with this idea of a Car Czar, who will sit in solomonic judgment of the industry's plans to reinvent itself. All in a couple of months. News flash. It took them decades to dig the hole they're in now, and nothing that they come up with in the next couple of months will change that. It's not just a matter of quality. I happen to think GM produces some pretty decent products from a quality standpoint. Their big trucks are the gold standard. The further down the lineup you go, the worse their products stink however, if not in quality at least in terms of desirability. Basically, Detroit has two problems. Consumers don't want what they are selling, and even if they did, they can only make money on big trucks and SUVs. Foreign manufacturers and even transplants have too big a cost advantage. They don't have to pay for hyper-expensive health care, they get export subsidies through tax rebates, they are in low wage asian locations or the southern US with no unions, they benefit from currency manipulation, etc etc. It is unrealistic to think a couple of bridge loans will correct any of this. The only hope for Detroit is a combination of socialized medicine, a total repudiation of free trade agreements and breaking the UAW. I can't see any of these happening within a timeframe that saves them. The best alternative is Chapter 11, where union contracts can be repudiated, the viable assets transferred to capable managers and the rest ashcanned. It's called creative destruction, the capitalist equilvalent of the law of the jungle. Kill or be killed. Plewnty of domestic manufacters fell before GM, Ford and Chrysler. Now it's their turn.
The Banks got 9 Trillion, and you're bitching about 15 Billion???? Talk about priorities. The Banks, Autos and Homeowners need to go under.
No one deserve's anything from the government. Let entities get what they get. No one is going to starve. The corruption continues...
I wasn't crazy about the bank bailout, and we see how that has worked. At least there is the possiblility, however remote, the taxpayers get something out of that. I can't see that with the automakers, at least not without monumental changes. Also, I don't believe for a minute the 15 billion will be the end of it. We will be told we have to pony up much more or risk losing the 15 bill. My point is that the Big Three no longer have viable businesses. The sooner that fact is recognized, the sooner they can be rationalized into something that at least has a chance of being viable. This bailout is actually designed to preserve the very thing that makes them nonviable, namely those lavish union contracts. Modifying a few of the more outrageous provisions is just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
I fully support he auto bailout based on the fact that the worthless, cock sucking bankers got bailed out. And no, I do not believe that the GS, CITI and the like are more important. It's all bullshit! It's class warfare pure and simple. No money for the big 3, then the banks need to return every god damn dime they got.
Actually your idiotic analogy makes some sense. The terminally ill need to die, whether they be people or businesses. The banking/financial system is no more viable in it's current form that the big 3 are in theirs. Both are terribly managed and have no future in their current form. We needed to let this play out without all the life support. The DOW would now be at 5000, which is exactly where it belongs, the terminal business would be failing, which is what's needed, and we'd all take the hit together, regroup, rebuild and move on to a better, stronger future. What we're doing now is setting a time bomb in place and will destroy the future.
Yes of course. But your support for the auto bailout only adds fuel to the fire that is about to consume the country.
============== True Rio Neo; but after speaking that to the powers that be; if they do that GM waste, send all in USA a check for $$$,$$$$ 1 million bucks, designate some of that for mortgage debt forgiveness. Sure that may make the downtrebnd more severe; bu so will GM garbage bail out...........................Win/win