There are many pundits on both sides of the political spectrum opposed to the bailout in the basis that it will put the nation on a slippery slope to to so called 'socialism'. But this couldn't be further from the truth; the bailout of Ford and GM would hardly signify the beginning socialist transformation whatsoever. Why? There are over 5,000 companies on the nasdaq and NYSE. The government has only bailed-out just a tiny handful of them; a few mortgage companies such as Fannie, Freddie. Thats it. The vast majority of public companies that fail, do so quietly without the slightest assistance from the government. Far all this blabbering about socialism and corporate welfare only five or so of all publicly traded companies have been bailed out. To put this in greater perspective 95% of small businesses will fail within five years. How many of these will get a government bailout from so called 'tax payers'? None. Every year thousands of small businesses fail, taking the livelihood and dreams of their founders along with it, and with the bailout of Gm and Ford this sobering statistic won't change. Failure will still be an option for most businesses, and a very probable one at that. The economic benefits of rescuing GM and Ford would be immense. For a paltry $25-50 billion such a rescue plan would likely cause international stock markets to surge, adding TRILLIONS of dollars in market capitalization, boost investor confidence, and thus encouraging even more buying. Furthermore, the dollar would plunge and the Euro and oil would rally, which directly benefits the economies of the US and Europe. US exporters profit immensely from a cheaper dollar, as do European importers. In fact, Germany entered a recession and this can be attributed partly to a rising dollar. Bailing out Gm and Ford would help alleviate these economic problems by manipulating the currencies. The fall in the dollar and rise in the Euro would translate in to hundreds of billions of dollars in further export related revenue, making the $25-50 billion dollar bailout a good investment in retrospect. Failure to rescue Ford in Gm would result in a sudden global stock market plunge, a surge in the dollar, a plunge in oil, dashed investor confidence, and up to three million unemployed workers. Also, Obama would lose many potential votes in the swing states in the 2012 election because he would be held accountable for the failure of these companies. There is also a myth going around that is perpetuated by moonbats and winnuts that somehow taxpayers will have to pay the tab on this bailout. Taxpayers won't pay a penny for the 750 billion dollar bailout, nor did they pay a penny for the Iraq war, the occupation, and the tax payer won't pay a penny for the auto bailout either. Tax payers have been paying the SAME taxes under Bush's original tax cuts since 2001 before all this spending. The money is free because China is holding our debt, and will continue to do so. It's a symbiosis that allows the US to spend its way out of recessions and keep the economy chugging along in an era of perpetualistic, continuous, uninterrupted growth and prosperity.
It has nothing to do with socialism, it's about creating national strategic assets rather than more national liabilities. Giving them $50 billion would be totally pointless, it would keep them alive for another 6 months and then they'd be back for more. Anybody should be able to see this, clear as day. Therefore all three companies should be siezed by the government, and force-merged into a new national carmaker with the government owning 20-25% of the shares. Entire new management teams should be brought in, told to turn the companies into exporters of American-made stuff and given carte blanche to do whatever they feel is necessary - fire workers, cut pay and benefits, eliminate brands, close down factories - to make the companies competitive. Then we can offer them government loans to get started.
Stock_trader3, What is your opinion on the government decision not to bail out Lehman Brothers? Was it a mistake?
I would like an opinion also. Esp a financial firm, they don't pollute or leave behind nasty brownfields, everyone uses mass transit to go to work, nice clean business. The enviromentalists should have been fully behind a bailout.
usually, your posts are limited to stupid, knee jerk "BUY" posts, with no thought whatsoever. anyone with half a brain can see through it, so i ignore it but unfortunately, in this post you bothered to attempt to put forth 'reason' a reason too many people sem to buy into you said "Taxpayers won't pay a penny for the 750 billion dollar bailout, nor did they pay a penny for the Iraq war, the occupation, and the tax payer won't pay a penny for the auto bailout either. Tax payers have been paying the SAME taxes under Bush's original tax cuts since 2001 before all this spending. The money is free because China is holding our debt, and will continue to do so" with this statement, you go from an idiot to a despicable fucking traitor. those who buy into this thinking eventually enslave future generations to china do you realize we risked all out atomic war to avoid such a fate? and it was more than a 'distant possiblity' it actually came very close. if we had the right to use such measures, then we also have the responsibility to take every other measure as well, espeacially financial responsibility you have the brain and soul of a reptile only a reptile never had a choice about what he is you make me sick
out of curiosity, for those of you who support a bailout of GM/Ford: 1)What type of car do you own? and 2)Have you ever called Obama or any other Democrat a "Socialist"? Thanks!
This is quite literally the dumbest, least thought out reasoning I have ever encountered on ET. And that is saying a lot.
But it's true. Taxes have been the same since 2001 with the original Bush tax cuts. Not a penny in rased taxes to pay for bailouts or iraq war. Those are the facts. Looks like Citi got a bailout and as preditec the markets are surging, oil is surging and the dollar is falling. Investor confidence is being restored with a small $20 billion investment. Oil is up a whopping 8% and the dollar fell off a cliff. This is why we need to bailout these troubled companies. Only five or so 'too large to fail' companies require bailouts and the total sum of bailout allocation would only be a $100 billion at most.
are you a satire? a troll here just to yank chains? It's not a big deal if you are, i've done that on yahoo myself i was just wondering
no I'm serious. I'm presenting an alternative viewpoint, but one that is also right and backed by hard facts. it seems most people here are opposed to printing money and bailouts, and most of these people are also shorting the market.s Is it a coincidence? no.