Comments on: Despite Big 3 Pleas, Auto Bailout Stalling

CEOs Berated On Capitol Hill; Congressional Leaders Say Deal Is Unlikely Before Year End

[grumpas]

Does anyone here comprehend the long term damage this is going to do our already fragile economy???? Or do they even care???? It''s going to destroy what''s left of our economy when they go under. The devastation is going to be catastrophic. The Republican''s already drove the economy in front of a speeding train with their ''borrow and spend'' policies and allowed it to hit head on. It''s time for the Republican''s to step up to the plate and repair some of the damage they have done with their irresponsible behavior. I personally am more for saving them than the Bush ''good old boy'' club of Wall Street! You know the one he was going to give Social Security to so they could destroy it too!

[craigh9]

"Why are Bush and Paulsen not making the banks lend the 50 Billion to the Big Three?".
Posted by justaguy11 at 08:54 AM : Nov 20, 2008

Because they do not have a workable business plan to base getting a loan on. They are going down the drain quickly because they are completely unable to adapt to a changing world. Giving them money would be just like the mortgage debacle, providing loans to people you know don''t have a snowballs chance in hades of being able to pay it back.

[rjstolba]

AMERICA''S CEOS ARE TOO STUPID AND TOO ARROGANT TO DESERVE OUR HELP!!! If it weren''t for the fact that so many workers would be adversely impacted, I''d say let them all go bust.

[jsutaguy]

Clearly, the Big Three *are* selling what the US public is demanding...and the *ARE* profitable...until the Wall Street/GOP created economic meltdown.

GM outsold Toyota by about a third this year. Ford outsold Honda by about a third.. The number one selling vehicle in the USA this year was the F150....for the 32nd year in a row... The number 2 selling vehicle was the Chevy Silverado...and this was DURING THE GAS CRISIS! http://online.wsj.com/mdc/public/page/2_
3022-autosales.html

2. The questions to ask are,
"Why are Bush and Paulsen not making the banks lend the 50 Billion to the Big Three?". This is less than 3% of the money WE''''VE ALREADY GIVEN TO WALL STREET!!!
"Why are Bush and Paulsen not making the banks lend AT ALL?". (As England did) http://tinyurl.com/5gzzlt
"Why are Bush and Paulsen, supposedly security conservatives, not concerned about the permanent failure of the 3 largest manufacturing firms in the USA? Are we supposed to buy our military vehicles from JAPAN???
"Why is Richard Shelby saying that the failure of the big three is inevitable when GM had returned to profitiability last year before the Wall Street corruption debacle?" http://tinyurl.com/292pzx

Richard Shelby, the designated GOP spokeman for the "let the Big Three Fail" talking points, helped give many hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money to build Mercedes, Honda, Hyundai plants here in Alabama. http://tinyurl.com/5pmfbt
http://tinyurl.com/5jykp5

[jsutaguy]

Clearly, the Big Three *are* selling what the US public is demanding...and the *ARE* profitable...until the Wall Street/GOP created economic meltdown.

GM outsold Toyota by about a third this year. Ford outsold Honda by about a third.. The number one selling vehicle in the USA this year was the F150....for the 32nd year in a row... The number 2 selling vehicle was the Chevy Silverado...and this was DURING THE GAS CRISIS! http://online.wsj.com/mdc/public/page/2_3022-autosales.html

2. The questions to ask are,
"Why are Bush and Paulsen not making the banks lend the 50 Billion to the Big Three?". This is less than 3% of the money WE''VE ALREADY GIVEN TO WALL STREET!!!
"Why are Bush and Paulsen not making the banks lend AT ALL?". (As England did) http://tinyurl.com/5gzzlt
"Why are Bush and Paulsen, supposedly security conservatives, not concerned about the permanent failure of the 3 largest manufacturing firms in the USA? Are we supposed to buy our military vehicles from JAPAN???
"Why is Richard Shelby saying that the failure of the big three is inevitable when GM had returned to profitiability last year before the Wall Street corruption debacle?" http://tinyurl.com/292pzx

Richard Shelby, the designated GOP spokeman for the "let the Big Three Fail" talking points, helped give many hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money to build Mercedes, Honda, Hyundai plants here in Alabama. http://tinyurl.com/5pmfbt
http://tinyurl.com/5jykp5

[craigh9]

Just look at what these execs want the money for "to get us to 2010 when lower cost labor contracts take effect and the new electric car will be available" HELLO - the labor contract changes are a drop in the bucket - and the last reports indicated the purchase price of the Chevy Volt is projected to be $45K and would actually represent a LOSS to the company at that rate.
What the heck kind of a business plan is this? Let them die!!!!!!!!!
Who in there right mind would spend nearly $50K for a small spec vehicle - it will take YEARS for the bugs to be worked out to the point that large numbers of cars are purchased - and if the original sales create company losses how is this expected to be the answer.
There''s an old saying in business when people try to be funny about how bad things are going - "we may lose a little on every sale, but we make it up in volume" - I never thought the big three would embrace it as a bonified management plan.

[ohioboomer]

Let''s see......taxpayers are giving lots of bail-out monies and the auto industry is giving us.............? And helping US in return by..........? And making cars that ........?

Too many unanswered questions here, don''tcha think?!?!

[omnibus66]

The auto makers have good facilities and good workers. What they lack is good management.

What Congress should REQUIRE is that all of these incompetent fools resign, and replace them with executives from Toyota or VW.

The people who run the foreign auto companies work for a lot less money than GM, Ford, or Chrysler executives, and most importantly, seem to know what they are doing.

Nobody wants to see 3 million people lose their jobs, it would be catastrophic to this country. But just giving money to idiots won''t solve anything.

[promaclaura]

I was in favor of Government loans to help the auto industry, but I was shocked when I learned that the execs of the "big3" flew to Washington on private jets to testify and ask for help. I believe that the entire business industry must wake up to the fact that things cannot go on in the current economy as they have for many years. This does not only apply to the auto industry, but all industries. We are nearing a very dangerous point in the world where we will fall over a cliff and fall, fall, fall to a point that will be worse than we saw in the 1930''''s.


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Posted by rhmc430 at 08:42 AM : Nov 20, 2008

I agree and want to add the salaries that "celebrities" make. Sport''s, TV, Movies all shuck out big bucks, their star''s living the "glamorous" life. I would love to see further taxation on this group of people.

[jsutaguy]

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[rhmc430]

I was in favor of Government loans to help the auto industry, but I was shocked when I learned that the execs of the "big3" flew to Washington on private jets to testify and ask for help. I believe that the entire business industry must wake up to the fact that things cannot go on in the current economy as they have for many years. This does not only apply to the auto industry, but all industries. We are nearing a very dangerous point in the world where we will fall over a cliff and fall, fall, fall to a point that will be worse than we saw in the 1930''s.

[promaclaura]

The writing is on the wall about job lose. The Big 3, especially GM, are going to be cutting car lines. Too many different "varieties" of the same vehicle, the oodles of SUV''s come to mind.

I lease an Acadia, a crossover, that has better gas mileage than a SUV. I like the size of my car, which is another reason why I selected it. As a soccer mom, I place "high" value in being able to transport children, friends, and the dog. Forget "status" symbol, I prefer to make only "one" trip and a small car doesn''t fit the bill.

GM did provide the vehicles wanted by the consumer, high gas prices hit and everyone immediately wanted a small car.

So I believe the government should help in overseeing a major overhaul, this can''t be a blank check though. I like what Mitt Romney said, he''s very practical and seems like the most "reasoned" voice I''ve heard.

[craigh9]

It was a very simple receipe used to create the collapse of the US auto industry

1 - Corporate Greed
2 - Union/Labor Greed
3 - Complete lack of foresight or understanding of the impact of world issues on the industry by all parties

It''s time to pay the piper

[biomegaly]

What happened to the $10K/SUV profit??? Look around, there are millions of SUVs on our highways to the tune of $10,000 profit per vehicle.

I do agree, however, that it is unfair to bailout the white collar workers and not the blue collars. But those blue-collar workers have their union and look where its got them...nearly at the unemployment line. The BIG 3 need to look internally at what cut-backs and improvements can be made within their own corporation with their own money.

$5 billion/month...well, gee, that ought to last ''til spring. It''s a joke. The government wants us to keep spending this money, we should all just bend over and keep taking it I guess.

[craigh9]

Let them go into bankruptcy. If they can''t sustain themselves through that them let them fail. This is America and if the automotive industry is a vialble option for smart business men then new companies will spring forth. Will there be pain, YES - but no where near the gloom and doom extolled on these posts. Someone with real business accumen will undoubtably buy pieces of these companies, hire skilled workers at REASONABLE wages and benefits, and will pick up shortly after the big 3 are out of the way.
It has happened time and again in America - let''s allow capitalism to rise to the occassion as it always had.

[nler1]

Let Chrysler go bankrupt, and moves there assets to Ford and GM.

[rickwar]

t''s so easy to say let them die isn''t it when you%u2019re in your comfortable job.

It''s so easy to turn a bridge loan (unavailable on the open market due to financial collapse) into a BAILOUT.

It''s so easy to cry foul because they flew into town with their own jets (even though these are charted on a long term basis and pre-paid)

It''s easy to say Bankruptcy when a bridge loan might just fix it. It''s really easy when your it not doing it.

It''s easy to say throw away possibly 3 million jobs when it''s not yours.

It''s easy to forget that with a bankruptcy dealers, suppliers, sub suppliers, surrounding business, banks (yes banks) may not be paid increasing the stress on the FED and banks.

It''s so easy to say let it all go.

What''s not easy is when the store these employees use shutter their doors, restaurant closes, towns tax base (yes they pie taxes, lots of taxes, ask Flint)disappear, when that money stops flowing through the economy.

It''s so easy to say no but so easy to say yes to throw money at a bank to save it''s behind.

Yes it''s all very easy when it appears to not be your job or company. But the ripples from this just may affect your job and your community in ways you never considered.

Yes, it%u2019s all easy until the very possible ripples from this affect the ability to produce wheeled military equipment needed as replacements during and after Iraq.

The shock to the economy might,be shaken off but it could bring down the weakened economy more.

[zippiez]

These executives are excelent examples of the current American executive class.
They are so overpaid they have no incentive to work for the benefit of the company or anyone else.
Consequently, they are indifferent to any outcome of their decisions and they are completely clueless about anything outside their little world.

[promaclaura]

A family member that works for GM (not in the union), saw the writing on the wall and banked enough money to survive for 9 months without a job. Why has management failed to accomplish this? Why did the UAW give sooooo much money to the Obama campaign?

I do believe that alot of circumstances have brought about this fiasco. The financial crisis, high gas prices and a competitive world economy did converge to make a recovery impossible. Especially with high management salaries/UAW costs, dealership deadweights and a reluctance of the companies to make huge changes.

I don''t want to see these companies fail, I believe we all hoped they would be making our alternative energy cars, not foreign automakers. Chapter 11 protection will give the Big 3 a chance to survive with a major overhaul, in the right direction, it just came sooner than anyone expected.

[dwmcgill]

The Detroit 3 built what Americans - who were willing to buy American - wanted. The vehicle quality and service suffered due to ill-motivated workforce and dealership network.
They will not survive unless they are given the opportunity that every Honda, Toyota, Hyundai facility has:
1) Choose the best workers that they can train into highly skilled workforce capable of self-determination
2) Dump the dealers with anachronistic service organizations and leave only the best and the brightest in that field
3) Temporary loan to bridge their current credit crisis (not made by the D3)