28 thoughts on “The Auto Bailout”

  1. It sounds like Rep. Ryan’s voting for it will be a major handicap for Governor Romney’s team. It basically stops him from using it without providing a lot of excuses (he wanted to save the GM plant in Janesville so he went along with President Bush on it…)

    1. I know from experience that you’re going to continue to indulge yourself in these delusions, but Ryan can simply say, “the reason that all this money was lost was because instead of using the funds to properly restructure the companies, the White House stepped in and handed them over to their cronies with taxpayer funds.” It has the additional virtue of being completely true.

      1. Ah, the old “I was for it before I was against it” excuse. Or is it the “I didn’t know what I was voting on excuse”? Either way he ducking taking responsibility for his actions.

        1. Chris, you might want to look at.the nature of the recent management changesbat GM; they are no the sign of a healthy company. Didn’t GM post a loss last quarter?

      1. Taking the loss now would make the stock viable going forward. GM could also repurchase those shares, couldn’t they? That would drive the stock price up and reward existing shareholders. But why would they? Right now they’re in the cat-bird seat — they can run a “profit” without having to pay a dividend or worry about shareholder equity! GM can now run purely for the benefit of the UAW employees. 🙂

    1. Yeah, and the price is very likely to remain low with all those outstanding shares in Federal hands. If the price were to approach anywhere near the IPO level again, there’d be serious risk of Fedgov selling off and driving the price back down. Everyone knows that, so nobody’s buying at prices that risk it. There’s almost no plausible scenario (at least not in the near term) where the taxpayer gets away clean on this one, sorry.

    2. It’s a loss only if we insist on selling when the stock price is low. There’s no reason to be stupid.

      And the stock will rise because shut up.

  2. I was at the bar last night and got into with some dude about how AWESOME his ’68 Camaro is and that this somehow translated into GM being the best car manufacturer on the planet. I was like, “Really? Your best example is a car that GM made 44 years ago?” And then I scratched my head and asked, “Isn’t the new Camaro made in Canada? Well ain’t that something. Oh well so much for buying domestic.” And then some girl chimed in and said something about how she liked her little truck. And he turned and asked her, “Is it a GM?”, and she said “No”. And he shook his head and was like, “Nah see anything other than a GM is just gonna fall apart”. And then I added to the end, “And GM is helping to bankrupt the whole country too, so it’s all good.” And he snapped, “Shut the Fuck UP!”. And I responded by literally laughing in his face.

  3. Some quick math, that’s pretty much $200 for every tax payer in the US. So, feel free to imagine an invisible hand reaching into your wallet then pulling out two fresh, crisp benjamins then lighting them on fire.

  4. For the people here who did not read the article the auto bailout was initiated when W was President. Obama just carried it through. This is similar to how Carter was blamed for the alternative energy sources investments despite it being announced in the middle of the 70s oil crisis when Nixon was President.

    http://www.dailytech.com/Bush+Defends+Auto+Bailout+Amid+Romney+Attacks/article23952.htm

    From my point of view the government had to intervene to secure the future of the US auto industry. One could argue how the intervention would happen but I think it was necessary. The automotive industry has significant direct and indirect strategic implications. The alternative could have let to the eventual loss of the sector to foreign investors. Of the big three I suspect only Ford would remain in US hands.

    1. And Bush has said that he only intended that money to be enough to get the situation well into the hands of the Obama administration. What was it that Obama said? “I’m Lebron, I can play at this level…..” so I guess Bush just wanted to pass him the ball.

  5. The alternative could have let to the eventual loss of the sector to foreign investors.

    They lost Chrysler anyway and put off the end of General Motors by a few years.

  6. Don’t know if anyone here cares to know the reason why GM earnings are down, but here is a good story. I know facts tend to get in the way of your bashing President Obama…

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/aug/02/gm-profits-slip-european-struggles

    GM profits slip 41% as European struggles take their toll
    guardian.co.uk, Thursday 2 August 2012 09.25 EDT

    [[[General Motors’ profits fell 41% in the second quarter as troubles in Europe undercut strong sales in North America.]]]

    Basically the recession and crisis in Europe is dragging them down although they are doing better then expected in the U.S. and China. Their key problem is they have more exposure in Europe and so are hurt more by European economic troubles. Selling the stock now would be stupid, as they will return once they trim their European exposure and/or the European economy turns around.

      1. Titus,

        So you agree the reports of GM’s demise are premature? Especially as they have solid cash reserves. Good!

    1. And I’m sure the new, GLOBAL CHEVROLET, will just turn it all around in a jiffy. Double Plus Good!

      Sorry Opel :_(

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