GM Makes Pitch to Congress for Taxpayer Bridge Loan
It is scary to realize the level of incompetency of some of the executives who run American companies. The sentence I quoted from a story on MARKETWATCH today says that GM is requesting $6 billion more than it requested just a few weeks ago. It’s apparent to me that the “executives” running our remaining 3 automotive manufacturers don’t have a clue about how much money they will need, when they will need it or what they will do with the money once they get it, if they get it.
These companies need to fire the people running them, file for Chapter 11 reorg. bankruptcy, scale down the number of models they offer, dramatically lower their cost structures and then when they have re-earned the trust of the marketplace, start reclaiming market share with the world class cars and trucks they will have to offer.
~~John Cronin~~
MarketWatch
GM is requesting a total of $18 billion in loans, $6 billion more than it said a few weeks ago, and needs an immediate injection of $4 billion to stay afloat until the end of the year. Ford is seeking a $9 billion bridge loan.
December 3rd, 2008 at 7:25 am
It is occurring to me that people are clasping at straws, Running around like chickens with their heads cut off….These CEO’s have balance sheets, CPA’s etc. What don’t they get, you wait until you need a bailout to see the forest for the trees. I tell you what, my Dad always said to me growing up, that common sense, is your most important virtue in life……..Well, common sense seems to be lost and no where to be found….Tell ME that isn’t so…These folks have financial advisers as well. We had a proven and true turnaround man, cast him aside like a bail of hay……..When all the while others needed their egos stroked, so here we are….Dems now get to fix the problem????Maybe they will…..I personally would have wished people would have paid attention to one who was proven to know how to handle, put the right folks in place, know where square one is, and proceed with conviction….. Here is the point, Mitt knows turnaround, everyone wants to just throw money, OUR MONEY, OUR CHILDRENS’ MONEY, and their CHILDRENS’ MONEY. He is right, restructure,times have changed. We need to be leaner, cut all frivolous expense.
What a joke, flying in jets with tin cup says, they have NO CLUE…What I find sad is that, Dems love UNIONS and owe them, follow the dollar, we have learned nothing…….GOD HELP US!!!!!!!!Bold, unpopular steps will set us FREE…..
clue…..
December 3rd, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Mitt Romney’s bold OpEd piece published by the New York Times on November 19th regarding Detroit’s woes has had a profound effect on how to handle Big 3 woes.
Romney’s cut-to-the-chase prescription - Detroit needing a turnaround and not a check - was very clear. Romney’s advice for Ford, Chrysler, and GM to restructure for long-term viability has opened the eyes of the Big 3, UAW, Congress, and President-elect Obama. Obama rejected the initial request for billions and sent the jet-set CEO’s packing to come up with a plan.
Today, heeding Mitt’s warnings for the necessity to reduce fixed costs and in an effort to save their jobs, UAW (United Auto Workers) union officials from the Big 3 automakers – Ford, Chrysler, and GM are talking possible CONCESSIONS in an UNPRECEDENTED meeting in Detroit. One topic the auto union is discussing is modifying or eliminating Job Banks.
How many compromises the UAW offers and how thorough the Big 3 plans will be for revamping itself remains to be seen. But, one thing is for certain; when the topic of economics and ailing business comes up, a word from veteran-of-turn-arounds Romney causes the country to listen.
Congress Eyes Big Three Automakers’ Plans
NPR.org
December 3, 2008
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97737508
Leaders of the United Auto Workers were also discussing further concessions at an emergency meeting in Detroit on Wednesday. Under consideration were the possibility of scrapping a much-maligned jobs bank in which laid-off workers keep receiving most of their pay and postponing the automakers’ payments into a multibillion-dollar union-administered health care fund.
Still, an auto bailout remains a tough sell on Capitol Hill.
INSIGHT ON ‘JOBS BANK’
Jobs bank programs — 12,000 paid not to work decades-long deal. Big 3 and suppliers pay billions to keep downsized UAW members on payroll in
By Bryce G. Hoffman / Detroit News
MONDAY OCT 17, 2005 (three years ago)
http://www.detnews.com/2005/autosinsider/0510/17/A01-351179.htm
WAYNE — Ken Pool is making good money. On weekdays, he shows up at 7 a.m. at Ford Motor Co.’s Michigan Truck Plant in Wayne, signs in, and then starts working — on a crossword puzzle. Pool hates the monotony, but the pay is good: more than $31 an hour, plus benefits.
“We just go in and play crossword puzzles, watch videos that someone brings in or read the newspaper,” he says. “Otherwise, I’ve just sat.”
Pool is one of more than 12,000 American autoworkers who, instead of installing windshields or bending sheet metal, spend their days counting the hours in a jobs bank set up by Detroit automakers and Delphi Corp. as part of an extraordinary job security agreement with the United Auto Workers union.