Fallout of the Auto Bailout, and argument for free market...

And now the UAW wants to do what can to see Ford fail. Why would it? It's the fast route to owning the company. With Obama helping out it's a lock.

Remember all those plans Chrysler had to begin producing green vehicles?

You know, the ones that were hyped so taxpayers in the U.S. and Canada would fork out billions to save the automakers as they retooled for the green economy.

I guess the taxpayers' cheque has cleared, so those plans aren't really important anymore.

From Greg Mankiw's blog:

C'mon folks...I mean seriously...is there anyone, I mean anyone (with the exception of Obama-worshipers and apologists) that is even remotely surprised by this? This was as predictable as the sun rising in the east.

I just want GM and Crysler to fail S-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O badly, that it takes our federal government with them.

ford started this path years ago, they now have very nice products have you seen the new fusion it actually looks "stylish" more so than the camry and accord, jd powers says and consumer reports gives camry average, and fusion above average, their hybrid does better than the camry
this give people pause to at least turn and consider ford products
GM will die the death of a hundred cuts, the bailout to the unions guaranteed that

as for chrysler---wow, here the government and supporters and obama's administration said so much about fighting jobs leaving america, so pompous, now they forced a deal in a week with
of all companies FIAT, to save the chrysler unions and their bosses (do they have to take a pay and bonus cut)
chrysler had no real products in the pipeline, and they had the worst quality and resale of the three detroit companies so we get fiats, fiat 500 will save chysler???? what koolaid are they drinking. ( FIAT OF ALL COMPANIES, has anyone here ever owned, or knew someone who owned a fiat--hit a puddle and it would short out...i push my friends fiat more miles than it drove.)

so long as the unions get their payback, chysler is dead they know it and the obama administration is content that they won't announce it till after 2010 elections

and i see chrysler dealership fall to the side and all those jobs gone forever
saturn, great customer service junk leadership from GM gone, gone gone
all those jobs lost too

and gee we as american tax payers spend/ borrowed from our grandchildren 24k per clunker car
to ARTIFICIALLY BUMB GDP TO SERVE THEIR NEW MASTER--OBAMA

i think a lot of people are regretting their decision to support this mess, so now our hope is they fail and people start focusing on individual freedom not this commune they are trying to shove down our throats. when lady aster asked stalin when the killing will stop he said when he is done.
the collective only works for those in power at our freedoms expense, once we lose it, we never get it back

NOFEER.

Will you chill the fuck out?

Barack Obama is president for the next three to seven years. Then he will be gone. And you'll be free to elect Liz Cheney, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, or whoever the fuck you want.

Barack Obama is a moderate centre left politician with a reform agenda.

He is not Stalin. He is not Kim Il Sung.

Chill the fuck out.

No periods and no capitalization either.

BTW your $24K/clunker is off by ever so small of a wee bit dollar-wise per clunker.

CARS


$2,850,162,500/677,081 = $4.2K/clunker != $24K/clunker

You're only off by 470%

Obama is Hitler Part Deux!

what exactly is a"moderate centre left politician".....code language for marxist
and see how many in his administration praise Mao, gee, freedom is coming i can feel it....

with the lags in our economy we will enter CARTER II in about 9-14 months.....you have to pay the piper , so how will we deal with all this debt, the depression didn't really start with the stock crash, it was government policies that turned a recession to a depression, same is happening here, the "cure" will be worse than the disease, but the point is a power grab---let's not let a good crisis go to waste.

i owe it to my dad's memory not to back down

Oh, and stop making stuff up out of thin air, unless you have a bona fide list of all those in the Obama administration who have praised Mao.

Someone hit me with a dumb stick, PLEASE!

Yes, that's right. 'Moderate centre left' is 'code language' for Marxist.

Like Tony Blair. He's one of those.

That's why Tony Blair revoked democracy, divided Britain into communes and dissolved Parliament, replacing it with representatives from the regional communes selected by central fiat before nationalising all the utilities and industries in the country. FREE BRITAIN! That's why the whole of Scandinavia huddles round the table listening to Radio Free Europe as they gnaw their potatoes, wishing for blue jeans and plasma TVs.

YOU DON'T FUCKING KNOW WHAT A MARXIST EVEN IS, DO YOU?

Come back to reality and CHILL THE FUCK OUT. You'll have a new president in seven years, tops, and you can elect someone who'll make tax illegal and abolish social security altogether, and all that good stuff.

Jesus.

He's just fucking with you.
Got Dem written all over him.

The political spectrum in the US (or rather Washington DC) is offset to the right with respect to (most of the) the rest of the industrialized world; for example "moderate left" here is "centrist" abroad.

Obama's cabinet, fyi, is selected from mostly Wall St... the great bastion of Marxism.

I wouldn't have minded watching Chrysler fail. It would have solved the North American overcapacity problem overnight.

Chrysler's most valuable properties, the Jeep and Minivan lines, would likely have been scooped up by Ford.

Now that would have been a long term solution for the North American auto industry.

Dude, get a clue. \

But for information purposes, humor us, with how your income is directly linked to Chrysler. Since you referred to GM and Chrysles as "circling the drain" in your opening post.

Well then, given your opening post, it would appear that you do not have much faith in the soon to be defunct automaker formally known as Chrysler.

In U.S. terms Obama is center-left, but in a global context he is center-right. Americans are blissfully ignorant of just how skewed to the right their political system is.

Since the OP references Ford's resurgence, I thought I'd post a review of what the [non-taxpayer owned] auto company has in the pipeline.

Looks good.

The Auto Bailout One Year Later: Was It Necessary? Did It Work?

Notable quote:


Pretty clear explanation, there.

It's just a sop to the unions. Bankruptcy court would have voided the contract and reopened negotiations.

You just can't make up irony like this.

U.S. taxpayers saved Goldman Sachs.
Goldman Sachs bankrolled the Chinese purchase of Swedish brand Volvo from American automaker Ford.
Chinese-made Volvos will soon be competing with U.S. automakers, including Ford.

If the risky venture succeeds, it will come at the expense of U.S. taxpayers who bailed out their Auto sector.
If the risky venture collapses, it will come at the expense of U.S. taxpayers who bailed out their Financial sector.

This just in for March- "General Motors started off the parade, saying that sales of the four brands that it would continue to operate increased 43 percent and that its total sales rose 21 percent. Buick sales jumped 76 percent."
~ http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/02/bu...02auto.html?hp

Way to ignore the point Hands.

Your own link says that the only reason demand jumped was that incentives of up to $700. per vehicle were being offered. Those low interest rates will be history very soon.

Nothing has changed here, except that taxpayers' pockets are a few billion dollars lighter.

It's still encouraging news.

Here's how well GM is doing in China-

"Beijing (AP) - General Motors Co. said Friday (Oct 2009) it set a sales record in China in September and total sales for the first nine months of the year rose 55 percent to nearly 1.3 million vehicles.

GM and other global automakers are looking to China's fast-growing market to drive sales amid slack demand elsewhere. China's monthly sales have surpassed those of United States for all but two months this year.

GM and its Chinese joint-venture partners sold a total of 181,148 vehicles in September, the company said. It gave no comparative year-earlier figure.

"Sales continue to surpass forecasts as nearly all market segments experience growth," said GM China Group President Kevin Wale in a statement.

GM said September sales by its flagship joint venture, Shanghai GM, set a monthly record of 71,566 vehicles, while total sales for the first nine months of the year rose 40.2 percent from a year earlier."
~ http://www.cnsnews.com/news/print/55231

Hands, how many of the workers in the joint Chinese/GM venture do you think are unionized under the UAW?

China's labor laws are changing to give workers more rights, not the other way round. You can expect to see that changing for the better in the years ahead too. Some companies are moving out of China to places like Vietnam already that give their workers fewer rights, therefore they're more readily exploited for greater profits. Overall though I think China will do very well by raising their standards.

I'm sorry if it seems I am picky nits here, but I feel this is important. I understand it may seem like a subtle point but I think it is important.

Governments don't give people rights as you imply in your statement. They either protect them (sometimes), don't protect them (often) or infringe on them (often). But they don't give them. People have rights from birth.

Well you could also argue that people don't have any rights until their fought for and won, but hey each to their own.

That's a very nice point but doesn't address the question.

Japanese car makers do a great job with American workers. It is clear here that an American company can do a great job in tandem with chinese companies and workers. There is a clear common problem to all the unsuccessful scenarios.

You could. But I wouldn't. One problem I would point out to you is that such an idea would appear to be in contradiction with the claims of the writers of the Declaration of Independence. Just something to think about if you go down that route.



How post-modern of you.

Yes, healthcare costs have been too high. Bring on single payer!

I think we're talking about different rights here.