Comments on: General Motor’s C.E.O. = A Junkyard Dog…

By: p-city

p-city — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:43:17 +0000

A tale of two industries:

Washington draws everyone’s attention to Detroit as they play “tough love” and force the automakers to refine and upgrade their product mix. The idea is that GM and Chrysler are sitting on excessive inventory (i.e., lots full of SUVs) because they refused to build cars that work and that appeal to buyers. Washington is gonna force them to do the right thing.

Then, Washington slips hundreds of billions of dollars to Wall Street. The idea is that the banks are sitting on excess inventory (i.e., balance books full of collateralized debt obligations) through no fault of their own. Washington is simply going to buy all of their inventory and hope that financial buyers around the world will return.

The problem for that Wall Street is that, just like Detroit, their entire business model is in jeopardy. Unfortunately no one is willing to tell them.

By: a-one

a-one — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 07:02:30 +0000

That last sentence? The realest real talk thats ever been spoke!

By: Amadeo

Amadeo — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 21:29:19 +0000

The problem with the auto industry is that their product sucks….the only thing they had in the last few years were pick ups and now other companies make pick ups that are just as good (probably better). People know that you can get 300k out of Honda’s, Toyota’s etc.

By: fredMS

fredMS — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 17:08:45 +0000

speaking of, i came across this pretty dope sneaker store called training camp on 39th between broadway and 6th. some of their stuff was a little too colorful for me but u’d probably feel them. my bad if u already know about it.

By: mercilesz

mercilesz — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 17:08:28 +0000

The problem with the bailouts for the auto industry is that the jobs are not in america anymore because of deregulation by reagan and the north american free trade agreement by clinton. If americans don’t have jobs then they can’t afford to buy the products the big 3 are making. In turn the auto industry will just collapse again not to mention the fact that the big 3 sells an inferior product. The economy in my eyes is very easy to understand but the suits and ceos and the government run these companies for the benefit of themselves and no the would be/could be/should be american consumer.

By: 40

40 — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:20:58 +0000

@DP – LOL… Sounds like AIG was running a bigger Ponzi scheme than Bernie Madoffwithsixtyfivebilliondollars…

By: the_dallas

the_dallas — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 15:43:10 +0000

On some slick shit AIG was insuring EVERYBODY for everything. AIG is insuring the massive offshore drilling rigs in case they get blasted with another Katrina. AIG is insuring General Motors for shit like defective engineering recalls and then AIG is insuring the companies that issue individual auto liability insurance.

AIG had all these different levels “insured” with no money in their accounts.

Now on to the responsibility of Big Oil to the auto industry… I always believed that some execs or shareholders in the Detroit industry were also shareholders in the Texas industry. Even while car sales steadily plummeted profits from gas soared to unseen obscene levels. All kinds of alternative fuel sources for automobiles have been scrapped in the interim. Hmmm…

By: 40

40 — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 15:23:22 +0000

LOL @ being transported by “bum litter”

I can dig what you’re saying. I do believe that there should be those incentives tied to the auto industry to create more efficient and advanced cars and Big Oil should cut them a check as a thanks for the last 90 years. The Gov. of Michigan was on TODAY this morning and she made a great point about the jobs this could affect. Not just the auto workers (and dealers, parts suppliers, and other ancillary auto gigs) but the downstream impact it would have on rubber manufacturing, glass, steel, and the other raw components that go into building a car. As I said this seems a lot more “Main Street” than helping out AIG…

By: nerditry

nerditry — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 15:14:18 +0000

@40 : It’s a tough pill for big oil to swallow [||] in helping the industry when car companies are going to be (and want to be) incentivized for reducing demand of gas and oil. Not that this is the end of the road for either, but all of these schemers should be working together on creating the efficient car because oil has the money to build new infrastructure today.

Fuck to electric cars when they take 12-16 hours for a charge using consumer/home power sources. We can’t even get a rechargeable AA battery back to full in under an hour yet.

Still cheaper for me to feed some bums and have them carry me around on a litter.

By: 40

40 — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 14:47:34 +0000

PS – I do think that the oil companies should kick back to the auto industry also. Great call DP.