The second $25B can’t be solely for GM, though, right? Do we know what share of each amount GM would be seeking? Is there any indication which other manufacturers will seek funds from the first pool? Do we have any indication which auto makers will seek funds from the second pool?

This is a constantly shifting story, and I think it bears more investigation to get to the truth.

Bunter – the golden parachute boys who are more comfortable with moving money around in circles, need to get off their collective butts and get some innovative products that will sell on the assembly line floor. A give back on executive salaries while tens of thousands face layoff would be a nice starting gesture.

Contrary to some opinions, the UAW isn’t the sole problem. They haven’t helped, but their power is declining and their slice of the pie is definitely shrinking.

The inconvenient truth is our economy is in a mess for reasons that go beyond the Detroit 3. In fact, it looks like we’re bringing down the rest of the planet with us.

If the economy continues to slide beyond next summer, both you and I will be guessing where our next pay check will come from. It is that serious.

I may be in the minority – but I’m willing to give our native companies a fighting shot at surviving the most severe economic downturn in my life time. The alternative is to do nothing, if you think that overseas transplants are the answer to our manufacturing needs.

I don’t favor the “take it from the big boys” arguement, but a little volantary gift from Ricky Claus would probably help the attitude in the trenchs.
Shoot, he’s asking them to wait two weeks.

Just a thought.

Bunter

Truth is the management team is five years overdue for a replacement. You also have pension and medical costs that go as far away from the realm of reality as Mercury is from Pluto. Five divisions at the least that need to be shut down. State laws that force GM to keep a bloated money draining dealer network. A ‘holier than thou’ pseudo-intellectual media that gladly pisses on anything Detroit makes as either inferior or retro. And finally you got a bunch of union leaders who don’t understand the simple mathematics of what’s taking place and what they’re truly up against.

It will take government intervention to just give GM the legal right to confront these issues without losing the majority of their customer base… which will most certainly happen with a Chapter 11 filing.

As far as this ‘well they’re companies and they shouldn’t be subsidized’ line of reasoning. Let me give a few names. Nissan, VW, Mitsubishi, Toyota, Mazda, Kia, Hyundai, Renault and even GM already get subsidized by governments and will continue to have that support (with money, laws, and even government personnel) because they employ a massive number of highly intelligent people who happen to sell the most vital product of the modern age.

Perhaps we need to break up these companies and protect eight to ten automakers from outside competition as the Japanese did for decades on end.

Perhaps we need to effectively shut our markets entirely off from any real foreign presence as the Koreans already do.

Perhaps we may even need to employ ridiculous safety and emission standards, give more power to the unions, subsidize any engine technology that isn’t gas, and foot the bill for health care costs as the Europeans do.

Or maybe perhaps we can go for the MBA jugular and ship our entire industry to China while the executives, and to a far lesser extent the shareholders and consumers, enjoy the benefits of a cutthroat low wage world. Of course your kids won’t have the same opportunities and will most certainly inherit your debts. But of course there are oh so many ways to rationalize offshoring an entire industry until you realize that there are no highly skilled jobs that will come your way. Ever.

Except perhaps advertising and automotive journalism.

Long story short. If you want the Big 3 to win you have to give them the freedom and means to do it. Right now they’re in a cost bleeding vice that not even the great Houdini could find his way out of.

Being an asshole never solved any problem in this world. Trust me. I should know.

“This liquidity crisis has an obvious effect on all of us. As you are aware we are asking the federal government for some temporary relief. I need your continued help in talking to Congress. There are three things you need to ask your congressional delegation for:

· First, ask the government officials to approve a new $25 billion loan package to help us deal with our current liquidity crisis beg for cash along with us.

· Second, while the rules for the distinctly separate and already approved $25 billion loan package for investments in technology and enhanced fuel efficiency have been issued, we’d like to see that program move as fast as possible, so we need to encourage the government to minimize red tape and act on loan applications as quickly as they can don’t wait — start begging today.

· Third, the automotive industry needs some additional government support to stimulate retail sales, like making interest on car loans tax deductible, etc. keep begging no matter how much loot we get.“

49

1 unscrew the old bulb.

Another to blame the UAW for screwing it in too tightly even though it was GM engineering that gave them the torque specs. Unfortunately, someone forgot to convert the specs to standard from metric since the lightbulb came from Opel… even though it was manufactured in Ohio, shipped to Germany, then shipped back in the trunk of a Saturn Astra.

A third to open a PO to Delphi for a taller ladder to put the new bulb in. The one used to remove the old bulb belonged to the Hummer division and had to be strapped on the roof of an H2 as a buyer incentive. Besides, installing new bulbs is the job of the warranty department and the old ladder belonged to marketing so they couldn’t use it anyway.

A fourth to realize that the bulb wasn’t actually burned out in the first place… the power was turned off because Accounts Payable was ordered to not pay the bills for 92 days in an effort to show more cash on hand at the end of the third quarter.

37 consultants to write “The Definitive Memorandum on the Exchange of Incandescent Lighting Materials” which pretty much regurgetated what everyone below an unclassified level already knew but leadership never bothered to ask about.

2 government relations employees to explain to Carl Levin that GM may not be able to turn the light back on without government help but that “we’re really on track to keep them after some short-term assistance.”

One CEO on the way to Bay Harbor in the corporate jet reading the report by the marketing VP about the successful bulb exchange.

“Together we can work through this crisis.”

LaNeve believes rape is a joint venture between the rapist and the victim.

Ummm, “highly effective” and “ultimately unsuccessful” are mutually exclusive conditions.

I know a little bit about NPD. People with it can be very high achievers so I’m not sure that applies to the executive suite at GM.

Fourth – Good luck making those floor plan payments to GMAC suckers valued dealers.

He organized a similar campaign during the $700B bailout of Wall Street that was highly effective, but unfortunately ultimately unsuccessful.

The surgeon from Ontario said that accountants were best because when you open them up everything in there is numbered.

The surgeon from Manitoba said electricians were best because they have everything colour coded.

The surgeon from Alberta preferred librarians because everything inside them was in alphabetical order.

The surgeon from B.C. said he preferred construction workers because they were very understanding if you had parts left over.

The surgeon from Newfoundland said that they were all wrong and that the best patients in surgery were without doubt, GM executives. Asked why he said, “They got no brains, no guts, no balls, no heart and no spine, besides their heads and their arses are interchangeable”~!