Comments on: Bailout Watch 569: Exit Strategy? What Exit Strategy?

By: Mark MacInnis

Mark MacInnis — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:40:38 +0000

Farago’s right. This was a boondoggle from jump-street. We ain’t gonna see penny 1….

What this was, was a higher form of unemployment compensation for the GM, Chrysler and auto suppliers, very expensive, and with full benefits, paid for by taxpayers, bondholders and stockholders. A TraveShaMockery of the purest ray serene….

Since there really was no plan going in, other than “keep the patient alive”….why should we expect a plan to “nurse the patient back to health”? It can’t be done. GM is like Tar Baby to the government. What legislator or Presidential advisor is gonna think they have the political capital, much less the will, to stand up and say “pull the plug on GM.”?

By: WildBill

WildBill — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:24:13 +0000

So, calm down. Compared to what’s been “wasted” in Iraq and Afghanistan, the $$$ sent to Motown have been chicken feed.

I don’t consider the liberation of millions of people to be a waste, unlike the “liberation” of billions of our tax $$ going to GM and Chrysler.

By: nudave

nudave — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:12:50 +0000

Well folks, if the government didn’t have your money to “waste”, they wouldn’t have been able to “waste” any inventing the Internet (gosh, no TTAC?).

So, calm down. Compared to what’s been “wasted” in Iraq and Afghanistan, the $$$ sent to Motown have been chicken feed.

By: joeaverage

joeaverage — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:14:57 +0000

Give a year or so and then cut them loose. Let them swim or sink.

The employees at these companies have had PLENTY of warning to get their debt under control and put a little money in the bank and look for other employment.

By: Robert Schwartz

Robert Schwartz — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 02:34:43 +0000

It reminds me of when I was in High School in a previous millennium. I was kind of an assistant manager and water boy for the track team. One year, I was at the first spring practice holding the clipboard for Coach Mechling, a crusty old guy. McCarty was the team’s most talented and least disciplined athlete, he smoked and never worked out on his own. Coach lined up the boys for the first practice 440, and fired his starter’s pistol to start the race. He put the pistol away, pointed to a light pole on the other side of the track and said “McCarty is going to drop about there.” And sure enough, when McCarty, who had been far ahead of the other boys, got to the pole, he slowed to a jog.

By: pleiter

pleiter — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:22:07 +0000

I’m thinking GM becomes a political albatross for whomever demonstrates to curb it least. Albatross Watch 001 anyone ?

By: Steven02

Steven02 — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:19:19 +0000

While GM does have huge problems that need to be tackled, I think it can be done. Ford has done it. Well, in the past few quarters. The question is, can GM do the same. With the advantages they got through bankruptcy, one hope think so.

By: lahru

lahru — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:59:23 +0000

The long line of dominoes that must fall in order for GM to succeed is beyond comprehension.

Real profit has not been something that has been celebrated at the Ren Cen for many years and it is certainly great that they can sell alot of cars and trucks but, can they do it and make a profit. I don’t think so and with history as my witness they could’nt make a real profit when times were GREAT so how can they make a profit when times are, well, bad!

Go to wiki and look at all of the companies they have sold over the past 20 years to pay for the management incompetence and you will see that they have funded a demise of a once great company with money that they made twenty or thirty years ago.

Frankly, I give Chrysler a better shot at succeeding. Better as in 50/50.

I’ll be here waiting for any of you to tell me different.

By: 50merc

50merc — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:59:14 +0000

If we accept that a return to profitability is not in the cards for GM, then the government must treat it as a political matter.

In that context, turning GM into another Amtrak is the most logical outcome. There are always plenty of reasons offered to keep a big enterprise limping along. Very few politicians will be brave or courageous enough to pull the plug.

By: KingShango

KingShango — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:28:05 +0000

While I appreciate the reporting, I’m getting a little skeptical of these “Bailout Watch” posts. Number 586 total misrepresented the report and this one seems to just bash the government for the hell of it.
Did anyone realistically think that government had a concrete exit plan? Is anyone shocked that the feds didn’t have a crystal ball to predict exactly what would happen in the future. If they had come up with a plan I’m sure we’d be ripping them for how off base they were.
I supported the bailout knowing that it was far from perfect. Then general consensus then was that GM would offer an IPO and Chrysler would be completely sold to Fiat. And that looks exactly like whats going to happen. And if anyone thought the taxpayers would get off free and clear, well thats just unrealistic.

By: Robert Farago

Robert Farago — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:02:13 +0000

Steven02:

We will never get our money back. Fuhgeddaboutit.

By: Steven02

Steven02 — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:45:32 +0000

This isn’t exactly shocking news. Our Gov’t is poor at running its own finances. Why would this be any different?

I will say that determining how to best divest Chrysler and GM today probably doesn’t make much sense either. If a date is set, and one or both of the companies isn’t ready, they will likely fail, go into Chap 7, and then, we will lose even more money. The situation probably needs to be monitored better than it is being monitored today. When the companies are ready to be on their own again, the gov’t should take the steps to mitigate losses on this.

I just hope that the Gov’t will divest itself of both of these companies and we don’t get another Amtrak.