Editorial: General Motors Death Watch 212: An Open Letter to President-Elect Barack Obama
By Ken EliasNovember 10, 2008 - Dear President-elect Obama, Upon taking office, you will immediately face some tough decisions about the future of the government’s role in "saving" Ford, GM and Chrysler. As you know, the Detroit-based automotive industry has already bent the ears of your political colleagues, particularly Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority leader Reid. These Democratic leaders in Congress seek membership approval to provide taxpayer dollars to prevent these automakers from impending collapse. While we respect the efforts of Congressional leadership, and we share their desire to enhance and protect America's industrial base and employment therein, we ask that you spare a moment to listen to the opinions of people who do not share their belief that massive federal funding will achieve these goals. First, our qualifications.
Posted in Editorials | GM Death Watch | 24 comments 
Editorial: General Motors Death Watch 211: For Whom the Bell Tolls
By Robert FaragoNovember 8, 2008 -
It’s the morning after the day of. The day General Motors admitted to the world that they don’t have enough cash to last until the end of the year. And for once, GM’s standard-issue PR ploy-- leave the bad news until Friday afternoon, reveal some corrective action (axing 7k jobs) and downplay its significance-- worked against the General's generals. GM’s impending bankruptcy was buried beneath and within President-elect Barack Obama’s first press conference. The story was denied bailout-fueling urgency. It’s the ultimate condemnation of GM CEO Rick Wagoner’s administration: they can’t even exploit their own incompetence for the company’s survival.
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Editorial: General Motors Death Watch 210: Abandon Ship
By Robert FaragoNovember 7, 2008 -
With a bit of luck, I’ll finish this editorial before House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tells America how Washington will save Detroit by spending your tax money on a domestic automobile industry beyond salvation. I doubt it. As we’ve previously reported, our duly elected representatives have already met with the titanic captains of Ford, GM, Chrysler and the U.A.W. in a closed-door session. I'm sure they got their ducks— and our bucks— in a row. Nancy will sing an ode to the working man and pen a paean to the importance of American heavy industry. Grim faces will then face a grim task: figuring out the fastest way to put Ford, GM and Chrysler on federally-funded life support.
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Editorial: American Leyland: The GM - Chrysler Bailout That’s Guaranteed To Fail
By Justin BerkowitzOctober 29, 2008 -
After the initial media support for a potential GM-Chrysler hookup (e.g. Jalopnik.com's Ray Wert), the bandwagon began to roll like a snowball down the proverbial mixed metaphor hill, and everybody soured on the deal. We even charted how individual commentators changed their positions and eventually "threw Chrysler to the Wolves." In Monday's New York Times, Andrew Ross Sorkin said that GM CEO Rick Wagoner's continued employment is a "minor miracle." But the commentatorati are still behind the curve re: the government's rumored $10b "intervention" in the GM - Chrysler merger. In the main, they have't even acknowledged that the bailout is happening. That, and the critical fact that it's structurally designed to fail.
Posted in Editorials | GM Death Watch | Industry | 19 comments
General Motors Death Watch 209: Reality is the New Perception
By Robert FaragoOctober 28, 2008 -
The average American has no idea that GM is run by a bunch of nimrods. And even if they knew about the Machiavellian machinations behind the automakers’ recent struggle for survival-- including hiring a raft of ex-treasury officials to lobby their former employer for tens of billions of GM bailout bucks-- they wouldn’t care. That’s all Inside Baseball stuff. Joe the Public has enough on their proverbial plate just running the kids to school, keeping food on the table and putting a roof overhead. But when it comes to buying a new car, well, that’s a horsepower of a different color.
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Posted in Editorials | GM Death Watch | 34 comments
General Motors Death Watch 208: Autopilot
By Ken EliasOctober 27, 2008 -
Well, it’s official. The Wall Street Journal reports that GM pleaded its case to U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. The General's looking for a mere $10b in “continuation” money to fund its Chrysler “absorption.” That’s a nice cover story for saying that GM cannot muster any other spin on “crying uncle.” Regardless of what Hank “the Hammer” Paulson answers, it's a safe bet that we’ll be seeing an epic amount of taxpayer money flow into the RenCen’s silos of despondency in the near future. Mark my words: at the end of this, we'll be saying that never have so many paid so much to so few for so little.
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Posted in Editorials | GM Death Watch | 30 comments
General Motors Death Watch 207: Saving General Motors
By Ken EliasOctober 24, 2008 -
General Motors will soon be a ward of the United States federal government. Make no mistake about it. Without some kind of massive financial injection-- not a mere few billion dollars but tens of billions-- there’s no real solution to the problems of GM’s legacy of epic, chronic mismanagement. We know that day of a government bailout will come-– and much sooner than even Wall Street wants to believe. In fact, it’s almost upon us.
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Posted in Editorials | GM Death Watch | 54 comments
Editorial: General Motors Death Watch 206: Antinomianism
By Ken EliasOctober 21, 2008 -
Ford CEO Alan Mulally goes to bed every night and prays that GM does a deal for Chrysler. In the morning, Big Al digests his corporate PR brief looking for missives from automotive and Wall Street scribes praising the combination of dumb and dumber. Every afternoon, he reviews Ford’s daily sales figures and wonders when the pain will stop. And soon, he’ll be rewarded with news he wants: his two Motown rivals will be bedding down together. “Thank you God, baby Jesus, and Fritz Henderson,” he’ll whisper to his wife. “Redemption is mine.”
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Posted in Editorials | GM Death Watch | 33 comments
Editorial: General Motors Death Watch 205: The World According to TARP
By Robert FaragoOctober 18, 2008 -
A Chrysler – GM merger is a mind-boggling prospect on many levels. But the over-arching question is simple enough. Why? Why in the world would General Motors want to combine with Chrysler? Given their respective balance sheets and future prospects, the analogies pretty much suggest themselves. My favorite: the Titanic rescuing the Lusitania. But if you want to understand the logic behind this merger deal, such as it is, we’ve got to explore a different metaphor: “changing horses mid-stream.”
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Posted in Editorials | GM Death Watch | 46 comments
Editorial: General Motors Death Watch 204: GM Will “Absorb” Chrysler
By Ken EliasOctober 17, 2008 -
General Motors is on the brink of a financial disaster. It’s managed to keep out of the abyss through asset sales, hocking the company store, and yes, cost cutting. CEO Rick Wagoner’s “plan” might have worked had the economic winds blown more favorably. But they didn’t. The automaker is months away from a liquidity meltdown. Everyone who supplies GM knows it. The rating agencies know it. And yes, Rick Wagoner knows it. GM has to secure new funding or face a bankruptcy judge in Lower Manhattan. So now let’s talk about Chrysler…
Editorial: General Motors Death Watch 204: GM Will “Absorb” Chrysler editorial continued »
Posted in Editorials | GM Death Watch | 37 comments
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