Editorial: Bailout Watch 220: “We’ll Be Back;” Chrysler’s Dead; Where’s Barack? Here’s the Bill
By Robert FaragoNovember 18, 2008 -
The table of Motown's CEOs facing Senator Christopher Dodd at today's Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee Hearing looked more than a little like The Last Supper. If only. When Senator Bob Corker (R, TN) pressed Ford, Chrysler and GM's top suits for a pledge that they won't be back for more money-- should they be granted $25b in taxpayer-backed loans-- only GM CEO Rick Wagoner answered. And then Red Ink Rick waffled, pegging his promise to an economic upturn that no one believes imminent. It was the moment when Motown's begging bowl brigade went seriously south, in that oh-so-public C-Span sort of way.
Posted in Editorials | Industry | 32 comments 
General Motors Death Watch 215: Man Up!
By Ken EliasNovember 18, 2008 -
GM’s at the cliff’s edge looking deep into the chasm and sees…nothing. How pathetic. Here's a company with $150b in annual revenues and all they can say is “give us the money or else.” How lame is that? Frankly, it speaks to the complete lack of leadership and direction at this company. GM has not advanced one shred of evidence that it knows what to do if it goes onto the government welfare roles. In fact, all we’ve heard is “more of the same” restructuring and downsizing that’s been completely ineffective to date in stemming the tide. That dog just won’t hunt. But if GM’s Board of Directors and executive managers had a clue, this is what they would do heading into the showdown with Congress...
General Motors Death Watch 215: Man Up! editorial continued »
Posted in Editorials | GM Death Watch | 36 comments
Editorial: General Motors Death Watch 214: Whose Car Company is This Anyway?
By Robert FaragoNovember 17, 2008 -
In the legend of Faust, the protagonist sells his soul to the Devil in exchange for knowledge and power. Needless to say, things end badly for one member of the transaction (hint: it’s not the guy with the horns on his head). A “Faustian bargain” has come to mean a deal where you surrender what’s truly important to achieve an ultimately worthless goal. Yes, I’m talking about GM. If the artist once known as the world’s largest automaker avoids Chapter 11 via a bailout deal with Washington (a.k.a. Mephistopheles), the contract will ensure its final, irretrievable doom.
Editorial: General Motors Death Watch 214: Whose Car Company is This Anyway? editorial continued »
Posted in Editorials | GM Death Watch | 45 comments
Editorial: In Defense of: The Detroit Bailout
By Ronnie SchreiberNovember 16, 2008 -
As the domestic auto companies appear to be circling the drain, there's been debate about the extent of the impact of their failure on their supplier base, the impact on the industrial manufacturing base of the United States, even possible negative implications for Toyota and Honda. One party in all this that has rarely been mentioned are the consumers. While a few automotive analysts, pundits and bloggers have touched on how an implosion of the Detroit based car companies will affect consumers, almost all of the discussion has centered on whether or not people will buy a car from a bankrupt manufacturer, and the related issue of how product warrantees will be covered if their manufacturers go belly-up. A more basic consumer issue: how the loss of GM, Ford and Chrysler from the US auto market would affect the prices, features and technology of new cars.
Editorial: In Defense of: The Detroit Bailout editorial continued »
Posted in Editorials | In Defense Of | 49 comments
Editorial: Bloom Off The Rose For Chinese Car Industry
By Bertel SchmittNovember 16, 2008 - Time for the United Auto Workers (UAW) to collect second-hand songbooks and ship ‘em over to their comrades-- make that "union brothers" in China. Chinese taking our jobs? Wake up guys! Solidarity forever! The Chinese worker is taking it on the chin just like the working stiff in God's Own Country. And let's ignore the fact for a while that FICA, SECA, COBRA, and VEBA are not part of the Chinese language. PSA Peugeot Citroën, an affiliate of Dongfeng Motor in China, has "decided not to renew the contracts" (translation: has fired) 1000 workers on their Wuhan site, Gasgoo reports. Volkswagen, which depends on China for 15 percent of its worldwide auto sales, gave the Chinese equivalent of pink slips to 700 people at their Changchun factory. According to Chinese media reports, Ford, BMW, Chery, and untold more are busy. Busy thinning out their working masses, that is. Where did all the thousand flowers go?
Editorial: Bloom Off The Rose For Chinese Car Industry editorial continued »
Posted in China | Editorials | 8 comments
Editorial: Bailout Watch, German Edition, Vier: Merkel To Opel: “You Wait Until Mommy Comes Home!”
By Bertel SchmittNovember 16, 2008 -
This weekend's G20 meeting was pretty much a non-event. A Bretton Wood it was not. While German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck were still in DC, an urgent e-mail was sent to Carl-Peter Foster, chief of GM Europe. Also on the To: line: Hans Demant, head of GM's German Opel subsidiary. They were ordered to get their glutei maximi to Berlin. They were furthermore told to bring Opel's workers council chief Klaus Franz along. Bloomberg reports that the sit down's set for the Kanzleramt, right after mammy comes home and emerges from her Airbus 310 (named "Konrad Adenauer," after Germany's first chancellor, who's busy rotating in his grave).
Posted in Editorials | Industry | 21 comments
Editorial: Bailout Watch, German Edition, Drei: Opel, Heim Ins Reich?
By Bertel SchmittNovember 15, 2008 -
Leave it to the B&B to really transcend the as-good-as-defeated General's Battle of the Deficit-Bulge, aimed right at the German taxpayer's money, a.k.a. Government loan guarantees for Opel. Tireguy typed: "The imminent bankruptcy of GM could endanger seriously Opel, although Opel is still profitable." Deutschland appears to agree. As we shall soon see, some may have a slightly less philanthropic angle. Let's get right to the point: Opel, Heim ins Reich, anyone? Indeed, some in Germany seem to be itching for a re-match of the Ardennenoffensive. Opel is GM's heavy artillery in the bastion Europe. Some 75 percent of GM's European business comes from Opel. If the not-so-secret plan survives, the offensive against General "Nuts" Wagoner will be fought partially in Brussels, coincidentally not far from Bastogne. The broken record called history repeats, again and again. Executive summary of the order of battle follows. Right this way, please!
Editorial: Bailout Watch, German Edition, Drei: Opel, Heim Ins Reich? editorial continued »
Posted in Editorials | GM Death Watch | 32 comments
Editorial: Bankruptcy Watch 189: Poll Position
By Edward NiedermeyerNovember 14, 2008 -
In December of last year, a certain Peter Hart wrote an opinion column for Fairness And Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR). Hart decried the prevalence of polling in political coverage. Not only did he cast aspersions on the accuracy and reliability of polls, he identified them as a sinister threat to no less than "American Democracy." "The more fundamental problem for the press — and for American democracy —" wrote Hart, "is that the media's overreliance on polls encourages a kind of political conversation that prioritizes strategic consideration and tactics over substance." He didn't know how right he was. Today, Peter Hart Associates released the results of a poll of their own, gauging support for an auto industry bailout. Read the results in the Detroit News and you might be surprised. Read the poll itself and the Hart Associates client list, and that surprise should evaporate faster than Mr Hart's ideals regarding polls and their cynical abusers.
Editorial: Bankruptcy Watch 189: Poll Position editorial continued »
Posted in Editorials | Industry | Unions | 7 comments
Between The Lines: Automotive News’ “The Cost of GM’s Death”
By Robert FaragoNovember 14, 2008 -
I can't remember the last time Automotive News [sub] unleashed an email alert for an editorial. Hell, I can't remember the first time they did it. As in this is it: the first time. You see how stunned I am? Well, no prizes for guessing which side of the bailout issue Crain's boys fall. They unleash the argument that's become the de facto Detroit defense: a bailout sucks, but not bailing out Motown sucks even more. They fucked-up but YOU will suffer. So YOU should pay. NOW. BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE! Hysteria and hyperbole? You don't know the half of it. Well, not yet anyway...
Between The Lines: Automotive News’ “The Cost of GM’s Death” editorial continued »
Posted in Between the Lines | Editorials | 65 comments
Is the American automobile industry worth saving? Pt. 2
By Robert FaragoNovember 13, 2008 -
The question presumes that A) Detroit’s ailing automakers ARE America’s automobile industry and B) using our tax money to protect Ford, GM and Chrysler from their own incompetence would benefit the U.S. car industry. Not true, on both counts. And by ignoring the flawed assumptions underpinning the argument for raiding the average American’s wallet, bailout proponents are misleading what they condescendingly call “Main Street.” To which I say no, no, and Hell no.
Is the American automobile industry worth saving? Pt. 2 editorial continued »
Posted in Editorials | Industry | 112 comments
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