Comments on: China Has Eyes On Volkswagen

By: Stingray

Stingray — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:34:27 +0000

Suitors?… I’d say ravens…

Those 2 are going to really hurt both VW and Porsche in their fight about who has the biggest penis…

By: niky

niky — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 00:42:32 +0000

# Flashpoint :
July 5th, 2009 at 1:24 pm

so…the Chinese strategy is to use slave labor to amass trillions of dollars and then buy out the foreign investors and competition?

Where can we get slave labor from?

You had your chance. Too bad that Lincoln feller threw it all away.

By: Stewart Dean

Stewart Dean — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 00:28:19 +0000

Thermodynamics/cosmology has the concept of heat-death, when the Universe runs down, there is no concentrated energy and the whole universe is at the same temperature.
Somewhat in that vein, I have been for some 25 years been proposing that globalism is bringing us a wage death: that is, everyone except the insanely talented will be paid 25% more than the Chinese were/are…until wages everywhere are the same.

By: Flashpoint

Flashpoint — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 17:24:17 +0000

so…the Chinese strategy is to use slave labor to amass trillions of dollars and then buy out the foreign investors and competition?

Where can we get slave labor from?

By: ZoomZoom

ZoomZoom — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 14:54:26 +0000

Yum. I’ll take one of each please!

Oh, there was an article, you say? Pesky words!

No seriously, I’m not sure I see the plausibility of this. Just “feels” like it doesn’t come clean in the rinse. I think I’ll just wait for next week’s rumour…

By: mpresley

mpresley — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 14:23:32 +0000

lw : I guess my sarcasm didn’t translate. GM is worthless.. It has negative value and will have negative value even AFTER the Ch. 11.

Now I understand your point. I’d laugh if I was not crying…

By: lw

lw — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 14:19:01 +0000

mpresley:

I guess my sarcasm didn’t translate. GM is worthless.. It has negative value and will have negative value even AFTER the Ch. 11.

It has to sell something profitable before it can have value and for the foreseeable future there is no risk of that happening.

Once the dealer ranks have been culled and reduced to a minimum level, the US government will start buying / running dealers in politically important areas.

We have a clear roadmap of where this is headed via Amtrak:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-06-05/is-gm-the-new-amtrak/?cid=bs:archive4

I wish would would have taken the $50B and bought VW, or at least a significant stake in it. Since we can apparently print money, we should buy something valuable with it while we still can.

By: Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 14:06:37 +0000

If little Porsche can afford 51 percent of Volkswagen (and choke on the remaining 25) then China can pay 20 percent of Volkswagen out of petty cash. Especially if its bought via taking the option package from Porsche’s hands. Porsche doesn’t have the money to exercise the options. China won’t buy all of Volkswagen, just a share big enough to give them more presence.

By: mpresley

mpresley — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 13:43:33 +0000

lw : I doubt the Chinese can afford VW… Since a bankrupt GM is apparently worth $50 billion, imagine what VW is worth.. Could be trillions.

The Chinese hold well over three quarters of a trillion dollars in US debt alone, and they are not happy with the investment. VW is probably worth 200-250 billion–but I’m only guessing.

http://www.treas.gov/tic/mfh.txt

By: mpresley

mpresley — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 13:36:06 +0000

This does not surprise me. As far as speculation goes, it makes more sense from the Chinese perspective than Hummer, Volvo, and so forth. I do not know much about the German state,and their thinking–at least from a strategic standpoint. Whether Germany would be interested in a significant Chinese presence on the board of VW is a question that I have no answer.

On the other hand, I do understand the effects of an economic policy that encourages consumption at the expense of savings, imports at the expense of exports, weak currency at the expense of strong, and alien immigration at the expense of indigenous citizens. When a country gives away (or outsources) its sovereignty, including its manufacturing base, that country is dying, and eventually becomes irrelevant in an economic sense.

By: lw

lw — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 13:35:01 +0000

I doubt the Chinese can afford VW… Since a bankrupt GM is apparently worth $50 billion, imagine what VW is worth.. Could be trillions.