On Tuesday in a New York City court, GM took the final step towards emerging from bankruptcy. Including testimony from CEO Fritz Henderson, GM filed for the court to approve the 363 sale of the old GMs best performing assets to the new GM. This request has taken place a mere 30 days after GM first filed for bankruptcy protection, a remarkably fast pace.
Henderson told the court formation and sale of the new GM to the US Government had to take place by July 10th otherwise the company would have to liquidate. In keeping with analysts’ estimates that the automotive market is beginning to recover, Henderson said “business is doing better” and that June retail sales were ”slightly better than expected.”
If approved, the new GM will be funded by $30 billion in taxpayer dollars and be 60% owned by the government. The UAW healthcare fund would get 17.5%, the Canadian government 12.5%, and bondholders 10%.
Is is considered a longshot that all of the taxpayer dollars will ever be recovered, as the new GM would have to reach a market capitalization of $68 billion do so. ”Can a company with $100 [billion] to $140 billion of revenue have $70 billion of market cap?” asked Henderson rhetorically in a recent interview. “”Yeah. It’s a function of how we execute, and do we get the margins out of the business that we need?”
A few fringe dissident bondholders and other groups are trying to block the sale, and the judge allowed them to be heard.
It is unlikely however these objections will be able to stop the government-backed process, and most predict the new clean, lean, mean, and green GM could emerge before the end of July.
You can see a blow by blow real time report of the court process here on the Washington Post’s twitter feed. More testimony is likely tomorrow.
Source (Reuters)
This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 at 3:29 pm and is filed under Financial. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
+2
Jun 30th, 2009 (3:30 pm)They can hardly do otherwise at this point.
+1
Jun 30th, 2009 (3:38 pm)From the article: “It is unlikely however these objections will be able to stop the goverment-backed process, and most predict the new clean, lean, mean, and green GM could emerge before the end of July.”
———————————
If all comes out as planned, it will be a remarkable achievement. Not one that I would wish to see repeated anytime soon. But remarkable nevertheless. Before the end of July. Does any one know the name of this “new” GM. GM, LLC maybe.
Jun 30th, 2009 (3:46 pm)Wow, that was pretty fast, but about what I figured. No one’s going to be able to stop this freight train bankruptcy. I just still don’t see why they didn’t do this right off the bat last November. It would’ve saved a lot of face for GM not having to take tax dollars (or at least not as much).
-5
Jun 30th, 2009 (3:48 pm)I was getting tired of the NUMMI subject and this one is fast becoming boring. No one else is over here. I could just post a couple hundred post and no one know any better. Where are all you guys? Not working, are you?
Jun 30th, 2009 (3:51 pm)Can you imagine the position the union protesters must be in to be protesting something that is working our very well for the UAW. Don’t these people know when they have got it made in the shade? Why, with the plan to tax our health benefits, the Obama administration plans to exempt union members (public and private) from the tax. Now, if that plan don’t just wax your shorts, I don’t know what will.
Jun 30th, 2009 (3:54 pm)Ah…you cares.
I just want my Volt.
Jun 30th, 2009 (3:54 pm)Hey, there you are. I was afraid I was going to have to carry the ball all by myself. Thanks for joining in.
They didn’t do it last November because the old administration thought it would let the new administration have a say so in this mess. Kind of like passing the buck. Except that the new administration coming in wanted to have a big say so and control what was done. Part of their plan to take over everything, I guess.
Jun 30th, 2009 (3:55 pm)What do you mean these union members will be tax exempt?
+2
Jun 30th, 2009 (3:56 pm)What do you mean “your Volt”? That’s my Volt. Keep you cotton picking hands off of my Volt or I’ll tell Statik on you.
Jun 30th, 2009 (3:57 pm)Sometimes I just like having a little fun. It is really easy to play around when there is not many people in the pool with you. Just the three of us so far. Let’s have some more fun.
Jun 30th, 2009 (3:58 pm)Hehe. LOL.
Gotta go pickup the wife on the way home.
We’re car poolin’…kid’s are out of school.
+2
Jun 30th, 2009 (3:58 pm)Those “few dissident” bondholders are not without legal grounds :
Two recent Supreme Court decisions, Medellin v. Texas and Hamdan v. Rumsfeld bear on the threshold question of whether the Obama Administration had the power to nationalize carmakers and enrich the UAW pursuant to the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA) which authorized the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) last October. The two opinions, which invalidated Bush Administration measures as extra-statutory, suggest that the Court (at least as it’s presently configured) is not too fond of presidential actions unchecked by legislative or constitutional authority.
This bankruptcy is not likely to withstand any close scrutiny by the courts – it apparently is without precedent and the obvious bias of the Obama administration to ensure that their heavy campaign contributors, the UAW, got a sweetheart deal, would lead any reasonable investigator to conclude that the entire process was so tainted with vested interests that the bankruptcy process was, in this case, totally invalid.
Jun 30th, 2009 (4:02 pm)Let’s buy some GM bonds.
-7
Jun 30th, 2009 (4:02 pm)That is in the bill being put together in the congress and has been blessed by our dictator in charge. You know. That guy who never looks straight forward when talking at press briefings and such. Can’t say anything with out the aid of those teleprompters on each side. So the D.I.C. has to keep looking to each side to read his speech. Can’t take the chance of actually speaking from notes or memory because it might come out with a lot of “uh”, “hum”, “oh” and “ah” type words interlaced within the sentence. Kind of like when he speaks off cuff. Doing that would detract from his oratory skills (or lack there of). I am being mean and nasty and not so funny at this point. But truthful. You have to admit.
Jun 30th, 2009 (4:04 pm)Be careful and tell your wife and kids hello for me.
Jun 30th, 2009 (4:09 pm)ROTFLOL.
Jun 30th, 2009 (4:10 pm)You need to subtract the rhetoric and add a little more analysis. I haven’t read the cases, you haven’t provided a link and your “summary” gives me only a vague idea of what you think the cases are about. You also throw in a lot of assumptions that are questionable. You then reach the conclusion that the bankruptcy process is totally invalid, with the implication being that the Supreme Court will overturn the bankruptcy court’s decision (which hasn’t even been written yet). Methinks you’re putting the cart not only before the horse, but into the next county.
-3
Jun 30th, 2009 (4:12 pm)If you take the time and go back to January 20, 2009 and come slowly forward you will find many things the Obama administration has done that would not “withstand any close scrutiny by the courts”. The congress and the administration are both trampling on our constitution and they very well know it. They also know that they can buffalo anyone brave enough to try to stop them. With 8 out of 9 of the top media sources closely tied to the Obama administration’s plans there doesn’t seem to be anyone to stop them. Fox News is like a small voice crying out from the darkness that is surrounding it. The other media sources, the congress and the administration belittles Fox News and calls it every name they can come up with and most of our dear beloved citizens goes along with it. Many of them because they know they will have a “place at the table” to be served from the largess of the country’s bounty. Or at least as long as the bounty will last. Which won’t be too many years at the rate they are putting us into debt.
+4
Jun 30th, 2009 (4:12 pm)To help raise money for health care related issues and for the basic reason that the Govt spends more than it takes in, the govt is probably going to make health benefits part of your taxable income.
What pisses some people off, is the discussion about exempting Union employees from this tax. This has not become law yet. They are just talking about it.
The fact that Union members can pay $450 per year to the union who pools their money and then gives billions to Democrat causes should not give the Union special privilages from a Democrat controlled Govt. The problem is that it seems to work for them.
Combine this with the Dems moving the Union ahead of the bond holders (who legally are ahead of the union) in the bankruptsy and you have what looks like a political payoff.
The reason no one really cares is that this is business as usual in the District of Corruption (Wash DC).
Jun 30th, 2009 (4:16 pm)This bankruptcy is not likely to withstand any close scrutiny by the courts With Chrysler, the courts seemed to defer to most any argument given by the administration, so why not with GM also?
To me, the greatest loss with these auto bankruptcies has been the loss of confidence that the bankruptcy and other courts would proceed in a neutral and evenhanded manner toward all parties.
-1
Jun 30th, 2009 (4:18 pm)You are correct. The bill has not been passed just yet. It will be voted on very soon and Obama has said he will sign it. The bill will tax that portion of health deductions paid for you by your company (commonly know as company portion of health coverage). The democrats have been trying to do this since the early ’80s. They could not muster up enough votes or find a president with enough gaul to sign it. They now have both. An unscrupulous congress and president. A wining combination and change you can believe in.
Edited: If I caught the news correctly a little earlier today, a state supreme court has ruled that Norm Coleman has lost the election to the comedian. Now the democrats have their 60 seat majority and the republicans can not stop any bill the democrats wish to push through. There are many bills they want to push through and you better believe they will do it. Better hold onto your wallet, gun and you personal liberty. It is probably going to get very nasty during the next 14 to 16 mothhs.
Jun 30th, 2009 (4:25 pm)Let me ask out in the clear, once again, away from the other comments and the replies.
Has anyone heard what the new GM is going to be called?
Just curious.
+1
Jun 30th, 2009 (4:28 pm)When you have a bankruptcy outcome already decided and all you are trying to do is to get a hand picked judge agree to its terms that tends to make me believe some corners were shaved very heavily. I think the Chrysler and GM bankruptcy will be studied in the legal profession and universities for decades. Or at least until something “bigger” comes along.
+1
Jun 30th, 2009 (4:29 pm)@N Riley 11
“Generational Massacre”
Jun 30th, 2009 (4:30 pm)Which ones? The Old GM or the New GM? Your are welcome to purchase all of the old GM bonds, stock or whatever to your bank accounts contentment. Me, I will wait our the process for a goodly while longer.
Jun 30th, 2009 (4:30 pm)Come again?
-1
Jun 30th, 2009 (4:31 pm)(R)olling
(O)n
(T)he
(F)loor
(L)aughing
(O)ut
(L)oud
+1
Jun 30th, 2009 (4:31 pm)1) No special treatment on health care benefit taxation for the UAW. Within about the past ten days both HHS Secretary Sebelius and VP Biden emphatically stated there are no plans to tax anyone’s health benefits. Taxing benefits was a possible alternative among many discussed in the early negotiations for funding the health care legislation, but was pulled off the table fairly quickly – by Obama. The conservatives however find the fear it causes to be useful, and so will continue to bring it up until the ink is dry on the law. They then will likely declare their efforts ensured that outcome.
2) Is it my imagination, wishful thinking or reality – seems like there are more new GM vehicles on the road of late – perhaps people are deciding to give the General a 2nd (3rd or 4th) chance, and are liking what they find in the showrooms…
Jun 30th, 2009 (4:34 pm)Now that is a name I could agree with. Fits the situation to “T’. LOL
+1
Jun 30th, 2009 (4:36 pm)Don’t you mean UAW Bonds?
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
+2
Jun 30th, 2009 (4:39 pm)As to your 1) comment: I heard late as last night or the night before on a local news show that the tax was still being considered and that Obama was in support of it. Now, this local channel is certainly not friendly to the conservative view point. They don’t lean heavily on the liberal side either, but they do tend to be more liberal. So, I don’t know. I will research some more on the web.
As to you 2) comment: I have been noticing more GM vehicles and Chrysler vehicles also. Must be some good sales going on.
Jun 30th, 2009 (4:43 pm)That’s a good place to be sometimes. On the floor laughing out loud. Especially if you are rolling at the same time. Otherwise it could be dangerous. Kids! Don’t try this at home with out getting on the floor first. Its dangerous and you should have adult supervision anytime you attempt this.
Send $9.95 with a self-addressed envelope to the below address for full instruction on how to do this legally and safely.
+4
Jun 30th, 2009 (4:44 pm)from Barons…
Unions Prevail Over Wall Street in Chrysler Deal:
“In the bizarre pecking order offered by the administration, the unions, which are at the bottom of Chrysler’s capital structure, would get nearly full recovery value for their $10.6 billion retiree health-care claims, while the secured creditors at the top of the hierarchy would receive about 30 cents on the dollar.”
http://online.barrons.com/article/SB124122579378179443.html?mod=googlenews_barrons
It’s not legal, but it is change we can count on.
Jun 30th, 2009 (4:45 pm)Didn’t I say earlier that sometimes I just like to have some fun. Got to go home. Ya’ll be nice while I am gone from the room.
Jun 30th, 2009 (4:51 pm)A quick way for the NEW GM to raise some cool cash is to start taking deposits for next year’s VOLT. If Tesla can do it, so can GM. And why not follow Tesla’s lead and put current GM owners at the front of the line!
+2
Jun 30th, 2009 (5:04 pm)OMG you are pathetic.
1) Here’s an example of speaking from printed-on-paper notes and answering questions off the cuff in a smooth and eloquent way. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hO1xiiYjbQc
2) He doesn’t look directly at the camera at these things because he’s looking at people in the audience. It’s a common speech technique. Ever take a speech and debate class in high school?
3) What is your problem with telepromters versus paper notes? Do you just have a problem with electronic technology?
Calm yourself down dude.
Jun 30th, 2009 (5:14 pm)OK folks….help me out here. How is the “New GM” going to be any different than the old GM? Sure, they’ve off-loaded some liabilities, but they STILL DON”T HAVE ANY MONEY! Either do the bondholders or the UAW. Even under the most optimistic conditions I can’t see how they will be able to avoid burning money for years with no end in sight.
Unbelievable….
Jun 30th, 2009 (5:21 pm)You wonder why so few are participating? This is arguably the most annoying thread in the history of GM-Volt.com.
As the late, great, Jim Healy used to say:
“Comment………………………..No Comment!”
I’m out. See you tomorrow.
+1
Jun 30th, 2009 (5:32 pm)If I understand this correctly what you’re saying is that a bankruptcy proceeding presided over by a bankruptcy judge and then reviewed by a panel of Article III judges and ultimately by the Supreme Court doesn’t involve judicial scrutiny. Interesting idea. Sort of like saying someone taking a shower is avoiding water.
+1
Jun 30th, 2009 (6:01 pm)“If approved, the new GM will be funded by $30 billion in taxpayer dollars and be 60% owned by the government. The UAW healthcare fund would get 17.5%, the Canadian government 12.5%, and bondholders 10%.”
——————
…it is that 12.5% that is going to make GM great.
Jun 30th, 2009 (6:14 pm)On Monday they tried out Fgm.
For Formerly gm.
The lawyers then said, no that’s a bad idea.
Therefore they will be identified by an ancient and unpronounceable symbol until all the claims against the old GM are settled and the old GM is dissolved.
They will then quietly and without a public announcement operate once more as GM with the added tag line, the prince of motors.
Jun 30th, 2009 (6:34 pm)Some dealers in this area are advertising themselves as dealers for New GM, just as at the top of the post. I imagine they have some official guidance, but I don’t know that it is the official name.
+2
Jun 30th, 2009 (6:36 pm)The 51st state…May you long enjoy the role the world has assumed is assigned for you.
Canadians are generally indistinguishable from Americans, and the surest way of telling the two apart is to make the observation to a Canadian.
Richard Staines
Canada is the only country in the world that knows how to live without an identity.
Herbert Marshall McLuhan
In any world menu, Canada must be considered the vichyssoise of nations, it’s cold, half-French, and difficult to stir.
Stuart Keate
Many Canadian nationalists harbour the bizarre fear that should we ever reject royalty, we would instantly mutate into Americans, as though the Canadian sense of self is so frail and delicate a bud, that the only thing stopping it from being swallowed whole by the US is an English lady in a funny hat.
Will Ferguson
The reigning Miss Canada has been arrested for punching out another woman in a bar fight . . . Quite frankly, I think it’s refreshing to finally find one beauty pageant winner who is against world peace.
Jay Leno
Very little is known of the Canadian country since it is rarely visited by anyone but the Queen and illiterate sport fishermen.
P. J. O’Rourke
Vive la Canada. This country is not for sale.
Don Sweet
We shall be Canadians first, foremost, and always, and our policies will be decided in Canada and not dictated by any other country.
John G. Diefenbaker
We’ll explain the appeal of curling to you if you explain the appeal of the National Rifle Association to us.
Andy Barrie
Jun 30th, 2009 (6:37 pm)New GM will not have to pay back most of the money that GM borrowed. “No payments” is not exactly the samething as “new income”, but it is almost as good. Of course, New GM seems to have basically unrestricted access to federal money, so they don’t have to be profitable.
-1
Jun 30th, 2009 (6:39 pm)This company should have been liquidated months ago. NewGM marks the beginning of Socialism and the beginning of the end of this once great Nation. Our values have been deluded so much that we no longer stand for anything. Hopefully this will be a one-term administration that will have most of its decisions rolled back in due time. We have swung way too far to the left, as in left-wing liberal pansies from the Chicago mafia are building mountains of debts unheard of in our history. We cannot afford any of these bailouts and the vast majority of our citizens are against them but their voices are not being heard.
-1
Jun 30th, 2009 (6:40 pm)Would you be interested in increasing that % some, say to 72.5? (smile)
Jun 30th, 2009 (6:47 pm)I think when it is all done, the “New GM” will be GM and the “Old GM” will be tthe “Old GM”.
By the way, the “Prototype” Volt started on time and will complete soon.
Sure would like to observe the first crash test.
Jun 30th, 2009 (6:48 pm)With the number of vehicles on the road compared to the number of vehicles sold as well as the sales data that we already know, I have to think even if a change had taken place there is no way it would be noticable.
+2
Jun 30th, 2009 (7:04 pm)Wow. How depressing.
I think I’ll liquidate my last beer into a porcelain bowl, mark the beginning of summer in the once lofty land of my birth, set out my church clothes to have my values reaffirmed, watch CNN for news of the one termers then swing my semi-automatic decisively to the right with a trip the shooting range, notify homeland security of the organized subrosa activities in the homelands middle lands which have clearly been obscured by lake effect snow, and check my retirement plan to see if I can possibly afford to be part of these massive plans for forced deficits which though hastily applied were, curiously, designed to stave off a world wide, long lasting repeat of the great depression. Hello, hello, is my voice even being heard.
+1
Jun 30th, 2009 (7:10 pm)I agree. I know that this is not the first or the last time a special interest group hyjacked a court proceeding. Or had the government show favoritism. (Just look at some of those defense contracts.)
But I believe that this is the first time they’ve been so blatant about it. And that bothers me. Because when we stop expecting an impartial fair government, it gives the government permission to become that much more corrupt.
Jun 30th, 2009 (7:15 pm)I’ve actually been surprised at the Canadian government’s role in all of this. Based on my admittedly limited observations–the Canadian government tends to be better managers than the US. I would have expected them to dodge this particular bullet.
But it looks like we’re in this one together….
Jun 30th, 2009 (7:21 pm)Ditto to everything you said. Damage is done though. We (the people) now own the banks, autos, and whatever else can be plundered until 2012. Sick. The question I have is whether the people will hold it against GM.
-1
Jun 30th, 2009 (7:26 pm)Does it matter? If they’re part of the problems and decisions to do the damage why would they be painted with a different brush?
+5
Jun 30th, 2009 (7:37 pm)This isn’t about the left vs. the right. President Bush gave GM and Chrysler the first loan.
And if he had paid attention to their situation earlier, or had a coherent energy/cafe/pension fund policy and balanced trade agreements, this wouldn’t have been necessary.
-1
Jun 30th, 2009 (7:55 pm)…balanced trade agreements??? The man was a president not a presider over miracles.
+2
Jun 30th, 2009 (8:01 pm)He was president. So, who else should I blame?
Yes, many of these agreements were already in place before he came into office. But I didn’t notice him taking any steps to rectify the situation. And most of the outsourcing to China happened under his watch. Did I miss something?
Jun 30th, 2009 (8:14 pm)Nations will always proclaim the benefits of unbridled trade;
and politicians who can get reelected will always act in their countries own short term interests. All other politicians will react to the above.
This essentially makes the concept of fair trade an oxymoron, which we as the economic leaders of the free world must appear to adhere to, while at the same time our politicians try to give their local constituents the best trade deals they can get away with.
/I know there is nothing specific in any of the above! but it is pretty short.
Jun 30th, 2009 (9:24 pm)Henderson said “business is doing better” and that June retail sales were ”slightly better than expected.”
I can vouch for this. Have seen many new GM cars on the road here in Southern California.
GM administration wants $4 a gallon gasoline by summer of 2010. If the S&P can get over 1000 and hold it, this will be a fertile environment for EREV sales. I hope we get there. A big shift is in the making.
=D~
Jun 30th, 2009 (9:28 pm)((psst, everybody! He’s gone. Quick, let’s all be disruptive and uncouth!))
+2
Jun 30th, 2009 (9:40 pm)Whoo hoo!! One party rule! Soviet style. Why oh why does the Republican party have to suck so much? I feel like half the country has been cut adrift. ):-(
Jun 30th, 2009 (9:50 pm)I’m going to echo the sentiment of the other respondents and say while the bailout/saving of GM may well indeed be the prudent thing to do by the US gov’t (I’m not saying it is mind you…time will tell), the manner in which they have done it, is disappointing (and unnecessary)…fair consideration, or at least mediation could have been given.
In my opinion, a far greater damage to the system, has been done over the few billion they have saved by steamrolling the system. (and it has had/will have immeasurable damage to future considerations given to large US companies that find themselves on unsure ground and looking to raise capitol…and maybe the US gov’t itself)
Jun 30th, 2009 (10:01 pm)I agree Laura, we seem to have lost our fiscal minds on this one in the last 8-10 months. We had been stonewalling the whole thing, even got out of the way of the request for the initial bailout monies…then suddenly poof, we just said, ‘put us down for 30% of whatever you give them’…I mean, what is up with that?
I think it all started at some of those blasted G20/G8, world ‘meeting of the minds’ conferences that basically ended up having everyone coming out throwing money at whatever they could to try and put a end to this thing.
Guess we have to pull for that 70 billion dollar market cap for GM, lol. I’d rather just pull for ‘no more money thrown into the pit’ and call it a day.
/at least we have no part in the ATVMIP auto loan fiasco that looks to get upped to 50 billion (small mercies)…which I think is a MUCH bigger thread topic that anything we have had recently, it practically guarantees GM that 10 billion dollars to build the Volt + 2, and then horde the other 6 billion or so left remaining with creative financing to pay the electric bill
(nice to have you back again btw)
Jun 30th, 2009 (10:04 pm)I’m sure Obama’s PR team is looking for a quick end to this one. And it had better work or the price tag for failure will be in every campaign commercial against him in just a couple of years from now.
Jun 30th, 2009 (10:19 pm)USGM? Hooray for the “People’s Car”. Now if only the Volt came as a “cross-over” I could have a Volt Wagon. =)
Our system is so sad and corrupt you gotta laugh because there’s not much else to do but watch it crumble. *sigh*
-1
Jun 30th, 2009 (10:33 pm)Test
heh heh heh….
+1
Jun 30th, 2009 (11:25 pm)It’s like listening to the Rush Limbaugh show here today…WOW
Jun 30th, 2009 (11:37 pm)They may have some guidance, but perhaps they are a wee bit early.
Better for marketing purposes than saying. GM, yes that GM the one that is in a massive bankruptcy that is designed to leave the company we call old GM behind with a hodgepodge of worthless assets and the few potential debts that government DIP financing didn’t pay off.
Yeah, OK, stick with New GM, reality is at this moment quite a mouthful.
Jun 30th, 2009 (11:39 pm)Three words, IPO.
-2
Jul 1st, 2009 (12:02 am)Truthful, not in the slightest.
Jul 1st, 2009 (12:06 am)I hear the sound of crazy.
Jul 1st, 2009 (12:34 am)Liquidate by 07/10/2009 if no exit from Chapter 11 by then? What a stupid threat to the judge? Maybe GM should liquidate. I won’t buy their products ever!
Jul 1st, 2009 (1:08 am)Is it just me, or does it piss you guys off too just seeing the letters “U” “A” “W” together?
Jul 1st, 2009 (2:07 am)Good catch, that was an easy one wasn’t it?
+1
Jul 1st, 2009 (3:41 am)Good Luck GM and USA
Jul 1st, 2009 (7:52 am)StevePA,
I’m hearing a lot differently than you are. I’m hoping that the Senate doesn’t pass the Bill (if for no other reason it’d be the third in a row they haven’t read), but the President has placed ALL of the methods of funding “on the table” and one of those is to tax benefits – Unless you’re in a union.
Once someone reads the bill (or if you have a direct quote), I’d love to hear how this will be funded.
Be well,
Tagamet
LJGTVWOTR!!
Jul 1st, 2009 (9:01 am)Did the GM leadership have an understanding that the so called bailout would NOT bail them out but rather turn the company over in short order to the State? I think they did. Now why did they want the State to become the owner? I have to go to work now with a blinding headache!
Regards from smoldering Tejas.—–Higgins and the Lads
Jul 1st, 2009 (9:03 am)Wow…maybe Enron would still be around today if they had asked permission to do what they did then?
“So…lets start this new company that loses all sorts of money, but start this other company and transfer all the debt to that one so the first company looks great.”
“Dude, I think that’s illegal.”
“Hm…ok let’s get the gov’t to buy the second company, and THEN transfer all the debt so we can have a company that actually makes money.”
“Brilliant!”
-1
Jul 1st, 2009 (9:27 am)It also might have something to do that they are coming up against last years bad numbers, so the numbers seem lower, but we are now putting a losing number on top of another losing number.
Easier to look less bad when the bar year-over-year gets set lower as we go forward.
ie)
January 2008 + 2.1%
May 2008 – 11.5%
June 2008 – 18.5%
-1
Jul 1st, 2009 (10:19 am)Really.
Jul 1st, 2009 (10:22 am)The actual Bankruptcy may be going fast; but that is true only because of all the work done in the past few months, in pre-packaging the BK filing.
Management had to develop a business plan, or more accurately a series of plans, and decide which divisions lived and which ones died. It had to resize its production capacity and also decide which facilities would compose that reduced capacity, to stop the losses, and which factories would have to close.
They had to decide not only what was needed immediately; but what combination of vehicles in th pipeline they needed; and whether they had enough money to develop and bring them to market over several years.
Then they had to get approvals; and respond to appeals and the changes that might occur.
All this takes time and doing it over a few months is pretty good, IMHO.
Jul 1st, 2009 (10:57 am)I’m sorry. I have to spew this. I’m thoroughly sick of the “Oh my gosh! The State is involved. Now it’s utterly certain to go to H**** in a handbasket,” hogwash. As far as I’m concerned that mantra that, since Reagan, has been repeated as though it’s received knowledge has been completely discredited. What do you think has happened with some of these companies while being privately owned? Is the government likely to do worse? The adherents to this philosophy state it as though it’s gravity, or electricity. Well, prove it a little.
I was talking a couple of days ago to a man who said, “Oh dear Lord. It’s a terrible time. The government fired the CEO of GM.” What do you think you get to do when you bail out a company to the tune of $60 billion (or whatever it is)? Do you think that if B of A had been the one to bail out GM they might not have rolled a head or two? So what?!?
I have no objection to trying out publicly-provided health insurance for awhile. I CANNOT AFFORD private insurance as it exists. I do not see how the government can do MUCH worse and they may well do better. I’m ready to try a little “socialism”. /
-1
Jul 1st, 2009 (12:10 pm)My observation is that the guy seems unable to make a speech without a teleprompter. No other president has ever used one to the extent he does. You can about count on the fingers of one hand the times he gave a talk, not a speech, without the teleprompter. He always uses a teleprompter for a speech. And looking to the right then to the left while never looking at the center is attributed to reading the speech from the teleprompter. He does not look at the audience at all.
Jul 1st, 2009 (12:11 pm)Thank you. I am a democrat.
Jul 1st, 2009 (1:35 pm)Amen. Thank you.
Jul 1st, 2009 (2:03 pm)We are truly living a turning point.
The so called Reagan doctrine where the free market had to be free no matter what proved to be an unsustainable long term policy. Airlines went bankrupt one after the other. Jobs were exported overseas, weakening the bargaining position of those who still had a job and feared to lose it.
Companies cannot afford to pay for health insurance for the employees anymore.
All US car makers went bankrupt except for Ford who had a lucky twist of fate of being in trouble before the others and liquidated as much assets as possible before this crisis.
The Reagan years are over. A lucky few got richer. Most got poorer. Many are now ‘working poors’. It’s about time it stops.
Years from now, we will agree that this admistration saved the american way of life.
+1
Jul 1st, 2009 (2:16 pm)Wow, it’s like you don’t remember all of the dictatorial and destructive things done between January 20, 2001 – January 20, 2009!
Do you actually want to go back to that?
Jul 2nd, 2009 (10:12 am)I would have stayed in the “pool” but I had to attend to work so that I can joyfully pay taxes (at bayonet/prison point) for all the Das Stat welfare pundits that were in the pool with you. Otherwise I would have been in there. It is rather warm where I reside.
Looking at the snapshot of the “pool” party, I saw Natasha and Boris in the usual Kommunist banter of killing capitalist Moose and Squirrel, some angry types, and no doubt some Global Warming Church members dressed in their uniform SNUGGIES were lurking about in the shadows or shallows which is more likely as it fits their reasoning abilities.
Come to think of it I’d rather be poolside with Magnum sipping a gin and tonic while Magnum’s women frolic about. Prettier site, I dare say.
The Lads with their little paint mustaches are barking for me to peruse more of this thread all for Das Stat thread.
Regards!——— Higgins
PS: “A Demokat!” Great Heavens! LOL!
Jul 2nd, 2009 (10:18 am)Short change that is.———-Higgins
+1
Jul 2nd, 2009 (10:41 am)Per Canadian, Andy Barrie: The appeal Mr. BarrIE is that the NRA represents/protects the 2nd Amendment to the Bill of Rights of which Canada has none. You people are simply JUST SUBJECTS to the State and owe your various rights to the whims of the State that YOU BELONG TO. Subjects to the Crown.
The right of a FREE people rests in their ability to hold as supreme arbitrators of the government that they ALLOW to serve them. Should said government cease to serve them and worse become adversarial in it’s conduct with the PEOPLE, then the people have the right to dissolve the government even if that means armed citizens standing up to the state.
How timely. Sat. here in the U.S. is the Fourth of July whereby the Colonies of England in North America declared their independence from England. Just declaring it did not make it happen. The Colonists had to fight an entrenched United Kingdom in a long and bloody war for said independence. They won in a war that was far from being easy. They could have lost too, just as the Confederate States of America did when they were eventually bludgeoned to death at the sad cost of 700,000 or so lives. One hell of a “Vietnam type WALL” that can be made next to the Lincoln Memorial.
The first thing dictatorships attend to is to eventually kill all opposition. Denuding the public of guns… is a great way to, ah, have your way, any way, with said public.
The Lads and I are going to the shooting range.—Higgins
Happy Fourth of July! Noel Park and all.
Jul 2nd, 2009 (10:54 am)The crazy sound that the King George’s Army heard, numerous guns going off aimed at them!
“I say! But these Colonists are a crazy lot they are! ALL we are trying to do is to disarm them and they shoot at us from Lexington to Concord! This is, the world turned upside down!”
Off to the shooting range for some pre Fourth of July remembrance.
Higgins
Jul 2nd, 2009 (11:03 am)Judge Judy, YES! I started way up top per my query as to what the so called leaders of GM were doing as to asking for a bailout if they knew that the bailout would NOT work. The so called bailout simply gave the STATE ownership of a company.
I was bludgeoned by writers that sieg heiled state ownership. No one came to my aid.
Funny thought though, Das Reich did not own the companies. Now in Russia, the communists did! My apologies to Mister Hitler and his Peoples Wagon. The ONE is a gathering storm of the likes of Karl Marx and company.
This thread has the Kommisars all in a shaking tither that we are not all on the same page. Humm? N Riley said that this is an interesting “pool party”. Right he was.
Off to the shooting range soon, Lads.——-Higgins
+1
Jul 2nd, 2009 (11:07 am)I made comment about Das People’s Car — Das Volt long before but seeing as how Das State owns the greater part of GM that is not fair. Now the Kommisars of the former Soviet Union, now there is a State that owned stuff. The One is following in their delightful cadence of goose steps.
—–Higgins
Jul 2nd, 2009 (11:11 am)Better than JUST listening my goode chap as we get to have a word in and on Limbaugh there is not so much freedom to develop thoughts, heretical or not. No doubt naughty ver botten voices here disturb the tender STATE inclined sensibilities of some.
Regards!—–Higgins and the barking Lads
Jul 2nd, 2009 (11:19 am)Look to #16 below. Noel Park
One reason that few are participating could be that this thread is demanding of some articulation beyond the classic, “I want my Volt Now”… mouthings. I am interested as to why we are in this position of a STATE owned GM/VOLT. Like I mentioned, The ONE, with a candle stick in the study. CLUE
Off to more reading and writing.———Higgins