Wednesday, April 21, 2010

All You People Going On About "Government Motors?"

Just shut-up.


Thank you.  We now return you to your regularly scheduled Wednesday evening.

8 comments:

  1. Hey Buck, check out this article on the right wing Yahoo news:

    http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/100421/business/us_auto_company_gm_public_aid

    And be sure to note: "The payments however do not include much higher loans made to the company under its former guise, being slowly wound down through the bankruptcy process.

    The US government, which provided about 50 billion dollars in emergency loans, holds a 60.8 percent stake in the new company and 2.1 billion dollars in preferred stock. The Canadian government and a retiree health care trust also hold significant stakes."

    I shall now return to my regularly scheduled Wednesday evening. ;)

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  2. The same article also said "GM has vowed to launch a public stock offering as soon as is practical, perhaps as early as the second half of this year, but it will likely take years for the US government to wind down its massive stake."

    There's still a lot of work to do, as the company e-mail noted. But being ahead of schedule and paying off the loan was a massive step in the right direction.

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  3. Buck, I am no financial expert (obviously).

    But, it looks to my untrained eye like GM is paying back their "loan" with the "good money" that we taxpayers gave them, while shuffling off all their crap into bankruptcy court.

    Just to my untrained financial eye, it looks like "smoke."

    Heck, I don't know. I know they're shutting down Hummer here...and many hundreds will lose jobs. I'm not saying that it shouldn't happen. If something is not profitable...well, that's life.

    But what bugs me about this is the hoopla! Hey, look! We're paying y'all back real quick! When the truth is that (as you noted), there is still much work to do.

    And, the FACT that the Gubmit owns so much of it (even if the public goes for a stock offering, and the Gubmit does ever "wind down it's massive stake)...and the UAW has so much stroke...I just don't see it as a time for great celebration.

    But, that's just me. I mean, I've always been a Ford guy anyway...

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  4. All very valid observations, Andy. But I tend to be a "glass half-full" kinda guy. And I've always been (mostly) a Chevy guy. That and the fact GM filled my rice bowl for over five years, or thereabouts. Leave us not forget my GM friends in Dee-troit, either. It's a loyalty thing with me.

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  5. Got that same email. And, yep, my Chevy sits proudly in my driveway, as did the one before that and the one before that.

    Have driven Chevy trucks for years and will continue. Works for me.

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  6. Toby ranted something about how the Government bailed out companies like AIG with taxpayer money. AIG promptly paid their debt to the bankers, who promplty took the money and gave out large bonuses and are doing quite well, but the taxpayer is not getting paid back - something like that.

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  7. I think the headlines regarding this are a bit disingenuous. They haven't repaid the rather sizable some of taxpayer money that was spent on stocks.

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  8. Kath: I'm glad you're on the side of Mom, Apple Pie, and CHEVROLET! ;-)

    Lou: AIG is the real black-hat in all of this bail-out brouhaha.

    BR: As noted above, I'm a glass-half-full kinda guy. There WILL be a public offering in the next year or so... and the taxpayers WILL get their money back. We... the public... just need to get behind GM, and that appears to be hard for some folks to do.

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Just be polite... that's all I ask.