GM Prepares for Bankruptcy; Borrows Another $4B

[Guest]

ImOn2you :
@Chipruck: ... I wish we had some liberals in Congress, rather than 2 conservative parties and one that pretends to be liberal to give the illusion of a choice.

Chipruck:
When will you sheeple get it? Democrats and Republicans alike act like they differ so much in public, but in reality there all in this together.


If you're going to quote something for the sake of arguing against it, you should atleast read it first.


P.S. Bush's countless trillion spent on needless wars and the creation of a police state DID ruin the economy, as well as the fact the he let oil companies gouge the consumer for as much as $5 a gallon. All of the "oil shortages" during his presidency were man-made, artificial shortages for the sake of driving up prices, look at the actual supply numbers vs. prices at random times of year. His domestic shenanigans have destroyed America's tourism industries, and destroyed the confidence of countries we do business with. Democrats aren't much better, but I'll take the lesser of two evils any day.

 

[marsax73]

I say good riddance to GM. I have driven Japanese cars my whole driving life and I never looked back. My dad used to buy Dodge and Fords and he got tired of spending his weekends constantly fixing them. He bought a Toyota and from that point in 1985, he swears by them.

 

[mavroxur]

I'd really hate to see GM go away, but they managed themselves into the ground. They used to be really good cars, but lately they have been turning out crappy cars that get crappy gas mileage with crappy prices. They might not disappear but they'll either drop several product lines, or get bought by another maker and be absorbed. Either way, the US gov't has given them way too much money. Stop the bleeding already....

 

[davidgbailey]

The argument that the CEOs are getting paid too much is crap. 20 million to run a multi-billion dollar company? How much does Lebron James or Tiger Woods make in a year to play with balls? I wish I made 20 million a year to play with balls.

 

[neiroatopelcc]

I suppose any car company getting too big fails at some point! It's a bit like British Leyland in the dark ages. They've got too much internal competition with all their brands (buick, cadillac, chevrolet, daewoo, gmc, holden, hummer, opel, vauxhall, pontiac, saab, saturn, wuling).
I suppose some of the other car companies have just been smarter than GM. Ford for instance have sold jag/aston, land rover and daimler off in advance of the recession - so they only own volvo, mercury and lincoln in addition to themselves.
And what's left? independant ones carrying only 1-2 brands each (honda/acura, toyota/lexus, citroën/peugeot, nissan, mitsubishi) and porche with audi and vw. The only one left with 'many' brands is fiat (ferrari, massarati, alfa romeo, lancia), and they were so starved for cash some years ago that gm decided to release their shares in them back then.
Overall it's sad though. I sure hope that german wannabe minister bitch figures out a deal to release opel from the gm system, so we can keep the best ever car brand alive! Nothing beats an old 800kg rwd ascona with a straight six under the bonnet.

 

[Houndsteeth]

Bankruptcy is not the end of the world for GM. The company is HUGE, and all that bankruptcy would allow it to do is negotiate with creditors from a more amenable perspective to try and find a way out of the hole they are in. Of course, at this point, the majority of the creditors are the American taxpayers.

I agree. Management at the company needs to take a close look at their product. It is obvious it isn't selling, and not because people can't afford to buy. It's mostly because people finally see the writing on the wall, as gas prices start rolling back up now toward the high we had just last year. Fuel efficient, alternative fuel, electric and electric hybrid vehicles are the future. GM at one time had the lead in electric car design, but decided not to continue pursuing that lead. Imagine where they would be right now, financially, if they were instead on their sixth generation electric and electric hybrid vehicles? I imagine that those cars would have been flying out of the dealerships when gas was spiking nearly $4.50 a gallon. Hindsight is 20/20, though.

About CEOs and their built-in default golden parachutes...what incentive is there for a poor-performing CEO to fix his or her performance, other than to throw more money at them? With all the negative publicity with regards to executive pay, I imagine that CEOs (and companies) are going to come up with more creative forms of executive compensation that are less discernible to the public. With as many companies turning belly-up right now, I imagine that there must be a glut in the market for former CEOs...maybe competition will cause them to start asking for less compensation...but I won't hold my breath.