Listening to analysts talk about the various federal buyouts my head starts to spin.
I heard the Mayor of Lansing, Michigan talking on Channel 2 news tonight and he pointed out that the car companies were "ONLY asking for $25 billion."
Well, that's certainly less than the $125-150 billion gift that was given to AIG, but should the word ONLY ever be used when we're talking billions of dollars.
In a discussion with a friend who is very much for the auto bailout he pointed out that when the country was reeling from the after effects of the 9/11 attacks it was the car companies who stepped up, offered huge incentives to get the country going again.
Admittedly, I had forgotten that and certainly that's more than AIG ever did for anybody.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
The car companies, particularly GM, also helped us win World War II. Had GM not turned over its manufacturing capacity to the war effort, we might be speaking German today.
And by the way, the auto companies are asking for LOANS, not freebies.
Good points on WWII and post-9/11. It's easy to forget, isn't it?
NYT writer Thomas Friedman wrote last week that if GM were to receive money, the gov't should have a large say in what standards should be met regarding fuel efficiency and plug-in or hybrid cars. I would agree with him. Congress is right in that the Big Three are unimaginative and lack vision. They need hand holding right now and better leadership or this buyout (or loan, however you view it) will never work.
Part of me thinks the gov't CAFE requirements are part (just a part) of the reason the car companies have struggled.
The jury is still out for me on how much of a say Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi or name your favorite Republican should have in running a car company. They can barely run their own business.
Accountability for the money, sure, but I would lessen, not increase, the government's intervention into the car business itself.
Re: CAFE standards -- if you look at the numbers, we were importing a smaller percentage of oil BEFORE the regulations took place vs. today. We have SUVs in this country because station wagons were basically legislated off the streets to meet the car standards. Minivans and SUVs were developed to take advantage of a loophole on light truck CAFE rules. After all, if you have five kids and a dog, you need a vehicle to put them in. So yes, the federal government shares some blame here.
It was painful watching the Big 3 essentially being "pants" in front of senators yesterday -- especially the bloviating senators who displayed such a stunning lack of knowledge about how cars are made. For the Southern senators who have transplant automakers in their states, just wait: It's the '50s equivalent of the American auto industry in those states because there aren't any pension and health care legacy costs yet. But in a couple of decades they'll get a taste of what Detroit is going through now.
And frankly, I'm stunned by the Manhattan know-it-alls and California fruitheads who would summarily do away with "Detroit" with the wave of one hand while holding a $5 triple-skim latte in another.
Maybe the next time a wild fire sweeps a scenic hilltop of mansions near Big Sur, the government can admonish homeowners and tell them that the "business model" of living among a tinderbox of brush in a quasi-desert is "outdated" and refuse to bail them out. Fat chance.
All that said, if it takes some kind of government oversight -- I prefer Obama's idea of a "car czar," as long as it isn't Jennifer Granholm -- to save 3 million direct and indirect auto jobs, it's a very small price to pay. I also don't have a problem doing away with the current boards of directors and limiting CEO pay to $1 until the business is turned around. But no other nation would leave such an important and strategic industry twisting in the wind.
I'm not a big fan of GM, but sell GM to Harry, Nancy, Ralph and the Greens.
Tell THEM to build the car of the future that runs on marshmallows and daisies and hauls eight.
Or how about this: Make all government officials drive Aveos instead of those big blacked-out Suburbans they love so much.
Let us know how that works out.
Right on! I'm sooooo tired of people who wouldn't know dipstick from lipstick dream up cars made from recycled milk jugs that run on human flatulence. When Ralph's protege, Joan Claybrook, presided over NHTSA, we saw the biggest per capita bloodbath in history on our nation's highways.
Post a Comment