Gip, I'm thrilled that the domestic automakers are back on their feet and competing successfully and we as taxpayers can be hopeful that the remaining $40 billion or so of the bailout can be paid back. The bigger issue for me and potentially for us all, is the manner in which the Obama administration strong-armed the secured debt holders, forcing them to bend over and take it in the arse in favor of inflated stakes to government and labor (shocker there huh?) and immediately then demagogued the bondholders when they protested the larceny and the heavy-handed trampling of centuries of established law. http://spectator.org/archives/2010/11/18/whats-good-for-gm-is-now-terri
I would echo the comments above. I do not know anyone who would have been happy with GM or Ford failing. I don't count Chrysler because they are now basically an Italian company. But it cannot be forgotten that had it not been for Bush and Obama strong arming the American taxpayer for the capital, these companies may have all been in the history books already. It is in everyone's best interests hat they succeed at this point since we all own them.
While the secured creditors were treated harshly it was more of their own doing than anything else. Time and again they were asked to sit down and try to negotiate an agreeable compromise and they balked. They could have avoided some of their losses if they hadn't been so arrogant about it. I thought that the book Crash Course laid out what happened pretty accurately.
They had every right to b!tch...they were getting hosed. I see nothing arrogant about protecting your rights. That said, even arrogant creditors deserve the right to have valid contracts enforced by rule of law rather than have their assets effectively confiscated and redistributed by government fiat. The only thing missing from this Stalin-like action was that the investors didn't get sent off to the gulag..... Let's all appreciate the unintended consequences of this act.....after this action, do you think investors, debt or equity, secured or not, would be more or less inclined to commit investment capital under this administration? One of the greatest missing ingredients in the recipe for solid economic recovery right now in this country is business investment. No coincidence fellas.....
.....and why not? It was clearly evidenced that with Uncle at your back, whether or not there is any legal basis for it, your interests would seem to be advantaged. Certainly more advantaged than any senior, secured claims held by those arrogant fools representing the interests of the Indiana State Police Pension Fund, Indiana Teachers Retirement Fund, et al or others whose property was confiscated and delivered on a platter for the feasting by Uncle Sam and the UAW. Meanwhile, in the other 99.9% of the economy, roughly $200 Billion of business fixed investment has failed to make its way back into the recovery equation and has seemingly vanished into thin air.....unlikely to present itself again until the socialists leave office, imo.
If the prick attorney who was representing the funds you mention had had the good sense to at least participate in discussions thing might have been different. It wasn't until it was too late and his clients were being ripped that he wised up and belatedly wanted to negotiate. Sorry, no one was going to get 100% of their claims in the bankruptcy. As they say, pigs get slaughtered.
I get it....so it was the prick attorney's fault for believing based upon hundreds of years of precedent and the rule of law that the claims of the funds would be treated in a manner consistent with those laws. There was never any expectation that the secured creditors could be made whole, but they did have a reasonable expectation that the rule of law would be followed. The retirement assets of the Indiana police and teachers were stolen and handed to the UAW and the federal government....plain and simple. I can't believe I'm hearing you defend the trampling of law with government overreach and the results of the settlement in this case and criticize the victims of the robbery. Stay tuned, with these clowns in office you'll be seeing much more of the same.... Sounds eerily the same as it was Bush's fault or anybody elses fault but those responsible for the action.
Your Tax Dollars Hard At Work: $11 Million Spent To Clothe Two Job-Seekers In Detroit… Nauseating. DETROIT (WWJ/AP) – An audit has found that a portion of an $11 million federal grant intended to provide business attire to 400 low-income job-seekers in Detroit helped only two people. The audit of the city’s Department of Human Services found the department failed to control the operations and finances of a boutique that was to provide clothes, the Detroit News reported. The city’s auditor general conducted the review for the period from July 2009 to September 2011. The center, at 1970 Larned, included the Customer Choice Pantry, the New Beginnings Clothing Boutique and a call center that had the capacity to service 60,000 families in need. The boutique was to provide business attire for low-income residents for job interviews. To receive clothing, residents were required to have a job interview scheduled. According to the audit, the DHS was supposed to help 400 people between October 2010 and September 2011 but instead served only two.
Obama-Funded $100,000 Fisker Electric Car Dies During Testing… D’oh! DETROIT — Remember when heartthrob Justin Bieber received a Fisker Karma luxury hybrid for his 18th birthday earlier this month on the Ellen DeGeneres Show? Well, he may be driving a lemon. A $100,000-plus Fisker sports car died during Consumer Reports speed testing this week for reasons that are still unknown, leaving the struggling electric car startup with another blow to its image. “It is a little disconcerting that you pay that amount of money for a car and it lasts basically 180 miles before going wrong,” David Champion, senior director for the magazine’s automotive test center, told Reuters, on Thursday. But the breakdown of the Consumer Reports car is more bad news for a company that has found itself under the microscope as its woes have mounted. Over the last month, Fisker changed its chief executive and halted work at its U.S. plant as it renegotiates the terms of a $529 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy.
Obama also pulled the funds on a Police Vehicle specifically built for being a Police Car. It was to be built in Southern Indiana and provide over a 1000 jobs.
Terry, that was big news on the Indianapolis TV stations. The town involved, Connersville, is devastated. It's a shame.
Obama Pitches Energy Plan, Fails To Mention His Brilliant Algae Idea… Via Washington Examiner: Speaking on energy in his weekly radio address today, President Obama made no mention of his goal to convert algae into fuel as part of a plan to reduce gas prices and dependency on oil. He did, however, assure listeners that other ideas of his were not “pie in the sky” solutions to energy policy problems. “[T]hese cars aren’t some pie in the sky solution that’s years away,” Obama said of his the vehicles being built to meet his fuel efficiency standards. “They’re being built right now – by American workers, in factories right here in the U.S.A. Every year, our cars and trucks will be able to go further and use less fuel . . . We’ll reduce our oil consumption by more than 12 billion barrels. That’s a future worth investing in.” Twelve billion barrels is a bit less oil than the United States uses in a two year period, but the president didn’t say how long it would take to save that much oil using these fuel efficiency standards. Obama’s stated aversion to a “pie in the sky solution” comes just a couple weeks after he proposed converting “a plantlike substance, algae,” into oil. “If we can figure out how to make energy out of that, we’ll be doing alright,” he told a Miami audience. “Believe it or not, we could replace up to 17 percent of the oil we import for transportation with this fuel that we can grow right here in America.”