I’ve received a few emails upbriading the site for OCDing on the bailout story. My only defense: TTAC has covered this story for well over three years. We are the clear path through the blizzard of bailout B.S. being bandied about by bailout backers. While we glean our info from the usual suspects, our editorial eye is fixated on the details and implications that other outlets miss, ignore or bury. For example, this Automotive News [sub] story reveals the fact that the cappi di tutti cappi di automobili left their sit-down in Nancy Pelosi’s Washington office “through a hidden exit from the office suite of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sometime around 6:30 p.m. Security personnel kept reporters at a distance.” THIS is how OUR politicians spend OUR tax money? In closed-door meetings with a coven of craptastic carmakers? OK, no surprise, but it’s clear the important questions are not being answered– if only because the principles involved are literally sneaking away into the night. So, anyway, here’s the latest teat-sucking scenario…
“Aides who helped plan the meetings described a two-part request: An infusion of an unspecified amount of money from the Treasury or the Federal Reserve to get through, or “bridge,” the current economic crisis and $25 billion in new low-interest loans to fund retiree health-care benefits. The requests would be on top of $25 billion in low-interest loans approved in September so automakers and suppliers can retool to build vehicles that are more fuel efficient.” So $25b already allocated, $xb to stop them going out of business and $25b to keep them stopping from going out of business for a while longer. Does any of this make sense? I mean, really?
Without regime change at the top of these companies there is little hope.
Where are the CEOs willing to work for $1/year and profit only from a business recovery like Iaccoca did during Chrysler’s last near-death experience?
when Wagoer refused to let me pass out Return to Greatness in the shareholders meeting, I knew the guy was rotten to the core.
@John Horner
IVY MBA’s don’t work for $1/year anymore, John.
They are the best and brightest. The elites. The entitled. They are above sacrifice. Sacrifice? No…that’s for the common man.
Actually, 1 dollar is more than some of them are going to make in the next year. (Google ‘Bear Stearns’ or ‘Lehman Bros’.)
So maybe there is hope that somebody will apply for one of these top jobs only looking for $1. And a truck load of stock certificates.
Robert,
keep up the good work…the thorough documentation of this process found on this website is the best on the topic that I know of. This is an incredibly important issue…anyone familiar with Ayn Rand’s writings can see what Wagoner, Pelosi, Nardelli, Reid, etc. represent and what they are doing to the rest of us. Behind closed doors? This is a crime against the American people.
@MgoBLUE
There are lot of Ivy MBA’s who are much more honest then GM’s CEO. His vice chairman does not have IVY education, but is not more respectable because of it. Granted, when you go for MBA (especially highly prized IVY MBA), you don’t do it to become mother Theresa, but because you want to make a better living for yourself. Ivy MBA is not a problem, a good number of US senior officers have IVY MBA and they serve their country for peanuts.
I also came across large number of MBA’s who could not find their way out brown paper bag. Yet, they completed IVY curriculum. One thing for sure: they do not have classes on pragmatism (common sense) at IVYs.
RF, There are always going to be detractors who won’t acknowledge/deliberately ignore the pink elephant in the room. SOP at most large companies. There is no problem if it’s never acknowledged. Everyone is happy on their way to Abilene.
And this from Pelosi, yet another politician promising to “drain the swamp” of gov’t corruption. What a surprise that she’s just another hairball at the bottom of it.
please explain “25 billion in new low-interest loans to fund retiree health-care benefits.”
there are 43 million americans with out health care and we need to assist the uaw .
i am amazed .. but the uaw always has their hand out
paul
Business as usual in Washington. Thanks for continued coverage of this topic Mr. Farago. But please, no more talk of Pelosi’s back door.
I wonder if the email I wrote Pelosi yesterday actually got in front of her, where I derided her for these back room dealings and betraying the American peoples trust. Bitch is not doing her job of protecting the taxpayer and being responsible with our money, and she wonders why the public thinks Congress is a cess pool.
This whole process is starting to really make me sick, is there no ethical people left in DC. She is doing her job to spread the wealth, they just failed to say in detail they would be taking it from the rest of us to dole it out to their supporters.
“Take from the many to give to the few I think who need it most. Trust me I’m with the government I know best what to do with your money.”
I would like to know who voted for this woman repeatedly, they need their heads examined.
To second the suggestion a guy made yesterday on CNBC, lets just nationalize these pigs now and be done with bailouts. That way no one would expect them to make money. Let us make Rick Wagoner the low-paid government functionary God intended him to be.
Redbarchetta :
November 7th, 2008 at 11:40 am
I would like to know who voted for this woman repeatedly, they need their heads examined.
If you have ever been to Ms. Pelosi’s district, that is easy to figure out.
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Kevin :
November 7th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
To second the suggestion a guy made yesterday on CNBC, lets just nationalize these pigs now and be done with bailouts. That way no one would expect them to make money.
That is a scary idea, but a funny comment. :)
I really, really DETEST this whole idea of ANY bailout for these failing businesses, and I say this as someone who’s a Democrat and not so bitterly cynical of our form of government.
I really don’t think the D2.8 are too big to fail; the transplants will take up the slack quite nicely, thank you. And as a completely satisfied owner of 2 Toyotas and 1 Nissan, I’m not going back to Detroit products, no way, no how.
Back to government, Winston Churchill once said something to the effect that democracy is a lousy form of government, but it’s a helluva lot better than anything else we’ve tried.
While I agree with most of the other posters, I’m scratching my head about the importance/relevance of whatever door they leave from and also the importance of seeing people from the press. Other than what inflated ego press types might think of themselves, I don’t see any significance to their involvement and questions, on the assumption nothing has been decided or approved yet.
“Yes, we were discussing (exactly what’s been reported here and elsewhere)” Then silence or irrelevance, so what?
I can think of another use for Pelosi’s back door…
Shouldn’t the same folks who were whinging about Cheney meeting with the oil companies be up in arms about this?
So now we know how the VEBA is going to be funded. Bastards. When it is OPM who cares what it costs. One thing is for sure, they don’t care WHAT you think just shut up and pay more taxes for it. How can I afford a new Chevy Volt to save money on gas and clean the air when I am paying all these taxes?
I saw some video footage from the photo-op they had for this meeting before the press and public were booted out so the people’s money could be handed out without restraint. I thought the really old guy in a polo sitting next to Pelosi was a harmless old UAW retiree the CEOs brought along to remind Congress that there’s real people at stake here. However, it turns out it was just Rep. Dingell, as I learned after he addressed the cameras with something about how critical it is to save the auto industry. I guess in a representative democracy the people really get what they deserve.
I surely am no economist, but wouldn’t it be better for these guys to go Chapter 11? I mean, the airlines do it – they don’t go out of business – they restructure – whack the top management and start over. Isn’t that what the American manufacturers really need to do? I mean, loans to a fixed cost structure (read union entitlements) that looses money can only continue to loose money. Right?
Right. It is just about that simple. dgduris you said it better than paragraphs could.