Comments on: GM: A Question of Trust

By: OMG

OMG — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 08:11:48 +0000

This is no time to give up.
When you hear the dogs coming keep going.
The death of GM is a shock.
Can you hear the slow boil?
Will more news stations notice?
Prolly not because of all the fluff, juvenile infatuation and lack of ethics.
You are going to love this video of the Big One with the king and no one would shake his ~~bony fingers~~ hand. Very Strange.

http://mcnorman.wordpress.com/2009/06/04/deliberate-no-hand-shake-to-obama-video/

But he saluted the national anthem today when King Abduhl played it. Makes me so proud that he is trying. Even if it’s fake at least it’s not an embarassment.

By: whoisjohngalt

whoisjohngalt — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 03:06:06 +0000

There are 2 kinds of people in the world, producers and looters. When a politician can promise free goodies to more than 50% of the population, then you have a country of looters. They elect that politician & he proceeds to hand out goodies to his peeps (looters) and punish the producers through higher taxes & confiscation. Now the producers begin to question why they produce and either quit or move somewhere else.

Then the country falls apart and the looters beg the producers to come back and help them. Why should they? Atlas Shrugged. John Galt

By: jbjd

jbjd — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 23:13:11 +0000

SNJ, great question. Congress writes the Bankruptcy laws, which seem to protect secured creditors. But if BO gets GM to shaft their secured creditors first… I don’t know why GM just didn’t wait until they went into court to sort this out. I am confused.

By: Portia Elizabeth

Portia Elizabeth — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:32:48 +0000

As do I!

By: Portia Elizabeth

Portia Elizabeth — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:31:40 +0000

Larry — thank you for this post. I was wondering about the eventual fallout from this arrangement regarding unions. They seem to’ve gotten their payback from BO for their support in the 2008 election. But I doubt it will be in their long-term interest. You mentioned trust. I think this distasteful agreement will ultimately lead to the dismantling of unions because it destroys any level of trust people had in unions to represent them. I’d appreciate your opinion on this subject since I’m certainly no expert.

By: markom

markom — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:05:36 +0000

Larry,

That was an exceptional analysis and one that has not been brought to people’s attention yet.

The extent of government overreach and legally questionable actions during this economic situation is unprecedented since The New Deal.

We are a country built on legal precedents and the actions now, if they are not contested, will serve to, as you said, to have some fundamental negative consequences to free-market capitalism in the future.

Clearly the bail out of GM was done to cater to the UAW and not to average shareholders who had GM stock even in their 401Ks or mutual funds.

As a functioning entity, General Motors should have had its entities sold off or closed up years ago. It was a terribly run company long before the credit crisis. They mismanaged their brands for decades.

When they came to the government for a bailout, the right course of action would have been to give them nothing and tell them to do what they are doing now. Some of their brands do have value and could have been sold or spun off into a new entity so that shareholders did not have to lose everything and could have tranferred shares to a new entity. Less people would have lost jobs compared to the number of people losing jobs as a result of failed bailouts.

Now you have a company held together by the government (much the same way it was done in socialist countries) and coming out of bankruptcy with much of the same problems they had before.

By: Surfered

Surfered — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:56:32 +0000

Anyone owning debt of GM or Chrysler at the end needed to be removed from the gene pool anyway. It’s not like you couldn’t see this day coming for a long time. This is no different than complaining about the debt of the blacksmith industry not being repaid.

By: Sammie

Sammie — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 18:15:45 +0000

Sooner or later some of those people will wake up.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/market-overview/update–circuit-court-agrees-hear-chrysler-sale-appeal/?test=latestnews

By: Betsy Buzz Ross Latte

Betsy Buzz Ross Latte — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 18:09:00 +0000

Stimulating Obama’s dream of socialism? Um, stimulating the takeover of private sector business by big government? Remember how well that worked at the Mustang Ranch in Nevada?

It certainly seems to be having the opposite effect of what Obama portrayed it would do. But, what can be expected of dear leader?

By: HC123

HC123 — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 18:04:56 +0000

You know, I had coffee this morning at a bookstore near me.

I saw a Prius with a “Question Authority” bumper sticker. It also had a couple Obama stickers (one in hebrew), a Coexist sign and a Save the Earth logo.

This Prius was parked on Park Service lands, on some trees that shade a creek that feeds Rock Creek and is part of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.

Nobody in the bookstore coffee shop was “Questioning Authority” now that their team “won”. They really seemed to think the current string of events was fine, or somehow Bush/Cheney were to blame (what can Obama do? he inherited a mess!). And anyway who really cares about politics.

Nor do any of them apparently care for the environment, beyond buying a Prius and using it to tear up some forest.

Personal responsibility, not so much. Question Authority, yeah, right.

By: Sammie

Sammie — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:48:57 +0000

Some people are questioning, but they don’t seem to get any exposure, and they seem to get shut down pretty quickly. Just look at how fast the cases against both the Chrysler and GM bankruptcies were shut down (although I believe Indiana may take their case further).

By: Lily

Lily — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:04:27 +0000

I read everyone of Larry Doyle’s articles, but rarely comment because the US financial system is so obscure to me. It doesn’t help that those in authority seem to want it to be that way. I had to read this article again after reading the comments to understand just what happened. It seems that the Obama administration changed the rules in mid-air and paid off the unions at the expense of, not just individuals, but institutions, who thought they were playing by another set of rules. That part doesn’t surprise me. I firmly believe that this administration is at least the equal of the previous administration, if not worse, in terms of being downright deceptive, meaning evil. I am not so much horrified by the lack of public response as I am by the lack of opposition from people who should know better, starting with the US Congress, and the total, absolute decay and corruption of the media.

By: Docelder

Docelder — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 16:21:59 +0000

I guess people should have qualified “stimulus”… You know stimulate what exactly? Of course qualifying the “change” would have also been a good idea in retrospect.

By: Doc99

Doc99 — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 16:19:22 +0000

It’s up to 16,000 jobs a day lost since the passage of the Stimulus Bill.

By: candymarl

candymarl — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 15:55:34 +0000

I watched a video of the treasurer of the state of Indiana who was very upset by the GM bankruptcy.

LD he echoed your sentiments. What was he going to tell the pensioners that he advised to invest in GM?

He was emphatic that he would never trust the government again and would be much more careful where he invested the retirees monies.

Do Obama and Geithner know, or even care, how many people they have hurt? I suspect the answer is no.