[Revi]

Why are we bailing out the finance wing of a defunct car company that makes a bunch of crappy cars that nobody wants anyway?

Am I missing something?

Isn't capitalism supposed to let these dinosaurs die?

[IslandCrow]

They just got fined in the UK for their housing action--- this should not help their financing, altough the amounts are still small in terms of the total bailout they have got.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he GMAC-RFC mortgage lender has been fined £2.8m by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) for mistreating customers who fell into arrears.

It has also been told to repay £7.7m, plus interest, to 46,000 of its borrowers.

The FSA said the company levied unfair charges on borrowers who fell behind with their repayments and was too eager to repossess them.

[WyoDutch]

You think maybe the money could be better spent?
.
How about we give it to the CIA... they could put more of Karzai's relatives on the payroll.
.
Another Billion for Colombia?
.
How 'bout instead of giving Israel a paltry $3,000,000,000 this year... we raise it to $10,000,000,000?
.
The banksters could use a bigger year-end bonus.

[WyoDutch]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Revi', 'W')hy are we bailing out the finance wing of a defunct car company that makes a bunch of crappy cars that nobody wants anyway?

[mcgowanjm]

Credit is being pulled across the board. They need your money. bad.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')hy are we bailing out the finance wing of a defunct car company that makes a bunch of crappy cars that nobody wants anyway?

[emersonbiggins]

The image demonstrates that there is no true "free market" for housing, despite popular belief.

The housing project on the left is correctly identified as government-subsidized high-density housing.

The housing project on the right will often be identified as the "natural outcome of the market," but everything from the $8,000 IRS tax credit for homes to the fact that FNM/FMC represents some 2/3rds of the mortgage market demonstrates otherwise. Thus, it gets the moniker: capitalism with an asterisk. It's like socialism, but performed using carrots, rather than sticks. And who doesn't like carrots?

Disclaimer: neither one is necessarily bad, but I would argue the one on the right is more insidious, with the masses pretending that it is something that it is not.

[note to self: find a way to connect the dots using the least amount of words. Clearly, I have failed here.]

[shortonsense]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('WyoDutch', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Revi', 'W')hy are we bailing out the finance wing of a defunct car company that makes a bunch of crappy cars that nobody wants anyway?

[neocone]

With all that money there could be some sort of manned permanent presence on Mars, thus guaranteeing the survival of the species if a cataclysm wipes us out here.

Plus those guys would need to have a self sufficient-low energy use society from the ground up. No treasure in the basement on that barren planet...

I would agree a permanent manned presence on Titan would be more interesting though... More Earth-like weather even if quite a bit colder.

[Denny]

I heard the good news yesterday that GM will start repaying the loans from the US and Canadian governments real soon. They hope to return to the US taxpayer $6.7 billion over the next two years. (Still, some strange bookkeeping, as they actually had an operating loss last quarter, but lets not complain about trivial things like that, as long as money if flowing from them to the public.)

But wait, wasn't it $50 Billion plus in loans? Well, it turns out those all got downsized with Chapter 11. Out of $50 billion advanced, the debt is now down to under $9 billion. How convenient. And, how stupid of us! But, we have all those shares now in that great company (and some in Chrysler too.)

If we have such a sweet spot for GM and Chrysler and the big banks, how about ABC Construction that went out of business last July and left my son high and dry, owing him seven weeks back wages? Why not free money for everybody? If we really want to stimulate the economy I mean.

[deMolay]

The Taxpayers now own the majority of GMAC. Another 3.8B to Hep them out. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... s_business

[frankthetank]

Fellow comrades, when do we get our marching orders?

[PrestonSturges]

Uppity Negro Marxist President wants to nationalize industries?

Or............

Our CEO gods of capitalism are too freaking lazy to actually keep their companies afloat or make products anyone wants?

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PrestonSturges', 'U')ppity Negro Marxist President wants to nationalize industries?

[PrestonSturges]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PrestonSturges', 'U')ppity Negro Marxist President wants to nationalize industries?

[Pretorian]

Preston how much did you give him, 2 grand? Would you give him 2 grand if he wasnt a Mulatto/Negro?

[PrestonSturges]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pretorian', 'P')reston how much did you give him, 2 grand? Would you give him 2 grand if he wasnt a Mulatto/Negro?

[Revi]

Just so I understand. We are taking a majority stake in the company that finances the car company that we have a majority stake in.

We make the cars nobody wants and have taxpayers pay for the financing of them?

Why?

Can't we just pay the carmakers not to make the things and then give people loans to buy something that they really do actually want?

Like a rock.

[vampyregirl]

I am reading reports that GM will begin selling Chinese Geely cars in North America either this year or next. Has Geely bought into GM? I know they recently bought Volvo from Ford but wasn't aware of a partnership with GM.

[perdition79]

When a Geely car breaks down, will a mechanic simply search the undercarriage for a gold foil sticker that reads "Made in China" and toss the car into a dumpster, or will he actually fix the car?

[eastbay]

How rude! It ain't quite at Toyota's production numbers, but Geely is producing around 1,000 new cars per day and I suspect their quality is as good or better than that of many car makers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geely


10 years ago they were producing 1000 cars per month! So they're quickly catching on.