BZ
Truth illustrated by an ever-expanding list:
Category Archives: Bailouts
General Motors pushing U.S. to sell stake: Obama Administration says NO
From the Wall Street Journal’s Market Watch:
By William Spain
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — The Treasury Department is resisting General Motors’ push for the government to sell off its stake in the auto maker, The Wall Street Journal reports. Following a $50 billion bailout in 2009, the U.S. taxpayers now own almost 27% of the company. But the newspaper said GM executives are now chafing at that, saying it hurts the company’s reputation and its ability to attract top talent due to pay restrictions. Earlier this year, GM GM +0.10% presented a plan to repurchase 200 million of the 500 million shares the U.S. holds with the balance being sold via a public offering. But officials at the Treasury Department were not interested as selling now would lead to a multibillion dollar loss for the government, the newspaper noted.
See the full article here.
The Chevrolet Volt is a lie. GM’s market share is falling. Production of the Volt has stopped — again. The federal government is the current largest purchaser of GM products. Imagine that.
You see, ladies and gentlemen, this is what you get when you climb into bed with a rattlesnake. Sooner or later it will bite you, no matter your “good intentions” or what you “feel” in terms of emotions. Rattlesnakes cannot change their nature. Neither can the federal government, unless you choke it within an inch of its life.
My own law enforcement department has not learned this lesson and I doubt that, with the current crop of administrators and those growing up absent my corruptive influence, it ever will. We are Money Whores for the federal government. A disturbing bulk of law enforcement is whoring itself for federal dollars.
So few persons and entities and agencies and states understand the concept that, when you take federal dollars, you are OWNED. GM is just now beginning to understand the fool’s notion that somehow its results would somehow be different.
Those persons, agencies, entities or states who refuse federal dollars and refuse to whore themselves out — they are the ones worthy of admiration and respect.
Finally: despite this, GM needs to collapse if for no other reason than their administrators failed to see this conclusion coming. So apparently, yes, they are that politically and managerially ignorant. This in itself should keep America from purchasing GM cars until the entire top changes.
The government does not “own” me.
BZ
Obama & Bernanke: the definition of insanity
Let’s see if I can follow this, from — of all places — CNBC:
Fed Pulls Trigger, to Buy Mortgages in Effort to Lower Rates
The Federal Reserve fulfilled expectations of more stimulus for the faltering economy, taking aim now at driving down mortgage rates until an improvement in unemployment that the central bank says will be a problem for several years.
Let’s see:
QE1 didn’t work.
QE2 didn’t work.
What to do? That’s right, QE3!
Then, on top of that, let’s leave QE3 completely “open ended“!
Brilliant!
What’s that definition of insanity, again?
BZ
P.S.
Thank you ever so kindly for guaranteeing another recession, coneheads. Businesses aren’t hiring and the economy isn’t moving because the interest rates are too high, you idiots! Businesses aren’t hiring because there’s little demand, they are over-regulated and taxed, fear ObamaKare and fear CapNTax! Businesses want stability, not uncertainty!
Obama: “Let’s repeat auto industry success with every manufacturing industry.”
Sometimes Mr Obama is so incredibly, ridiculously obtuse and trenchant that he becomes nothing more than a parody of himself, and this is clearly one of those times.
I don’t even have to ask you the question, I’ll simply provide you with the answer up front: YES, Mr Obama IS this stupid.
From Politico.com:
PUEBLO, Colo. – President Obama, while villifying Mitt Romney for opposing the auto industry bailout, bragged about the success of his decision to provide government assistance and said he now wants to see every manufacturing industry come roaring back.
“I said, I believe in American workers, I believe in this American industry, and now the American auto industry has come roaring back,” he said. “Now I want to do the same thing with manufacturing jobs, not just in the auto industry, but in every industry.
“I don’t want those jobs taking root in places like China, I want those jobs taking root in places like Pueblo,” Obama told a crowd gathered for a campaign rally at the Palace of Agriculture at the Colorado State Fairgrounds here.
The proof:
Obama: “And GM is number one again.”
Really, Mr Obama? Let there be NO mistake: that would fall into the category of a bald-faced LIE.
Here’s the truth:
You know who came roaring back — but in truth never left? Why yes, that would be the Ford Motor Company, as they didn’t take a DIME of Mr Obama’s money. Because of this, does Mr Obama support and promote Ford?
No. Not Ford. GM.
Chrysler, in the meantime, was abandoned by Daimler and then purchased by Fiat.
Remember the dealerships? Remember the dealerships completely kicked to the curb? Remember the resulting hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of dealership employees and salesmen and service personnel who got kicked to the curb?
In fact, RACE played a role in the closure of dealerships:
The Obama administration, already under fire for unprecedented allegations of racial bias, faces a new bias claim from a most unlikely source: one of the administration’s own inspectors general.
Decisions on which car dealerships to close as part of the auto industry bailout — closures the Obama administration forced on General Motors and Chrysler — were based in part on race and gender, according to a report by Troubled Asset Relief Program Special Inspector General Neal M. Barofsky.
[D]ealerships were retained because they were recently appointed, were key wholesale parts dealers, or were minority- or woman-owned dealerships. [Emphasis added.]
Thus, to meet numbers forced on them by the Obama administration, General Motors and Chrysler were forced to shutter other, potentially more viable, dealerships. The livelihood of potentially tens of thousands of families was thus eliminated simply because their dealerships were not minority- or woman-owned.
Somehow, conveniently, we seem to have forgotten these recent times so that we might hoist the Pretending Black Man into another presidential term.
Let’s talk about the Chevrolet Volt. The car that won’t sell. No matter the incentive. Because it won’t run more than 30 miles on its batteries. GM Volt purchases made by government?
Let’s talk about the mass purchases made by your federal government of GM. Because GM is protected and supported by the Obama administration.
Let’s talk about GM selling the fewest number of cars this year.
And about its June sales: to mostly FEDERAL agencies:
General Motors announced this month its auto sales increased by 16 percent in June, its best monthly sales gain since 2008. Considering all the company has been through, and the fact that it still owes taxpayers approximately $25 billion in TARP repayments, a 16 percent boost in sales sounds like good news, right?
Who knows? With consumers buying up all these cars, maybe GM can reestablish itself as an auto heavyweight, shareholders will finally get to see a return on their investments, and President Obama will have something to brag about on the campaign trail.
Not so fast.
As it turns out, there’s a big reason GM experienced an increase in sales last month: “government purchases of GM vehicles rose a whopping 79% in June,” according to the National Legal and Policy Center’s Mark Modica.
Seriously?
“Overall fleet sales (which are typically less profitable than retail sales) at Government Motors rose a full 36% for the month, helping to drive decent sales improvements year over year,” Modica reports.
GM now offers “financing” to sub-prime buyers.
Worst cars, worst financing?
To enable our predicament to occur all over again?
BZ