Bush bails out US automakers:
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/1...o-bailout.html

http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/19/news...ex.htm?cnn=yes

"Bush said the "more responsible option" is to provide short-term loans to give the companies time to either restructure, or set up the legal and financial frameworks necessary to declare bankruptcy."

This seems like a serious double-negative. If the short-term loans are used for "restructuring" and it fails, the automakers will be in the same position they were in before the loan, resulting in just as bad of a bankruptcy, only this time owing billions more..

And if the automakers use the funds for a smooth bankruptcy, how will they ever be supposed to pay back this "loan"? From liquidations and such?

Does this make sense to anyone?

I called it.

You're missing the point. That doesn't change the fact that you rag on cheap subcompacts all the time and yet your DD is not, say, a '78 Ford Thunderbird or an '86 Crown Vic.

You're the worst kind of person. :)

w00tage page 8.

Why thank you.

Understand by "shitty Honda" I meant MY shitty Honda.

Huh? I rag on Fits and Aveos and all of a sudden you think I should be driving a Crown Vic? Holy taking things out of proportion batman!

There are plenty of cars in between land yachts and jellybeanmobiles that I would have no problems driving.

Can we get back to discussing GM and other economic issues?

Sure. This bailout for GM and Chrysler seems totally pointless. It's pretty much only enough money to get GM through an extra month... I wonder how long they will keep stringing them along.

Dustin I agree. As I wondered on the bottom of page 7, I couldn't help but think how more money could help. The problem is how they can't make more money..

As I mentioned, Bush announced that the money could be used for a civil Bankruptcy process but there is no way they will take the money then file for bankruptcy right?

They're just going to use the cash and have just as hard of a time mid 09. Besides, a great portion of that bailout money went to end of year expenses...

Sure. Fuck them. :)

My company just laid off 621 people, mostly due to the harsh economic times. CanWest/Global laid off 600+ people about a month ago. Those of us who kept our jobs have had to say good-bye to this year's profit sharing cheque and our annual raise. (Thank god I bargained for enough $$ when I got hired to not let that bother me).

Where's our bailout package? Nowhere. And why? 'Cuz it's the nature of the game. Some years you do well and you can afford to hire more people and reward them with bonuses and profit-sharing cheques. Other years you get fucked. Some survive this, others don't.

With companies of every kind going through this process, why are we bottle-feeding the automotive industry? What makes them so special? I don't care if they're bigger...it's not like other companies are getting proportionate bailouts. I'm sure if we got a proportional bailout ($/employee) on par with what they're giving the Big Three, we wouldn't have had to lay anyone off either.

I find it interesting people are making a big deal about two automakers in the US getting 18 billion from the US government. What about the other companies in the US that are getting the rest of the 700 Billion??

The 700 billion bailout is just even too ridiculous even to discuss... it's just so unreal...

There was a good article on CNN yesterday that I forgot to link to, but it was talking about being "too big to fall", and how North America is going exactly through the same thing that South Korea did in the late 90's. It was seen in Korea that Daewoo corporation (4th largest business in Korea) was too big to fall. That if they went bankrupt, hundreds of thousands of jobs would be lost, the whole system would collapse, etc etc. There was a big push for a bailout, but it didn't go through. So Daewoo went bankrupt, and things were bad, but not nearly as bad as everyone predicted. They actually got much better quite quickly because there wasn't this dinosaur company lying around.

Yeah, because Daewoo was bought by GM.

GM only bought a portion of Daewoo. Daewoo owned restaurants, hotels, electronics companies, real estate, shipping companies, etc etc.

They shouldn't get it either :)

As far as car "realiability" goes.

Cars are only as reliable as their drivers. Some cars handle abuse and neglect better then others (old civics for example, I had one guy brag that he drove it years without an oil change and it still ran.. w/e, alot a cars where like that. alot still are.

Anyway, cars where originally build to last, and nowadays they arn't. They are build to last a set amount of years because they are supposed to be consumable. The only car I know of that was build to last "forever" was the DMC DeLorian.

but thats just my two cents

Because of its stainless steel panels and fiber-glass body?

You do know that you just contradicted yourself there, right?

can't tell with all the gas tank bullshit if this was posted, so here you go:

Canada adds $4 billion bailout: http://www.autoblog.com/2008/12/21/c...o-aid-package/

It doesn't say specifically in that write up, but I sure hope none of that money is going across the border, but rather stays in Canada just for the factories etc.

WOW

why would Canadian tax payer would want to help out the Big 3 by wasting $4 billion?

I've seen so many news how Big 3's condition is critical now, $4 billion would only extend their life by couple weeks or months. It's clear that sooner or later, they'll be asking more money.
Also the US government should be doing this, not the Canadian.

I think the government should use that money for Canadian industry, or give the money to people who get lay offs, just for an allowance.

don't worry, they will be asking $1,000 billion. ( or $1 trillion) bailout not very far future :)

seriously tho, I think spending any more money on the Big 3 is useless.
I mean, those billions of $ spent on the Big 3, was that truly the best way to recover from the economy? Was there no options left other than keep spending the money on the Big 3 bailout?
I think the situation is really going nowhere. Spending billions of $ just so that they can servive a bit longer? What's after that?

Ford isn't asking for money right? Perhaps we shouldn't say big 3