Remember All the GM Bailout Money?

[Norm357]

You couldn't pay me to drive a obamamotors vehicle.

[ChesCopPodz]

I own two Fords. One, we haven't had long enough to form a good opinion on. We've ad our Explorer sine Sept 08. Zero problems, but it's been less than two years.

My 03 F150 on the other hand, I've owned since 2004. It's been in the shop twice, and only once for something that I blame the truck for. The brake calipers went within a week of having my brakes done at, what I found out later to be, a shady garage. Myself and the Ford dealership believe it was the garage I took it to's fault, but no way to prove it. It was under warranty still so I didn't lose out on any money.

Other than that one time in the garage for something that broke on it's own, my passenger side door locks are going.

I'll buy another F-150 when this one dies.

[Trip]

About GM investing in manufacturing in Mexico after being bailed out by American taxpayers?

How can that be? I'd go so far as to say most of the recipients of bailout money misused it in one way or another. AIG was a prime example. The US government gave the banks vast quantities of money with few, if any, restrictions on it's use.



I disagree. Many regulations were removed or modified to the point of being impotent. Ever heard of the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999, otherwise known as the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act? It repealed major provisions of Glass-Steagall Act of 1933. GLB allowed commercial banks to merge with investment banks and insurance companies, which allowed conglomerates like Citigroup to form, which would have been prohibited under Glass-Steagall. It allowed investment brokers to create and sell high-risk investment products to low-risk commercial banks. GLB is often high-lighted as one of the significant contributers of the subprime crisis.

What about the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000... another bill that Phil Gramm was a co-author. That one kept the derivatives market, including the market for credit default swaps, free of any government regulation. One provision of that bill allowed the Enron scandal to occur.



Want to see an easy to understand tutorial on what caused the subprime mortgage and subsequent global financial crisis? Check this out:

Subprime Primer or How did I End Up Paying For My Neighbors Home

A "CMO" is a collateralized mortgage obligation. There is an explanation here, but beware... it's as dry as a popcorn fart:

Collateralized mortgage obligation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



I disagreed with bailing out GM as well... at first. When the top execs showed up in Washington to plead their case before Congress, showing up via corporate jet, I wanted to vomit. Then I started to wonder what the ripple effect would be... all those employees, all the retirees who put their 35-40 years in, in good faith... all those parts and materials vendors, their employees, etc. The dealerships and their employees, etc. I just couldn't see allowing GM to fail completely.

I gree with the anti-trust issue. There used to be loads of oil companies around. Now, there's what... six majors, if that? We allow too many big companies to buy up smaller ones, killing competition. How's that for "free market" economy?

Finally had a chance to get back to this post. When I said there's nothing free market about what happened with GM, it's because GM for all intents and purposes was "nationalized." That is not a free market concept; it is a socialist concept. And anything that happens after nationalization (at least partial nationalization) is built on a very different foundation, no matter how much it has characteristics of market economics.

Regarding bailing GM out because of the people who would be hurt otherwise - that's been the excuse given by politicians for decades for failing to do the tough thing, which is to stop subsidizing these garganutuum companies that have made the kind of bad business decisions that would've put any other company out of business a long time ago. There are also innumerable creative ways to have helped the people who would've been hurt by not bailing GM out. Innumerable. I myself have been a huge advocate of very robust retraining programs....retraining programs that are serious and not like the ones we currently have. For example, in my area the plummers and mechanics and electricians charge rates that are out of this world because we don't have enough of them. There's a huge demand. I think we should stop acting like everyone has to go to college and elevate VoTech skills to a higher level of priority. Then there is the huge demand for people with technical skills that foreignors are filling. We need better crafted programs and better incentives to match supply to demand in areas that are growing, not in areas that even the Chinese will be pushing off to poor countries soon.

And for your primer.......that is outstanding. Great way to explain a complex issue. Only thing is that all those little stickmen assumed the system at a higher level was working, i.e. AAA ratings meant AAA ratings, so I'm not as cynical as the little power point show is, but for the most part, it was on the money, lol.

[Creeker]

As I've said before, I've been a GM man all of my life. My Grandad and Uncle sold Pontiac & GMC's @ their dealership in PA, where I worked as I was growing up.

Since the bailout, I've sworn them off.

I've never cared for Fords, as the truly nice ones have always seemed to ride like a truck to me.

Chrysler is Crap, IMHO.

We replaced my wifes Buick with a Honda. Built in Alabama.

When I replace my GMC, it will likely be with a Honda Pilot.