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Detroit, 7:06 PM
Sat Nov 21
14 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/19/09
11/19/09
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11/19/09
Kind of like when you couldn't make rent right after you finished college, and scared your parents into lending you $1,500. But you didn't tell them that you spent $400 of this on concert tickets and beer, and when you paid them back $200 early it was just so that they'd forget about the remainder.
11/20/09
#tips
11/19/09
11/19/09
Let's assume that the profit on the materials can outpace the facility overhead cost, and break it down to where all losses are associated with personnel, both labor and administration.
Let us furthermore assume that the taxpayer funded loan was a gift, and that none of it will come back.
Then, let us assume that the funds remained within North America.
With approximately 112,000 employees in North America, 8.6 billion dollars works out to $76,785 per worker that the taxpayers have spent.
Fire them all, and give me back my money. All $30 of it ($8.6 billion divided by the current US population of 300 million is only $28.67; The $1.33 is interest)
11/19/09
11/19/09
11/19/09
Also, faring, not fairing.
/grammarian
11/19/09
11/19/09
11/19/09
Hopefully, GM will learn the lesson and not stagnate. Next time, the taxpayers won't be so willing to hand over billions on a silver platter.
But then again, this isn't exactly the first time, either. Do we, as a species, ever learn?
11/19/09
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11/19/09
11/19/09
11/19/09
I quit building when it became more expensive to build one than to just buy a workstation off eBay.
11/19/09
Thomas D. Hopkins is Professor of Economics at Rochester Institute of Technology. He served as Dean of the College of Business 1998-2005 and as President, U.S. Business School in Prague, Czech Republic, an RIT MBA program where he taught 1992-98. He was the Arthur J. Gosnell Professor of Economics in RIT's College of Liberal Arts, 1988-98. Hopkins held senior management positions in two White House agencies during the Ford, Carter and Reagan Administrations; in 1979 President Carter appointed him a charter member of the federal government's Senior Executive Service. In the early 1980s, he served as Deputy Administrator, Office of Information & Regulatory Affairs, in the Office of Management & Budget. His research on business burdens of government regulation has been sponsored by the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) in Paris and the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) in Washington. He has testified on regulatory policy issues before committees of the U.S. Senate and House, and Canada's House of Commons. He co-authored a 2001 SBA report, "The Impact of Regulatory Costs on Small Firms," as well as National Research Council reports on marine transportation, the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and trucking/rail/barge transportation. He previously was on the faculty of American University, University of Maryland, and Bowdoin College.
Yeah, sounds like a total moron.
11/19/09
06/19/09
Right after the disaster on Sept 11, 2001, the nation took a body blow to it's national pride, but did we all come together, to tighten our belts, stay focused, and go after the real enemies of the country? NO, we were all asked to go shopping.
And so the first 0% financing scheme was hatched, and this brought droves of shoppers into the showrooms. We were already heading for some sort of a recession back in 2000, and 0.9% financing was available, but this scheme was like no other, pulling forward the buying cycle of many consumers.
When 0% financing started to fade, the large cash rebates were tried on the buying public, and they responded in a big way in 2003, pulling in further the normal buying cycle of those consumers. On top of huge cash promotions, there was a little known tax write off for trucks (and SUV's) purchased by businesses, in which they could write off 100% of the purchase toward their taxes. Land Rover produced a spiffy pamphlet showing how to take advantage of the tax loophole, even going so far as how to create your own LLC or LLP.
This too was starting to sow, so Voila, Employee Pricing was tried during the summer 2005 selling season, and once again, it pulled in buyers pre-maturely so that they can get "the deal". GM Started it, with Ford and Chrysler following, and they wiped out all of the 2005 inventory.
So what worked in the past isn't working now, and the big reason is that everyone who could but a car, has a reasonably new car now, and with the double whammy of last summers high fuel prices, and no credit, we are at a more reasonable 8 or 9 million vehicle production level, not an artificial 15 to 17 million level.
Now we have this bill, and quite frankly, it creates an artificial demand (again). I say let sleeping dogs lie, and it will work out (in about 3 years). We are just postponing the inevitable.
06/19/09
06/19/09
Also, I yield to motorcycles. Another advantage for you.
06/19/09
06/19/09
There is an official gov site that lists EPA gas mileage. I'd assume they are using the new EPA estimates.
[www.fueleconomy.gov]
06/19/09
In other word they could have just said: we will give back $4000 to the first 250'0000 people willing to trade in that show up at a dealership, starting now and it would have been just as random.
06/19/09
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06/19/09