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just give the consumers an incentive to buy american instead, like a reduction of your taxable income by the MSRP of the vehicle purchased.
The Bush administration came to the rescue of the U.S. auto industry Friday, offering $17.4 billion in loans in exchange for concessions from the deeply troubled carmakers and their workers.
"Allowing the auto companies to collapse is not a responsible course of action," President Bush said, citing danger for the entire national economy as well as the carmakers. Bankruptcy, he said, would deal "an unacceptably painful blow to hardworking Americans" across the economy.
One official said $13.4 billion of the money would be available this month and next, $9.4 billion for General Motors Corp. and $4 billion for Chrysler LLC. Both companies have said they soon might be unable to pay their bills without federal help. Ford Motor Co. has said it does not need immediate help.
Bush said the rescue package demanded concessions similar to those outlined in a bailout plan that was approved by the House but rejected by the Senate a week ago. It would give the automakers three months to come up with restructuring plans to become viable companies.
If they fail to produce a plan by March 31, the automakers will be required to repay the loans, which they would find very difficult.
"The time to make hard decisions to become viable is now, or the only option will be bankruptcy," Bush said. "The automakers and unions must understand what is at stake and make hard decisions necessary to reform."
Bush's plan is designed to keep the auto industry running in the short term, passing the longer-range problem on to the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama.
The White House package is the lifeline desperately sought by U.S. automakers, who warned they were running out of money as the economy fell deeper into recession, car loans became scarce and consumers stopped shopping for cars.
The carmakers have announced extended holiday shutdowns. Chrysler is closing all 30 of its North American manufacturing plants for four weeks because of slumping sales; Ford will shut 10 North American assembly plants for an extra week in January, and General Motors will temporarily close 20 factories — many for the entire month of January — to cut vehicle production.
Bush said the auto manufactures have faced serious challenges for many years: burdensome costs, a shrinking share of the market and plunging profits. "In recent months, the global financial crisis has made these challenges even more severe," he said.
The president said that on the one hand, the government has a responsibility not to undermine the private enterprise system, yet on the other hand, it must safeguard the broader health and stability of the U.S. economy.
"If we were to allow the free market to take its course now, it would almost certainly lead to disorderly bankruptcy and liquidation for the automakers," he said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081219/...meltdown_autos
just give the consumers an incentive to buy american instead, like a reduction of your taxable income by the MSRP of the vehicle purchased.
why is that pretty much every other technology has advanced by light years? the car is the same effing thing it's always been: 4 wheels, a gas engine, and a transmission.
simplify the damn cars and stop loading them full of parts that you buy by the gross.
and the MSRP?......please.......stop suggesting what you think the car is worth.
Automobiles have advanced quite a bit, but this is like saying why hasn't the table advanced by light years. Do you see why?
automobiles can go a little faster, and have cool gadgets. That's about it. We should have cars that need no fuel whatsover by this point.
What machines comparable to automobiles currently operate on no fuel?
the bailout operates on no fuel.
I don't know of a machine comparable to an automobile: not a train, not a plane, not a boat, not a bike, not a wagon, not a horse, not a canoe, not a shoe, not a cart.
sorry, been reading dr. seuss to the kid lately.
The notion that the internal combustion engine is as far as auto vehicular evolution will carry us is obviously absurd. These company's could have, should have and still should be doing a lot more in terms of electric/Hydrogen vehicles. I'm sorry, but when I see a small startup like Tesla build an entirely electric car, on the relative cheap, that is as fast as a Porche 911, it makes me question just what the it is the big three have been focusing on. But if they (Detroit) were to build a solid electric car, given that they're American, I'd still be inclined to support them. I really hope they get their together.
I wish this money would have come out of the financial bailout; . I hope one of the concessions we got out of this deal will be that GM and Chrysler can no longer ship American jobs to Mexico.
Relatively cheap?
The Tesla was built on a sporty Lotus Elise chassis and body. This car starts at above $47,000. You cannot just take the chassis of a $16,000 car and make it economically viable for the consumer with Tesla type parts. It would cost too much for the common buyers. In the case of the Tesla, it is built as a high end vehicle. Only people with the ability to pat the approximate $100,000 are buying them. Outside the Lotus chassis, on a regular car, it would probable cost about $65,000, for something like a Focus. Who's going to buy that over a $16,000 car?
Unique top end porformance is the key here.
The Chevy Volt seems promising... assuming they can get it out in time. Unfortunately, the battery is what is keeping it somewhat on the expensive side. If the US can make them cheaper, it'd be easier for US automotive companies to get electric cars on the road. Unfortunately, the Big 3 did wait a few years too long for the shift, but they understand that now. If they can get the batteries they need (and if they can shake some of the heavy union influence), they'd be more than able to compete with the foreign car companies with factories in the US....
Yeah! A world without banks would be awesome!
. I hope one of the concessions we got out of this deal will be that GM and Chrysler can no longer ship American jobs to Mexico.
I'm sure you are also preoccupied about those jobs Toyota, Honda, Mercedes and other foreign automakers give to Amercians . . .
LMAO. The bailout has been such a raging success.
I'm sure you are also preoccupied about those jobs Toyota, Honda, Mercedes and other foreign automakers give to Amercians . . .
You can't seriously think free money with no strings attached is a good plan. Then again, maybe you do with your hard-on for the previously mentioned worst fleecing of the American taxpayer in the nation's history.
LMAO if you think the bailout's results will be seen in two months.
It takes years, dude. How long did it take the New Deal to help the US overcome the last depression?
You can't seriously think free money with no strings attached is a good plan.
I don't. I never said I did. I just commented on you crying about "American" jobs being shipped overseas when "Japanese" or "German" jobs are also being shipped to America, in detriment of "their" workers in favor of Americanos.
Then again, maybe you do with your hard-on for the previously mentioned worst fleecing of the American taxpayer in the nation's history.
Taxpayers enjoyed the party . . . for a ing long time.
If is funny to continue to read about people thinking they had nothing to do with what is going on.
Yeah . . . it is all Wall Street's fault
Yeah, it was the American worker who shot himself and his nation in the face with speculation.Taxpayers enjoyed the party . . . for a ing long time.
If is funny to continue to read about people thinking they had nothing to do with what is going on.
Yeah . . . it is all Wall Street's fault
I know I hung myself with with the ability to hedge my money on a particular loan failing in hopes of collecting the insured note/bond/bill whatever you call it.
Too many people fail to realize that the goings on in "Wall Street" were 10 times worse than the forclosure itself. ES had a nice post about the ability to hedge your money on the hope that a high risk mortgage would fail because the insurance would make you thousands if not millions.
Wall Street made the foreclosure crisis a million times excuse me a trillion times worse than it could have been. Sorry smeagol BB's got you on this one.
The American working public is catching the blame for living outside their means when it was greedy money humpers grabbing all they can that ed us over in the first place. Now that they took the banking industry to its knees the big 3 are suffering and not entirely by their own hand because if the banks could lend the big 3 would need no bailout.
This is what I'm refering to. Your working America failing to live within their means is only a minor drop in the ocean of destruction.
Financial products called mortgage-backed securities (MBS), which derive their value from mortgage payments and housing prices, had enabled financial ins utions and investors around the world to invest in the U.S. housing market. Major banks and financial ins utions had borrowed and invested heavily in MBS and reported losses of approximately US$435 billion as of 17 July 2008
Mortgage-backed securities (MBS) are debt obligations that represent claims to the cash flows from pools of mortgage loans, most commonly on residential property. Mortgage loans are purchased from banks, mortgage companies, and other originators and then assembled into pools by a governmental, quasi-governmental, or private en y. The en y then issues securities that represent claims on the principal and interest payments made by borrowers on the loans in the pool, a process known as securitization.
"Chevy Volt seems promising"
not for $40K
I'm not digging up the article but the technology is there to build an affordable 20-25kish electric car.
Two problems
Top Speed/longevity of use which puts a top speed around 60mph at a little over two hours. The first is below some legal limits the second isn't long enough to make a reasonable day out in town.
You'd be crazy to think that its just a matter of making something. Oil companies have a tremendous amount of lobbying power. Electric cars do nothing for them.
Living beyond your means is exactly the root of the problem. And that is what Americans (and many people around the world) have been doing for 20 years. And for the last 10, with the housing bubble and cheap financing for any durable good (cars, TVs, computers, you name it), things got out of hand.
Wall Street did compound the problem. But the average Joe is not blameless. BB seems to think so, because it is always easy and convinient to find a party to blame when all breaks lose.
Thanks for putting words in my mouth. Wall Street is pretty obviously the main reason our economy is trashed. Your argument is akin to blaming kids for teasing each other when one of them gets pissed and brings his gauge and shoots up the school.
My argument is nothing like the one you present, unless you feel American grown ups with lots of debt = kids with guns.
Ahh . . . and don't forget the regulators (Governmemt). They have been sleeping at the wheel for a while (see the latest case: "Maddoff dupes everybody since the 70s").
Well, I think you simplify things too much there. First of all, nobody wants a $25,000 car the size of the Smart Car that has the limitations you mention. If the market was there, it would be built and sold.
Then there is the reality that these energy companies would like to see more Natural Gas power plants built. Something that would likely occur with a larger usage of electricity. Supply and demand would sharply raise the price of natural gas.
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