P
politicoswizzlestick
Guest
There is a growing sentiment that for the auto industry to get a bailout, the taxpayers will want blood --- all 3 CEO's fired.
I think that is very shortsighted as Ford's CEO took over the company fairly recently after it was near collapse and has already sold off a bunch of holdings in anticipation of a downturn to help their cash flow through the coming year to allow them to reach their 2010 effiecient small car rollout. For this reason, they are in the best money situation of any of the big 3. In other words their CEO has already done what we would have demanded of him. Chrysler and GM's CEO's were the ones who totally did not anticipate this VERY predictable economic downturn.
As someone who beleives in Ford's CEO, so much so that I invested money in Ford shares in the last month (not more than I can afford to lose though
), I encourage my fellow investors to hang tough with our CEO. If GM fails in December, that will be enough to push the country into a pronounced depression. (Not another "Great Depression", but at least a honest to gosh Depression....I mean come on, what do you think happens if 10% of the workforce --- mostly middle-class ---suddenly goes on unemployment and welfare? Sales in everything will drop and more jobs will be cut. No one is loaning money, so that will just spiral down more and more.) At that point the voters will overreact and demand a gov't bailout for the surviving American Auto Manufacturers. Obama is for it, so you know it will happen. Ford would be the likely recepient of that overcorrection and could get $50B in government loans on their own and buy key chunks of GM for nothing in time to save a ton of American jobs. (Now mind you, a LOT of Americans will lose their jobs, car prices will spike up, part prices will skyrocket and many parts will become hard to get, and most new car sales revenue will go overseas, but at least the only competent auto manufacturer will be keeping some of those middle class jobs around long term.)
While I think I'll be fine in any scenario --- ford has cash to last another 7+ months and Obama has said he will bail out the auto companies when he is in office --- I would frankly rather see my fellow Americans who have the misfortune in having jobs that are even tangentially based on the health of GM and Chrysler still employed on Christmas day.
It is amazing that after letting Paulson give away 350B with no oversight and seeing the Fed spread a similar amount around, America is willing to role the dice on another great depression over a comparatively measley $50B. Crazy.
I think that is very shortsighted as Ford's CEO took over the company fairly recently after it was near collapse and has already sold off a bunch of holdings in anticipation of a downturn to help their cash flow through the coming year to allow them to reach their 2010 effiecient small car rollout. For this reason, they are in the best money situation of any of the big 3. In other words their CEO has already done what we would have demanded of him. Chrysler and GM's CEO's were the ones who totally did not anticipate this VERY predictable economic downturn.
As someone who beleives in Ford's CEO, so much so that I invested money in Ford shares in the last month (not more than I can afford to lose though
), I encourage my fellow investors to hang tough with our CEO. If GM fails in December, that will be enough to push the country into a pronounced depression. (Not another "Great Depression", but at least a honest to gosh Depression....I mean come on, what do you think happens if 10% of the workforce --- mostly middle-class ---suddenly goes on unemployment and welfare? Sales in everything will drop and more jobs will be cut. No one is loaning money, so that will just spiral down more and more.) At that point the voters will overreact and demand a gov't bailout for the surviving American Auto Manufacturers. Obama is for it, so you know it will happen. Ford would be the likely recepient of that overcorrection and could get $50B in government loans on their own and buy key chunks of GM for nothing in time to save a ton of American jobs. (Now mind you, a LOT of Americans will lose their jobs, car prices will spike up, part prices will skyrocket and many parts will become hard to get, and most new car sales revenue will go overseas, but at least the only competent auto manufacturer will be keeping some of those middle class jobs around long term.)While I think I'll be fine in any scenario --- ford has cash to last another 7+ months and Obama has said he will bail out the auto companies when he is in office --- I would frankly rather see my fellow Americans who have the misfortune in having jobs that are even tangentially based on the health of GM and Chrysler still employed on Christmas day.
It is amazing that after letting Paulson give away 350B with no oversight and seeing the Fed spread a similar amount around, America is willing to role the dice on another great depression over a comparatively measley $50B. Crazy.