Big Dogs House

GM CEO Gets Lots Of Money For A Bad Job

Feb 20, 2010 Political

So can anyone tell me how it is that Obama and his radical minions are able to tell banks and financial institutions that received bailout money what their executive compensation can be but can’t do that for GM? Government Motors (formerly General Motors) received lots of taxpayer money and failed to pay it back but now its executives are getting big money.

General Motors Co. CEO Ed Whitacre will receive a salary of $1.7 million this year, plus stock awards that will bring his total pay package to $9 million at a later date, the automaker said Friday.

In a surprise announcement, GM also said former CEO Fritz Henderson has been rehired as a consultant. Henderson, who was forced out of the job in December, will work 20 hours a month and will be paid $59,090 a month, the company said. Yahoo

Obama and his buddies at ACORN can rail against executive pay and Barney Frank, the Banking Queen, can scream about limiting pay for executives of ALL companies but they seem to be silent over the huge CEO compensation at GM.

How can it be that Obama will scold CEOs for how much they make and tell us that those who ran the company into the ground should not be paid well (as if it is his decision to make) but his car company can spend money on huge executive compensation? How can that be?

Private companies in America need to tell Obama and Frank and the rest of the radicals in DC to mind their own damn business and to stay out of the private sector. The easiest way to do that is to stop ALL donations to politicians. After that a simple letter telling Congress and Obama to shut the hell up and mind their own business should suffice.

Government does not belong in private industry and if the pols in DC don’t like it then that is just too bad.

They keep screwing around and there are plenty of countries that are much less expensive to do business in.

How would members of Congress like to explain why a bunch of jobs in their districts and states went away because of government meddling?

No matter what, these people at GM do not deserve any of this money until the taxpayer is completely repaid. We own that company and we should get paid first. Of course, the rules are a little different for Obama and his supporters (like the UAW).

So let us do ourselves a favor and ignore GM. Don’t buy any of their vehicles and let’s put them out of business. They should have failed some time ago and we propped them up as Obama took them over. Now his CEO is getting big money.

Bankrupt them once and for all so they can go under and something else can take over.

Tags: compensation, gm, lies, Obama, regulation, socialism, wall street

Ford Refuses Bailout Money, Makes Profit

Jan 28, 2010 Political

Ford Motor Company was the only US big three auto maker to trun down the government’s offer of a bailout. The company was in financial trouble just as Chrysler and GM were but decided against taking taxpayer money.

GM and Chrysler took the money and their companies became government property with labor unions owning part of them. Neither has shown a profit and they both continue to bleed money. It is hard to see how they will survive and how taxpayers will ever get their money back (well, the banks will have to pay for it with a fee).

Ford showed a profit of $2.7 billion, its first annual profit in four years.

The company took action in the tough market and worked on a business plan that allowed it to make money, on its own and without politicians, (few of whom have business experience) running the show.

This is what happens when the free market is allowed to work. Ford would have failed on its own or succeeded on its own and that is how it should be. No business is too big to fail.

I don’t think that Congress will catch on and neither will the progressives because they do not care about success, they care about control.

I love my Jeep but will not buy another. I will not buy a vehicle from a company that took my tax dollars and I really don’t care if they go belly up. I will buy from a company that was responsible and did not take tax dollars.

Looking at the financial status of the big three, it looks like I am not the only one who feels that way.

Ford makes some nice SUVs…

Tags: bailouts, chrysler, ford, gm, government, taxpayers, unions

GM- Contract Law is Now a Handi- Wipe

May 31, 2009 Political

Yea, I know, another interminable piece on the Auto Industry, but this has wider implications than just your ride to work, or even what you drive. The bedrock of our legal system, at least when it comes to doing business in this country, as well as many other countries, is Contract Law.

A contract is an exchange of promises between two or more parties to do, or refrain from doing, an act, which resulting contract is enforceable in a court of law. It is a binding legal agreement. ^[1] That is to say, a contract is an exchange of promises for the breach of which the law will provide a remedy.

Agreement is said to be reached when an offer capable of immediate acceptance is met with a “mirror image” acceptance (ie, an unqualified acceptance). The parties must have the necessary capacity to contract and the contract must not be either trifling, indeterminate, impossible or illegal. Contract law is based on the principle expressed in the Latin phrasepacta sunt servanda (usually translated “pacts must be kept”, but more literally “agreements are to be kept”).^[2] Breach of contract is recognized by the law and remedies can be provided.

Technically, any oral agreement between two parties can constitute a binding legal contract. The practical limitation to this, however, is that only parties to a written agreement have material evidence (the written contract itself) to prove the actual terms uttered at the time the agreement was struck. In daily life, most contracts can be and are made orally, such as purchasing a book or a sandwich. Sometimes written contracts are required by either the parties, or by statutory law within various jurisdiction for certain types of agreement. For example when buying a house^[3] or land.

en.wikipedia.org

In plain language, the written contract trumps all else- unless kyou are the United States government intent on rewarding friends of those in power. In that case, contract law becomes null and void- or what ever the king says it is. 

In this case, the King and his diminutive jester, little Timmy Geithner, have declared that the unions, who supported the Chicago gangster in his bid to steal our country, have to be repaid, and now they have received not one, but two shiny car companies to play with, while the people who invested in GM and Chrysler have to stand in the back of the line, hat in hand.

I know that Barama and his party love class warfare- without it they wouldn’t have been elected- however, the facts are that these “big, greedy, Bond- holders” that the liberals love to demonize are holders of the same bonds that school teachers, pipefitters, and other, more mainstream workers have in their portfolios for their retirements, and now they are darn near worthless, all because Barama put the unions at  the head of the line.

And it’s not just that, although the breaking of contracts is as serious as a heart attack, legally- all of this could have been done six months ago, without all of our money going into a pit of no return- the sheer idiocy is shocking.

GM’s bondholders had a 5 p.m. Saturday deadline to accept an offer to swap their $27 billion in debt for at least a 10 percent stake in a new GM. If the Treasury doesn’t get the support it wants, bondholders could wind up with far less in bankruptcy court.

The Treasury Department had no immediate comment on the deadline passing, and GM spokesman Tom Wilkinson said the automaker did not plan to make any statements Saturday.

GM took a huge restructuring step Friday when the United Auto Workers union agreed to a cost-cutting deal, and early Saturday, Germany’s finance minister said a plan was approved for Canadian auto parts maker Magna International Inc. to move ahead with a rescue of GM’s Opel unit.

But there was still much to do to beat the government’s Monday deadline to qualify for more aid. The company already has received about $20 billion in government loans and could get $30 billion more to make it through what is expected to be a 60- to 90-day reorganization in bankruptcy court.

But there was still much to do to beat the government’s Monday deadline to qualify for more aid. The company already has received about $20 billion in government loans and could get $30 billion more to make it through what is expected to be a 60- to 90-day reorganization in bankruptcy court.

Houston Chronicle, Sunday  May 31, 2009

Over 50 billion dollars, and that is just GM that they are talking about. If we had had the bankruptcy in November, we could have saved this money, and the unions would have gotten what they deserved under the law- far less in the immediate future, but a possible future, at least. This way, they have a shiny toy they have no idea how to operate efficiently, nor will they have the time to learn on the go, because I am certainly reluctant to buy something that would be designed by the government, and bossed by the unions.

Unions are good at putting nuts on bolts (and even then they have robots to show them how and help. What unions are not good at is management- they are vastly unsuited to the task, as unions and management have been natural adversaries for as long as there have been unions. Oh what will they do when someone has that inevitable grievance- who will they demonize? The we did it to ourself scenario doesn’t play well with liberals who like to always deflect responsibility and blame- but with the unions in charge the buck’s gotta stop somewhere. Perhaps they’ll play a version of spin the bottle to see who to blame.

Meanwhile, the poor bondholders have to do as the government tells them to do- they have no options, unless they want to run into a buzz saw of governmental red tape that would make their life hell for the next five years or so. Wow, what a deal- this is certainly a day to remember, when your own government screws you out of the money  you are legally obligated to by law, but are denied because of crass, lowly, political favoritism dished out by a group of mafia wannabes in governmental guise. 

They’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse.

Tags: contract law, fraud, geithner, gm, thievery, unions

Wish in One Hand…

May 29, 2009 Political

My goodness, there was only one thing that Barama HAD to get right in his first one hundred days, and that was the housing crisis, and he hasn’t even come CLOSE to making a dent in the bad news. One has to wonder if they even know how, or perhaps they are too busy naming “czars” to realize that the rest of the country, who don’t have cushy jobs with free housing, free food, free limos, are losing first their jobs, and then their houses.

About 5.4 million of the country’s 45 million home loans were delinquent or in some stage of the foreclosure process in the first three months of the year, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. About 12.07 percent of all mortgages were delinquent or in foreclosure, up from 11.93 percent at the end of 2008.

Suspensions on foreclosures imposed by lenders and underwriters have mostly ended, and banks are moving quickly against homeowners who fall behind.

Housing specialists said the number of foreclosures would probably keep rising as more people lose jobs or are forced to trade full-time work for part time. Nearly six million jobs have been lost since the recession began a year and a half ago, and many economists expect unemployment to rise to 10 percent by next year, from 8.9 percent now.

More and more people are losing their homes simply because Barama has done nothing, except throw money away- the Chinese are appalled at the profligate behavior, specifically because they own most of our debt, and they do not want to  lose  their money. Money is serious business to them, and Barama’s mishandling of or nation’s finances horrifies them.

It’s not making us feel real good either. Five months into his reign- er , term, the situation has gone from bad to worse, as the Auto companies GM and Chrysler have gone bankrupt, AFTER receiving billions of dollars that are just GONE- we will never be able to recoup this money. We could have put these companies through the bankruptcies without all of that money disappearing. Now, even after giving control of these companies to the unions in a remarkable display of sheer idiocy- after all, unions are great at putting huts on bolts, but balance sheets are altogether different- these unions will survive, from the top down. Do any of you union people who will lose your jobs (and there’s an estimated 20,000 of you), truly think that any of the union bosses will lose THEIRS? Not in Barama’s world.

The wave of employment-driven foreclosures could pose new challenges for the Obama administration as it tries to stabilize falling housing values. In March, the administration outlined a multifaceted program that aims to help as many as nine million homeowners refinances mortgages and stay in their houses.

A group of economists at the Boston Federal Reserve said in a recent paper that foreclosure prevention programs could be more effective if they gave direct aid to struggling homeowners, rather than modified loans to reduce monthly payments.

The figures released Thursdaysuggested that prime fixed-rate loans were supplanting risky subprime loans and rising adjustable-rate mortgages as the force behind the foreclosure crisis.

Barama has been so concerned with doing as much as he can in a short time that he has done nothing effectively- it is possible to dilute any effectiveness by spreading it too thin, and that is what has been happening. Now, no one is satisfied, noone is better off, with the possible exception of union leaders and all the “czars”, with their fancy new titles, and do nothing jobs. So much tried to so LITTLE effect- an award for total incompetence should be called an “Obama”, but in this case, the entire administration can share in the shame of so utterly failing the American People.

Liberals love to point out that it was Bush who began this with the 350 billion that he spread out as the TARP funds, but that is now chump change, and this folly is fully Barama’s to own and enjoy. Boy oh boy, is he enjoying our discomfort now- he surely must, because he just keeps on piling on, using the mantra “Too Big To Fail”. Perhaps he can borrow Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” when he finally bankrupts this nation as seems to be his agenda.

They say when you find yourself in a hole, quit digging, but Barama just gets a bigger shovel- perhaps he’s digging his way to China.

That way it will be easier to go kowtow to them when asking for more money- after all we all know Barama must be “Too big to fail”- even if, in the end, nothing else is.

Tags: foreclosures, gm, monetary waste, unions

Taxpayers Will Get Screwed On Auto Maker Loans

May 19, 2009 Political

Just Like I said they would

I wrote before that the bailout of the major auto makers was only going to delay the inevitable and that they would eventually file for bankruptcy. I also wrote that when they filed for bankruptcy the bailout money they received would be lost forever because they would not have to pay it back. This was one of my arguments against bailing out any of them. It would appear as if I was right on the money.

GM is filing for bankruptcy and it hopes to sell off part of the company to a company that was owned, for a brief time, by the government. The plan will call for GM to give stakes in the new company to the union and the bondholders.

When a company files for bankruptcy it is supposed to reorganize and figure a way to restructure debt in order to pay creditors. Some of GM’s assets will stay in bankruptcy in order to satisfy any outstanding claims, except those of the US taxpayer. GM will not have to pay back most of the 15.4 BILLION dollars in loans it received from taxpayers because the government will forgive the loans. The US government is awfully generous with OUR money.

In addition, the government would extend a credit line to the new company and forgive the bulk of the $15.4 billion in emergency loans that the U.S. has already provided to GM, the source said. al-Reuters

In addition to forgiving the loans the government will extend a line of credit to GM. How nice, we will let them spend more of our money on credit. How long will it be before that is forgiven as well?

The government is supposed to be good stewards with our money. The taxpayer was forced to hand money over to GM and we should be protected. Those in private industry who invested in GM should take a hit before taxpayers because they had a choice and invested in order to make money. Their gamble did not pay off.

The government had no right to spend OUR money on a private company to begin with. They did so under the guise of it being a loan that would be repaid. Now the government is kissing that money goodbye. We have no chance now of ever getting it back, just as I stated. The Socialist government gave the unions and bondholders a 15.4 BILLION dollar gift because they get part of the company but will not be saddled with the debt the company incurred.

This should disgust everyone. I would like to see all incumbents voted out of office but at the very least every person who voted for the bailouts should be sent packing. People, this is 15.4 BILLION dollars of your money that the government decided to “forgive.” Do you suppose they will forgive your tax bill when it comes due?

As for GM, I will NEVER buy a GM product. I had stated before that I would not buy from a company that received bailout money and I will never buy from one that is owned by the union. I will certainly not buy from any company that raped the US taxpayer. Boycott GM and put them out of business.

Ford did not take bailout money. It pains me that Chrysler did because I own a Jeep and had planned on buying another in a few years (assuming you can still get them after the CAFE and global warming stupidity is added on) but now I will need to find another SUV.

Maybe someone will buy Jeep from Chrysler…

Tags: bailout, forgiven debt, gm, taxpayer