Oh To Work For Obama
Feb 24, 2010 Political
Barack Obama and his government own General Motors (or as GM now means, Government Motors). It must be nice to work for Obama:
After resigning as president and CEO of General Motors in December, Fritz Henderson might have gone into hiding or decided to sit out the harsh Michigan winter on a Florida beach.
Instead, here he is popping up again, this time as a consultant to GM on international operations at the very fancy fee of $59,090 a month for 20 hours of work a month. That works out to almost $3,000 an hour for a CEO who was ousted after just eight months on the job. Money.CNN
3000 dollars an hour is good work if you can get it. And where can I get a job where I get that kind of money and only have to work for 20 hours a month.
Yep, the government took over GM. Does anyone actually think it will make money? Not when it does stuff like this.
But the government is doing a good job bashing Toyota in order to help out GM. Talk about a conflict of interest…
[tip]If you enjoy what you read consider signing up to receive email notification of new posts. There are several options in the sidebar and I am sure you can find one that suits you. If you prefer, consider adding this site to your favorite feed reader. If you receive emails and wish to stop them follow the instructions included in the email.[/tip]
Tags: gm, high salary, Obama, stupidity, toyota
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.
[tip]If you enjoy what you read consider signing up to receive email notification of new posts. There are several options in the sidebar and I am sure you can find one that suits you. If you prefer, consider adding this site to your favorite feed reader. If you receive emails and wish to stop them follow the instructions included in the email.[/tip]
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.
[note]One could argue Ford benefited from the cash for clunkers program but all auto makers had equal access to that program[/note]
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…
[tip]If you enjoy what you read consider signing up to receive email notification of new posts. There are several options in the sidebar and I am sure you can find one that suits you. If you prefer, consider adding this site to your favorite feed reader. If you receive emails and wish to stop them follow the instructions included in the email.[/tip]
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.
[tip]If you enjoy what you read consider signing up to receive email notification of new posts. There are several options in the sidebar and I am sure you can find one that suits you. If you prefer, consider adding this site to your favorite feed reader. If you receive emails and wish to stop them follow the instructions included in the email.[/tip]
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.
[tip]If you enjoy what you read consider signing up to receive email notification of new posts. There are several options in the sidebar and I am sure you can find one that suits you. If you prefer, consider adding this site to your favorite feed reader. If you receive emails and wish to stop them follow the instructions included in the email.[/tip]
Tags: foreclosures, gm, monetary waste, unions