AMERICAblog: Yet another reason why Big Auto is failing
MaudGonne
· 1 year ago
Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Lobbyists Heather and Tony Podesta took over a Denver restaurant during the Democratic National Convention in August to host a party for lawmakers and other power brokers. Their guests wore Barack Obama buttons. The Podestas were wearing a label of their own: a scarlet "L.'' The tags were an allusion to President-elect Obama's demonization of lobbyists throughout the campaign, even banning them from raising money for him or making contributions. Now, with Obama ready to take office in January, lobbyists aren't quavering with fear. Many view the changed political landscape in Washington as a potential boon for their firms, which will be called upon to help clients navigate Congress and a new administration. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087...
eclecticbrotha
· 1 year ago
Maud, interesting story. The lobbyists are licking their chops because they know there will be plenty of Democrats willing to take their money to help them kill Obama's plans.
Older_Wiser
· 1 year ago
Would Tony Podesta be related to John Podesta of Obama's transition team, and head of American Progress (Think Progress)?? Let me check...oh yes, they're brothers.
brian
· 1 year ago
They are above sitting in first class with the common folk. Too bad it may be the common folk that are bailing their companies out.
vkobaya
· 1 year ago
Yeah, but the money from common folks aren't contaminated with fleas, lice, ticks, and even mange. Gak! Can't sit with common rabble and risk catching something. It's like Bush using the hand sterilizer after shaking hands with that N-----, Obama. Yuk! How disgusting! Can you imagine having to touch a N-----. He even uses that sterilizer on his ---- after a roll in the hay with Rice.
chowderSF
· 1 year ago
Sheesh. Sometimes I upgrade to first on my flights from San Fran to San Deigo on Virgin because it is not that much more that coach on some flights.....and I must say, it is quite comfortable and roomy. These tycoons surely can come down to earth and mingle with the common folk in first class of their favorite commercial airplane company.....and they would even be spreading the wealth, helping out another ailing segment of the travel biz.
High Crimes & Misdemeanors
· 1 year ago
They need to be careful, they probably would get punched in the face liked the CEO of some certain financial bank a couple of weeks ago.....
eclecticbrotha
· 1 year ago
"This is a slap in the face of taxpayers," said Tom Schatz, President of Citizens Against Government Waste. "To come to Washington on a corporate jet, and asking for a hand out is outrageous."
With all due respect to Mr. Schatz, this is NOT a slap in the face of taxpayers. Its a slap in the face of the union employees who made concessions and accepted buyouts to allow Ford, GM and Chrysler to close dozens of plants in their bids to restructure a couple of years ago because we were told THAT was the only way they could save their companies. Its funny how the concessions of the UAW are being largely ignored in this discussion, allowing the GOP to go completely unchallenged when they blame the automakers' plight on overpaid union workers.
anarchy
· 1 year ago
with all due respect, I believe union employees probably pay a great deal more (percentage-of- income-wise) in taxes thaan the CEOs - who no doubt have plenty of loopholes and tax shelters to avoid them baaaad ol' taxes.
lucky hussein
· 1 year ago
ravi batra sez: us buy the gm stock - 1.7B ? and distribute to the workers, and let them manage the company.
SoLeftImRight
· 1 year ago
Best idea I've heard in a while! The execs of the "Big Three" should just be sent out to pasture. Worker-run industry, way better than government-run! NOW we're talking commie-time!
DankoRamone
· 1 year ago
Why don't the oil companies bail them out? Seems to me there's a certain dependancy between the two.
shl
· 1 year ago
genius !!
zachery
· 1 year ago
Great minds think alike. I have been saying the same thing. We simply can't have one without the other.
vkobaya
· 1 year ago
Reminds me of how Bush was astonished a automated doors in the markets or his father was astonished to see supermarket scanners. They have absolutely no connection with the life of common folks.
Older_Wiser
· 1 year ago
Watched the news this am, and I believe the guy who asked the questions about how many of the auto makers flew in on commercial jets (none) and who was selling their private jet before they left DC (none) was Gary Ackerman (D-NY)...priceless.
Ackerman: It's like the guy in top hat and tuxedo who shows up at the soup kitchen.
Bostonian_Queer_in_Dallas
· 1 year ago
Let their golfing buddies from Exxon infuse some cash...since they were in cahoots to stop an electric car or get mileage that was over forty per gallon. They can die a hideous death. Our climate is shit and the Arabs laugh at us and now we bail them out? Fuck that. All these dead American kids so the Bush family can have their ranches and boats and tacky Dallas homes and now this old boys club wants a handout? And they wonder why Obama got elected.
benb
· 1 year ago
When Ross Perot sold EDS to GM in '84 he got a seat on the board and got into trouble with GM. I wonder what he would say about loaning them money.
"Perot has publicly sniped at the automaker's management for its isolation, resistance to change and indulgence in old-boy perks like chauffeured limousines."
hey! who ate all the cake that was in the fridge!!?
what?? I have to eat BREAD???
cmoorehead
· 1 year ago
What kind of idiots hired Nardelli for the top slot at Chrysler, anyway? He was a fuckup at GE, & an even bigger fuckup as CEO of Home Depot, where he nearly drove the company into bankruptcy. To add insult to injury, when he was finally shitcanned from HD, he got what I believe still ranks as the biggest golden handshake in history.
It's a good thing that Laurence Peter isn't alive today...even he wouldn't have predicted incompetence on this scale.
medium lebowski
· 1 year ago
StupidMobile.
matt
· 1 year ago
I don't recall any of the AIG or Wall Street Execs being asked how they got tto DC! Chrysler has been bailed out in the past and then paid back the money they were lent...thus they have a MUCH better track record than anything Wall Street has done. Just a big distraction so Paulson can keep hiding money with his friends! The man is a thief by profession!
GregNewYork
· 1 year ago
Matt... you are absolutely right.
The same Jackals on wall street who have been bailed out are in part responsible for the OIL Pump and Dump over the last 2 years which has put GM, and pretty much Toyota, Honda and the rest of the car market in the same scenerio.... Inventory with No Buyers..... these Jackals have all gotten bailed out, yet their victims are made to suffer.
The more you look at it.... Chris in Paris is taking the Sarah Palin approach to dealing with Rape Victims by making them have to pay for the rape kits after being raped.... it's absolutely Pathetic.
burro
· 1 year ago
Nothing could be more indicative of the dick waving arrogant stupidity of the criminally overcompensated failures running, (killing), corporate America than these prima donnas in their planes.
And people wonder why they'd rather see their industries fail than build something practical and future looking. These assholes can't see past trucks and SUV's and Hummer's because that's what real men drive and real men run the auto industry. Yeah....right into the f'n ground.
Wagoner, Mulally and Nardelli don't have a clue. They don't have any imagination and they don't know how to do anything that is going to accomplish a friggin' thing. But they sure have big, bad ass corporate jets to fly around in and as far as they are concerned, that's all that matters.
Automotive corporate management needs to be flushed and the keys to their planes need to be sold to the highest bidder. These fools shouldn't be trusted with anything more complicated than roller skates. They are useless.
GregNewYork
· 1 year ago
This article should be titled '''Why I am Blogging and not a Reporter'''
A Real reporter would have reached out and found out how many staff and board members went along for the ride in these company owned jets.
When the 'Real Reporter' found out the number and did the math... they would have realized that there would have been basically ZERO SAVINGS.... if they traveled using the same method Mike Gravel did while running for President.
Personally there is no surprise to me that 'Chris in Paris' takes on the same talking points as the 'tools' on TV do.... nit picking without digging in to the real reason these companies are in crisis.
Gasoline at $3.00 - $3.50 - $4.00 - $4.50 is the ONLY REASON WHY THE BIG 3 ARE SUFFERING..... and it's not just them.... this time next year HONDA, TOYOTA AND HYUNDAI will be in the same position and you can bet that their countries of origin would NOT ALLOW THESE COMPANIES TO FOLD.
There never was an Oil shortage... there never was a Gasoline shortage.... the only shortage that was going on during the rise of OIL over the last 2 years was the SHORTAGE OF REAL REPORTING.
GregNewYork
· 1 year ago
Oh.. and just to add another point..... who here thinks it would be appropriate for a CEO of one of the BIG 3 to be sitting in First Class or Coach on a passenger jetliner talking business, confidential business and phone calls while other passengers are listening?
I swear.. the more I think about reading or listening to the babble from Chris in Paris which sounds like its right out of the playbook from Larry Kudlow of CNBC..... along with the sound bites of congressmen attacking these CEO's rather than APOLOGIZING TO THEM for the years of congressional treason against the working class who live and work in the United States is appalling.
And I for one.... am not going to stay quiet any longer.
tas
· 1 year ago
Yep, the CEO's of the Big 3 are total assholes. But is that a reason to kill the business? Here is what happens in bankruptcy: Pensions are cut or terminated (see what happend in the airline industry), labor agreements are re-written and never favor labor, all customer warranties are up to be termianted or greatly reduced, altered, etc. ( and never favor the consumer holding these contracts). Bankruptcy will kill the US auto industry while around the world, foreign governments are getting ready to funnel many more billions into their auto makers. Do we really want to argue that American auto workers should compete with Chinese auto workers for wages?
Fire the assholes, save the millions of jobs affected. No one is buyin cars right now. Toyota was down 28% in September and is gettign ready to get a bailout from the Japanese government. If you can't sell a Toyota with gasoline at $4.00 a gallon, you can't sell a car. Period.
GregNewYork
· 1 year ago
Gasoline is now hovering around $2.10 as the national average... with Gasoline Futures trading on the NY Stock Exchange this morning at $1.03... it was $1.24 earlier this week.
By next week gasoline will be $1.99 for regular ... that will be the highest price nationwide.
Why? --- Trading firms have dumped their oil assets after bankers where put on the hot seat in front of congress over the summer.
Any reporting on this anywhere? --- Of course not !
So even with Gasoline down at the levels they are.... sales across the board are at a stand still.
I am your typical example of the american consumer... I bought a house back in June.. a foreclosure... had a good size down payment and got a mortgage... the house was on the market for over a year.
It currently has oil heat... Oil was trading at $147.00 when I took possession of the house and I signed a contract at $4.70 a gallon for heat and hot water for the year. That translates to $425.00 a month for 11 months.
I am now paying another $500.00 to get out of the contract... but the last 5 months of paying the $425... and all summer long paying $80 - $90 to fill up my family vehicle took its toll... I have no money to spend and I just liquidated an investment last week which lost value over the last year just so I can use the liquidity to pay off my credit cards for a fresh start on the new year.
The stimulous checks my family got last year... that went off to pay off bills. At the time my wife was traveling 100 miles round trip to work.... $3.00 plus a gallon gobbled up all extra funds we had and grew into deficit spending.
I am choking like everyone else out there..... 3 of my friends... all in their 40's are seeking guidance because they need to file bankruptsy.... one of them has 4 kids and they turned off his electric last month. He is a salesmen... spending $150 a week on gasoline took his toll, especially as a majority of appointments he went too where just price shopping and not buying.
The economy is in the tank because of OIL...... and the automotive industry are victims of the RAPING of the economy by the very Jackals who have been bailed out over the past few months who were in large part responsible for the OIL Pump and Dump.
Wasn't it Goldman Sachs last year who first predicted... $90... then $120... then $160 for a barrel of oil? This morning they made an announcement suspending all of their prior oil predictions.... any news organizations other than Bloomberg who reported that at 5 am this morning talking about this? I didn't see a peep on it this morning on CNBC.
But Goldman Sachs is getting Bailout money.... LOL... yet the companies they indirectly drove into the ground are chastised because the CEO's and their entourages of Staff and Board Members flew the private jets they own.
And this Blog's author is blaming the CEO's for a lack of judgement... Pathetic.
Jason
· 1 year ago
How much time is lost by the GM representatives when they have to check in for a flight two hours early, or when the GM representatives are not to talk about business during the flight due to insider trading concerns?
The question is what is lost? When 12 people fly on a private jet it costs about $20,000. When 12 fly commercially to DC it costs about $12,000. Is a $8,000 savings worth the time lost?
Of course it is Jason.... I am utterly amazed and baffled that this afternoons press conference with Harry Reid and other senators and Pelosi even mentioned the Private Jets.
These Lawmakers are so out of touch it is pathetic... as much as I don't want to see the Republicans in charge and am happy they aren't any longer.... I am grinding my teeth in anger at these cheap talking points.
I personally called the offices today of Chris Dodd and Gary Ackerman..... sounding off my disaproval of their cheap shots at the BIG 3 auto execs.
You are dead on with the 12 people flying...... it is cost efficient to take a private jet.
judyinnm
· 1 year ago
"...perk for HE and his wife...."Whatever happened to grammer in this country? Whan did "he" become an objective pronoun?
JohnRJ08
· 1 year ago
With regard to Campbell Brown's CNN commentary about auto industry execs needing a reality check, I think someone needs to tap her on the shoulder and remind her that she's just a high-paid version of Sarah Palin. She's a news reader. She doesn't have an advanced degree in economics and never worked for the auto industry. Therefore, her comments are nothing more than personal opinion. The idea that she's suddenly become an expert pundit on what these multi-billion dollar corporations should do is a joke.
All Comments
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087...
With all due respect to Mr. Schatz, this is NOT a slap in the face of taxpayers. Its a slap in the face of the union employees who made concessions and accepted buyouts to allow Ford, GM and Chrysler to close dozens of plants in their bids to restructure a couple of years ago because we were told THAT was the only way they could save their companies. Its funny how the concessions of the UAW are being largely ignored in this discussion, allowing the GOP to go completely unchallenged when they blame the automakers' plight on overpaid union workers.
probably pay a great deal more (percentage-of-
income-wise) in taxes thaan the CEOs - who no
doubt have plenty of loopholes and tax shelters
to avoid them baaaad ol' taxes.
Ackerman: It's like the guy in top hat and tuxedo who shows up at the soup kitchen.
"Perot has publicly sniped at the automaker's management for its isolation, resistance to change and indulgence in old-boy perks like chauffeured limousines."
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,917...
what?? I have to eat BREAD???
It's a good thing that Laurence Peter isn't alive today...even he wouldn't have predicted incompetence on this scale.
The same Jackals on wall street who have been bailed out are in part responsible for the OIL Pump and Dump over the last 2 years which has put GM, and pretty much Toyota, Honda and the rest of the car market in the same scenerio.... Inventory with No Buyers..... these Jackals have all gotten bailed out, yet their victims are made to suffer.
The more you look at it.... Chris in Paris is taking the Sarah Palin approach to dealing with Rape Victims by making them have to pay for the rape kits after being raped.... it's absolutely Pathetic.
And people wonder why they'd rather see their industries fail than build something practical and future looking. These assholes can't see past trucks and SUV's and Hummer's because that's what real men drive and real men run the auto industry. Yeah....right into the f'n ground.
Wagoner, Mulally and Nardelli don't have a clue. They don't have any imagination and they don't know how to do anything that is going to accomplish a friggin' thing. But they sure have big, bad ass corporate jets to fly around in and as far as they are concerned, that's all that matters.
Automotive corporate management needs to be flushed and the keys to their planes need to be sold to the highest bidder. These fools shouldn't be trusted with anything more complicated than roller skates. They are useless.
A Real reporter would have reached out and found out how many staff and board members went along for the ride in these company owned jets.
When the 'Real Reporter' found out the number and did the math... they would have realized that there would have been basically ZERO SAVINGS.... if they traveled using the same method Mike Gravel did while running for President.
Personally there is no surprise to me that 'Chris in Paris' takes on the same talking points as the 'tools' on TV do.... nit picking without digging in to the real reason these companies are in crisis.
Gasoline at $3.00 - $3.50 - $4.00 - $4.50 is the ONLY REASON WHY THE BIG 3 ARE SUFFERING..... and it's not just them.... this time next year HONDA, TOYOTA AND HYUNDAI will be in the same position and you can bet that their countries of origin would NOT ALLOW THESE COMPANIES TO FOLD.
There never was an Oil shortage... there never was a Gasoline shortage.... the only shortage that was going on during the rise of OIL over the last 2 years was the SHORTAGE OF REAL REPORTING.
I swear.. the more I think about reading or listening to the babble from Chris in Paris which sounds like its right out of the playbook from Larry Kudlow of CNBC..... along with the sound bites of congressmen attacking these CEO's rather than APOLOGIZING TO THEM for the years of congressional treason against the working class who live and work in the United States is appalling.
And I for one.... am not going to stay quiet any longer.
Fire the assholes, save the millions of jobs affected. No one is buyin cars right now. Toyota was down 28% in September and is gettign ready to get a bailout from the Japanese government. If you can't sell a Toyota with gasoline at $4.00 a gallon, you can't sell a car. Period.
By next week gasoline will be $1.99 for regular ... that will be the highest price nationwide.
Why? --- Trading firms have dumped their oil assets after bankers where put on the hot seat in front of congress over the summer.
Any reporting on this anywhere? --- Of course not !
So even with Gasoline down at the levels they are.... sales across the board are at a stand still.
I am your typical example of the american consumer... I bought a house back in June.. a foreclosure... had a good size down payment and got a mortgage... the house was on the market for over a year.
It currently has oil heat... Oil was trading at $147.00 when I took possession of the house and I signed a contract at $4.70 a gallon for heat and hot water for the year. That translates to $425.00 a month for 11 months.
I am now paying another $500.00 to get out of the contract... but the last 5 months of paying the $425... and all summer long paying $80 - $90 to fill up my family vehicle took its toll... I have no money to spend and I just liquidated an investment last week which lost value over the last year just so I can use the liquidity to pay off my credit cards for a fresh start on the new year.
The stimulous checks my family got last year... that went off to pay off bills. At the time my wife was traveling 100 miles round trip to work.... $3.00 plus a gallon gobbled up all extra funds we had and grew into deficit spending.
I am choking like everyone else out there..... 3 of my friends... all in their 40's are seeking guidance because they need to file bankruptsy.... one of them has 4 kids and they turned off his electric last month. He is a salesmen... spending $150 a week on gasoline took his toll, especially as a majority of appointments he went too where just price shopping and not buying.
The economy is in the tank because of OIL...... and the automotive industry are victims of the RAPING of the economy by the very Jackals who have been bailed out over the past few months who were in large part responsible for the OIL Pump and Dump.
Wasn't it Goldman Sachs last year who first predicted... $90... then $120... then $160 for a barrel of oil? This morning they made an announcement suspending all of their prior oil predictions.... any news organizations other than Bloomberg who reported that at 5 am this morning talking about this? I didn't see a peep on it this morning on CNBC.
But Goldman Sachs is getting Bailout money.... LOL... yet the companies they indirectly drove into the ground are chastised because the CEO's and their entourages of Staff and Board Members flew the private jets they own.
And this Blog's author is blaming the CEO's for a lack of judgement... Pathetic.
The question is what is lost? When 12 people fly on a private jet it costs about $20,000. When 12 fly commercially to DC it costs about $12,000. Is a $8,000 savings worth the time lost?
Isn't it really worth it in the long run?
http://nomedals.blogspot.com
These Lawmakers are so out of touch it is pathetic... as much as I don't want to see the Republicans in charge and am happy they aren't any longer.... I am grinding my teeth in anger at these cheap talking points.
I personally called the offices today of Chris Dodd and Gary Ackerman..... sounding off my disaproval of their cheap shots at the BIG 3 auto execs.
You are dead on with the 12 people flying...... it is cost efficient to take a private jet.