Nikkei Sinks 5.6 Percent as U.S. Auto Bailout Fails

Yeah I read through that PR spiel until my ears started bleeding. I love the bulls*** they keep saying, eg we didn't kill the EV1, nobody wanted them!

It was mostly back-slapping and crocodile tears.

Despite bragging about huge profits from the sale of large SUV's and pickup trucks, one has to wonder where all that money went. I hope GM didn't invest all of it with Madoff

 

+1

 

Aw, nuts. The Bush administration came out today and said that their solution to the auto industry problem is bankruptcy for GM and Chrysler. Un-believable. It would have cost then NOTHING to avoid using the B-word, regardless of the realities of the situation. While consumer surveys suggest that it will cost GM and Chrysler PLENTY to be viewed as bankrupt. So they just destroyed value and made the job that much harder. I'd like to think they had some ulterior motive for doing this, then I remembered what my father-in-law used to say about government service (he worked for the US Naval Research Labs): Never assume conspiracy when stupidity provides an adequate explanation of the facts. This reminds me of how the market would tank every time Paulson got on the tube to fumblemouth his way around the financial system bailout. Somebody please muzzle these guys before they do more harm.

So, at this point, based on what was said, it looks to me like the Bush administration solution to this is to put it into bankruptcy court. No loans, no nothing. Oh, "orderly" bankruptcy, which I guess means you try to get people to agree beforehand. Good luck. I find it hard to distinguish this from what would happen if the Bush administration did nothing. This should be both sad and interesting to watch.

 

It will be a fitting end to the bush admin. An economic disaster will ensue so he could stick to his economic principles. He is an unbelievable dumb nice person. May the dominos begin to fall, once they start how do we stop them. Time to hide.

 

Ever do work for MURI and ARPA? Sometimes, brilliant things happened. Oftentimes, really dumb s*** happened. One began to wonder if everybody higher up the food chain had been replaced by Pod People

 

Although I always plan for the worst, I still like to hope for better outcomes. I'm really hoping we don't descend all the way down to internecine battle

Economic failures, banking failures, etc, happen frequently in second and third world countries. Even outright government failures happen. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer, the middle class shrink (IF they even were there to begin with!)

Yet somehow life goes on. I know I was lucky enough to be born at a time, and in a part of the world, where honey and cream flowed out faucets. In several generations, folks will either fondly look back upon this time, or will look upon us with contempt and hatred

I haven't made up my mind how folks will look back upon us, especially the decisions we made as a society. I may change my will, to inscribe on my urn

"Hey, don't blame ME for it!"