Tag: Bankruptcy (page 4)

The administration's inside men, a CEO and a Board of Directors they hand picked and put in place to run the ship per the administration's specific and explicit guidelines made a series of announcements yesterday and none of them were pretty.

Ugliest was the news that 1,600 white collar workers right here in Michigan would be losing their jobs in the next few days.  The Detroit News reports:

The announcement was made by GM North American President Troy Clarke in an e-mail sent to employees Monday, spokesman Tom Wilkinson said.

"This is part of really restructuring the company to a smaller, leaner company, one that can, as the (Obama) administration requested, be profitable on an ongoing basis," Wilkinson said.

It is like Donald Trump meets Meg Ryan.  "You've got mail... you're fired."  And all courtesy of the President of the United States.  Of course, this is only the tip of the iceberg.  47,000 mostly Michigan jobs are expected to be whacked on the President's say-so, because apparently that's less damaging to the man politically than forcing his special interest pals at the UAW to negotiate down from that $50+ an hour all-in pay scale.

And the alternatives aren't particularly pretty.  President Obama has made it clear... it is his way or the highway.  GM's new leadership team are killing Michigan jobs on his orders and with the threat of forced bankruptcy hanging over their heads.

The Ivory Tower opines about Obama's threat:

"This is truly scary," said John Wolkonowicz, IHS Global Insight senior automotive analyst. "Neither the government nor GM has any control over the outcome if this goes to bankruptcy court."

Probably why, as we find out this morning, the company poured millions of dollars into lobbying the Democrats in DC in just the last three months.  All told, the last nine months have seen GM lobbyists spend $8.8 million to wine and dine and bribe... errr... influence... errr... cajole the power players on the Left into being less hostile.  And hey, I'm not saying there's a direct connection to the $13.4 BILLION in free TARP money the President and Congressional Democrats gave GM, but making a key Senator or three feel like $8.8 million bucks couldn't have hurt.

Maybe they could spend a few of those TARP dollars bribing... errr... lobbying stock holders next.  The Associated Press reports that shares of GM stock plummeted 11 percent yesterday on news of the President's plan to kill those 1,600 jobs.

That's a move even John Cherry wouldn't be proud of.  Who am I kidding.  That man is so tone deaf to the problems of real Michiganders he'll probably send a campaign email embracing the administration's job killing plans.

The Detroit News and everyone else report that GM and Chrysler are expected to meet with President Obama's foreign-car driving "auto task-force" to ask for a fresh $21 BILLION in free cash to avoid the scarlet B.  (That stands for bankruptcy.  I shouldn't have to explain these things to you... if you'd been paying attention... heh.)  This is on top of the $17 BILLION they took from the feds late in 2008 and on top of the BILLIONS they've taken and are hoping to take from the Canadian government.  

As the Presidential administrations get more liberal the requests get bigger and there is still no end in sight.  This has out-of-state GOP lawmakers crying foul and even the staunchest Michigan partisan shouldn't have a tough time understanding why.  When does it end?  Is there a bottom of the barrel?  That's why some are urging a merger or bankruptcy.

There's a real debate to be had here.  On paper, in the math world bankruptcy makes the most sense.  Free the companies from the $73.50 an hour employment costs associated with Big Labor so they can compete with other American auto manufacturing plants paying closer to $25 an hour "all-in."  But in real life?  We're talking about literally hundreds of thousands of Michigan jobs that many believe WILL disappear should the Big 3 become the Big 1 or the Big 2.  On top of the hundreds of thousands that have already disappeared under Jennifer Granholm and John Cherry's clumsily catastrophic impersonation of "leadership."

The worst part is, the plight of the Big 3 is only the tip of Detroit's iceberg.  

Read on...