Journal tomhudson's Journal: GM - *now* a bankruptcy filing is no longer "inconsiderable" 15
Just a few weeks ago, bankruptcy was "inconsiderable" - "It's not an option."
It now looks like GM will file for bankruptcy at the beginning of the week.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/14/gm-considering-bankruptcy_n_166971.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE51D1Q120090214
It's about time they got some "enlightenment." And while they're at it, they should sack Wagoner - but they won't. Oh, and since the bailout money they already received was "no-strings-attached", and the government rushed it through without getting standing ahead of regular creditors, you can kiss that $9.4 billion they got a month ago goodbye.
By the way, GM prepared the bankruptcy filing in December of last year. "Not an option" was just telling lies to get the bailout money.
If only I could get bailout money... (Score:1)
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Exactly. The "moral hazard" of bailouts gets translated into real-world consequences. Why try to save money if its' going to decrease in value? Why not take risks if there's going to be other people's money to bail you out if you're wrong, but you get to keep the assets either way?
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Nationalize (Score:1)
We should have nationalized GM when we had the chance. Wait, we still have a chance.
Stock is at $2.50. 610.46M shares. We can buy the company lock stock and barrel for a little over $1.5 billion. We got RIPPED OFF loaning them $9.4 billion. What were we thinking? We should buy the whole company and assume all their debts outright. When they're in better shape and worth more, we sell them for a profit.
Nationalization is the ONLY way to avoid getting ripped off by a few criminal fat cats.
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Why the hell should we nationalize them? Let them fail and reorganize under Chapter 11.
and assume all their debts outright
So the creditors should get rewarded for investing/loaning money to a company that was going down the tubes? Let them take their chances in bankruptcy court. They don't deserve any special favors either.
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Why? Because we want to get our money back. If we never had wasted our money on them, we could let them fail. I'm unwilling to just say goodbye to $9.4 bills
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Because we want to get our money back. If we never had wasted our money on them, we could let them fail. I'm unwilling to just say goodbye to $9.4 bills
Well, we never should have loaned them the money in the first place. But, we already have.
On the bright side, GM's debt to the federal government is senior to most of the other debt GM has outstanding. That means, in the event of a bankruptcy, the government is one of the first in line to get a piece of whatever remains. There's a good chance we could break even.
There's really no point in throwing more good money after bad. Even if the government wouldn't receive anything in the bankruptcy, there's no reaso
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OK, if they're never going to be profitable again, let's use them to build something for the future.
GM makes big railroad engines. Huge diesel engines. They can make railroad cars too, which are now all bought from foreign lands. Let's put GM to work building our passenger railroad infrastructure up. We need it to happen soon, and nobody's going to get a jump on this without a profit motive - except the Federal government.
GM can be turned into the organization that saves all our bacon.
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OK, if they're never going to be profitable again, let's use them to build something for the future. [...] We need it to happen soon, and nobody's going to get a jump on this without a profit motive - except the Federal government.
What's the point? Why subsidize yet another company?
Let them go bankrupt. And if someone wants to use those, newly freed-up, resources to build rail cars or diesel engines, they can pick through GM's carcass. Situations like this are exactly why bankruptcy exists. All that labor and capital could be put to much better use.
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I thought I already said what the point was. We need rail transportation, and capitalism isn't going to provide it for us until it's too late. And nationalization is not a subsidy. I'm not talking about keeping GM on the dole. I'm talking about TAKING OVER GM at the fair market value and running it as a Dept. of Transportation project for future investment in rail. The other car companies can go bankrupt as they please. GM should be saved and transformed as a government agency.
If GM goes under, the labor an
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I went to check the facts and prove you all wrong, but it turns out that GM sold off Electo Motive Diesel. GM doesn't build train engines any longer.
So screw them. We don't have to save them after all.
I'll go with the other super capitalists in this thread and tell them to go into bankruptcy, and to enjoy the $9.4 billion dollars that they received.
I'm a taxpayer and a chump. Those guys are rich for a reason, they must deserve the money more than I do. I say let GM keep our money. It's a gift.
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Actually, it's a gift to management - they got to keep their jobs for 3 more months. And to stock speculators who bet on the "too big to fail" or needed time to cash out.
Rick (Dick-head) Wagoneer in particular - $15 million a year plus bennies to drive a business into bankruptcy.
He should be Rick-Rolled to death.
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I think I bitched about Waggoner at some point in time. GM has always fostered a corporate culture of boredom and same-old-same-old. I thought Waggoner could have helped, but his actions have certainly put that possibility to rest.
Now, pull together all of the engineers, project managers, and division presidents who have been fired, re-assigned, or RIF'ed over the past generation, and you might have one hell of a company.
(And while we're at it, shoot all employees of Ford who have Ford blood in them. Then s
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We'll get our money back in a bankruptcy proceeding, as someone else has already pointed out. I see no compelling reason to nationalize them and give them even more of an unfair advantage over their competitors that haven't come crawling to Washington looking for a hand out.
Let em fail. Whatever comes out of bankruptcy might actually have a chance at being viable.