What do you think about GM?

[Boyd]

Quote:
Actually you hit the nail on the head. What the governments fault in this whole affair is to pull some regulations off the banking and investment industry and allow questionable credit to be extended (This is the FED Btw) Thats why Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac went down, AIG went down... people were definately overextending themselves.

The auto industry was profitable until the banks quit loaning money out because of this crisis. The bailouts were intended to stimulate the banks to start lending again instead of recouping their losses. With no controls on the $$$ once again...

 

[BlackBart]

mjsdhs thats what I understood too as well as the top of GM being too heavy and spending too much.

I think Obama has certainly walked into a accumulative mess that took a long time to come to a head. Good Luck to him.

 

[Dar]

wow so I am not in a bubble...lol

however to play the devils advocate

when my bank called me telling me that interest rates have dropped and oooo look we have approved you for a higher mortgage go buy a new home..I asked them if they were insane..and yelled at them for even going into my finances like that they had no right!

when i got my Visa bill and found out they had raised my limit i was like WTP (what the poopy..lol) NO NO NO lower it back to were it was thank you very much and again stay outta my business.

so yes the government did a bad think by opening up the credit pool...but we also need to blame the public at large for not being responsible and the auto makers for pumping cars out and not paying attention to the markets...

when GM released its financial report a while ago and noticed they were getting close to the red line of loss vs. profit...that should have sent off the alarms to slow things down but noooo they kept pluggin right along


(this is just my 2 cents worth which will only be worth about 1.5 cents by the time you read this...lol )

 

[Rolsjo]

Quote:
Well said! I think the root of the problem has so many branches to it.

It is part government intervention, part good old fashioned greed (on the part of consumers and companies), part lack of trust in a true free market economy and part decline in national identity. Once we stopped buying American-made goods, the companies turned to foreign production to lower prices to compete.

I grew up in Michigan and everyone in my family was associated in some with the auto industry. Ten years ago, I NEVER would have thought GM could go under. While it is said to see there has been so much irresponsibility on the part of our society, our government and the corporate leadership that IMO they needed to let GM go under last year. The bailout mentality is a disaster and, as we are seeing and will see more of, it is no solution to the real problem.

 

[CarriBrown]

Quote:
Actually you hit the nail on the head. What the governments fault in this whole affair is to pull some regulations off the banking and investment industry and allow questionable credit to be extended (This is the FED Btw) Thats why Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac went down, AIG went down... people were definately overextending themselves.

The auto industry was profitable until the banks quit loaning money out because of this crisis. The bailouts were intended to stimulate the banks to start lending again instead of recouping their losses. With no controls on the $$$ once again...

BINGO!

And I probably won't make any fans by saying this, but I think the UAW needs to pound sand.

 

[Dar]

Quote:
Actually you hit the nail on the head. What the governments fault in this whole affair is to pull some regulations off the banking and investment industry and allow questionable credit to be extended (This is the FED Btw) Thats why Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac went down, AIG went down... people were definately overextending themselves.

The auto industry was profitable until the banks quit loaning money out because of this crisis. The bailouts were intended to stimulate the banks to start lending again instead of recouping their losses. With no controls on the $$$ once again...

BINGO!

And I probably won't make any fans by saying this, but I think the UAW needs to pound sand.

AWWWWW KISSES to you....i have been saying that for YEARS...i will not work in a union enviroment and told DH the same thein...i will not put up with Union garbage... (k now I got to go hide)

 

[country lady]

This GM question has so many parts. To really do some heavy thinking, read Thomas L. Friedman's "The World is Flat......." Another part of the problem is our education system. Probably most states (TN and CA for sure) spend more than 50% of the state budget on education and yet we have a high drop-out. Lots of reasons and blame. How are we going to compete in a world market with uneducated citizens?

I think the government, auto, and UAW are equally at fault. GM and others auto companies have turned out big bombs for years with the attitude "take it or leave it." Well, the consumer left it for Toyota, Honda, etc. The UAW has been just as greedy as GM. (Please tell me why no one objects to the UAW owning a posh resort/golf course, according to the news.)

Today, I heard that the bond holders will receive 13 cents on the dollar and the UAW 66 cents. How is that fair to the bond holders, dealerships, and auto suppliers? Don't they deserve as big a share as the UAW?

This whole subject is very complex and disturbing.





















gm

 

[bkreugar]

1) how is the government responsible for the failure of GM/Chrysler..ect?..

here's what I am under the impression of....I thought that most of this was caused by the consumer over extending their credit, by buying huge homes they could not afford and then not making payments on the brand new car and brand new house and not paying their credit cards....ect...then cause they (the auto makers) were not selling as many cars (but they still pumped them out) they now are not selling them creating a backlog, if they are sellin they are not makin money either...then the cascade effect happens...lay off ect...and then boom we are where we are today...


Regarding the big house and car in BOTH respects EVERY time my DH and I were shopping for a car or house we were ALWAYS pressured to spend more than we thought we could afford.

We KNEW how much we could afford because of our handy dandy little amortization book.Never looked for a house or a car without it.

Bought our first house with 5% down when we were 21 (I had saved through high school).Bought our second house 10 years later with 20% down.I think there is something to that having to put money down on it to be invested in it thinking.

I could never wrap my mind around these 105% mortagages with NO money down.

Finally when last shopping for a car (8 years ago),I actually had the stupid car salesman tell me "Many people have a bigger car payment than house payment".Really are you KIDDING me I thought? WHO does that.Apperantly many do.Just not me.

So while it IS keeping up with the Joneses it is also a lot of pressure from realtors ,banks and dealerships also.That was our expereince.Both times we bought a house we bought about 25% LESS than we were approved for.Because we were very leary of making that payment and paying everything else also.

 

[Dar]

yr right it is a lot of pressure from the retailer and the real estate agent

...we had the same problem when we bought our first home and our second home...but when when we went looking for this one we had a price in mind and when i told the agent that we were sticking to that price and i will not even go look at something more so dont waste your time or mine and if you cant follow that simple rule then i am sure there is an agent who can...he got 1 warning and i lost it on him and reminded him he was in need of the commission more then I was in need of buying a home so I can wait out the contract sell my home when its done and rent till i find someone who can do as they are told...lol (i know I am a witch) and for a man to hear that coming from a woman and my DH hiding behind me and when I was done it my DH said to the Realtor... thats it you done it you ticked her off...(pssst..dont make that mistake again)...lol

we need to remember the car sales man and the realtor work for US not the dealership cause if we dont buy he dont get paid! bottom line.

I dont know about you but I am sorta young (or so I'd like to think) but i was brought up in a generation where saying no to someone was like spitting in their face...it has taken a lot to "undo" that

 

[Ec_Prokta]

Fan-freaking-tastic!!! More Chinese wastes of space and time.